Acting virtuously: Ceremonial displays of imperial virtue in Byzantium (original) (raw)

Ecclesiastical processions in Byzantine diplomacy and their impact on imperial foreign policy

2021

One of the factors for longevity of the Byzantine Empire, besides efficient military and financial system, was its highly developed diplomacy. In an attempt to achieve the goals of Byzantine foreign policy the imperial government used various non-military means that had at its disposal. The sources suggest that one of those means, among other ones, like money, titles, luxury goods, dynastic marriages etc., were the various ceremonies as the Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, the author of De Ceremoniis noted "…the imperial rule appears more beautifull and acquires more nobility and so is a cause of wonder to both foreigners and our own people". The paper will focus only on one aspect of these ceremonies, namely the ecclesiastical processions described in De Ceremoniis. For the purpose of the study, the position that ecclesiastical processions had within Byzantine diplomacy, their practical value as a diplomatic means, as well as the level of impact they had in the imperial foreign policy and in the achievement of its goals, will be analyzed.

Contesting Ceremony, Constructing Byzantium: Reading Pseudo-Kodinos in Early Modern Europe

Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 2018

This article examines how the first two editors of Pseudo-Kodinos, a Calvinist theologian and a Jesuit church historian, read his ceremonial treatise in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. It argues that these rival scholars debated the history, politics, and religion of early modern Europe through this Byzantine ceremonial manual. Above all, this study shows that Byzantine scholarship in early modern Europe was an intensely contemporary and political project. The article also argues that the history of Byzantine scholarship in early modern Europe has not received sufficient attention. Only through detailed studies of the intellectual and cultural contexts of similar scholars and their works can we begin to chart important developments in this field.

Public Rituals and Performance: The Ceremonial Staging of Imperial Authority under Diocletian

The Tetrarchy as Ideology: Reconfigurations and Representations of an Imperial Power, ed. by F. Carlà-Uhink and C. Rollinger, 2023

In parallel with the well-known innovations in the imperial insignia and audience ceremonies (attested by historical sources from the late fourth century onwards), the tetrarchic period saw the development of a new, highly ritualised style of communication between the emperors and the wider public, which will later become an essential characteristic of late antique and Byzantine official self-representation. The new ideology of the joint imperial rule was conveyed and visualised through the organisation of complex public ceremonies, staging in ritual terms the relation of the emperors with one another, as well as with the other social and political forces which constituted the Roman state: the Senate, the army, the bureaucratic elite, the local aristocracies, and the citizens. The traditional ceremonies of the earlier periods, especially the advent and the triumph, underwent profound changes in their rituals and were thus filled with new meanings, perfectly coherent with those expressed by the new insignia and audience etiquette. Textual and visual sources from the fourth century and later allow us an appreciation of these performative changes, although limited to those exceptional events (usually taking place in the city of Rome or in other capital cities) which made their way into the Romans’ cultural memory by being remembered in literary works, as well as in official or private monuments. Through these descriptions, we can grasp some essential characters of the official tetrarchic ideology as they were staged for, and viewed by, the citizens of the most important urban centres of the empire. In contrast with previous imperial ceremonies, the main ritual innovations of the tetrarchic period are aimed not only at emphasising the physical presence of the emperor in front of the people, but also at isolating him from his retinue, conveying to the observer a much more hierarchical image of the imperial power. The episodes examined will include: the official meeting between Diocletian and Maximian, which took place in Milan in AD 288; the staging of Diocletian’s and Galerius’ joint military leadership during the Persian campaign of AD 296-297; and the solemn ceremony held in Rome in AD 303, celebrating at once the twentieth anniversary of Diocletian and Maximian’s joint rule and their triumph over the Persians. Particular attention will be devoted to the latter episode, which is particularly well documented by visual sources (including numismatic evidence), and which will be remembered as the last triumphal ceremony in the history of Rome.