CORONATION
381
CORONATION
wearing a gorgeous diadem set with jewels. In the case
of Valentinian (364) and his son Gratian (367) we have
equally mention of a crown assumed amid profuse
acclamations of the assembled army. In each case,
also, the newlj-elected sovereign made a speech and
promised a largess to the troops, which Julian fixed at
five gold pieces and a pound of silver to each man.
Informal as the proceedings in all these cases seem to
have been, most of the elements so far mentioned took
a permanent place in the coronation ceremonial which
W!is ultimately evolved. Even the Teutonic
practice of hoisting upon a buckler (see
Tacitus, Ann., XV," 29) though rarely
mentioned explicitly, was probably
maintained for a considerable
time, for it certainly was
observed in the election of
Anastasius (491) and
Ju-stin II (565), and
the miniature of
the election of
David in a
tenth-cent\ir\
psalter :i'
Paris, in
which he
is repre-
the selection of the patriarch may possibly have been
due simply to the desire to preclude jealousy and to
avoid giving offence to more powerful claimants of the
honour. But already in 473, when Leo II was crowned
in the lifetime of his grandfather, we find the Patriarch
Acacius not only figuring in the ceremony but reciting
a prayer before the imposition of the diadem. If it
was Leo's grandfather and not Acacius who actually
imposed it, that is only on aecoimt of the accepted
rule, that the reigning emperor in his lifetime is alone
the fount of honour whenever he chooses to
conunit any portion of his authority to
colleague or consort. Following close
upon the first intervention of the
patriarch, the ecclesiastical
element in the coronation
ceremonial rapidly de-
velops. At the elec-
tion of Anastasius
(491) the patri-
arch is present
at the assem-
bly of the
.senate and
notables
when
they
'^ I't. il .^landing upon a buckler supported by young
while another sets a diadem on his head, im-
Ihat this ceremony w.is generally familiar at a
date. The di.idem. though the military torque
1 the analogy of Julian's election was often re-
' d as well, w,a.s and continued to be the symbol of
• ine power, and along with it, from the time of
iiintine onward, went the ceremony of "adora-
of the monarch by |)rostration. II' next epoch-making change seems to have been iitroduction of the P.-itriarch of Constantinople to III' diadem upon the head of the elected sovereign. date at which this first took place is disputed, I' cannot altogether ignore the alleged dream of "iosius I who saw himself crowned by a bishop idoret, Hist. Eccl., VI, vi), but Sickel (loc. cit., || ."il": cf. Gibbon, ch. xx.xvi) holds that the Pa- triarch Anatolius in 4.50 crowned Marcian and by 'lilt act originated a ceremony which became of the i;ri'!itest possible significance in the later conception of kini^ship. At first there seems to have been no idea of lending any religious character to this investiture ; and
.\achcn )
make their formal choice, and the book of the Holy
Gospels is exposed in their midst (Const. Porph.,
De Caer.. I, 92). The coronation does not take
place in a sacred building, but an oath is taken by
the emperor to govern justly and another written
oath is exacted of him by the patriarch that he
will keep the Faith entire and introduce no novelty
into the Church. Then after the emperor had
donned a portion of the regalia, the patriarch made a
prayer, and the " KjTie eleison" (possibly an ektene or
litany) being said, put ujion his sovereign the imperial
chlamys and the jewelled crown. The acclamations
also which .accompany and follow the emperor's speech
with its jjromises of the usual largess, are pronouncedly
religious in character; for e.xample "God will pre-
serve a Christian Emperor! These are common
prayers! These are the prayers of the world! Lord
help the pious! Holy Lord uplift Thy world! . . .
God 1)0 with you! " Moreover at the conclusion of the
ceremony the emperor went straight to St. Sophia,
putting off his crown and offering it at the altar.
The first emperor to be crowned in church was Pho-
