This volume is the result of a first attempt to explore the phenomena of social marginalization and marginal groups in the context of a pre-modern society situated at the crossroads between East and West and between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, namely Byzantium between the fourth and fifteenth centuries, using as examples three different but functionally and spatially closely related types of marginal occupations, namely female prostitutes, actors, and tavern keepers. Although it is impossible to cover all aspects of such a multifaceted topic as marginalization and marginal groups in one volume, an attempt has been made to cover several key elements as they occurred throughout the Byzantine millennium and to take an interdisciplinary approach to the subject by examining a large body of written sources in conjunction with pictorial representations and archaeological material. A contribution on the medieval West highlights similarities and differences between the Latin and Byzantine spheres. The book consists of a theoretical and methodological introduction and four thematic sections devoted to prostitutes and prostitution, tavern keepers and innkeepers, actors and performers, and the narratological analysis of texts dealing with these three groups. This volume breaks new ground in the field of Byzantine Studies, with a special emphasis on the social history of the Eastern Mediterranean world in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, with a strong interdisciplinary focus on the use of analytical tools and methods of modern social sciences.
Despoina Ariantzi, Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), Vienna, Austria.
