Review of the hardback: 'Angelov offers a subtle study of the interplay between official pronouncements about right political order and those ideas about imperial rule that developed in semi-official or independent contexts. To this end, he deploys an astonishing spectrum of sources from a century-and-a-half of Byzantine history, including preambles (prooimia) to imperial charters, orations composed for public performance at the imperial court, mirrors of princes, philosophical treatises and rhetorical exercises.' The Anglo-Hellenic Review