ABSTRACT
The revival of the Byzantine state under the Macedonian and the Komnenian dynasties places Byzantium in a medieval context rather than in continuity with late antiquity: the emphasis is on the limitations of the weakened post-Roman state and the development of new social structures designed to meet these needs. The chapter reviews the picture of the Byzantine household. The Middle Byzantine head of the household, the oikodespotos, emerges from this picture in a very powerful position, with complete authority over all the other members of the oikos either as a nuclear unit or as a clan. A new form of aristocratic housing may have emerged alongside a new aristocracy in the Middle Byzantine period. The arrival of the Turks brought a new cultural influence into the region. The arrival of the Turks in Anatolia created a fundamental cultural shift mixing nomad and sedentary values, as well as Central Asian culture with that of the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
