Riedlberger, Peter

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   Secondary Publication Riedlberger, PeterBelke, Klaus, Tabula Imperii Byzantini 13: Bithynien und Hellespont: Wien, 2020Date of secondary publication:   16.02.2024Version of Record (Published Version), urn:nbn:de:bvb:473-irb-934635Persistent identifier: ReviewPrimary publication Riedlberger, Peter (2021): „Belke, Klaus, Tabula Imperii Byzantini 13: Bithynien und Hellespont: Wien, 2020“. In: Plekos : Periodicum online zur Erforschung der Kommunikationsstrukturen in der Spätantike, Vol. 23, pp. 9-14, München, URL: http://www.plekos.uni-muenchen.de/2021/r-belke.pdf.Legal Notice This work is protected by copyright and/or the indication of a licence. You are free to use this work in any way permitted by the copyright and/or the licencethat applies to your usage. For other uses, you must obtain permission from the rights-holders. This document is made available under a Creative Commons license.The license information is available online:https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode                                                                                                                                                                              9Plekos 23, 2021Klaus Belke: Tabula Imperii Byzantini 13. Bithynien und Hellespont.Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 2020(Denkschriften der philosophisch-historischen Klasse 513). 1208 p.,325 reproductions on unpaginated plates, one map in the text section,two maps on plates, two enclosed folded, oversized maps. Two vol-umes, continuously paginated. € 390.00. ISBN: 978-3-7001-8329-7.Much of today’s serious research would be impossible without the ground-work lain by major academy projects. Just think about the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, the Prosopographia Imperii Romani, toname only a few. Many of these enterprises are ongoing, all of them had and have to struggle for funds repeatedly (without help from a private founda-tion, the Prosopographia Imperii Romani would probably not have been com-pleted). Therefore, it certainly makes sense to intermittently remind our-selves (and fund-providers) how crucial these projects are for what goes onin Classics. Work on the scale of such undertakings requires continuity andan assured funding for many decades, and while these financial expensesmight seem enormous, the yield certainly makes them worth it.Other forms of work organization have proved less effective. A case in pointis the Tabula Imperii Romani (TIR): here, individual academies have under-taken (and continue to undertake) to produce the various sheets. The resultis, to say the least, quite uneven. Some TIR publications are excellent, manyothers provide the rare barebones of what such a map-cum-gazetteer shoulddeliver, some are by today’s standards clearly insufficient. Although the firstTIR sheets appeared in the interwar period, a completion of this project isfar beyond the horizon, and the first sheets especially are already in dire needof an update.Contrary to TIR, the Tabula Imperii Byzantini (TIB) uses a very different workapproach: all volumes are created by a dedicated team based in Austria, ac-cording to a consistent, pre-defined scheme. Apart from the uniform ap-pearance and structure, the other major difference is the scale, if this is thecorrect word: TIB volumes are not only physically much bigger than the vastmajority of TIR volumes, they also cover a lot more ground: despite the self-declared limitation to the Byzantine world, they usually start at the beginningof recorded history and provide information up to the very end of the Byzan-tine Empire. Whereas some TIR volumes are hardly more than maps or, if                                                                                                                                                                                   10 Peter Riedlbergertheir gazetteer does include additional useful information, are limited to ex-tant archeological remains, a TIB gazetteer can be thought of providing thebest available treatises on the places included, detailing not only today’s ves-tiges but also the history of the place as we know it from written sources. Afull bibliography completes these surveys.A downside of TIB used to be its prohibitive price tag. For example, thework under review here, consisting of two hefty volumes (weighing some4.2 kilos together!) sells for EUR 390, which will keep not only private usersbut also many libraries from buying it. Fortunately, the Austrian agency FWFnow requires funded projects to publish any supported research in an OpenAccess version, so TIB 13 can be downloaded for free in PDF format.1 Thesame is true for the recent issues TIB 12 and 15, although their OA versionsare subdivided into individual PDFs. Luckily, the publisher agreed to makethe older out-of-print issues TIB 1–7 also available on the internet; but asthey are not in the public domain, they can be consulted only in a reader application which does not offer any possibility to download a PDF versionfor off-line use. It is a boon for the academic community that the TIB teamis also otherwise quite active in digital humanities: they have digitized thegeographical indices of all published volumes, linking them to the publica-tion as far as this is possible copyright-wise. A fancy application enables us-ers to explore (for now only) the Byzantine Balkans: different types of struc-tures (settlements etc.) can be switched on and off, the time-scale can becustomized, and so on. This application also includes the maps of all pub-lished TIB volumes. Perhaps the most important of these digital endeavorsis the retro-digitalization of the copious slide archives of TIB. More than7,000 slides of three TIB issues are already scanned and accessible on theinternet, although they are watermarked, and their download is prohibited,even for private or scholarly purposes. But at least they can be cited by stat-ing their permalink, and the important thing for now is to have them in adigital version. One may hope that in the decades to come, the copyrightissues will be sorted out.2 1 The download link to TIB 13 is https://www.austriaca.at/9783700183297.2 Unfortunately, there are no convenient, short URLs for these sub-projects. At theend of this review, I have tried to provide a provisional portal page for some of themost important Dig-TIB offerings.                                                                                                                                                      11Plekos 23, 2021The volume on review here is Tabula Imperii Byzantini 13, “Bithynien undHellespont,” in two large, DIN A4-sized parts. The layout is single-spacedand uses a rather smallish typeface; keeping that in mind and considering thepage ranges I am going to quote, one may get a sense of the enormousamount of information contained: the frontmatter occupies 94 pages, ofwhich the massive bibliography takes the lion’s share (21–94 in extra smallprint). The modestly named “Einleitung” covers 95–348 and should ratherbe considered as today’s standard monograph on all things Bithynian. Theindividual chapters are “Definition und Abgrenzung” (97–102), giving theexact scope of the book and defining the employed terms; “GeographischerÜberblick” (103–110), on geological details including hydrography and cli-mate; “Überblick über die geschichtliche und administrative Entwicklung”(111–224), detailing the region’s history from the Hittites to 1453; “DieKirche” (225–262); “Die Verkehrsverbindungen” (263–304), covering bothroads and shipping routes; “Die Wirtschaft” (305–348), with several im-portant subchapters such as “Land- und Forstwirtschaft” (305–323), “Bo-denschätze” (323–331), “Handwerk und Gewerbe” (331–338), and “Han-del” (338–348). This whole section is densely annotated and not only refers the reader to themost significant publications on a given subject, but also provides, if needbe, a critical assessment of them (cf. 111, n. 1, “Die Bemerkungen beiGoetze, Kleinasien, 178–180, sind nicht aufschlußreich”). Despite the im-mense text mass, the overview is really condensed. For example, a full list ofthe member cities of the Delian League from the later territory of Bithyniaand Hellespont is squeezed into a footnote (113 n. 14); the thorny questionof the Bithynian capital during the Roman Empire is raised, it is clearly statedthat the issue remains without a definite answer (although the evidence ra-ther points to Nikaia), but for the rest, the reader is referred to the exhaustivediscussion in the standard publication on the subject; this is surely the mostsensible way to proceed. While Belke saves on space when it makes sense,he never compromises whenever precision, rigor or service to the readerrequires an additional line or two. A few examples: in the just mentionedquestion of the “capital” of Bithynia, the word “capital” is immediately de-fined as the governor’s preferred residence (instead of simply employing thisword and evoking all kinds of modern associations); when discussing themineral resources of Bithynia and Hellespont, Belke devotes not more thanone page or so on potash alum (325–362); still, he starts by explaining why                                                                                                                                                                 12 Peter Riedlbergerpeople in by-gone ages were interested in extracting alum at all, detailing itsancient uses. The pièce de résistance of this work, however, is its gargantuan gazetteer,ranging from 351 to 1085. Entries are divided into four parts: a very shortgeographical classification of the location in question, presentations of itsrecorded history and its extant monuments, and the bibliography. In the ma-jority of entries, either the history or the monument section remains empty,as many locations are only known through written sources (like Polisma,only appearing in Strabo [929]; or Macricampo, exclusively attested in a Ve-netian charter of 1219 [746]) or, conversely, only ruins of an ancient or me-dieval settlement remain with which no historical name can be associated(for example, Veletler or Üyük [both 1072]). While we have on the one handnumerous such rather brief entries, there are, on the other hand, entrieswhich reach impressive extents. The main such cases are Nikaia (802–830)and Nikomedeia (833–856), but other cities also receive a generous discus-sion, e.g. Abydos (352–361), Kyzikos (705–720), or Prusa (949–957). As itis customary with TIB, several research trips helped prepare this volume,too. If a given location was visited, this is pointed out with an asterisk in thegazetteer, as are any observations made during this voyage for which is thereno further documentation in the bibliography (cf. e.g., 876: Palaia was visitedin 1997: a slope nearby is covered with material evidence pointing to a majorsettlement, but this observation is mentioned nowhere in published materialon the site).After the gazetteer, copious indices (1087–1208) and the numerous platespresenting 325 color photos (taken during the research trips) follow. Theimportance of these photos can hardly be exaggerated, as most of them donot depict safely protected monuments, but rather material which is exposedto weathering and human-induced degradation. Clearly, such monuments donot receive much interest otherwise, and it is obvious that in the course ofsubsequent generations, fewer and fewer of them will be extant. Document-ing them and making this documentation accessible is therefore imperative.At the very end of these two ponderous volumes, we get to the maps. Thesealso constitute a major difference from TIR cartography: while TIR volumesmight include numerous special maps, we have here just four maps. Thereis the “real” TIB 13, a folded DIN A1 sheet with a plethora of indicatedplace names; and there are three further maps, for the Bosporus (a foldedDIN A3 sheet), the Troad and the eastern coast of the Sea of Marmara (these                                                                                                                           13Plekos 23, 2021two maps are physically part of the plates section, i.e., they are printed onDIN A4 pages). Understanding them without reading the introduction isimpossible. For example, epochs are color-coded, e.g. Late Antiquity is yel-low, while 7th–10th century is red; a place attested in both periods is there-fore orange; if it is also attested in 10th–13th century (color-code: blue), it’solive green. If you know your color palette, you can instantly say in whichperiods a place printed in green or purple was attested (otherwise, check theintroduction, 13–14). Eighteen different icons represent various types ofstructures (e.g., settlement with walls, settlement with citadel although with-out walls, unprotected settlement, main monastery, simple monastery, har-bor, bridge ...), not all of them intuitively recognizable.If any readers deem my assessment of this masterpiece exaggeratedly enthu-siastic, I would advise them to download the Golden Open Access versionof TIB-13, read into it and see whether they can find fault with this splendidpublication. Personally, I was deeply impressed by the immense amount ofmaterial brought together and presented in an invariably lucid and intelligentway. For any question related to the subjects covered by TIB-13, it would beunwise not to start with its exhaustive entries and introduction sections. AppendixAt the time of writing (September 2020), it was far from straightforward to actually find some of the magnificent offerings of Dig-TIB. Despite my dog-ged trying, I would have failed in some cases without the kind help ofMihailo Popovic from TIB. Although I am convinced that Dig-TIB will havea better arranged portal page pretty soon, the following list might be helpfulin the meantime.The online versions of OA and out-of-print volumes can be found here:TIB 1: https://tib.oeaw.ac.at/reader/TIB/tib1.html [just reader, no download]TIB 2: https://tib.oeaw.ac.at/reader/TIB/tib2.html [just reader, no download]TIB 3: https://tib.oeaw.ac.at/reader/TIB/tib3.html [just reader, no download]TIB 4: https://tib.oeaw.ac.at/reader/TIB/tib4.html [just reader, no download]TIB 5: https://tib.oeaw.ac.at/reader/TIB/tib5.html [just reader, no download]TIB 6: https://tib.oeaw.ac.at/reader/TIB/tib6.html [just reader, no download]TIB 7: https://tib.oeaw.ac.at/reader/TIB/tib7.html [just reader, no download]                                                                                          ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________14 Peter RiedlbergerTIB 12: https://austriaca.at/3945-4inhalt [PDFs for individual chapters]TIB 13: https://www.austriaca.at/9783700183297 [full PDF]TIB 15: https://austriaca.at/7090-7inhalt [PDFs for individual chapters]The maps of all TIB volumes can be found here: At https://data1.geo.uni-vie.ac.at/projects/tibapp, click the “layer” icon at the upper right corner; a radio-button list of TIB maps appears in which the map of interest can be selected. Thisis also the URL for the Balkans application.The digitized slides are available at https://catalogue.tib.oeaw.ac.at. Remember,they are not in the public domain (i.e., you cannot download and re-use them), butthey have permalinks and can be cited in publications according to these. The registers of all volumes can be accessed at https://tib.oeaw.ac.at/in-dex.php?seite=published. Just click the “-->” icon to the right of the entries of theindividual TIB volumes.Peter Riedlberger, Otto-Friedrich-Universität BambergInstitut für Geschichtswissenschaften und Europäische Ethnologiepeter.riedlberger@uni-bamberg.dewww.plekos.deEmpfohlene ZitierweisePeter Riedlberger: Rezension zu: Klaus Belke: Tabula Imperii Byzantini 13. Bithynien undHellespont. Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 2020 (Denk-schriften der philosophisch-historischen Klasse 513). In: Plekos 23, 2021, 9–14 (URL:http://www.plekos.uni-muenchen.de/2021/r-belke.pdf).

Belke, Klaus, Tabula Imperii Byzantini 13: Bithynien und Hellespont: Wien, 2020

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Belke, Klaus, Tabula Imperii Byzantini 13: Bithynien und Hellespont: Wien, 2020

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