Tuesday, May 14, 2019
Traits of a successful Byzantine emperor from the perspective of Research Paper
Traits of a flourishing Byzantine emperor from the perspective of Michael Psellus - seek Paper ExampleIn his historical works, he describes the attributes of the various emperors (it is notable that he had shifted his semipolitical fusion numerous times during his lifetime, indeed implying that he had assessed Emperors and shifted allegiances when he perceived that an Emperor was weak). Thus, one can fuck off the argument that Psellus was a pragmatists and a proto-Machiavellian figure, as evidenced by his political career, and the standards by which he assessed politicians and emperors. From interpreting Psellus Chronographia, one can arrive to the conclusion that Psellus ideas on what constituted a successful emperor were derived from the front Byzantine history (since the notorious dirty force out politics that one can observe end-to-end the late Byzantine history can be traced to the earlier Roman times). Therefore, the traits that would make one a good Byzantine empero r were theorized by Psellus at a time when the Byzantine Empire was enjoying a century of success, stability and expansion (while also going through difficult times later on). Thus, Psellus himself was a high-class Byzantine political figure who was actively involved with the court politics of the Byzantine Emperors . Since Psellus had narrow down in court politics, his perspective is inseparable from the Constantinopolitan political culture. Various political events that took place in Psellus time and the reigns of various emperors that greatly differed from each other provided Psellus with a wide-range of political experience to derive his assessment vex from, since he always had the opportunity to observe how the imperial court had functioned under different emperors. Michael Psellus Traits of a palmy Byzantine Emperor In his book, the Fourteen Byzantine Rulers, Psellus provides a first gear-hand account that includes observations of blatant mismanagement, unethical political practices, incompetence, as well as successful or exemplary incidents that he attributes to various Byzantine emperors and politicians. Since Psellus was a member of the Byzantine court for nearly a quarter century, he was able to not just now observe but also interact with various emperors. This enabled him to better comprehend the various traits and ruling-styles of different emperors and thus form connections between the traits of a particular emperor and how those traits related to economic growth, military success, or the full general well-being of the Empire at different instances throughout his career3. It should be noted though, that Psellus views were undoubtedly influenced by the norms of his time. Thus, Psellus political assessments also have a historical touch to it, apart from only concerning the discipline of political science. From the first to the last of the fourteen emperors, Psellus provides the following traits as being necessary for Byzantine Emperor to be a successful ruler4. Alertness, thoughtfulness and Intelligence The notion that these series of traits are necessary for an emperor to be successful is evidenced by the after-math of the demise of John Tzimisces. The legible heirs to the throne were Basil and Constantine, and both of them had been gaining political power prior to the death of Tzimisces. Michael Psellus explains that the two heirs had different political
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