Theological and Political Reasons in the Anti-Armenian Polemics in Byzantium (Ninth-Twelfth Centuries)

Byzantium had an ambivalent attitude towards the Armenians. On the one hand it aimed to condemn the alleged Monophysitism of the Armenian Church, based on theological considerations consolidated by polemical writings. On the other hand, however, Byzantium sought points of conciliation also due to the importance of the Armenian ethnic element, both within the empire and on its borders. My contribution aims to highlight the evolution of the Byzantine positions towards the Armenian Church, from the time of Photios until the twelfth century. Byzantium was careful to affirm its orthodoxy, but also to avoid increasing the reasons for friction and disputes with the Armenians. In the twelfth century, however, the tendency to find points of contact and conciliation emerged, in order to affirm the ties between Byzantium and the Armenians both of Cilicia and Greater Armenia.