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akitku — Notarius
Published: 2012-03-15 22:04:00 +0000 UTC; Views: 3957; Favourites: 94; Downloads: 0
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Carrying on with the late Antiquity theme: T glaring, he’s absolutely heartwarming!
In fact one of my favourite characters to draw. [link] Somehow I always thought this song really fits him. A short history note: One of the things that has really fascinated me about the Byzantine empire (also the Eastern Roman Empire AD 330 -1453) was that it was a strongly civilian state. Arguably it provided a fair amount of opportunities for people who were had neither an aristocratic nor clerical background. Barristers, accountants, secretaries – the scope of Byzantine civil service was huge. This was very unique for its time – in both the barbarian kingdoms that formed around Byzantium, as well as the Persian Empire the highest classes were formed exclusively by the warrior aristocracy. A number of prominent figures in Byzantium on the other hand: emperors, civil servants and scholars came from modest backgrounds and didn’t have much to do with the army at all. The emperor Basil for example was originally a horse-groom. The emperor Maurikos was a notarius (secretary) before he took over miliatry command of the whole eastern army and won a number of spectacular victories.
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Comments: 55
That one is indeed pretty old. It's funny but I have a lot of trouble getting his face right when he's young. I've done so many versions and he looks different on each one. Do you have that with any of your characters? Glad the slenderness shows, that was an characteristic feature of his. Thank you!
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It's difficult to give someone such characteristic features that remain unchanged over time. Hmm I haven't tried doing the same character at different ages that much, only Merwyn and Halvor Halfdan. Either they look pretty recognizable, or I'm so bad at getting features right that I don't even realize that they look different 
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Hey akitku I was wondering if you could direct me to a source which you found particularly insightful in revealing Byzantine social life and structures as you mention here. I'd be much obliged, as I'm a huge history fan and would love to learn more. this all sounds so interesting, and fascinating, particularly the aspect of social mobility and the diversity of some of these characters you mention...
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Hi!
Well, obviously I'm no expert but you may wish to try: Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire by Judith Herrin (it's a great read) and The World of Late Antiquity by Peter Brown or Daily Life in the Byzantine Empire by Marcus Rautman. Also I really enjoyed The Birth of the Hospital in the Byzantine Empire by T.S Miller because it focused on a topic that rarely gets much attention but was clearly an important aspect of everyday Byzantine life and seems to have been quite unique in that time. There is also a paper you might find interesting called 'Ethnic Changes in the Byzantine Empire in the Seventh Century' by Peter Charanis.
Hope any of these will come in handy!
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Excellent references, thank you so much for your time! Just so that I might start on the right footing, which one of these books or papers would you say (if you remember) dives most deeply into the social mobility aspect, such as moving up and or down within the social hierarchy? It fascinates me that there was so much opportunities in ancient times...
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Ok so I think the book by Judith Herrin would be best in this case. But it does not deal with this issue directly. None of the things I listed do, rather they provide an interesting overview of the society and information which you can see in the light of the issue of social mobility.
Here are some things directly about social mobility:
'Social Structure and Mobility, Byzantine'. by C Pazdernik from The Encyclopedia of Ancient History.
'Social Mobility in Byzantium? Family ties in the Middle Byzantine Period" in Approaches to the Byzantine Family
Also, John Haldane's A Social History of Byzantium discusses the issues of social mobility to some extent.
Hope that helps!
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I like the sophisticated elegance of this character. The subtle hint of muted green in the background harmonizes nicely with his eyes.
And thank you for sharing this fascinating bit of history. It's nice to see humble civil servants depicted in an attractive light for a change.
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Thank you so much for the kind words! 
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I love the detail, and the patterns; his hand is also exceptionally well done! I also love his expression
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I'm so glad you like the patterns. The hand looks too thin and spidery I think, but I'm glad you like it nonetheless.
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You're welcome! No, I think it suits his character and the mood of this piece.
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Wonderful, wonderful portrait of Theodosios! His unmilitary nature really stands out.
Oops, I'm going to be pedantic again!
The Byzantine Empire did become a lot more militaristic in the seventh century, as a survival tactic in response to their severe losses. The system of provinces was replaced by themes, ruled primarily by their general, while the emperors commanded armies starting with Maurikios and for at least a couple of centuries afterwards. (And sometimes after that, as well.)
Before the eleventh or twelfth century, though, the empire was indeed open to talent; the founders of imperial dynasties most often came from humble backgrounds, and were not usually soldiers to begin with.
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Thanks so much for the comment! You are right of course! The empire sure did militarise after the Arab conquests of the 7th century. I did not mean to suggest that the empire was non-militaristic or pacifistic, so apologies if it sounded like that! Even before the 7th century it's military system is highly advanced and robust. I mean only the army of the east numbered something like 20,00 soldiers in the mid 6th century right? The expenditure on the army far outranked all other expenses of the imperial funds. Even in the 6th centuries there were the big military families. So hardly a non-military state... I just thought that in comparison to its greatest rival Persia, as well as the military aristocracies like the Avars, the Roman Empire had a very developed and complex civic culture, both in terms of structures and to an extent values as well. Personally I find this very appealing and quite original (to my limited knowledge only China is a good comparison with on one hand extensive military structures, on the other hand a very highly developed court and civil cultre) so I decided to kind of focus on that point, but perhaps I over-emphasized it...
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Allowing that the military side was always important (and became even more important in the seventh century), I don't think you overemphasized the civil side of Byzantium at all. The Byzantines certainly had much more literacy and civilian government than anyone to the west. I'm not sure about the Islamic world except that it was pretty exclusively military in early times and only became highly civilized after its first hundred years or so. (Partly thanks to Greek science from the Byzantine world.) The comparison with imperial China is a very fair one, that I've often made myself.
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T looks quite good here, I must say. I like how you did the robe and the details there, especially the patterns. I also noticed that he has heterochromia.
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I'm so glad you like this one! 
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Yeah, his heterochromia is subtle, but clear enough once you take a closer look.
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It's more evident in this one: .
Thank you so much for looking through all my older works! I really appreciate you taking the time!
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Ah, yeah, in that picture, his brown eye looks more reddish and really contrasts with the green one. Almost like Christmas lights, in a way.
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I'm not unfortunately. I will look him up. Thank you.
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I ask because he did an interesting documentary series on the Byzantine Empire about 15 years ago. I reviewed the series for my friend's blog. Check it out. [link]
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I have never heard about it. Thank you! It was a pleasure to read your review! The series does sound interesting, I might watch it at some point!
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Thank you so much for commenting!
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Great work, beautiful colour selection. His multi-toned eyes are really pretty. 
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Thanks so much!
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Maybe a wee bit. But it still looks really good so don't worry about it!
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Thank you! I'm glad you like him!
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This looks really amazing! I especially like the pose and the expression. The background looks very nice as well, the decorations on the collumns look so nice!
... I really like that your history-themed paintings/ stories are so thought-out! It's really annoying when people try to draw people from a certain time but know nothing about it.
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Oh, thank you so much! I'm glad you like it. I was very happy with his expression, came out looking very much like he should.
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I really like the details of his cloths, also I think his face is very well done! I noticed that if you look very closely you can see that his eyes have different colors! Interesting!
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I'm glad you like it!
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Wow... as much as I -love- him, I have to tell you, that background is outright gorgeous. I swoon for good architecture, and the design and colors are so wonderful here. They greatly compliment him. I love his outfit so much too, your style is great!
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Thank so much! It's a funny thing with the background, I'm terrible at drawing architecture. This time I decided that I won't try to make it look realistic at all, just a design like in some old manuscripts, and it came out better than it did before. I'm really glad you think it looks good. Thank you!
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Really? Well what I've seen, it doesn't LOOK like you're terrible with architecture. I admire it
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Well thank you very much indeed!
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Very, very good! I like your increasingly sure touch with decorative/illustrative paintings- the way you've treated the columns in the back ground is very effective ,ditto the pattern of decoration on the robe and its clasp. Interesting expression you've given your character, I imagine there's quite a story behind that. Hm?
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Thank you! I do enjoy doing decorative designs but am still far from where I want. I wanted to make those columns stylized like in an old manuscript.
There is a story actually. This is one of my favorite storytelling characters recently. The story happens on the border between Persia and Byzantium, 6th century. At sixteen, Theodosios is the secretary of one of the generals just because he's so brilliant. Apart from being extremely smart however he's also arrogant, stern, gloomy, sarcastic and decidedly unfriendly. A country boy, who had to work hard to even get his basic education, he's got very strong views about working to the best of your abilities and overcoming obstacles. He also holds people who've never read Aristotle in great contempt. 
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Well, what else Is there, when all is said and done? No, I'm kidding - but Theodosis sounds like a great character! C'mon, what happens? Let's see- T. second guesses the General--hm--on one of those tables where they used to lay out the battle plan for the next day, he gets in at night and alters things, and the General doesn't notice till the battle is engaged...oh, I bet yours was better.
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No, nothing so grand. He's just a supporting character after all. The story is still going on, like the Estonian tale. And the military aspect is strictly on the side. The main plot follows the hero who is trying to explain and prevent the mysterious deaths and disappearances that are plaguing both the Persians and the Byzantines on both sides of the border. The actual war is on hold - in 579 both empires were so exhausted that they agreed for a year of peace. Everybody knew that with the coming of spring campaigns start anew...but for now, they wait. And while they wait these strange cases begin to crop up all along the border. -- I am a terrible writer! --
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For Pete's sake, stop running yourself down ! That's a Much better story than the one I thought up.
a Byzantine Detective -what a wonderful way to explore the culture of the time, so little known...
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Your right! Sorry about this. I am quite happy with the story itself actually - just writing it down that's a problem for me.
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