By the Emperor's Hand: Military Dress and Court Regalia in the later Romano- Byzantine Empire by Timothy Dawson & Graham Sumner

Author:Timothy Dawson & Graham Sumner [Dawson, Timothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / Weapons
ISBN: 9781848324633
Publisher: Frontline Books
Published: 2015-09-29T21:00:00+00:00

FIG. 56. Longinus, the centurion at the Crucifixion, depicted in the guise of the doungarios of the watch, the head of the Constantinopolitan police. Eleventh century. Mosaic, Church of Nea Moni, Khios.

WOMEN

The very scanty information that exists tends to suggest the elite clothing and regalia practices of women in place in the tenth century underwent little change in this period. The text of the will of Kouropalatissa Kalê Pakourianê written in 1081 makes a great deal of recording the status of both Pakourianê’s male connections, and the women to whom she bequeathed items. By this date the rank of kouropalatês had slipped significantly from its once-exalted position, and it seems likely that if had Pakourianê also held either of the two distinctly female ranks of zôstê patrikia or koubikoularea (if either still existed) it would have been mentioned.123 In fact, Pakourianê’s will contains nothing which can be even conjectured as being regalia of her own, but many opulent items which would certainly not have looked out of place at court. As noted at the beginning of the chapter, in terms of more literary works, the practice of ‘Atticism’ denies us contemporary terminology, although at times the lengths the authors have gone to in order to avoid contemporary language can itself be informative.

Common items

Headgear

The large, flaring hat which was previously identified as the propolôma becomes quite frequently illustrated in eleventh- and twelfth-century manuscripts.124 In the tenth century white propolômata were worn by three ranks, zôstai, magistrissai and patrikiai, and by the ladies-in-waiting (koubikoulareai) – by far the great majority of the female population of the court – and there is no reason to assume this had changed. In the eleventh century on occasion they exhibited considerable ornamentation, which was quite a change from the stark white suggested by the Book of Ceremonies, and the simple, white-based style of the late twelfth century (fig. 51).

The propolômata shown on the round of Miriam and the Israelite women, dated to around 1059, are purple with gold decoration.125 These colours are likely to imply that these women were members of the extended royal family, or of the very highest of the non-imperial ranks. Overlying this base colour there were bands of decoration which might run across the hat horizontally, diagonally, or crossing. In the earlier pictures, such as the virgin of the Smyrna Octateuch and especially the dancing circle of Miriam, the distribution of the bands of decoration suggest that they were at that time purely ornamental. The only case of a woman wearing a propolôma whose rank is known to us is Irênê Gavraina, a donor of a tetraevangelion, who was a common patrikia in keeping with the rank of her husband and co-donor.126 The decor on Irênê Gavraina’s propolôma is a single pale-blue band which slants across almost the entire width of the hat on a low diagonal, just as on some of the Israelite women. However, this picture does date from 1067, within the period in which the decor was probably still ornamental rather than symbolic.

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