Everyday Life in Byzantium Page 3
9 Emperor raised on a shield
Over the years, coronations were celebrated in Byzantium with ever-increasing pomp and magnificence. By the tenth century the ritual had become so elaborate that Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (913-59) thought that it would prove helpful to his son and heir if he recorded it in detail in a book he was engaged in writing for the boy’s use later in life. It was called The Book of Ceremonies; the description of the coronation occupies several pages, for the emperor listed in full the part played by all officials, senators and members of the factions (see page 35), their precise positions in the official procession, the clothes each wore and the badges of office they carried. Thus patricians were to appear in white chlamydes or cloaks trimmed with gold.
On entering the cathedral the sovereign was met by the patriarch, who assisted him in changing his robes for some which were believed to have been given to Constantine the Great by angels, and which were therefore carefully kept in the cathedral for use by the emperor only on certain specific occasions. Then the patriarch took the emperor by the hand to lead him into the body of the great church. On reaching the silver gates the emperor lit the special candles reserved for his use and moved to a porphyry slab set into the floor in front of the royal gates of the iconostasis (an altar screen designed to display icons) to pray. Only then, accompanied by the patriarch, did he penetrate beyond the iconostasis to enter the altar enclosure. This procedure was followed whenever the emperor attended a religious ceremony in the cathedral—it is estimated that his presence there was required on an average some 30 times a month. The patriarch always conducted the religious service which followed, in the case of a coronation reading a prayer over the crown before placing it on the emperor’s head amidst the acclamations of the assembled worshippers. The emperor then moved to the throne, often one made of gold, which had been placed in the mitatorion. When he was seated all the assembled people, following a strict order of precedence, passed before him, paying homage by prostrating themselves before him.
By the ninth century the habit of crowning an emperor during a religious ceremony had become so firmly established that it was henceforth observed by all other Christian monarchs. However, in Byzantium it also remained necessary for the emperor to sign a profession of faith before he was crowned. From the start the crowning of an emperor by a patriarch was regarded throughout Byzantium as an act of outstanding significance, being interpreted as the visual confirmation of the belief that the emperor was God’s chosen representative on earth. As such, emperors were soon being revered almost as sacred personages. In art they were sometimes represented wearing a halo; in conversation and literature they were often compared to the apostles, and a ruler was even occasionally described as the ‘thirteenth apostle’ and his residences as ‘sacred palaces’. An emperor’s semi-celestial nature was reflected in his use of an immensely wide throne. In reality it was a double throne, which enabled the pagan custom of the partially empty throne to be retained and adapted to Christian observances: henceforth, the right side of such thrones was dedicated to Christ, and to make this visibly apparent a copy of the Gospels was placed on it. It remained vacant on Sundays and during religious festivals, when the emperor occupied the left side of the throne. On working days, on the other hand, the emperor, acting as Christ’s representative on earth, used the right half, doing the same on all state occasions as well as when granting audiences to visiting ambassadors.
10 Empress leading a procession to honour a holy relic
When the emperor appeared in the streets of his cities, the crowds often acclaimed him as God’s representative, and as he advanced hymns to that effect were sung by choirs, the members of which were drawn from the city’s political guildsmen and factions. Candles, torches and incense were carried before the emperor as they were before the holy icons and prelates in religious processions. Even inefficient and bad rulers—of whom Byzantium had more than her fair share—were thought to have been raised to their exalted position by the Almighty, who had selected them for their high office for the purpose of testing the faithful.
The Roman conception of an elected ruler, whether acting as the head of state or as emperor, was so firmly embedded in the Roman mind that, in Byzantium, the office of emperor was not at first regarded as hereditary. When time and events permitted it was therefore considered right for a dying or ageing ruler to choose his successor. In the event of an emperor’s sudden death the members of his immediate family were entitled to select the new ruler, but if the dead man had no close relatives or if, as often happened, his rule had been brought to an end as the result of a revolution, it then fell to the Senate to make the appointment. Justinian, perhaps the greatest of all the Byzantine emperors, came to the throne in that manner. No significance was attached to ancient lineage, and class distinctions were considered of so little importance that the fact that Justin (518-27) was by birth a Macedonian peasant did not prevent him from occupying the throne for nine years.
In early Byzantine times there was a good deal of confusion concerning the emperor’s correct title. To begin with he used a Roman one, calling himself either Imperator, Caesar or Augustus. However, towards the end of the fifth century growing jealousy started to poison the relations between the Greek and Latin inhabitants of Constantinople, and soon each group wished their native culture to be chosen as the national culture of Byzantium. When in 491 Emperor Zeno died without naming a successor, with the result that it fell to his widow to appoint one, vast crowds assembled outside her windows, some shouting to her to choose a Greek for the office, others to select a Roman. Her decision conformed to the desires of the former group, for she nominated as emperor an unexciting, though experienced and reliable, elderly court official called Anastasius (491-518). Nevertheless, it was not until Emperor Heraclius (610-41) adopted Greek as the official language of the Byzantine Empire that the Greek title of Basileus replaced the Latin ones as the only official designation of the emperor. It was at about the same time that the emperors also adopted Jupiter’s emblem of an eagle as their crest. In the fourteenth century it became a double-headed eagle. The change was made to parry the German emperor’s decision to use the single-headed eagle as his crest, by publicising the belief that the Byzantine rulers had made use of the double-headed eagle to symbolise the Roman Empire’s eastern and western territories; as such, the latter form passed by marriage into the arms both of imperial Austria and of Russia.
By the seventh century it had become the custom for the emperors to choose one of their sons, not necessarily the elder, to succeed them. First they waited to appoint him till they were well on in life or until they thought that death was drawing near, but before long they found it wiser to ensure the survival of their dynasty and to guard against sudden death by choosing their heir early in their reigns, and for similar reasons they gradually started selecting two sons for the office, naming them in order of preference. These appointments were legalised by a religious ceremony conducted on very much the same lines as an emperor’s coronation. (There were two minor differences: the coronation was held in one of the palace churches instead of in the cathedral of Haghia Sophia and, after blessing their crowns, the patriarch passed them to the emperor who, as in the case of his wife’s coronation, personally placed them on the heads of his co-rulers.) The senior and favourite co-ruler gradually came to be spoken of as ‘the little basileus’ and his picture often appeared beside his father’s on the country’s coinage. As senior co-ruler he often instantly appointed his own co-ruler and successor. As a result there was sometimes a multiplicity of rulers living, or rather of members of the imperial family who, to distinguish them from the emperor and his immediate heir, were invested with the Roman title of caesar; in the case of a woman the title bestowed on her was that of Augusta. The mistress of Constantine IX, though allowed to use that title, was not permitted to wear the imperial diadem or to be accompanied by an imperial bodyguard. To make up for this she, and many other Augustas, wore n
umerous strange and costly head decorations, gold necklaces, bracelets in the form of snakes, heavy pearl earrings, and girdles of gold with chains of pearls threaded through them. Each member of the imperial house invested with the title of a minor sovereign had his appropriate rank conferred upon him by means of a modified version of the imperial coronation ceremony, yet there was never more than one ruler with, at most, two co-rulers in power. Invariably the emperor remained the supreme authority throughout the Empire; it was his duty to supervise and be responsible for everything relating to the state. It has been aptly remarked that the Byzantine conception of life was based on the belief in one religion, one God, one source of law and one government—that is to say in one emperor. When the latter’s unique position was contested by Charlemagne, who persuaded the pope to crown him emperor of the Romans in Rome on Christmas Day in the year 800, the Byzantine ruler assumed the title of Basileus Romaion, meaning emperor of the Romans, so as to establish his right to rule over Rome; by doing so he in his turn challenged Charlemagne’s claim to that position.
11 The double-headed eagle of Byzantium
As soon as it became possible for them to do so the emperors naturally chose one of their sons to succeed them, and so the office of sovereign gradually came to be accepted as a hereditary one. But because the emperors were not obliged to appoint their eldest son to succeed them, gradually particular importance was attached to the children who were born to a reigning couple. Such children were born in the Purple Bedchamber in the Purple Palace—a residence which owed its name to the fact that the walls of the empress’s bedchamber were hung with stuff, generally silk, the colour of porphyry. Though a very small number of senior court officials were allowed to wear purple cloaks, stuffs of that colour were reserved for the exclusive use of members of the imperial family. They alone could wear purple-coloured robes and shoes, and be buried in porphyry sarcophagi. Children born in the Purple Bedchamber in the Purple Palace automatically received the appellation of Porphyrogenitus, meaning ‘born in the purple’—an expression which lives on in our own language and times—and, in the case of boys, this lucky occurrence increased their chances of inheriting the crown. Such princes were surrounded by every conceivable luxury. Inevitably, when it eventually became customary for the first-born of these sons to succeed his father, rivalry broke out between him and his brothers, some of them his elders. It was made all the fiercer by the fact that an emperor’s sons were often no more than half-brothers, their father having married more than once. Many an heir to supreme power ended his days in prison, in solitary confinement, having first had to submit to tortures which included blinding, having his tongue or nose cut off, or even worse. A deposed brother who was allowed to withdraw for ever to a remote monastery, to become a monk and spend his days in prayer and contemplation, was to be counted fortunate.
Imperial weddings were accompanied by an extremely solemn, elaborate and magnificent ritual. All wore their finest clothes and official robes for the occasion. The imperial bridal couple appeared wearing their imperial crowns below the wedding crowns which are still used at Orthodox weddings. But whereas today the wedding crowns are held above the heads of the groom and bride, throughout the religious ceremony in Byzantium a sumptuous purple-coloured fabric was suspended above the heads of the imperial couple. The patriarch performed the marriage ceremony; after it all those who had attended the wedding, patricians and eminent officials, were expected to prostrate themselves before the bridal couple. Then they formed themselves into a procession and accompanied their newly wedded sovereigns to the Magnaura Palace where the choirs of the Blue and Green factions were waiting to welcome them by singing to the accompaniment of an organ belonging to the Green faction. The bridal couple then proceeded to their bridal chamber still wearing their crowns; there they received their guests and in their presence they removed their crowns, placing them on their bridal bed. Then all went to the Dining Hall of the Nineteen Couches where, changing into simpler garments, the emperor and empress sat down to their wedding breakfast with their guests. On such occasions women were included in the party, but they were not permitted to dress their hair in the high style known as the propoloma. Generally, however, the empresses, many of whom possessed large fortunes, and all of whom were waited upon by numerous courtiers and retainers, entertained the eminent women of Byzantium at sumptuous banquets held in their own apartments.
Women were not quite so free in Byzantium as they had been in Rome, where they were generally treated as the equals of men. In Byzantium, though empresses took part in many aspects of public life, they were nevertheless expected to spend much of their time in the women’s quarters. Like women of lower station, many must have used much of their leisure, if not weaving like their humbler subjects, then at any rate in doing fine embroidery as adornments for their favourite churches. Time and again empresses and other women greatly influenced public events and were often the dominating members of their family circle. Many an empress became a powerful autocrat, even to the extent of ruling at times in her own right. At certain periods of Byzantine history, and more especially during the opening phase (when members both of Rome’s ancient aristocracy and of Greece’s nobility were establishing the standards and conventions which were to characterise Byzantium) empresses were chosen regardless of rank and origin from among the Empire’s most beautiful girls. In contrast to office, birth counted for astonishingly little in Byzantium. We have already seen that Anastasius was raised to supreme power from the position of a court official and Justin from that of a Macedonian peasant. It is therefore scarcely surprising to find that when Justinian fell in love with a beautiful circus girl called Theodora he was able to marry her. She appears with him, in all the splendour of a Byzantine empress’s apparel, in the magnificent, contemporary wall mosaic of San Vitale at Ravenna (/2). High office is as likely to bring out the best in its holder as the worst. It did so in the case of Theodora.
Though Theodora’s origins were humble and her conduct prior to her marriage not above criticism yet, on attaining the throne, she quickly became conscious of an empress’s obligations. Soon after her marriage one of the many riots which mar Constantinople’s history broke out and quickly developed into an unusually violent political rising. The imperial palace was set on fire, the cathedral of Haghia Sophia built by Constantine I perished in the flames. Justinian contemplated flight. It was then that Theodora showed her true greatness. Apologising for daring ‘as a woman to speak among men’ she set out to show how foolish it would be to resort to flight. She appealed to the courage of her listeners, arguing that ‘it is impossible for a man, when he has come into this world, not to die; but for one who has reigned’, she said to Justinian, ‘it is intolerable to be an exile. May I never exist without this purple robe and may I never live to see the day on which those who meet me shall not address me as queen. If you wish, 0 Emperor, to save yourself, there is no difficulty; we have ample funds. Yonder is the sea and there are the ships. Yet reflect whether, when you have escaped to a place of security you will not prefer death to safety. I agree with the old saying that “an empire makes a fine winding sheet”.’ Her brave words gave Justinian new courage and his general Belisarius made a fresh, and this time successful, attempt to dispel the crowd. The rebellion collapsed and Justinian’s throne was secured.
12 The Emperor Justinian, Bishop Maximian, Empress Theodora (Ravenna mosaic)
It is no exaggeration to say that Theodora saved the throne for Justinian and enabled him to go down in history as perhaps the greatest of Byzantine emperors; when rebuilding the burnt-out cathedral of Haghia Sophia Justinian created a masterpiece which still stands to rank as one of the world’s finest buildings; he also introduced the legal measures which are perpetuated in the Justinianic code. However, because Theodora was a woman she was never Justinian’s consort, that is to say his co-ruler. Nor, years later in 641, could Heraclius, realising that his life was running out, appoint his wife Martino co-ruler with his own y
oung son, who was but her stepson. When his intentions became known to the people they expressed violent opposition to being governed by Martino on the grounds that it would be unseemly for a woman to receive ambassadors in audience. Martino tried to defy them and, helped by her own son, endeavoured to seize power, but her stepson managed to forestall her. On coming to the throne himself he punished Martino most cruelly for her ambition, having her tongue cut out and ordering her to live in exile on the island of Rhodes. However, things became easier for women by 780 when Leo V died leaving his ten-year-old son, the future Constantine VI (780-97), as heir whilst appointing the boy’s mother, the Empress Irene, as his co-ruler. In the face of strong opposition and almost continuous unrest Irene succeeded in reigning for ten years, but was then forced to hand over her powers to her son and to go into exile. It was unfortunate for Constantine that he was both foolish and unreliable, for at the end of seven years Irene was recalled to the capital and asked to resume control of the nation’s affairs. She thus became the first woman to rule over the Byzantine Empire in her own right. Though she thereby automatically became the head of all the services, including the fighting forces, state and official documents continued invariably to refer to her in the masculine, calling her Basileus and not Basilissa. Having reached so exalted a position it is sad to find that Irene marred her good name by ill-treating her deposed son. Though she was his mother she had Constantine blinded in the Purple Bedchamber in which she had given birth to him. In the mid-eleventh century the two imperial sisters Zoe and Theodora reigned jointly for a few months; then Theodora, the more forceful of the two, acted as sole ruler for a year.