General Introduction

...laid down by the illiterate Basil I³⁴ found its ultimate fulfilment in the educational reforms of his scholarly grandson. This is the true glory of the Porphyrogenitus literally "born in the purple," a title given to children born to a reigning emperor in the purple chamber of the palace to emphasize their legitimacy. Among the great emperors who enriched the middle-Byzantine heritage between A.D. 843 and 1204, none is to be compared with Constantine VII for depth of scholarship, catholicity of interest or fineness of taste. Of the last, his Life of his grandfather is a unique memorial. It was Constantine who amassed the libraries from which his successors acquired their learning. With him Byzantium, rapidly approaching the apex of its military glory, as rapidly approached the apex of its intellectual achievement, an achievement fostered by a princely patron of the arts whose like the world scarcely saw in the thirteen centuries which divided Hadrian from Lorenzo the Magnificent.

The On Administering the Empire original Latin: De Administrando Imperio,³⁵ to give this nameless treatise the Latin title attached to it by Meursius,³⁶ was written and compiled, as we know from internal evidence, between the years 948 and 952.³⁷ It is a manual of kingcraft the art and skill of ruling a kingdom addressed to the youthful Romanus, the emperor's son, and is in form, like numerous other contemporary manuals on various subjects, avowedly didactic. It aims at teaching³⁸ the youth to be a wise sovereign, first by a knowledge of past and present affairs, and second by giving him a summary of the experience of others in circumstances analogous to those likely to surround himself; so that, knowing what policies have succeeded or failed in the past, he may himself be able to act prudently and successfully in the future. The matter of this teaching is a political and historical survey of very wide extent, suitable to the training of one who is to rule the world. The preface divides it into four sections: the first, a key to foreign policy in the most dangerous and complicated area of the contemporary political scene, the area of the «northerners and Scythians» a term often used by Byzantines to refer generally to various nomadic peoples from the Eurasian steppes; the second, a lesson in the diplomacy to be pursued in dealing with the nations of this same area; the third and longest, a comprehensive historical and geographical survey of most of the nations surrounding the empire, starting with the Saracens to the south-east, fetching a compass round the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and ending with the Armenian states on the eastern frontier; the fourth, a summary of recent internal history, politics and organization, within the borders of the empire.³⁹ Upon the whole, these divisions are adhered to in the text as we have it.⁴⁰

³⁴ Emperor Basil's Advice to his son Leo original Latin: Basilii Imp. Paraenesis ad Leonem filium (Greek Patrology original: M. P. G., a collection of Greek Christian texts, vol. 107), p. 21 (concerning education original Greek: περὶ παιδεύσεως; see On Administering the Empire, ch. 1); and in the same work, p. 49 (concerning the study of scriptures original Greek: περὶ μελέτης γραφῶν: see Theophanes Continuatus, p. 314).
³⁵ For full bibliography, see Moravcsik, Byzantine-Turkish Studies original: Byzantinoturcica, I, pp. 215—221 (2nd ed. pp. 367—380).
³⁶ Johannes van Meurs (1579—1639); see below, p. 23.
³⁷ Bury, referenced work, pp. 522 and following.
³⁸ On Administering the Empire, 1, line 13, (to teach original Greek: διδάξαι).
³⁹ ibid., Preface, lines 14–24.
⁴⁰ Bury, referenced work, p. 574.