Article writing homework help

Dion C. Smythe                                                                                                   FAC 181032

• My research topic is “Byzantine Citizenship”.
• This is my current research interest because I have been asked to contribute a chapter to a volume on “Citizenship in the Ancient World”. The Classical Greek city states (Athens, Sparta, Thebes etc) and Imperial Rome (in the west) had a legal basis to citizenship: laws determined who was and who was not a citizen. An edict in 212 AD granted citizenship to all who lived in the empire. Though the codification of the law by Tribonian under Justinian in the sixth century continued this legal basis, the transformation of the Late Roman Empire to the Byzantine Empire saw an additional transformation in how people were identified as Byzantines and as douloi [‘slaves’ or subjects] of the Emperor of the Romans [autokrator ton Romaion].
• A google search for the term ‘Roman Citizenship’ produces 14, 600, 000 hits. https://www.google.co.uk/search?safe=strict&source=hp&ei=wS8tXqyNCfmKjLsPmKWJ8AE&q=Roman+citizenship&oq=Roman+citizenship&gs_l=psyab.3..0l10.3459.9727..10805…0.0..0.449.3004.0j13j3j0j1……0….1..gwswiz…….0i131j0i10.a2nUdjPZAC4&ved=0ahUKEwjs8bPvz6DnAhV5BWMBHZhSAh4Q4dUDCAU&uact=5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_citizenship A google search for ‘Byzantine Citizenship’ produces 1,500,000 hits. https://www.google.co.uk/search?safe=strict&source=hp&ei=wS8tXqyNCfmKjLsPmKWJ8AE&q=Byzantine+citizenship&oq=Byzantine+citizenship&gs_l=psyab.3..0i22i30.5467.12755..14311…1.0..0.255.3139.0j20j2…0….1..gwswiz…….0i131j0j0i3j0i13j0i13i30j0i13i5i30.myvwFssGOSc&ved=0ahUKEwjs8bPvz6DnAhV5BWMBHZhSAh4Q4dUDCAU&uact=5 No Wikipedia page for ‘Byzantine Citizenship’ exists; but: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_Greeks. Many of the 1.5 million google hits for ‘Byzantine Citizenship’ are for the term ‘Byzantine’ alone.
• My research topic is already restricted in several ways. It deals with citizenship (so legal ideas about belonging) in the Byzantine Empire (330 to 1453 AD). Given the legal focus, the start point will be the legislative reforms in the sixth century by Tribonian under the Emperor Justinian. The survival of legal sources and the nature of those legal sources, determines periods when I shall be looking for changes in legal definitions. The Palaiologan period (1261-1453) of the Byzantine Empire after the liberation of Constantinople from the Latins in 1261 introduces additional complexities, with Byzantines claiming descent from Western merchants asserting their rights to be classified as Western citizens of Venice, Pisa or Genoa.
• How did the legal concept of ‘Roman Citizenship’ (dating from 212 CE) change under the Byzantine Empire (330-1453 CE)? [325 words]