The question of the respect of private property in Byzantium is examined through the analysis of a series of confiscations of real estate situated in Constantinople, which were carried out from 1082 to 1202 in favour of the Italian republics of Venice, Pisa and Genoa. It is argued that these confiscations were not arbitrary but justified by the circumstances. Finally, these expropriations are set against the developments in the system by which the state remunerated its servants in the period after the eleventh century, increasingly by land grants.

The re-foundation of the Athonite monastery of Xenophon at the end of the eleventh century provides an interesting case study of the activities of a ‘second founder’. The activities of Symeon the Sanctified demonstrate how a high-ranking, ex-imperial official re-established the status and possessions of Xenophon by using the wealth, legal expertise and social connections at his disposal. Making use of a detailed study of documents from the archive of Xenophon, the article suggests solutions to the puzzling chronology of Symeon’s activities on the holy mountain and discusses the causes of his conflict with the Athonite authorities and subsequent re-instatement.

The edifice in Konya known as Eflatun and the church in the citadel of Alanya, both of which were maintained during the Anatolian Seljuk period, are discussed and interpreted. Architectural and historical information indicates that both structures were used during this period by the Christian spouses of the sultans as well as other Christians living and serving at court. Contrary to the common argument that the Seljuks retained churches near their palaces as a sign of their tolerance toward their Christian subjects, the paper presents evidence supporting the view that the sultans kept these structures for tactical and social reasons, for the use of their spouses and other Christian associates and servants of the Seljuk court.

Two letters from the Vatican Registers for 1461–2, regarding funds lodged in the Bank of St George in Genoa by George Goudelis, are presented. The investment was originally intended to provide an income for the convent of St Nicholas in Constantinople but Goudelis made a proviso that if the city were to fall to the Turks, it should be used to sustain the poor. His son Manuel and granddaughter, Maria, were now petitioning the pope to have the money released to support their families. The differences between the two letters are discussed as is their significance for late Byzantine prosopography.

The influence of Greek Orthodoxy on Ritsos’ poetry, previously neglected because of the poet’s political commitments, is examined. Against the backdrop of the poet’s Orthodox upbringing and his early conversion to communism, Ritsos’ uses of Orthodoxy in certain poems written before 1948 are considered. The diversity is demonstrated during this period of Ritsos’ conception and treatment of the tensions and oppositions between Orthodoxy and Marxism. The ideological influence of Varnalis on the earliest collection, Τρακτέρ, can be contrasted with the more nuanced use of Orthodox material in Επιτάφιος and the sympathetic depiction of childhood religion in Μια πυγολαμπίδα φωτίζει τη νύχτα. Only in the particular conditions of wartime Greece does Ritsos manage a bridge between Orthodoxy and Marxism: Η Κυρά των Αμπελιών synthesizes Ritsos’ liberation message with images rooted in popular religion.

The suggestion is made here that, as part of its effort to identify the Spanish civil war with that of Greece, Madrid adopted the view that the two cases were similar in order to identify Franco’s regime with the other anti-communist regimes of Western Europe at the beginning of Cold War. During the civil wars in both Spain (1936–9) and Greece (1946–9), the ‘children’s issue’ became an important factor for humanitarian as well as for propaganda reasons. Indeed, the correspondence between the measures taken for the care of children by the two conflicting sides in both countries is impressive, in spite of the structural differences between the two civil conflicts.