Emperor and Priest
The Imperial Office in Byzantium

A complex study of the dual role of the emperor in Byzantium.

Gilbert Dagron (Author), Jean Birrell (Translated by)

9780521036979, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 4 June 2007

356 pages, 10 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.3 x 2.2 cm, 0.545 kg

'… This is a very significant book for Byzantine specialists … Indeed, no one interested in the varieties of earthly sovereignty should be unaware of it.' John W. Barker, Speculum

This is a revised and translated edition of Gilbert Dagron's Empereur et prêtre, an acknowledged masterwork by one of the great Byzantine scholars of our time. The figure of the Byzantine emperor, a ruler who sometimes was also designated a priest, has long fascinated the western imagination. This book studies in detail the imperial union of 'two powers', temporal and spiritual, against a wide background of relations between Church and state and religious and political spheres. Presenting much unfamiliar material in complex, brilliant style, it is aimed at all historians concerned with royal and ecclesiastical sources of power.

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.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], History of religion [HRAX], Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], Asian history [HBJF], European history [HBJD]