ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the ideal of imperial virtue as it is presented on a well-known, but still enigmatic, set of objects, namely the enamels that make up the so-called Crown of Constantine Monomachos, now in the Hungarian National Museum at Budapest. Next in order of height come four plaques, two of which portray empresses, and two dancers. Nevertheless, it must be said that there is no clear evidence indicating how these enamels were originally intended to be worn, or displayed; it appears, however, that they were not hinged together, but sewn onto a textile background. In the context of rulership, humility was an expected virtue of kings and emperors, both in western Europe and Byzantium. In the West, the ruler was compared to David, whose humilitas was contrasted with the superbia of Goliath. In Byzantine rhetoric, also, the emperor was associated with humility through comparison with David.
