the Byzantine Epic Tradition
The frontier of the Euphrates from ancient times was a zone of
clashes between the great empires of antiquity. Today little has changed. After
you lost your balance, you demanded less effort and knew, mainly, at the border.
We called this strategy a small «small war». On the Byzantine-Arab and
later Byzantine-Seljuk border, small wars were fought mainly from local
stratiotes – akritai and apelatai, military operations unfolded in the territory of
Lesser Armenia, Cappadocia and Pontus. The border zone on the other side
of the border within the Caliphate was known as Sugur and was on the territory
of Cilicia, Commagene and Northern Mesopotamia. A key role in these positional
wars was played by Armenian strata and representatives of other indigenous
peoples of this region. In this polyethnic, multicultural and multiconfessional environment, various religious systems emerged: Mithraism, independent
forms of Eastern Christianity, the Pavlikian heresy and the epic legend
«Digenis Akritas». The Akritic epic tradition was formed in the most Armenian
and possibly Pavlikian environment. In Armenian, Syriac, and Arabic and Old
Slavonic languages, various versions of the legend of the Digenis of Acryte are
preserved. The article deals with the relationship of the Byzantine authorities,
and how these relations were reflected in the acritical epic about Digenis-
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the Byzantine Epic Tradition // Критика и семиотика. 2018. № 2. Pp. 162–194. DOI: 10.25205/2307-1737-2018-2-162-194.