Depictions of Women in the Works of Early Byzantine Historians and Chroniclers Between Stereotype and Reality Ecaterina Lung Professor of Medieval History, University of Bucharest Abstract • The aim of this article is to highlight the ways in which women were represented in Byzantine historical works from the sixth to the ninth centuries. These are probably the best sources for a comprehensive understanding of Byzantine society, since they are more vivid, more related to literature than the law codes or archival documents, and less biased than the clergy’s writings. Like “Barbarians,” women were thought to be inferior, irrational, highly emotional, and unable to control their impulses. Byzantine women did not seem to have an identity of their own; they were always thought to be a reflection of a male. Byzan- tine authors believed that the normal behavior for women was to remain secluded in their houses, but when they actually presented individual women, these were almost always those who did not confine themselves to women’s quarters. A woman’s main avenue of entering written history was to behave like a man, renouncing her gender and acting in an independent manner. Keywords • Byzantine chroniclers, Byzantine historians, gender, representations, women S tudies on Byzantine women have progressed a lot in recent decades, especially under the influence of the feminist movement. Sources that have most often been used are law codes, contracts of marriage and dotal contracts, 1 and artifacts, such as art objects and archaeological finds, which provide insights into the everyday life of Byzantine women. 2 Chronicles and histories, which were once the main sources for historians, continue to be used by researchers to establish a time frame, but modern scholars no longer believe the Byzantine authors’ every word, because we know how their nar- ratives are marked by specific prejudices. 3 What can be found in Byzantine historical works are, rather, attitudes toward women, conventions regard- ing their roles, and behaviors considered normal or abnormal by a society for whom those historians are speakers. 4 We can choose historical works as privileged sources for studying the representations of women because in the period between the sixth and ninth centuries they were the most Historical Reflections Volume 43, Issue 1, Spring 2017: 4–18 doi: 10.3167/hrrh.2017.430102 ISSN 0315-7997 (Print), ISSN 1939-2419 (Online) © Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques and Berghahn Books ••• ••• •••