Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes examines the scope and extent to which the East influenced Rome and the Papacy following the Justinian Reconquest of Italy in the middle of the sixth century through the pontificate of Zacharias and the collapse of the exarchate of Ravenna in 752. A combination of factors resulted in the arrival of significant numbers of easterners in Rome, and those immigrants had brought with them a number of eastern customs and practices previously unknown in the city. Greek influence became apparent in art, religious ceremonial and liturgics, sacred music, the rhetoric of doctrinal debate, the growth of eastern monastic communities, and charitable institutions, and the proliferation of the cults of eastern saints and ecclesiastical feast days and, in particular, devotion to the Theotokos or Mother of God. From the late seventh to the middle of the eighth century, eleven of the thirteen Roman pontiffs were the sons of families of eastern provenance. While conceding that over the course of the seventh century Rome indeed experienced the impact of an important Greek element, some scholars of the period have insisted that the degree to which Rome and the Papacy were 'orientalized' has been exaggerated, while others argue that the extent of their 'byzantinization' has not been fully appreciated. The question has also been raised as to whether Rome's oriental popes were responsible for sowing the seeds of separatism from Byzantium and laying the foundation for a future papal state, or whether they were loyal imperial subjects ever steadfast politically, although not always so in matters of the faith, to the reigning sovereign in Constantinople. Finally, there is the important issue of whether one could still speak of a single and undivided imperium Roman christianum in the seventh and early eighth centuries or whether the concept of imperial unity in the epoch following Gregory the Great was a quaint and fanciful fiction as East and West, ignoring and misunderstanding one another, began to go their separate ways. Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes provides a guide through this complicated and often contradictory history.

Ekonomou has penned an important scholarly work on the little studied and poorly documented political and religious history of Rome under Byzantine rule in the seventh and eighth centuries. . . . Recommended. (CHOICE)

There is a great deal to learn from this new take on an important phase in the history of the papacy. (The Catholic Historical Review)

A significant and serious work of scholarship....Ekonomou...amply and convincingly documents the often unexpected and even counterintuitive ways in which the Greek-speaking East influenced the West-Roman Church and papacy. (Logos: Journal Of Eastern Christian Studies)

Dr. Ekonomou's book is a nicely written monograph on a topic that cried desperately for attention in the course of the last century and more. Apart from shedding much more light on some crucial aspects of what is considered the darkest of the Dark Ages, this is a work that for the first time focuses on the Greek/Byzantine/Hellenic dimension of the Roman Papacy and thoroughly investigates the background to a number of Popes of Greek/Byzantine/Hellenic/Eastern origin that shaped the Roman Church. This is a book that will be greatly appreciated by anyone interested in the early Papacy, Rome and Byzantium. A great complement to books such as The Republic of St. Peter by T.F.X. Noble and the translated parts of the Liber Pontificalis. (Alexander Alexakis, University of Ioannina)

A learned, interesting, wide-ranging book that tackles an important subject that has long been controversial. (Journal of Religion)