xverde999

 Annotations: 1. “....all the archons and troops go along rather early to the Tribunal of the Araia outside the Hall of the Nineteen Couches, and they cheer the emperors in the usual way" . The original text did not have dialogue in this part, so I added some short ceremonial conversations to make the transition smoother. Similar addition will be added to the other parts of this chapter. 2. The appearance of the Hall of the Nineteen Couches is my own interpretation based on the later proceedings and some textual descriptions. 3. I do not know how large the Tribunal of the Araia actually was or how many people it could hold, so I drew around 300 imperial guards (divided into three groups, 100 each), along with dozens of archons and senators.

 Trying figure out what Emperors wore before the ritual. In the text, it says "The rulers wear their divetesia and chlamyses and imperial crowns." I then looked up what divetesia was. From  Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection, Volume 3, Leo III to Nicephorus III, 717–1081, page 119, it says " The chlamys, like the loros, was normally worn over a silk robe, generally identified with the divitision of the texts, under which in turn would be worn a tunic. These are normally concealed by the chlamys, though the upper part of the sleeve of the divitision, decorated with a rosette or some similar ornament, is often visible at the emperor's right shoulder, where his arm emerges from the opening of the chlamys. " Trying to interpret how these layers would actually appear during the ceremony for the reconstruction project.

 Before working on next page, I try to reconstruct the spatial relationship between building complex, so I drew a rough layout of the halls and how troops/senate proceed to the tribunal. I also designed how patricians, senate, troops and other people stand outside of the hall.  I don't think all imperial guards will attend the ceremony as the tribunal probably couldn't hold that many people.  I currently assume that a few hundred guards drawn from different tagmata were present.

 As I grow more interest in Byzantine rituals and bureaucracy, I want to work on visual reconstruction of  De Ceremoniis. This project aims to help me better understand Byzantine culture, and the visualization/reconstruction will also help support the worldbuilding of my comic.  The first chapter I chose to work is Book I, Chapter 43: The Investiture of a Caesar.  Annotation: 1. Portrait of Constantine VII is based on Wing of ivory triptych with St Constantine, Dumbarton Oaks Collection. 2. Different tagmata are represented among the troops in this picture, so different military insignias were used — one has the Chi Rho symbol and another depecting a military saint.