Land, Roads, Trade and Money: Balkan Banditry in Its Geographical and Economic Context

With few exceptions, scholars agree that banditry is a predominantly rural phenomenon. Balkan bandits infested roads and rivers both in the highlands and in the lowlands, especially in peripheral and frontier regions which rarely remained under firm state control. To be sure, very few areas in the Balkans remained free of brigand depredations during the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, certain regions were more prone to such activity than others. In the western Balkans, brigandage flourished along the ʻcaravan routesʼ which connected the Adriatic Sea with the interior of the peninsula, while in the eastern Balkans, particularly in parts of Macedonia, rural lawlessness appears to have become exceptionally common from the ninth century onwards. Although very diverse in terms of their relief and geological structure (the terrain of the western and central Balkans is far more mountainous and rugged than that of Macedonia), both areas share a common feature—they are mostly covered by thick forest and woodland, whose existence constitutes an almost necessary precondition for the development of banditry. Indeed, banditry was committed in the forest or from the forest because many roads run through the forest, and it was from there that one could ambush and attack travellers; at the same time, the forest was the first place of refuge, for staying in the woods offered an excellent opportunity to evade state authorities. © 2020, The Author(s)

Responses to the Problem of Banditry in the Medieval Balkans

The evidence presented thus far leaves little doubt that banditry represented a considerable problem for most Balkan states, as it made travel and commercial activity in certain areas particularly hazardous. One suspects that banditry festered partly as a result of the inability or reluctance of central authorities to devote substantial resources, whether human or financial, in order to restore peace and security. These precursory observations allow us to formulate the aim of this chapter. The guiding questions are simply: how did the authorities attempt to control the threat of banditry, and how truly successful were these efforts?. © 2020, The Author(s)

In Search of the Balkan Bandit

The phenomenon of banditry in the Balkans for the period under consideration is relatively well documented, as a variety of literary sources, including chronicles, letters, legal documents and hagiographical texts, contain useful material. The available evidence makes it abundantly clear that the problem was particularly widespread in the region and affected all levels of society. However, banditry tended to become endemic when the power of state authorities waned, that is, during periods of intensive warfare, internecine strife and social unrest. © 2020, The Author(s)

Conclusion

While several historians have recognized the problems which various outlaw groups caused in the Balkans during the Middle Ages, few have given much attention to the brigands themselves, their origins, their reasons for taking up banditry and the steps taken by central authorities to control brigandage. In the foregoing discussion I hope I have been able to elucidate some of the fundamental problems associated with banditry in its Balkan context, and thus to provide a point of reference for the social history of the region. © 2020, The Author(s)

A Note on the Sources

Undoubtedly, the main problem related to the study of banditry in the medieval Balkans is methodological. It concerns the nature of the sources available to us. To an extent, what we can know about banditry between the ninth and fifteenth centuries has to be put together from brief references to such matters in narrative, documentary and hagiographical accounts. These sources never directly report an event, or in neutral terms: their authors write for quite another purpose, and do not consciously intend to collect and record information on this specific subject. As a result, the information that they provide is often too general or vague, and cannot operate as a conclusion on the phenomenon of brigandage at any given time. Thus, for example, in the 1380s Demetrios Kydones complains that “no matter where one goes, mountains or plains, bandits are lying in wait”. Statements such as this are fairly typical in Byzantine texts. They describe in very general terms the nature of the problem but offer no specific evidence that would allow us to get a grasp of its particular characteristics. © 2020, The Author(s)

Shepherds, Military Men and ʻBandit Societiesʼ

The single largest problem faced by historians dealing with the phenomenon of banditry in the medieval Balkans is the limited available information regarding bandits themselves. While bandits tried to leave as few traces as possible of their existence and whereabouts, it is also true that medieval authors were generally not interested in them and, subsequently, the depth of information they provide about these men is, in most cases, shallow. Nevertheless, the analysis of this material, especially of the more detailed reports, enables us to classify Balkan bandits into four main categories according to their social/professional background: the shepherd, the soldier, the noble bandit and the peasant, the last representing, naturally, a more general category. Of course, it must be stressed that some of the four types of bandit are not always entirely distinct. They occasionally overlap, as, for instance, in the case of a soldier-bandit who may have lived and operated within a peasant society. It goes without saying that since this classification is based only on a fragment of the surviving evidence, it does not touch on all Balkan bandits. However, by including some of the best-known cases, it is hoped that it will significantly contribute to our understanding of the phenomenon. © 2020, The Author(s)

Banditry in the Medieval West and in Popular Legend

Although Balkan and western European kingdoms offer an often-extreme contrast of social, political, economic and institutional contexts, the patterns of criminal activity, including banditry, are very similar. To be sure, much like the Balkans, many parts of western Europe were plagued by crime and public disorder during the period under consideration here. This is particularly true of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, which witnessed a notable surge in criminal violence, both in urban centres and rural areas. As we will see below, a large share of the blame for this must be laid at the door of the nobility and of professional soldiers. This, however, is not to say that men from other social groups, most notably poor peasants, were not also heavily engaged in such activities. © 2020, The Author(s)

A study of Byzantine-Bulgar relations, 775-816 AD

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Social capital and household solid waste management policies: a case study in Mytilene, Greece

Four main components of social capital are identified: social trust, institutional trust, social networks and compliance with social norms. A theoretical analysis explores the links between these components and environmental behaviour and policy in order to lay the ground for an investigation of the influence of social capital on the implementation of environmental policy. The influence of social capital on citizens' behaviour connected with two solid waste management policies is investigated empirically by means of a survey. The findings indicate some differentiation regarding the influence of the components of social capital upon environmental behaviour in the context of different environmental policies

Social capital in Greece: measurement and comparative perspectives

The primary aim of this article is to analyze components of aggregate social capital in Greece. Through the comparison with other European countries, it is concluded that social capital in the country may be characterized as weak. In addition, similarities among South European countries are underlined. Finally, an index of social capital scores across Greek regions is created and presented. The need for further research is emphasized, regarding mainly the impacts of social capital on several aspects of Greek society, along with the formulation of the appropriate policies for strengthening it