Viewing Rome from the Roman Empires
Emily Albu
Abstract Twelfth-century German and Byzantine emperors vied with each other—and the popes in Rome—for imperial status, of three seeing himself as legitimate heir ancient Roman imperium . From court at Constantinople, historians Anna Komnene John Kinnamos leveled a venomous critique against west, surveying Rome through lens religious disputes, Crusade, hated Latin presence East. The narratives have left gritty view their contemporary Rome, violent cruel city illicit anti-popes, anarchy, barbarism. Peutinger map, by contrast, seems but an innocent relic past, map inhabited world known to pagan Romans. Typically considered artifact product culture, surviving actually dates from very end long twelfth century. Produced Swabia, it continued anti-papal assault fresh salvo long-lived Battle Maps between Church secular This display like its lost prototype, advertised supreme authority power claims much more venerable than those papacy. Its visual narrative implicitly contradicted papal foregrounding centerpiece intricately connected oikoumene , that should be ruled Rome’s heirs. For Germans for Byzantines, still mattered. Even while assailing resurgent papacy, neither emperor nor courts could ignore exercised over twelfth-century imaginations.
Medieval Encounters