Imperial Ideology and Political Thought in Byzantium, 1204-1330

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9804624
AutoresMichael Angold (University of Edinburgh, autor de correspondencia)
Año2008
Volumen123
Número505
Páginas1519-1521
Fecha de publicación2008-11-10
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe English Historical Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0013-8266 • E-ISSN: 1477-4534
EditorialOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/ehr/cen278
OpenAlexW1964752503
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas25

Until the appearance of this excellent book, it was not clear how much of a desideratum a study of this kind was. No longer will it be so easy to dismiss Byzantine imperial ideology as a series of clichés repeated over the centuries by a succession of court orators, nor to suggest that political thought was hardly a Byzantine strength. This study is part of an ongoing re-evaluation of Byzantine rhetoric. It used to be a source of embarrassment to students of Byzantium that so much of its literature was rhetoric. It gave Byzantium a bad name. Romilly Jenkins believed that it turned Byzantium into a by-word for treachery. However, because rhetoric played such a large role in its official life, it is incumbent on modern scholars to elucidate its exact function. This is what the author sets out to do for the period of exile after 1204 and for the restored Empire of the Palaiologoi. By probing beneath the verbiage of court speeches and other rhetorical pieces, he is able to register changes in the presentation of the imperial image. Under the emperors of Nicaea the accent is on justice; under Michael VIII and Andronikos II Palaiologos this disappears, to be replaced by the dynastic concerns of the previous century, but masked for the former by the idea of the emperor as the ‘New Constantine’ and for the latter by the notion of the philanthropic emperor. Imperial rhetoric was used rather like a political manifesto, which aimed not so much at conforming to some generalised imperial ideal, but more at setting out a specific version of it to meet the needs of the day. It was therefore central to the political process at Byzantium

Ancient history · Art · Byzantine architecture · Emperor · Empire · Ideology · Linguistics · Literature · Manifesto · Political science · Politics · Rhetoric · Rhetorical question · Byzantine Studies and History · Classics · History · Law · Philosophy

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