Re: Knocking Head

From: Andrew Solovay <asolovay_at_rubberducky.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 11:49:06 -0700

Michael O'Brien <mrmob_at_ozemail.com.au> wrote:

>

> I have just spent the day teaching first formers all about court
> ceremonial in Roman times, from the distinctly egalitarian "Ave" of
> the Republic through to full "proskunesis" of the adoration of a
> living god (or at least "Equal of the Apostles" et al later on)...

I heard a lecture this past Saturday on church-state relations in the Byzantine empire (given at the local Greek Orthodox cathedral). Amazingly enough, in the (Christian) empire, one of the titles of the emperor was "equal of God" ("Iso tou Theou", if I'm remembering the declensions right).

So yeah, "living god" isn't all that far off the mark, at least as far as protocol went.

Of course, that didn't stop the occasional powerful Patriarch from raising the city in riots to throw the emperor out.

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