This is a metrical study dealing with political verse and other Byzantine metres, in which the author presents a survey of the origins and the development of accentual metrics between ca. 400 and ca. 1000. The book focuses on the three rules of versification, upon which the metrical system of the Byzantines rests: isosyllaby, stress regulation and colon structure. But it also provides new insights into the literary history of various Byzantine genres, such as monodies, catanyctic and paraenetic alphabets, acclamations, hymns and satirical songs. The book is of great interest to metricians, musicologists, literary historians and cultural historians working in the fields of Late Antiquity, Byzantium and Modern Greece.