ABSTRACT
The historiography of Byzantium has traditionally viewed the late-eleventh and early-twelfth century as one in which a learned, bureaucratic ‘elite of service’ was marginalized by a coalition of aristocratic families headed by the Komnenoi. This project sets out to radically qualify this approach. Capable representatives of the literati of relatively modest origin, such as Theodoros Styppeiotes, Ioannes Poutzes, Niketas Choniates, and numerous members of the Kamateros family attained extremely high office, and some married into the imperial family itself. By examining the intellectual ferment of the period, the relative centralization of educational institutions, and the fact that medieval Romans considered classicizing learning to be an equally sure path to wealth and power, this paper proposes that there was a greater degree of continuity in institutional, social, and cultural life than has traditionally been admitted to between the eleventh and twelfth centuries.