This paper will take its cue from some middle Byzantine tent poems and then address two questions: first the implications for Byzantine ceremony and administration of the importance of tents in Byzantium, and then secondly the problem of arriving at a clear view of what Byzantine tents looked like. This is designed to raise questions which can address some of the pieces that we shall be viewing in the associated workshop.

Byzantium On the Move: Mobile Empire, Traveling Textiles will be delivered as the 2015 Harvard Medieval Material Cultures Lecture. The event is co-sponsored by the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington D.C., and the Harvard University Standing Committee on Medieval Studies.