Greetings all,
For
those of us rebuilding the world of
Byzantium, the Vota Publica of January First remains one of the year’s
most potent ceremonies - a calculated symphony of renewal, loyalty, and
cosmic order.
In Constantinople the Church celebrated the
Feast of the Circumcision, and the streets echoed with the raucous,
perennial clamor of the Kalends. The Sacred Palace was the stage for a
ritual of profound imperial theology. The core of the day was not merely
the marking of time, but the deliberate re-founding of the bond between
the Basileus, his God, and the polity.
The Emperor, transformed into a
living icon of authority in his most luminous skaramangion
and regalia, would process not to a church first, but to a throne in
the heart of the palace complex, such as the hall of the Magnaura or the
Tribunal of the Nineteen Couches. There, in a ritualized choreography
of hierarchy, he would receive the assembled taxis
of the world: the Senate, the high military commanders, the holders of
dignities, and the leaders of the demes and guilds.
The critical moment came with the orchestrated acclamations, the polychronia, where the ordered shouts of “Many years to the Augustus!” and “May you reign for many years!” were not mere well-wishes but performative utterances, renewing the divine mandate and the very contract of rule for another annual cycle. This was often accompanied by the distribution of the votum, the donative—gold solidi struck for the occasion, or lavish gifts—physically transferring the Emperor’s euergesia (beneficence) to the the personages tasked with continuing the workings of the Empire. .
The subsequent games in the Hippodrome, where the Emperor appeared in the Kathisma before the entire city, extended this renewal to the populace, completing a circuit of legitimacy from the private palace, through the aristocracy, and out to the roar of the chariots. This day was a public affirmation of stability maintained, and a prospective vow for a prosperous year to be guided by God’s favor and the Emperor’s pious hand.
The critical moment came with the orchestrated acclamations, the polychronia, where the ordered shouts of “Many years to the Augustus!” and “May you reign for many years!” were not mere well-wishes but performative utterances, renewing the divine mandate and the very contract of rule for another annual cycle. This was often accompanied by the distribution of the votum, the donative—gold solidi struck for the occasion, or lavish gifts—physically transferring the Emperor’s euergesia (beneficence) to the the personages tasked with continuing the workings of the Empire. .
The subsequent games in the Hippodrome, where the Emperor appeared in the Kathisma before the entire city, extended this renewal to the populace, completing a circuit of legitimacy from the private palace, through the aristocracy, and out to the roar of the chariots. This day was a public affirmation of stability maintained, and a prospective vow for a prosperous year to be guided by God’s favor and the Emperor’s pious hand.
May all Citizens of Byzantium enjoy a happy and prosperous New Year!
-Marcus Cassius Julianus
www.byzantiumnovum.org
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