Download EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

EARLY CHRISTIAN
AND BYZANTINE
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
ORIGINS AND BACKGROUND
by
FRANCIS DVORNIK
Professor Emeritus of Byzantine History,
Dumbarton Oaks
Volume One
G
The Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies
Trustees for Harvard University
Washington, District of Columbia
1966
CONTENTS
VOLUME ONE
Dedication
Foreword
v
vii
List of Abbreviations
xv
I Oriental Ideas on Kingship: Egypt,
Mesopotamia
i
Introduction — Origins of Egyptian divine kingship —
Egyptian royal theology — The king, giver of life —
Pharaoh the main factor in public worship •—• Egyptian
idea of universality — Theocracy and hierocracy —
Historical evolution of Mesopotamia — Sumerian ideas
on the origin and character of kingship — Divine kingship in Mesopotamia? — Assyrian kingship — The
idea of universality and of the King-Saviour — Kings
impersonating gods — The king as intermediary between
gods and subjects — Egyptian influence on royal symbolism in Assyria, among the Hurri and Mitanni.
II Aryan Hittites and Near Eastern Semites
The first Aryan contribution to Near Eastern civilization
— The Hittites in Asia Minor—Babylonian and Egyptian
influences on Hittite ideas on kingship — Indo-European
elements in the Hittite polity — Syro-Hittites; Syrian and
Palestinian Semites — Egyptian court ceremonial according to the Tell el-Amarna Letters — Divine kingship
in Syria and Palestine? — Ideas on kingship in Aramaic
inscriptions — Documents from Mari and Ras ShamraUgarit betraying Babylonian and Hittite influences on
the political ideas of Near Eastern Semites.
xi
45
CONTENTS
III Iranian Kingship
73
Eastern Iranian and Median monarchies — Formation
of the Persian Empire — No traces of divine kingship in
Iranian myths and oldest political organizations — Hvarena (kingly glory), the concrete apparition of light —
The Aryan and Iranian character of this belief— Hvarena
represented in the form of animals and elements. The god
Verethragna, its bearer — Verethragna, personification
of an abstract notion of might and power? — Priestly
Hvarena, a Zoroastrian invention — Persian kings as
successors of mythical heroes and representatives of Ahura
Mazda •—• Zoroastrian influence on Achaemenid ideas of
kingship? — Babylonian influences on Persian political
ideas — Iranian and Oriental elements in Persian royal
ceremonial — Evolution of royal symbols: tiara, throne —
Persian idea of universality — The King-Savior and
Zoroastrian eschatology — Conclusion.
IV From Mycenae to Isocrates
I. Greek migrations and Homeric kingship — Greek epic
poetry — Crete, the Mycenaean Greeks, and Near Eastern
civilizations — Egyptian influences on Minoan (Cretan)
kingship? — Oriental political ideas in the Mycenaean
monarchy? — Supreme kingship of Zeus.
II. The new migration and its consequences — Origin of
city-states, decline of kingship — Regime of the aristocratic
republics, new colonization — Codification, era of tyrants,
the Spartan constitution — Origins of Athenian democracy
— Pisistratus and Cleisthenes — Triumph of Athenian
democracy — Athens' empire, Pericles' radical democracy
— The Sophists and their influence on Greek -political
thought — Degeneration of radical democracy.
III. Longings for a better constitution, reminders of the
past — Example of Persia — "Conversion" of Euripides
— Plato's criticism of radical democracy — Plato's ideal
state — Plato's second-best state — Aristotle on the state
xii
132
CONTENTS
and the "best man" as ruler — Aristotle's homage to the
tyrant Hermias — Xenophon on the monarchic regime —
"Cult" of personalities — Isocrates' Panhellenic ideal
— Isocrates and Philip — Isocrates and the monarchic idea.
V Hellenistic Political Philosophy
205
I. The ruler cult, the main feature of the Hellenistic age
— The sacral character of the Macedonian kingship —
Alexander's religious attitude, his deiflcation as Pharaoh
of Egypt — Alexander son of Ammon (Zeus) — Alexander's divinization by Greek cities — Greek origin and ceremonial of the cult — Her0 worship and the ruler cult —
The Athenian Assembly and the deiflcation of Alexander,
Antigonus, and Poliorcetes — Alexander's generals and
his cult — The Ptolemaic ruler cult, its Greek and Egyptian
character — Ruler-cult symbolism on Ptolemaic coins —
Religious beliefs of the Seleucids, their ruler cult — Greek
cities, symbolism on coinage — Parthia, Bactria, Armenia — The Attalids, Pontus, Comagene.
II. Theocritus and Callimachus on kingship — Historians and the masses — Archytas and the definition of the
king as the law animate — Diotogenes on kingship —
Hellenistic origin of his treatise (second century B.C.) —
Sthenidas' fragment contemporary with Diotogenes' —
Ecphantus on kingship — Oriental elements in Ecphantus'
treatise — Ecphantus on the king's moral role; dating of
his treatise — Ideas on kingship in Pseudo-Aristeas'
Letter compared with those of Diotogenes and Ecphantus —
Oriental influences on the development of some Hellenistic
royal titles — Plutarch's ideas on kingship recalling those
of Diotogenes and Ecphantus — Hellenistic intellectuals'
shyness on the divine character of kings.
VI Jewish Political Philosophy and the Messianic
Idea
278
Moses and the Judges — Origin of the kingship; ceremonial
of Saul's elevation — "Royal psalms," Egyptian and
xiii
CONTENTS
Babylonian parallels — The king a priest? — Foreign
elements in Israelite kingship — The "kingly law" in
Deuteronomy — The Messianic idea within the monarchic
period •— The Minor Prophets: kings and Messiah —
Isaiah and Jeremiah on kingship and the Messiah —
Ezekiel, forerunner of priestly rule — Deutero-Isaiah on
the universal character of the messianic kingdom —
Collapse of post-exilic national hopes; Zechariah on the
growth of spiritual power over temporal — Jahweh's
kingship — The Messiah's reign — The Suffering Servant
of God — The last Prophets — Dangers of Hellenism —
The Hasmonaean national state; Sadducees and Pharisees
— Hellenistic political ideas in Jewish post-exilic Wisdom
literature — Reaction in the apocalyptic literature, Enoch
on the Messiah — Daniel — Sadducees and Pharisees on
the Messiah — The Book of Jubilees written by a Sadducee
or a member of the Qumran sect? — Belief in two Messiahs
in Qumran Scrolls and the Testaments of the Twelve
Patriarchs? — Herod and the Romans — Messianic
kingdom in Solomon's Psalms — Final stage.
VII The Kingdom of God
403
Spiritualization of the messianic kingdom in late Judaism
— St. John the Baptist and Qumran — John's disciples —
Jesus, Son of Man and Servant of God — The Kingdom
of God and the Sermon on the Mount — The Kingdom
of God in the parables — The Sermon on the Mount and
the Dead Sea Scrolls — Temporal and eschatological elements in the Kingdom of God — Announcement of the
foundation of the Kingdom of God — Christ and Hellenistic political thought — Payment of the tribute; Christ and
the Zealots — The Apostles, the Church, and the Kingdom
of God — State, Church, and Hellenistic polity in Paul's
and Peter's Epistles — Conclusion.
xiv