Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
LXII
LE CORTI
NELLALTO MEDIOEVO
PRIMO
FONDAZIONE
2015
INDICE
IX
Intervenuti .....................................................................
XI
XIII
GIUSEPPE SERGI, Forme e compiti delle aggregazioni intorno ai poteri altomedievali ..........................................................
25
95
97
109
111
135
PHILIPPE DEPREUX, Der karolingische Hof als Institution und Personenverband ...............................................................
Discussione sulla lezione Depreux ....................................
137
165
167
195
197
231
VI
INDICE
235
259
279
281
313
319
353
357
385
429
473
501
503
543
585
587
609
611
625
VII
INDICE
627
651
FABRIZIO CRIVELLO, Il ruolo della corte nellarte carolingia. Le testimonianze dei manoscritti miniati ...................................
653
667
701
703
DANIELE BIANCONI, Libri e letture di corte a Bisanzio. Da Costantino il Grande allascesa di Alessio I Comneno ........................
Discussione sulla lezione Bianconi ....................................
767
817
821
853
887
ANTONELLA BALLARDINI, In antiquissimo ac venerabili Lateranensi palatio : la residenza dei pontefici secondo il Liber
Pontificalis .................................................................
889
LORENZO ARIAS PRAMO, Iconografa del poder en el Arte Altomedieval Asturiano (s. VIII-IX) ......................................
929
1001
MICHAEL FEATHERSTONE
588
MICHAEL FEATHERSTONE
many reconstructions have been made, such as that on the internet site
Byzantium 1200 by Tayfun ner showing the palace on the eve of the
Fourth Crusade 4.
But such reconstructions are to be used with caution, for the Great
Palace was in effect two palaces: an older one, originally built by Constantine I, and a newer one which had taken shape in the late seventh
century. The old palace, outlined in Fig. 2, was on the higher level at
32m, beside the Great Church of Saint Sophia and the city Hippodrome,
with which it was closely connected. The new Palace, also outlined in
Fig. 2, was on a lower level at 16m beside the Sea of Marmara.
Careful reading of the literary sources show that by the ninth century
the old buildings on the upper level were no longer considered part of
the Palace. Emptied of their furnishings, they lacked even lighting. Just
as other late-antique buildings of Constantinople had been abandoned
or transformed in the Mediaeval period, so it was with the monumental
old palace now a sort of white elephant whose everyday functions were
transferred to the more compact, fortified palace below 5.
Let us review the principal structures of both palaces, beginning
with the old.
We have already mentioned the monumental entrance, the Chalke
Gate. A large building with a central vaulted chamber, the Chalke had a
great bronze door. But by the tenth century this door was used very
rarely, only when the emperor went out in grand procession, through
the Regia (the continuation of the Mese, ending at the Chalke) to the
Augustaion, the late-antique square beside St Sophia which was now
enclosed by walls. In the midst of the Augustaion rose an equestrian
statue of the emperor Justinian; and on its eastern side was the
Magnaura, or Magna Aula, the former Senate House 6. Crossing the
4. http://byzantium1200.com/images/tile01L.jpg
5. On the Great Palace, see most recently A. BERGER, The Byzantine Court as Physical Space,
in The Byzantine Court: Source of Power and Culture in: The Byzantine Court: Source of Power and
Culture, ed. N. NECIPOGLU - A. DEKAN - E. AKYREK, Istanbul, 2013 (2nd International Sevgi
Gonl Byzantine Studies Symposium, Istanbul 21-23 June 2010), pp. 13-22. About the
development and discontinuity of the upper palace: J. BARDILL, Visualizing the Great Palace of the
Byzantine Emperors at Constantinople. Archaeology, Text and Topography, in Visualisierung von
Herrschaft. Frhmittelalterliche Residenzen. Gestalt und Zerimoniell, ed. F. A. BAUER, Istanbul, 2006
(Byzas, 5), pp. 5-46; J. M. FEATHERSTONE, Der Grosse Palast von Konstantinopel: Tradition oder
Erfindung?, in Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 106 (2013), pp. 19-38.
6. Evidence of the sources for the Augustaion and Senate/Magnaura in C. MANGO, The
589
590
MICHAEL FEATHERSTONE
591
On the eastern end was the banqueting hall, called the Triklinos of
the 19 Couches, in reference to its furniture for dining in antique fashion.
Here we might imagine a building with nine recesses on each of the
long sides and a main apse at one end, resembling the fifth-century hall
excavated on the north side the Hippodrome. Each niche contained a table
with three couches for the invited officials, with the emperor and his
guests at a further table in the main apse 13.
To the west of the 19 Couches stood the Cubiculum, or Koiton in
Greek, the old imperial Bedchamber. We have no indication of its form
other than its location beside an Octagon, which was used as a Vestry for
ceremonies in the tenth century. The Octagon was in turn connected with
the church of St Stephen; and all these structures gave onto a court
called the Daphne, a name used also for the old palace in general 14.
To the west of the Cubiculum was the Kathisma, or imperial box
on the Hippodrome. Beneath the Kathisma was a gate giving passage
from the arena of the Hippodrome into the court of the Daphne
behind. By the ninth century this gate had replaced the Chalke as the
main access to the new palace on the lower level 15.
The Hippodrome was still used for races on a few set days in the
year. These were, however, no longer true sporting events, but had
become highly ritualised, with ostentatious display of costume and
antiquarian usages which few of the spectators would have understood.
The circus factions, once the sports clubs of late antiquity, were now
little more than chanters and dancers on the palace rolls for the
performance of ceremonial in the Hippodrome and Palace 16.
Lastly, beside the 19 Couches and giving on to the courts of the
Tribunalion and the Daphne, stood the Augustaeus, now used chiefly
13. 19 Couches: S. MALMBERG, Dazzling Dining: Banquets as an Expression of Imperial
Legitimacy, Uppsala, 2003, pp. 91-98. Dining hall beside the palace of Antiochus: J. BARDILL, The
Palace of Lausus and Nearby Monuments in Constantinople, in American Journal of Archeology, 101
(1997), pp. 67-69, 86-89 and MALMBERG, Dazzling Dining cit. (above in this note), p. 86.
14. For the Daphne, see KOSTENEC, Heart of Empire cit. (note 9), pp. 4-10.
15. For the Kathisma, see J. BARDILL, The Architecture and Archeology of the Hippodrome in
Constantinople, in Hippodrom/Atmeydani. A Stage for Istanbuls History, Istanbul, 2010 (Catalogue
of Exhibition, Pera Museum), pp. 140-145. If Bergers thesis is correct, that the Chalke was
added only in 498 (see note 11 above), the gate under the Kathisma or another behind the
Hippodrome would have been the main entrance to the Palace. For the gate under the
Kathisma in later times, see note 33 below.
16. Hippodrome: Hippodrom/Atmeydani cit. (note 15); G. DAGRON, LHippodrome de
Constantinople. Jeux, peuple et politique, Paris, 2011.
592
MICHAEL FEATHERSTONE
593
show signs of earlier repairs, were covered with a white marble flooring
and the northern colonnade was walled up rendering it a corridor beside a
court. Other buildings were constructed on the sides of the complex,
and walls were constructed dividing the space within the Apsed Hall.
Deposits of pottery and kitchen refuse show that by the end of the
eighth century some of the adjoining buildings were used for dumping
rubbish 22. It is my impression that by the tenth century the general area
of the Walker Trust buildings on the 26m terrace, together with the
complex of the Triconch-Sigma on the slope just below, was referred
to as the Apsis, or Arch 23. The sources give evidence of private houses
built in the area of the Apsis, said to be near the palace, in the ninth
century 24. In the tenth century chapters of the De Cerimoniis the Apsis is
mentioned exclusively in connexion with corridors running through it
residences, such as are listed in the First Region in the Theodosian Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae: Palatium Placidianum, Domus Placidiae Augustae, Domus nobilissimae Marinae, Notitia
Dignitatum, ed. O. SEECK, Berlin, 1876, p. 230, 10-13. Cf. C. MANGO, The Palace of Matina, the
Poet Pallados and the Bath of Leo VI, in Eufrsunon. Afirwma ston Manlh Catzidkh, ed. E.
KYPRAIOU, Athens, 1991, esp. pp. 321-326. Citing John of Ephesus, Cyril Mango has very
convincingly argued for the identification of the Mosaic Peristyle and Apsed Hall with
constructions of the emperor Tiberius II (574-582), C. MANGO - I. LAVIN, Review of TALBOT
RICE, Great Palace (note 3), in The Art Bulletin, 42 (1960), pp. 67-73. Excluded by the dowager
empress Sophia from the official Palace, Tiberius pulled down many buildings and restored
others on the entire northern side of the Palace (viz. north of the lower Palace), constructing also
many buildings, including a bath and a stable, on the site of a former garden; and thus he made a
magnificent palace for himself, in consolation for his exclusion from the Palace above by the
dowager Sophia: Ioannis Ephesini Historiae ecclesisaticae pars tertia, ed. E. W. BROOKS, II, Louvain,
1936 (Corpus scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium. Scriptores Syri, ser. 3, t. 3), XXIII, p.
111, 1-19.
22. BRETT et al., Great Palace cit. (note 1), pp. 4-30; TALBOT RICE, Second Report cit. (note 5),
pp. 1-51; BARDILL, Visualizing the Great Palace cit. (note 5), pp. 12-20; BERGER, Byzantine Court
cit. (note 5), p. 18.
23. For the Triconch-Sigma, see note 32 below. BARDILL, Visualizing the Great Palace cit.
(note 5), p. 16, retaining his earlier identification of the Walker Trust complex with the
Augusteus, suggests that the tropik, or arch, which figured in Theophiluss Triconch-Sigma
complex might be the origin of the name. This might make sense in some passages of the De
Cerimoniis which refer to the hemikyklion (presumably Theophiluss Sigma) of the Apsis, e. g.,
ed. REISKE cit. (note 3), I 23, p. 128, 18, and others which appear to connect this same with the
Triconch, ibid., p. 128, 20-21: oi to kouboukleou dcontai tn basila en t hmikuklw tv aydov,
hgoun to trikgcou; ibid., I 32, p.174,19-20: dircetai di tv Augoustwv ka aydov to trikgcou, ka
mnousin oi basilev en t aut aydi to trikgcou. But in yet other passages, the Apsis appears to be
something different from the Triconch, see note 25 below.
24. Theophanes Continuatus, ed. I. BEKKER, Bonn, 1838, pp. 139,19-147,21, relates that
594
MICHAEL FEATHERSTONE
which joined the lower Palace with other places 25. Finally, remains of
minting activity have been found in a twelfth-century layer of a
building beside the peristyle, perhaps marking the location of the
imperial mint, known to have been somewhere along the way from the
gate under the Kathisma to the church of the Pharos 26.
Justinians successor, Justin, also had a private house on the lower
level, near the harbour of Julian/Sophia, and it was Justin who constructed
on the lower level the Chrysotriklinos, or Golden Hall, which was to
replace the Consistory as throne hall of the empire 27. An octagon,
similar in form to the nearby church of Sergius and Bacchus or San
Vitale in Ravenna and perhaps a model for Charlemagnes chapel in
Aachen , the Chrysotriklinos was the interface between the private
Theoktistos, regent for Michael III, built for himself in the Apsis a house with a bath and an iron
gate, before which he posted a guard.
25. For example, on the way from the Chrysotriklinos to the church of the Lord (and
further, to the quarters of the guards and St Sophia or the Magnaura), one went through the
corridors of the 40 Martyrs and the Triconch-Sigma, De Cerimoniis, ed. REISKE cit. (note 3), I 30,
p. 169, 3-8 and II 15, p. 567, 1-8; on the way from the Chrysotriklinos to the Augusteus, one
went through the hemikyklion of the Triconch, the Apsis (NB the two latter were not the same!)
and the Daphne, ibid., I 35, p. 180, 14-21: o d basilev... dircetai ent hmikuklw tv mustikv filhv to
sin eukthroiv khra;
trikgcou, ka eiq outwv dircetai... di te tv aydov ka tv dfnhv, aptwn entov ekese ou
and on the way from the Chrysotriklinos to the Hippodrome, one went through the corridors
of the 40 Martyrs, the hemikyklion of the Triconch, the Apsis and the Daphne, ibid., I 68, p. 304,
5-9 and 18-20 (again, the Apsis and the Triconch are separate). All this, together with the
examples in note 23 above, would suggest that Apsis was a general notion for the area of both
the Walker Trust buildings and the Triconch-Sigma.
26. Minting refuse: BRETT et al., Second Report cit. (note 1), pp. 25-26; description of the
Nikolaos Messarites meeting the escaping workers of the mint (during the revolt of John
Comnenus in 1200) on his way to the Pharos: A. HEISENBERG, Nikolaos Messarites. Die
Palastrevolution des Johannes Komnenos, Wrzburg, 1907 (Programm des k. alten Gymnasiums zu
Wrzburg fr 1906/1907), pp. 25,31-27,3, esp. 26, 25-29.
27. Suidae Lexicon, ed. A. ADLER, IV, Leipzig, 1971, p. 646, 8; Symeonis Magistri et Logothetae
Chronicon, ed. S. WAHLGREN, Berlin-New York, 2006, p.105, 3 (and apparatus) and p. 145, 12.
John of Ephesus, Historiae cit. (note 21), XXIV, p. 111, 24-29, says that Justin desired to make
another of his estates, at Deuteron (just outside the Constantinian land walls), into a palace. He
destroyed many preexisting buildings and constructed others, including a hippodrome and
pleasure gardens with bronze statues. Similarly, one wonders whether the construction of the
Chrysotriklinos could not have been part of a plan by Justin to make his estate by the Sophia
harbour into a palace-perhaps already with a view to replacing the old Palace above. However,
it was probably not until the construction under Justinian II of the Ioustinianos and Lausiakos,
the assembly halls beside the Chrysotriklinos, that the official functions of the court could be
shifted there definitively (note 29 below).
595
and public parts of the new Palace, that is, between the Koiton, or
imperial Bedchamber on its southern side and, on its northern side, the
halls of assembly and Offices of administration. Like the old Consistory,
the Chrysotriklinos had a raised throne in an apse on its central eastern
side. An outside corridor, with connecting vaults on the other seven
sides, opened through arches into the central space under a dome with
sixteen windows. These arches were closed with curtains; and the
divided curtains before the entrance in the central western vault were
drawn aside to admit officials into the presence of the emperor sitting in
the eastern apse 28.
Two halls of assembly, the Lausiakos and the Ioustinianos, were
built beside the Chrysotriklinos under Justinian II in the late-seventh
century. The southern doors of the Lausiakos opened onto the western
porch of the Chrysotriklinos, called the Horologion (probably a sundial).
The Lausiakos contained a chapel and also kitchens, and its northern
side connected with the Ioustinianos and with the Offices of the
imperial administration. The Ioustinianos opened on its southern side
towards the Lausiakos, and on its northern side it had a semicircular
porch, called the Skyla, or Trophies perhaps referring to prows from
naval victories. The gate of the Skyla was the northernmost boundary of
the palace. It opened into the so-called Covered Hippodrome, probably
the hippodrome of a former private villa that of Priscus on his estate in
the quarter of Boraides? which had been roofed over and converted
into a vestibule of the lower Palace 29. Here imperial officials, coming
28. J. M. FEATHERSTONE, The Chrysotriklinos as Seen through De Cerimoniis, in: L. HOFFMANN
ed., Zwischen Polis, Provinz und Peripherie. Beitrge zur byzantinischen Kulturgeschichte, Wiesbaden,
2005 (Mainzer Verffentlichungen zur Byzantinistik 7), pp. 845-852. NB the sketch map on p.
840 is incorrect in showing the Ioustinianos as extending down to the Chrysotriklinos; for a
corrected version see Fig. 3 of the present article.
29. Construction of the Lausiakos and Ioustinianos: Patria III, 130, ed. T. PREGER, Scriptores
originum Constantinopolitanarum, II, Leipzig 1907, p. 257, 1-2. As others, e.g. KOSTENEC, Heart of
Empire cit. (note 9), 11-13, I formerly believed that the Covered Hippodrome was part of the
old upper Palace, a rectangular garden similar to the so-called Stadio on the Palatine in Rome.
However, it seems more likely that it was a real hippodrome of a private estate outside the
boundaries of the old Palace which was subsequently roofed over and made into a vestibule of
the new lower Palace. We have already mentioned the private houses of the Theodosian
dynasty which are known to have been in the in the First Region (note 21). And there is also
evidence for private hippodromes in the city, for example on the estate of Hierius called
Koparia at Sykai, Corpus iuris civilis, ed. W. KROLL - R. SCHLL, III, Berlin, 1895 (reprint 1968),
Novella 159, p. 738,11; on the estate of Justin II at Deuteron, Iohannis Ephesini Historiae, ed.
Brooks cit. (note 21), cap. XXIV, p. 111, 24-29; and most importantly, in the time of Heracliuss
596
MICHAEL FEATHERSTONE
from the city through the gate under the Kathisma and the court of the
Daphne, waited each day for the opening of the Palace. Entering at the
Skyla they proceeded to the Ioustinianos and Lausiakos, taking their
places by rank on benches along the side walls 30.
This assembly of officials in the Ioustinianos and Lausiakos was
called the daily procession, the Byzantine successor of the Roman
Salutatio, one of the Cottidiana Officia, or daily duties of imperial
officials 31.
Now, in the ninth century the Chrysotriklinos was some 300 years
old, and the emperor Theophilus constructed a grand complex (marked
in Fig. 2) centred on a Triconch and semicircular portico called the
Sigma on higher ground north-east of the Chrysotriklinos, together with
a number of pavilion-like lodgings after the fashion of residences of the
Abbasid rulers of Baghdad, with whom Theophilus had close contacts.
Theophilus so loved these buildings that he held all daily functions there
instead of in the Chrysotriklinos 32.
Although very keen on ceremonial and the repair of old vestments,
Theophilus appears to have had no interest in the old upper palace.
defeat of Phocas, on the estate of Priscus which had belonged to Justinians cousin Boraides
near modern Yenikapi and thus in the area of the lower palace, Joannis Antiocheni fragmenta ex
historia chronica, ed. U. Roberto, Berlin-New York, 2005 (Texte und Untersuchungen zur
Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur, 154), Fragmentum 321, p. 552, 21-23 (excluded as
spurious from Joannis Antiocheni fragmenta quae supersunt omnia, ed., S. MARIEV, Berlin, 2008
[Corpus Fontium historiae Byzantinae. Series Berolinensis, 47], pp. 7*-8* and 599). One
wonders whether this could not have been the Covered Hippodrome itself.
30. See note 39 below.
31. About the Salutatio see A. WINTERLING, Aula Caesaris. Studien zur Institutionalisierung des
rmischen Kaiserhofs in der Zeit von Augustus bis Commodus, Munich, 1999, pp. 117-138; C.
ROLLINGER, En Theo pistos basileus Kaiserpalast und Kaiserzeremoniell im Grossen Palast zu
Konstantinopel (Universitt Trier, Fachbereich III / Kunstgeschichte, Wintersemester
2006/2007, Hauptseminar Zeremoniell und Raum ), Trier, 2007, p. 13.
32. For the buildings of Theophilus, see Theophanes Continuatus, ed. BEKKER cit. (note 23),
pp. 139,17 - 147,1; possible Abbasid parallels: J. SIGNES, The Emperor Theophilus and the East,
829-842. Court and Frontier in Byzantium during the Last Phase of Iconoclasm (Birmingham
Byzantine and Ottoman Studies, 13), Ashgate, 2014, pp. 446-451; Abbasid inspiration in palace
furniture: M. ANGAR, Furniture and Imperial Ceremony in the Great Palace: Revisiting the
pentapyrgion, in J. M. FEATHERSTONE - J.-M. SPIESER - U. WULF-RHEIDT, ed., The Emperors
House: Palaces from Augustus to the Age of Absolutism, Berlin (Urban Spaces 3), forthcoming; daily
procession in Triconch-Sigma: Theophanes Continuatus, ed. BEKKER cit. (note 23), p. 142, 20-22.
Theophilus so loved his new constructions that he took up residence in them (shifting from one
to another according to the season) and abandoned the Bedchamber (Koiton) beside the
Chrysotriklinos, ibid., p. 144, 5-11.
597
Even on such a great occasion as his triumph for the capture of Tarsus in
the year 831, though he made a ceremonial stop in front of the Chalke
Gate, he did not go in. Instead, he rode to the Hippodrome and entered
the gate under the Kathisma, going through the court of the Daphne to
the lower Palace 33.
Finally, toward the end of the ninth century, Basil I, founder of the
Macedonian dynasty, added major new buildings on the lower level:
the New Hall (Kainourgios) of the imperial Bedchamber beside the
Chrysotriklinos, and the large, five-domed Nea or New Church. 34
The name new in the case of the Kainourgios surely emphasises a
renewal of the Palace, and in the case of the Nea Church a supplement
if not replacement of St Sophia.
Thus, by the ninth century the old and the new buildings of the Great
Palace had ceased to be a functioning whole. However, the vision of
modern scholars has been blurred by the antiquarianism of the literary
sources of the Macedonian period, in particular the Banquet Book of
Philotheos and the De Cerimoniis, sponsored by Basils son Leo VI and
his grandson Constantine VII respectively 35. These texts are not simply,
as they pretend, compendia codifying old confused ceremonies, but
instruments of idealogical manipulation.
The Macedonians had seised power from the Amorian dynasty in
867 through Basils murder of Michael III, son of Theophilus. To justify
this coup, Basil and his offspring pursued a programme of cultural
propaganda what used to be called the Macedonian Renaissance in
order to demonstrate their restoration of what they imagined to be old
Roman, that is, Constantinian, traditions. The Macedonians predecessors,
the Iconoclast Amorians, were branded not only as heretics but also
barbarians, who had adopted foreign ways. Perhaps the best known
products of this renaissance are the illuminated manuscripts after
late-antique models 36.
33. J. HALDON, Constantine Porphyrogenitus. Three treatises on imperial military expeditions,
Vienna, 1990, Appendix C, pp. 146,825 - 150,873.
34. Buildings of Basil: Chronographiae quae Theophanis Continuati nomine fertur Liber quo Vita
Basilii Imperatoris amplectitur, ed. I. SEVCENKO, Berlin-New York, 2011 (Corpus Fontium
Historiae Byzantinae, 42/2), 83.1 - 86.27, pp. 272-280 and 89.1-82, pp. 288-294.
35. De Cerimoniis, ed. REISKE cit. (note 3); Philotheos: N. OIKONOMIDES, Les Listes de prsance
byzantines des IXe et Xe sicles, Paris, 1972, pp. 81-235
36. E.g. the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus in Parisinus graecus 510 (X s.), f. 440, with
scenes of the life of Constantine I. On the Macedonian Renaissance, see most recently: L.
598
MICHAEL FEATHERSTONE
599
When the first hour of day has passed, the chief steward goes to the
silver doors of the Bedchamber and, raising the bolt, strikes three times.
At the emperors command, the attendants bring in the skaramangion
from the bench outside the doors. The emperor puts it on and goes out
into the apse of the Chrysotriklinos, beneath the divine-human image
of the Lord; and reciting prayers and bowing down, he offers reverence
as a servant unto God. Then he sits on the golden seat sellion, from the
Latin sella which is placed there, and he commands the papias, who is
standing before the curtains of the western doors, to admit the logothete1
a sort of foreign minister.
The papias goes out into the Lausiakos, where the manglavitae,
or strap-bearers are standing, and tells the admensounalios - a sort of
seneschal to bring in the logothete. The admensounalios goes out
to the Offices apparently on the eastern side of the Lausiakos and
brings in the logothete, walking before him. When the logothete
comes in through the curtain of the Chrysotriklinos, he falls down in
obeisance and then approaches the emperor.
Note that if the logothete goes out and comes in again, he does
not do obeisance a second time. This same rule is observed for all.
Note that the golden seat on which the emperor sits is set up in
the apse on the right side of the imperial throne; and if there should
be other emperors, their seats are placed beneath the apse.
Note that if there be no pressing business, the dismissal minsai,
from Late Latin missa is given after the third hour. Taking his keys
from the bench, the papias shakes them as he comes out, so all might
know that the dismissal is given.
Note that on ordinary days the emperor sits on the golden seat
which is set up on the right side of the throne, wearing only a skaramangion;
but on Sundays he sits, vested also in a gold-bordered cloak, on the seat
covered with purple silk which is set up on the left side of the throne.
Note that if the emperor wish that certain foreigners should present
themselves, he sits on this same left side of the throne, vested with the
gold-bordered cloak; and the chamberlains stand by.
in the De Cerimoniis, but they can be inferred from another chapter, ed. REISKE cit. (note 3), I 97,
pp. 441,21 - 442,21, on the promotion the proedros, or president of the Senate, which speaks also
of this officials daily routine (en tav koinav hmraiv). Composed and added to the De Cerimoniis by
Basil the Nothos, this chapter reflects usages in the 960s, cf. FEATHERSTONE, Basil the Nothos cit.
(note 3), p. 356.
600
MICHAEL FEATHERSTONE
601
the first meeting each day. Dress was kept to a minimum: a simple
skaramangion for everyone; though, of course, the emperor was never
upstaged: junior emperors sat on a lower level, and everyone else
remained standing.
For greater effect in the presence of foreign dignitaries, the emperor
wore a cloak with the crown, and the chamberlains stood by. Exceptional
though this was, the register remained that of daily affairs, with the
emperor sitting on a simple seat to one side, whilst the empty throne in
the centre of the apse represented Gods supreme authority.
However, for official functions, such as the promotion of imperial
officials, the emperor sat with his crown on the throne itself, surrounded
by the chamberlains. The papias censed the emperor with the thurible;
and then the assembly of imperial officials what the Byzantines called
the Senate , was admitted by rank in eight entres, called curtains in
reference to the curtain being drawn aside each time for their entry.
Straightway they fell down in obeisance to the emperor and stood in
their place in accordance with their rank; and thereupon the candidate
was promoted to his office under the gaze of all 44.
Here we enter the higher, sacral register of palace ceremonial, for
which, in the ceremonial protocol of the Macedonian period, the
Chrysotriklinos and its dependencies the Palace proper at the time
did not suffice 45. For instance, according to the De Cerimoniis the act of
promotion of a patrikios takes place in the Chrysoriklinos; but then he is
escorted by the circus factions through the old palace: first to St
Stephens church and the Consistory to light candles presumably in
the church of the Lord and then, through the guards quarters and the
Chalke and the portico, to the Holy Well and St Sophia for communion
with the patriarch 46.
44. De Cerimoniis, ed. REISKE cit. (note 3), I 48, pp. 244,4 - 249,20.
45. The preface to Book I of the De Cerimoniis, ed. REISKE cit. (note 3), p. 5, 6-8, speaks of
the orderly ceremonial of the palace as a representation of the harmony and movement of the
creator. Concerning the origins and development of this sacral register; cf. M.-C. CARILE,
Imperial palaces and heavenly Jerusalems: Real and ideal palaces in Late Antiquity, in: Mmeze
Ieorpjkz Ieoqhqh h himlmcosh piojblzt nompqolpqb, ed. A. M. LIDOV, Moscow,
2009, pp. 97-101.
46. De Cerimoniis, ed. REISKE cit. (note 3), I 48, pp. 249,10 - 251,14. The second, apparently
separate, text of this chapter subtitled Acclamations of the factions on the promotion of a
patrikios describes the same itinerary taken by the patrikios after the ceremony in the
602
MICHAEL FEATHERSTONE
603
604
MICHAEL FEATHERSTONE
605
606
MICHAEL FEATHERSTONE
Some of the monumental open spaces of the old palace are still mentioned,
but we do not know to what extent they were reduced or altered 62.
The Arab historian Harun ibn-Yahya, who was prisoner in Constantinople in the tenth century, describes processions from the gate of the
Palace to St Sophia as going through the centre of the city. By Palace
here, Yahya must mean the lower palace; and thus, that which he calls
the centre of the city can only be the area of the old palace. Despite
Yahyas exaggerations of the number of participants, his description of
walls covered with precious fabrics corresponds with descriptions in the
De Cerimoniis of the old buildings being hung and passages blocked off
with textiles perhaps to hide their delapidated state 63. This, then,
always referred to as the triklinos where the baldachin hangs and the magistroi are promoted:
De Cerimoniis, ed. REISKE cit. (note 3), II 15, pp. 573,8-9, 578,1314, 584,11-12, 595,6-7).
62. For example, the Delphax, which figures beside the Augusteus in the chapters appended
from the sixth-century author Peter the Patrician disappears completely in the tenth-century
chapters of the De Cerimoniis. The Delphax cannot have been the same as the Tribounalion,
which also bordered on the Augusteus, for both are mentioned as separate places in chapter I 92
(on the coronation of Anastasius): the Delphax, De Cerimoniis, ed. REISKE cit. (note 3), p. 421,
18, and the Tribounalion, ibid., p. 423, 19. The Onopous/-odion, which is not mentioned in
Peter the Patrician but only in the tenth-century chapters of the De Cerimoniis, is the likely
successor of the Delphax, though one can only wonder at the metamorphosis of a piglet into an
asss foot.
63. Ibn-Yahya in Ibn-Rusteh, Les Atours prcieux, traduction G. WIET, Cairo, 1955, p. 139:
Depuis la porte du Palais jusqu lglise affecte au peuple, sur lordre de lempereur, on
couvre de nattes, sur la route, les rues du centre de la ville... Sur tout le parcours, les murs sont
tendus, droite et gauche, de brocart . Yahyas description of the procession continues with
10.000 old men vested in red brocade, 10.000 youths in white brocade, 10.000 pages in green
brocade, 10.000 valets in blue brocade carrying double-headed gilded axes, 5.000 middle-aged
eunuchs, 10.000 Turkish and Khazarian pages in striped coats, 100 patricians of high rank in
multicoloured brocade holding thuribles with which they cense the people, and 100 pages in
bright costumes studded with pearls. Earlier Yahya names three gates in the walls surrounding
the Palace, ibid., p. 135: the gate of the Hippodrome, the gate of the Mankana (presumably the
Chalke), and the gate at the Sea (presumable at the Bucoleon). Yahya describes the gate of the
Hippodrome as giving onto a corridor, 100m long and 50m wide, bordered on both sides with
platforms covered with brocades and fleeces and cushions, where christened blackamoors have
their places, brandishing gilded shields and lances . This gate is surely that of the Skyla, and the
wide corridor into which it opens would be the Covered Hippodrome. This must be the gate
of the Palace of which Yahya speaks in his description of the procession to St Sophia. Thus, the
centre of the city, through whose lanes the procession passes, with walls on either side hung
with fabrics, can only mean the area of the old Palace, the usual itinerary for processions to St
Sophia: Covered Hippodrome - Daphne - Augusteus - Tribunalion - Consistory - Exkoubita Kandidatoi - Scholai - Chalke - Augustaion - St Sophia, cf. above note 46; for textile hangings:
607
Fig. 1 - Aerial photograph of the quarter of Sultanahmet in 1916. MAMBOURY - WIEGAND, Die Kaiserpalste von Konstantinopel.
Zwischen Hippodrom und Marameer, Berlin-Leipzing, 1934, Plate 2.
M. FEATHERSTONE
TAB. I
TAB. II
M. FEATHERSTONE
Fig. 2 - Outline of the Old (Upper) Palace (above, to the right), the New (Lower) Palace (below,
to the left), the Triconchos-Sigma complex of Theophilus (828-842) and, in broken lines, the
(Lower) Palace walls of Nicephorus Phocas (963-869), after W. MLLER-WIENER, Bildlexikon
zur Topographie Istanbuls. Byzantion, Konstantinoupolis, Istanbul bis zum Beginn des 17. Jahrhunderts,
Tbingen, 1977, p. 177.
M. FEATHERSTONE
TAB. III
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LA DISCUSSIONE