Durham E-Theses Imperial ideology in middle Byzantine court culture: the evidence of Constantine porphyrogenitus's de ceremoniis Woodrow, Zoe Antonia How to cite: Woodrow, Zoe Antonia (2001) Imperial ideology in middle Byzantine court culture: the evidence of Constantine porphyrogenitus's de ceremoniis, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3969/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Imperial Ideology in Middle Byzantine Court Culture: The Evidence of Constantine Porphyrogenitus 's De Ceremoniis Zoe Antonia Woodrow PhD University of Durham Department of Theology 2001 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published in any form, including Electronic and the Internet, without the author's prior written consent. All information derived from this thesis must be acknowledged appropriately. 2 4 MAY 2002 f~s<?, :, !)1)1/ "' ' 'rJ()o CONTENTS Abstract l Abbreviations 11 INTRODUCTION I PART 1: RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES 4I The order of the ceremonies and the Byzantine calendar 4I Ceremonies at Hagia Sophia: the General Protocol 44 The Procession to Hagia Sophia 44 The Emperors in the Church 79 The Return to the Palace 93 Variations to the General Protocol, Ceremonies in the City and in the Palace 95 The Acclamations 105 The organisation ofthe factions I 06 The Acclamations 110 PART 2: IMPERIAL RITES OF PASSAGE AND COURT PROMOTIONS 115 Imperial Rites of Passage 115 Coronation 116 Coronation ofan Augusta 146 Marriage I48 Birth 157 Death 160 Imperial Promotions 162 Promotions to Dignity I62 The promotion ofa Caesar and nobilissimus 163 The promotion ofa patrician I69 Promotions to Office 173 PART 3: IMPERIAL RECEPTIONS AND HIPPODROME CEREMONIES 179 Imperial Receptions I80 Hippodrome Ceremonies 196 The reception ofthe Golden Hippodrome 199 The Golden Hippodrome 20 I The Celebration ofthe Anniversary ofthe Consecration ofConstantinople 215 The Votive Races 227 The Lupercalia 231 CONCLUSION 237 Bibliography 251 Table 1 257 Table 2 258 Table 3 259 Plan 1 260 Plan2 261 Plan3 262 Plan4 263 Abstract Zoe Woodrow Imperial Ideology in Middle Byzantine Court Culture: the Evidence of Constantine Porphyrogenitus's De Ceremoniis. Submitted to the University ofDurham in 2001 for the degree of PhD. The subject of the thesis is the Byzantine Book ofCeremonies, produced during the reign ofthe Emperor Constantine Vll Porphyrogenitus (945-963). Through an examination of the prescriptions for imperial ceremonies contained in the first 83 chapters of Book I of the document, it seeks to explore the way in which the Byzantine political authorities of the tenth century endeavoured to preserve state ceremonial. It argues that these rituals, divorced from the context of historical events and the constraints of performance, offer a unique insight into the preoccupations of the Middle Byzantine administration. Dividing the ceremonies into three distinguishable groups- religious ceremonies, 'imperial rites of passage' and court promotions, and the entertainments of the Hippodrome - it focuses on the articulation of imperial ideology through the public presentation of the Emperor, the ritual consolidation of the contemporary court structure and the relationship of the imperial authorities to external agents, of which that with the Patriarch is of particular interest. It attempts to show the way in which the ritual life of the Emperor and the palace, as it is presented in the treatise, reveals the concerns of the tenth-century Byzantine administration, particularly its desire to strengthen the authority of the Emperor and to regulate the conduct of the court. In so doing, it demonstrates that the prescriptive chapters ofBook I ofthe De Ceremoniis present a consistent image of imperial ideology, one that serves to underpin the political system by exhalting the Emperor and drawing to him a number of symbols of imperial legitimacy and by establishing him, unmistakably at the head of the political establishment. ABBREVIATIONS AHR American Historical Revue BS Byzantinoslavica Byz. Byzantion BZ Byzantinische Zeitschrift De Cer. De ceremoniis aulae byzantinae, ed. J. J. Reiske, 2 vols. (Bonn, 1829-30); Le livre des ceremonies, ed. and French trans. A Vogt, 2 vols, each in 2 parts [text and commentary] (Paris, 1935-39) contains Book I, cc. 1-83 only. DOP Dumbarton Oaks Papers EHR English Historical Revue EO Echos d'Orient JOB Jarbuch der Osterreichischen Byzantinistik Klet. Philotheus, Kletorologion, De Cer., II, Reiske, 702-791; ed. and trans. N. Oikonomides, in his Les listes de preseance byzantines des IX et X siecles (Paris, 1972), 65-235. Maguire, Court H. Maguire, ed., Byzantine Court Culture from 829-1204 Culture (Washington, D. C., 1997) REB Revue des Etudes Byzantines II INTRODUCTION That the court centred at the Great Palace in medieval Constantinople was the setting of highly regulated state rituals is testified in a wide variety of sources. 1 Visitors to the Byzantine capital regularly focussed on the ceremonies they witnessed in their reports, in which their impressions of the civilisation they encountered often converge in the relation of a particular imperial or liturgical rite. 2 Pictorial art and artefacts provide compelling evidence for the splendour of such events and indicate that, when they wished to portray the Emperors visually, Byzantine artists habitually drew their modes of representation from types familiar from their public appearances. 3 Our understanding of the decorative images in secular and church buildings can frequently be enhanced through reference to imperial ceremonies, which appear to have fundamentally influenced their content and arrangement.4 ln like manner, the topography of the city and the palace and the disposition of religious and imperial objects therein were designed, at least in part, to facilitate and enhance the ceremonies in which the Emperors resident there took part. 5 Byzantine literature concerning imperial ceremonies provides a wealth of information and falls into two principal categories. The first is drawn primarily from narrative sources and is comprised of descriptions of particular events as they were performed on specific 1 For a general discussion of the source material see Michael McCormick, "Analyzing Imperial Ceremonies," JOB 35 (1985), 1-20. 2 The most famous example is Liudprand of Cremona, whose descriptions of the ceremonies he witnessed on his visits to Constantinople provide a colourful picture of the impression such events could have on those from without the Empire: Liudprand of Cremona, De Legatione Constantinopolitana, cc. 9-10, and his Antapodosis, book VI, cc. 5-10, ed., J. Becker, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Script. rernm Germanicarnm (Hanover and Leipzig, 1915). 3 This is not to suggest that Byzantine artists simply copied scenes from actual ceremonial performances. On the limitations of pictorial evidence for the history of ceremony see McCormick, "Analyzing Imperial Ceremonies," 9-10. 4 See, for example, Henry Maguire, "The Mosaics of the Nea Moni: An Imperial Reading," DOP 46 p992), 205-214. On the topography of Constantinople seeR. Janin, Constantinople Byzantine (Paris, 1950); J. Ebersolt, Constantinople (Paris, 1951 ); R. Guilland, Etudes de Topographie de Constantinople Byzantine (Berlin and Amsterdam, 1969); A. Vogt, "Notes de topographic byzantine," EO xxxvii (1940), 78-90. On the Great Palace see, for example, Bury, "The Great Palace," Byz. xxi (1912), 210-225; Ebersolt, LeGrand Palais de Constantinople et Le Livre des Ceremonies (Paris, 1910). Works on particular structures will be noted when they appear, although Cyril Mango, The Brazen House: A Study of the Vestibule ofthe Imperial Palace of Constantinople (Copenhagen, 1959) is of particular interest. For an interesting discussion of the disposition of holy relics in the palace see Ioli Kalavrezou, "Helping Hands for the Empire: Imperial Ceremonies and the Cult ofRelics at the Byzantine Court," in Maguire, Court Culture, 53-79. occasions. The second is contained in documents designed for use by the organisers of imperial ritual and is made up of information of a rather different character, by nature prescriptive and presented in an ahistorical manner. Of this second category, the tenth­ century treatise, known as the De Ceremoniis or Book ofCeremonies,6 preserved in a twelfth or early thirteenth-century manuscript in the university library at Leipzig, 7 is an indispensable source. Amongst a variety of documents, it contains numerous prescriptions for the conduct of imperial ceremonies to be observed on both religious and secular occasions. It is these that are the subject of the present study. In general terms, its purpose is to examine the way in which the ritual behaviour of the Emperor and his court, as it is presented in the ceremonial book,