Ubiquitous in the process and results was a concern for military matters, court politics, diplomacy, and the interests and "shared experience of a circle of warrior aristocrats" (p. 15-19) are welcome and repay careful attention.Ĭhapter 1 introduces the Macedonian emperors and delineates, through an appreciation of the priorities, policies, and interests of these rulers and their court, the "systematisation of knowledge" which Németh sees as one of that dynasty's defining features. Given the complexities of what follows, chapter summaries (pp. 3 Németh immediately distances himself from the notion of Byzantine "encyclopaedism" and from the study of the EC as a repository of historical fragments, promising instead "a more productive reading", one which avoids the imposition on the EC of anachronistic categories and concerns. A combination of internal evidence and the Suda, which drew most of its historical entries from the now-lost volumes of the EC, suggests that the excerpted authors numbered in the thirties. When finished, the set comprised fifty-three thematically titled volumes, four of which survive, only one of those complete. Németh's introduction offers an overview of the EC.
#De administrando imperio review series#
From his doctoral thesis through a series of subsequent publications, 2 he has charted a straight course and, in the process, has acquired an intimate knowledge of the manuscripts which form the evidential foundation upon which the arguments and inferences of the book here reviewed rest. He is eminently qualified to pronounce on these matters. Németh's principal concerns are the Excerpta Constantiniana (hereafter EC), 1 the motives behind and processes involved in their production, their place within and influence on what Németh views as a distinctive and calculated "appropriation of the past" sponsored by Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus and Basil Lecapenus, and evidenced not only by the EC but also by the De Thematibus, the De Administrando Imperio, and the De Ceremoniis by a biographical turn in Byzantine historiography and by the effects of what Németh argues were the innovative information gathering and retrieval techniques employed in the conceptualization and production of the EC on lexicography, particularly on the Suda. This book is not so much to be read through as thought through. Banchich, Canisius College, Buffalo, NY at BMCR home site Cambridge New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018. András Németh, The 'Excerpta Constantiniana' and the Byzantine Appropriation of the Past.