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IMC 2012: Sessions

Session 815: Ruling Byzantium: Regulating Ceremony, Diplomacy, and Monasticism in the Middle Byzantine Empire

Tuesday 10 July 2012, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:Cardiff Centre for Late Antique Religion & Culture, Cardiff University
Organiser:Shaun Tougher, School of History, Archaeology & Religion, Cardiff University
Moderator/Chair:Shaun Tougher, School of History, Archaeology & Religion, Cardiff University
Paper 815-aByzantine Rules That Are Adaptable: A Contradiction?
(Language: English)
Ann Moffatt, School of Cultural Inquiry, Australian National University
Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Mentalities
Paper 815-bHelmsmanship, History, and Rule-of-Thumb in Constantine VII's De administrando imperio
(Language: English)
Jonathan Shepard, Independent Scholar, Oxford
Index terms: Administration, Byzantine Studies
Paper 815-cThe Imperial Rules for Athos in the 10th and 11th Centuries
(Language: English)
Rosemary Morris, Department of History, University of York
Shaun Tougher, School of History, Archaeology & Religion, Cardiff University
Index terms: Byzantine Studies
Abstract

This session will explore key middle Byzantine texts for the regulation of ceremonial, diplomacy and monasticism. Ann Moffatt will focus on Constantine VII's Book of Ceremonies, and will ponder to what extent the protocols for ceremony and court hierarchy were adapted or were antiquated. Jonathan Shepard will consider Constantine VII's De administrando imperio and analyse the blend of principle and pragmatism in the emperor's advice to his son on governing the empire. Shaun Tougher will turn to monasticism, and study the circumstances which led to imperial intervention in the governance of monasteries on Athos and ask how imperial legislation interacted with the regulations issued by the founders of individual houses.