The statesman and scholar Theodore Metochites was one of the most important personalities of the fourteenth-century Byzantine Empire. A close advisor to the emperor Andronikos II and restorer of the famous monastery of Chora in Constantinople, Metochites left various writings including orations, poems, essays and commentaries on classical and religious texts, in which he discusses the numerous problems that troubled him and his contemporaries, such as the decline of the state and the tension between public life and that of the philosopher.In this book, Ioannis Polemis provides the first in-depth study of Metochites' oeuvre, revealing the complex way he represented the authorial self to critique the politics and mores of his day, whilst at the same time shielding himself from potential criticism. Polemis details the way Metochites deftly manipulated figures and tropes from classical antiquity and early Christianity to justify his role in public life, which was traditionally shunned by scholars in the pursuit of 'logos'. The book provides unique insights into one of the late Empire's most important figures, as well as more widely deepening our understanding of classical reception in Byzantium and the social, political and intellectual climate of Constantinople in the fourteenth century.

TABLE OF CONTENTSAcknowledgementsINTRODUCTION: LIFE AND WORK AT THE END OF EMPIRE PART I: METOCHITES' REPRESENTATIONS OF HIMSELF AND OTHERS1. Metochites on Himself: Inner Ambiguity 2. Metochites on Others: Mirror Images of Himself 3. Coda-Disposing of Oneself: A New Way of Being? PART II. THE QUEST FOR NOVELTY: INNOVATION VERSUS TRADITION IN METOCHITES' REPRESENTATIONS4. Not Everything Old Is to Be Revered5. Oration 6, for Gregory of Nazianzus: A Response to Men Like Choumnos? 6. Coda-Metochites on Rhetoric: Veiled Criticism of Late Byzantium Discursive Culture PART III: VITA CONTEMPLATIVA VERSUS VITA ACTIVA: AN AMBIGUOUS RELATIONSHIP AND THE INNER AMBIGUITIES OF METOCHITES' SELF-IMAGE AS AN INTELLECTUAL7. 'The Greeks Ask for Wisdom': Quest for a Humanistic Monastery8. Oration 11, Byzantios: The Secular Body of the City and a Secular World Contemplated 9. Coda-Nature and Being: Elusive Concepts Conclusion: Metochites, a Philosopher of His Time Appendix: Works by Theodore MetochitesBibliography