‘The Discontinuous History of Imperial Panegyric in Byzantium and its Reinvention by Michael Psellos,’ Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 59 (2019) 693-713. (original) (raw)

Abstract

HE MATRIX OF BYZANTINE LITERATURE was training in rhetorical theory and rhetorical performance, which shaped the form, language, goals, argumentation, nuances, and other compositional modalities of most written texts. Rhetorical training also provided the templates for actual speeches, such as homilies and funeral orations. 1 For modern historians of Byzantium the most important type of speech is the imperial panegyric, formal speeches in praise of an emperor, because they contain precious historical information, push the propaganda of each court, or at least the speaker's political thought, and supposedly reveal the Byzantines' basic assumptions about their empire and ruler. Panegyric was an ancient genre and practice, and by the early Byzantine period formalized recommendations had emerged for praising emperors. We have one such textbook (attributed to a certain Menandros) with advice and templates for the basilikos logos. 2 We have many 1 The standard survey of rhetorical genres is H. Hunger, Die hochsprachliche profane Literatur der Byzantiner I (Munich 1978) 63-196; a more engaging survey in G. A. Kennedy, Greek Rhetoric under Christian Emperors (Princeton 1983); a briefer and more recent one in E. Jeffreys, "Rhetoric in Byzantium," in I. Worthington (ed.), A Companion to Greek Rhetoric (Chichester 2010) 166-184; the papers in E. Jeffreys (ed.), Rhetoric in Byzantium (Aldershot 2003), and M. Grünbart (ed.),

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References (21)

  1. Pacatus to Theodosius I in Panegyrici Latini 2.47.3-4, transl. Nixon and Rodgers 515. 8 Nazarius to Constantine in Panegyrici Latini 4.3.1, transl. Nixon and Rodgers 345. Himerios' oration 41 in praise of Constantinople and Julian (jointly) seems to have been delivered in that city but in the emperor's absence: text A. Colonna, Himerii declamationes et orationes (Rome 1951); transl. and discussion R. J. Penella, Man and the Word: The Orations of Himerius (Berkeley 2007) 34-35, 44-46, 58-65.
  2. 9 Kennedy, Greek Rhetoric 174-175.
  3. Nixon and Rodgers, In Praise 345 n.11.
  4. Synesios' Praise of Baldness: N. Terzaghi, Synesii Cyrenensis opuscula (Rome 14 K. M. Setton, Christian Attitude towards the Emperor in the Fourth Century (New York 1941);
  5. and Flower, Emperors and Bishops.
  6. A. Pertusi, Giorgio di Pisidia: Poemi I (Ettal 1959). Many studies on Georgios and Herkleios, especially by M. Whitby, are cited by J. Howard- Johnston, Witnesses to a World Crisis: Historians and Histories of the Middle East in the Seventh Century (Oxford 2010) 16-35. For the performance of poetic pan- egyrics see W. Hörandner, "Court Poetry: Questions of Motifs, Structure and Function," in Jeffreys, Rhetoric 75-85, who makes light of the four-century middle-Byzantine gap in the evidence.
  7. T. Antonopoulou, Leontis VI Sapientis imperatoris Byzantini Homiliae (Turn- hout 2008) 195-218 (no. 14); for its generic makeup see P. Agapitos, " Ἡ εἰκόνα τοῦ αὐτοκράτορα Βασιλείου Α´ στὴ φιλοµακεδονικὴ γραµµατεία, 867-959," Hellenika 40 (1989) 285-322, here 297-306.
  8. T. Antonopoulou, The Homilies of the Emperor Leo VI (Leiden 1997) 36-48, and "Homiletic Activity in Constantinople Around 900," in M. B. Cunning- ham et al. (eds.), Preacher and Audience: Studies in Early Christian and Byzantine Homiletics (Leiden 1998) 317-348, esp. 327.
  9. A. Markopoulos, "Οι µεταµορφώσεις της 'µυθολογίας' του Βασιλείου Α´," in V. Leontaritou et al. (eds.), Antecessor: Festschrift für Spiros N. Troianos zum
  10. Geburtstag (Athens 2013) 946-970, here 960, citing previous bibliography. 26 For relevant texts see A. Sideras, Die byzantinischen Grabreden: Prosopogra- phie, Datierung, Überlieferung (Vienna 1994). A major advance in this direction has been made by E. C. Bourbouhakis, Not Composed in a Chance Manner: The Epitaphios for Manuel I Komnenos by Eustathios of Thessalonike (Uppsala 2017).
  11. ----- Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 59 (2019) 693-713
  12. See the introduction, detailed notes, and index locorum in A.-M. Talbot and D. F. Sullivan, The History of Leo the Deacon: Byzantine Military Expansion in the Tenth Century (Washington 2005).
  13. Walz, Rhet.gr. VI 447-448.
  14. S. Papaioannou, "Sicily, Constantinople, Miletos: The Life of a Eunuch and the History of Byzantine Humanism," in Th. Antonopoulou et al. (eds.), Myriobiblos: Essays on Byzantine Literature and Culture (Berlin 2015) 261-284, here 275. 41 Psellos Chron. 1.29-30, 1.36; text D. R. Reinsch, Michelis Pselli Chrono- graphia I-II (Berlin 2014); transl. E. R. A. Sewter, Michael Psellus: Fourteen Byzantine Rulers (London 1966). For a rehabilitation of Basileios II see B. Crostini, "The Emperor Basil II's Cultural Life," Byzantion 66 (1996) 55-80. 43 The main works in these genres are edited by G. T. Dennis, Michaelis Pselli Orationes Panegyricae (Stuttgart/Leipzig 1994);
  15. I. Polemis, Michael Psellus: Orationes funebres I (Berlin/Boston 2014); and A. R. Littlewood, Michaelis Pselli oratoria minora (Leipzig 1985).
  16. See the introductions in A. Kaldellis, Mothers and Sons, Fathers and Daughters: The Byzantine Family of Michael Psellos (South Bend 2006), and in A. Kaldellis and I. Polemis, Psellos and the Patriarchs: Letters and Funeral Orations for Keroullarios, Leichoudes, and Xiphilinos (South Bend 2015).
  17. A. Kaldellis, Hellenism in Byzantium: The Transformations of Greek Identity and the Reception of the Classical Tradition (Cambridge 2007) ch. 4.
  18. A. Karpozilos, Συμβολὴ στὴ μελέτη τοῦ βίου καὶ τοῦ ἔργου τοῦ Ἰωάννη Μαυρόποδος (Ioannina 1982) 29-31, with further references. The main study is J. Lefort, "Rhétorique et politique: Trois discours de Jean Mauropous en 1047," TravMém 6 (1976) 265-303. N. Mauche and J. Roskilly, "There and Back Again: On the Influence of Psellos on the Career of Mauropous," BZ 111 (2018) 721-746, doubt that Psellos had much influence on his friend's career.
  19. Dennis, in Byzantine Court Culture 136.
  20. Karpozilos, Συμβολὴ 141-142.
  21. ----- Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 59 (2019) 693-713