The subject of the emperor in the Byzantine world may seem likely to be a well-studied topic but there is no book devoted to the emperor in general covering the span of the Byzantine empire. Of course there are studies on individual emperors, dynasties and aspects of the imperial office/role, but there remains no equivalent to Fergus Millar's The Emperor in the Roman World (from which the proposed volume takes inspiration for its title and scope). The oddity of a lack of a general study of the Byzantine emperor is compounded by the fact that a series of books devoted to Byzantine empresses was published in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Thus it is appropriate to turn the spotlight on the emperor.
Themes covered by the contributions include: questions of dynasty and imperial families; the imperial court and the emperor's men; imperial duties and the emperor as ruler; imperial literature (the emperor as subject and author); and the material emperor, including imperial images and spaces.
The volume fills a need in the field and the market, and also brings new and cutting-edge approaches to the study of the Byzantine emperor. Although the volume cannot hope to be a comprehensive treatment of the emperor in the Byzantine world it aims to cover a broad chronological and thematic span and to play a vital part in setting the agenda for future work. The subject of the Byzantine emperor has also an obvious relevance for historians working on rulership in other cultures and periods.
Author(s): Shaun Tougher
Series: Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies 21
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: xxiv+378
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
List of figures
Foreword
List of contributors
List of abbreviations
Note on spelling of names
Introduction
Notes
References
PART I: Dynasty: Imperial families
Chapter 1: Family, dynasty, and the construction of legitimacy from Augustus to the Theodosians
Introduction: The protest of Dagalaifus
Dynasty, office, and succession from Augustus to the Severans
Crises and restorations: Towards late-antique dynasticism
Conclusion: Dynasticism and its discontents
Notes
References
Chapter 2: The shifting importance of dynasty in Heraclian ideology
The imperial college
Imperial names
The imperial image
Conclusions
Notes
References
Chapter 3: Revisiting the bachelorhood of Basil II
The state of the question of Basil’s bachelorhood
Symeon’s evidence
The weight of homoeroticism in medieval Byzantium
Basil as Symeon’s referent
Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 4: Byzantine emperors and sultans of Rūm: Sharing power?
Notes
References
PART II: The emperor’s men: Court and empire
Chapter 5: Celibacy and survival in court politics in the fifth century AD
Introduction
The Theodosian anti-alliance policy
The Anthemii
The Ardaburii
Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 6: The emperor’s ‘significant others’: Alexios I Komnenos and his ‘Pivot to the West’
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 7: Who was who at the court of Constantine XI, 1449–1453
Notes
References
PART III: The emperor as ruler: Duties and ideals
Chapter 8: ‘Law is king of all things’? The emperor and the law
Introduction
The emperor and the law
The law, the emperor and the lawyers
Notes
References
Chapter 9: The emperor at war: Duties and ideals
Introduction
Duties and ideals
Conclusion
Notes
References
PART IV: Imperial literature: Emperor as subject and author
Chapter 10: Imperial panegyric: Hortatory or deliberative oratory?
Notes
References
Chapter 11: The iconoclast saint: Emperor Theophilos in Byzantine hagiography
Introduction: The iconophile restoration of the iconoclast leaders
The literary absolution of the last iconoclast emperor
The canonisation of Theophilos: His role in Byzantine hagiography
Textual transmission as a strengthening resource for theruling dynasty
Notes
References
Chapter 12: Splendour, vigour, and legitimacy: The prefaces of the Book of Ceremonies (De cerimoniis) and Byzantine imperial theory
Introduction
The De cerimoniis and imperial theory
The narrative of the ‘Macedonian Restoration’
Conclusion: The restoration narrative and other experiments in imperial image-making
Notes
References
Chapter 13: Ideological and political contestations in post-1204Byzantium: The orations of Niketas Choniates andthe imperial court of Nicaea
Niketas Choniates’ orations
The timing of Choniates’ orations
Nicaean policy and Choniates’ role in the 1210s
Prominent ideas and common themes in Choniates’ works after 1204
Niketas Choniates and Byzantine identity
Notes
References
Chapter 14: The emperor in the History of John VI Kantakouzenos (1347–1354)
Notes
References
PART V: The material emperor: Image, space and empire
Chapter 15: The emperor at the threshold: Making and breaking taxis at Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia as a transcendent space
Humiliation or humility? The emperor before Christ
The emperor’s image: Ritual and art in the ‘regular procession’ and liturgy
Middle Byzantine imperial portraits in the galleries of Hagia Sophia
Making and breaking taxis in word and image
Notes
References
Chapter 16: Taking it on the road: The palace on the move
Introduction
The campaign palace
Constructed palaces
Function and display
Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 17: Unveiling Byzantium in Wales: Connections and collections
Introduction
Words
Coins
Travelling pots
Luxury
People
Collections
Cures
Copies
Fragments
Concluding remarks
Notes
References
Index
