ABSTRACT
The transmission of ancient cultural heritage did not cease throughout Byzantine history. Intellectual and cultural gaps from the seventh to the ninth centuries should not be overestimated and, obviously, ought to be re-evaluated. Culture and intellectualism may flourish in a wealthy country only as the volume of cultural production is proportional to the availability of resources and financial support. The rapid rise of textual and art activity under the Macedonian dynasty, coinciding with the gradual restoration of economic strength, evidences that the connections with the past Greco-Roman and early Christian experience were not cut or drastically degraded. The case of the Persian presence in Byzantine culture shows that the major phenomena of Byzantine consciousness should be studied in the inseparable bundle of the ‘religious’ and ‘secular’ aspects of Byzantine intellectuality and social practices, which the Byzantines themselves did not divide.
