The reborn western empire of Henry II's era (
Kaiser Heinrich II) no longer clashed with
Byzantium. The Ottonians' mothers and wives were Greek
princesses. They were filled with admiration for the
Constantinople of the year 1000, itself in the midst of a
rebirth. They took over from the eastern Emperor, the
basileus,
the concept of his authority, and borrowed all of the emblems of his
powers -- the Golden cope (today, a long ecclesiastical vestment worn
over an alb or surplice), the sphere perfectly held in the right-hand,
symbolizing a sovereign entity embracing the entire world.
Follwing this pattern set in Constantinople, for the most solemn
ceremonies, Henry II often draped himself in a mantle covered
with constellations in the signs of the zodiac (embroidered in Italy
possibly in about 1020 and still on view today in Bamberg) so that he
would seem to be enveloped in the firmament himself.
