50 Part One: Texts and Contexts
gathered along the streets and on the central squares, they see the emperor’s
body escorted to its final resting-place in the church of the Holy Apostles. On
seeing this, they are reminded of the fact that life is transient, for even
emperors as glorious as the late Leo do not live for ever: “O vanity trium-
phant!” (as the refrain of the monody says). And then they cry and lament. In
this monody, just as in the epithalamium I just discussed, the use of the
imperative mood is not so much an exhortation to do something, but rather a
description of something that is already happening. The mourners are told to
mourn. The moaning citizens of Constantinople are urged to bemoan their dead
emperor. Nonetheless, although it may seem superfluous to admonish the
people to do what they are already doing, the use of imperatives helps to
strengthen and increase the feeling of utter grief. It tells the audience that what
it is doing is only appropriate: public display of grief and sorrow is the right
thing to do when the emperor has died.
In poems meant to be declaimed or sung, the audience is always present
and plays an important role in the performance, either by just listening and
showing signs of approval of what is being said, by loudly cheering or crying,
or else by joining in, humming the melody and singing the refrains. Reading
these poems, there can be hardly any doubt that they directly address an
audience. The audience is there. It actively participates in what is going on.
And yet, despite its vociferous presence, it remains a vague category of people.
Who are they? Who are the persons present at the recital of declamatory
poems? In order to answer this question, we need to know more about the
context of these poems, the actual circumstances and physical surroundings.
Where did Theodosios the Grammarian declaim his epinikion in 718? In the
Hagia Sophia, during an all-night vigil? In the Hippodrome, in the presence of
thousands of people? Or perhaps in the Great Palace, for a select audience of
court officials? As we cannot situate the epinikion in its original context and
locate it along the co-ordinates of time and space, it makes no sense to specu-
late about its intended audience. The same goes for most of the declamatory
poems. As the epithalamium celebrating the marriage of Leo VI appears to
address the wedding guests, it is reasonable to assume that only members of
the court were present at its recital. The monody on the death of Leo VI
expressly addresses the whole population of Constantinople; but seeing that
monodies were declaimed at the moment of the burial^71 , it is obviously impos-
sible that all citizens were gathered in the church of the Holy Apostles. The
persons assembled there must have been the imperial family, various court
dignitaries, as well as some representatives of the people (notably, the factions
and the guilds).
(^71) See LAUXTERMANN 1999c: 25.