Emperor

Dedicatory inscriptions on Middle Byzantine reliquaries have been analyzed for their documentary information, including prosopography, provenance, and date. Relying solely on this data limits our understanding of these objects. The methodology in this paper recontextualizes Byzantine reliquaries and their dedicatory inscriptions by reassessing the meaning and function of the Greek text through its relationship with the form of the object and its relics. The focus of this essay is on one case study—the Limburg Staurotheke, a reliquary of the True Cross now in the cathedral treasury of Limburg an der Lahn, Germany. Three levels of analysis will be applied to the staurotheke and its inscription. First, the dedication functions as a record of patronage—the identification of names, titles, and gifts. Second, it is a typological comparison of the patrons and Christ as expressed in the precise terminology chosen for the dedication. Third, the placement of specific words is significant when viewed in relation to the form of the object and the precious stones and pearls that embellish it. These approaches together reveal the multivalent messages conveyed through the reliquary’s complex interrelationship of text, form, and relic.

Discussions of Byzantine eunuchs have generally relied on accounts that speak directly of a man's eunuch status. This has meant that scholars have constructed discussions of eunuchs from a destabilizing mix of highly critical and highly laudatory languages. This article proposes to de-emphasise the languages of difference, i.e., exclusion or excessive praise, and to consider how the eunuchs and the bearded, i.e., the intact, got along with one another as men. Discussing instances from Byzantine historiography and epistolography and employing Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's notion of reparative reading, we focus on the life and career of Nikephoros Ouranos. He was one of emperor Basil II's leading generals and hitherto not identified as a eunuch in the secondary literature. Nikephoros Ouranos is a good personage to use for considering how eunuch and bearded got along at a time in which they were highly integrated with one another in the government of the empire. Approaching the s...

This paper explores Philo’s Legatio ad Gaium, which describes the embassy of Jewish Alexandrians to Caligula in A. D. 40. In the Legatio, Philo engages critically with the idea of the Roman emperorship in his descriptions of Augustus, Tiberius and Caligula. This paper analyses Philo’s complex critique of Roman rule, which includes a polemical analysis of Gaius’ conduct, and shows critical engagement with imperial ideology. Through his erudite perspective, Philo provides us with an early interpretation of the emperorship, which is informed by his background as a Jewish philosopher and statesman, an interest in exemplarity and a focus on the future.

In this paper, the author focuses on one of the earliest groups of Sinologists, the Jesuit Figurists, particularly discussing how they translated mystical creatures and elements in Chinese classics, such as the dragon, dog, and Chinese mythological figures, in their typological exegesis as a tool of proselytization. Interestingly, in their translations into Latin, the Three Sovereigns 三皇 and Chinese mythological figures were depicted as biblical figures or figures from Greek and Roman mythology to parallel them with the biblical stories and narrow the cultural gap; and in the opposite linguistic direction, in their translations in Chinese manuscripts, the betrayal of Satan, the fall of Adam and Eve, and the emergence of Jesus were modeled as mystical creatures in Chinese classics, to lessen their foreignness. In addition, this paper will also focus on the space they borrowed from the Chinese classics and records of mythic geography, such as Shan Hai Jing 山海經 (The Classic of Mountains and Seas) and their purpose to create a new space that accommodated the histories and mythologies of both sides. Their translations of Chinese ancient mythologies came into play to broaden the European people's understanding of Chinese culture, while their translations of biblical stories also opened the eyes of the emperor and the Chinese literati to a Chinese packaging of Christian stories.

In contemporary political discourse, the "clash of civilizations" rhetoric often undergirds philosophical analyses of "democracy" both at home and abroad. This is nowhere better articulated than in Jacques Derrida's Rogues, in which he describes Islam as the only religious or theocratic culture that would "inspire and declare any resistance to democracy" (Derrida 2005, 29). Curiously, Derrida attributes the failings of democracy in Islam to the lack of reference to Aristotle's Politics in the writings of the medieval Muslim philosophers. This paper aims to analyze this gross misconception of Islamic philosophy and illuminate the thoroughgoing influence the Muslim philosophers had on their Christian successors, those who are so often credited as foundations of Western political philosophy. In so doing, I compare the ideal states presented by Averroes and Dante – in which Aristotelian influence is intimately interlaced – and offer an analysis ther...

Professor in Postgraduate Program of National School of Visual Arts in National Autonomous University of Mexico. Pioneer in Mexico using digital resources in arts and design. First woman director of National School of Visual Arts at UNAM (2002-2006), has published 7 books about Graphic Design Theory, Graphic Design Metodology, Non-linear languages semiotics and Graphic Design Hermeneutics, 9 chapters in books, 61 research papers and 18 didactic manuals. Manager from two different firms: a technologic center and a graphic design place. Teacher during 30 years, is oficial tutor from postgraduate program in the lines of researching projects, semiotic and hermen-eutic studies; participating in academic events in Mexico, Dominicana Republic, USA, Canada, Greece, Spain, Cuba, Peru, Holland, Uruguay, Argentina, Germany and Portugal and presentating conferences in Mexico, Panama, Cuba, Spain, USA, Lisbon and other countries; also, being advisor thesis from more than 145 researching student thesis works in different universities. Professional graphic designer, working in Mexico, USA and Canada in firms like BMG Entertainment, Environmental Law Institute or UNESCO in traditional and digital way. Visual artist, has exposed digital art, collage and visual poetry in more than 44 exhibitions in Mexico, Panama, USA, Rusia, Spain, France, Greece, Palestine and Frankfurt.

北京迁都以后，明代南京的地位发生了哪些的变化呢？本文为了更加具体的阐明
明代的两京制下的南京的机能和历史的意义，侧重关注正德帝在北京和南京之间进
行的南巡。
正德帝的南巡是明代两京制实行70余年后，唯一一次明代皇帝在两京间的巡幸。
与国家安保相关，重视传统西北地区大部分臣僚们和固执考虑新的形成威胁的东南
地区的皇帝之间出现了巨大的冲突。对上行和下行的路程中，皇帝的打猎、钓鱼，
以及爱妾的同行，搜罗女性等等失德和过分自由放荡的游乐行为，以往的评价中通
常会用“荒唐天子”来形容。
但是，在南京停留的8个月期间，正德帝的3次举动却和以往对他评价的形象相去
甚远。第一，在朱宸濠叛军的目标据点南京长时间的逗留，都是使得不安的南方地
区趋于安定的考虑。第二，在到达南京以前，正德帝下令“禁民间畜豬”。这比起说
是从占术师们的姓名避讳论而言，更是为了顾及当时禁食猪肉的穆斯林们的一种措
施。通过对穆斯林的怀柔政策，一方面是希望借此政策安抚穆斯林，是他们不要成
为出现的在江南地区不安因素，防患于未然。第三，在南京期间，正德帝会见了第
一次进入中国的葡萄牙使节团并允诺其可以进入北京城。这也同样解释了对异国和
异民族的宽厚态度，以及避免了不必要的相互骚扰的可能性。
这样，对于正德帝的南巡，虽然从名义上说是夸张了亲征朱宸濠的叛乱的史实，
但是长期停留在南京的最终目的还是要消除对叛乱余波带来的不安影响，并强化留
都南京的安保实施。正德帝的南巡，是在北京立都之后，现存唯一可以看到皇帝政
权对江南实行管制的唯一事例，同时这一事件也将南京刻上了南方地区安保中心的
烙印。

The bishops, as heirs of legal and political values of anti-quity, from a certain point onwards, recounted the salient events of the Empire and in particular focused on the death of Emperors. These in-terpreted this fact and so, favored the sovereign for which they wrote. They become arbiters of facts and judges of the Augusti. As Bishops, they discharged them or condemned them. These redesigned the ima-gery of the afterlife of the Emperor.