IMC 2023: Sessions

Session 1615: Sino-Byzantine Comparisons, Eurasian Entanglements, II: Imperial Power in War, Peace, and Parrhesia

Thursday 6 July 2023, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:	ERC Project 'Classicising Learning in Medieval Imperial Systems: Cross-Cultural Approaches to Byzantine Paideia & Tang/Song Xue' / Centre for Late Antique, Islamic & Byzantine Studies, University of Edinburgh
Organiser:	Niels H. Gaul, Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest
Moderator/Chairs:	Niels H. Gaul, Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest Linda Walton, Department of History, Portland State University, Oregon
Paper 1615-a	Eternal Triumphant Victor: Imperial Military Achievement in Middle Byzantine Propaganda (Language: English) Defangyu Kong, School of History, Classics & Archaeology, University of Edinburgh Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Rhetoric
Paper 1615-b	Imperial Absences: Medieval Chinese Emperors in Textual Representations of Military Campaigns (Language: English) Michael Höckelmann, Department of History, King's College London Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Military History
Paper 1615-c	Words That Shook Thrones: Comparing Parrhesia in the Middle Byzantine and Tang Empires (Language: English) Bilal Adıgüzel, School of History, Classics & Archaeology, University of Edinburgh Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Political Thought
Abstract	This panel approaches the nature of the imperial office in early Middle Byzantium and Tang from a cross-cultural vantage point and two distinct perspectives: on the one hand, it examines the ideal role ascribed to the emperor in military affairs at the Chang'an and Constantinople courts; this allows for important conclusions as to how imperial power was perceived, propagated, and wielded. On the other hand, the study of parrhesia allows for an instructive comparison of the limitations literati sought to impose on imperial power in the discursive realm.