Deus miraculose nobis tradiderit imperium Romanum: Conquering, Inventing, and Negotiating Kingship in the Latin Empire of Constantinople (circa 1200–1230) (original) (raw)
Related papers
in Nunzio Bianchi and Mircea Duluș (eds.), Legacies and Entanglements: Religious Identity, Cultural Tradition and Political Order in the Byzantine Sphere (= Études byzantines et post-byzantines 5), Heidelberg, 2023, 119–148.
This article explores Eugenios of Palermo’s theory of kingship as enclosed in his Poem XXI (ed. M. Gigante). Eugenios presents a theoretical framework which refrains from speaking of the king’s divine rights or his ministry through the will of God. Instead, he proposes a theory of elective kingship in which he suggests that the earthly rulers are “appointed from among ourselves to rule with our consent.” The analysis argues that this theory is unlikely to have been propagated during the reign of William I (r. 1154–1166) or William II (r. 1166–1189) as hitherto presumed in scholarship. Instead, it suggests that the poem was a propaganda tract meant to establish the legitimacy of Tancred of Lecce’s claims to the Norman throne (r. 1190–1194). It may have been prepared for Tancred’s coronation or his heirs, Roger III (r. 1192–1193) or William III (r. 1194).
Contested Monarchy reappraises the wide-ranging and lasting transformation of the Roman monarchy between the Principate and Late Antiquity. The book takes as its focus the century from Diocletian to Theodosius I (284–395), a period during which the stability of monarchical rule depended heavily on the emperor’s mobility, on collegial or dynastic rule, and on the military resolution of internal political crises. At the same time, profound religious changes modified the premises of political interaction and symbolic communication between the emperor and his subjects, and administrative and military readjustments changed the institutional foundations of the Roman monarchy. This volume concentrates on the measures taken by emperors of this period to cope with the changing framework of their rule. The collection examines monarchy along three distinct yet intertwined fields: Administering the Empire, Performing the Monarchy, and Balancing Religious Change. Each field possesses its own historiography and methodology, and accordingly has usually been treated separately. This volume’s multifaceted approach builds on recent scholarship and trends to examine imperial rule in a more integrated fashion. With new work from a wide range of international scholars, Contested Monarchy offers a fresh survey of the role of the Roman monarchy in a period of significant and enduring change. // – – – “This exceptionally valuable book offers multiple perspectives on the development of the institutional, ideological and religious aspects of the Roman empire’s first Christian century. Breaking away from traditional divisions according to dynasty or religion, we see how the Roman state developed new answers to the central question of its own legitimacy. Eschewing simplistic generalizations, the diverse contributions offer multiple perspectives on the way the Roman system of government interacted with its subjects. Wienand has performed an invaluable service by facilitating a wide ranging encounter among scholarly styles to promote a well-articulated discussion of significant themes in the governance of the Roman Empire, illuminating not only the period under consideration, but earlier and later periods as well.” —David Potter, University of Michigan Reviews Journal of Roman Studies 106 (2016), 361-363 [Alexander Skinner]; Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2015.11.34 [Jan Willem Drijvers]; Sehepunkte 15 (2015) Nr. 11 [Adrastos Omissi]; H-Soz-Kult 18.5.2015 [Raphael Brendel] Reviewers Quotes: "This is a book that deepens our sense of the complexity, and unexpectedness, of the late Roman Empire. It is a landmark." —Alexander Skinner "Contested Monarchy is an enormously valuable volume without a weak link in its chain of articles. It is a must have for any scholar working on late Roman political, social, or religious history and for the library of any university that offers courses on the fourth century. Its depth of inquiry and range of coverage means that it will be of great value to researchers but the articles are all sufficiently accessible that advanced students will be able to gain much from them as well. The articles can be read individually, but the volume repays reading as a whole." —Adrastos Omissi "This is a fine collection of articles articulating the contested Roman imperial rule of late antiquity. Everybody interested in the late Roman empire will profit from it." —Jan Willem Drijvers CONTENTS 1. Johannes Wienand: "The Cloak of Power: Dressing and Undressing the King" 2. John Weisweiler: "Domesticating the Senatorial Elite: Universal Monarchy and Transregional Aristocracy in the Fourth Century AD" 3. John Noël Dillon: "The Inflation of Rank and Privilege: Regulating Precedence in the Fourth Century AD" 4. Sebastian Schmidt-Hofner: "Ostentatious Legislation: Law and Dynastic Change, AD 364–365" 5. Doug Lee: "Emperors and Generals in the Fourth Century" 6. Joachim Szidat: "Gaul and the Roman Emperors of the Fourth Century" 7. Michael Kulikowski: "Regional Dynasties and Imperial Court" 8. Mark Humphries: "Emperors, Usurpers, and the City of Rome: Performing Power from Diocletian to Theodosius" 9. Johannes Wienand: "O tandem felix civili, Roma, victoria! Civil-War Triumphs from Honorius to Constantine and Back" 10. Hartmut Leppin: "Coping with the Tyrant’s Faction: Civil-War Amnesties and Christian Discourses in the Fourth Century AD" 11. Christopher Kelly: "Pliny and Pacatus: Past and Present in Imperial Panegyric" 12. Henning Börm: "Born to Be Emperor: The Principle of Succession and the Roman Monarchy" 13. Christian Reitzenstein-Ronning: "Performing Justice: The Penal Code of Constantine the Great" 14. Harold Drake: "Speaking of Power: Christian Redefinition of the Imperial Role in the Fourth Century" 15. Bruno Bleckmann: "Constantine, Rome, and the Christians" 16. Noel Lenski: "Constantine and the Tyche of Constantinople" 17. Steffen Diefenbach: "A Vain Quest for Unity: Creeds and Political (Dis)Integration in the Reign of Constantius II" 18. Johannes Hahn: "The Challenge of Religious Violence: Imperial Ideology and Policy in the Fourth Century" 19. Rita Lizzi Testa: "The Famous ‘Altar of Victory Controversy’ in Rome: The Impact of Christianity at the End of the Fourth Century" 20. Johannes Wienand: "The Empire’s Golden Shade: Icons of Sovereignty in an Age of Transition"
Journal of Late Antiquity, 2008
Modern scholarship, following the template laid down by Lactantius and Eusebius, has viewed the achievements of Constantine chiefly through the prism of his Christianity, with the result that his secular achievements have been comparatively neglected. This article addresses those secular policies, focusing on how Constantine sought to assert his legitimacy during the various stages of his rise to power. It takes as its starting point the modern debate on the legitimacy of Constantine’s elevation to the purple and whether or not he can be justifiably described as a usurper. Through close scrutiny of a variety of documentary sources—particularly inscriptions, but also coins—it establishes how Constantine sought to affirm the legitimacy of his position as emperor at a number of critical moments, and to have that legitimacy accepted both by other members of the imperial college and by the empire’s populace at large. It emerges that Constantine appealed to a variety of means to assert his legitimacy, for example, as a member of a college of emperors, as the preferred candidate of the army or Senate, as victor in civil war, or as a member of a dynasty. Furthermore, he invested considerable effort in buttressing his claims by actively deconstructing the legitimacy of his rivals, notably Maxentius and Licinius, whom he designated instead as tyranni. Thus Constantine made a notable contribution to the articulation of ideas of imperial legitimacy in the fourth century, and his strategies were adopted, most immediately, by his sons.
Claiming the Basileia ton Rhomaion: A Latin Imperial Dynasty in Byzantium
The Medieval History Journal, 2018
In April 1204, the army of the Fourth Crusade captured Constantinople. For the leading princes, it was self-evident that they would install an imperator of their own in the Queen of Cities. Their choice fell on Baldwin IX/VI, count of Flanders/Hainault. In this contribution, we aim to analyse how Baldwin and his successors saw their emperorship, and how they and their empire were seen by others in Byzantium and the West. The current historiographical term, 'Latin Empire of Constantinople', reflects the prevailing view that an entirely new political construct had been set up replacing the former Byzantine Empire. However, contemporaries, both the emperors themselves as well as outsiders, consistently referred to the empire using both Latin and Greek terms that, prior to 1204, had been commonly employed to refer to the Byzantine Empire. Yet eastern and western conceptions of the nature of the empire before 1204 differed greatly: it was 'Greek' in Latin eyes, 'Roman' in Byzantine eyes. The Constantinopolitan imperial crown having been placed on his head, Baldwin became heir to these conflicting traditions. Moreover, rival imperial claims soon arose within the Byzantine space in neighbouring Byzantine successor states. In the face of these challenges, the Latin emperors strove to formulate a political ideology legitimising their claim to imperial rule. We will argue that in essence the successive Latin emperors adopted, up to a point, the key tenets of Byzantine imperial theory (Roman character, universalism, emperors as vicars of Christ and autocracy). Their western background and their different relationship with the West led to certain changes, but whether these should be seen as fundamentally un-Byzantine is not self-evident. Conversely, the presence of the now Latin rulers on the Constantinopolitan throne also led to changes in the western perception of the eastern empire.
University of Ottawa, 2017
Roman emperors came to power through a hybrid dynastic/elective selection system that was never formally codified. This lack of codification has caused problems for modern scholars looking to identify and categorize those who were involved in selecting the next Roman emperor. This thesis believes that these problems exist because scholars are not distinguishing the names of key ancient institutions from the underlying types of power which backed their capability for action. This thesis seeks to solve this problem by creating a categorization system for imperial accessions based around a basic unit called the “political interest.” At its core, a political interest is a combination of the name of the individual or group as listed in the primary sources, the different types of power they possessed, and the level of decision-making authority they wielded during an imperial selection. Using this system, this thesis creates a database of Late Roman emperors with information on when they came to power, the various stages of their accessions, what political interests supported them, and where these interests were located. This thesis then analyzes the political and geographic trends from the database and supplies provisional explanations as to why changes in the Late Roman accession process occurred.
The Roman emperor Constantine’s most famous innovations are certainly his public adoption of Christianity and the refoundation of the city of Byzantium as Constantinople. These changes certainly had important implications for the character of the higher echelons of Roman society. The subsequent phenomena of the Christianisation of the elite and the development of a separate senate in the east that flowed from these two innovations have both received considerable attention from scholars. A much quieter revolution was that which affected the definition of the higher strata of Roman government and society. This paper outlines the stages by which the old imperial social order linked to the cursus honorum of the city of Rome was superseded by a new hierarchy of offices linked directly to the imperial court. This divorcing of the definition of the higher echelons of the imperial elite from the magisterial hierarchy of Rome was matched by the freedom with which Constantine reused traditional titles such as censor, patricius, and (possibly) quaestor in new ways for new imperial honours and functions.
The early development of the senate of Constantinople
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 2008
The development of the senate of Constantinople as an imperial senate, on a par with the senate of Rome, has been attributed to Constantius II to the exclusion of Constantine and dated to 357. The present paper argues that the evidence for this dating is fundamentally flawed and that the decisive change came at the outset of the reign of Constantius II, while developments under Constantine foreshadowed it in significant respects. Conclusions are also drawn about what the evidence reveals of relations between Hellenic gentry and imperial rule in the fourth century. * I am grateful to the British Academy for financial support while preparing a draft of this paper. I have since benefited from conversations with John Matthews,
Peace and War, Repression and Liberty: Urban Autonomy and Princely Expansionism in the Medieval Holy Roman Empire, in: Edad Media. Revista de Historia, [S.l.], n. 19, p. 74-113, may 2018. ISSN 2530-6448. Disponible en: https://revistas.uva.es/index.php/edadmedia/article/view/2002
Edad Media. Revista de Historia: Entre la competencia y la cooperación. Modelos de relación ciudad-nobleza a fines de la Edad Media , 2018
Resumen: El Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico se caracteriza, en la Edad Media, por complejas interacciones entre las ciudades y sus aliados y adversarios nobles. Al menos durante un cierto tiempo, en el nivel regional se constata un cierto grado de colaboración entre los miembros urbanos y nobles de las confederaciones con el objetivo de preservar la paz (Landfriedensbünde), la seguridad y el orden público. Sin embargo, por la misma época, algunos príncipes poderosos intentaron, con éxito, restringir la autonomía urbana, logrando llevar adelante una política expansionista y de consolidación de sus propios territorios. Así, en sus relaciones con la nobleza, las ciudades se vieron obligadas a mantener un peligroso equilibrio entre la cooperación y la confrontación. A veces, como evidencian las crónicas, los registros de diversos tipos de asambleas y la correspondencia y obras literarias, el precio a pagar resultó muy elevado, debiendo incluso participar en la represión de algunas revueltas. Palabras clave: Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico, ciudades, ligas, preservación de la paz, príncipes, nobleza. Abstract: The medieval Holy Roman Empire saw complex interactions of towns and their noble partners and enemies. On a regional level, working together in leagues of peace (Landfriedensbünde), urban and noble members cooperated and struggled for the preservation of peace and against the general insecurity. But, at the same time, striving to restrict urban autonomy, powerful princes successfully led an expansionist policy and consolidated their territories. Chronicles, documents from assemblies, letters and literary works show that in their relations with nobility, towns were forced to keep a dangerous balance of co-operation and confrontation. Sometimes they had to pay a high price and even had to take part in the repression of revolts.