2023, Börm, Henning, Gotter, Ulrich, Havener, Wolfgang

2019, Börm, Henning

2018, Börm, Henning, Luraghi, Nino

After having been for decades the province of a relatively small group of scholars, the Hellenistic polis has become central to the research agenda of Ancient historians more broadly. This development can be traced from the early nineties of the last century, and has picked up pace in a sustained fashion at the turn of the millennium. Recent research has started approaching the Greek polis of the centuries between Alexander and Cleopatra as a specific historical phenomenon, striving to define its most peculiar aspects from as many angles as possible, and to point to new avenues of interpretation that might contribute to recognizing its historical role. In this general framework, this volume attempts to explore new lines of thought, to question established ways of reading the evidence, and to take stock of recent developments. The contributors do not subscribe to any particular shared approach; on the contrary, their approaches and questions stem from many different scholarly traditions and methodologies. Rather than seeking to achieve a complete coverage, the volume provides a selection of current research agendas, in many cases offering glimpses of ongoing projects.

2017, Wienand, Johannes, Goldbeck, Fabian, Börm, Henning

2020-04-30, Börm, Henning

Chosroes II was one of the most important Sasanian rulers of Late Antiquity. After having prevailed with the help of Emperor Maurice in a civil war against the usurper Bahrām Čōbin, in 591 ce, the king attacked the Roman Empire after the fall of Maurice in 602. By 622, the Persians had conquered Syria and Egypt, but after the failure of the siege of Constantinople in 626, Chosroes, whose empire was attacked in the east by the Turks, was overthrown by dissatisfied aristocrats in 628. After his death, civil wars broke out that decisively weakened the Sasanian Empire in the wake of the Islamic conquests.

2019, Börm, Henning

Das Phänomen der teils bürgerkriegsartigen Konflikte in griechischen Poleis, das die Forschung unter dem Begriff „Stasis" zusammenfasst, ist in der Vergangenheit vorwiegend mit Blick auf die Archaik und Klassik untersucht worden. Henning Börm zeigt hingegen, dass es auch nach Alexander dem Großen in den Städten, die sich zunächst im Spannungsfeld der makedonischen Monarchien, später dann unter römischer Dominanz wiederfanden, vielfach zu Staseis kam. Ausgehend von einer Auswertung der literarischen und epigraphischen Überlieferung fragt Börm nach den Hintergründen und Konsequenzen der auffälligen Anfälligkeit vieler hellenistischer Poleis für innere Konflikte. Die Neigung zur Stasis lässt sich dabei nicht nur als Epiphänomen und Katalysator, sondern auch als Inhibitor von Transformationsprozessen in der griechischen Welt deuten. Statt eine bloße Randerscheinung zu sein, war Stasis vielmehr ein zentraler Faktor, dessen Analyse dazu beiträgt, sowohl die Entwicklung der Poleis zwischen Alexander und Augustus besser zu verstehen als auch die Mechanismen der römischen Expansion im Osten des Mittelmeerraums.

2018, Börm, Henning

2019-12-09, Börm, Henning

2018-09-24, Börm, Henning

This article examines the relationships between rulers and imperial elites in late antique Sasanian Iran, focusing on the significance and implications of complex groups of followers. Not unlike their Parthian predecessors, the Sasanian kings of the pre-Islamic empire relied on a network of personal relationships with the imperial elite. The magnates (vuzurgān), in turn, had many followers (bandagān) of their own; they were, apparently, often rather independent when residing in their own lands. Still, this does not imply that the late antique Persian monarchy was weak, because the Sasanian kings managed to turn the court into a central location of aristocratic competition where the imperial elite struggled for offices, honors and influence. This allowed the monarch to play off rival individuals and groups against each other - one is tempted here to speak of a “Königsmechanismus” (Norbert Elias), even though the weaknesses of this model are certainly well known. In general, this strategy became problematic only if infighting escalated into civil war. However, the later Sasanians tried to curtail the influence of the vuzurgān by imposing a tax reform, establishing a standing royal army, and creating a new lower nobility (dehgānān) in order to strengthen the power of the central government. The paper demonstrates that, in spite of short-term success, these measures seem to have led to a long-term erosion of loyalty within the kingdom, thus contributing to the triumph of the Arab conquerors in the seventh century CE.

2017-01-12, Börm, Henning