Financial Policy of Byzantium in the 6th century

Our knowledge of the financial policy of the early Byzantine emperors (in particular those of the sixth century) is based on two main categories of historical sources: firstly, literary sources (narrative texts of an ecclesiastical, secular or legislative nature) and, secondly, documentary sources such as coins, papyri and inscriptions. The use by scholars of the first category has a very long tradition, forming the basis for historical research on Early Byzantium during the past three centuries. For the most part, the sources in the second category have come into use only recently, though with ever increasing volume. In the last few decades they have become the main subjects of study of various specialists: papyrologists, numismatists, sigillograhers and epigraphists. Likewise, the study of legal sources has become a subject of interest in its own right. This situation of the sources lies at the basis of the present project. The applicant, a researcher from the State University of Altaj (Russia) has until now had only limited access to the results of current research on the documentary sources. Nevertheless, he has spent much time in the study of the narrative sources for Early Byzantine History, especially imperial legislation of the fourth to sixth centuries. The monographs written by the applicant on the financial policy of the emperors of this period (1. "Finansovaja politika rannevizantijskogo imperatora", Barnaul, 2000; 2. "Finansovaja politika imperatora Anastasija I", Sankt-Petersburg, 2006), are mainly based on the narrative sources and constitute a sort of prolegomena for a systematic study of financial policy in sixth-century Byzantium, especially for the reign of Justinian I. It is, then, the object of the present project to add the documentary sources, i.e. the papyrologic, numismatic and epigraphic evidence, to the previous study of narrative sources. In addition, the applicant proposes to study so-called "psychological factors", i. e. the personal characteristics of various members of the government and to clear up their immediate participation in the formation of Early-Byzantine financial policy. Finally, the applicant intends to take an interdisciplinary approach by applying economic theory in the study. Such methods should yield a new synthesis of the facts of imperial economic and administrative policy in the sixth century, a crucial transitional period in Late Antiquity. To be sure, several successful attempts have already been made in contemporary historiography to overcome the traditional dichotomy between literary and documentary sources, but they have either been limited to financial questions (e.g. A.H.M. Jones) or concerned only with certain institutions (e.g. R. Delmaire). To date, there is no monograph of the scope proposed by the applicant. The systematization of research on the finances and financial policies of the early sixth-century emperors would be of obvious benefit to Byzantine Studies. The applicant also hopes to illuminate aspects of imperial financial activity, which have not yet been studied. This work would be greatly facilitated by access to the resources of Austrian academic institutions. The choice of Vienna is by no means accidental: the Institute of Byzantine Studies there possesses one of the most complete collections of the necessary sources, as well as more recent publications on the subject of the project. Furthermore, there are long standing and close professional contacts between Russian - in particular, Siberian - and Austrian scholars, and the applicant would like to further the collaboration in his field. At the end of the project the results will be written up in a monograph in Russian under the same title.