Best of us all the best he be leic, go go, the Hi, I'm Peter Adamson, and you're listening to the History of Philosophy Podcast,

brought to you with the support of the Philosophy department at King's College London and the

LMU in Munich online at history of philosophy.net. Today's episode, Consul of the Philosophers, Michael Salos. the philosophers would be the best rulers for the ideal city he recognizes that the

suggestion may well seem ridiculous, as well he might.

If you've spent as much time around philosophers as I have, you'll know that often their

organizational talent barely extends to wearing matching socks.

No wonder then that even if Plato's authoritative status meant that philosophers in

antiquity and the Middle Ages continued to envision perfect rulers as philosopher kings,

real life philosophers often found themselves outside the halls of power.

In Latin medieval Christian culture, they were far more often monks or university masters than courtiers.

Monasticism was also an important context for philosophical thought in Byzantium, as we'll be seeing.

Yet there were major intellectual figures who had significant access to the imperial court.

We already met one of them, Fotius, another was Michael Bselos, arguably the outstanding author

of the whole tradition of Byzantine philosophy.

He earned this status in part by writing about non-philosophical topics.

His most frequently consulted work is surely the Kronographia, a portrait of numerous emperors that has made him a key source for the study of Byzantine history in the 11th century.

As Salos emphasizes, he is providing firsthand testimony having known personally many of the protagonists of his story.

He came into court circles having achieved a reputation for learning thanks to the encouragement he received from his mother, Theodota, who

made sure he was closely acquainted with such classics as Homer's Iliad.

He served emperors as a scribe and as a judge and was then honored as

Consul of the Philosophers by Emperor Constantine 9th monomacos in the year 1047

a title that aptly combines the political with Salos's main intellectual interest.

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