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Courts and Courtiers in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean

2021/2022, TOM 14

Ignazio Tantillo

0000-0002-0870-9626

Università degli Studi di Napoli „L'Orientale”, Dipartimento per l'Asia, l'Africa e il Mediterraneo

Publication date

08.09.2026

Publishing model

open access

License type

CC BY 4.0 Int.

Field

Humanities

Discipline

culture and religion studies, history

Language of publication

English

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Article

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Abstract

This article discusses the evolution of historians’ interest in the subject of ancient courts and ceremonial practices, which for a long time were marginalized or treated superficially by scholars. The author points out that the rediscovery of the court as a significant political institution took place in the second half of the 20th century under the influence of Norbert Elias’s sociological concepts. Today, it is emphasized that the court’s ceremonial apparatus and rituals served primarily to legitimize power in the eyes of the ruler himself and his entourage, and that courtiers who controlled access to the sovereign played a key role in shaping them.

Keywords:

court,power,courtiers,antiquity,sociology

Bibliography

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Geertz, C. 1980: Negara: The Theatre State in Nineteenth Century Bali, Princeton.

Momigliano, A. 1987: Ottavo contributo alla storia degli studi classici e del mondo antico, Roma, 297–311 (= ‘How Roman Emperors became Gods’, The American Scholar 55/2 [1986]. 181–195).

Spawforth, A.J.S. (ed.) 2007: The Court and Court Society in Ancient Monarchies, Cambridge.

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