Three political voices from the age of Justinian
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Three political voices from the age of Justinian
（Translated texts for historians, v. 52）
Liverpool University Press, 2009
- : pbk
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Note
Bibliography: p. [213]-230
Includes indexes
Contents of Works
- Agapetus, advice to the emperor
- Dialogue on political science
- Paul the Silentiary, description of Hagia Sophia
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This one-volume translation, with commentary and introduction brings together three important works. All three texts cast great, if generally neglected light on politics and ideology in early Byzantium. Agapetus wrote, c. 527-30CE, from a position sympathetic to Justinian, when he had still to consolidate his authority. He sets out what an emperor must do to acquire legitimacy, in terms of government's being the imitation of God. Read in context, his work is much more than a list of pious commonplaces. The Dialogue, written anonymously towards the end the same reign, comprises fragments from Books 4-5 of a philosophically sophisticated (lost) longer work, setting out requirements for the ideal polity, based on a similar concept of imperial rule, with extensive comment on matters of current political salience but from an implicitly hostile standpoint. Not only does the text reflect the nature of Neoplatonic political philosophy but it also penetrates with its ideas deep into the inner realities of the time, into the political problems of Constantinople during the first half of the sixth century. The third text was written by Paul the Silentiary to mark the rededication of the basilica Hagia Sophia, built thirty years earlier under the orders of Emperor Justinian I. Together the translations provide an important insight into the early Byzantine period.
Table of Contents
Preface
Abbreviations
INTRODUCTION
1. The World of Agapetus, the Dialogue on Political Science and Paul the Silentiary
2. The Authors
3. Dating
4. Agapetus - Advice: His Sources, Methods and Thought
5. The Dialogue on Political Science - Sources, Methods and Thought
6. Paul the Silentiary - Description of Hagia Sophia: Sources, Methods and Thought
7. Texts and Translations
AGAPETUS: ADVICE TO THE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN Translation and Notes
THE DIALOGUE ON POLITICAL SCIENCE BOOK 4 - MILITARY MATTERS Translation and Notes
BOOK 5 - THE IDEAL STATE
1. Translator's Synopsis
2. Translation and Notes
PAUL THE SILENTIARY: DESCRIPTION OF HAGIA SOPHIA Translation and Notes
Select Bibliography
Map of Constantinople Index
by "Nielsen BookData"