Byzantine commonwealth

The term Byzantine commonwealth was coined by 20th-century historians to refer to the area where Byzantine general influence (Byzantine liturgical and cultural tradition) was spread during the Middle Ages by Byzantine statehood and missionaries. This area covers approximately the modern-day countries of Greece, Cyprus, R. Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus, southwestern Russia, and Georgia (known as Orthodox Europe).

The most important treatment of the concept is a study by Dimitri Obolensky, The Byzantine Commonwealth. In his book Six Byzantine Portraits he examined life and works of six persons mentioned in The Byzantine Commonwealth.

See also

• Byzantinism
• Eastern Orthodox Church
• Christianization of the Slavs

Further reading

• Miliana Kaimakamova; Maciej Salamon (2007). Byzantium, new peoples, new powers: the Byzantino-Slav contact zone, from the ninth to the fifteenth century. Towarzystwo Wydawnicze "Historia Iagellonica". ISBN 978-83-88737-83-1.
• Meyendorff, John (1983), The Byzantine Legacy in the Orthodox Church. St Vladimir's Seminary Press, ISBN 0-913836-90-7.