Towards a Renewed Vision of Imperial Authority

The chapter discusses how Manuel Palaiologos’ texts reveal not only the emperor’s standpoints in his attempts to answer political challenges, but also a long-term imperial project that sought to establish a system of effective political communication by exhibiting his fatherly concern for his son and co-emperor. This project involved two stages with changing approaches. In the first stage, the emperor strengthened his connections with the literati and frequently chaired theatra. The letters and the dialogic mode of his text on marriage point to the fact that during the last decade of the fourteenth century, the emperor did not have at his disposal too many possibilities of circulating his political messages except for the rather informal meetings in the framework of theatra. In a second stage, which chronologically coincided with the years following the emperor’s return from the West, Manuel attempted to consolidate his ruling position by highlighting in the Foundations and the Orations that he appointed his son, John, as successor. In the absence of a more substantial body of court rhetoricians, the emperor undertook the role of a social-political commentator and accordingly put forward a personal discourse on imperial authority.

The Narrative Voice: The Funeral Oration on His Brother Theodore, Despot of Morea

In this chapter it is suggested that the encomium for Manuel’s deceased brother, Theodore Palaiologos was integrated into a broader account of the affairs of the Morea. Manuel emulated the traditions both of the panegyric oration and of the epic/chronicle. The subject matter, the praise for his brother, is treated in the form of a narrative account, and to a large extent the author is precise about the events he recounts. By this account, the unit dealing with Theodore’s achievements was conceived not as a mere list of glorious deeds illustrating Theodore’s virtues but as a string of interconnected episodes, truly an account of the Morea and not only of the brother. Certainly, these elements did not combine in a composition resembling a historical chronicle. However, they were primarily intended not just to describe military situations but also to convey a political message, as various stylistic devices such as the configuration of a strong narrative voice or the use of criticism indicate. Based on the peculiarities of the author’s literary strategies, this narrative of Theodore’s deeds took the form of a sanitised, official account of events which put forward a message that claimed Morea’s dynastic control.

The Didactic Voice: The Orations (Seven Ethico-Political Orations)

This chapter argues that, despite the differences of form, the seven orations included in this collection constituted a unitary collection and, for this reason, one should consider their interrelations as well as their distinctive features. Furthermore, the seven orations establish a tight connection with the preceding work, the Foundations, with which they share several themes. Admittedly, far from being a text focused on kingship, the Orations are rather geared towards the presentation of an individual’s acquisition of moral values. The correlation between ethics, the rulers’ virtues and rhetorical skills is framed in a tradition that originated in the writings of the rhetoricians of Hellenistic and Graeco-Roman times. Yet in Manuel’s case, through the development of the idea of a special kind of imperial behaviour, the presentation of moral virtues reflects, on the one hand, such a tradition and, on the other hand, an insight that could only have come with practical experience. Drawing on multiple philosophical sources, this formulation of imperial behaviour was based on the ideal of tolerance, with strong bonds of friendship and values such as education and moderate enjoyment of life.

Introduction to Part II

The previous chapters revealed information about the social and intellectual milieu in which the emperor tried to articulate a new political voice. In the following chapters, I offer an analysis of the strategies the emperor used in the construction of his messages identifiable in four major political texts which arose from Manuel’s preoccupation with the internal and external affairs of the empire: the ...

Introduction

This book is equally about people and their texts. It seeks to explore how a Byzantine emperor negotiated his authority in the troubled waters of late Byzantium where churchmen and court-based interest groups vied for the attention of wider audiences. And it is about the construction of discursive strategies by adapting the rules of rhetorical genres to historical circumstances. The focus of the book is Manuel II Palaiologos, both emperor of Byzantium (r. 1391–1425) and prolific author of a range of oratorical and theological texts. The argument is that the emperor maintained his position of authority not only by direct political agency but also by rhetorically advertising his ideas about the imperial office. Throughout his reign, Manuel II created a parallel literary court where he presided over a group of peer literati who supported his position and did not contest his imperial prerogatives. It was within this group that his texts were copied and subsequently disseminated in order to promote a renewed version of the idea of imperial authority. His ideological commitments valued education and the use of rhetorical skills as instruments of social and political change. His vision evolved and changed according to the opportunities and conditions of his reign. In order to understand it one needs to attend not only to his texts but to other contemporary written sources. This will allow us to further scrutinise the late Byzantine understanding(s) of the imperial office as well as the extent to which Manuel II’s writings mirrored or obliterated contemporary concerns....

Conclusions

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The Didactic Voice: The Foundations of an Imperial Education

This chapter analyses how the emperor fashioned his didactic voice and how it functioned in a typical text of advice. It argues that the Foundations combines the tradition of political advice inaugurated by Agapetos, the gnomic tradition, and the tradition of theological centuria providing moral and theological principles. The generic strands present in the text allow for a multifaceted authorial voice less formal than that in previous similar texts. The Foundations stands as more than a list of principles for the emperor’s conduct: it is rather a complex guide for understanding, managing and implementing ethical axioms. Manuel injected a degree of political realism and paternal intimacy, features absent from the court rhetoric of the period. In re-elaborating the gnomic tradition, Manuel partly positioned himself outside the traditional tenets transmitted via other texts of advice. This chapter suggests that one should shy away from placing the Foundations in the category of ‘princely mirrors’, at least because that fails to explain the core features of the text: intimacy and political advice.

The Deliberative Voice: The Dialogue with the Empress-Mother on Marriage

This chapter deals with Manuel’s Dialogue with the Empress-Mother on Marriage, corresponds to a strategy of conveying political messages that is characterised by a sense of conversationalism and intimacy between the two interlocutors, the emperor and his mother Helena. It is argued that the Dialogue features a rather informal approach to the problems of dynastic succession during a period of prolonged Ottoman blockade. Notably, the author combines deliberative and demonstrative topics on the basis of which he outlines several traits of the representation of imperial power in late Byzantium. Thus, here he presents a dramatised version of his political messages whereby the emperor pictures himself as defending his choices and arguing against possible criticisms regarding his social responsibility. The analysis of the demonstrative and the deliberative approaches in the text allows for a partial reconstruction of Manuel’s political strategies and, ultimately, of his style of government. In terms of style, praise was left aside in favour of a deliberative stance and a more applied discussion of concrete situations that provide suggestions for future action.

Voices of Consent: Imperial Rhetoricians, Theatra and Patronage

The chapter argues that, unlike the ecclesiastics, the rhetoricians maintained the idea of the ruler’s omnipotence. To a certain extent, their attachment to Manuel II Palaiologos and to the imperial absolutist idea can be correlated with their individual immediate concerns: the emperor was still one of the major patrons of literary activities and could also provide positions at court or other benefits deriving from his largesse. Remarkably, most of the rhetoricians’ texts added to the standard set of imperial virtues one particular image: the emperor as eloquent rhetorician and educator of both his son and his subjects. By stressing the pedagogical and the rhetorical dimension of the imperial persona, these rhetoricians reworked the old idea of the philosopher-king into an idea of emperor-rhetorician who acted as a teacher in a quest to improve his governing. Finally, their intense activity in promoting the emperor is indicative of the emperor’s efforts to cultivate court-rhetorical activities, a situation which contrasted with his father’s, John V’s, approach.

Voices of Dissent: Preaching and Negotiating Authority

This chapter discusses the attempts of the late Byzantine churchmen to formulate a parallel and divergent view over the idea of imperial authority. In their concerted efforts to construct a coherent programme of action, the churchmen saw themselves both as defenders of social fairness and as promoters of an Orthodox spirituality which they deemed to be core connected aspects in defining Byzantine identity. The evidence presented here also suggests that they avoided showing allegiance to imperial policies. Instead, what they valued in the imperial persona was rather the cultural and spiritual aspects. While, naturally, the church continued to claim authority in the spiritual sphere, it also increasingly asserted the links between religious reform and social changes.