The essay points to the risks of trusting Byzantine views of the origins of other nations. The origin of a people was continuously re-modeled over time because of the particular aims particular texts pursued. Todorov associates such changes of perspective with the needs of Byzantine diplomacy. Emperors assigned different rulers different dignities depending on the origin of their people and the imagined historical continuity of their relations with the empire.
Keywords
ethnogenesis of slaves, Balkans, Byzantine empire, Constantine Porphirogenet
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