Invincible weapons: Christian relics in Late Roman and Byzantine war (AD 310-1204)

Abstract

This thesis explores the use of Christian relics in war and military contexts in the Late Roman and Byzantine Empires (AD c. 310-1212). It examines literary sources, such as chronicles, poems and hagiographies, and contrasts these with material, epigraphic and iconographic evidence, such as numismatic depictions and surviving reliquaries. The objective of this study is to establish how and when Christians started believing in the apotropaic power of relics and using them as talismans of war, how these beliefs and practices emerged, consolidated and changed over time. Yet, the main purpose is to understand the sociocultural function and meaning behind the use of holy relics in military contexts in the Late Roman and Byzantine Empires.

Initially, modern scholarship overlooked the cult of relics, considering it a product of “medieval ignorance”. Art historians of the mid-twentieth century and, subsequently, the studies of Peter Brown in the 1970s changed the dominant academic perspective, revealing the cult of relics as a cultural revolution of Late Antiquity. Since then, scholarship has progressively devoted more attention to the subject. Nonetheless, there is still no systematic study focused on the military use of Christian relics.

This research analyses military practices and material culture, thus, it has a double theoretical background, combining "war and society studies" and the "theory of agency of things" to examine the sociocultural role of relics. Moreover, using an anthropological term, relics are conceptualised as “charismatic objects” i.e. material things with agency, which help to create relationships of power, and narratives of authority, community, and identity.

The thesis’s structure consists of an introduction, five chapters, and conclusions. The first chapter explores the pre-Christian precedents of the beliefs and practices analysed in the thesis, and the early Christianisation of protective signs and amulets in the fourth century. The second chapter identifies the earliest uses of Christian relics in war or military contexts, analysing the emergence of these beliefs and practices, and their adoption by the imperial elite. The third chapter examines the processional use of relics during the various sieges of Constantinople. The fourth chapter focusses on one particular relic of great relevance: the cross of Saint Constantine, and the use of crosses and fragments of the True Cross. The fifth chapter explores the accumulation of relics in the Imperial City, and the expansion and diversification in the military use of holy items since the tenth century.

The thesis proposes a basic chronology of the military use of relics. The gradual emergence of these beliefs and practices took place between the late-fourth and seventh centuries. For the Eastern Roman Empire, there was a consolidation of these practices triggered by the sieges suffered by Constantinople between the seventh and ninth centuries. Between the late-ninth and early-eleventh centuries, new devotional practices and the Empire’s military conquests prompted an expansion and diversification of the holy items used in war. This idea of a “supernatural arsenal” protecting the Empire reached its peak between the mid-tenth and mid-eleventh centuries, and prevailed, at least, until the Latin conquest of AD 1204.

Finally, the thesis argues that the use of relics in war and military contexts developed from the more general belief in their miraculous powers, from the Christianisation of the Empire and the sacralisation of the imperial office. Thus, the Byzantines considered relics as “unfailing weapons”, and interpreted the accumulation of precious relics in Constantinople as the material confirmation of God’s protection and favour towards the Empire. The imperial elite used relics in military contexts as “charismatic objects”, which displayed in performative rituals help to assert authority, build legitimacy and rally social cohesion behind certain leaderships, particularly in moments of crisis.