Imperial Visions of Late Byzantium: Manuel II Palaiologos and Rhetoric in Purple (Edinburgh Byzantine Studies)

Manuel II Palaiologos was not only a Byzantine emperor but also a remarkably prolific rhetorician and theologian. His oeuvre included letters, treatises, dialogues, short poems and orations. Florin Leonte deals with several of his texts shaped by a didactic intention to educate the emperor's son and successor, John VIII Palaiologos. He argues that the emperor constructed a rhetorical persona which he used in an attempt to compete with other contemporary power-brokers. While Manuel Palaiologos adhered to many rhetorical conventions of his day, he also reasserted the civic role of rhetoric. With a special focus on the first two decades of Manuel II Palaiologos' rule, 1391-1417, Leonte offers a new understanding of the imperial ethos in Byzantium by combining rhetorical analysis with investigation of social and political phenomena.

• | Author: Florin Leonte
• | Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• | Publication Date: January 21, 2020
• | Number of Pages: 344 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Hardcover
• | ISBN-10: 1474441033
• | ISBN-13: 9781474441032