Cahiers Balkaniques (Mar 2015)
Miroirs des Princes – reflets d’élite(s), à propos des Exhortations (Νουθεσίαι) de Nicolas Mavrocordatos
Abstract
“Mirrors for Princes” designates a genre of didactic literature intended for the instruction of the rulers, in which political ideas are expressed in the form of advice. The Exhortations of Nicolas Mavrocordatos is a “political legacy” and a manual of instructions intending to prepare his son Constantine for his succession to the throne of the Danubian Principalities.Towards that, we will draw upon Max Weber’s perspective on stratification in order to investigate the virtues and qualities that are both indicative of the ruling elite as well as a privilege differentiating them from the indigenous boyars and the Phanariots of Constantinople.According to Weber, “classes, status groups and parties are phenomena of the distribution of power within a community”, consequently status groups are determined by the distribution of social honor. The groups themselves are not only defined by the social interaction but they are also conditioned by a specific style of life.
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