Theodore Metochites

Patterns of Self-Representation in Fourteenth-Century Byzantium

Ioannis Polemis

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9780755651429
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780755651405
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Byzantine History
• Index: History

The statesman and scholar Theodore Metochites was one of the most important personalities of the fourteenth-century Byzantine Empire. A close advisor to the emperor Andronikos II and restorer of the famous monastery of Chora in Constantinople, Metochites left various writings including orations, poems, essays and commentaries on classical and religious texts, in which he discusses the numerous problems that troubled him and his contemporaries, such as the decline of the state and the tension between public life and that of the philosopher.

In this book, Ioannis Polemis provides the first in-depth study of Metochites' oeuvre, revealing the complex way he represented the authorial self to critique the politics and mores of his day, whilst at the same time shielding himself from potential criticism. Polemis details the way Metochites deftly manipulated figures and tropes from classical antiquity and early Christianity to justify his role in public life, which was traditionally shunned by scholars in the pursuit of 'logos'. The book provides unique insights into one of the late Empire's most important figures, as well as more widely deepening our understanding of classical reception in Byzantium and the social, political and intellectual climate of Constantinople in the fourteenth century.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Life and work at the end of Empire
• Part I Metochites’ Representations of Himself and Others
• Chapter 1 Metochites on Himself: Inner Ambiguity
• Chapter 2 Metochites on Others: Mirror Images of Himself
• Chapter 3 Coda – Disposing of Oneself: A New Way of Being?
• Part II The Quest for Novelty : Innovation Versus Tradition in Metochites’ Representations
• Chapter 4 Not Everything Old Is To Be Revered
• Chapter 5 Oration 6, on Gregory of Nazianzus : A Response to Men Like Choumnos?
• Chapter 6 Coda – Metochites on Rhetoric : Veiled Criticism of Late Byzantium Discursive Culture
• Part III Vita Contemplativa Versus Vita Activa : Their Ambiguous Relationship and the Inner Ambiguities of Metochites’ Self-Image as an Intellectual
• Chapter 7 ‘The Greeks Seek Wisdom ’: Poem 6, for the Three Great Prelates, and Poem 5, for St Athanasios: Theology, Greek Learning and the Quest for a Humanistic Monastery
• Chapter 8 Oration 11, Byzantios: The Secular Body of the City and a Secular World Contemplated
• Chapter 9 Coda – Nature and Being: Elusive Concepts
• Conclusion: Metochites, a Philosopher of His Time
• Appendix: Works by Theodore Metochites
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright