ABSTRACT
In Part One, I attempted to sketch out the antecedents of the Byzantine warrior saints. This required an investigation of the place of war and warriors in the earlier traditions of which Byzantine society was tributary. It is clear that the Israelites as God’s Chosen People, with their archetypal king David and their capital Jerusalem, exercised an enormous influence on the Byzantines. They attributed a similar status to themselves, a destiny and mission in the divine design, in which Constantinople was the New Jerusalem and the emperor a New David, committed to the Christianization of the oikoumene. Surrounded as the Byzantine Empire was by enemies, its rulers were obliged to defend their people, destroying their enemies, as the Israelites had the Philistines. Since the Byzantines were frequently at war, soldiers and military service were highly esteemed. A victory obtained by decimating the enemy was not shameful but an occasion for glorification.
