International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Predrag Komatina
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Institute for Byzantine Studies, Belgrade, Serbia; 
[e-mail]
Some Remarks on the Structure of 
De administrando imperio
and Its Relations to Other Works of Porphyrogenitus
In the Proem to De administrando imperio addressed to his son and co-emperor Romanus II, 
emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus lists five topics to write about in that work, on the basis of 
which we can see that he scheduled the work which will consist of five sections. The first theme relates 
to the way the Romans should use the relationships among foreign nations for their own diplomatic 
benefits, the second is about a greedy character of these peoples and gifts which they often require 
from the imperial court even for the smallest service, the third deals with the differences between 
peoples, their history and customs, way of life and geographical position of their countries, the 
fourth with individual events resulting from the mutual relations of the Romans and the different 
peoples and the fifth with different reforms that have been introduced in the Roman state. The 
emperor remained entirely faithful to the scheduled composition, so it is evident in the work where 
each section begins and where it ends, and it is even more clearly expressed with the fact that he 
himself made a separate introduction at the beginning of each section, relying on statements from 
the Proem and at certain places even repeting them completely. The first such introduction is at the 
beginning of the first chapter, the second at the beginning of the thirteenth, the third at the end of 
the thirteenth, the fourth at the end of the forty-sixth and the fifth at the end of the forty-eighth 
chapter. On this basis, we can conclude that chapters 1–12 constitute the first section, chapter 13 the 
second, chapters 14–46 the third, chapters 47–48 the fourth, chapters 49–53 the fifth. In addition, 
in the second section, there are also another two introductions – in the thirtieth and in the forty-
third chapter, which is why that section can be further divided into three parts. The insight into the 
structure of the work De administrando imperio gained in this way allows us, among other things, 
to realize that chapter 30 was an authentic and integral part of the work and not a later insertion, 
as it is commonly believed. Also, getting to know the structure of the work and its internal division 
into larger sections allows us to place the work within the broader frame of historiographical activity 
at the court of the emperor Constantine VII, and to recognize the strong link between its first four 

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sections with the so-called “diplomatic chapters” of De cerimoniis, and between the fifth section and 
De thematibus. This way we come to the conclusion that the impetus for the preparation of the work 
De administrando imperio came from that same encyclopedic-historiographical momentum that 
led to the creation of De cerimoniis and Excerpta de legationibus. In addition, in De administrando 
imperio we can find some specific information that clearly derive from the data recorded in the 
“diplomatic chapters” of De cerimoniis. On the other hand, the historical material collected and 
processed in De administrando imperio was then used in Vita Basilii and Theophanes Continuatus 
in general, and the traces of its use there are most evident at those places that are not to be found 
in the relevant passages of the works of other historiographers of the time, such as Joseph Genesius 
and Symeon the Logothete.