Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

140 6. emperor and court
barred the way to the heart of the palace. The Ravenna palace probably displayed
similar features, as the medieval place-names ‘Ad Chalci’ and
‘Scubitum’ (from Excubitum) suggest. 24
The warren of buildings which housed the court’s functions are most
fully described by the tenth-century Book of Ceremonies, but that work rarely
documents the late antique situation unequivocally. Excavation, medieval
descriptions and general Roman practice suggest that rectangular peristyle
porticoes constituted the palace’s main building blocks. Some featured luxurious
gardens adorned with statuary and fountains, or they dazzled with
magnificent mosaics like the one still visible today. 25 Constantinople’s
climate encouraged the court to congregate out of doors, at least in good
weather. For instance, during the deliberations preceding Anastasius’ accession
in spring 491, the most powerful men at court discussed the situation
as they sat on benches in the portico in front of the Triclinium of the
Nineteen Couches. 26
The buildings in which the court lived and worked lined these porticoes.
The palatine ministries must have occupied many rooms: the smaller palatine
bureaucracy and court at Ravenna has recently been estimated at about
1,500 people, but the details escape us. 27 The schola or office of the magister
officiorum was near the hall known as the Consistorium, since western
ambassadors waited there immediately before an imperial audience. 28 At
Ravenna the mint controlled by the comes sacrarum largitionum has been convincingly
located near the palace’s main entrance, while there are similar
indications for the Great Palace. 29
Large halls served as settings for the court’s ceremonial business.
Typically, access was through a triple set of doors and an antechamber
which was perhaps identical with the silentiaries’ station (Silentiarikion),
where a final screening of participants occurred. A raised platform for the
emperor seems to have closed one end; large curtains and inlays in the
floor helped guide those entering the hall. 30 The Great Palace had both a
Great or Summer Consistorium and a Small Consistorium. There the
court assembled for the audiences granted to Roman legations and
foreign ambassadors, promotions, or the reading of laws. Another type
of large structure, the triclinium, was intended primarily for state banquets.
The main banquet hall, the Triclinium of the Nineteen Couches – the oldfashioned
style of dining while reclining survived at state banquets –
could accommodate 228 guests in addition to the emperor, and may
24 Deichmann (1976–89) ii.3.53–4; 56.
25 Deichmann (1976–89) ii.3.65; John Eph. HE iii.3.23; Talbot Rice (1958).
26 Const. Porph. De Cer. i.92. 27 Deichmann (1976–89) ii.3.114–15.
28 Const. Porph. De Cer. i.87. 29 Deichmann (1976–89) ii.3.54–6; Hendy (1972) 131 n. 2.
30 Deichmann (1976–89) ii.3.67; Cyr. Scyth. V. Sabae li, and for an excavated hall: Talbot Rice (1958)
25. Const. Porph. De Cer. i.89; cf. Deichmann (1976–89) ii.3.69, and Guilland (1969) i.56–9.
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