This article examines Joseph Bryennios’ Forty-Nine Chapters, a text that has been hitherto explored mostly for the information on social practices in late Byzantium. The analysis of the text's rhetorical techniques indicates that Bryennios departed significantly from other contemporary collections of kephalaia which relied on the inherited wisdom of gnomologia. I argue that the pervasiveness of figurative language and vivid analogies in the Forty-Nine Chapters shaped his specific didacticism and unveiled the author's acquaintance with the technique of rhetorical amplification.

In this chapter it is suggested that the encomium for Manuel’s deceased brother, Theodore Palaiologos was integrated into a broader account of the affairs of the Morea. Manuel emulated the traditions both of the panegyric oration and of the epic/chronicle. The subject matter, the praise for his brother, is treated in the form of a narrative account, and to a large extent the author is precise about the events he recounts. By this account, the unit dealing with Theodore’s achievements was conceived not as a mere list of glorious deeds illustrating Theodore’s virtues but as a string of interconnected episodes, truly an account of the Morea and not only of the brother. Certainly, these elements did not combine in a composition resembling a historical chronicle. However, they were primarily intended not just to describe military situations but also to convey a political message, as various stylistic devices such as the configuration of a strong narrative voice or the use of criticism indicate. Based on the peculiarities of the author’s literary strategies, this narrative of Theodore’s deeds took the form of a sanitised, official account of events which put forward a message that claimed Morea’s dynastic control.