Toxic Masculinity as a Lens for Middle Byzantium: The Case of Nikephoros II Phokas

Mark Masterson consider the manifold discourse around the tenth-century emperor, Nikephoros II Phokas. In terms of toxic practices harming the self, Nikephoros was an ascetic who believed in denying himself sex and limiting food. He also cultivated a masculine circle that excluded women at court, and oversaw a brutal expansion of territory by military means. Masterson uses the modern notion of toxic masculinity to shed light on the life of the Emperor and Byzantine perspectives on him. While the Byzantine evidence shows a partially favourable picture of male homosociality, there is also what can be called toxic masculinity lodged in the durable structures of the medieval empire, structures which have current analogues.