This collection contains the first in Russian science a thorough examination of the most important genre forms of Byzantine literature in their historical development. Separate studies are devoted to such genres as lyrics, epigram, folk epic, satire, novel, etc. The genre picture of Byzantine literature is motley and contradictory: some genres were inherited from ancient literature and cultivated in a closed circle of a highly educated "elite," others were brought to life by changes in public reality and the demands of wider reading circles.