PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Athens Center for Research and Hellenic Studies

"The Monarchic Paradigm:
Transregional Imperial Ideology at the End of Late Antiquity"
January 13-24, 2025

This Wintersession Institute will explore the evolution of Roman imperial ideology and its reception between the sixth and eighth centuries CE. Unlike traditional approaches to imperial ideology, this course strives to understand its development within the wider framework of an interconnected early medieval Eurasian oikoumene. The evolution of Roman imperial ideology is co-examined alongside Jewish, Sassanian, Early Islamic, and Latin visions of the role of the monarch. The main focus of the course lies with the study of the usage of Old Testament-monarchic models in the construction of an international language of power, authority, and legitimacy, which was just as intelligible in Rome as it was in Constantinople and Ctesiphon. Each of the sessions will revolve around the exploitation of Old Testament models regarding four key aspects of monarchic ideology: the role of the monarch as victor, as lawgiver, as guarantor of justice, and as agent of salvation. In broader perspective, the course draws on global studies and the approach to examine historical phenomena in the context of an ideological koine (or common language), appreciating not only the long durée effect but also the transregional scope of political concepts.

Instructors
Panagiotis Theodoropoulos received his PhD from King’s College London in 2018. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies at Princeton University, and he held fellowships at Dumbarton Oaks and the University of Notre Dame. He was an adjunct lecturer of Byzantine History at the University of Ioannina and is presently working at the Library of the Church of Greece. His research focuses on Roman society and the papacy in the seventh and eighth centuries, while his research interests include the study of ideology and collective identities.

András Kraft received his PhD in Medieval Studies at Central European University (Hungary) in 2018. He held positions as Assistant Professor at the American University of Central Asia and was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Princeton University, the University of Vienna, and HSE University. Currently, he is a Research Fellow at the Einstein Chronoi Center in Berlin. His research specializes in Byzantine intellectual history with a focus on philosophical and prophetic literature.

Schedule: Sessions will be held at the Princeton Athens Center, January 13-24, 2025.  There will be ten sessions on weekdays, Monday-Friday, 9:30am-12:30pm.  Participants will be expected to attend all sessions and participate actively.

Admission: Admission to this Wintersession Institute is competitive. The number of participants will be limited.