• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About
  • Volumes
    • Byzantine Greek
    • Medieval Latin
    • Old English
    • Supplements
  • People
  • Press
  • Contact

Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library

Producing books of original medieval and Byzantine texts with facing-page translations.

February 19, 2020 by Nicole Eddy

On Morals or Concerning Education: Theodore Metochites

Xenophontos, Sophia
Volume | 61
Publication | May 2020

On Morals or Concerning Education is an exhortation on the importance of education by the prolific late-Byzantine author and statesman Theodore Metochites (1270–1332), who rose to the aristocracy from a middle-class background but fell from favor late in life and died as a monk. As a manual of proper living and ethical guidance, the treatise offers unique insights into the heightened roles of philosophy and rhetoric at a time when the elite engaged intensely with their Hellenic heritage, part of a larger imperial attempt to restore Byzantium to its former glories.

On Morals probes hotly disputed issues in fourteenth-century Byzantine society, such as the distinction between the active and contemplative life and the social position of scholars. Metochites’s focus on the character and function of Christian faith also reflects ongoing debates regarding the philosophy of religion. Occasional autobiographical digressions offer fascinating glimpses of Metochites’s distinctive personality.

This volume provides the full Byzantine Greek text alongside the first English translation of one of Metochites’s longest works.

Filed Under: Byzantine Greek

Primary Sidebar

Purchase

Buy Now

 

 

© 2016 Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC, Trustees for Harvard University. All Rights Reserved.

  • Home
  • About
  • Volumes
    • Byzantine Greek
    • Medieval Latin
    • Old English
    • Supplements
    • Back
  • People
  • Press
  • Contact