ABSTRACT
Ceremonial was a vital part of the display of power in the Byzantine world. It was employed by all the powers in the region as a way of manifesting authority. It allowed rulers to display themselves to their public in a carefully controlled way. The robes they wore, the people, icons and relics that accompanied them and the buildings that they visited could all be exploited in order to convey particular impressions of power.1 They served both to relate the ruler to his people by appearing among them, but at the same time to emphasize his difference from them, through his bearing and traditional pose of aloofness. Authority was necessarily framed by material trappings.
