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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