IMC 2022: Sessions

Session 119: Social and Literary Authority in Late Antiquity, I: Rhetoric and Philosophical Authority

Monday 4 July 2022, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:	Postgraduate & Early-Career Late Antiquity Network
Organiser:	Ben Kybett, Department of Classics University of Cambridge
Moderator/Chair:	Josh Littell, Department of Classics & Ancient History, University of Exeter
Paper 119-a	ἐστεμμένος καὶ μὴ τοιοῦτος: Reactions to the Authority of the Uncrowned in a Fractured Byzantium, 1204 - c.1230 (Language: English) Nathan Websdale, Wolfson College, University of Oxford Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Language and Literature - Greek, Social History
Paper 119-b	Authority and Himerius (Language: English) Valentina Barrile, Department of Classics, King's College London Index terms: Language and Literature - Greek, Rhetoric
Paper 119-c	Curbing the Philosopher-King: Philosophical versus Legal Authority in the Justinianic Dialogue On Political Science (Language: English) René de Nicolay, Historisches Seminar, Universität Zürich Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Philosophy, Political Thought
Abstract	This session explores ideas of philosophical and rhetorical authority within the late Roman and Byzantine world. The first paper (Websdale) explores the rhetoric of 'otherisation' in 13th century splinter-states and its use by a new secular elite. The second paper, (Barrile) approaches the life and career of Himerius and how he used his rhetorical skills to create an ideal of his own Athenian authority for his wider-audience. The final paper, (de Nicolay) considers the treatise 'On Political Science' and how it created two versions of supreme authority that existed in competition: that between the emperor and that of the law.