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De Administrando Imperio

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Constantine VII Porphyrogenitusin a 945 carved ivory.

De Administrando Imperio( "On the Governance of the Empire" ) is theLatintitle of a Greek-language work written by the 10th-century Eastern Roman EmperorConstantine VII.The Greek title of the work isΠρὸς τὸν ἴδιον υἱὸν αὐτοῦ Ῥωμανὸν( "To [my] own son Romanos" ). It is adomesticandforeign policymanual for the use of Constantine's son and successor, the EmperorRomanos II.It is a prominent example ofByzantine encyclopaedism.

Author and background[edit]

The emperor Constantine VII "Porphyrogenitus" (905–959) was only surviving son of the emperorLeo VI the Wise(886–912).[1]Leo VI gave the crown to young Constantine VII in 908 and he became the co-emperor.[2]Leo VI died in May 912, and his brother and co-emperorAlexanderbecame the ruler of Constantinople, but Alexander died in 913.[3][4]

Constantine VII was too young to rule on his own, and the governorship was created.[5][6]Later in May 919 Constantine VII marriedHelena Lekapene,daughter of Romanos Lekapenos. In December 920,Romanos I Lekapenos(920–944) was crowned a co-emperor, but he really took over the imperial reign inConstantinople.[7]From 920, Constantine VII become increasingly distant from the imperial authorities; until December 944, when the sons of Emperor Romanos I suddenly rebelled and cloistered their father. Constantine VII, with the help of his supporters, cloistered his brothers-in-law, and personally ruled by theEastern Roman Empirefrom January 945 to his death in November 959.[5][8][9]

Constantine's father, Leo was known for his learning and writings, and, correctly or not, Constantine VII also believed that his mother,Zoe Karbonopsina,was a relative of the chroniclerTheophanes the Confessor,[10]one of the Middle Byzantine Historians. Constantine VII was a scholar-emperor, who sought to foster learning and education in theEastern Roman Empire.He gathered a group of educated people and dedicated himself to writing books about the administration, ceremonies, and history of the Eastern Roman Empire. A circle of educated people formed around Constantine VII wrote three unfinished books (De Administrando Imperio,De Ceremoniisand On the Themes) and finished a biography of his grandfather,Basil I.[11][12][13]

The text known asDe Administrando Imperiowas written by emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, but he had at least one educated "Anonymous Collaborator".[14]Constantine VII's direct appeals to his son Romanus II and Constantine's first-person commentaries are located both at the beginning of the treatise in theProemand in chapter 13, as well as at the end of the text, in chapter 51.[15]In this text his son Romanus II is never designated as a self-sustained ruler.[16]Thus, the wholeDe Administrando Imperiomust have been written while Constantine VII was still alive.

It is said thatDe Administrando Imperiowas written between 948 and 952.[17][18][19][20]Chapters 27, 29, and 45 of the work support that view. Chapter 29 says, "now (today) is the VII indiction, the year 6457 from the creation of the world," andByzantineyear 6457 from the creation of the world corresponds with 948/949 CE.[12]Chapter 45 says, "now (today) is the X indiction, the year from the creation of the world 6460 in the reign ofConstantine [VII]andRomanus [II],"and Byzantine year 6460 from the creation of the world corresponds with 951/952 CE.[12]From this, it would appear that some parts of the work were written in the period 948-952 CE. According to other researchers,De Administrando Imperiowas compiled at some point after 952 and before November959when Constantine VII died.[21]Still others believe the book just an unfinished manuscript written between about 926 and November 959.[22][23]

In the beginning of theDe Administrando Imperio,Constantine VII wrote that the work was a set of knowledge which his son Romanos II (born in 938, and ruled 959–963) will need.[24][25]The intention of Emperor Constantine VII to write a manual for his successor, Romanos II, reduces the possibility that large untruths have been written. Therefore,De Administrando Imperiois one of the most important sources for the study of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) and its neighbors.

It contains advice on ruling the heterogeneous empire as well as fighting foreign enemies. The work combines two of Constantine's earlier treatises, "On the Governance of the State and the various Nations" (Περὶ Διοικήσεως τοῦ Κράτους βιβλίον καὶ τῶν διαφόρων Ἐθνῶν), concerning the histories and characters of the nations neighbouring the Empire, including theHungarians,Pechenegs,Kievan Rus',South Slavs,Arabs,Lombards,Armenians,andGeorgians;and the "On theThemesof East and West "(Περὶ θεμάτων Ἀνατολῆς καὶ Δύσεως,known in Latin asDe Thematibus), concerning recent events in the imperial provinces. To this combination were added Constantine's own political instructions to his son, Romanus.

Content[edit]

The book content, according to its preface, is divided into four sections:[26]

  • a key to the foreign policy in the most dangerous and complicated area of the contemporary political scene, the area of northerners and Scythians,
  • a lesson in the diplomacy to be pursued in dealing with the nations of the same area
  • a comprehensive geographic and historical survey of most of the surrounding nations and
  • a summary of the recent internal history, politics and organization of the Empire.

As to the historical and geographic information, which is often confusing and filled with legends, this information is in essence reliable.[26]

The historical and antiquarian treatise, which the Emperor had compiled during the 940s, is contained in the chapters 12–40. This treatise contains traditional and legendary stories of how the territories surrounding the Empire came in the past to be occupied by the people living in them in the Emperor's times (Saracens,Lombards,Venetians,Serbs,Croats,Magyars,Pechenegs). Chapters 1–8, 10—12 explain imperial policy toward thePechenegsandTurks.Chapter 13 is a general directive on foreign policy coming from the Emperor. Chapters 43—46 are about contemporary policy in the north-east (ArmeniaandGeorgia). The guides to the incorporation and taxation of new imperial provinces, and to some parts of civil and naval administration, are in chapters 49–52. These later chapters (and chapter 53) were designed to give practical instructions to the emperor Romanus II, and are probably added during the year 951–52, in order to mark Romanus' fourteenth birthday (952).

Manuscripts and editions[edit]

There are four surviving copies:

Name Copier Year Location
P=codex Parisinus gr. 2009 Michael (John Doukas' confidential secretary) late 11th century Earliest copy Bibliothèque Nationale,Paris
V=codex Vaticanus-Palatinus gr. 126 Antony Eparchus 1509 Notes in Greek and Latin added by later readers Vatican Library
F=codex Parisinus gr. 2967 Eparchus, then Michael Damascene 1509–1529(?) Copy ofV Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
M=codexMutinensisgr. 179 Andrea Darmari 1560–1586(?) Copy (incomplete) ofP Modena

The Greek text in its entirety was published seven times. Theeditio princeps,which was based onV,was published in 1611 byJohannes Meursius,who gave it the Latin title by which it is now universally known, and which translates asOn Administering the Empire.[27]This edition was published six years later with no changes. The next edition – which belongs to theA. Bandur(1711) – is collated copy of the first edition and manuscriptP.Banduri's edition was reprinted twice: in 1729 in the Venetian collection of theByzantine Historians,and in 1864 Migne republished Banduri's text with a few corrections.

Constantine himself had not given the work a name, preferring instead to start the text with the standard formal salutation: "Constantine, in Christ the Eternal Sovereign, Emperor of the Romans, to [his] own son Romanos, the Emperor crowned of God andborn in the purple".

Language[edit]

The language Constantine uses is rather straightforward HighMedieval Greek,somewhat more elaborate than that of the CanonicGospels,and easily comprehensible to an educated modern Greek.[citation needed]The only difficulty is the regular use of technical terms which – being in standard use at the time – may presentprima faciehardships to a modern reader. For example, Constantine writes of the regular practice of sendingbasilikoí(lit."royals" ) to distant lands for negotiations. In this case, it is merely meant that "royal men", i.e. imperial envoys, were sent asambassadorson a specific mission. In the preamble, the emperor makes a point that he has avoided convoluted expressions and "loftyAtticisms"on purpose, so as to make everything" plain as the beaten track of common, everyday speech "for his son and those high officials with whom he might later choose to share the work. It is probably the extant written text that comes closest to the vernacular employed by the imperial palace bureaucracy in 10th-century Constantinople.[citation needed]

Modern editions[edit]

In 1892 R. Vari planned a new critical edition of this work andJ.B. Burylater proposed to include this work in his collection of Byzantine Texts. He gave up the plan for an edition, surrendering it toGyula Moravcsikin 1925. The first modern edition of the Greek text (by Gy. Moravscik) and its English translation (byR. J. H. Jenkins) appeared in Budapest in 1949. The next editions appeared in 1962 (Athlone, London) then in 1967 and 1993 (Dumbarton OaksResearch Library and Collection, Washington D.C.).

References[edit]

  1. ^Moravcsik 1967,pp. 7.
  2. ^Литаврин 1991,pp. 13.
  3. ^Острогорский 2011,pp. 335.
  4. ^Литаврин 1991,pp. 13–14.
  5. ^abOstrogorsky 1956.
  6. ^Острогорский 2011,pp. 338.
  7. ^Острогорский 2011,pp. 338–339.
  8. ^Острогорский 2011,pp. 353–354, 359.
  9. ^Shchavelev 2019,pp. 686 (6). Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus died on 9 (or 15) November 959.
  10. ^Treadgold 2013,pp. 154–155.
  11. ^Treadgold 2013,pp. 157, 164–165.
  12. ^abcLogos 2019,pp. 10, 10B.
  13. ^Aleksandar Logos (2019).Istorija Srba 1 - Dopuna 4; Istorija Srba 5.Beograd: ATC. p. 10.ISBN978-86-85117-46-6.
  14. ^Shchavelev 2019,pp. 698 -701 (18-21).
  15. ^Shchavelev 2019,pp. 686 (6).
  16. ^Shchavelev 2019,pp. 688 (8).
  17. ^Bury 1920,pp. V.
  18. ^Moravcsik 1967,pp. 11–12.
  19. ^Günter Prinzing; Maciej Salamon (1999).Byzanz und Ostmitteleuropa 950-1453: Beiträge zu einer table-ronde des XIX. International Congress of Byzantine Studies, Copenhagen 1996.Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. pp. 24–.ISBN978-3-447-04146-1.
  20. ^Angeliki E. Laiou(1 January 1992).Byzantium: A World Civilization.Dumbarton Oaks. pp. 8–.ISBN978-0-88402-215-2.
  21. ^Shchavelev 2019,pp. 686–687, 701 (6-7, 21).
  22. ^Logos 2019,pp. 8, 10–11, and 8B, 10-11B.
  23. ^Aleksandar Logos (2019).Istorija Srba 1 - Dopuna 4; Istorija Srba 5.Beograd: ATC. pp. 8, 10–11.ISBN978-86-85117-46-6.
  24. ^Moravcsik 1967,pp. 44–47.
  25. ^Литаврин 1991,pp. 15, 32–33.
  26. ^abOstrogorsky 1956,p. 105, note.
  27. ^Moravcsik 1967,pp. 23.

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]


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