Romanos I Lekapenos and Nikolaos I Mystikos
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Ivan Marić Legitimizing Usurpation: Romanos I Lekapenos and Nikolaos I Mystikos MA Thesis in Medieval Studies Central European University Budapest CEU eTD Collection May 2013 Legitimizing Usurpation: Romanos I Lekapenos and Nikolaos I Mystikos by Ivan Marić (Serbia) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ Chair, Examination Committee ____________________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________________ Examiner ____________________________________________ Examiner CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2013 Legitimizing Usurpation: Romanos I Lekapenos and Nikolaos I Mystikos by Ivan Marić (Serbia) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ External Reader CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2013 Legitimizing Usurpation: Romanos I Lekapenos and Nikolaos I Mystikos by Ivan Marić (Serbia) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ Supervisor ____________________________________________ External Supervisor Budapest May 2013 CEU eTD Collection I, the undersigned, Ivan Marić, candidate for the MA degree in Medieval Studies, declare herewith that the present thesis is exclusively my own work, based on my research and only such external information as properly credited in notes and bibliography. I declare that no unidentified and illegitimate use was made of the work of others, and no part of the thesis infringes on any person’s or institution’s copyright. I also declare that no part of the thesis has been submitted in this form to any other institution of higher education for an academic degree. Budapest, __ May 2013 __________________________ Signature CEU eTD Collection Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter I: Romanos I Lekapenos as divinely ordained emperor .................................................................. 16 Chapter II: Supporting the usurper: the role of Nikolaos I Mystikos ........................................................... 37 Conclusions .................................................................................................................................................. 56 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................. 59 Plates ............................................................................................................................................................ 65 CEU eTD Collection Captions fig. 1 Basil I and his second wife Eudokia as being blessed by Christ, ivory-casket lid, Palazzo Venezia, Rome (After Brubaker, Vision and Meaning, fig. 84) fig. 2 Basil I crowned by Gabriel, illumination from the manuscript containing the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. gr. 510. (After Brubaker, Vision and Meaning, fig. 5) fig. 3 Leo VI blessed by a Virgin; tip of the sceptre (?), Staatliche Museen, Berlin (After Brubaker, Vision and Meaning, fig 177) fig. 4 Emperor Alexander, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul (After Underwood-Hawkins, fig. 5) fig. 5 Solidus of Emperor Alexander; Throne-seated Christ on the obverse, Alexander crowned by St John the Baptist on the reverse (Dumbarton Oaks Collection) fig. 6 Romanos crowned by Christ on the Obverse, Christopher and Constantine 'switching places' on the reverse (DOC, 3, pl. xxxvi, 5-6) CEU eTD Collection List of abbreviations Brubaker, Vision and Meaning Leslie Brubaker, Vision and Meaning in Ninth-century Byzantium: Image as Exegesis in the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus, (Cambridge: CUP, 1999). Dagron, Emperor and Priest Gilbert Dagron, Emperor and Priest. The Imperial Office in Byzantium, (Cambridge: CUP, 2003). DOC Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection, 3: Leo III to Nicephorus III (717-1081), 1-2, ed. Philip Grierson, (Washington D. C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1973). DOP Dumbarton Oaks Papers (Washington). DOS Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, 6: Emperors, Patriarchs of Constantinople, Addenda, ed. John Nesbit and Cecile Morisson, (Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 2009). EHB The Economic History of Byzantium, From the Seventh, through the Fifteenth Century, ed. Angeliki E. Laiou, 1-3, (Washington D. C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 2002). Jolivet-Levy, “L’image du pouvoir” C. Jolivet-Levy, “L'image du pouvoir dans l'art byzantin a l'époque de la dynastie macédonienne”, Byzantion, 57 (1987): 441-470. Kresten-Müller, Legitimationsprinzip Otto Kresten, Andreas E. Müller, Samtherrschaft, Legitimationsprinzip und kaiserlicher Urkundentitel in Byzanz in der ersten Hälfte des 10. Jahrhunderts, (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wiesenschaften, 1995). Morrisson, “Byzantine Money Cecile Morisson, “Byzantine Money: Its Production and Circulation”, in EHB, 909-966. Mystikos, Letters Nicholas I Patriarch of Constantinople Letters, ed. R. J. H. Jenkins- L. G. Westerink, (Washington: Dumbarton Oaks, 1973). CEU eTD Collection ODB The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, 1-3, ed. Alexander P. Kazhdan (Oxford: OUP, 1991). PmbZ Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit, 2. Abteilung (867-1025), Berlin: De Gruyter, 2009-2013. Runciman, Romanos Steven Runciman, The Emperor Romanus Lecapenus and his Reign, (Cambridge: CUP, 1929). Stanković, Patriarchs Vlada Stanković, Carigradski patrijarsi I carevi Makedonske dinastije [The patriarchs of Constantinople and the emperors of the Macedonian dynasty], (Beograd: Vizantološki Institut, 2003). Th. Cont. Theophanes Continuatus, ed. I. Bekker, (Bonn, 1838). CEU eTD Collection Introduction The post-iconoclast period in Byzantium is characterized by the revival of images and the (tacit or not so tacit) redefinition of the two highest positions in the hierarchy, those of emperor and patriarch. 1 It has been recognized that Iconoclasm, in addition to the theological disputes involved, had a strong political component, becoming the “instrument of imperial policy” – just as opposition to iconoclasm turned into a tool of anti-imperial policy-making.2 Similarly, after the “Triumph of Orthodoxy”, iconophile, or rather anti-iconoclastic, behavior became the expectation.3 One of the ways of expressing one's proper orthodoxy, apart from attending the liturgies and rituals in question,4 was one's choice of image- program.5 Not long after images of heavenly and saintly figures were reestablished, emperors began to associate themselves with members of the celestial hierarchy, personifying the ideology of the source of imperial power and authority. Thus, the holy images, became images of power.6 Not surprisingly, 1 The classical study on the relationship between the Church and the ruler in the middle ages, although more appropriately reflecting western medieval culture: Ernst H. Kantorowicz, The King’s Two Bodies. The Study of Mediaeval Political Theology, (Princeton: PUP, 1997); Dagron’s work is one of the most influential studies concerning the positions and relations between the emperor and the patriarch in Byzantium: Gilbert Dagron, Emperor and Priest. The Imperial Office in Byzantium, (Cambridge: CUP, 2003) (henceforth: Dagron, Emperor and Priest); another useful study concentrating on the period of Macedonian dynasty: Vlada Stanković, Carigradski patrijarsi I carevi Makedonske dinastije [The patriarchs of Constantinople and the emperors of the Macedonian dynasty], (Beograd: Vizantološki Institut, 2003) (French summary, Les patriarches de Constantinople et les empereurs de la dynastie Macédonienne, 315–335) (henceforth: Stanković, Patriarchs). 2 Politics and personal ties and relations in the highest strata of society mattered more than ideologies, as an example of the seemingly ambiguous figure from the last period of Iconoclasm illustrates. Theoktist, a former iconoclast supporter, after Theophilos’s death played a signifcant role in the organization of the 'Triumph of Orthodoxy'. Leslie Brubacker and John Haldon, Byzantium in the iconoclast era c. 680-850: a history, (New York, Cambridge: CUP, 2011), 400- 404; 447-452. See also the various pertinent pieces in Marie-France Auzépy, L’histoire des iconoclastes, (Paris: Association des Amis du Centre d'Histoire et Civilization de Byzance, 2007) and Ead., L’iconoclasme, (Paris: PUF, 2006). 3 Cyril Mango, “The Liquidation of Iconoclasm and the Patriarch Photios”, in Iconoclasm, ed. Anthony Bryer, Judith Herrin (Birmingham: Center for Byzantine Studies Univeristy of Birmingham, 1977), 133-140 (henceforth: Mango, “The CEU eTD Collection Liquidation of Iconoclasm”). 4 Relevant titles are introduced at the beginning of chapter I. 5 The role of Patriarch Photios in the revival of sacred images is well-known: R. J. H. Jenkins, C. Mango, “The