Panegyric

In his Bellum Avaricum, George of Pisidia described the events of the 626 Avar siege of Constantinople. The siege posed a real threat to the city, which was aggravated by the absence of the emperor and the army in the city. Nevertheless, after several days, the Avars suddenly retreated and the unexpected withdrawal was perceived as a miracle.
The Bellum Avaricum contains numerous instances where the description of the main characters transgresses social and gender boundaries.Thus, George equals patriarch Sergius with the Mother of God in labours (lines 130-137), using highly gendered language. In turn, the Mother of God is presented as a surprisingly bellicose figure, while the Emperor Heraclius’ role is limited to prayers, despite his activities as a military commander. All three principal figures are shifted and take each other’s typical role.
Constantinople had seen numerous riots and violent overthrows at the beginning of the seventh century, Heraclius was far away from the city and his rule was a disaster. So maintaining the hierarchy and downplaying the common people’s role in the defence must have been very important for George. Cross-dressing Heraclius, Sergius and the Theotokos provided a way to show the audience of the poem the unexpected way how Heraclius and his close friend Sergius
influenced the battle.

ENGLISH ABSTRACT
The Chronographia of Michael Psellos (AD 1018-ca.1078) and the History of Michael Attaleiates (ca. 1025-ca. 1080) are two nearly contemporary -and thus frequently compared- eleventh-century Byzantine historical narratives. Recent analyses concerning their respective style, as well as their literary and ideological framework, have increasingly highlighted a sharp internal division within each of the two works. Such a division concerned their composite moments, literary genres (history opposed to enkomion) and even the works' argumentative lines developed in each section. This article reconsiders the implications of the internal division in Psellos' work, while flatly discarding the existence of a comparable internal break in Attaleiates' History.
RESUMEN ESPAÑOL
La Cronografía de Miguel Pselo (1018- ca. 1078) y la Historia de Miguel Ataliates (ca. 1015- ca. 1080) son dos narraciones históricas bizantinas contemporáneas y, por tanto, frecuentemente comparadas, dedicadas al análisis de los acontecimientos históricos y los gobernantes del siglo XI bizantino. Los análisis recientes del estilo de las obras, así como de su marco ideológico y literario, han tendido a detectar una división interna producida por sus distintos momentos compositivos, los géneros literarios empleados (historia versus encomio) y el argumento de cada sección. En el presente artículo, reviso las implicaciones de la división interna de la obra de Pselo y descarto la existencia de una brecha similar dentro de la Historia de Ataliates.

Шāхнāме Екатерины (شاهنامۀ کاترین) — стихотворное персоязычное сочинение конца XVIII в., посвященное Екатерине Второй. Формально представляя собой отчет о дипломатической миссии, этот текст по своей сути является панегириком, в тридцати двух главах прославляющим справедливость императрицы, просвещенность ее власти, устройство ее государства и достоинства его городов. Книга написана размером мутакариб, характерным для эпического жанра маснави. Объем ее составляет 484 бейта (968 мисра‛). Автор ее, Мохаммад б. Мохаммад Мохсен Ашрафи Ильчи (محمد بن محمد محسن اشرفی ایلچی), состоял в посольстве каджарского принца Мортазы Кули-хана, пребывавшем при дворе в Петербурге. Сочинение было переведено на русский язык и в 1793 г. издано в Императорской Типографии в двуязычном виде. Справа на каждом из 70 разворотов представлен персидский текст, слева — русский перевод. По мнению А. Гольчина Ма‛āни, Шāхнāме Екатерины — первая в России печатная книга на персидском языке.

В 2015 г. в Иране появилось факсимильное издание с предисловием М. Голāми Джалисе и М. Дж. Ахмадиниā, посвященное О. П. Щегловой. В нем воспроизведен текст экземпляра из мешхедской библиотеки Āстāн Кудс Резави. Тем не менее, источник представляется пока недостаточно изученным. В частности, нам неизвестно о публикациях о нем на западных языках.

Почему Ашрафи назвал свое сочинение «Шāхнāме»? Является ли оно единственным в своем роде или имеет аналоги? Берт Г. Фрагнер в труде Персофония говорит о целом жанре шāхнāма-нависи. Он определяет его как «формально аналогичный Шāхнāме эпос, в котором современная история изображается, все время опираясь на великий труд Фирдоуси — прежде всего в метрике и образном языке». Подобные сочинения слагались и вне Ирана. ХХ век породил удивительные примеры шāхнāма-нависи, среди которых Фрагнер называет Кайсарнāме в честь германского кайзера и Микадунāме в честь японского императора, советскую поэму Тāдж-у байрак А. Лахути и Шахнāме-йе Читрал о местном пакистанском правителе. Среди более ранних текстов нельзя не упомянуть Шаханшāхнāме Сабā Кāшāни.

Шāхнāме Екатерины, безусловно, заслуживает детального изучения. Среди вопросов, представляющих для нас особенный интерес — проблема происхождения Ашрафи, особенности его языка и стиля, история русского перевода его сочинения.

Der Aufsatz untersucht das auffällige Nebeneinander von Fiktion und faktualer Beteuerung, das für die Lobreden auf Kaiser des 3. und 4. Jhs. charakteristisch ist, und fragt nach der Konsequenz für deren textpragmatischen Status. Er zeigt, dass die antike Panegyrik faktuales und fiktionales Erzählen kombiniert und erklärt dies mit einer impliziten kommunikativen Übereinkunft zwischen Rednern und Publikum, dem panegyrischen Pakt. Das Ergebnis ist relevant für Studien zur antiken Panegyrik, für die seit langem diskutierte Frage nach dem antiken Bewusstsein für Fiktionalität und für die moderne Forschung zu faktualem und fiktionalem Erzählen, die immer mehr die Existenz ‚hybrider‘ Erzählformen betont.

This chapter examines how imperial panegyric was used as a mechanism for the delivery of the propaganda messages of the imperial court to civilian and military elites within imperial and provincial cities. For the autocratic and often highly coercive governments of the fourth century, panegyric offered a way that centrally composed messages could be communicated by supposedly independent philosophers and teachers, giving these messages the aura of spontaneous praise for the ruler.

The chapter begins by consideration of the occasions on which panegyric was delivered, demonstrating that literally thousands of speeches must have been given during the fourth century. It then considers the surviving corpus of imperial panegyrics, 48 speeches from between 10 and 16 authors, spanning the period 289-389. The chapter then discusses the typical content of the speeches and examines how they were composed, how they related to central propaganda messages, and how the speeches communicated these messages to an incredibly wide audience, both through their immediate delivery and then, subsequently, through informal channels of communication.

Panegyrics often contained laughable falsehoods, and this has led to their being dismissed as sources without relevance. This chapter, however, attempts to reorient our understanding of the role that panegyrics played and to demonstrate that part of their virtue lay in their absurd falsities; the emperor displayed his power over his subjects by making them complicit in his self-presentation, forcing them to listen to (and to speak) words that they knew were false but were unable to contradict. The chapter also argues that the panegyrics were not solely the expression of the emperor’s power over his provincials, but were also a real opportunity for the provincials to communicate their needs to their ruler.

The chapter concludes with a consideration of the usurpation of Procopius (365-6), described in a panegyric delivered by Themistius to Valens (Or. VII), a panegyric delivered by Symmachus to Valentinian (Or. I), and the historical account of Ammianus. Using the very different portrayals of the rebellion in Symmachus and Themistius, the chapter illustrates how local elites were co-opted into the business of the court’s self-presentation, and how they took advantage of this to access imperial favour and patronage.

In this chapter, panegyrical oratory as attested in the panegyrici latini XII (with special reference to XII[9] and IV[10]), is placed in the intellectual atmosphere of the early fourth century, especially within the context of Neoplatonism. The period was characterized by a long literary tradition to look back upon (Greek as well as Latin), a thriving study and re-interpretations of Plato, a host of religious worldviews, and budding Christianity. In this chapter, it is investigated in how far the orators of the Gaulish panegyrical tradition stood in contact with Neoplatonic thought, and how this most influential philosophical current can be read in the oratorical texts. Many contingencies appear to be detected between the two spheres, such as exemplarized by the position of the monarchic ruler, theological excurses and imperial virtues.

Abu Tammam, Habib b. Aws was one of the most celebrated and most contentious poets of the Abbasid age. He was born in the town of Jasim near Damascus in modern‐day Syria in 188/804 (or 190/806) and is credited with developing, to the extent of exaggeration, a style in Arabic poetry referred to as the New Style, an innovative poetic style which challenged the established poetic norms. Abu Tammam was at the center of the debates around this “new” poetry of the Abbasid age, described by critics, supporters, and detractors alike as modern, a term which, in this context, connotes novelty but also heresy and transgression. He is considered by many poets and critics to be the father of modernizing movements in Arabic poetry and one of the major inspirations for the Arabic Free Verse movement of the twentieth century.

Glorification of Charles IV in the funeral sermons of Henry of Wildenstein as an example of the morally exhortative scope of funeral homiletics

The article looks at the issue of the posthumous presentation of Charles IV in two funeral sermons given by the preacher Henry of Wildenstein (Henricus de Wildenstein, OFM). The first of these was delivered during days-long funeral festivities on 14th December 1378 in the Lesser Quarter’s Church of Our Lady Beneath the Chain, with the second delivered on 30th December of the same year in Litomyšl Cathedral during memorial exequys. Although their words are linked to an important historical event, they have not previously been subject to much animated expert debate. The article’s author investigates the formal aspect of these sermons and demonstrates that they provide a narrative whose official objective is biblical exegesis, i.e. an interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. At the same time, however, they were celebratory speeches which utilised numerous Bible and Church-authority quotes to depict the late sovereign as the ideal monarch, someone who would be saved. The author analyses the different topoi in the oration (panegyric), and taking account of theories of late scholastic Biblical exegesis notes the religiously exhortative (encouraging) function of the sermons. The author interprets the idealised image of Charles IV in the funeral sermons as an extraordinarily effective means for depicting the general moral and religious imperative for a so-called “good life”, which establishes the hope of posthumous salvation.

A partir de la información contenida en distintas fuentes literarias de fines del s. IV e inicios del s. V d.C. pretendemos dilucidar la veracidad o incorrección de la visión de Hispania como espacio aislado en el conjunto del periodo tardorromano. La documentación disponible muestra una dispar visión del territorio, circunstancia que mediatiza y condiciona la valoración final. Si bien la tradición historiográfica suele concluir que fue una región marginal, el análisis de la información contenida en las constituciones imperiales discute sin embargo el alejamiento del territorio hispano.

From  information  contained  in  various  literary  sources  of  late  4th  and  early  5th  centuries AD we intend to elucidate the truthfulness or inaccuracy of the vision of Hispania as marginal region in the Later Roman Empire. The documentation available reflects a disparate view  of  the  territory,  circumstance  that  can  determinate  the  final  assessment.  Although  the  historiographical  tradition  usually  concludes  that  was  a  marginal  area,  the  analysis  of  the  information  contained  in  the  imperial  constitutions  however  discusses  the  distancing  of  the territory.

This article aims to show the close link between the representation of Trajan’s deeds in Pliny the Younger’s Panegyric and those of Augustus as described in the Res gestae. The analysis, developed through an in-depth reading of the most relevant passages, defines Trajan’s twofold attitude towards his model: on the one hand a singular effort to broaden Augustus’ successes, on the other the tendency to manifest his own self-restraint in contrast to the predecessor’s behaviour. The final section of the article is devoted to Pliny’s treatment of the word saeculum, which powerfully invokes the presence of another Augustan theme: the return of the Golden Age.

Free onlne at http://www.romanicodigital.com/contenidos/CODEX-AQUILARENSIS/codex-aquilarensis-35.aspx
At their conquests in 1236 and 1248, Córdoba and Seville were among the most architecturally sophisticated cities in Europe, with monuments of near unparalleled size and height. I first explore the contemporary chronicles and verses that responded to these heroic cityscapes, understood within a long tradition of urban panegyric and polemics about religious sound. Numerous sources also record that the great minarets in these cities were climbed by their new Christian conquerors, and in the second part of this article I consider intersections of surveying and surveillance in relation to towers, and aesthetic responses to urban and rural views. I conclude with a survey of the tradition of climbing towers in medieval Europe, and consider its possible repercussions for surveying and the creation of urban panoramas in the later Middle Ages and the modern era.

Ḥassân b. Sâbit, özellikle Sadru’l-İslam Döneminde, şiir sahasında gösterdiği üretkenliğiyle hatırlanmaktadır. Hz. Muhammed’in baş şairi olması, onun ismini İslam tarihinin en meşhur şairleri arasına yazdıracaktır. Ḥassân’ın hak edilmiş tanınırlığının ardında, methiye nazmında gösterdiği belirgin başarının son derece önemli bir rolü bulunmaktadır. Ömrünün yarısını İslamiyet’in doğuşundan önce geçirmiş olması hasebiyle, Hz. Muhammed’in Medine’ye gelmesinden evvel, övgü sahasında hatırı sayılır ölçüde deneyim kazanabilmiş, Arabistan’ın sayılı yöneticilerinin yanında, methiyeciliğini kullanarak saygın bir konum elde etmeyi başarmıştır. Hatta Suriye’de hüküm süren Ġassânîler için nazmettiği kasidelerinin, methiyeciliğinin zirvesi olarak değerlendirilmesi mümkündür. Ḥassân söz konusu kasidelerinde, muhatabını överken samimi duygularını ifade ediyormuş izlenimini, son derece başarılı şekilde vermektedir. Böylesine bir içtenlik hissiyatı uyandırabilmek, methiye nazmında önemli bir maharettir. Öte yandan Ḥassân’ın hakikaten de duygusal birisi olduğu göz önünde bulundurulduğunda, hâlihazırda aralarında kan bağı bulunan bu yöneticileri överken gösterdiği samimiyetin, şairin gerçek duygularını yansıtıyor olma olasılığı son derece yüksektir.
İslamiyet’in Medine’de kuvvet kazanması, Ḥassân b. Sâbit’in methiyecilik kariyerinde, yeni bir safhanın açılması anlamına gelmektedir. Artık olgunluk döneminin tadını çıkaran büyük usta, şairlik sanatının gelişmesi için gereken dinamizmi, Hz. Muhammed’in yanında çok geçmeden bulacaktır. Hz. Peygamberin, Ḥassân’ın şiirlerinden, genellikle Mekkeli Müşriklere ve Medineli Yahudilere karşı, İslam’ın müdafaa edilmesinde yararlandığı bilinmektedir. Öte yandan Ḥassân, “peygamber şairi” olarak üstlendiği bu birincil vazifesinin yanında, Hz. Muhammed’i öven kasideler de nazmedecektir. Ayrıca sahabenin diğer önemli isimlerinin methedilmesinde de faaliyet gösteren şair, medîḥ sahasında elde ettiği başarıları dolayısıyla, Hz. Peygamber tarafından takdir edilecektir. Ḥassân b. Sâbit’in övgü dizeleri, İslam geleneğinde önemli bir yere sahiptir. Hatta İslâmî kaynaklarda, Ḥassân’ın Hz. Muhammed’i övmek için söylediği beyitlerden yetmiş tanesinin, baş melek Cebrail’in yardımıyla nazmedildiği dahi rivayet edilmektedir.