#DE ADMINISTRANDO IMPERIO EXPLAIN MANUAL#

These foreigners entered ConstantineвЂ™s territory regularly to trade, increasing the likelihood of an accurate account: frequent contact allows for more chances to observe practices and customs. They arrive, the text tells us, when spring comes and the ice melts, in their boats down the Dnieper River, a great river which begins in Russia and flows through modern-day Belarus and Ukraine before emptying into the Black Sea. Perhaps it is due to the fact that the RusвЂ™ are arriving to trade with their people, with the implication that they are the subordinates hoping to gain money and goods from these pursuits, that the superiority of Byzantium is understood and need not be spelled out.Д¬hapter 9 of this source contains an account of Russians traveling in monoxyla, simple boats made from hollowed out trees or carved from flat-bottomed pieces of wood, from Russia to Constantinople. вЂ¦ But Byzantium is presented as the central place, a superordinate power, around which others revolve, and to which many of them defer.вЂќ This bias does not seem to affect the account of the Russian traders, being a straightforward account of trade and the route the traders take across the Dnieper River. The rights and independence of other states are recognized. also note, вЂњNo overt claims are made to universal rule. Not once is the word barbaroi used of any of the many neighboring peoples.вЂќ However, as a king writing to a future ruler Constantine believed his empire to be superior. note that Constantine VII made clear through his style of writing that, вЂњthe image of the barbarian faded away to reveal a multitude of individual peoples, with defined territories and constitutions, with distinctive histories and cultures. The author focuses on naming and describing various peoples and landmarks with which his son would presumably need to be familiar.Д®lizabeth Jeffreys et al. It contains little judgement of the outside cultures, seen in other accounts such as when Ibn Fadlan called the RusвЂ™ вЂњthe filthiest of all AllahвЂ™s creaturesвЂќ and noted their disgusting habits of washing their faces in dirty water, or having sex with their slave girls in public.

#DE ADMINISTRANDO IMPERIO EXPLAIN MANUAL#

As a manual designed to help the ruler of the empire, the tone of the writing is straightforward. Or, as Treadgold points out, perhaps he was more concerned with preserving a jumble of what he hoped would be useful facts and was less concerned with comparing cultural merits. The authorвЂ™s position as a king, writing about his empire and the surrounding cultures, seems to have imbued the narrative with a more factual overall view than some narratives by written by travelers to what they considered strange and unusual places. Other sources from which De Administrando Imperio is copied include Theophanes Continuatus, and the Life of Basil, both either written or commissioned by Constantine. His On Administering the Empire is a jumble of disjointed facts. He was far more a patron of writing than a writer, because most of the works attributed to him are virtually copied from earlier sources. was mainly interested in compiling reference works. Constantine VII was responsible for many written works during his lifetime Warren Treadgold notes that Chapter 9 discusses Russian (RusвЂ™) traders who arrive by river each year to sell their boats. This work was created to aid ConstantineвЂ™s son and heir in foreign diplomacy and domestic policy.

It is one of the first Byzantine accounts of contact between their empire and the Scandinavian people. De Administrando Imperio is a handbook written in Greek by the Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine VII in the 10th century.

De administrando imperio explain