Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

142 6. emperor and court
imperial box. This was not easily accessible to other spectators but was
directly and securely connected to the palace. Even when rioting factions
acclaimed a usurper seated in the kathisma, Justinian and his loyal followers
could approach from behind and listen to developments. 41 Arrangements
to protect the emperors when they joined the people for services in the
Great Church are unclear; in this period, their place was somewhere in the
south aisle of the Justinianic church, at ground level. Typically for this
society, the empress watched the service separately from the gallery. 42
Then, as now, boats allowed easy movement around Constantinople and
afforded additional security. The emperor’s private harbour by the
Boukoleon palace provided direct access to suburban palaces or other
seaside locations, and a secure escape route in emergencies. This was probably
how Zeno and his followers escaped to Chalcedon during Basiliscus’
usurpation. 43
ii. the emperor
Theoretical discussion about the imperial office and its Christianization
intensified in the sixth century with works like the Dialogue on Political Science,
the Treatise on Strategy and the writings of Agapetus, not to mention the
reflections in the prefaces to Justinian’s Novels. The visual symbolism of
power fascinated contemporaries as the court’s rituals themselves became
the subject of panegyric and the meaning of the imperial insignia attracted
new attention. 44
The emperor’s official titles remained substantially the same as before.
In the Greek-speaking east, the official translation of imperator as autokrator
persisted, with its connotations of autonomous power and monarchy. The
last shreds of republican ideology were vanishing, however, as basileus,
which originally meant ‘king’, prevailed in informal usage. The emergence
of tribal kingdoms in the west imposed a distinction between the universalist
monarchy of the Romans and the upstart western rulers, whose Latin
title rex was transliterated into Greek. Even within the palace an increasing
identification of basileus and ‘emperor’ – the magister officiorum’s private
records already use basileus under Justinian – facilitated the adoption of
basileus as the emperor’s official title a century later. The empress, too,
asserted her regal status ever more sharply, as an embittered Procopius
testifies. 45
41 Chron. Pasch. s.a. 532; cf. in general Guilland (1969) i.462–98.
42 Paul Sil. Descr. 580–5;Evagr.HE iv.31.
43 John Ant. fr. 94 (Exc. de Insid. De Boor); cf. Theoph. AM 6094; also AM 6003; Procop. Wars
i.24.32–7. Müller-Wiener (1977) 60. 44 MacCormack (1981).
45 Const. Porph. De Cer. i.89; Theodora: Procop. Secret History 10.7, 15.13–17.
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