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Acclamations
CHARLOTTE ROUECHE

Acclamations phrases shouted out in unison

are particularly valuable in pre-literate societies
or in any situation where the views, particularly
the assent, of a large group of people are
required. They often form part of religious
ceremonials whether the Hebrew Amen
or the salutation Great is Artemis of the
Ephesians. This acclamation was shouted for
two hours by a crowd in Ephesos, who gathered
in the theater at Ephesos to protest at the activities of the Christian Apostle Paul in the first
century CE (Acts 19:2341). They were a normal part of religious and public ceremonials in
the ancient Near East, and in the GrecoRoman world, but the actual process is seldom
considered worth recording. We know of titles
for benefactors and rulers which were
bestowed by acclamation city-loving, Savior,
even Imperator but the procedure was too
normal to describe.
Our understanding of these processes, and
their recording, changes in the Late Antique
period. The emperor Constantine ruled that
acclamations, favorable or hostile, of provincial
governors should be reported to the central
government (CT 1.16.6, of 331 CE). At about
the same time we start to find acclamations
being inscribed on stone, and this becomes
increasingly common in Late Antiquity (for
a sixth-century example, see Roueche 2004,
commentary). From Late Antiquity we also
have the verbatim accounts of the church
councils; these provide an invaluable record
of acclamations and their use in large
meetings (Roueche 2009). Perhaps the most
striking example of their importance comes

from the Law Code compiled on the orders

of the emperor THEODOSIUS II. The text includes
a list of the acclamations of the Senate which
greeted its publication in 443, giving both the
text of each acclamation and the number
of times that it was repeated. Acclamations
continued to be an important part of imperial
ceremonial well into the Byzantine period,
and they are carefully recorded in the Book
of Ceremonies compiled for the tenth-century
emperor CONSTANTINE VII PORPHYROGENITUS.
Such collections show a rhythmic and repetitive quality which facilitated their chanting;
some of these characteristics were absorbed
into the liturgies of both the eastern and the
western churches.
REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS
Balance, M. and Roueche, C. (2001) Three
inscriptions from Ovacik. In M. Harrison,
Mountain and plain: from the Lycian Coast to the
Phrygian Plateau in the Late Roman and Early
Byzantine period: 87112. Ann Arbor.
Potter, D. (1996) Performance, power and justice in
the High Empire. In W. J. Slater, ed., Roman
theater and society: E. Togo Salmon papers, vol. 1:
12960. Ann Arbor.
Roueche, C. (1984) Acclamations in the later
Roman Empire: new evidence from Aphrodisias.
Journal of Roman Studies 74: 18199.
Roueche, C. (2004) Aphrodisias in Late
Antiquity, No. 23, online second edition available
at http://insaph.kcl.ac.uk/ala2004/inscription/
eAla0 83.html.
Roueche, C. (2009) Acclamations at the Council
of Chalcedon. In R. Price and M. Whitby, eds.,
Chalcedon in Context: church councils 400700 :
16977. Liverpool.
Wiemer, H.-U. (2004) Akklamationen im
spatromischen Reich. Archiv fur Kulturgeschichte
86: 2773.

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,
and Sabine R. Huebner, print page 27.
2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah12003