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Explores a Byzantine emperor's construction of authority with the help of his rhetorical texts Manuel II Palaiologos was not only a Byzantine emperor but also a remarkably prolific rhetorician and theologian. His oeuvre included letters, treatises, dialogues, short poems and orations. Florin Leonte deals with several of his texts shaped by a didactic intention to educate the emperor's son and successor, John VIII Palaiologos. He argues that the emperor constructed a rhetorical persona which he used in an attempt to compete with other contemporary power-brokers. While Manuel Palaiologos adhered to many rhetorical conventions of his day, he also reasserted the civic role of rhetoric. With a special focus on the first two decades of Manuel II Palaiologos' rule, 1391-1417, Leonte offers a new understanding of the imperial ethos in Byzantium by combining rhetorical analysis with investigation of social and political phenomena. Florin Leonte is Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Olomouc, Czech Republic.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
Part I: Dissent and Consent
1. Voices of Dissent: Preaching and Negotiating Authority
Organization of the ecclesiastics' group
Major political and social themes in the ecclesiastics' writings
2. Voices of Consent: Imperial Rhetoricians, Theatra, and Patronage
Theatra and imperial involvement
Profile and organization of the rhetoricians
Connections among the members of the literary court
The rhetorical landscape in the late Palaiologan period
Main themes in the rhetoricians' writings
Part II: Other Voices, Other Approaches: Manuel II's Political Writings
Introduction
3. The deliberative voice: The Dialogue with the Empress Mother on Marriage
Contents and structure
Genre
Constructing dialogic authority
4. The Didactic Voice: the Foundations of Imperial Conduct
Context of production
Contents and structure
Genre
Authorial voice
5. The didactic voice: The Orations (Seven ethical-political orations)
Introduction
The dramatic setting
The contents of the Orations
Major themes in the Orations
The contents and form of the orations
Between teaching and preaching: constructing the genre of the Orations
Authorial voice: teaching the son and admonishing the emperor
6. The narrative voice: The Funeral Oration on Brother Theodore, Despot of Morea
Contexts of production
The rhetorical template and the compositional structure of the Funeral oration
The narrator and the narrative
Authorial voice
7. Towards a Renewed Vision of Imperial Authority
Society and social "classes"
Enemies and allies
Markers of Byzantine Identity
Renewal of imperial ideology in Manuel's texts
Manuel II's Imperial vision and Style of government
Appendices
Bibiliography
Index
About the author
Florin Leonte is Assistant Professor at the Department of Classics, University of Olomouc, Czech Republic. He received his PhD in Byzantine Studies from the Central European University, Budapest. After graduating, he held a number of postdoctoral positions including a two-year lectureship at Harvard University, Department of the Classics, a fellowship at Villa I Tatti, The Research Center for Renaissance Studies in Florence, and a fellowship from the International Society for the History of Rhetoric.
Summary
With a special focus on the first two decades of Manuel II Palaiologos' rule, 13911417, Leonte offers a new understanding of the imperial ethos in Byzantium by combining rhetorical analysis with investigation of social and political phenomena.
