1. 'Psellos' Chronographia [translated as Fourteen Byzantine Rulers] is really little more than an 11^th century version of modern scandalous "revelations" of life at the White House'. Is this an accurate assessment of the value of the Chronographia?

2. It has been suggested the Alexiad 'reveals the fascinating character of Anna [Komnene] herself'. What is your view on this?

3. To what extent were the emperors constrained by the church (by, for example, the Patriarchs, the monks, the orthodox faithful) during the iconoclasm controversy? (Confine your answer mainly to the years between 741 and 843.)

4. What do you understand by the term 'encyclopaedism'? What is the importance of encyclopaedism in relation to the history of literature and learning in the Macedonian period?

5. To what extent does the art and architecture of the Macedonian period look to the past and to what extent does it make a new beginning?

6. Ostrogorsky states ' The verdict of both contemporaries and posterity has acclaimed John [II] (1118-43) as the greatest of the Comneni'. What is your view?

1. Which developments in Byzantine literature from the 12^th to the 15^th centuries do you consider most significant and why?

8. Compare the religious and secular architecture of the Byzantine empire before and after the period of Latin rule.

9. Write a paragraph or two about three of the following, explaining what they were and what part they played in the history and thought of the Byzantine Church:

• Greek philosophy
• Bogomilism
• the filioque clause
• the hesychast controversy

10. The Latin Empire was weak for a number of reasons. Which one in your view was most responsible for its ultimate failure?

11. Discuss three factors that you consider to be of major importance in understanding why the Byzantine Empire came to an end in 1453.