中世纪世界生活手册（七）

2022-11-24 00:31 作者:神尾智代 0人读过 | 我要投稿

中世纪西欧的关键人物

查理曼 (742-814;768-814)

法兰克人的统治者，罗马灭亡后第一个统一西欧的帝国统治者；推动了加洛琳式文艺复兴，重振了整个欧洲的古典和教会学术、写作、文学和艺术；他与穆斯林的战斗经历使他成为众多史诗歌颂的英雄。

Frankish ruler, first Imperial ruler to reunite western Europe since the fall of Rome; patronized the Carolingian Renaissance that reinvigorated classical and ecclesiastical scholarship, writing, literature, and the arts across Europe; his exploits fighting the Muslims made him the hero of numerous epic cycles.

亨利四世皇帝和教皇格里高利七世（11世纪）

神圣罗马帝国皇帝亨利四世（1050-1108年；1056-1105年）和教皇格里高利七世（约1020-1085年；1073-85年），后者是格里高利改革的推动者，反对神职人员的非宗教化和教会腐败。教皇和世俗当局之间就任命教会官员的权力和教会的至高地位进行的斗争。亨利被逐出教会，并在卡诺萨屈辱地行走，这件事巩固了教皇的特权，削弱了皇帝的权力，并使帝国逐步分裂。

Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV (1050–1108; r. 1056–1105) and Pope Gregory VII (c. 1020–1085; r. 1073–85), the promoter of the Gregorian Reforms against lay investiture of clergy and church corruption, were the protagonists of the Investiture Controversy, the struggle between the papacy and the secular authorities over the power to appoint church officials and the supremacy of the church. Henry’s excommunication and humiliating Walk to Canossa consolidated papal prerogative, weakened the power of the emperor, and broke apart the empire.

教皇乌尔班二世（1042-1099；1088-1099年）

1095年，教皇在克莱蒙会议（克莱芒会议）上，针对拜占庭皇帝阿莱克修斯一世·科穆宁（1081-1118年）的请求，发表了振奋人心的布道，发起了第一次十字军东征（1095-99年），导致了长达数世纪的从穆斯林手中重新征服圣地的军事行动。乌尔班策划了从阿拉伯和拜占庭控制下收复意大利南部和西西里的行动，让诺曼人（后来的霍恩斯托芬）成为统治者；教皇格里高利七世制定的格里高利改革的主要执行者。

The pope who launched the First Crusade (1095–99) with his rousing sermon delivered at the Council of Clermont in 1095 in response to a petition from the Byzantine emperor, Alexios I Comnenos (r. 1081–1118), resulting in a centuries’-long quest to reconquer the Holy Land from the Muslims. Urban engineered the recovery of southern Italy and Sicily from Arab and Byzantine control, installing the Normans (later Hohenstaufens) as rulers; major enforcer of the Gregorian Reforms instituted by Pope Gregory VII.

教皇英诺森三世 (1160/61-1216;1198-1216)

罗马教皇；反对异端（卡特里派）的阿尔比十字军和反对穆斯林的第四次十字军的号召者，导致君士坦丁堡被洗劫一空（1204年）；召集第四次拉特朗公会议（1215年），重新定义基督教对异教徒、犹太人和穆斯林的身份，导致了对修行会的承认，对犹太人和穆斯林强制执行财产法，并为宗教裁判所的建立奠定基础。

Roman pontiff; architect of the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars and the Fourth Crusade against the Muslims, which led to the sacking of Constantinople (1204); summoned the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) to redefine Christian identity against heretics, Jews, and Muslims, leading to the recognition of the mendicant orders, enforced sumptuary laws upon Jews and Muslims, and laid the ground for the creation of the Inquisition.

卡斯蒂利亚和莱昂的智者阿方索十世

（1221-1284；1252-1284年）

智者阿方索建立了许多翻译学校，其中托莱多翻译学校最为著名，它赞助将阿拉伯文、阿拉伯文翻译的希腊文和希伯来文的科学、哲学、数学、植物学、天文学和其他文本，从阿拉伯文或希伯来文翻译成拉丁文和卡斯蒂利亚文。通过这些翻译，拉丁文西方国家恢复了随着罗马的衰落而丢失的大部分希腊遗产，它们的传播为文艺复兴铺平了道路。他也是第一个推广白话文，即卡斯蒂利亚语，（而不是拉丁语）作为王国官方语言的欧洲君主。

Alfonso the Wise founded numerous translation schools, of which the Toledo School of Translation was the most famous, patronizing the translation of Arabic, Arabic-translated Greek, and Hebrew scientific, philosophical, mathematical, botanical, astronomic, and other texts from Arabic or Hebrew into Latin and Castilian. Through these translations the Latin West recovered much of the Greek legacy that had been lost with the fall of Rome, and their dissemination paved the way for the Renaissance. He was also the first European monarch to promote a vernacular language, Castilian, rather than Latin, as the official language of the realm.

锡耶纳的圣加大利納(1347– 1380)

多明我会的修女和神秘主义者，是14世纪女性平信徒和神秘主义者崛起的典范。她的神秘主义热情和对教皇改革的热忱相结合，使她说服教皇格里高利十一世（1370-78年）结束了阿维尼翁囚禁，并于1377年返回罗马。这一决定引发西方分裂（1378-1417）。

Dominican nun and mystic who exemplifies the 14th-century rise of feminine lay and mystic piety. Her combined mystic fervor and zeal for papal reform led her to convince Pope Gregory XI (r. 1370–78) to put an end to the Babylonian Captivity of the Avignon papacy and to return to Rome in 1377. That fateful decision would unleash the Western Schism (1378–1417).

西班牙的天主教君主（天主教双王）（15世纪）

阿拉贡国王费迪南二世（1452-1516；1479-1516年）与卡斯蒂利亚和莱昂女王伊莎贝拉一世（1451-1504；1469-1504年）在1469年结婚，奠定了西班牙政治统一的基础。1492年，他们征服了最后一个穆斯林王国格拉纳达，将犹太人驱逐出西班牙，并资助探险家克里斯多福·哥伦布“发现”新大陆，这使西班牙成为了一个全球性的帝国。

The marriage of King Ferdinand II of Aragon (1452–1516; r. 1479–1516) to Queen Isabella I of Castile and León (1451–1504; r. 1469–1504) in 1469 laid the foundation of the political reunification of Spain. In 1492 they conquered the last Muslim kingdom of Granada, expelled the Jews from Spain, and patronized the explorer Christopher Columbus’s “discovery” of the New World, which would convert Spain into a global empire.

拜占庭帝国

476年罗马帝国的“灭亡”只发生在西部省份，这些省份落入各种不同的日耳曼部落的控制之下。东部省份幸存下来，直到1453年奥斯曼土耳其人最终占领了首都君士坦丁堡。在那个决定性的日子来临之前，拜占庭帝国仍然是中世纪基督教世界历史上最古老和最持久的基督教国家。几个世纪以来，由于与它的死敌波斯人、斯拉夫人和保加利亚人的常年冲突；7世纪以来伊斯兰教的传播；11世纪在突厥人手中的灾难性失败；以及1204年十字军洗劫君士坦丁堡，帝国的边界经历了重大变化。然而，该帝国的文化、政治和宗教完整性将持续存在。事实上，拜占庭帝国是由三条轴线铸就的。希腊-罗马化文化、罗马帝国后期的统治和基督教宗教。

The “fall” of the Roman Empire in 476 occurred only in the western provinces that fell under the control of various and sundry Germanic tribes. The eastern provinces survived until the definitive capture of the capital of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453. Until that fateful date the Byzantine Empire remained the oldest and longest-lasting Christian state in the history of medieval Christendom. Over the centuries the borders of the empire would undergo significant changes due to perennial conflicts with its archenemies, the Persians, Slavs, and Bulgars; the spread of Islam from the seventh century onward; the disastrous defeat at the hands of the Turkomans in the 11th century; and the sacking of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204. Nevertheless, the cultural, political, and religious integrity of the empire would endure. Indeed, the Byzantine Empire was forged out of three axes: Greek Hellenistic culture, late Roman imperial rule, and Christian religion.

查士丁尼的统治

查士丁尼皇帝（527-565年）的统治代表了拜占庭早期历史的一个高潮。查士丁尼认为法律和宗教是维持一个强大的中央集权政府的关键，他利用皇室权力在整个帝国强加法律和教义的一致性。530年至534年间，查士丁尼将所有罗马法律编入Corpus juris civilis（民法大全），更普遍的说法是《查士丁尼法典》，这本法典分为四个部分。该法典汇集了自哈德良（117-138）时代以来发布的所有帝国诏书。Novellae（新律）收集了查士丁尼的所有法令，随后由其继承人对其进行了补充。《学说汇纂》是对著名法律专家的法学答辩的总结。《法学阶梯》阐明了从《法典》和《学说汇纂》中得出的法律理论原则，并作为有志于律师的教科书。《查士丁尼法典》的显著社会成就包括废除了旧的罗马三阶制，这样所有拜占庭公民都属于一个阶级；以及废除了阻止下层阶级寻求政治职位或不同阶级的人通婚的法律。《新律》中关于重大宗教改革包括镇压一切形式的希腊化宗教和其他异教信仰。广受赞誉的雅典学院于529年被置于国家控制之下，从而使这个延续希腊化信仰的关键机构沉寂下来。

The reign of the emperor Justinian (r. 527–565) represents a high point in the early history of Byzantium. Justinian saw law and religion as the keys to maintaining a strong, centralized government, and he used his imperial powers to impose legal and doctrinal conformity throughout his empire. Between 530 and 534 Justinian codified all of Roman law into the Corpus juris civilis (Body of civil law), more popularly known as the Justinian Code, divided into four parts: The Code assembled all the imperial edicts issued since the time of Hadrian (r. 117–138). The Novellae (Novelties) collected together all of Justinian’s decrees, subsequent additions to which were made by his successors. The Digest was a summary of the juridical responsa of famous legal experts. Finally, the Institutes spelled out the theoretical principles of law derived from the Code and the Digest and would serve as a manual for aspiring lawyers. Among the notable social achievements of the Justinian Code were the abolition of the old Roman three-class system, such that all Byzantine citizens belonged to a single class, and the abolition of laws preventing the lower classes from seeking political office or intermarriage of people of different classes. Significant religious reforms promulgated by the Novellae included the suppression of all forms of Hellenistic religion and other pagan beliefs. The acclaimed Academy of Athens was placed under state control in 529, thereby silencing the key institution for the perpetuation of Hellenistic beliefs.

尽管基督教自380年以来就被宣布为罗马帝国的官方宗教，但对实现教义一致性的追求却从未完全实现。《查士丁尼法典》接受天主教会的四个总理事会（尼西亚，312年；君士坦丁堡、以弗所和卡尔西顿，451年）的教义为法律，并禁止所有其他的教义选择。查士丁尼在其聪明机智的皇后狄奥多拉（Theodora，卒于548年）的影响下，采取了一些措施，使罗马教会与亚历山大和中东地区最顽固、组织最严密的基督教会和解，这些教会赞同基督一性论主义的学说。一神论者认为，基督只有一个本性，即部分是人，部分是神，这与官方的尼西亚-卡尔西多尼亚学说相反，即基督有两个本性，一个是完全的神性，另一个是完全的人性。查士丁尼对一神论者的宽容并没有持续到皇后西奥多拉548年去世之后；对查士丁尼随后将他们从叙利亚和埃及铲除的努力的愤恨，为他们在一个世纪后向波斯和阿拉伯伊斯兰军队投靠铺平了道路。

Although Christianity had been proclaimed the official religion of the Roman Empire since 380, the quest to achieve doctrinal conformity would never be fully realized. The Justinian Code accepted as law the doctrines of the four general councils of the Catholic Church (Nicaea, 312; Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, 451) and banned all other doctrinal alternatives. Under the influence of his intelligent and resourceful empress, Theodora (d. 548), who was a clandestine Monophysite, Justinian took certain steps to reconcile the Roman Church with the most intractable and well-organized of the Christian churches of Alexandria and the Middle East, who subscribed to the doctrine of Monophysitism. The Monophysites believed that Christ had only one nature, which was partly human and partly divine, in opposition to the official Nicene-Chalcedonian doctrine that Christ had two natures, one fully divine, the other fully human. Justinian’s tolerance toward the Monophysites did not last far beyond Empress Theodora’s death in 548; bitter resentment against Justinian’s subsequent efforts to eradicate them from Syria and Egypt would pave the way for their surrender to the Persian and Arab Islamic armies a century later.

查士丁尼在试图重新统一西方和东方帝国方面发挥了重要作用。至少在理论上，这种统一已经存在，因为日耳曼的汪达尔人、东哥特人和西哥特人的国王在地位上是作为东罗马皇帝的总督来统治的。533年至554年间，查士丁尼在地中海一带发动了一系列战争，唯一的目标就是使这种理论上的服从成为政治和军事上的现实。但首先他必须确保他的东部边境，与波斯萨珊国王霍斯劳一世（Khosrau I，531-579年）签订“永恒的和平”，以换取大量的黄金贡品。533年，拜占庭军队从汪达尔人手中夺回了罗马的北非省份。552年完成了对意大利半岛和西西里岛的征服，554年查士丁尼的军队继续从西哥特人手中夺取伊比利亚半岛的大部分地区。

Justinian played a major role in attempting to reunite the Western and Eastern Empires. Theoretically, at least, this unification already existed, since the Germanic Vandal, Ostrogoth, and Visigoth kings technically ruled as viceroys of the Eastern Roman emperor. Between 533 and 554 Justinian waged a series of wars around the Mediterranean with the single goal of making this theoretical submission a political and military reality. But first he had to secure his eastern frontier by signing an “eternal peace” with the Persian Sassanid king Khosrau I (r. 531–579) in exchange for the payment of a substantial tribute of gold. The Byzantine army recaptured the Roman provinces of North Africa from the Vandals in 533. The conquest of the Italian Peninsula and Sicily was completed by 552, and in 554 Justinian’s army went on to capture much of the Iberian Peninsula from the Visigoths.

查士丁尼消灭汪达尔人和东哥特人的一个重要影响是为日耳曼法兰克人成为西方最强大的力量铺平了道路。然而，查士丁尼的军事胜利被证明是徒劳的。伦巴第人最终夺回了除拉文纳以外的意大利，而西哥特人则夺回了西班牙。哥特战争和与萨珊王朝的休战削弱了拜占庭的经济，使拜占庭很容易成为敌对国的猎物，首先是萨珊王朝，他们在查士丁尼死后打破了和平并入侵其领土；其次是穆斯林，他们利用两个帝国的衰弱状态来进一步扩张。

One important consequence of Justinian’s destruction of the Vandals and Ostrogoths was to pave the way for the emergence of the Germanic Franks as the most powerful force in the West. Justinian’s military victories proved to by pyrrhic, however. The Lombards would eventually retake Italy, except Ravenna, and the Visigoths recaptured Spain. The Gothic wars and the truce with the Sassanids had weakened the Byzantine economy and made the empire easy prey, first to the Sassanids, who broke the peace after Justinian’s death and invaded its territories, and second to the Muslims, who would seize upon the debilitated state of both empires to further their conquests.

希拉克略皇帝巩固了拜占庭的地位

当希拉克略（610-641年）于610年登上拜占庭的宝座时，帝国正处于极度困难之中。与前任皇帝福卡斯（Phocas，602-610年）的内战使巴尔干地区容易受到蒙古阿瓦尔人和斯拉夫人的入侵，与波斯的边境也容易受到霍斯劳二世（Khosrau II，590-628年）军队的攻击。萨珊王朝占领了大马士革（613年）、耶路撒冷（614年）、埃及（616年），以及安纳托利亚和卡尔西顿。这些战争对社会和经济产生了毁灭性的影响。小亚细亚 “粮仓”的农业生产被打乱，人们开始逃离城市，以避免外国入侵者和逃避越来越高的税收。

The empire was in dire straits by the time Heraclius (r. 610–641) ascended the Byzantine throne in 610. An internal civil war with Heraclius’s precedesor Phocas (r. 602–610), who was an ally of the Persians, had left the Balkan territories vulnerable to invasions from the Mongolian Avars and Slavs and the frontier with Persia susceptible to attacks from troops under Khosrau II (r. 590–628). The Sassanids captured Damascus (613), Jerusalem (614), Egypt (616), and Anatolia and Chalcedon. These wars had a devastating effect on society and the economy: Agricultural production in the Asia Minor “breadbasket” was disrupted, and people began to flee the cities in order to avoid foreign invaders and the ever-higher taxes needed to repel them.

希拉克略是一位杰出的军事战略家。在将军队改组为土地兵制度后，他开始了军事战争。626年，他的部队成功击退了阿瓦尔人对君士坦丁堡的进攻。一年后，他亲自率领军队穿越小亚细亚，进入波斯。627年，皇帝在尼尼微战役中彻底击败了波斯军队，并重新征服了十年前被萨珊王朝占领的所有领土。为了显示对波斯人的权力，希拉克略接受了波斯人的尊称“万王之王”。不久之后，这些胜利将被一个新的军事威胁所掩盖——在伊斯兰教的宗教和政治意识形态激励下的阿拉伯军队。

Heraclius was a brilliant military strategist. After restructuring the army into a system of landed soldiers, he went on the military warpath. In 626 his troops successfully repelled the Avars’ attack upon Constantinople. A year later he personally led his troops across Asia Minor and into Persia. The emperor defeated the Persian army once and for all at the Battle of Nineveh in 627 and reconquered all the territories captured by the Sassanids a decade earlier. As a show of power over the Persians, Heraclius assumed the Persian honorific “King of Kings.” Soon, however, these victories would be overshadowed by a new military threat—the Arab armies inspired by the new religious and political ideology of Islam.

伊斯兰教创始人先知穆罕默德在632年去世时，已经成功地将阿拉伯地区几乎所有分散的部落统一为一个单一的政体，即umma，并打造了一支令人印象深刻的凝聚力强的军队。穆罕默德的继任者，哈里发阿布·巴克尔（632-634年）和欧玛尔·宾·哈塔卜（634-644年），于633年率领穆斯林军队进入叙利亚，最终于635年从拜占庭人手中夺得大马士革。636年在约旦亚尔木克河畔进行的亚尔木克战役是世界历史的一个转折点。即使有新的军区系统，希拉克略的部队也不是哈里发欧玛尔部队的对手。对穆斯林的胜利具有决定性意义的是，穆斯林说服了一大批阿拉伯基督教伽珊尼德军队投奔到他们一边。伽珊尼德人是基督一性论的基督徒，就像巴勒斯坦、叙利亚和美索不达米亚领土上的大多数人一样，处于争议漩涡之中。查士丁尼法典颁布后，一神论者面临着无情的迫害，因此，向更宽容的穆斯林投降是一个有吸引力的选择。穆斯林占领了巴勒斯坦、叙利亚和美索不达米亚，埃及和整个北非在希拉克略于641年去世后，也很快就沦陷了。

By the time of his death in 632 the prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam, had succeeded in uniting virtually all the disparate tribes of Arabia into a single polity, the umma, as well as in forging an impressively cohesive army. Muhammad’s successors, the caliphs Abu Bakr (r. 632–634) and Umar ibn al-Khattab (r. 634–644), in 633 led the Muslim armies in Syria, where they finally captured the capital, Damascus, in 635 from the Byzantians. The Battle of Yarmuk, fought on the banks of the Yarmuk River in Jordan in 636, was a turning point in world history. Even with the newly structured theme system the troops of Heraclius were no match for the forces of Caliph Umar. Decisive to the Muslim victory was the fact that the Muslims persuaded a large regiment of Arab Christian Ghassanid troops to defect to their side. The Ghassanids were Monophysite Christians, as were the majority of the population in the territories of Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia under dispute. The unrelenting persecution the Monophysites faced after the issuance of the Justinian Code made surrender to the more tolerant Muslims an appealing alternative. After the capture of Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia, Egypt and the whole of North Africa soon fell after Heraclius’s death in 641.

尽管在希拉克略统治期间领土遭受了巨大损失，但这位皇帝留下了重要的希腊化和军事改革遗产。正是希拉克略通过压制拉丁语的使用并将希腊语作为唯一的官方语言来实现帝国的希腊化。这一决定将加深拜占庭帝国与新兴的法兰克王国之间的文化沟壑，法兰克王国与罗马教会一起提倡使用拉丁语，损害了希腊语的地位。

Despite the tremendous loss of territories incurred during the reign of Heraclius, the emperor left a legacy of important Hellenistic and military reforms. It was Heraclius who Hellenized the empire by suppressing the use of Latin and making Greek the only official language. This decision would deepen the cultural gap between the Byzantine Empire and the emerging Frankish Kingdom, which, together with the Church of Rome, promoted the use of Latin to the detriment of Greek.

军区系统

希拉克略有理由担心拜占庭的战争主要是由不可靠的雇佣兵发动的，他设想将“军区”作为恢复古罗马共和制土地公民制度的一种手段，这种制度在罗马最强大的时候曾提供过很好的服务。在军区制度下，士兵接受减少的工资，以换取国家控制的土地授予他们耕种权。与拉丁美洲西部的农奴不同，拜占庭的士兵农民是自由人，他们在保卫自己的土地上拥有个人利益。此外，由于土地是世袭的，军区制度确保了一支相对廉价、忠诚、人员充足的军队的长期供应，避免了不受欢迎的征兵模式，并减少了对雇佣军的依赖。

Justifiably concerned that Byzantine wars were being waged mainly with unreliable mercenary soldiers, Heraclius conceived of the thema as a means of reviving the ancient Roman republican system of landed citizens who had served Rome so well at the height of its power. Under the thema, or theme system, soldiers accepted a reduced salary in exchange for grants of statecontrolled plots of land to farm. Unlike the serfs in the Latin West, the Byzantine soldierfarmers were freemen who had a personal stake in defending their land. Moreover, since the plots of land were hereditary, the theme system ensured the perpetuation of a relatively inexpensive, loyal, well-staffed army; avoided unpopular military drafts; and diminished the reliance on mercenaries.

军队分为五个大区：亚美尼亚军区，包括亚美尼亚、安纳托利亚部分地区和土耳其东北部；色雷斯军区，包括现代希腊、阿尔巴尼亚和欧洲土耳其，还包括君士坦丁堡；奥普西金军区，包括土耳其西北部；卡拉比西安军区，包括庞非利亚（潘菲利亚）和爱琴群岛的沿海地区；安纳托利亚军区，包括从伊兹密尔到科尼亚的安纳托利亚中部。几个世纪以来，这五个最初的军区被再次细分，并随着第九和第十世纪帝国的扩张而增加了新的领土。

The army was structured into five themata: the Armeniac, which comprised Armenia, part of Anatolia, and generally northeastern Asiatic Turkey; the Thraciac, comprising modern-day Greece, Albania, and European Turkey, including Constantinople; the Opsician, comprising northwestern Asiatic Turkey; the Carabisiani, comprising the coastal regions of Pamphylia and the Aegean Islands; and the Anatolic, which comprised central Anatolia from Izmir to Konya. Over the centuries these five original themata were subdivided, and new territories were added with the expansion of the empire in the ninth and 10th centuries.

在某一特定军区下，耕种土地的士兵由一个称为将军的军事和文职领导人指挥。毫无疑问，这种制度使拜占庭在遭受入侵时免于失败，但它也有某些弊端，最终导致了帝国的灭亡。将军们成为强大的新贵族家族，他们把自己手下的士兵变成了名副其实的私人军队，军队对将军的忠诚远远超过了对皇帝的忠诚。

The soldiers farming the land in a given thema were under the command of a military and civilian leader called the strategos. While there is no doubt that the theme system rescued Byzantium from defeat during times of invasion, it also had certain drawbacks that would eventually contribute to the demise of the empire. The strategos became powerful aristocratic families who converted the soldiers under their command into veritable private armies whose personal loyalty to them far outweighed their allegiance to the emperor.

拜占庭仪式和礼物

拜占庭皇帝在关注仪式和对公共建筑和艺术的赞助方面，确实表现出与他们罗马祖先的高度相似性。拜占庭皇帝自称是绝对统治者，因为他是基督的传教士或代表——这与拉丁西方的罗马教皇完全不同，后者履行的是精神政治的角色。所有的宗教节日和国家场合，从帝国加冕到出生、结婚、官方接待以及军事胜利的凯旋庆祝，都成为拜占庭宫廷戏剧的舞台。在这些场合，人们以隆重的方式举行仪式，宫廷中每个人的等级很容易通过服装来识别，以创造一种和谐与权威的氛围。在宗教节日里，整个宫廷会列队离开皇宫，到大教堂庆祝弥撒，以显示对教堂的最高权威。官方肖像画让所有人都能看到皇帝的权威和威严。皇帝和皇后总是被描绘成理想的类型，英俊而安详，服饰丰富，带着光环和镀金背景，将他们与太阳和圣人的神圣性联系起来。

The Byzantines emperors were truly the heirs of their Roman forebears in the attention they gave to ceremony and the patronage of public buildings and the arts. The Byzantine emperor styled himself as an absolute ruler by virtue of his being a vicar, or representative, of Christ— quite different from the Roman pontiff in the Latin West, who fulfilled this spiritual-political role. All religious festivals and state occasions, from imperial coronations to births, marriages, official receptions, and triumphal celebrations of military victories, became the stage of Byzantine court theater. These occasions were richly observed with pomp and circumstance, the rank of each person in the court easily identified by a costume, to create an aura of harmony and authority. On religious feasts the entire court would leave the palace in procession to celebrate mass at the basilica in a display of supreme authority over the church. Official portraiture rendered the authority and majesty of the emperor visible to all. The emperor and empress were invariably portrayed as ideal types, handsome and serene, richly costumed, and bearing a halo and a gilded background that associated them with the Sun and the sanctity of the saints.

这种宫廷财富和华丽展示构成了拜占庭外交的一个组成部分，旨在威慑他们的敌人，使其默许他们的要求。外国权贵、十字军战士和其他来自拉丁西部的拜占庭访客一再证明，拜占庭皇帝用奢华和慷慨的礼物来“款待”他们的客人是多么的光彩夺目。人类学家认为，送礼是一种权力的仪式或计谋。送礼者显示出他或她对受礼者的优越性，而受礼者则有义务以忠诚和友谊作为回报。然而，对十字军来说，奢华的拜占庭式礼物预示着战场上的背信弃义。

Such courtly displays of wealth and splendor formed an integral part of Byzantine diplomacy and were designed to intimidate their enemies into acquiescing to their demands. Foreign potentates, crusaders, and other visitors to Byzantium from the Latin West attest repeatedly to the splendor of the lavish and generous gifts with which the Byzantine emperors “honored” their guests. As anthropologists have demonstrated, gift-giving is a ritual or stratagem of power. The gift giver displays his or her superiority over the recipient, who is obliged to reciprocate with loyalty and friendship. For the crusaders, however, lavish Byzantine gifts heralded perfidy on the battlefield.

帝国的收缩

当希拉克略于641年去世时，拜占庭帝国已经失去了叙利亚、巴勒斯坦和美索不达米亚等省份，被不断扩张的伊斯兰帝国占领。645年，在位于亚历山大和福斯塔特之间的一个小镇上发生了决定性的尼基乌战役后，埃及很快就沦陷了。穆斯林军队继续向西进军，在8世纪初征服了整个北非；他们于711年进入伊比利亚半岛。拜占庭曾多次试图夺回在伊斯兰教统治下的省份，由于来自斯拉夫人的压力越来越大，这项任务变得更加困难，例如，斯拉夫人在677年围攻塞萨洛尼基，与此同时，拜占庭的军队已经在安纳托利亚和叙利亚与穆斯林作战。此时，对拜占庭人发动战争的保加利亚部落在681年成功脱离了拜占庭人的控制，形成了自己的大保加利亚国，其领土包括今天的保加利亚、塞尔维亚和罗马尼亚。

By the time Heraclius died in 641, the Byzantine Empire had lost the provinces of Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia to the ever-expanding Islamic empire. Egypt would soon follow in 645 after the decisive Battle of Nikiou, at a small town located between Alexandria and Fustat. Muslim armies continued marching westward, conquering the whole of North Africa by the early eighth century; from there they entered the Iberian Peninsula in 711. Byzantium attempted several times to recapture the provinces that had fallen under Islamic rule, a task made all the more difficult by increasing pressure from the Slavs, who, for instance, laid siege to Thessaloniki in 677 at the same time the Byzantine army was already divided fighting the Muslims in Anatolia and Syria. Meanwhile, Bulgar tribes waging war against the Byzantines managed to secede from Byzantine control in 681 and form their own state of Great Bulgaria, a territory encompassing present-day Bulgaria, Serbia, and Romania.

更为严重的是穆斯林对君士坦丁堡发起的攻击，而君士坦丁堡正是拜占庭帝国的心脏地带。尽管分别于674-678年和717-718年进行的对君士坦丁堡的第一次和第二次围攻都以拜占庭军队的胜利而告终，但第二次围攻被正确地比作732年著名的波提尔之战。与那场战役一样，第二次围攻君士坦丁堡也改变了历史的进程，因为如果穆斯林占领了首都，拜占庭帝国肯定会瓦解。拜占庭成功的关键在于与保加利亚军队的及时合作、围攻战术的巧妙运用、卓越的海军力量、复杂而准确的情报收集服务、维护良好的通信系统，以及神秘的希腊火——这是一种由原油与其他可燃材料混合点燃的强大燃烧装置。尽管如此，七世纪末和八世纪初的间歇性战争迫使拜占庭人从沿海城市撤退到内陆设防地区。同样，拜占庭的生活中心也从君士坦丁堡转移到了安纳托利亚和巴尔干半岛的更安全的内陆地区。拜占庭帝国很大一部分地区的丧失引发了其历史上所谓的黑暗时代，这一概念因圣像破坏运动的动荡而进一步加剧。

Even more serious were the attacks launched by the Muslims on Constantinople, the very heartland of the Byzantine Empire. Although both the first and the second siege of Constantinople, fought in 674–678 and 717–718, respectively, would both result in victory for the Byzantine armies, the second siege has been rightly compared to the famous Battle of Poitier in 732. As did that battle, the second siege of Constantinople changed the course of history, for had the Muslims captured the capital, the Byzantine Empire would surely have disintegrated. The keys to Byzantine success were the timely collaboration of the Bulgarian forces, the ingenious use of siege tactics, superior naval power, a sophisticated and accurate intelligence gathering service, a well-maintained communications system, and, not least, the mysterious Greek fire, a powerful incendiary device derived from alighting crude oil mixed with other combustible materials. Nevertheless, intermittent warfare of the late seventh and early eighth centuries forced the Byzantine populations to retreat from the coastal cities into inland fortified areas. Similarly, the center of Byzantine life shifted from Constantinople to the safer inland areas of Anatolia and the Balkans. The loss of a substantial area of the Byzantine Empire precipitated a so-called dark age in its history, a concept that was further exacerbated by the turmoil of the Iconoclast Controversy.

修士、修女和修道院的作用

第三和第四世纪，在罗马埃及、巴勒斯坦和叙利亚的沙漠中，有一群新兴的群体。这些隐士，或称苦修士，来自希腊语monachoi（“孤独的人”），他们逃离城市，进入偏远的农村和沙漠地区。在那里他们试图通过极端的苦行来达到圣洁和与上帝的精神结合状态。圣安东尼（三世纪）等隐士的生活和苦修功绩，通过撰写和传播圣传，即“圣人的生活”，成为其他人效仿的榜样。圣人的生活讲述了那些实行独身主义、禁止睡眠、禁食和吃素的精神运动者。有些人，如登塔者，一生都栖息在柱子上，而其他人则住在山洞里、墙后，或废弃的坟墓和修道院里。

In the third and fourth centuries new figures could be found inhabiting the deserts of Roman Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. These hermits, or monks, from the Greek monachoi (“alone ones”), fled the cities into remote rural and desert areas where they sought to attain holiness and spiritual union with God through extreme ascetic practices. The lives and ascetic feats of hermit monks such as Saint Anthony (third century) became known as models to emulate by others through the writing and dissemination of hagiographies, or “lives of the saints.” The lives of the saints tell of spiritual athletes who practiced celibacy, sleep deprivation, fasting, and vegetarianism. Some, such as the Stylites, spent their entire lives perched atop a column, while others lived in caves, behind walls, or in abandoned tombs or temples.

虽然孤独是修道士的理想，但其他形式的修道士与隐居生活并存。受艾塞尼派的影响，一些修士住在沙漠中的隐居地，与其他犹太人隔绝，并实行严格的禁欲主义，他们住在半组织化的拉伏拉（联盟）中，每个修士都单独住在自己的房间中，定期与其他人见面，庆祝弥撒。帕科缪（Saint Pachomius，卒于346年）被认为是创立了隐修士制度的人，在这种制度下，修士们在修道院长（hegoumenos）的绝对权威下共同生活。尽管拜占庭主教该撒利亚的巴西流（370-379）写下了一些关于隐修士的一般准则，但这些准则并没有被普遍采用，也从未声称具有本笃会规则的权威。修道院的生活方式被证明是非常受欢迎的，吸引了来自埃及、叙利亚和巴勒斯坦以及整个小亚细亚社会各阶层的男人和女人。

While solitude was upheld as the monastic ideal, other forms of monasticism coexisted with the hermetic life. Influenced by the Essenes, a Jewish sect that lived in desert retreats separated from other Jews physically and by their strict asceticism, some monks lived in semiorganized lavra (allies) in which each monk lived alone in his or her cell and met periodically with others to celebrate Mass. Saint Pachomius (d. 346) is credited with founding cenobitic monasticism, in which monks lived in communion under the absolute authority of an abbot (hegoumenos). This model of monasticism would be adopted in the Latin West in the late fourth century, albeit in a much more regimented form, for although the Byzantine bishop monk Basil of Caesaria (r. 370–379) wrote down some general guidelines for cenobitic monasticism, they were not adopted universally and never claimed the authority of the Benedictine rule. The monastic way of life proved to be incredibly popular, attracting men and women from all sectors of society in Egypt, Syria, and Palestine and throughout Asia Minor.

东罗马的修道院并没有像西方修道院那样发挥相同的社会功能。西方修道院，特别是在加洛林王朝文艺复兴的推动下，主要负责古典文化和学习。在东方，拜占庭式的教育和文化机构仍然完好无损；因此，修士和修道院的功能始终是以精神为主，其次才是社会。修道院在一般被称为拜占庭“黄金时代”的高峰期蓬勃发展，从843年圣像破坏运动结束到1261年拜占庭军队从十字军手中夺回君士坦丁堡。除了作为神圣圣像守护者的宗教职责外，城市修道院还管理着医院、孤儿院、济贫院和职业学校，而农村的修道院则作为农业公社发挥作用。在第九和第十世纪，修士们在保加利亚人、斯拉夫人和罗斯人的基督教化中发挥了特别重要的作用。

Eastern Roman monasticism did not perform the same social function as its Latin counterpart. The Western monastery, particularly under the impetus of the Carolingian renaissance, was largely responsible for the survival of classical culture and learning. In the East Byzantine educational and cultural institutions remained intact; thus, the function of the monk and the monastery was always primarily spiritual and secondarily social. Monasticism burgeoned from the height of what is generally known as the “golden age” of Byzantium, from the end of the Iconoclast Controversy in 843 to 1261, when the Byzantine army recaptured Constantinople from the crusaders. Aside from their religious duties as the guardians of sacred icons, urban monasteries administered hospitals, orphanages, poor houses, and vocational schools, while their rural counterparts functioned as agricultural communes. Monks were particularly instrumental in the Christianization of the Bulgarians, Slavs, and Russians in the ninth and 10th centuries.

因此，尽管他们为了追求神性而逃离社会，但即使是最孤独的隐士也在罗马晚期和拜占庭早期社会中行使着重要的庇护职能。晚期古代最重要的历史学家彼得·布朗(Peter Brown)令人信服地证明了圣人和圣女承担着罗马庇护者的角色。俗人会去找他们，渴望得到他们的神灵代祷，以治愈病人、驱除恶魔、结束干旱或瘟疫，或者奇迹般地介入，解决无权无势者与富人之间的纠纷。因此，圣人或圣女是一个直接来自上帝的权力中心，不通过主教和机构教会的权威来调解。修士的独立性和神圣的道德权威被证明是皇帝和主教的一把双刃剑。修士们可以并被召集到大公会议上，借用他们的道德权威来解决许多教义上的争论。然而，如果修士们不同意帝国或教会的政策，他们的观点就更有可能得到普通民众的支持。这种潜在的权力斗争最生动的时候莫过于圣像破坏运动。

Thus, despite their flight from society in the quest for the divine, even the most solitary hermits exercised an important patronage function in late Roman and early Byzantine society. Peter Brown, foremost historian of late antiquity, has convincingly demonstrated that the holy man and woman assumed the role of a Roman patron. The laity would seek them out, anxious to obtain their divine intercession to heal the sick, cast out demons, end droughts or plagues, or intervene miraculously to resolve disputes between the powerless and the wealthy. The holy man or woman was thus a locus of power that derived directly from God, unmediated through the authority of the bishop and the institutional church. The monk’s independence and divinely inspired moral authority proved to be a double-edged sword for both the emperor and the bishop. Monks could be and were marshaled at ecumenical councils to lend their moral authority to resolve many a doctrinal controversy. Yet if the monks did not agree with imperial or ecclesiastical policy, their views were more likely to be supported among the general populace. At no time was this potential power struggle more vivid than during the Iconoclast Controversy.

拜占庭的圣像崇拜

730年，拜占庭皇帝利奥三世（Leo III the Isaurian，717-741年）下令从君士坦丁堡的正门撤走一个基督像。在同年发布的一项诏书中，他没有事先征求拜占庭教长或罗马教皇的意见，就禁止了对圣像的崇拜，他认为这是一种“偶像崇拜”。禁止圣像崇拜的决定可能是作为对最近他的邻国穆斯林对手的军事损失和塞拉火山爆发的灾难性影响的回应而启动的。利奥三世在圣像崇拜中找到了一个替罪羊，来解释为什么上帝似乎从帝国撤回了对他的宠爱。利奥的继任者君士坦丁五世（741-775年）再次确认了这项法令，并在754年召开了海尔里亚公会议，正式确定了这一教义。伊琳妮皇后在787年撤销了这一教义，但利奥五世（813-820年）在814年再次恢复了这一教义，以应对穆斯林军队的军事失败。843年，在已故皇帝西奥菲勒斯（狄奥费鲁斯，Theophilus，卒于842年）的妻子狄奥多拉（Theodora）执政期间，圣像破坏法令被最终废除。在圣像破坏主义成为拜占庭官方教条的那个世纪里，罗马和希腊教会之间的关系恶化了，尽管许多希腊神学家和教长与天主教徒一样热衷于圣像崇拜（"圣像爱好者"）。

In 730 the Byzantine emperor Leo III the Isaurian (r. 717–741) ordered a prominent image of Christ to be withdrawn from the main gate of Constantinople. In an imperial edict issued in the same year and with no prior consultation of the Byzantine patriarchs or the Roman pope, he forbade the worship of images as a form of “idolatry.” The decision to ban icon worship probably was initiated as a response to recent military losses to his neighboring Muslim rivals and the catastrophic impact of the eruption of the volcano at Thera. Leo III found in iconoclasm a scapegoat to explain why God seemingly had withdrawn his favor from the empire. Leo’s successor, Constantine V (r. 741–775), reconfirmed the edict and convoked the Council of Hieria in 754 to formalize the doctrine. Empress Irene revoked the doctrine in 787, but Leo V (r. 813–820) reinstituted it in 814, once again in response to a military defeat by the Muslim army. The iconoclast doctrine was definitively revoked in 843 during the regency of Theodora, wife of the deceased emperor Theophilus (d. 842). During the century in which iconoclasm was official Byzantine dogma, relations between the Roman and Greek Churches degenerated, despite the fact that many Greek theologians and patriarchs were as ardent iconodules (“lovers of icons”) as the Catholics.

从争论一开始，罗马教皇和许多拜占庭教长和修士就对皇帝公然的凯撒教权（即帝国对教会的主权）行为感到不满，并以神学为由拒绝接受圣像破坏的基督论意义。因此，严重的神学和政治问题推动了这场争论。圣像破坏者认为，以物质形式描绘基督是一种亵渎，也是对基督的贬低和羞辱。崇拜圣像的人反驳说，既然上帝通过道成肉身成为物质，那么基督的圣像就是物质神化的正面证明，实际上是救赎的必要条件。圣像也是教友们直接接触神的必要手段，因为他们被认为被赋予了神力（奇迹）和代祷能力。当无法寻求圣人的神圣帮助时，教友们会在圣像前倾诉他们的悲伤和担忧。

From the onset of the controversy, the Roman pope and many Byzantine patriarchs and monks resented the emperor’s blatant act of caesaropapism, or imperial sovereignty over the church, and rejected on theological grounds the Christological implications of iconoclasm. Thus, grave theological and political issues had driven the controversy. The iconoclasts argued that it was sacrilegious as well as degrading and humiliating to Christ to depict him in material form. The iconophiles countered that since God had become matter through the Incarnation, icons of Christ were proof positive of the deification of matter and, indeed, necessary for salvation. Icons also were necessary as a means for the laity to gain direct access to the divine, since they were believed to be endowed with thaumaturgic (miraculous) and intercessory power. The laity would take their sorrows and concerns before the icon whenever it was not possible to seek the divine help of a holy man or woman.

与之前的任何其他基督论争相比，圣像破坏之争暴露了凯撒教权的深度和悲剧性后果。一方是皇帝、众多主教、军队和国家公务员，他们代表了圣像破坏者的立场，而圣像崇拜者主要由修士和普通人组成。圣像破坏者奉行的政策是积极地让教会服从于帝国，而圣像崇拜者则赞成相互依存和相互尊重的关系。彼得·布朗和其他学者正确地指出，圣像破坏运动的真正目标是修士和修道院，他们的权力和影响已被视为对皇帝和当地主教权威的挑战。斯图狄乌斯隐修院的圣狄奥多尔（卒于826年）甚至写信给罗马的教宗巴斯加一世，寻求他对此事的干预，这并没有什么帮助。这种敌意在君士坦丁五世统治时期体现得淋漓尽致，根据修士和当代目击者Theosterictus的说法，他上台后的“唯一目的和愿望”就是要“消灭整个修道院的权力”（Alexander 244）。君士坦丁五世不仅监督了圣像的毁坏，还无情地迫害修士，公开羞辱他们；将他们赶出修道院，然后将修道院变为世俗财产；烧毁他们的虔诚文本，如《沙漠之父的箴言》。在切断修士和教友之间的庇护关系的最后努力中，教友被禁止访问修道院院长或接受他的圣餐。

More than any other Christological controversy before it, the Iconoclast Controversy exposed the depths and tragic consequences of caeseropapism. On the one side stood the emperor, numerous bishops, the army, and the civil servants, who represented the iconoclast position, while the iconophiles mainly consisted of monks and laypeople. The iconoclasts pursued a policy of aggressive subordination of church to empire, while the iconophiles favored a relation of interdependence and mutual respect. Peter Brown and other scholars have rightly identified the true target of the Iconoclast Controversy as the monks and monasteries, whose power and influence had become regarded as a challenge to the authority of both the emperor and the local bishop. It did not help that one monk, Theodore the Studite (d. 826), went so far as to write to Pope Pascual in Rome to seek his intervention in the matter. This enmity is best seen during the reign of Emperor Constantine V, whose “sole purpose and desire” upon rising to power, according to Theosterictus, a monk and contemporary eyewitness, was to “wipe out the entire monastic garb” (Alexander 244). Constantine V not only oversaw the destruction of icons but relentlessly persecuted the monks, publicly humiliating them; driving them out of their monasteries, which he then transformed into secular properties; and burning their devotional texts, such as the Sayings of the Desert Fathers. In a final bid to sever the patronage relations between monk and laity, the latter were forbidden to visit the monastic abbot or receive communion from him.

拜占庭帝国的黄金时代(843-1261)

当圣像破坏运动的乌云终于在843年被揭开时，“正统的胜利”似乎给帝国注入了新的活力。第九、第十和第十一世纪初，马其顿王朝的皇帝们见证了一个扩张和繁荣的黄金时代。这个王朝是由巴西尔一世在867年建立的，他是一个非凡的、雄心勃勃的人，从一个亚美尼亚农民的卑微出身中崛起，通过刺杀他的前任和对手迈克尔三世皇帝（842-867年）而登上王位。巴西尔一世的成就包括法律和行政改革，帝国的扩张，以及对改善与罗马关系的追求。后一个目标促使他撤换了君士坦丁堡的主教佛提乌一世（858-867年，877-886年），并以伊格内修斯（867-877年）取而代之，后者得到了罗马教宗哈德良二世（867-872年）的青睐，并支持教廷使保加利亚人皈依拉丁语基督教的决心。863年，拜占庭军队入侵该国，迫使其统治者保加利亚的鲍里斯一世（852-889）请求和平并皈依东正教。当保加利亚统治者似乎即将皈依拉丁教会时，佛提乌写了一篇通谕，谴责西方仪式和教皇对东正教的干涉。这一事件是1054年大分裂的众多政治先兆之一。

When the dark cloud of the Iconoclast Controversy was finally lifted in 843, the “triumph of orthodoxy” seemed to breathe new life into the empire. The ninth, 10th, and early 11th centuries witnessed a golden age of expansion and prosperity under the Macedonian dynasty of emperors. The dynasty was founded in 867 by Basil I, an extraordinary and ambitious man who rose to power from his humble origins as an Armenian peasant and whose accession to the throne was achieved through the assassination of his predecessor and rival, Emperor Michael III (r. 842–867). Basil I’s achievements included legal and administrative reforms, the expansion of the empire, and the quest to improve relations with Rome. The latter objective would lead him to remove the presiding patriarch, Photios I of Constantinople (r. 858– 867, 877–886), and replace him with Ignatius (r. 867–877), who enjoyed the favor of the Roman pope, Adrian II (r. 867–872), and supported the papacy in its determination to convert the Bulgarians to Latin Christianity. In 863 the Byzantine army had invaded the country and forced its ruler, Boris I of Bulgaria (r. 852–889), to sue for peace and convert to the Orthodox Church. When it seemed as though the Bulgarian ruler was on the verge of converting to the Latin Church, Photios wrote an encyclical denouncing the Western rite and papal interference in the Orthodox Church. This event was one of the many political forerunners of the Great Schism of 1054.

在两位学者型修士兄弟圣西里尔（卒于869年）和圣美多迪乌斯（卒于885年）的指导下，大摩拉维亚（包括现代斯洛伐克、捷克共和国和奥地利）的斯拉夫帝国和保加利亚国家逐步基督教化。西里尔和美多德（圣美多迪乌斯）被认为是格拉哥里字母的创造者，大约在863年，他们用这种字母将圣经翻译成斯拉夫语。保加利亚的鲍里斯一世在其统治末期委托圣人西里尔和美多德的弟子建立学院，用斯拉夫语言和礼仪指导讲希腊语的神职人员，以此来确保保加利亚教会相对于君士坦丁堡的自治地位。

Under the guidance of two scholarly monk brothers, Saint Cyril (d. 869) and Saint Methodius (d. 885), Byzantine monks undertook the Christianization of the Slavic empire of Great Moravia (comprising modern Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Austria) and the Bulgarian state. Cyril and Methodius are credited with inventing the Glagolitic alphabet, with which they translated the Bible into Slavic languages circa 863. Toward the end of his reign Boris I of Bulgaria commissioned disciples of Saints Cyril and Methodius to found academies to instruct the Greek-speaking clergy in the Slavic languages and liturgy as a means of ensuring the autonomous position of the Bulgarian Church vis-à-vis Constantinople.

巴西尔一世与神圣罗马帝国皇帝路易二世（855-875年）保持着良好的关系，他们之间完成了一次成功的联合军事行动，将穆斯林人赶出了亚得里亚海。随后，拜占庭皇帝尼基弗鲁斯二世·福卡斯（Nicephorus II Phocas，963-969年）和约翰一世·齐米斯基斯（John I Tzimiskes，969-976年）的征服，将叙利亚和伊拉克的部分地区以及塞浦路斯和克里特岛夺走。正如他的称号“保加利亚杀手”，巴西尔二世（976-1025年）见证了保加利亚国家的崩溃和最终瓦解，并将其并入拜占庭帝国。因此，在黄金时代的巅峰时期，拜占庭帝国的版图东起阿塞拜疆和亚美尼亚，西至意大利南部的卡拉布里亚。与罗斯的斯堪的纳维亚瓦兰吉人的战略联盟将使他们的影响力远远向北延伸。

Basil I maintained good relations with Holy Roman Emperor Louis II (r. 855–875), resulting in a successful joint military campaign to drive the Muslims from the Adriatic Sea. Subsequent conquests by the Macedonian emperors Nicephorus II Phocas (r. 963–969) and John I Tzimiskes (r. 969–976) wrenched part of Syria and Iraq as well as Cyprus and Crete. As his epithet “the Bulgar-slayer” well suggests, Basil II (r. 976–1025) oversaw the crushing and definitive defeat of the Bulgarian state and its annexation to the Byzantine Empire. Thus, at the height of the golden age the Byzantine Empire extended from Azerbaijan and Armenia in the east to Calabria in southern Italy in the west. A strategic alliance with the Scandinavian Varangians of Russia would extend their influence far northward.