Transformations in Byzantine Society in the Eleventh Century, Particularly in Constantinople

The historiography of the last half-century has changed our vision of the Byzantine economy during the eleventh century. Urban growth, especially that of Constantinople, is better understood. Prosopography, which has been revivified with the information provided by seals, offers the best instrument of investigation. The civil and military aristocracies meshed together thanks to matrimonial alliances, and settled more systematically in Constantinople, where the highest functions were allocated by the crown. The emperors favoured civil servants, more numerous after the conquests of the tenth and early eleventh centuries. It is indisputable that novi homines, distinguished by their education, appeared within the circles of power, but the traditional families of the civil aristocracy joined by families formerly working for the army and now present in the civil administration still occupied the highest posts. The opening of the Senate does not seem to have concerned merchants and artisans, who, however, were not completely separated from the aristocracy. The ‘people of the agora’ were interested in governmental success, because they contributed, through massive investments in the purchase of dignities, to the intensification of monetary circulation. Under Alexios Komnenos, they were victims not of imperial hostility towards them, but of the bankruptcy of the financial system. At the same time, the number of civil servants was decreasing due to the shrinkage of imperial territory and to new forms of provincial government.