Byzantine war against Christians – an "emphylios polemos"?
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Level is by design analogy, not clinical CEBM: qualitative historical and textual analysis.
OpenAlex W2154275228 · doi:10.12681/byzsym.964
What was done
The author conducted a historical and conceptual analysis of Byzantine texts written after the 9th century. The study examines how Byzantine authors defined and used the term emphylios polemos (typically translated as civil war) and analyzes the ideological and political dimensions of Byzantine wars fought against other Christian peoples.
What was found
The abstract reports no quantitative data. It observes that select Byzantine authors after the 9th century characterized military conflict against external Christian peoples as civil war (emphylios polemos), extending the concept of internal conflict to the wider Christian sphere.
What was found
No quantitative findings are reported in the abstract.
Why it matters
This work clarifies how religious identity shaped medieval political thought, showing that Byzantine concepts of civil conflict were not strictly bounded by imperial political borders.
Limits
The abstract lacks quantitative data, does not enumerate the specific primary sources or sample size analyzed, and provides only a qualitative overview of textual themes.
Cited by
- supports Over the approximately 1,000-year history of the East Roman Empire, there were approximately 120 civil wars.