Emmanuel Roïdes, Pope Joan Translated by David Connolly. Athens: Aiora Press, 2019. Pp. 231

Abstract

compositional structure of the Funeral Oration,’ from p. 203). After demonstrating how Manuel employed a long-existing rhetorical template from antiquity for this epitaphios, L. discusses each section – bolstering his claim about the unusually detailed historical narrative for such a rhetorical form (in this case, about contemporaneous events in the Peloponnese) by citing three near-contemporary Byzantine authors commenting on Manuel’s text. For L., Manuel emerges as an ‘omniscient storyteller’ (p. 214), deliberately transgressing the bounds of a genre he had earlier sworn to eschew, as undertaking a long narrative would be the historian’s task. It is an interesting insight, and supports L.’s contention that narrative’s diverse function in such rhetorical works remains somewhat overlooked by Byzantinists. This is accompanied by use of theoretical terminology: Manuel is described as being in a homodiegetic relationship with his text; that is, becoming a character in his own narration (p. 215). As with his other examples, L. presents Manuel as utilizing conventional works of rhetoric in personal ways, to emphasize and assert his own imperial power. L. concludes that Manuel’s literary works reveal not only ‘his attempts to answer political challenges, but also a unique and long-term imperial project’ to create ‘a system of effective political communication by exhibiting his fatherly concern for his son and co-emperor’ (p. 265). While accepting Sphrantzes’ view of Manuel as a self-confessed ‘managerial’ emperor overseeing diminished territories and constant crises, L. makes the case that Manuel took an active role in staving off various problems and guiding resolutions when dealing with political and ecclesiastical rivals. In this light, ‘the role of rhetoric in his rule cannot be overlooked’ (p. 267). L. does a service in exploring these texts as vital source-material for a reign lacking in contemporaneous historiographical sources, a fact that has long forced scholars to look to Byzantine texts published after Manuel’s death for information on his reign.