The Hypomnēmata

Abstract

Council leaders and administrative staff are shown to employ technical terminology for the council records they use and produce. Of special interest are a number of expressions and phrases that reveal these men’s expectations and aspirations for the qualities defining these records. The linguistic habits have their closest equivalents in legal texts and can be documented in particular in the constitutions issued by the emperor Justinian. The use of these terms in the earlier acts of the councils of the fifth century already is noteworthy. The terminology emphasizes the making of proper paperwork as a task fundamental to the work and ‘success’ of councils, and present on the minds of their leaders and administrators throughout. It shows, furthermore, that council acts are expected, and desired, especially to command trust with envisaged future users and claim validity equivalent to official public records.