Emperor and Priest: The Imperial Office in Byzantium

by Gilbert Dagron, Jean Birrell

Overview

The figure of the Byzantine emperor, a ruler who sometimes was also designated a priest, has long fascinated the western imagination. Written by one of the world's leading Byzantine scholars, this classic book studies in detail the imperial union of "two powers," temporal and spiritual, against the broad background of the relationship between church and state and religious and political spheres.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521036979
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/04/2007
Series:	Past and Present Publications
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	356
Product dimensions:	6.02(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.87(d)

About the Author

Gilbert Dagron is Professor Emeritus of Byzantine History and Civilisation at the Collège de France and Honorary President of the International Committee on Byzantine Studies.

Table of Contents

List of plates; List of plans; Acknowledgements; Bibliographical abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. The Principles: 1. Heredity, legitimacy and succession; 2. Proclamations and coronations; 3. Ceremonial and memory; Part II. The Emperors: 4. Constantine the Great: imperial sainthood; 5. Leo III and the iconoclast emperors: Melchizedek or antiChrist?; 6. Basil the Macedonian, Leo VI and Constantine VII: ceremonial and religion; Part III. The Clergy: 7. The kingship of the patriarchs (eighth to eleventh centuries); 8. The canonists and liturgists (twelfth to fifteenth centuries); 9. 'Caesaropapism' and the theory of the 'two powers'; Epilogue: the house of Judah and the house of Levi; Glossary; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"Andreas Schminck reviewed Dagron's Empereur et preètre in Byzantinische Zeitschrift 93, 2000, 197-204. In this review, he expressed his hope that the work would be translated into other languages, and become thus available to a wider readership. It seems to this reviewer that Emperor and Priest splendidly fulfills this wish." -Bryn Mawr Classical Review

From the Publisher