De Administrando Imperio

De Administrando Imperio is the commonly used title of a scholarly work from ca. 950 by Byzantine emperor Constantine VII. Its name is translated as On the Administration of the Empire. Its original title was "Pros ton idion yion Romanon" ("To Our Own Son Romanus", Greek: "???? ??? ????? ???? ???????") and was meant to be an internal and foreign policy manual for the use of his son and successor, the Emperor Romanus II. It contains advice on running the ethnically-mixed empire as well as how to fight external enemies.

Related Topics:
950 - Byzantine emperor - Constantine VII - Greek - Romanus II

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This was initially only one of the many writings of Constantine Porphyrogenitos, but it later attained considerable importance as a source for the earlier history of Europe. For example, it describes the arrival of the Serbs and Croats to the Balkans in the 7th century, the early Kievan Rus', the Varangians (whom they also called Rus and described as a different people from the Slavshttp://faculty.washington.edu/dwaugh/rus/texts/constp.html), as well as other groups such as the Pechenegs and Arabs. For this reason its original Greek title was "???? ?????" (Peri Ethnon) which translates as "About the Peoples".

Related Topics:
Europe - Serbs - Croats - Balkans - 7th century - Kievan Rus' - Varangians - Pechenegs - Arab - Greek

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

One theme of the work is the idea that various enemies can be manipulated to fight each other, rather than use imperial money and resources to wage war against them.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It is also notable that the work describes the use of Greek fire. Unfortunately, Constantine does not give its ingredients, as its composition was such a secret that he could not describe it even to his own son (for whom the work was originally written).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the 53 chapters it covers many topics and describes various peoples and regions: for instance, Moravia, Iberians and Slavs in different parts of contemporary Greece and Turkey. It also includes bizarre genealogies: one example is prophet Mohammad's in chapter 14.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~