João Vicente de Medeiros Publio Dias Performance, ceremonial and power in the basilikoi logoi by Theophylact of Ohrid Abstract: In this article, we analyse two basilikoi logoi by Theophylact of Ohrid addressed to the emperors Constantine Doukas (1081 – 1091?) and Alexios I Kom- nenos (1081 – 1118) and contest recent scholarship which traces criticism to Alex- ios I by the use of subversion of traditional rhetorical topoi. We do not question the presence of such subversions, but rather their function in the text. For that, they are studied in their performative contexts: ceremonial events, performative practices and the political circumstances in which their composition possibly took place and when they were performed. By doing so, it is noticeable that criticism to the emperor in such situations is hardly conceivable and the inad- equacies of the praises present in the texts can be interpreted as a response to already existing criticism to current imperial policy. Moreover, by comparing both orations as autonomous works, it is possible to perceive a clear shift both in the power balances in the recently established Komnenian consortium and in the relationship between Theophylact and major political player of his time Adresse: Dr. João Vicente de Medeiros Publio Dias, Seminario de Hermenéutica, Instituto de Investigaciones Filológicas, Circuito Mario de la Cueva, Ciudad Universitaria, Alcaldía de Coyoacán, 04510 México, CDMX; joaov.dias@gmail.com 1. Introduction There are several rhetorical works addressed to the emperor Alexios I Komnenos (1081 – 1118), but very few basilikoi logoi, or imperial orations, according to the traditional rhetorical archetypes.¹ Theophylact of Ohrid, the maistōrtōn rhetorōn Fellow of the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program of the UNAM at the Institute of Philological Re- search (IIF) in Mexico City, with Dr José Ricardo Francisco Martínez Lacy as advisor.  According to the traditional models, such as Menander Rhetor, who influenced directly and indirectly the Byzantine rhetoricians, a basilikos logos should start with the country of origin (patris), then deal with the birth (genesis), nature (physis), upbringing (anatrofe), accomplish- DOI 10.1515/bz-2022-0043 BZ 2022; 115(3): 803–828