Imperial Visions of Late Byzantium : Manuel II Palaiologos and Rhetoric in Purple

Explores a Byzantine emperor’s construction of authority with the help of his rhetorical texts

- Examines the changes in the Byzantine imperial idea by the end of the fourteenth century with a particular focus on the instrumentalization of the intellectual dimension of the imperial rule
- Integrates late Byzantine imperial visions into the bigger picture of Byzantine imperial ideology
- Provides a fresh understanding of key pieces of Byzantine public rhetoric and introduces analytical concepts from rhetorical, literary, and discursive theories
- Offers translations of key passages from late Byzantine rhetoric

Manuel II Palaiologos was not only a Byzantine emperor but also a remarkably prolific rhetorician and theologian. His oeuvre included letters, treatises, dialogues, short poems and orations.

Florin Leonte deals with several of his texts shaped by a didactic intention to educate the emperor’s son and successor, John VIII Palaiologos. He argues that the emperor constructed a rhetorical persona which he used in an attempt to compete with other contemporary power-brokers. While Manuel Palaiologos adhered to many rhetorical conventions of his day, he also reasserted the civic role of rhetoric.

With a special focus on the first two decades of Manuel II Palaiologos’ rule, 1391–1417, Leonte offers a new understanding of the imperial ethos in Byzantium by combining rhetorical analysis with investigation of social and political phenomena.


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