Gabriel Christys

Thesis: Triumphs: Art, Power, and Empire in Middle Byzantine Constantinople, 950-1050 A.D.

Supervisor: Professor Antony Eastmond; Advisor: Dr. Meredyth Winter

My research investigates Byzantine triumphal processions between 950 and 1050 A.D., exploring how these public ceremonies were used to project imperial ideology and assert geopolitical aspirations during a period of expansion under the Macedonian Dynasty. By examining the material and built environment of Constantinople, ranging from urban landscape and monuments of the city to portable processional artefacts, icons, textiles and manuscripts, I investigate how the court used triumphal spectacles to construct self-serving historical narratives and foster a collective identity across the empire’s centre, provinces and periphery. This study also considers how Byzantium positioned itself in a wider cosmological context, competing with rival powers such as the Islamic caliphates of Cairo, Cordoba and Baghdad for regional hegemony.

Contemporary post-colonial critique and the renewed attention to what it means to be an empire prompted by current geopolitical developments, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Turkey’s expansionist aspirations in the eastern Mediterranean, further underscores the relevance of reassessing Byzantium’s imperial identity today. By situating Byzantine triumphs in the wider Mediterranean context, my research sheds light on the strategic use of material culture in shaping power, memory and identity. It reveals the transcultural strategies underpinning imperial expansion and offers a new perspective on how empires use material culture to legitimise conquest and sustain authority.