Codex Nicholsonianus
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10990333 |
|---|---|
| Authors | George Woudhuysen (0000-0001-8199-4665, University of Nottingham, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 111 |
| Pages | 225-238 |
| Publication date | 2021-11-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Roman Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0075-4358 • E-ISSN: 1753-528X |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0075435821000472 |
| OpenAlex | W4205473262 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 22 |
Frankness is not a quality one naturally associates with Themistius, that most sinuous of the fourth century's official spokesmen, but the opening of his first speech (‘On the Love of Mankind’) is disarmingly frank. Invited to address Constantius II at Ancyra in the spring of 342, the young orator had an unusually difficult brief: violent riots in Constantinople had recently seen Hermogenes (a senior general) killed by a mob, relations with Constans (emperor in the west) were tense and war with Persia was rumbling away on the eastern frontier. The situation surely called for cliché — the familiar refuge of the panegyrist in a tight spot — but Themistius responded with a rather daring candour. Not for him some faltering introduction of the various themes set out in the rhetorical handbooks. Instead, he opened by offering his listeners an expert's guide to the tropes of conventional panegyric: those familiar descriptions of magnificent armies, glittering imperial adornment and the emperor's physical vigour ( Or . 1.2a–b) to which his courtly audience must have been almost numb. With these curtly dismissed as so much hackwork, he delivered a boldly original oration: a philosophical treatment of the emperor's inner virtue. It is quite a performance. One can see why so many and such different emperors found themselves in need of Themistius’ eloquence
Adornment · Aesthetics · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Emperor · Frontier · Literature · Panegyric · Poetry · Rhetoric · Rhetorical question · Theology · Virtue · Byzantine Studies and History · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Philosophy
Studies in the Byzantine Monetary Economy c .300–1450
Die 59. Rede Des Libanios Und Das Datum Der Schlacht Von Singara
Jordanes and the Date of the Epitome de Caesaribus
Constantine and the Cities
Assembling the Austrasian Letters at T rier and L orsch
The Sources of the Historia Augusta
The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions. A Translation with Commentary, Glossary, and Bibliography
Myrmeicus or Myrmecius
Violence at Constantinople in A.D. 341–2 and Themistius, Oration 1
The vision of Constantine
Imagining Emperors in the Later Roman Empire
The New Empire of Diocletian and Constantine
The itinerary of Alexander
The Date and the Owners of the Esquiline Treasure
| Highly cited | No |
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