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Biblical echoes in two Byzantine military speeches
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2016
Abstract
This article examines the two extant military speeches attributed to Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos for their biblical references and allusions. These speeches demonstrate imperial Byzantine exegesis, establish biblical grounds for the ‘chosen’ status of Byzantine Christians, and reveal that the non-soldierly emperor Constantine VII appropriated the role of a mediating priestly figure as a way of claiming authority over his fighting forces. In this, he follows in the footsteps of his father, the emperor Leo VI (r. 886–912). Both speeches are explicitly Christian, and were used to bolster military morale and to reinforce imperial authority.
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References
1 These are the official dates of his reign; Romanos Lekapenos usurped power and was overthrown by Constantine VII only in 945.
2 For some observations on ideology (but not exegesis) in these two speeches, see Markopoulos, A., ‘The ideology of war in the military harangues of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos’, in Koder, J. and Stouraitis, I. (eds.), Byzantine War Ideology Between Roman Imperial Concept and Christian Religion, Akten des Internationalen Symposiums (Wien, 19.–21. Mai 2011)Google Scholar (Vienna 2012) 47–56. On Constantine VII's use of Syrianos Magister's Rhetorica militaris, see Zuckerman, C., ‘The military compendium of Syrianus Magister’, Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 40 (1990) 209–24;Google Scholar ‘Syrianos magistros, Ναυμαχίαι Συριανοῦ μαγίστρου. ed. and trans., in Pryor, J. H. and Jeffreys, E. (eds.), The Age of the ΔPOMΩN: The Byzantine Navy ca 500–1204 (Leiden 2006) 455–81.Google Scholar See also Eramo, I., ‘῏Ω ἄνδρες στρατιῶται. Demegorie protrettiche nell'Ambrosianus B 119 sup.’, Annali della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell'Università degli Studi di Bari 50 (2007) 127–65Google Scholar, and Eramo, I., ‘Retorica militare fra tradizione protrettica e pensiero strategico’, Talia Dixit: Revista Interdisciplinar de Retórica e Historiografía 5 (2010) 25–44 Google Scholar.
3 The argument of this essay falls into a category Catherine Holmes has called ‘political culture’, because it excavates biblical exegesis as it was employed to serve political goals. See Holmes, C., ‘Byzantine political culture and compilation literature in the tenth and eleventh centuries: some preliminary enquiries’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 64 (2012) 55–80 Google Scholar.
4 See Riedel, M. L. D., Unexpected Emperor: Leo VI and the Transformation of Byzantine Law, Faith, and War (Cambridge forthcoming 2016)Google Scholar chapters 2–4.
5 The key primary source document that purports to describe the origin of the LXX is the Letter of Aristeas, which survives in 23 manuscripts. It was known by Josephus (Antiquities, Book 12) and Eusebius (Praeparatio Evangelica, Books 8–9), both of whom paraphrase parts of it and appear to have accepted it as a legitimate historical document. However, its authenticity has been challenged by modern scholars since the sixteenth century. For a more complete discussion, including relevant scholarship, see Marcos, N. F., The Septuagint in Context: Introduction to the Greek Version of the Bible (Leiden 2000)Google Scholar chapter 3.
6 Tov, E., ‘The nature of the large-scale differences between the LXX and MT S T V, compared with similar evidence in other sources’, in Schenker, A. (ed.), The Earliest Text of the Hebrew Bible: The Relationship Between the Masoretic Text and the Hebrew Base of the Septuagint Reconsidered (Leiden 2003) 121–44.Google Scholar English translations of Old Testament verses referenced in this article are drawn from the scholarly translation of the LXX produced in 2007 and sponsored by the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies; English translations of New Testament verses are from the recent English Standard Version, first published in 2001. A New English Translation of the Septuagint, ed. A. Pietersma and B. G. Wright (Oxford 2007). The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton 2001). An ecclesiastical translation has also been published recently in English: The Orthodox Study Bible: Ancient Christianity Speaks to Today's World (Englewood 2008). These two versions were chosen because both embrace an ‘essentially literal’ approach to translation based on the maxim ‘as literal as possible, as free as necessary.’
7 The Old Testament in Byzantium, ed. P. Magdalino and R. Nelson (Washington. DC 2010) presents eleven essays given by leading Byzantinists at a scholarly conference held at Dumbarton Oaks in 2006. A companion volume is due to appear in 2017: D. Krueger and R. S. Nelson (eds.), The New Testament in Byzantium (Washington, DC.).
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15 E. McGeer, ‘Two military orations’, 115.
16 Markopoulos, ‘The ideology of war’, 53.
17 For further discussion on style in Byzantine prose, see Ševčenko, I., ‘Levels of style in Byzantine prose’, Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 31 (1981) 289–312 Google Scholar and 32 (1982) 220–38.
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20 McGeer, ‘Two military orations’, 118.
21 See Exod. 14, esp. v.28.
22 Markopoulos, ‘The ideology of war’, 55–6.
23 Ahrweiler, ‘Un discours inédit’, 402. Mazzuchi, ‘Dagli anni di Basilio’, 296–8.
24 McGeer, ‘Two military orations’, 116.
25 McCormick, M., Eternal Victory. Triumphal rulership in Late Antiquity, Byzantium and the Early Medieval West (Cambridge 1986 Google Scholar, repr. 1990) 159.
26 McGeer, ‘Two military orations’, 118–9.
27 McGeer, ‘Two military orations’, 120.
28 For more on the dialogic nature of Christian-Jewish relations in Byzantium, see the excellent collection edited by Robert Bonfil et. al., Jews in Byzantium: Dialectics of Minority and Majority Cultures (Leiden 2011).
29 For the Greek text of this speech, see Ahrweiler, 397–9, here at 398. 13–14.
30 This view of Islam originated in the De Haeresibus of John of Damascus (d. ca. 754) and was followed by apologists and chroniclers thereafter; for example, Theodore Abu Qurra, Niketas Byzantios, Evodios and others.
31 The only emperor to have his portrait on a Byzantine psalter is Basil II, the grandson of Constantine VII; he is portrayed in full military regalia with eight captives prostrate at his feet, an unabashed pose of victory. Furthermore, this psalter includes a page of six miniature illustrations of the early life of David, the warrior-king of Israel and writer of many of the Psalms. Cf. Cutler, A., ‘The psalter of Basil II’, in Imagery and Ideology in Byzantine Art (Aldershot 1992)Google Scholar III.
32 Leonis imperatoris Tactica, Migne, J. P., Patrologia Graeca 107 (Paris, 1863)Google Scholar, XVIII.111 (col. 972C). A recent critical edition by Dennis, G. T., The Taktika of Leo VI (Washington, DC 2010)Google Scholar is not used here because it is based on the shorter Laurentian recension of the Taktika; citations throughout this article refer to the longer Ambrosian recension of the Taktika found in the Patrologia Graeca 107.
33 Psalm 67:1, 35. This reference is identified by Dagron in his discussion of this section of the Taktika; Dagron, ‘Byzance et le modèle islamique’, 224.
34 ‘A person shall be brought low, and a man shall be dishonoured, and the eyes that are high shall be brought low.’ This passage is known as the song of the unfaithful vineyard.
35 ‘Because you have made cities a heap, fortified cities so their foundation might fall; the city of the impious will not be built forever.’
36 ‘I will command evils for the whole world, and for the impious, their own sins; I will destroy the pride of the lawless and bring low the pride of the arrogant.’
37 On the disastrous Cretan expedition of 949, see Christides, V., ‘The raids of the Moslems of Crete in the Aegean Sea: Piracy and conquest’, Byzantion 51 (1981) 76–111.Google Scholar For more background on the Cretan expedition as well as Sayf al-Dawla's raids, see Treadgold, W., A History of the Byzantine State and Society (Stanford 1997) 489–93.Google Scholar
38 This name appears in the Bible only twice. In the OT, it is used to describe the tribe of Benjamin after they attack and kill the concubine of a visitor to Gibeah (Judges 20:13). In the NT, it is used to describe the one person with whom Christ (and therefore God) can have no fellowship. By parity of reasoning, if God is truth (Isaiah 65:16, John 14:6, etc.) then Belial is falsehood. In the Gospel of John, the ‘father of lies’ is identified as the devil, that is to say, not-God. Cf. John 8:44: ‘You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.’
39 In the De administrando imperio, Constantine repeats the commonly held, and in Byzantine eyes not only wrong but perverse, view that Muhammad preached that anyone killing or killed by an enemy entered paradise. Moravcsik, G., (ed.), R. J. H. Jenkins, trans., De administrando imperio (Washington, DC 1967) 14 Google Scholar, 78.
40 For a discussion of the significance of the cross in the tenth century, see Cheynet, J. C., ‘Quelques remarques sur le culte de la Croix en Asie Mineure au Xe siècle’, in Ledure, Y. (ed.), Histoire et culture chrétienne. Hommage à Monseigneur Yves Marchasson par les enseignants de la Faculté des Lettres (Paris 1992) 67–78 Google Scholar.
41 Oikonomides, N., Byzantine Lead Seals (Washington, DC 1985) 12 Google Scholar.
42 The speech refers to two campaigns that took place in 956 (to Tarsos led by Basil Hexamilites, to southern Italy led by Marianos Argyros) and one that took place in 958 (to Mesopotamia, led by John Tzimiskes). Cf. Theophanes Continuatus, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn 1838) 461.9–462.4; Vasiliev, A. A. and Canard, M. (eds.), Byzance et les arabes (Brussels 1935–68)Google Scholar vol. 2.1, 362–4; McGeer, ‘Two military orations’, 123.
43 McGeer, ‘Two military orations’, 123.
44 Mazzucchi, ‘Dagli anni de Basilio’, 299–303.
45 McGeer, ‘Two military orations’, 128–9.
46 The other relics mentioned in this list are the Holy Lance, the Staff, the Reed (κάλαμος), the blood which flowed from the wound in Christ's side, the Tunic, the swaddling clothes, the shroud (σινδόνος) and ‘the other relics of His undefiled Passion.’ Cf. McGeer, ‘Two military orations’, 133.
47 This refers to the poem in Exodus 32:1–43.
48 Koutrakou, N., La propagande impèriale byzantine: persuasion et reaction, VIIIe-Xe siècles (Paris 1993) 371 Google Scholar.
49 Taktika XVIII.19 and XVIII.133.
50 Taktika, XII.71.
51 Arab historian Kudama (ca.873–932) explains that these raids took place in late February, from mid-May to mid-June, and from early July to early September. M. J. de Goeje (ed.), Kitab al-Kharadj, 259, quoted by Brooks, E. W., ‘Byzantines and Arabs in the time of the early Abbasids’, English Historical Review 15 (1900) 730 Google Scholar.
52 De vel., chapter 7, line 9, in Dennis, G. T., Three Byzantine Military Treatises (Washington, DC 1985) 162–3Google Scholar.
53 McGeer, ‘Two military orations’, 118.
54 McGeer, ‘Two military orations’, 131.
55 McGeer, ‘Two military orations’, 132.
56 Ahrweiler claims the second speech bears the mark of Constantine VII's style and vocabulary, and sees similarities with the earlier speech that indicate that they are both by the same writer, but her arguments are not convincing. Her arguments are based on common attributes: lively religious sentiment, the wish of Constantine to participate on campaign, and similar arguments to encourage the soldiers. These similarities do not constitute sufficient proof. Cf. Ahrweiler, ‘Un discours inédit’, 394, 402.
57 McGeer, ‘Two military orations’, 119-120.
58 McGeer, ‘Two military orations’, 120.
59 McGeer, E., The Land Legislation of the Macedonian Emperors (Toronto 2000) 71 Google Scholar. This novel is dated to early in Constantine's sole reign, no later than 947 or 948.
60 Already in 922, Romanos I had moved to protect the alienation of local lands by reviving pre-emption on a scale of priority that gave local people the right of first refusal. The rubric on this novel indicates its publication in 922, but this date has been contested. Svoronos, N., Les novelles des empereurs macédoniens concernant la terre et les stratiotes (Athens 1994) 93–126 Google Scholar; Kaplan, M., Les hommes et la terre à Byzance du VIe au XIe siècle: propriété et exploitation du sol (Paris 1992) 426–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The novel of 934 went further: ‘No longer shall any one of the illustrious magistroi or patrikioi, nor any of the persons honoured with offices, governorships, or civil or military dignities, nor anyone at all enumerated in the Senate, nor officials or ex-officials of the themes, nor metropolitans most devoted to God, archbishops, bishops, abbots, higoumenoi, ecclesiastical officials, or supervisors and heads of pious or imperial houses, whether as a private individual or in the name of an imperial or ecclesiastical property’ dare to acquire village lands. McGeer, Land Legislation, 54–5. It was perhaps a stringent application of this law that brought down John Kourkouas ten years later. Howard-Johnston, J., ‘Crown lands and the defence of imperial authority in the tenth and eleventh centuries’, Byzantinische Forschungen 21 (1995) 87–8Google Scholar.
61 McGeer, Land Legislation, 61–76.
62 Haldon, J., ‘Military service, military lands, and the status of soldiers: current problems and interpretations’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 47 (1993) 29 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
63 McGeer, ‘Two military orations’, 132. Italics added.
64 Rev 6:9. εἶδον ὑποκάτω τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν ἐσφαγμένων διὰ τὸν λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ διὰ τὴν μαρτυρίαν ἣν εἶχον.
65 Cf. a contemporary office for the dead in Détorakis, Th. and Mossay, J., ‘Un office byzantin inédit pour ceux qui sont morts à la guerre, dans le Cod. Sin. Gr.734-735 ’, Le Muséon 101 (1988), 183–211 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and perhaps more poignantly, a slightly later one in Petit, L., ‘Un office inédit en l'honneur de Nicéphore Phocas’, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 13 (1904) 398–420 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
66 Cf. Leviticus 7:26–27 and 17:10–11, 14–15 (forbids the eating of blood and prescribes exile for anyone who does so); Lev 15:19–28 (the defilement of menstrual blood).
67 Most notably, Basil of Caesarea counseled combat veterans to refrain from the Eucharist for three years as a penance for violating the sixth commandment (against murder). It is found in his first canonical letter to Amphilochius of Iconium: ‘Our fathers did not consider killing on the battlefield as murder, it seems to me, [but] pardoned defenders of chastity and piety, that it might be good to advise these [men], having unclean hands, only to be abstinent for three years from communion.’ Y. Courtonne (ed.) Saint Basile Lettres, 3 vols. (Paris 1961) vol. 2, 130 (Greek with French translation).
68 Ioannis Skylitzae Synopsis Historiarum, ed. I. Thurn (Berlin 1973) 18.62-65; See also Flusin, B., and Cheynet, J. C., Skylitzès, Jean, Empereurs de Constantinople (Paris 2003) 230 Google Scholar; Riedel, M. L. D., ‘Nikephoros II Phokas and Orthodox military martyrdom’, Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures 41 (2015) 121–147 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
69 Katakalon, βασιλικὸς πρωτοσπαθάριος, στρατηγός, στρατηλάτης Θεσσαλονίκης died fighting the Magyars in 945 or 946. He was eulogised by an anonymous poet for his exceptional courage in battle, his love for God, and his devotion to Constantine VII and Romanos II. S. Lampros, Τὰ ὑπ’ ἀριθμὸν PIZ’ καὶ PΓ’ κατἀλοιπα, Nέος Eλληνομνήμων16 (1922) 53.
70 Lauxtermann, M., Byzantine Poetry from Pisides to Geometres (Vienna 2003) 227 Google Scholar.