The Old Age is Not Joy: Documentary Evidence About Old Age and Elders in Mediaeval Byzantium

Abstract

The representations about old age, displayed in Byzantine acts, are revealed in a slightly defined form. However, this problem constantly attracts the attention of Byzantinists. The fundamental interest is adverted to status of the so-called “elders”. Their position is studied in the inextricable connection between age, ethical and social motives of social activity and involvement of the “elders” in the government system, especially rural self-government. In this regard the social role of the “elders” seems to be especially significant. All references to them are characterized in the light of the estate belonging of the “elders” to monasticism and village habitants. The formation of the landlord’s estate and the strengthening of the feudal dependence of the peasantry conditioned the emergence of the seniormen, represented by so-called “protoelders”, as apparatus of the control over the paroikoi population of the seigniorial estate. The further perspective of the subsequent studying the “elders” consists in demonstration of the general development of their social activity. The content of the problems of the studied topic is represented in the sections of the article “Introduction”, “The age and the socio-cultural significance of the old age”, “The elders in the system of the rural management”, “The protoelders” and “Conclusions”.