The emperors' public persona — that they governed tirelessly, responsibly, and solely for the benefit of their subjects — was, according to the historical record, largely sincere and matched by real action rather than being empty propaganda.
Kaldellis describes a consistent imperial 'persona' of responsive, hardworking, accountable rule broadcast through laws and petitions, and argues research shows emperors generally lived up to it. ✦ AI generated
Anthony Kaldellis · Lex Fridman · 2026-06-30 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 27:04
“Can you describe what you mean by this and describe the different detailed characteristics of this persona?”
Basically, that the authorities are responsive to the needs of their subjects, that they are often accountable. In other words, they understand that they are exercising public power, and that their mandate is to exercise it solely for the benefit of their subjects. They keep saying this... renouncing any kind of private interest.
verbatim transcript · starts at 27:04
27:04church, for example, or posted publicly. They're definitely eager to have them communicated to as many people as possible. But they're also a function of imperial rhetoric so the way you praise an emperor, the way you talk about an emperor. You find this language in petitions, so this is a hugely important glue for this society, is that anyone could basically petition the authorities for let's just say just about anything.
27:30That's not technically true, but there's a lot of petitioning going on. So, you know, if you think something's wrong or you've been treated unjustly, you can petition local officials, even imperial officials. You can petition the emperor, you can... Right? And the expectation is that that petition will be read, addressed, and answered. It might not be answered in the way that you want, but it will be answered.
27:52And those responses contain this language also, right? So these are the different media through which the emperors are broadcasting this persona, and that persona is what? Basically, that the authorities are responsive to the needs of their subjects, that they are often accountable. In other words, they understand that they are exercising public power, and that their mandate is to exercise it solely for the benefit of their subjects. They keep saying this. Um,
28:23so renouncing any kind of private interest. In other words, "We're not doing this for our benefit," say the authorities. "We're doing this for your benefit." Also that they're proactive. So the emperors are constantly saying that, "We're planning ahead. We're trying to foresee what problems you might have, and we are solving them at, before you experience them." And that they are also working very hard. So hardworking. In fact,
28:51the one of the cliches that they keep using is sleepless. The emperors keep saying that, "I'm losing sleep over this. I'm not sleeping at night because I'm just worrying so much about your problems and how to solve them." Justinian, for example, was publicly known as the sleepless emperor, and not because he was a demon whose head floated around in the palace on its own, which some people