Historicism in Byzantine Thought and Literature

Historicism in Byzantine Thought and Literature
Author(s): Anthony Kaldellis

Source: Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 61 (2007), pp. 1-24
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Historicism inByzantineThoughtandLiterature
AnthonyKaldellis
has
MUCH
viewed
Roman
pedigree
been
written
about how
the Byzantines
their past, especially how they synthesized
the
and Christian traditions to create a sacred imperial
for themselves.1 We
also have many surveys of Byzantine

that is, of the authors and texts that told the story of
historiography,
New Rome from its foundation
to its final demise.2 But,

despite much
we
we
more
still know little about what
progress in these fields,
might
on
broadly call Byzantine historical thought. The former studies focus
on dates, sources,
style, and bias (usually contempo
ideology, the latter
we
or
What
lack are analyses of the
rarypolitical
religious).
underlying
mental framework and the intellectual skills that
guided the approach
to the past, cut across genres, and

a rich
shaped theway inwhich
body
of evidence was ultimately represented. In other words, how was histor
ical truth constituted? How was the rawmaterial found in the sources,
its nature,
cognitively processed?
one
to
In this essay I will attempt to
aspect of
bring
light only
one moreover thatwas
what I have called Byzantine historical
thought,
not limited to the historians proper but is reflected in a diverse
range
whatever
of texts. It is a matter of curiosity that,

it
shaped historical
although
more evident in
this
is
of
historical
aspect
writing,
Byzantine
thought
other types of literature. I label ithistoricism, a term that requires clari
fication in that ithas stood for very different
things during the past
two centuries.31 will use ithere to refer to the awareness of
long-term
and deep historical change, in other words to the perception that the
course of
history fundamentally alters how people think and live and
how societies are
In
the past, many Byzantines
organized.
approaching
to
over their own
realized that theywere not
permitted
simply carry
ethical values, religious beliefs,
political system, and material circum
stances and
to the past on the
apply them
assumption that theywere
simply universal and self-evident. Rather, they first had to historicize
their own position
by tracing its origins and defining
its
contingent
i
See, e.g., E. Jeffreys, "The Attitudes
of Byzantine Chronicles towards Ancient
I am referring to the surveys of K.

Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen
History," Byzantion 49 (1979): 199-238.

For what the past looked like to a Byzantine
historian around 800, see I. Sevcenko,
Litteratur von Justinian
"The Search for the Past in Byzantium

around the Year 800," DOP 46 (1992):
profane Literatur der Byzantiner, 2 vols.

(Munich, 1978); and A. Karpozilos,
279-93.
Bu^avTivoi'IcrTopncoi Kai Xpovoyp&fyoi,
bis zum Ende des
ostrbmischen Reich es ($27-14$3) (Munich,

1891);H. Hunger, Die hochsprachliche
2 vols. (Athens, 1997-2002).
A new multi
volume survey is being prepared byW.

Treadgold, The Early Byzantine Historians
(New York, 2007).
For a survey, see G. G.
Iggers,
"Historicism: The History and Meaning
3
of the Term," Journal of the

History
56 (1995): 129-52.

ofIdeas
existential scope, and then to do the same

the people of the
regarding
to
write.
whom
wanted
about
past
they
This recognition, whether made in Byzantium or in early modern
times, is a positive achievement and may even be called a breakthrough
if it attains the level of conscious reflection and systematic application;
it then gives rise towhat modern
Other
forms of historicism
philosophers call "the historical sense."

emerge from this but should be treated sep
instance themodern notion that any

system
arately?for
philosophical
of the past cannot simply be true, given that, in the end, itmerely reflects
the "age" inwhich itwas produced. The first is a factual observation
conclusion
about history, the latter a strongly relativist philosophical
thesis, however,
(that perhaps has yet to be proven).4 The philosophical
influenced the historical scholarship from which it origi

greatly
nated, especially in Byzantine studies. Even when studying authors of
scholars casually assume
the past who are not primarily philosophers,
that their works must be "limited" by their "age" and must therefore
reflect its intellectual shortcomings. Though true in a general sense, in
an exercise in a
priori
practice this assumption unfortunately becomes
has
to
we often know little about any past
"age"
begin
reasoning, because
literature and
with. Thus long-standing prejudices against Byzantine
the "mental limitations" of itswriters, coupled with dated Hegelian
about theMind of this or that People, are introduced to

generalizations
fill the gap between the historicist imperative and what scholars actu
abuse of the historical sense often leads to amisunder
ally know?this
in question and betrays the laudable original
standing of the authors
intention to understand them in their authentic context.5
defined strictly and limited to the avoidance of
in examining the past, and to a sense of the fundamental
Historicism?here
anachronism
to be an essentially modern
widely believed
One
"knows," for instance, that itwas the humanists
development.
who first cultivated the historical sense.
of the Italian Renaissance
difference of that past?is
aware that they were creating new modes of expression and

at the same time that theywere recreating those
thought, and believing
of antiquity, theywere led to postulate (or invent) the three periods of
to have
we still use, each ofwhich was
supposed
European history that
to be
now
had
a distinctive
boundaries
Historical
style and values.
observed and so humanism "overcame ... the ancient vision of a static
Acutely
For arguments that philosophical

is not necessarily correct
See, e.g., A. Kaldellis,
and Religious Views
historicism
(though not that it is necessarily false),

see (still) L. Strauss, Natural Right and
Byzantion
Reinterpretation,"
206-52, here 251-52.
"The Historical
of Agathias:
69 (1999):
1.For a survey
History (Chicago, 1953), chap.
of postmodern philosophical historicism,
see P. Hamilton,
ANTHONY
Historicism
(London,
1996).
KALDELLIS

Anachronism had to be avoided and

reality,rigidand unchanging."6
theoriginal evidence consulted.The passion forantiquity led to an
remains, which were now brought to bear on the

the past. Furthermore, the very awareness of change
understanding of
made history an existential predicament and eventually prompted new
"not only did the government and princes vary, but the
philosophies:
the
customs, themode of life, the religion, the language, the dress,
laws,
interest in itsmaterial
too, once Caesars
the names.men
and Pompeys,
So Machiavelli.7
have become
Peters, Johns, and Matthews."

To be sure, recent scholarship has shown that many writers and
artists of the Renaissance
chose to
critical methods
disregard the
in their time and routinely violated the
developing
being pioneered
historical sense for a variety of "creative" reasons. Itwas probably not
until the nineteenth century that the historical sense became fully
"sixth sense."8 This
called it our modern
ingrained, when Nietzsche
be
the
explained partly by
extremely rapid changes
development may
of our times, which create conditions of instant historical "otherness"
and alienation. Never
before has so much
depended
ancient and medieval
that may partly explain why

so far as we have in this direction.
go
a fact
history,
thinkers did not
on
Simply put, for them much less

over the course of centuries and millennia:
"The guidelines of
changed
Mediterranean
life as the art of the possible could be summed up in the
no
even
writings of Homer precisely because
discontinuity
remotely
can be
like that to which a modern, post-industrial
society
exposed
had come between the men of the fourth century [A.D.] and their
even if late
modernity
era that
is the
only
instinctively
to exercise such a power
historicizes everything,
allowing "History"
sense was not
ful dominion over
philosophy, the historical
altogether
in the past, a conclusion that is sometimes asserted with little
lacking
Yet
models."9
nuance
or concession. Our
survey of Byzantine literature below will

in fact uncover "a
as embedded in a web of
general picture of humans
cultural practices, which differ profoundly from epoch to epoch and
to
place
place."10 Personally, I doubt that any human beings who have
ancestral
traditions
(that change inevitably) and foreign neighbors

(who are inevitably different) can lack a historical sense of this kind.
Some ancient Egyptians, for
example, realized that Egyptian art had
passed
6
at times made
through different stages and
E. Garin, Italian Humanism:
Histories
Ricerche (Bari, 1954), 158, 201-10. The stan
Mansfield
The Renaissance
in English
is by P. Burke,
Sense of thePast
(New York,
efforts to
i97o)> who cites many supporting texts (the

book is virtually an anthology).
Niccolo Machiavelli, Florentine
7
Philosophy and Civic Life in theRenaissance,

trans. P.Munz
(Oxford, 1965), 8; see also
eRinascimento: Studi e
Garin, Medioevo
dard discussion
conscious
8
Modern
1.5, trans. L. F. Banfield and H. C.
(Princeton, 1988), 14-15.

See P. Levine, Nietzsche and the
Crisis of theHumanities
I995)? 25-26 for context.

9
P. Brown, Society and theHoly
inLate
(Berkeley, 1982), 92 (on whether
Antiquity
the emperor Julian's infatuation with Homer
was atavistic).
10
Levine, Nietzsche,
25.
(New York,
HISTORICISM
IN BYZANTINE

LITERATURE
revive past forms. "The Egyptians

the greatest historical perspective.
of the fourth century B.C...

had
The Late Period favored archaism
which was practiced with such skill, that is, with

awareness of
ithas "tricked many modern
change, that
in various media,"
self-conscious
was from the Old

Such a ruse
experts into thinking it
Kingdom."11
could hardly be pulled off by people "trapped" in their own "age."
return for the last time to the
philosophical
implica
Finally?to
should not "blame" or
tions of historicism in modern
thought?we
look down upon
cultures for not
or any other
premodern intellectual
the inherent historicity of human thought,
the Byzantines
recognizing
because that historicity has yet to be proven in a philosophi
especially
cally rigorous way.

The main part of this study will proceed as follows. First, a group
of texts from the twelfth century will be presented which reveal how
developed
ers. After
sense could be among some

Byzantine writ
will
be
of factors
offered by way of expla
it about Byzantine
intellectual culture that collec
the historical
that a number
nation: what was
of sophistication? I will present additional

tively enabled this degree
in
literature and thought under those headings.
of historicism
examples
of this problem, in connection
Certainly others have studied aspects
individual authors or periods, especially the twelfth century,12 but

so far there has been no systematic study of the sources and methods
I offer such a study here in recognition
of historicism in Byzantium.
of the dramatic but still only partial swing in current opinion in favor
I have linked it to the more
cultural productions.
of the Byzantines'
with
in
widely debated philosophical problemsofmemory and history the
a say in broader debates.
one
day have
hope that the Byzantines may
The texts I have selected for immediate attention are the three
romance novels of the twelfth century, written probably in the 1140s:

Eustathios
and Dosikles;
Rhodanthe
Theodoros
Prodromos's
(or
Niketas
and
and
Makrembolites'
Hysminias\
Eumathios)
Hysmine
and Charikles. A fourth novel, Konstantinos
Drosilla
Eugenianos's
survives only in fragments and
and Kallithea,
are
texts
between nine and eleven books long
will not be discussed. The
or about 120 pages; they are told in the third person and in verse, except
forHysmine and Hysminias, which is in first-person prose. Moreover
all have the same basic plot, which is that of the ancient romance novels
Manasses'
Aristandros
that they all imitate: a young couple in love run away and are separated
ii
and P.
Especially R. Macrides
Fourth
"The
Kingdom and the
Magdalino,
12
The Gift of theNile:

to
Egypt from Aeschylus
Ph. Vasunia,
Hellenizing
Alexander
(Berkeley, 2001), 129-30;
see also
I. Shaw, ed., The Oxford History ofAncient

Egypt (Oxford, 2000), 357-58 for archaizing
Rhetoric of Hellenism,"
in The Perception
of thePast in Twelfth-Century Europe,

P. Magdalino
(London, 1992), 117-56.
ed.
art in the Third Intermediate Period.
ANTHONY
KALDELLIS

by pirates, barbarians,
shipwrecks,
or wars, yet
amazingly
theymanage
topreservetheirvirginity.
make friends(whohave
Along theway they
had similarexperiences)and finallyreuniteandmarry.Despite this
similarity
the novels are highly varied and idiosyncratic;

focuses more
they might be worlds apart. Eugenianos
in outline,
conceptually
on the elaboration
on the
of the plot; Makrembolites
subjective expe
rience of eros,
his
theme is the second-order rela
though
underlying
and art (techne), especially the art of the
eros,
nature,
tionship among
novelist; and Prodromos takes as his themes war and religion.While
ismore "artistic" in both treatment and
Makrembolites
subject matter,
Prodromos
ismore
imitating Platonic
philosophical,
themes of political philosophy.
dialogues
and
discussing
The trend is toward more
attention to these novels?to

scholarly
to their allusions to ancient literature and
their generic complexity;

intertextual use of the ancient novels in particular; and to their literary
motifs and strategies.We will not discuss these aspects here, except to
our chief theme. The
the
key feature of the novels for
degree required by
are learned; that is,
are imitations of an
our purposes is that
they
they
are in verse rather
ancient genre, near-perfect ones in fact,
though they
are written in classical
than prose (except forMakrembolites).
They
set in an
antiquity,
unspecified period of pre-Roman Hellenic
and required a high level of scholarship, literary and historical, such as
in the twelfth century. The sheer self-con
existed only in Byzantium
Greek,
sciousness of this enterprise is remarkable. As a

general
or
Christian
references
the
Hellenist
temporary
disrupt
rule, no con
illusion. The
novelists do not openly

the chronological and
acknowledge
religious
lies
that
between
them
their
and
models?a
gap
strategy that enables,
or
requires, their readers to imagine themselves among the (pagan and
readers of the original novels. Of course we,

along with the
know
well
that
in a
has
much
perfectly
original audience,
happened
never
thousand years and sowe look for hints. The novels
oblige, albeit
we will see,
are
As
allusions
deliberate
and
contemporary
obviously.
Greek)
executed with great skill. In addition, indirect references to the authors

themselves emphasize the distance that separates these fictions from
one of his charac

their Byzantine creators. For instance
Eugenianos has
ters claim as his own models heroes from the ancient novels
(6.386-390,
440-451),
saying that they lived "long ago."14 But how long ago can they
The novels are conveniently published

13
with Italian translation in F. Conca, //
romanzo bizantino del XII
1994). For a general
TheMedieval
Beaton,
ed. (London,
is outdated
secolo (Turin,
introduction, see R.
Greek Romance.
2nd
1996), chaps. 4-5, which

in some respects; for various
regarding the novels'
arguments
and absolute
relative
ibid., 79-81,
chronology,
211-12; and P. A. Agapitos, "Poets and
Painters: Theodoros Prodromos'
Dedicatory
Anonymous
Verses
of His Novel
Caesar,"/QB
173-85, here 181,184-85.
to an
50 (2000):
For literary readings of these exempla,

see C. Jouanno, "Nicetas
Eugenianos, un
heritier du roman grec," REG 102 (1989):
346-60, here 350-53; J. Burton, "Reviving
the Pagan Greek Novel in a Christian
14
World,"
GRBS
39 (1998): 179-216, here
257-59
HISTORICISM
IN BYZANTINE

LITERATURE
have lived in this timeless world? Spoken by one of the characters about
the authors models, this claim in fact alludes to the chronological gap
from his predecessors. Likewise, at the end of

separating Eugenianos
Makrembolites'
novel, the first-person narrator assumes a detached
a
perspective and wonders who might possess such perfect "Atticizing"
nature of the events that

as could
faithfully reflect thewondrous
He expresses the hope that even if the other gods
transpired (11.19).
to his love, the arts ofHermes will
do not establish eternal memorials
style
is born much
later" to immortalize
them through
narrator
thus alludes to the author,
the power of rhetoric (11.22). The
to his rhetorical skill thatwe are meant to admire.15
specifically
As a setting inwhich to develop their deeper and broader themes
eros and
the novelists recreated an image of antiquity
logos,
regarding
and to their
free of anachronism, chiefly of reference to Christianity
enable
"one who
own
is
almost
Byzantine world. This rule occasionally broken, though
to
To achieve this effect, they had
deploy formi
always deliberately.
dable scholarly skills and knowledge of antiquity, put themselves in a
classical
frame of mind,
and fashion an illusion that could convince
This means,
exacting peers and patrons.
among other things, that they
had a highlydevelopedhistoricalsense.Itmight be objected thatwhat

the novelists were imitating were the ancient novels themselves and
not life in antiquity directly, and there is some truth in this.However,
it is unlikely that they could have succeeded in this experiment unless
itwere informedby a high levelof independenthistorical scholarship,
for the Byzantine novels are not restricted in their plots, settings, situ
ations, dialogue, and characters to the equivalents that are found in
the ancient novels. In other words, the artificial Hellenic world of the
not be simulated sowell merely by imitatation
Byzantine novels could
of the ancient novels themselves. Besides we have independent evidence
about at least one of the novelists, Prodromos, who was a first-rate clas
sical scholar.16 And we will discuss below
education
the ability to write
inmore detail what kind of
in classical Greek
already presupposed
in Byzantium.
did this historicism entail in practice? First, the novels are

What
and obsessively pagan. Not only do the protagonists, with
thoroughly
whom we are apparently meant to sympathize, believe in the gods; they
to them,
festivals
are
holding
constantly talking about them, praying
in their honor, and yes, even sacrificing to them. It ispossible that this
exceeds that in the ancient novels, going well beyond the
religiosity
of the ancient world itself.But on the whole the nov
day-to-day piety
criticism on this point is either too
elists get the details right.Modern
strict or subjective in evaluating what is "authentically" ancient, what
the product ofmimesis of the ancient novels.17 It
Byzantine, and what
is important that the novelists do not apologize or ever comment on
ANTHONY
15
See Beaton, Medieval
86-87; Agapitos,
Greek Romance,
"Poets and Painters,"
183-84.
See, in general, A. Kazhdan
(in col
laboration with S. Franklin), Studies on
16
Byzantine Literature
of theEleventh and
Twelfth Centuries (Cambridge,

17 Macrides and Magdalino,
1984), chap. 3.
"The Fourth
151;R. E. Harder, "Religion und

Kingdom,"
Glaube in den Romanen der Komnenenzeit,"
imByzanz
inDer Roman
der Komnenenzeit:
Symposiums
Referate des Internazionalen
an derFreien Universit at Berlin, 3 bis 6 April
199S, ed. P. A. Agapitos and D. R. Reinsch
(Frankfurt am Main, 2000), 55-80, here
69-72 (perhaps too strict); and C. Jouanno,
"A Byzantine Novelist Staging the Ancient
Presence, Form, and Function
Greek World:
of Antiquity
inMakrembolites'
and Hysminias"
Hysmine
in 'Hnp6oJ\r]\ffr]
rrjc.
arb (ZvfavTivb [ZV$l(rT6pr}fia.,

cLpXcuorriTCLc.
and M. Paschalis (Athens,
ed. S. Kaklamanis
2005),
17-29.
KALDELLIS

the poet of
who like
Beowulf,
religion (as did, say,
wise wrote about pagan heroes for a Christian
society). Furthermore,
as
ancient world at face value requires accepting its
taking this
religion
virtuous. Cities and individuals are praised for their piety. There is no
narrators do not themselves believe in the
sign that the
gods, which
their characters'
places
readers in the position
their Christian
of
having
to
suspend,
not
theirdisbelief,butpreciselytheirbeliefinorderto enjoythefiction.By
in the firstperson, Makrembolites

compounds the illusion by
us view theworld
and partake
making
through the eyes ofHysminias
in
is
is a sacred
of
the
which
he
directly
paganism
steeped (Hysminias
Prodromos does is even bolder, in that he speaks in the
herald). What
third person but makes many comments
that imply his
throughout
speaking
own belief in the pagan

it
and their benevolence
gods
(e.g., 1.65-67:
was reasonable that a
6.84-88: one
goddess should help the Rhodians;
cannot escape fate, for the
are
everywhere, etc.). This radically
gods
the
actual
author
from
his
authorial
persona and presents us
disjoins
a narrator-author who
with
of one work
chooses to act pagan,

choice
thatMakrembolites'
(a
even if
only for the
purposes
pagan first-person
narrator does not have,
as he is in a pagan
"trapped"
age). Finally, the
narrators
characters and
firmly believe that the gods intervene in their
stories and
sometimes
they do just that, though usually indirectly,

through dreams, omens, oracles, and miracles.18
Timeless
fictions that do not reflect contemporary mentalities
make
modern
historians,
who
are historicists
themselves,
uncom
to historicize the novels

accordingly been made
in them allusions to Christian
and Byzantine
reali
fortable. Efforts have
by discovering
are
we must be careful in
ties. These
findings
generally plausible, but
them. First, we must accept that the
evaluating
setting of the novels is
of
unlike
that
the
utterly
Byzantine authors themselves, being Greek
rather than Roman;
pagan rather than Christian; and, with the excep

tion of Prodromos, based on
city-states, not empires. The polarities of
their moral universe are also those of the ancient novels and not of
versus freedom, town

chance versus providence,
Byzantium:
slavery
vs. country, Hellenism
vs. barbarism, nature vs. techne.
Everyday life,
social relations, and manners of speech likewise do not
to
correspond
the experience of any Byzantine. The novelists even used ancient and
archaic expressions thatwere not current in
Byzantium
illusion of
authenticity.19
18
A dream sent by Dionysos:
Niketas
Apollo:
sent by
(?): ibid., 11.14; Selene saves
Hermes
Eustathios Makrembolites,
Prodromos, Rhodanthe
Hysmine
8.7,11.17; an (apparent) omen
Hysminias
sent by Zeus:
ibid., 6.10,10.11; an oracle of
the
ibid., 10.13; a dolphin
Eugenianos, Drosilla and Charikles 6.664

668; the regular miracle ofArtemis's statue:
and
to enhance
Kratandros
H avayivvnaic rfiv
ypaftfidToovxara. rov
IB' aloova sic to Bv%&vtiov xai
d"0/zrjpoc
in the fire:Theodoros
and Dosikles
393; a Delphic oracle: ibid., 9.190-233.

A. Basilikopoulou-Ioannidou,
19
1.386
(Athens, 1971-1972), 85; for the question

of what world the novels reflect
exactly,
see Beaton, Medieval
Greek Romance,
esp.
183 (above, n. 13).
HISTORICISM
IN BYZANTINE

LITERATURE
Aside from Prodromos,20 what purpose do Christian

allusions
serve in the novels? In the case ofMakrembolites,
are faint, consist
they
not
is
of
of
foot
the
practice
ing
exclusively Christian)
washing (which
and some
that
the
echoes
of the martyrs.
possibly
language
sufferings
are
Their purpose, in any case, is literary; that is, they
either merely illus
trative or subordinated
to the
own themes.
development of the novels
no conclusions
The case of
about Christian
They suggest
topics.21
more
is
We
have, for instance, erotic lan
complex.
Eugenianos
slightly
guage that seems to echo the Song of Songs; a character declaring that
a
can
the young couple together and
god had brought
asking, "Who
a
to
separate those whom
god has united?" (3.12, also 7.264; alluding
a
Matthew
19:6); and marriage at the end that, contrary to ancient prac
tice, takes place inside a temple with the priest presiding (we find this
in Prodromos as well). But these allusions are too few and
ambiguous
to establish "a Christian
context" for the novels "despite the ostensibly

we have seen, the context was
antique settings."22As
thoroughly pagan.
No reader would have concluded that these characters were Christians
"I give thanks to
given that they constantly say such things as,
you, son of Zeus, the greatest of the gods" (8.73-74). Their polytheism
is too explicit for "Zeus" to be a classicizing name for the Christian
that his
of Beowulf, once he acknowledges
God
(by contrast, the poet
as
heroes are pagans, has them talk about God thereafter
though they
at heart,
was not
were not). No,
to make his readers more
trying
Eugenianos
refers to the god in question,
"comfortable" with the material. Drosilla
as a Christian would
as anax, not
(7.210).We are deal
Dionysos,
kyrie
a
context that must necessarily dena
ing here with
thoroughly pagan
ture and subvert any Christian

references that are worked into it. For
one scholar has
that Eugenianos was interpreting
suggested
example
...
"the Song of Solomon
against orthodox opin
sexually and literally
are
on
likewise used in connection with
ion."23 Jesus' words
marriage
that leads to elopement; the
erotic infatuation inspired by Dionysos
the work, only now it has
same line is used
again toward the end of
become "those whom the,gods have joined" (9.186). In Eugenianos's
fiction, the gods prevail in the end.
Because
the study of the novels
is in its infancy, we do not know

whether they were meant to suggest general arguments about pagan
Here we are interested only in
and Christian
practices and beliefs.
20
I intend to discuss Rhodanthe
Dosikles
and
inmore detail in a separate study
on Hellenism
inByzantium:
The Transforma
tions ofGreek Identity and theReception of

theClassical Tradition (Cambridge, 2007).
21
Burton, "Reviving the Pagan Greek
Novel,"
208-13
ANTHONY
(above, n. 14). P. Roilos,
(Amphoteroglossia: A Poetics of the Twelfth

Greek Novel [Washington,
Century Medieval
2005], 210-23) has recently argued for

extensive use of the Song of Songs in
D.C,
Eugenianos.
22
Pace E. Jeffreys, "The Depiction of
Female Sensibilities in the Twelfth Century,"
in To Bv?dvrto copifzoyia aJkoLyic,:

EniXoyiq,
xcu xpoitoi ix<ppao"nqand tov
evaKrSrjo-teg
svdixaro o-Tov8ixaro nifinro oucbva, ed. Ch.
(Athens, 2004), 73-85, here 83.
Burton, "Reviving the Pagan Greek
Novel," 203 (above, n. 14).
G. Angelidi
23
KALDELLIS

theirimplicithistoricism,inhow theycarefullyavoided anachronism.

A fewlapsesmay be allowed.One scholarhas
suggestedthatthetemple
On
in Prodromos
resolves the problems created

by Rhodanthes
and situates the novel in contemporary
Byzantine debates.24
was
an
the other hand, it is
actual anachronism,
possible that this
marriage
abduction
for the classical texts

typically read by Byzantine scholars do not specify
the institutions of Greek marriage. On thewhole, however, the histori
cist achievement
of the novels
is
impressive; nothing like itwould be

centuries.
for
We can see this ifwe compare
many
possible
them to the contemporary Old French (vernacular) romans
dantiquite.
So far these different traditions?Western
and Byzantine?have
been
in theWest
in tandem
only in attempts to discover which "influenced"
the other. Current
in my view) to
scholarship tends (rightly,
regard
them as independent or
internal
largely independent
developments.2
tenuous
or
Whatever
links may be
prosopographical
chronological
established between their patrons, in the end
they remain very differ
studied
ent kinds of
world
romans are vernacular and

a
literary exercise. The
depict
that isquite
thoroughly medieval despite their ostensible ancient
or no historical
setting. Little
scholarship influenced their composi
a
with
Latin
tion, beyond
familiarity
epic. The comparison, then, is like
that between the historical novels of Robert Graves and the
episodes
ofXena, Warrior Princess. A fairer
would
be
with
Walter
comparison
on Alexander
epic
(late twelfth century), which
imitated Vergil and Lucan and "demonstrates a
sense of
sophisticated
the past and its difference from the
present."26 Still, its reconstruction
of ancient mentalities and realia is
shaky and itsChristian outlook is,
of Chatillons
Latin
in contrast to the
is
Byzantine novels, pervasive and intrusive.Walter
in
out
of his ancient
keeping the twelfth century
setting,
uninterested
thoughhe could probablyhave done sohad he sethismind to it.
So what enabled
Byzantine writers to compose novels that most
classicists today, given a blind test,would fail to
as
identify
Byzantine,
but would safely classify as pagan and ancient? The remainder of this
studywill present some of the general and specific aspects of Byzantine
intellectual life that contributed to this achievement.
It will not be
to
for them; our
to
is
possible
give exhaustive documentation
goal
only
understand how a historical sense
it
and
how
found
emerged
expression
in various sites of
Byzantine literary culture. Imust stress at the outset
that the novels were
scholarly achievements, written by men who had
J.Burton, "Abduction and Elopement in
the Byzantine Novel," GRBS 41 (2000): 377
409, here 405-8. The episode of trial by fire
24
in Prodromos was
certainly an intentional
anachronism; itwill be discussed in the sepa
rate study of thatwork mentioned
above.
Cf. E. Jeffreys, "The Comnenian

Background to the Romans d'Antiquite"
25
Byzantion
Magdalino,
oi Amours:
50 (1980): 455-86 withP.

"Eros the King
and the King

Some Observations on
Hysmine
andHysminias"DOP46
x6
M. K. Lafferty, Walter
ofChdtillon's
Epic and theProblem of
Alexandreis;
Historical
(Turnhout, 1998),
Understanding
61.1 thank Tia Kolbaba for this reference.
(1992): 197-204.
HISTORICISM
IN BYZANTINE

LITERATURE
spent a good portion of their lives studying ancient literature and who,
as
and students of philosophy, rival their modern coun
philologists
was also the age of Ioannes Tzetzes and
terparts. The age of the novels
this learned aspect of Byzantine
Eustathios of Thessalonike. Amazingly
culture has received almost no attention
in our times.
Prejudice,
and
the inherentphilological difficulty

of the topic,has ensured that the
world
and themind
of the Byzantine
classical
scholar has remained
in
so hostile to its
on the
topic is
single monograph
the reader can scarcely find a page that does not contrive
subject that
some way to dismiss Byzantine scholars as idiotic and
incompetent.27
the dark for us. The
at the
view of the past, mentioned
As we saw above, the historical sense emerges
beginning of this study.
of fundamental historical change, whether
along with the experience
or
as
is
rhetorical
and
aesthetic
this
political
during the Renaissance
Let us return to the Byzantine
and economic
as
during
the Industrial Revolution.
Such
transforma
be experienced, divide History

subjectively they may
into Periods, during each ofwhich the parameters of human existence
are believed to be radically different in some important way from what
came before and what came afterward. One such transformation that
tions, however
view of the past was of course the conversion

shaped the Byzantine
one chose to date it
of the ancient world to Christianity. Whenever
a
not
in the modes of human
itmarked
clear break
merely
exactly,
inGods
overall plan for the salvation of humanity. The
but
worship
rooted in the nature
was as
that is,metaphysically
"objective,"
change
of theuniverse,as could be imagined.By itselfit sufficedto abolish

even set the stage for a
any notion of a uniform, unbroken past, and
number of historicist exercises. For what else may we call the tale of the
Seven Sleepers of Ephesos, who fell asleep in a cave during the Decian
and awoke some two hundred
persecutions of the mid-third century
II? Such a premise
empire of Theodosios
years later in the Christian
to elicit reflection on what had changed in the

perfectly designed
In one version, one of the youths named Iamblichos runs
meantime.
coins.28 It is not
into trouble when he tries to buy food with Decian
was
one of the most successful modern exponents of "the

surprising that
and social life"
style of religious, cultural,
definitively Late Antique
began
one ofhis books bydeclaringthat"Iwish thatI had been one of
the Seven Sleepers of Ephesos."29

and anguish
The convulsions
of the long transformation from

left a deep and permanent mark on
to Christianity
scholars, we must remember, spent most of their
Byzantium, whose
time in the company of pagan texts, a preference that sometimes
paganism
in anxiety attacks. This is not the place to discuss the recep

it to say that
in Orthodox
tion of Greek wisdom
Byzantium. Suffice
the "otherness" of the pagan inheritance was never forgotten and never
resulted
IO
ANTHONY
27
N. G. Wilson,
(London,
Scholars ofByzantium
1983).
of the Seven YoungMen of

in
PG
115:427-448.
Ephesos,
P. Brown, TheMaking
29
ofLate Antiquity
28
Memoir
(Cambridge, Mass.,
KALDELLIS

1978), 1.
fullyovercome,which spurredthehistoricistimaginationby creating

of antiquity.
Of course
fault linesand requiringthe special treatment
many Byzantines were content to simply dismiss the pagans of antiq

or Roman and the famous writers.
uity, both the average ancient Greek
were
In some circles,
exempted from this
though, many of the authors
or
blanket condemnation due to their literary perfection (e.g.,Homer)
All this iswell known. What
moral proximity to Scripture
(e.g., Plato).
ismore interesting, however, is that some Byzantine scholars went even
farther by attempting to rehabilitate classical pagans in general based
on their historicist view of the past and often in times of crisis, when
seemed on the verge of collapse. At such times

these scholars questioned
the premises of their own culture and won
the Byzantine
Empire
dered why the ancients, who were pagans and thus could not have ben
efited from God's grace, had fared somuch better.
1080 A.D., the jurist and

officialMichael Attaleiates
high
a
inwhich he recounted and tried to
History
completed
explain the
dramatic decline of the empire in the eleventh century. This work has
in a
unfortunately received little attention. Yet
fascinating digression,
Attaleiates wonders why Byzantine generals were miserable
failures
Around
counterparts were glorious victors.We need

on every nuance of this
expound
complex argument. Attaleiates
concedes that the ancient Romans knew
nothing of God's
logos, of
new
the Incarnation, and of the
religious conditions of the
dispensa
to
over their ene
tion (which he lists), but still they
prevail
managed
when
their ancient Roman
not
our
of a "natural greatness ofmind." More
important for
then argues that the ancient Romans
purposes, Attaleiates
faithfully
to
own
customs
their
adhered
and the ritual demands of their own reli
mies because
as a Roman
gion (which,
jurist, he knew fairlywell); thus they entered
on the
to enter
battle in high spirits.30This rehabilitation
ability
hinges
the
of a distantly related
mindset
view
and
the world
foreign
people
customs and values, which satisfies the modern defini
their
through
as "a
as embedded
in a
general picture of humans
to
web of cultural practices, which differ
profoundly from epoch
epoch
to
a
even
and place
It
also
reveals
if
theoreti
place."31
willingness,
only
tion of historicism
cal, to prefer "foreign" cultural practices on pragmatic grounds.

One century later the student of Eustathios and
bishop of Athens
Michael
Choniates
found himself
in a similar situation.
Witnessing
a
the rapid
of
the
from
empire
disintegration
provincial
standpoint,
his love of antiquity, which, up to that
had
remained
bound
point,
within
the aesthetic
active existential
30
to take on an
limits imposed by his faith,
began
role and challenged the confidence of his Christian
optimism. Up to then, in his sermons to the people of Athens, he had

granted the superiority of the ancients inmany respects, but had always
maintained
that "we" are more blessed on account of the Christian
Michael
Attaleiates, History
ed. and trans. I. Polemis

338-43. See A. Kaldellis,
Argument
193-195,
(Athens, 1997),
"A Byzantine
for the Equivalence
ofAll
Religions: Michael Attaleiates on Ancient

and Modern Romans," International Journal
of theClassical
31
Tradition
Levine, Nietzsche,
HISTORICISM
14 (2007):
IN BYZANTINE

1-20.
25.
LITERATURE
II
so far
to that of the ancients. Yet
superior
imperial
and administrative corruption and indifference took a heavy
faith, which was

decline
toll on this view. In an angry letter to an official in Constantinople

view, was not doing enough to help the provincials,
who, inChoniates'
the bishop of Athens
exclaims on the blessedness
of "those men,"
that
"I do not reproach them for their distorted reli

he bursts out, "but rather call them blessed because even though
gion,"
in this way
virtue and beauty,
theyworshipped
they practiced
daring
the sea and long trips so as to order and adorn human life." This letter
is, the ancient Greeks.
is important for our thesis because, as noted, inmany of his sermons

had set up the ancient Greeks and his own contemporary
Choniates
Christians as two different cultural "paradigms" that involved different
virtues and beliefs, the former worldly, the latter spiritual. Apparently
he was personally capable of switching between them, at least to a
when he realized that the empire needed much more
degree, especially
virtue if itwas to survive. And, like many modern histori
"worldly"
ans, he was prepared to "forgive" the ancients their vices based on an
that served them sowell. He
understanding of their "age" and values
evaluated and redeemed the Greeks by applying a historical and com
parative perspective.32
In the case of Choniates
and other Byzantines who wrote about

the Athens of their time, this historical perspective was deeply shaped
ruins of antiquity. The sheer contrast between the classical glory
by the
of the ancient city,which they had imagined through their education,
which theybeheldwhen they

and thephysicaldecayof theancientcity,
first saw it in the eleventh and twelfth century, stimulated their histori
cal sense and caused them to ponder the fateful gap that lay between
What was leftof all thatglory?Did Athens

themand sage antiquity.
tomake up for all ithad lost?And,

now have any
redeeming qualities
toward the end of the twelfth century, why were the ancients virtuous
and victorious whereas we are sowretched
and worthless?
Laments
and
amid the ruins played a large role in pushing these thoughts

nostalgia
to the fore, as theywould
later for the nineteenth-century European
that is the right
travelers, who have unfairly received the credit?if
word?for
imagining
The bishops of Athens

in the twelfth century were stimulated by
Romantic
Hellenism.
and their correspondents

the ancient ruins into asking these "deep" historical questions, even
answers (at least, unlike
if they usually did not produce
interesting
to racist
To
vent
not
the European
travelers, they did
prejudices).
give
this degree, then, we should be more cautious in accepting blanket
statements such as that the Byzantines
as
archaeology."33
In this context
commissioned
12
ANTHONY
it is
significant
a
painting of Athens
"had no perception
that Choniates
in the classical
of history
seems
period,
to have
a work
32
Michael
Choniates,
Letter 50.42-46,
Epistulae, ed. F.
Kolovou
(Berlin, 2001), 69. See Macrides
"The Fourth Kingdom,"
and Magdalino,
inMichaelis
Choniatae
141-44 (above, n. 12) For Theodoros

on theGreeks, see A. Garzya,
Metochites
"Byzantium," inPerceptions of theAncient
Greeks, ed. K. Dover (Oxford, 1992), 29-53,
here 32-36.
P. A. Agapitos, "Byzantium in the
33
Poetry of Kostis Palamas and C. P. Cavafy,"
KAfznoq: Cambridge Papers inModern Greek
2 (Cambridge, 1994): 1-20, here 6, citing
I examine the archaeological
in a study
imagination of Byzantine Athens
on The Christian Parthenon: Classicism and
C. Mango.
Pilgrimage
2008).
KALDELLIS

inByzantine Athens
(Cambridge,
monuments and political institutions.34

This
highlightingitsancient
would certainlytellusmuch abouthow and towhat degree thepresent
argument about Byzantine historicism applied also to the realm of art,
a
not treat in the present discussion.
I
general problem that do
was not the
to
The transition from paganism
Christianity
only
major rupture in the Byzantine view of the historical continuum. There

was also the transition from the
of the Old Testament
dispensation
to that of the New Testament.
The Byzantines
the Old
accepted
as an
Testament
Mosaic
expression of God's will and law but believed that the

Law had effectively been annulled by the Incarnation. How,
then,could itbe explained thatGod had gone to all thattroublein the

firstplace and had not just revealedthefull extentofHis Word from
the beginning?
theologians
The
solution proposed for this dilemma by prominent

such as Eusebios of Caesarea
rested on historicist premises.
it isunderstood
Roughly put, when
in fact contain the entire Christian
spiritually, theOld Testament does

message, and many of the ancient
Patriarchs understood its full implications. But God did not deem the
"childish and imperfect" race of the Jews to be
ready for this revelation
and so,
it to them in an
through Moses, he communicated
imperfect
way, through the "external props" of the Law, which was "necessary in
the historical circumstances."35 This, the Byzantines would later accept,
was one
human
stage inGod's prudent management?oikonomia?of
salvation. Likewise Theodoros
the Stoudite raised the distinction
in
theAge of Law and the
Age of Grace
rebutting iconoclast
were
on
that
based
the
of
arguments
graven images in the
prohibition
we
see
to which
Old Testament.36 Again
history divided into periods
between
different rules, both human
and divine,
are
to
apply. One
cannot
an absolute
in the past, in this case the Israelites,
judge people
by
must
concessions
make
for the limitations of their
standard, but
"age."
supposed
In thiscase theirreligionisfound to be falsewhen

judgedby absolute
standards, but relatively truewhen viewed in historicist perspective.
an overall
Eusebios
framed this argument within
theory of
the evolution of human society from savagery to civilized
religion.
to them other such theories that

had available
Byzantines
a
invoked the different stages of
history, each subject to different set
of "rules." Plato in book 3 of the Laws and
Polybios in book 6 of the
Later
Histories
produced
schematic versions of the ascent of

humanity
P? Speck, "Eine byzantinische

Darstellung der antiken Stadt Athen,"
34
EAXrjvixd 28 (1975): 415-18.

T. Barnes, Constantine
35
(London,
cussions;
Christians
Testament,
on the double
standard that
seemed to apply to theOld

see R. L.Wilken, The Christians
as theRomans
and Eusebius
1981), 184-85, citing previous dis

see also 101,181. For Julian's attack
from
Saw Them (New Haven,
30-630 apresJ.-C.
1984),
in the Christian
184-96. For periodizations
view of history, see, in general, H.
Inglebert,
Interpretatio Christiana: Les mutations des
savoirs (cosmographie, geographic
phie, histoire) dans VAntiquite chretienne,
ethnogra
36
Theodoros
(Paris, 2001), 512-22.

the Stoudite, First
Refutation of the Iconoclasts 5, in PG 99: 333.

See, in general, K. Parry, Depicting theWord:
Byzantine Iconophile Thought of theEighth
and Ninth Centuries (Leiden, 1996), 49.
HISTORICISM
IN BYZANTINE

LITERATURE
13
savagery to civil society and on to history proper. Such theories cer

at least one later
a little-known trea
Byzantine version,
tainly inspired
tise by Eustathios of Thessalonike,
inwhich natural progress accounts
a
for much
and God,
comparatively
remarkably
speaking, "plays
minor role." The Mosaic
Law (whose flaws are not
explained) and the
for only two of the many stages of progress in

own Christian
this account. Moreover,
Eustathios
suggests that his
was
to a level of barbarism below the stage of virtue
society
reverting
Incarnation
account
formerly attained
talents
by human
on
beings
the basis
of their natural
alone.37
The details
their
of these theories do not concern us here?only
had a developed "historical sense" and
testimony that the Byzantines
realized thatdifferentperiods had to be understood and judged by
contexts.
unexpected
in
For
claims, and in attempt
countering
example, "both
own house rules,
to
canonists of the
ing
update their
apologists and
use
made great
of the argument of histori
church of Constantinople
were different then' in the
cal relativity?that
days of the early
'things
church councils, when Rome was still an imperial capital and pagan
ismwas still rife."38Not only did they realize that important matters
different standards. This
skill came
in
handy
the papal
in
had changed within the Church;

they seemed willing and capable of
canons
to themodes and orders of the past,
interpreting the
according
were
men
different.
and "the times"
when
We
have, then, in various
(usually polemical)
had occurred even within
tion that great

changes
itself and not only between
faith. To
the
degree
contexts a
recogni
Christian
history
the pagan past and the advent of the new
that the Old Testament was a part of Christian
a different
of God's
grace. The
dispensation
represented
was believed
true of the
the
when
age,
Holy Spirit
Apostolic
to have been more actively present than in later periods. This age was
very distinct, at least in the Christian
categorization of history, and
history,
same was
it
later ages. St.

could be used as a conceptual
springboard for defining
was
claimed by her fifth
Thecla, for instance, the follower of St. Paul,
century hagiographer as among the first saints of the age that immedi
that of the Apostles, and the first among women
ately followed upon
(with Franklin), Studies on
Literature,
178-80 (above, n. 18).
Byzantine
The text is Eustathios of Thessalonike,
37
Kazhdan
On the Obedience Appropriate to a Christian

Regime (Or. 3), ed. T. L. F. Tafel, Eustathii
metropolitae Thessalonicensis Opuscula
(1832; repr.Amsterdam: A. M. Hakkert,
1964), 13-29.
14
ANTHONY
38
Macrides
and Magdalino,
"The Fourth
145 (above, n. 12).

Kingdom,"
R. Macrides,
39
"Perception of the Past
in To
in the Twelfth-Century Canonists,"
Bv?dvrto kcitA tov 120 aiwva: Kavovixo
dlxaio, xpdro<; xai xoivoovla, ed. N.
Oikonomides
(Athens, 1991), 589-99, esp.

591: "a sense of context and relativity."
KALDELLIS

generally.40
tion of God
But that age was brief and its uniqueness was more a func
s
moment of
great
plan than of human history. Another
even
ness,withwhich theByzantines identified
thoughtheyknew that
itwas
was the
and the period of
irretrievably lost,
reign of Constantine
we now call the later
the ecumenical Christian empire in
general (which
or
Roman empire
late antiquity). All educated Byzantines knew that
their empire had once encompassed thewhole of Christendom
and had
not limited to the
been
inhab
genuinely multiethnic,
Greek-speaking
itants of the Balkans and Asia Minor.
that time the Church
During
Fathershad governedtheChurch, and theCouncils had defined the
the heretics. The

often stood
figure of Constantine
new
in for thewhole
capi
period and, because of his foundation of the
tal,was the chief source of legitimacy for the Byzantine Empire in the
middle period. A collected volume has been published on the continual
renewal of his image in later
Even Justinian, not a
periods.41
popular
in the twelfth century for
emperor in later periods, served as a model
faith and defeated
the Italian ambitions of the emperor Manuel

IKomnenos.42
We must be careful in
the
significance of this period
evaluating
to cite a
for the present discussion. It is one
great emperor of the
thing
as a
past like Constantine
legitimating authority for the present and
to
a
as to
someone in
produce
legal argument
why
particular deserves
to inherit his title; or to
art and literature of a
imitate
the
consciously
as
in later Byzantine centuries. But
glorious past age,
happened often
a historicist
to
it is another
formulate
thing
explicitly
theory regarding
a certain
not
of
The
the
has
been
written on
segment
past.
yet
study
how later Byzantines viewed the Christian
or
empire of late antiquity,
to what
to
degree they managed
synthesize its various elements into
a coherent whole
in their minds. To my
later Byzantine
knowledge
on
writers
to the barbar
what the loss of theWest
rarely commented
ians and the loss of the East
to the Arabs
had really meant and what

events had introduced. With
fundamental historical
the
changes those
Arabs they certainly did not enter into debate on thematter. But in the
to confront the encroach
they had
Europe that claimed many of the same political
and cultural origins as the Byzantines did. This forced many to think
hard about the overall trajectory of East-West relations and about
twelfth and thirteenth centuries
ments
of a western
the cultural
Against
changes that those relations presupposed.

theLatins, the statesman and historian
Georgios
S. F. Johnson, The Life and Miracles of

Thekla: A Literary Study (Washington, D.C,
2006), 21-23. For the effort to fashion a
40
sense of continuous
mated
revelation that approxi

the one granted to theApostles, see
J.Meyendorff, Byzantine
Theology:
Historical
In a treatise
Akropolites
Trends and Doctrinal
Themes
(New York, 1979), 9-10.

P. Magdalino,
ed., New Constantines:
The Rhythm ofImperial Renewal in
41
Byzantium, 4th-i3th Centuries; Papers from

the Twenty-Sixth Spring Symposium
ofByzantine
Studies, St. Andrews, March
1992 (Aldershot, U.K.).

42
P. Magdalino,
Komnenos,
The Empire of
Manuel
1143*1180 (Cambridge,
1993),
passim.
HISTORICISM
IN BYZANTINE

LITERATURE
15
(1217-1282) tried to find a common ground between the Byzantines

and the "Italians." He found it in
precisely the period of late antiquity,
when Greeks and Latins had fused
into a
together
single, Roman, and
Christian commonwealth. He concludes his treatise with a remarkable
passage
that should be better known:
our ancient
It seems, O Italians, that you no
longer remember
harmony.
...But no other nations were ever as harmonious as the Graikoi and the
Italians. And
came to
this was only to be expected,for science and
learning
theItaliansfrom theGraikoi.And afterthatpoint, so thattheyneednot
use their ethnic names, a New
Rome was built to complement theElder

one, so that all could be called Romans after the common name of such
same
same name
it.And just as
great cities, and have the
faith and the
for
so too did
most noble name
they received that
from Christ,
they take upon
(ethnikon) name [i.e., ofRoman]. And every

was
common
to them:
else
magistracies, laws, literature, city councils,
thing
was not common to
law courts,piety itself; so that there was
nothing that
those ofElder and New Rome. But O how
things have changed!4*
themselves the national
This
is the most
statement
explicit
I have been able to find that
theperiod of lateantiquity,definedbyAkropolites as thatfollowing

the foundation
of New
a
set of
by unique
and even literarymodes and orders.
legal,
Rome, was
religious, national, political,
characterized
Still,Akropolitesprobablybelieved thattheItalianshad deviatedfrom

that ancient cultural order while
the Byzantines
had not.
one thousand years old

history, then, already
by
of the middle Byzantine period, could be perceived as dis
Even Christian
the middle
saw
on different
writers. We
though
grounds by different
how Byzantine historians represented these changes on the political
continuous,
and cultural level. Hagiographic

compilations of the middle period
also reveal on the one hand "a detached historical and scholarly inter
on the other hand, the efforts to render
est in
previous periods, while,
saints' Lives more
accessible
stem from the desire
...
to preserve
the
memory of the saints and to promote their cult." The point at which
"the Byzantines began to draw a line between the age of the saints and
their present time" coincided with the reign of Herakleios
(610-641
that is,more or less where modern historians place the end of
A.D.),
43
late antiquity.44 This coincided with other major rifts; for instance
the
noted that afterHerakleios
VII Porphyrogennetos
Konstantinos
44
to use Greek regu

to a great
emperors "Hellenized
degree [i.e., began
cast off their ancestral Roman
that is,Latin.45 This
language,"
larly] and
was
in
hagiography
independent of the change
development, of course,
not
in Latin
written
been
saints'
lives
had
noted above, because the
to
l6
We
begin with.
ANTHONY
are
dealing,
then, with
independently
overlapping
Latins
Georgios Akropolites, Against the

2.27, in Georgii Acropolitae opera,
ed A. Heisenberg,
1978), 2: 64.
rev. P.Wirth
(Stuttgart,
C. Rapp, "Byzantine Hagiographers

as Antiquarians,
Seventh to Tenth
Centuries," ByzF21
(1995): 31-44, here 31
and 44.
Konstantinos VII Porphyrogennetos,
On the Themes I pref., in Costantino
A. Pertusi
Porfirogenito de Thematibus, ed.
45
(Vatican City, 1952), 60.
KALDELLIS

interestsindifferent
aspectsof thepast,whichwas possible because of
thesheercomplexityofByzantinecultureand thediverseoriginsof its
constituent parts. Still this coincidence
that something important had changed
indicates a general awareness

in the reign ofHerakleios
for
both saints and emperors.

The scholarly interest in previous periods could be placed in the
service of less "detached" pious goals. The tenth-century author of
the Fool practiced a "deliberate historicism,
the life of St. Andreas
as he
to create a work set in the fifth-century reign of the
attempted
no source written after the fifth
emperor Leo I." For example, he cites
century and avoids mentioning any building put up after that age, all
and
in all "so
scholarship has only recently
successfully that modern
with considerable effort been able to prove the existence of certain
anachronisms with respect to the architectural development of the
literature in particular is a breeding ground for

capital."46 Apocalyptic
both historicist fiction and scholarship. Forgery, to use an ugly word,
are different.
its
makes full use of scholarly methods;
goals, however,
tries to keep one step ahead of the critic?on
the latter's
The
forger
own
The chase may last for centuries and the fraud may prove
ground.
more
persuasive than the truth.47A number of Byzantine theologians
to the Platonist scholar
Porphyrios's demonstra
responded passionately
tion that the book of Daniel
was
aMaccabean
creation and not what
it claimed to be, a prophecy of the Babylonian

age (Porphyrios also
were a recent
Zoroaster
that
the
of
And
revelations
proved
forgery).48
a certain Theodoros
the presbyter argued in favor of the authenticity
of the treatises of pseudo-Dionysios
theAreopagite
against the claims
of unknown detractors who had insisted, among other things, that the
in those works was not com

presupposed
It
would seem, then, that these
patible with their putative early date.
were more
in Byzantium than their critics,whose argu
popular
forgers
did not circulate much
ments, unlike theworks of pseudo-Dionysios,
environment
ecclesiastical
or survive. Photios,
our sole source for Theodoros,

seems
by contrast,
unimpressed by the arguments for authenticity, because he writes noth
ing about them.49
an
we should
Forgery is
exciting site for the study of historicism, but
more
were
into
be
broadly
probably
looking
hagiography. Many vitae
P. Alexander,
The Byzantine
Apocalyptic Tradition (Berkeley, 1985), 8,126
27. See also L. Ryden, "The Date of the Life
46
ofAndreas Salos," DOP 32 (1978): 127-55. For

an example from polemical literature, see D.
M. Olster, Roman Defeat, Christian Response,
and theLiterary Construction of theJew
(Philadelphia,
1994), 158.
47
For the theme in general, see A. Grafton,
Forgers and Critics: Creativity and Duplicity

inWestern Scholarship (Princeton, 1990).
Porphyrios, Against
frag.
43, in Porphyrius, "Gegen die Christen,"is
Biicher (Berlin, 1916), 67-73. For discussion,
seeWilken,
Christians,
34); Zoroaster:
Photios, Bibliotheke
Photius:
(London,
the Christians
48
49
Wilson,
137-43 (above, n.
cod. i, trans. N. G.
The Bibliotheca: A Selection
1994), 26-27. For forgery in antiq

Speyer, Die literarische
uity ingeneral, seeW.
Falschung im heidnischen und christlichen

Altertum: Ein Versuch ihrerDeutung (Munich,
1971), esp. 195-99 for early Byzantium.
Porphyrios, Life ofPlotinos 16.
HISTORICISM
IN BYZANTINE

LITERATURE
17
written
lived in the past, sometimes the distant past,

for historical
imagination and
opportunities
about saints who
which
afforded many
As
literary elaboration.
far as I know, Byzantine hagiography has not

been studied systematically from this point of view, but the evidence
that could be used is actually abundant. Consider, for instance, the life
ascribed to Georgios, patriarch of Alexandria
of John Chrysostomos
to
has John travel to Athens
in the
early seventh century. Georgios
in about 367,While
there, he debates with the
complete his studies
to
effect some conversions. It
and
manages
city's leading pagan notables
would be reasonable to dismiss this episode as fictional, on the grounds
that it reflects the topos of study inAthens (modeled, for instance, on
Gregorios
of Nazianzos),
mirrors
to the pagan phi

speech
in to the irresistible temptation
St. Paul's
on the
and gives
Areopagus,
losophers
to have the Christian orator defeat pagan intellectuals on their home
But one scholar has defended the historicity of this account on
ground.
the basis of authenticating contemporary signs, for instance the moti
vation of one quasi-pagan prefect, who hints that he is only outwardly
to conform with the
of the emperors and so obtain
a Christian
religion
office (the fact that there were two emperors is also true to the
date). This policy reflects the circumstances of themid-fourth century
far better than those of the early seventh. In addition, the Parthenon
is said to be flourishing as a pagan temple of Athena, whereas in the
seventh century itwas a church of theMother of God. Other examples
public
so too obvious anachronisms

(which may, accord
may be cited, though
to this argument, have crept into the account at a later date).50
ing
The problem is that we lack standards by which to evaluate the

relative merits of historicity, invention, and historicism in such debates
about specific texts, precisely because these questions have not yet been
For instance, deliberate historicism in
to
systematic analysis.
subject
the service of literary invention may easily be mistaken for historicity,
and vice versa. Nor
need we assume
that each hagiographer followed a

each vita. The fifth-century author
rule in thismatter throughout

single
for example, tries in some respects
of the Life and Miracles
ofJhecla,
context of his heroine, but sometimes
to capture the
post-Apostolic
he violates this recreation by introducing the technical terminology of
theology.
post-Nicene
Let us then turn to a different and seemingly more relevant body
there is in fact little
of evidence, the Byzantine historians. However,
for this aspect of the historical sense in their works, which

because historiography
at first
may seem paradoxical
sight, especially
has long been regarded as themost successful and competent genre of
This paradox is largely removed when we consider
Byzantine research.
evidence
able and thoughtful among them wrote contemporary

narratives and therefore had little reason to comment on the stages of
that the most
l8
ANTHONY
$o
Georgios
ofAlexandria,
Life ofloannes
Chrysostomos 4, inDouze recits byzantins

sur Saint Jean Chrysostome, ed. F. Halkin
a
(Brussels, 1977), 69-285, here 82-84. For
discussion, see F. R. Trombley, Hellenic
c. 370-529,
Religion and Christianization,
2nd ed. (Leiden, 2001), 1: 295-303, 333-41.
of
51
Johnson, The Life and Miracles
Thekla, 33-35, 43, 62 (above, n. 39).
KALDELLIS

world history or on the distant past. But the correct principles were in
historian of thewars of the 550s as well as a
there too.
place
Agathias,
noted charitablythatone should judgedecisions "by

poet and lawyer,
the original circumstances of the event and not by its later outcome,"
that is, one should correct for the historians' hindsight.52 And we saw
that the "alien" past was not necessar
above in the case of Attaleiates
to the outlook of the present, but often the opposite:

ily subordinated
Attaleiates
looks to the pagan past to find a model for the Byzantines
so he is
to go
to emulate in their present crisis, and in
doing
willing
to be the rather
considerably beyond what many scholars have taken
limited intellectual horizon of the Byzantines.
Indeed, when histori
as that "the
not transcend their
ans say such
Byzantines could
things
mean one of two
things: either that the Byzantines
mentality,"53 they
could not transcend what scholar x believes their "mentality" was, in
or else the claim is true,

case the claim is almost
always wrong;
but it is a vacuous tautology.
was
For
example, many today believe that the classical tradition
which
for the Byzantines only a source of rhetorical expression that never

affected theway inwhich they thought. The "content" of that thought
even if the "form" seemed clas
was
always fundamentally Byzantine,
sical. Byzantine scholars, we are asked to believe, were educated in the
or
not to absorb a
classics but somehow managed
single idea
insight
from that education that called into question their commitment to the
autocratic, theocratic, and superstitious beliefs that are usually posited
as the basis of their own

Byzantine "mentality." But the tide is turning
constructs. It is
against such monolithic
becoming increasingly appar
was almost as flexible as their
ent that the
of
the
mentality
Byzantines
was often
politics and that dissent
inspired by the modes and orders
eras.
a trivial or
Far from
of previous historical
purely rhetorical
being
exercise, the classical tradition preserved and made accessible the fun
damental
alternatives of politics and philosophy.

For example, on the basis of his research into theRoman Republican
tradition, the sixth-century antiquarian and bureaucrat Ioannes Lydos
as Rome's sole
age of "freedom," compared to
postulated the Republic
the regime of the Caesars was a steadily

deteriorating tyranny.
view was based on a division of Roman
history into periods, each
which
His
with
its own characteristic
circumstances
style of rule brought into being by specific

was not alone in this.
and
personalities.54 Lydos
Setting
52
Agathias, TheHistories 4.26.6, ed.
R. Keydell, Agathiae Myrinaei Historiarum
Libri Quinque
(Berlin, 1967), 157.
53
DOP
C. Mango, "Diabolus Byzantinus,"

46 (1992): 215-23, here 221.
Ioannes Lydos, On Powers or The

54
Magistracies
of theRoman State, ed. and
trans. A. C. Bandy
(Philadelphia, 1983), on
which see A. Kaldellis, "Republican Theory
and Political Dissidence
BMGS
29 (2005):
in Ioannes Lydos,"
1-16.
HISTORICISM
IN BYZANTINE

LITERATURE
19
aside the pagan critic of monarchy Zosimos

(ca. 500), some twelfth
century historians also broke ideologically with Byzantine monar
it took under the Komnenoi.
One
chy, especially with the form that
was
influenced here by his own researches

into the
In the eleventh century, the historian,
Republic.55
philosopher,
and courtier Michael
Psellos had unfavorably compared the regime of
of them, Ioannes Zonaras,
Konstantinos
IX Monomachos
to theAthenian
democracy, which he
exact
point of his
apparently considered "well-regulated," though the
not clear.56 In other words, itwas
is
because
of their
comparison
only
classical paideia
that many Byzantines could even imagine the funda
alternatives. A similar argument has been made about the orator

and philosopher of the early empire Dion Chrysostomos
(ca. 100) who,
amonarchical
to
under
regime, managed
"accurately por
despite living
...
and consistently. Whatever
tray a democratic world
imaginatively
the correspondences with the complex realities of the day, the themes
and the language in the story are classical, or classically inspired."57 The
in the context of the present argument is not arbitrary
citation ofDion
mental
same classical
in that he received
purely comparative,
roughly the
education as his Byzantine counterparts would a thousand years later.
It isnow time to explain more
contributed
precisely how this education
to the historical sense.
or
The greatest contribution to the historical sense made by the obses

sion with the classics in Byzantium was probably not philosophical
and it certainly was not political. Itwas linguistic. Many Byzantine
writers aimed to imitate classical prose and purify their language of
the quality of
any post-classical, demotic, or Latin taint. Accordingly
their Atticism was the mark of their culture (or of their "barbarism,"
on how the results were
there was con
judged). Obviously
depending
in
siderable variation here, and different standards were championed
different periods and by different scholars. Still, especially with regard
to "often
are
to rhetoric,
complain that Byzantine
Byzantinists
right
literature is so addicted to classical citation that it is infuriatingly vague
reference to historical figures
and events that, in the absence of external evidence, texts transmitted
and timeless, with
such little unequivocal
to date."58 Even for native speak

impossible
this effect is still difficult to achieve. It requires many
to compose and declaim in a
years of training and practice. The effort
anonymously
ers of Greek,
are almost
See P. Magdalino,
"Aspects of Twelfth
Kaiserkritik"
Speculum
Century Byzantine
2
For a study of
grafia), vols (Milan, 1984).
this text, see A. Kaldellis, The Argument of
58 (1983): 326-46.
Psellos' Chronographia
(Leiden, 1999).
57
J.Ma, "Public Speech and Community
in theEuboicus," in S. Swain, ed., Dio
55
Michael
Psellos, Chronographia 6.134,

ed. S. Impellizeri and trans. S. Ronchey,
56
Michele
20
Psello: Imperatori di Bisanzio
ANTHONY
(Crono
Chrysostom: Politics, Letters, and Philosophy

(Oxford, 2000), 108-24, nere 122.
58
M. Alexiou, After Antiquity: Greek
(Ithaca,
Language, Myth, and Metaphor
2002), 104. For the imitation of antiquity
in general, see H. Hunger, "On the Imitation
ofAntiquity in Byzantine
(MIMHSIS)
Literature," DOP
KALDELLIS

23-24
(1969-1970):
17-38.
or koine was itself a creative act of

purified Attic
linguistic anachro
nism that activated the classicist fiction: the contemporary world was
made to disappear as author and audience temporarily entered a skill
rhetor
fully reconstructed illusion of antiquity where the Byzantine
could play at being a new Demosthenes
"hyperattic" Assembly ofAthens.59
and cast his audience
as a new
the very language of so much Byzantine

litera
ture
sense
to step into
the
historical
the
rhetor
by requiring
spurred
the shoes of his classical models and describe theworld through their
In other words,
This practice has given rise to the accusation of "reverse

anachronism"; that is, instead of imposing the signs and values of the
present upon the past, Byzantine writers distorted their own present
terminology.
it artificially
by making
this theory, though more
seem like the classical

past. There is truth in
as a
characterization
of style than as
general
an indictment of factual
representation. The theory has perhaps pre
a
maturely become
largely unchallenged doctrine in Byzantine studies,
but in fact very few concrete instances have come to
light where lin
case. Moreover
it reflects an
guistic classicism distorts the facts of the
inadequate understanding of Byzantine classicism, which involved far

more than mere verbal affectation.60 Be that as it
may, the paideia of
most
Byzantine scholars valorized the classical "stance" and mandated
the avoidance
of
linguistic anachronism.
us back to the
we
This
brings
twelfth-century novelists with whom
in that their recreation of
was
began,
antiquity
fundamentally rhetori
it
that
the
constituted
revival
and imitation of an
cal, especially given
ancient genre. As
literary artifacts, these novels must be read against
the renewed cultivation of rhetoric in the twelfth century and its exper
iments in both old and new forms. As with the
popularity of the novel
in the
period of the Second Sophistic, the genre enabled the sophists
new and
perform their skills in
challenging ways. Prodromos, for
instance, seems to have "planned the novel to include one rhetorical
tour de force in each book."61
to
genre that is usually given little attention, the progymnas

mata, was in fact an important forum for this kind of literary prac
were exercises in various
tice.
Progymnasmata
categories of rhetoric
See, e.g., Nikephoros Basilakes,
59
Oration for thePatriarch Nikolaos Mouzalon
1-2, inNicephori Basilacae Orationes et epis
tolae, ed. A. Garzya (Leipzig, 1984), 75-76.
60
The classic indictment isC.
Mango,
Byzantine Literature as a Distorting Mirror:
An Inaugural Lecture Delivered before the
University ofOxford on 21May 1974 (Oxford,
1975), but itnever attempts to actually prove
the case. For a broader view of Byzantine
classicism,
Caesarea:
see A. Kaldellis,
Procopius of
Tyranny, History, and Philosophy
at theEnd
ofAntiquity (Philadelphia, 2004),

esp. chap. 1.
E. Jeffreys, "The Novels ofMid-Twelfth
61
The Literary and
Century Constantinople:
Social Context," inAETOS:
Studies in
Honour
ofCyrilMango Presented toHim on

ed. I. Sevcenko and I. Hutter
14,1998,
April
"Prodromos'
prime motivation inwriting the

[novel] was arguably to produce a superla
tive act ofmimesis." For the variety of styles
and genres, see F. Meunier,

Prodrome:
'Rhodante
"Theodore
etDosikles';
grec ou roman byzantin?" RivBiz

195-227, here 199-206,
Roman
i (1991):
226. For the novels
as rhetorical
performances, see now Roilos,
Amphoteroglossia (above, n. 21).
(Stuttgart, 1998), 191-99, here 193; cf. 194:
HISTORICISM
IN BYZANTINE

LITERATURE
21
thatusually took theirthemesfromGreek myth and history (a few

themes). From
had Christian
the twelfth century we have over

fifty
byNikephoros Basilakes and about half a dozen byNikephoros
but it is likely that most educated Byzantines would

Chrysoberges,
written
have
them as part of their training. Some take the form ofwhat
say in a specified unforeseen or unlikely circumstance

and required that the orator put himself in the position of a Greek
god,
hero, or historical figure and speak accordingly.62 A recent study of the
so-and-so would
rhetorical curriculum of the early empire and late antiquity has

brought
in this mode of education:
attention to the important role of
history
is in some sense
"It is generally accepted that ancient historiography
rhetorical; what is interesting here is that ancient rhetoric turns out to
be so historical. History was at the center of a young man's training:...
could not learn how to argue without learning how to argue about
the formal category of "narrative," the rhetor Ailios
history." Under
One
Theon
had discussed
the art of credibility: "In order for the narrative

include words that are suitable for the char
to be credible, one should
acters, the actions, the places, and the times."63More or less the same
curriculum and textbooks were used later in Byzantium. For example,
the ancient author of the
Psellos attests that some accused Heliodoros,
novel Aithiopika,
of not making
his lead character "Charikleia's
speech
or feminine but, contrary to the art {techne), her lan
raised to a more sophistic tone." But Psellos defends
in her
Heliodoros
pagan?con
by placing the character
proper?and
not know how to
text: "I
this
do
praise
adequately. The author
myself
has not introduced a character like ordinary girls, but an initiate and
most of her lamentations
one who comes from
Pythian Apollo; hence
contain oracles."64 Rhetorical education, then, included instruction in
sound womanly
guage has been
historicist imagination, to the degree that theworld was known to have

in important ways since classical times.
changed
are of interest because the orator had
The pagan progymnasmata
in the role, remove anachronisms from

to immerse himself
completely
and
render a convincing (and titillating)
his language and thinking,
account
of, say, how Zeus
gazed
amorously
at Io (the cow) or how
is
Pasiphae fell in lovewith thebull. The pagan flavorof thesepieces
62
For the later texts, see A. Pignani, ed.,

emonodie
Niceforo Basilace: Progimnasmi

(Naples, 1983); and F.Widmann,
Progymnasmata
"Die
des Nikephoros
12-41,
(1935-1936):
Chrysoberges,"fiN/i2
in general, see
241-299. For progymnasmata
H. Hunger, "On the Imitation of Antiquity,"
19-21; and Die
hochsprachlicheprofane
Literatur der Byzantiner, 2 vols (Munich,
1978), 1: 92-120;
22
ANTHONY
for their literary artistry,
A. Littlewood,
Classical
"A Byzantine Oak
and its
64
Geometres,
Progymnasmata
i"JOB
C. A. Gibson,
32
"Learning Greek History

in theAncient Classroom: The Evidence of
63
(2004):
Michael
(Vienna,
on
Amphoteroglossia,
62-65
"What Is the
theNovels Which
Deal
and Leukippe?" 36-41, in

Psellus: The Essays on Euripides and
George ofPisidia and onHeliodoros and

Achilleus Tatius, ed. and trans. A. R. Dyck
Progymnasmata," CP 99
116 and 120; Roilos,
here
103-29,
the Treatises
Psellos,
between
with Charikleia
29
(1980): 133-44; Roilos, Amphoteroglossia,

40 (above, n. 21).
Michael
Difference
Acorn: The Literary Artistry of
(above, n. 21).
KALDELLIS

1986), 92-93.
luxuriant and unapologetic. The illusion is,moreover, convincing, and

were twelfth-cen
I doubt that our classicists could
easily tell that these
as
not
should
dismiss progymnasmata
tury compositions. We
merely
formal imitations, forwe still have to explain why theywere written at

all, and why sowell. It seems rather that theywere composed precisely
because they enabled the sophists to perform this kind of role-playing.
It has been
that literary formalism was a pretext for the covert
suggested
were
in erotic
ordinarily suppressed; after all,
pleasures that
indulgence
a
we have to
in
variety of forms and perversions, is the
explain why eros,
theme ofNikephoros Basilakes' progymnasmata
along with
as in the
the conquest of nature by skill (techne)?just
contemporary
twelfth-century novels.65
dominant
the historical sense is not limited tomodernity, even

now
if it is only
thatHistory has become fundamental to all
thinking
about human beings and has been taken to be some kind of refutation
To conclude,
that as itmay, it is to be hoped that additional research,

and the removal of past prejudices, will reveal that even themost "naive"
it to
cultures had a sense of historical
good creative
change and used
of Truth. Be
effect. It has been demonstrated,
for instance, that the poet of

Beowulf
who self-consciously sang of pagan heroes before a Christian audience,
had a clear and sophisticated awareness of historical
change and deliber
success even in the realm

ately avoided anachronism, with considerable
The same may one
of
too,
day be shown about Homer
archaeology.66
who had a sense of how the heroic age differed from his own time and
were
to
what conceptual
adjustments and "material" touches
required
avoid anachronism and confer authenticity. For
it has been
example,
avoided the name Hellenes not because his own
suspected thatHomer
were not
yet using it in the eighth century B.C., but because
people
he knew that the heroes had not used it in the age of
Agamemnon.
Thucydides' contrary inference may yet be refuted.67
The Byzantine view of the past was

complex enough
sense of anyone who tried to make
developed historical
We have examined various ruptures that the Byzantines
a
in the historical
to
require
sense of it.
recognized
of their own past?whether
political,
or
some of the ways inwhich
linguistic?and
continuum
religious, ecclesiastical,
or
own
they coped with them
purposes. This
exploited them for their
does not mean, of course, that every Byzantine writer was at all times
aware of all these factors. It was
6$
H.-G.
Beck, Das
byzantinische
Jahrtausend (Munich, 1982), 144-47.

66
R. Frank, "The BeowulfPoet's
Sense
of History," inBeowulf: A Prose Translation,
ed. N. Howe,
trans. E. T. Donaldson
York, 2002), 98-111.
(New
generally
one
group
that practiced,
6j
See J.Hall, Hellenicity: Between
Ethnicity and Culture (Chicago, 2002),
125-26. For archaizing elements inHomer,
see B. B. Powell, Homer
Greek Alphabet
For Homer as
Troy and Homer: Towards a Solution of

an Old Mystery, trans. K. Windle
and R.
Ireland (Oxford, 2004).
and the Origin of the
(Cambridge,
"archaeologist,"
1991), 190-91.
see J. Latacz,
HISTORICISM
IN BYZANTINE

LITERATURE
23
say, linguistic hyper-Atticism and another that produced apocalyptic

A synoptic picture has been
reasons
forgeries.
presented here that, for
of space, has fused
periods, genres, and cultural groups. Also, just
because they were capable of
in cer
making historicist distinctions
tain contexts, this does not mean
that the outlook
of the Byzantine
as
ours
is.
fundamentally historicist
Byzantine historians
so
knew from history thatmuch had
changed,
theymade the necessary
authors was
inherited and mostly followed an educational

adjustments. Rhetors
from
that
stressed Atticism and classical
system
antiquity
role-playing,
were
but this does not mean that they
what
conceptualized
they
doing
as a historicist exercise.
would
have
understood
They
probably
readily
the notion were
to them, but
explained
ultimately they valorized the
not
In short,many
linguistic aspect of theirwork,
anything historical.
were
was part of
Byzantines
capable of historicism either because it
or were
their training or because
knew
well
history
they
sufficiently
or motivated
a devel
not
because
had
by controversy,
they
intelligent
it
or were committed to a historicist

theory of historical change
Here we can locate the difference: it is not true that
paradigm.
only
modern thinkers are capable of historicism, but only they operate in an
oped
intellectual environment defined by it.Historicism

for the Byzantines
was a skill that became useful in certain contexts, not an outlook on
life and history.
The articulated
nature
of Byzantine
which were
culture, different
sites of
in
governed by Christian, Roman,
a flexible
various combinations and permutations,
required
mentality
on
a
to
of
basis
what
and what
accept
capable
case-by-case
deciding
to
to the Old Testament, a part of
This
both
reject.
applied
Scripture
and Greek
elements
yet linked to the past of the Jewish nation, as well as toGreek paideia,
which was both the essence of a good education and the carrier of
all that the Church
condemned.
The past was always relevant to the

a matter for
ongoing and often
present, but its precise validity was

contentious debate.
?The
Ohio State University
readers formaking
I thank the
journal's
the substance of the argument.
24
ANTHONY
suggestions
that improved
KALDELLIS


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Historicism in Byzantine Thought and Literature

Author(s): Anthony Kaldellis

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also have many surveys of Byzantine

to its final demise.2 But,

to the past, cut across genres, and

of texts. It is a matter of curiosity that,

their own position

by tracing its origins and defining

I am referring to the surveys of K.

History," Byzantion 49 (1979): 199-238.

Litteratur von Justinian

"The Search for the Past in Byzantium

profane Literatur der Byzantiner, 2 vols.

Bu^avTivoi'IcrTopncoi Kai Xpovoyp&fyoi,

bis zum Ende des

ostrbmischen Reich es ($27-14$3) (Munich,

2 vols. (Athens, 1997-2002).

volume survey is being prepared byW.

of the Term," Journal of the

This content downloaded from 108.59.8.217 on Tue, 30 Dec 2014 18:15:26 PM

existential scope, and then to do the same

philosophers call "the historical sense."

instance themodern notion that any

influenced the historical scholarship from which it origi

about theMind of this or that People, are introduced to

difference of that past?is

aware that they were creating new modes of expression and

For arguments that philosophical

See, e.g., A. Kaldellis,

and Religious Views

(though not that it is necessarily false),

This content downloaded from 108.59.8.217 on Tue, 30 Dec 2014 18:15:26 PM

Anachronism had to be avoided and

remains, which were now brought to bear on the

too, once Caesars

Peters, Johns, and Matthews."

before has so much

that may partly explain why

Simply put, for them much less

survey of Byzantine literature below will

(that change inevitably) and foreign neighbors

E. Garin, Italian Humanism:

Ricerche (Bari, 1954), 158, 201-10. The stan

i97o)> who cites many supporting texts (the

Philosophy and Civic Life in theRenaissance,

1.5, trans. L. F. Banfield and H. C.

(Princeton, 1988), 14-15.

I995)? 25-26 for context.

P. Brown, Society and theHoly

(Berkeley, 1982), 92 (on whether

This content downloaded from 108.59.8.217 on Tue, 30 Dec 2014 18:15:26 PM

revive past forms. "The Egyptians

of the fourth century B.C...

which was practiced with such skill, that is, with

was from the Old

cally rigorous way.

sense could be among some

nation: what was

of sophistication? I will present additional

individual authors or periods, especially the twelfth century,12 but

romance novels of the twelfth century, written probably in the 1140s:

The Gift of theNile:

(Berkeley, 2001), 129-30;