1. Introduction

2. Middle Byzantium's Environmental and Economic Antecedents

2.1 Taxes and Rents, Olives and Vines, Slaves and Cattle

2.2 A Transformed Economy, Culture, and Environment

2.4 A New Equilibrium?

3. An Evergreen Empire

3.1 Woodland Species Around the Aegean

3.2 The Expansion of Woodland in the Aegean Littoral

3.3 Contexts for Woodland Species' Success

3.4 Using Woodland

4. The Decline of the Olive in Middle Byzantium

4.1 What the Olive Tree Does and How People Work with it

4.2 The Olive in the Ancient and Modern Contexts

4.3 The Olive in Retreat

4.4 Where did the Olives go?

4.5 New Uses for an Old Object

5. Re-arranging Woods and Scrub

5.1 Complicating the Landscape

5.2 Contexts for Altering the Landscape

5.3 Deciduous Oak's Fortunes

5.4 Chestnut's Fortunes

5.5 Room to Maneuver

6. The Return of the Olive

6.1 Where and When the Olive Returns

6.2 Monastic Assistance

6.3 From Peasants to Merchants

6.4 Olives from the Scrub

7. The Devil Chops Wood

7.1 Social Causes and Outcomes of a Contested Countryside

7.2 Hagiography and Conflict in the Landscape

7.3 Hagiographical Strategies for a Contested Landscape

8. Conclusion

Alexander Olson received a Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin, USA where he studied Byzantine and environmental history. He now enjoys working as a bureaucrat.