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Coronations in antiquity

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coronation of King David of Israel, as depicted in the Paris Psalter (10th century).

Historical ceremonies of introducing a new monarch by a ceremony of coronation can be traced to classical antiquity, and further to the Ancient Near East (especially the "Crowns of Egypt").

YouTube Encyclopedic

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Transcription

(piano) Man: I love to find out where things come from. The question mark is Carolingian. It comes from about 800. Woman: It is odd to find out the origin of something we take for granted like the question mark. We use the term Carolingian to refer to the time of Charlemagne and his successors. Charlemagne, also Charles the Great, or Carolus Magnus, hence the name Carolingian. Man: He was a king. He was famously crowned emperor in 800 by the Pope in Rome and he ruled over a collection of kingdoms that he had conquered, that his father had conquered, that his grandfather had conquered. Woman: He was a frank. Man: The ancient Romans would have considered them barbarians. These are people who migrated into Western Europe from the East, and who settled into what is now Germany and Northern France. Eventually, over generations, this is before Charlemagne, they were able to consolidate their power and by the time we get to about 800, Charlemagne is ruling a vast expanse of Europe. So how do we put together this idea of this warlord conquering whole kingdoms and somebody who invents the question mark, who invents punctuation as we use it? Woman: Well strangely, those things go together. Charlemagne had to govern a vast kingdom where there were many different languages and dialects spoken. He really needed to organize and educate to create a Christian kingdom, a Christian empire. Man: This was a really brutal period. These were warlords. These were when castles were being built because people were marauding. Armies were attacking. Fields were being burned. This was a tough period. Woman: So the stability that was there because of the Roman Empire, the relative stability is gone. There are really only vestiges of the civilizing functions of the Roman Empire. Man: The Romans had law, they had roads, they had trade systems. They had educational systems. Woman: They had a vast bureaucracy and trained civil servants to help the government run. All of that was gone. Man: So they had to figure out how they could create systems again based in part on the old Roman systems, that were capable of holding this empire together. But Charlemagne was deeply religious. He took his Catholic faith very seriously, and that became the binding agent for all of these diverse peoples and lands. Woman: Charlemagne wanted to rule over a Christian kingdom and saw himself as a divinely ordained emperor. Man: The problem was that most of his religious bureaucracy, his priests, were illiterate. He needed to find a way that he could begin to educate these people so that he could expose the population to a correct version of Catholicism, that is, that they could get it right. Woman: And it was important to get it right, because what had happened over the centuries is that because of the lack of a central government and central structures, different tribes were doing things differently. Different tribes had their own set of laws. They had different ways of practicing Christianity. You had too many diverse practices. He was interested in education. Educating the abbots, the bishops, the priests, so that when they read the literagy, they were reading the correct thing. They were teaching the correct ideas. Man: Right, so we're not talking about the peasantry. Woman: The priests are teaching to those very people, but it's the priestly class that needed to be literate and educated. Man: Charlemagne is creating schools in order to accomplish this. He's bringing together scholars for his own palace school in fact. From all across Europe. He brings in people from Spain, from Italy, from England, from Ireland. He wants to learn how to write Latin himself. Woman: Well, to get a sense of how important learning was to Charlemagne, we have this quote from an early biographer. "He avidly pursued the liberal arts "and greatly honored those teachers whom "he deeply respected. "To learn grammar he finally followed "the teaching of Peter of Pisa. "For the other disciplines, "he took as his teacher Alcuin of Britain, "the most learned man in the entire world. "Charlemagne invested a great deal of time "and effort setting rhetoric, dialectic, "and particularly astronomy with him. "He learned the art of calculating "and with deep purpose and great curiosity, "investigated the movement of the stars. "He also attempted to learn how to write, "and for this reason, he used to place "wax tablets and notebooks under his pillow "on his bed so that if he had any free time, "he might accustom his hand to forming letters. "But this effort came too late in life "and he achieved little success." I love that image of Charlemagne, the emperor sleeping with a tablet under his pillow so he can squeeze in some time to practice writing. Man: So Charlegmane created the political stability and the wealth that allowed him to begin to institute a kind of rigorous educational system. Not for the vast majority, but for the bureaucracy, the clergy. Those people needed to be able to read the Bible. They needed to be able to read Latin. This is a particularly important moment in European history. Remember, Latin had been spoken by the ancient Romans, but that was hundreds of years before. Woman: And Latin was importantly the language of government, and it was the language of the church. The two central authorities in Charlemagne's kingdom. Man: But language is a living thing and changes over time. This is the moment in history Latin begins to evolve into what we will eventually recognize as Spanish, as French, as Italian. The divergence of what had been Latin, Charlemagne was interested in revising Latin, removing the change that had accumulated in Latin over the centuries, and reforming Latin, bringing it back to what he thought was its classical form, which means that we really have two different kinds of language. The high language Latin of the church, of government, and we have the common spoken languages of the people. So what does he do? He sets up schools throughout his kingdom, especially in monasteries. Woman: Charlemagne set up Scriptoria, places where the Monks could copy books. Man: Now what this allows is the ramping up of the production of religious texts and other ancient texts. So a number of manuscripts that come out of Scriptoriums increases dramatically. Woman: In the several hundred years before Charlemagne, we have 500 manuscripts that survive. But between 750 and 900, about the time that we consider the Carolingian period of Charlemagne and his successors, we have 7,000. So there is clearly a deliberate attempt to retrieve, to preserve and to copy text and also to correct texts. Man: Think about what went into creating a book. These were handmade objects on materials that were quite expensive. This is long before paper was used in the West. What they used was parchment, sheepskin. Woman: All of this is being done by hand. This is a really hard thing for us to imagine. There is a Monk in a Scriptorium. By some accounts, one skilled scribe could copy as many as 7 pages with 25 lines on each page in one day. So this is slow going. It's expensive and the scribes themselves had to be literate. Man: As a great quote by a scribe complaining about his work. Woman: "The art of scribes is the hardest of arts. "It is difficult toil. "It is hard to bend the neck and plow "through the pages for three hours. "Three fingers write, but the whole body toils. "Just as it is sweet for the sailor to reach harbor, "so sweet is it for the writer to put "the final letter on the page." Man: Of course there was this newfound emphasis on doing it exactly right. Woman: And because they were so concerned about doing it exactly right, the Carolingians helped to develop a new kind of script called Minuscule. So just like Charlemagne was interested in standardizing, correcting the Bible and other texts, he was interested in standardizing writing so that more and more people could read it and more and more Monks would be able to copy it. Man: Right. He was lowering the bar in terms of the difficulty of writing so that he could create more efficiency and create more production so that more books could go out from the monasteries to the local churches and more people could get it right. Woman: Before this, writing had become very unclear. Words were elided with one another. Scribes often showed off with little calligraphic flourishes that made it difficult to read. Charlemagne was all about legibility. Making everything clear and correct. Charlemagne is all about correcting, reforming, standardizing, and wielded enormous power to make those things happen. It's important to remember at the same time that he is doing all these fabulous educational and cultural reforms, he is also leading armies and conquering people. Man: So all this education was necessary because Charlemagne was trying to create this Christian kingdom. He had moved beyond the borders that his father, his grandfather, his great grandfather had accumulated. He moved South into Italy, conquering the Germanic tribe, the Lombards, and taking on the title King of the Lombards. He pushed successfully into Spain just a bit in the area that is now Catalonia and the Basque region. He pushed into Brittany and probably with the most difficulty he subdued the Saxons. This was a non-Christian tribe in the Northeast. Woman: He Christianized them. It took several decades. For all his educational reforms, we have to also remember that he could be a ruthless warrior. Man: There is one particular episode that really brings that home. Charlemagne apparently had thought he had subdued the Saxons. He had granted titles to their leaders as Aristocrats in his kingdom. But some of his men were attacked by a group of rebel Saxons and Charlemagne took his vengeance on Saxon captives, executing 4,500 in one day cutting off their heads. Woman: We still have an enormously important legacy from Charlemagne and his successors. Many historians call this Carolingian period a Renaissance or at the very least a Revival. A Revival of classical learning. Charlemagne intentionally looked back to ancient Rome, especially the period of ancient Rome that was Christian. For example, under Constantine. Above and beyond the question mark, 90% of classical texts survived due to Charlemagne's scribes. Man: We're talking about the great writings of ancient Rome. We have these because Charlemagne and Charlemagne's court thought that they were important. They copied them multiple times and some of those manuscripts have survived. Woman: In fact, some scholars believe that Charlemagne actually issued a call across his empire for rare and important books so that they would be copied and preserved. Man: So we have a lot to thank Charlemagne for. We have the question mark. We have our understanding of classical authors and early religious texts. And people have seen Charlemagne as responsible for, to a large extent, inventing what we will come to know as modern Europe. (piano music)

Ancient Egypt

Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt were believed to be divine. In the coronation ceremony, the pharaoh was transformed into a god by means of his union with the royal ka, or life-force of the soul. All previous kings of Egypt had possessed this royal ka, and at his or her coronation, the monarch became divine as "one with the royal ka when his human form was overtaken by his immortal element, which flows through his whole being and dwells in it".[1][unreliable source?] This made him the son of Ra, the sun god, Horus, the falcon god, and Osiris, the god of life, death and fertility. From the Middle Kingdom on, the Pharaoh also came to be seen as the son of Amon, the king of Egyptian gods, until his cult faded in later centuries. At his death, the king became fully divine, according to Egyptian belief, being assimilated with Osiris and Ra.

Upon the death of the reigning Pharaoh, his successor was named immediately, so that the nation's cosmic protection would continue unbroken. While the new monarch ascended the throne the very next day, the coronation ceremony did not take place until the first day of a new season, thus symbolising the beginning of a new era. The ceremony was usually carried out at Memphis by the high priest, who invested the new king with the necessary powers to continue his predecessors' work.[2][unreliable source?]

As a permanent reminder to his people of his divine birthright, the Pharaoh wore various elements of royal regalia that varied depending upon the particular period in Egyptian history. Among these were a false beard made from goat's hair, identifying him with the god Osiris; a sceptre shaped like a shepherd's crook known as a Heka, which meant "ruler" and was often associated with magic; and a fly whip called the Nekhakha, symbol of his power and authority. The new monarch also wore a Shemset apron, while his back was protected by a bull's tail hanging from his belt, symbolic of strength, though this was later done away with.[3][unreliable source?] He was invested with a crown during his coronation: depending on the historic period, the king might have been given the White Crown, or Hedjet (the crown of Upper Egypt), the Deshret or Red Crown (diadem of Lower Egypt), the Pschent or Sekhemti (the Double Crown, combining the White and the Red Crowns), the Nemes or striped headcloth, or the Khepresh or Blue Crown. The Pschent was generally used for the highest state occasions,[2] and was conferred on all Pharaohs from at least the First Dynasty on.[4] When the Hedjet was combined with red Ostrich feathers of the Osiris cult, the resulting diadem was referred to as the Atef crown.

Hebrew Bible

According to the Hebrew Bible, Kings in Biblical Israel were crowned and anointed, most often by (or at the behest of) a prophet or high priest. In I Samuel 10:1, the prophet Samuel anoints Saul to be Israel's first king, though there is no record of his being crowned. However, on Saul's death, a crown that was on his head is presented to David II Samuel 1:10. Later, in I Samuel 16:13, Samuel anoints David to replace him - but again there is no reference to a crown at that point. In II Samuel 12:30, David is crowned with the Ammonite crown, after his conquest of Rabbah, the Ammonite capital. II Kings 9:1-6 tells of the anointing of Jehu as king of Israel. Esther 2:17 relates the crowning of Esther as consort of Ahasuerus, king of Persia.[5]

A detailed account of a coronation in ancient Judah is found in II Kings 11:12 and II Chronicles 23:11, in which the seven-year-old Jehoash is crowned in a coup against the usurper Athaliah. This ceremony took place in the doorway of the Temple in Jerusalem. The king was led to "his pillar", "as the manner was", where a crown was placed upon his head, and "the testimony" given to him, followed by anointing at the hands of the high priest and his sons. Afterwards, the people "clapped their hands" and shouted "God save the King" as trumpets blew, music played, and singers offered hymns of praise. All of these elements would find their way in some form or another into future European coronation rituals after the conversion of Europe to Christianity many centuries later, and all Christian coronation rites continue to borrow from these examples.

Classical antiquity

Ancient Persia

Double daric of Artaxerxes II, Babylonia, 4th century BC: the Persian king running, holding a bow.

Plutarch wrote in his Life of King Artaxerxes that the Persian king was required to go to the ancient capital of Pasargadae for his coronation ceremony. Once there, he entered a temple "to a warlike goddess, whom one might liken to Artemis" (whose name is unknown today, nor can this temple be located), and there divested himself of his own robe, substituting the one worn by Cyrus I at his crowning. After this, he had to consume a "frail" of figs, eat turpentine and drink a cup of sour milk. Plutarch observed that "if they add any other rites, it is unknown to any but those that are present at them".[6]

Classical Greece and Hellenistic era

A Didrachm of Bambyce, dated c. 342-331 BC, with a bust of Atargatis wearing a turreted crown.
Antiochus I Soter wearing a diadem.

The depiction of crowned heads on the obverse of coins becomes widespread from the 4th century onward. At first, these depict mainly deities, not kings, e.g. the Mother of Gods wearing the turreted crown (Rhea-Kybele is often depicted wearing the "turret crown", and is also given the title of Mater turrita by Ovid), Athena wearing a crowned helmet, or Zeus wearing a laurel wreath.

In the early 3rd century BC, the Seleucid rulers begin to depict their own portraits on their coins, typically wearing a headband or diadem.

The Book of Revelation in the New Testament makes extensive use of the crown motif, associating it with shared rulership for the saints in heaven (2:10, 3:11, 4:4) conquering (6:2) and ultimate rulership (14:14, 19:12). This suggests that the association was clearly understood in the Graeco-Roman world.

Roman era

The original status of the Roman emperors was in contrast to the kings of Rome who were expelled in the early years of the city, paving the way for a republic. Therefore, the Emperors were traditionally acclaimed by the Senate or by a legion speaking for the armies as a whole, and were subsequently confirmed without any special ritual. The Eastern diadem was later introduced by Aurelian,[7] but did not truly become part of the imperator's regalia until the reign of Constantine.[8] Prior to this, Roman sovereigns wore the purple paludamentum, and sometimes a laurel wreath as emblems of their office.[8] Aurelian strengthened the position of Sol Invictus, whose corona radiata or "radiant crown" had become popular in depictions of emperors earlier in the 3rd century (Gordian III) with the development of the imperial cult,.[9] Emperor Diocletian (r. 285-305) greatly developed the ceremony surrounding the Roman Emperor; the quasi-republican ideals of Augustus' primus inter pares were abandoned for all but the Tetrarchs themselves. Diocletian took to wearing a gold crown and jewels, and forbade the use of purple cloth to all but the Emperors.[10]

Constantine the Great reverted to the diadem (while he still was depicted alongside Sol Invictus, he was no longer shown as Sol Invictus). Following the assumption of the diadem by Constantine, future Roman and Byzantine emperors continued to wear it as the supreme symbol of their authority. Although no specific coronation ceremony was observed at first, one gradually evolved over the next century. The emperor Julian was hoisted upon a shield and crowned with a gold necklace provided by one of his standard-bearers;[8] he later wore a jewel-studded diadem. Future emperors were crowned and acclaimed in a similar manner, until the momentous decision was taken to permit the Patriarch of Constantinople to physically place the crown on the emperor's head. Historians debate exactly when this first took place, but the precedent was clearly established by the reign of Leo II, who was crowned by the Patriarch Acacius in 473. This ritual included recitation of prayers by the Byzantine prelate over the crown, a further—and extremely vital—development in the liturgical ordo of crowning. After this event, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "the ecclesiastical element in the coronation ceremonial rapidly develop[ed]".[8]

Transition to the Middle Ages

The Byzantine coronation ritual, from at least 795 on, incorporated a partial clothing of the new emperor in various items of special clothing prior to his entrance to the church, following which he entered the cathedral and received the prostrations of the Senators and other patricians. The Patriarch then read a set of lengthy prayers, as the sovereign was invested first with the chlamys and then finally with the crown. Following this, the emperor received Holy Communion followed by further acts of homage.[8][11] From the moment of his coronation, Byzantine emperor was regarded as holy; while the Patriarch was holding the crown over the emperor's head, the attending people repeatedly cried: Holy! [12]

In later centuries, after receiving their crown from the Patriarch, Byzantine emperors placed it upon their own head, symbolizing that their dominion came directly from God.[13][14] Anointing was added to the ritual after the eleventh century, with the monarch receiving the Sign of the Cross on their forehead from the Patriarch. The purple chlamys also disappeared from the rite during this time, being replaced with the mandyas, or cope.[8]

Childebert III (r.694-711).

The Byzantine coronation ceremony begins to influence the Barbarian kingdoms in the West with their Christianization. The Iron Crown of Lombardy is traced in legend to Constantine himself (but more likely dates to the 8th or 9th century). In Spain, the Visigothic king Sisenand was crowned in 631, and in 672, Wamba was the first occidental king to be anointed as well, by the archbishop of Toledo.

Two prayers for the coronation of Byzantine emperors are found in the Byzantine Archieratikon (Slavonic: Chinovnik). The second of these prayers is proceeded by the diaconal command: "Bow your heads to the Lord" and the assembly's response: "To you, O Lord." This pattern of two prayers corresponds to the ritual form found in the Byzantine liturgy for the ordinations of bishops, priests and deacons and also for major blessings, such as the Great Blessing of Waters on the Feast of the Theophany. In some texts, the first prayer is associated with the act of clothing the emperor in the chlamys and the second with the act of crowning him.[15] Although the Byzantine coronation ritual underwent various changes throughout the centuries, these two prayers are found consistently in every version. They also occur in the Russian ritual for the crowning of the Tsar, beginning with Ivan IV, and also in the ritual for the coronation of an emperor beginning with that of Catherine I.

References

  1. ^ Monet, Jefferson. "The Royal Cults of the Kings of Ancient Egypt". www.touregypt.net. Retrieved 2008-09-26.
  2. ^ a b High, Tony. "Pharaoh's Divine Power". Egyptology Online. Archived from the original on May 27, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-26.
  3. ^ Parsons, Marie. "Egypt: Ancient Egyptian Royal Regalia, A Feature Tour Egypt Story". Tour Egypt. Retrieved 2008-09-26.
  4. ^ Fage, John Donnelly; Desmond J. Clark; Roland Anthony Oliver; A. D. Roberts (1975). The Cambridge History of Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 521. ISBN 978-0-521-21592-3.
  5. ^ Smith's Bible Dictionary s.v. "Crown".
  6. ^ Plutarch of Chaeronea (2008-09-06). "The Persian coronation ceremony at Pasargadae". Life of King Artaxerxes (translation). Livius. Archived from the original on April 3, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-26.
  7. ^ "Ch. 1: "The Empire From Constantine to Justinian the Great", subsection "Reforms of Diocletian and Constantine". A History of the Byzantine Empire. Ellopos.net. Retrieved 2008-09-26.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Thurston, Herbert (1913). "Coronation" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  9. ^ Potter, David S., The Roman Empire at Bay, AD 180–395, Routledge, 2004, 237-8, citing Zosimus, 1.19.1–2.
  10. ^ Corcoran, Simon. "Before Constantine." In The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine, edited by Noel Lenski, 35–58. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006, p. 43. Potter, David S., The Roman Empire at Bay, AD 180–395, Routledge, 2004, p. 290.
  11. ^ CONSTANTINE VII PORPHYROGENITUS, DE CERIMONIIS AULAE BYZANTINAE, I, 38 (ed. Reiske, I, pp. 191-6; ed. Vogt, II, pp. 1-5, cc. 47-8; "online copy". University of Florida. Retrieved 2013-04-12.)
  12. ^ Sedlar, Jean W. (1994). East Central Europe in the Middle Ages, 1000-1500. USA: University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0-295-97290-9.
  13. ^ Wister, Fr. Robert J (2002-12-04). "The Legitimation of Authority Divine and Human". Retrieved 2008-09-26.
  14. ^ See also Tacitus, Ann., XV, 29.
  15. ^ De Cerimoniis, Book 2, cc.1-2.
This page was last edited on 5 January 2022, at 16:32
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