Imperial Panegyric: Rhetoric and Reality

Abstract

One could also question the sincerity of these orators. One could, for example, contrast Psellos' effusive praise of Constantine Monomachos in his panegyrics with his decidedly less complimentary comments in his Chronography. Manuel Holobolos was mutilated, imprisoned, and exiled by order of Michael VIII, whose ecclesiastical policy he \nopenly detested, yet, in a Christmas oration, he praised him as an ocean of graces, a river \nof gold, and as the sun rising in the East. 20 And in an Epiphany oration, probably in \n1273, he lauded Michael, who had attained the throne by treachery and murder, as the \nsupreme model of virtue.21 Perhaps, though, we should not be too harsh in judging \nthese speakers. They were, in one sense, 'Just doing their job." While so much of it \nmay seem to us shameless adulation at the expense of truth, we must keep in mind that \nthe speakers and their audience firmly believed that, whatever they might think about \nthe individual, the position of the emperor was sacred and worthy of all praise. In Michael's case, moreover, he was the New Constantine who had liberated the imperial city, \nand this overshadowed his faults. Finally, today I think we can mute our criticism of \nByzantine oratory when we listen to; say, nominating speeches at a political convention \nor those accompanying the conferral of an honorary degree.

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