General Introduction

...as closely as possible what the text says rather than what we are inclined to think it means to say. Interpretations may be left to a commentary. If, therefore, our rendering is in some cases ambiguous, so is the original. If it often halts, so does the text. If it is often inelegant and uncouth, it is no more so than the Greek. Where our author is plain and even elegant, we have tried to preserve his style; where he has left his sources to tell their own stories in their own ways, we have left them too.

With all its inaccuracies and shortcomings,⁴³ original Latin: "opere citato" (in the work cited), p. 574. Referring to the work by historian J.B. Bury. the On Administering the Empire original Latin: "De Administrando Imperio", for the sheer volume and variety of its information on foreign relations and internal administration, must be considered one of the most important historical documents surviving from medieval Byzantium. It even surpasses the great Book of Ceremonies A massive manual on court ritual and protocol compiled by the same tireless author. Its very omissions—such as the lack of a historical account of Bulgaria or an up-to-date assessment of Saracen A term used in the Middle Ages for Arab or Muslim peoples power—have their own historical lessons to teach us: for these two long-standing threats to the empire had at last been subdued, the one by the diplomacy of Romanus I, the other by the military "hammer" of Gourgen Likely referring to the Armenian prince and general Gourgen II of Vaspurakan, who was an ally of the Empire. The first-hand information comes mainly from Italy, from the Balkans and the Steppes, and from Armenia. In Armenia, the advance of the Roman The Byzantines referred to themselves as Romans arms and the retreat of the Saracens involved a complicated diplomacy within the numerous and jealous principalities beyond the eastern frontier. In a divided and weakened Italy, during the interval between the empires of Charlemagne and Otto, Byzantium was for the last time in its history a strong military and diplomatic influence. The only hint of anxiety comes from the north, where the watchful eyes of the foreign ministry observed intently the ever-shifting kaleidoscope of the political scene, as Magyars Hungarians and Slavs, Russians and Pechenegs A warlike nomadic Turkic people from the steppes, Khazars A powerful Turkic people who converted to Judaism and ruled a vast trade empire and Alans made their complicated moves between the Caucasus and the Carpathian mountains.

There is no doubt that the On Administering the Empire was a secret and confidential document. It tells too much about the principles of imperial foreign policy and diplomacy—especially in the first thirteen chapters—to be safe for publication. Knowledge of these early chapters would have been worth untold sums in blackmail to the Pechenegs. Moreover, in the Armenian chapters, there are several traces of information obtained through secret service channels,⁴⁴ original Latin: "exempli gratia" (for example): D.A.I. 43, lines 13-16; 46, lines 54-64 which the government must have been most reluctant to reveal. Nor is it probable that the outspoken criticisms which the emperor passes on his father-in-law and colleague⁴⁵ in the same place: ibid., 13, lines 149-175; 51, lines 184-186. The emperor is criticizing his co-emperor Romanus I Lecapenus. were intended for general reading. These criticisms betray the justifiable resentment of a prince deprived of his throne by an interloper for a quarter of a century; but his strong regard for the imperial dignity would have prevented him from publishing this resentment to the world at