The Serbs and the Overlapping Authorities of Rome and Constantinople (7th to 16th Century)

The main focus of this text will centre around the two peculiar problems: 1. The transition of the territories inhabited by the Serbs from the period of the Byzantine imperial restoration established after the successful wars of Basil II from 1018, into the period of the first twilight of the Byzantine empire from 1180 to 1204; 2. The emergence of the Serbian kingdom and autocephalous Greek-Orthodox church in the fragmented Byzantine world from 1204 to 1220. An examination of the cultural components of these relations, although many of them were of powerful political and ideological significance, has intentionally been omitted from this overview