Procopius

Procopius's Secret History has attracted the attention of a generation of social historians. Yet, the significant, albeit subtler ways, in which gender colors Procopius’s most significant work, the Wars, has received far less notice. Seeking to address this imbalance, the present study examines how gender shapes Procopius’s presentation of the Goths, East Romans, and Italo-Romans in his Wars. Rather than uncovering the Goths, East Romans, and Italians “as they really were,” this paper seeks to unearth some of the purpose and reasoning behind Procopius’s gendered depictions and ethnicizing worldview. A careful investigation of Procopius’s discussions about the manly and unmanly provides crucial insights into not just the larger narrative but also the historian’s knotty authorial agenda. Despite the Gothic War’s reliance on classical ethnic and gender patterns, Procopius did not compose his history in a vacuum. Indeed, the gendered discourse, which undergirds much of the Wars, must be understood within the broader context of the political debates reverberating around the late antique Mediterranean at a time when control of Italy from Constantinople was contested.

This article offers a survey of scholarship on the historian Procopius of Caesarea in the last eleven years (2003-2014). It reviews his origins and upbringing in Caesarea in Palestine before moving on to consider his portrayal of the reign of Justinian (527-565); it argues that his accounts of Justinian’s rule remain central to modern assessments of the period. But because his works have survived in their entirety and because Justinian’s reign has attracted so much attention, there is a danger that both historian and ruler may distort our picture of the sixth-century empire: neither Procopius nor Justinian may have been as exceptional as is often thought. And while the sixth century did witness a general rise in intolerance of heretics and pagans, it may be that Justinian was reacting to a general tendency in society rather than leading the charge. The article concludes by discussing Procopius’ three works and recent publications devoted to them, noting that scholarship has sometimes suffered as a consequence of an unawareness of research being carried out simultaneously by other scholars.

The attached is the abstract, handout and bibliography for my presentation at the Classical Association conference, 10-13 April 2015, Bristol University
Panel: Homer II (Wills Memorial Building) 1 p.m., Sunday 12th April
Title: “Procopius' sense of land and seascapes in Homer's Odyssey and his symbolism of Athena?”

Resumo: Procópio de Cesareia foi um historiador bizantino que escreveu a obra História das Guerras, publicada entre 551 e 554, que narra as campanhas militares empreendidas pelo imperador Justiniano I que visavam a reincorporação da Península Itálica e do norte da África ao domínio romano. Nos seus escritos, chama a atenção a caracterização dada pelo historiador aos grupos bárbaros que estavam em contato com os romanos durante as guerras, em especial godos e vândalos. O objetivo desse artigo é analisar a construção da imagem nos líderes bárbaros envolvidos nas lides bélicas, com o intuito de demonstrar que houve uma mudança da percepção do historiador ao longo da obra sobre os confrontos e a atuação desses personagens, principalmente com relação ao imperador Justiniano e ao seu governo.

Notre article propose une bref présentation et défense du concept d'Antiquité tardive. Afin d'illustrer comment cette périodisation relativement récente peut influencer positivement notre analyse, nous examinerons le cas du royaume ostrogoth. Le concept de haut Moyen Âge est en effet plutôt lacunaire et rend difficilement la réalité de l'Italie ostrogothe. En premier lieu, nous aborderons l'idée de continuité politique et culturelle avec l'Empire tardive, démontrée notamment avec le concept de romanitas et la mémoire de l'Empire romain utilisés par Cassiodore dans ses correspondances. En second lieu, d'un point de vue religieux, le royaume arien de Théodoric s'apparente beaucoup plus à l'Antiquité qu'au Moyen Âge catholique, ce qu'on peut constater en analysant les positions politiques de la papauté au VI e siècle. Il sera donc démontré comment le concept d'Antiquité tardive permet une meilleure compréhension du royaume ostrogoth, mais aussi comment une bonne lecture des sources vient appuyer et légitimer ce concept. Définitions et contexte général Cet article, à la suite de notre présentation au colloque d'histoire 2017 de l'Université de Sherbrooke, traite de l'Antiquité tardive. Cette périodisation relativement nouvelle est de plus en plus acceptée sans toutefois faire l'unanimité. Nous allons présenter le concept et tenter de défendre sa pertinence en prenant l'exemple du royaume ostrogoth, qui selon nous illustre très bien comment cette nouvelle périodisation peut influencer positivement notre analyse. Puisqu'il s'agit d'un royaume qui se trouve chronologiquement soit vers la fin de l'Antiquité tardive, soit au tout début du haut Moyen Âge, la périodisation tient une place importante dans son étude.

This paper looks at the place of the sixth-century Byzantine general Narses (c. 480–573) in the history of Byzantine gender. Certainly, it has always been important for ancient and modern historians to emphasise Narses’ eunuchism. Indeed, for many modern scholars, Narses’ identity as a castrate has been more important for study than his military deeds and political achievements that proved ephemeral. For some, the presence of a eunuch in such an essential military role indicates a turning away from codes of generalship based on traditional martial courage and manliness. This paper questions such a view, suggesting that Byzantium had a much more flexible notion of eunuchs’ gender status than some recent scholarship allows. Indeed, it suggests that Narses fits into a continuing hegemony of traditional masculine values based on the supremacy of Byzantine men’s martial virtues.

Reinventing Procopius Abstract
Competing Histories in the Sixth Century: Procopius and Justinian

Justinian’s laws (including both the Corpus Iuris Civilis and the Novels) and Procopius’ writings are two of the most extensive and significant corpora available for the study of the sixth century.  Despite their importance, however, the two bodies of work are generally studied separately by scholars with different specialties and research interests.  The legal codes are used as a source for earlier Roman law and contemporary administrative reform, while Procopius is primarily used as a source for Justinian’s foreign policy and contemporary reactions to his reign, both positive and negative.  Although there have been some discussions of Procopius’ reaction to specific laws in the Secret History, in particular his subversion of Justinian’s carefully cultivated self-representation as the ‘sleepless emperor,’ there has not been any work on Procopius’ responses to the laws in the Wars.  Moreover, scholars have yet to come to a consensus on the precise relationship between the Wars and Secret History.  The current paper addresses both of these questions by focusing on discussions of the consulship in Justinian’s Novels, the Wars, and the Secret History. 
The current paper argues that Belisarius’ triumphant entry into Syracuse on 31 December 535, reported at Wars 5.5.17-9, is a carefully coded response to Justinian’s Novel 105, in which the emperor modified the financial responsibilities and rights of consulship.  The paper continues to show that the discussion of Novel 105 in the Wars complements, but at no point overlaps with, the explicit discussion of that Novel in the Secret History.  Several conclusions are drawn from these facts.  First, the Secret History was intended to function as a coherent work and act as a key for decoding and understanding oblique discussions of contemporary events found in the Wars.  Second, Procopius was intimately familiar not only with the rhetoric of Justinian’s laws, but also their specifics, and that his depiction of Belisarius was meant to frustrate the narrative of consular decline that Justinian’s legal team articulated in Novel 105.  Third, just as Procopius inverted the narrative of the ‘sleepless emperor’ in the Secret History to attack Justinian’s reform program, his discussion of Novel 105 in the Wars inverts the logic of that law to imply that the imperial office, not the consulship, was in decline.
The paper concludes in the spirit of the conference’s search for new methodologies for the study of Procopius by opening two new avenues of inquiry: using the Secret History as a key to detect oblique discussions in the Wars and investigating the role of Justinian’s laws in shaping Procopius’ discussions of contemporary events.  Specifically, the paper suggests that Justinian’s laws may have played a role in shaping the structure of the Wars, in particular the division of material into chronologically distinct campaigns (for which Appian is the only classical precedent), which form counternarratives to the model of imperial success articulated in Justinian’s provincial reform laws, especially Novel 24.

Previous scholarship on Procopius' imitation of Thucydides has focused on his use of Thucydidean 'stock phrases' in his 'Wars of Justinian' or allusions on a more literary level.  This paper instead explores the extent to which Procopius imitates specific linguistic features of Thucydides' Greek, finding that he selectively adopts a Thucydidean sentence structure in passages that are self-consciously imitative of Thucydides, such as his Prologue or account of the Plague, while elsewhere using a sentence-structure more typical of Byzantine historiography.

Köklü değişimlerin yaşandığı Iustinianus çağı geç dönem Roma İmparatorluğu’nun tarihine damga vurmuştu. Yeni tarih yazım türlerinin ortaya çıktığı ve tarih yazımı konusunda oldukça dinamik bir dönemdi. Bu verimli dönemde eser veren önemli tarihçilerden biri de Agathias’tı. İyi bir eğitim alan ve ardından başkent Constantinopolis’te avukatlık yapan Agathias da tıpkı Procopius gibi klasik geleneğe sadık kalarak eserini yazdı. Attik Yunan geleneğini takip eden Agathias, Procopius’un Savaşlar adlı eserini kaldığı yerden devam ettirdi. Savaşlar, yazarı Procopius’u döneminin en iyi tarihçileri arasına yerleştirmiş, aynı şey Agathias’ın Historiae adlı eserinden de beklenmişti. Bu yüzden Agathias nitelikli bir hatip ve iyi bir nüktedan olsa da öncülü Procopius’un gölgesinde kalmıştı. Çok da iyi bir tarihçi olmadığı – en azından Procopius kadar- şeklindeki eleştirilere karşın üç imparatorun iktidarına tanıklık etmiş Agathias’ın anlatıları çok değerlidir. Çünkü onun Sasaniler, Hunlar ve etrafındaki dünya hakkında verdiği bilgiler başka kaynaklarda bulunamamaktadır. Agathias’ın eseri, çok katmanlı yapısının ortay çıkarılabilmesi için birçok disiplinin katkı sağlayacağı yeni bir bakış açısıyla detaylıca incelenmeyi hak etmektedir.

The causes for the decline and collapse of the Roman Empire have long preoccupied historians, but until very recently, few Roman historians have paid any attention to the role of the most devastating and definitive cause: adverse climate change.  Tacitus blamed corruption and moral decadence; Christian historians attributed the decline to the wrath of God; Edward Gibbon pointed to barbarian invasions and Christianity; and modern historians have identified over 200 possible causes.  More startlingly, historians rarely mention one of the most significant environmental disasters in human history: the climate catastrophe of 536 CE. This event—triggered by massive volcanic eruptions that filled the sky with ash and reduced solar energy around the world—caused the Dark Age Cold Period, crop failures, famine, and plague. This incident, more than any other, ended any chance the Roman Empire had to reconstitute itself after the barbarian invasions of the fourth and fifth centuries.
While decadence and invasion certainly played a part in Rome’s decline, solar cycles, violent volcanic activity, and cooler climate-loving bacteria also played significant roles. Because both ancient and many modern historians rarely knew and barely understood these silent killers, they continued to blame the usual suspects. Who could fault them?  Nearly five centuries after the dawn of the Age of Science, however, scholars have no excuse for not re-examining mounting evidence. It is time to consider the data that scientific studies produce about the role of climate change in history and to revise the narrative that many historians continue to ignore. 
Evidence derived from new scientific methods—unavailable to previous historians—now reveals that environmental issues played a significant role in the rise and decline of the Roman Empire in both the West and the East. Adverse climatic change in Europe, North Africa, and even Southwest and Central Asia contributed not only to Rome's inability to feed its population (and the Western army by 444 CE), but also to the westward migrations of the Huns, the Goths, other Germanic peoples, and later the Arabs.  Finally, bacteria-carrying fleas on vermin that thrived under ideal climate conditions set off a time bomb that wiped out as much as half of the Mediterranean’s estimated 75 million population in the early sixth century.
In an age of rapid climate change and states in collapse or decline because of it, it is more important than ever to understand the mechanisms of environmental catastrophe on human society and its ability to adapt to it.  Modern failed states like Syria, Afghanistan, and Yemen offer bitter lessons of what happens when states are unable to understand the relationship between human societies and their natural environments. The Roman Empire offers one of the best examples of how environmental catastrophe served as a catalyst for disease and how these two forces together were catalysts for a failing state.  To better comprehend the tragedy of the current situation, it is useful to start by reviewing what historians have said over the centuries about the causes of the decline of Rome and climate change.

Procopius of Caesarea reports the existence of an inscription in Numidia, allegedly written by the refugees from Canaan’s conquest by Joshua. While this claim cannot be taken at face value, it raises interesting questions as to its provenance and purpose. Regarding provenance, the complicated situation of the sources (especially the ongoing debate about the real date of Moses of Khorene) unfortunately prevents a firm conclusion. Regarding purpose, the inscription seems to reflect the political and religious tensions, which accompanied Belisarius’ campaign to regain North Africa for the Roman Empire and Justinian’s attempts to Christianize those parts of African society who abided by their polytheistic ancestral custom.

Justinian’s triumphal column was the tallest free-standing column of the pre-modern world and was crowned with arguably the largest metal equestrian sculpture created anywhere in the world before 1699. The Byzantine empire’s bronze horseman towered over the heart of Constantinople, assumed new identities, spawned conflicting narratives, and acquired widespread international acclaim. Because all traces of Justinian’s column were erased from the urban fabric of Istanbul in the sixteenth century, scholars have undervalued its astonishing agency and remarkable longevity. Its impact in visual and verbal culture was arguably among the most extensive of any Mediterranean monument. This book analyzes Byzantine, Islamic, Slavic, Crusader, and Renaissance historical accounts, medieval pilgrimages, geographic, apocalyptic and apocryphal narratives, vernacular poetry, Byzantine, Bulgarian, Italian, French, Latin, and Ottoman illustrated manuscripts, Florentine wedding chests, Venetian paintings, and Russian icons to provide an engrossing and pioneering biography of a contested medieval monument during the millennium of its life.

Procopius of Caesarea (ca. 500-560 CE), one of the last major historians of the Ancient World, chronicled the wars between the Romans and the Sasanian Empire in the Age of Justinian, which ultimately led to the demise of both powers.
This study focuses, besides Procopius’ report of political and cultural contacts and military conflicts  between the two great powers of Late Antiquity, mainly on his descriptions of Persia and the Persians: What was known in the Later Roman Empire about these Eastern neighbors, and which factors influenced Procopius’ descriptions?

The book attempts to present –for the first time in the international bibliography– a detailed description of the historical life of Abydos (Άβυδος) of Hellespont (Ελλήσποντος, Δαρδανέλλια); the latter was an important ancient and medieval Greek city, situated on the Asiatic shore of Dardanelles, at the once narrowest part of the local Straits (usually named "Stenon of Abydos") and in the surrounding area of the promontory of Nara (an Ottoman and modern Turkish naval base, where free access is prohibited). The monograph also detects the  relations between Abydos and other known settlements in the wider region of northwestern Asia Minor (Troad, Hellespont, Mysia, Hellespontine Phrygia).

Αbydos was founded predominantly as a colony of Miletus (ca. 680-650 BC) and had a continuous historical life that lasted about 2.000 years (mid. 7th c. BC - early 14th c. AD). The prosperous ancient city minted various coins between 6th c. BC - 3rd c. AD. Its lively port was used for centuries as a key point for the passage from Europe to Asia and the cruise from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea (and vice versa) as well as a major customs station ("telonion Abydou" during the Roman imperial years, "demosion teloneion" or "kommerkion" or "dekateuterion Abydou" during the medieval period of the city). Byzantine Abydos was also an important administrative center, a military and naval base and an ecclesiastical seat (bishopric and later metropolis).

However, the long and turbulent history of Abydos and its region is virtually unknown in modern years, despite the fact that the city's reputation was particularly widespread during ancient and medieval times in the Mediterranean world. Moreover, for many reasons noted in the book, the settlement does not exist archaeologically in the last two centuries. In short, Abydos constitutes a very interesting case of a virtually lost city during the modern times.

For various reasons, also described in the book, the importance of Abydos had declined during the 13th c. AD and the city was finally abandoned by its population in the early 14th c. AD., mainly because of the Turkish threat in the area. From mid. 15th c. AD the new city of Çanakkale was established gradually (initially named as Kale-i Sultaniye) 5-6 km to the south of Abydos. The ruins of the abandoned urban area of ​​the latter have been systematically pillaged -mainly for construction and other purposes- between the 14th - early 19th c. AD.

For the reconstruction of  the long historical life of Abydos (mid. 7th c. BC - early 14th c. AD) and an in-depth analysis of its numerous and largely unknown institutions, the study relies though on the information providing by the written (ancient and medieval) texts but also on the scarce and dispersed epigraphic and the much richer numismatic (the city minted coins between 6th c. BC - 3rd c. AD) and sigillographic data and other archaeological findings regarding (or deriving from) the city. It also takes into account all the contemporary related publications.

[VANIAS publications,  Thessaloniki 2017,  752 pages,  ISBN: 978-960-288-342-6,  text in Greek language with an English summary]

In 540 CE, the Persian king Chusro I invaded the Roman Near East, thus ending an era of mostly peaceful relations between Rome and Iran. In this paper I try to take a closer look at the motives and actions of the Persian king, the great antagonist of the emperor Justinian.

Entry on Procopius of Caesarea (in German) in the Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, with a comprehensive bibliography on the critical editions, translations and secondary literature. The text is also available online at: https://www.bbkl.de/index.php/frontend/lexicon/P/Pr/prokopvoncaesarea-81390.

ÖZET: Bu çalışma, klasik tarihyazımının son büyük temsilcisi Prokopios’un yapıtlarında Perslerin temsil edilişinin problemlerini tartışarak, geç antik tarihyazımının tarihi alanına bir katkı yapmayı hedeflemektedir. Bu çalışmanın temel sorunsallarından biri ise, Persleri temsil ediş şekliyle ve yarattığı (veya yeniden - ürettiği) “öteki” ile Prokopios’un antik tarihçilerden farkını sorgulamaktır. İlk önce, Prokopios’un çalışmalarındaki Perslerin bir halk ve bir toplum olarak ne şekilde temsil edildiği tartışılmıştır. Prokopios’un saikinin bir etnograf olmaktan ziyade, politik antropolojiye yakın olduğunu varsayılmıştır, çünkü sonuçta müverrih Pers emperyal yapısını siyasi, askeri ve dinsel ritüeller ile gelenekler üzerinden anlamaya çalışılmıştır. Perslerin temsilleri, Prokopios’un metinlerindeki başka halkların temsilleriyle de mukayese edilmiştir. Savaşların Tarihi yapıtında, Pers imparatorları merkezi bir role sahiptirler. I. Firuz  ( hük. 438–457), I. Kubâd (r. 488–531) ama özellikle kendi çağdaşı olduğu için I. Hüsrev (hük. 531-579) gibi Pers imparatorlarının, temsilleri, daha geç dönem Bizans tarihçiliği (özellikle de Agathias), Süryani ve Arap tarihçileri ile birlikte, mukayeseler yapılarak tartışılmıştır. Bu tartışmalarda şu soruya cevap vermeye çalışılmıştır: "Prokopios ne oranda klasik tarihçiliğin Persleri temsil ederken kullandığı modelleri yeniden- üretmiştir?" Prokopios’un klasik yazarlardan despotizm konusunda ayrılmaktadır. Zira Perslerdeki hukuka bağlılığa ve özellikle Sâsânî imparatorlarının saygısına güçlü bir vurgu yapar. Bu sebepten dolayı, Prokopios’un Persleri tasvirinde bir karakteristik unsur olarak "despotizm" yer almamakla birlikte, Persler saldırgan ve yayılmacı bir karatkteristikle tasvir edilmiştir. Bir müverrih, bir halkı ele alırken ötekileştirici bir söylem kullanabileceği gibi; buna alternatif olarak yabancı halkın adetlerini kendi halkının adetleriyle karşılaştırabileceği ve modelleştirilen halkın adetlerini üstün bulacağı bir model de yaratabilir. Prokopios ise anlatısında kendi toplumu açısından ayna işlevi görecek modeller de yaratmıştır.(Theoderik’in adil karakteri, Pers hükümdarlarının yasaya sıkı bağlılığı gibi.) Bu hususlar mukayeseli bir yöntemle, antik literatürü ve daha geç Bizans ve Doğu literatürünü de içerecek şekilde tartışılmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler : Prokopios, Geç Antikite, Bizans İmparatorluğu, Persler, Sasaniler, Tarihyazımının Tarihi, Geç Roma Kültür Tarihi.

ABSTRACT: This study aims to make a contribution to the field of the history of late antique historiography by discussing the problems of the representation of the Persians in the works of Procopius, the last great representative of classical historiography. One of the main problematics of this study is to question the difference of Procopius from the ancient historians in the way he represents the Persians and the "other" he creates (or reproduces). Firstly, the representation of the Persians as a people and a society in Procopius' work is discussed. It is hypothesised that Procopius' motives were closer to political anthropology than to ethnography, since the author ultimately sought to understand the Persian imperial structure through political, military and religious rituals and customs. Representations of Persia have also been compared with those of other peoples in Procopius' texts. In the History of the Wars, the Sassanid emperors play a central role. The representations of Sassanid emperors such as Peros I  ( r. 438–457), Kavad I (r. 488–531) but especially his contemporary Khosrow I (r. 531-579) are discussed in comparison with later Byzantine historiography (especially Agathias), Syriac and Arab historians. In these discussions, the following question was tried to be answered: "To what extent did Procopius reproduce the models used by classical historiography to represent Persia?" Procopius differs from the classical authors on the issue of despotism. For he strongly emphasises the adherence to law in Persia and especially the respect of the Sassanid emperors. For this reason, Prokopios' description of the Persians does not include "despotism" as a characteristic element, but the Persians are depicted with an aggressive and expansionist characteristic. An historian can use a marginalising discourse when dealing with a people; alternatively, he can create a model in which he can compare the customs of a foreign people with the customs of his own people and find the customs of the people being modelled superior. Procopius, on the other hand, created models in his narrative that would serve as a mirror for his own society (Theoderic's just character, the strict adherence of Persian rulers to the law, etc.). These issues are discussed in a comparative manner, including ancient literature and later Byzantine and Eastern literature.

Keywords : Procopius, Late Antiquity, Byzantine Empire, Persians, Sassanids, History of Historiography, Late Roman Cultural History.

ABSZTRAKT: A tanulmány célja, hogy hozzájáruljon a késő antik történetírás megértéséhez azáltal, hogy megvizsgálja Prokopiosz perzsákról alkotott ábrázolását, valamint a klasszikus történetírókhoz képest eltérő megközelítését. A politikai antropológiát a néprajz helyett a politikai antropológiára helyezve a hangsúlyt, az elemzés megvizsgálja Prokopiosz perzsa társadalom ábrázolását, és azt állítja, hogy indítékai a perzsa birodalmi struktúra politikai, katonai és vallási rituálékon keresztül történő megértésében gyökereznek. A tanulmány megvizsgálja Prokopiosz ábrázolását a szasszanida császárokról, köztük I. Perosról, I. Kavadról és I. Khosrowról, és összehasonlítja a későbbi bizánci történetírással, szíriai és arab beszámolókkal. A vizsgált központi kérdés az, hogy Prokopiosz milyen mértékben replikálta a klasszikus történetírás modelljeit Perzsia ábrázolásában. A klasszikus szerzőktől való figyelemre méltó eltérés abban mutatkozik meg, hogy Prokopiosz a perzsák jogkövető magatartását hangsúlyozza, ahelyett, hogy despotikusnak jellemezné őket. A tanulmány elmélyül Prokopiosz elbeszélői választásaiban, kiemelve, hogy olyan modelleket alkotott, amelyek saját társadalmának tükörképeként szolgálnak. Például Theoderik igazságos jellemét szembeállítja a perzsa uralkodók törvényekhez való szigorú ragaszkodásával. Ez az összehasonlító elemzés kiterjed az ókori irodalomra és a későbbi bizánci és keleti irodalmi hagyományokra is, megvizsgálva, hogy Prokopiosz hogyan konstruál kulturális összehasonlításokat és hogyan értékeli a szokásokat. E vizsgálat révén a tanulmány rávilágít Prokopiosz egyedülálló perspektívájára és hozzájárulására a Perzsia történetírásban való ábrázolásáról szóló diskurzushoz.

Kulcsszavak : Procopius, késő ókor, Bizánci Birodalom, perzsák, szasszanidák, történetírás-történetírás, késő római kultúrtörténet.

АБСТРАКТ: Цель данного исследования - внести вклад в понимание позднеантичной историографии, изучив представление Прокопия о персах и отличительные особенности его подхода по сравнению с классическими историками. Подчеркивая политическую антропологию над этнографией, анализ тщательно изучает изображение Прокопием персидского общества, предполагая, что его мотивы были основаны на постижении персидской имперской структуры через политические, военные и религиозные ритуалы. В исследовании рассматривается изображение Прокопием сасанидских императоров, включая Пероса I, Кавада I и Хосрова I, и сравнивается с более поздней византийской историографией, сирийскими и арабскими рассказами. Главный вопрос, который рассматривается, - это степень, в которой Прокопий повторяет классические модели историографии в представлении Персии. Заметное отклонение от классических авторов выявлено в том, что Прокопий подчеркивает приверженность персов закону, а не характеризует их как деспотичных. Исследование посвящено выбору повествования Прокопием, подчеркивая создание им моделей, которые служат зеркалом для его собственного общества. Например, он противопоставляет справедливый характер Теодерика и строгое следование персидских правителей закону.  Этот сравнительный анализ распространяется на античную литературу и более поздние византийские и восточные литературные традиции, исследуя, как Прокопий строит культурные сравнения и оценивает обычаи. Благодаря этому исследование проливает свет на уникальную перспективу и вклад Прокопия в дискурс о представлении Персии в историографии.

Ключевые слова : Прокопий, поздняя античность, Византийская империя, персы, Сасаниды, история историографии, позднеримская история культуры.

This thesis is a systematic examination of the use of the term phoideratos in Greek and how it relates to the Greek word symmachos. The term was recognized as not precisely equivalent to its Latin cognate foederatus over a century ago by Jean Maspero, but no complete study of every use of the term has been made until now. This has been facilitated by the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, an online database of searchable Greek texts. These terms are important since they provide a framework within which foreigners came to serve the Roman army. They also reveal the changing nature of that army, and how the foederati, formerly allies who came to serve the Roman state in exchange for a combination of land, supplies, and cash became the phoideratoi, an elite regular unit in the Roman army. Meanwhile, symmachos came to refer to those who were formerly called phoideratoi. This interpretation is crucial since some modern historiography has considered the phoideratoi of the sixth century as equivalent to the foederati of the fourth.

There are two objectives behind this article. First, it seeks to trace down the pedigree of a theory described in scholarly discourse as the 'ethnogenesis model'. As is often believed, the theory originally was, essentially, an innovative concept proposed by Reinhard Wenskus, the German researcher. My article puts forth the idea whereby it was Walter Schlesinger who had laid the foundations for the theory, whose concept was further developed by Wenskus. My other purpose was to verify the basics of the theory itself, based on relevant empirical material; specifi cally, I mainly deal with original sources reporting on the ethnic composition and history of the Vandal people.

This dissertation argues that martial virtues and images of the soldier’s life represented an essential aspect of early Byzantine masculine ideology. It contends that in many of the visual and literary sources from the fourth to the seventh centuries CE, conceptualisations of the soldier’s life and the ideal manly life were often the same. By taking this stance, the dissertation challenges the view found in many recent studies on Late Roman masculinity that a Christian ideal of manliness based on extreme ascetic virtues and pacifism had superseded militarism and courage as the dominant component of hegemonic masculine ideology.

Obsessed with linking particular groups known from the written sources to archaeological assemblages or cultures, archaeologists have neglected the accumulation over the last few years of data on the steppe lands north of the Black Sea during the 6 th and 7 th centuries. Many are still guided in the interpretation of those data by an uncritical understanding of the written sources. The paper offers an overview of the ethnographic reports of the Black Sea region, from Priscus to Menander the Guardsman, with a particular emphasis on the passage in Procopius' Wars which imitates a periplus-like account. Ethnographic concerns greatly distort the traditional framework of the periplus, and make room for digressions on such things as customs, religion, government, and the like. In spite of the common opinion on the matter, Procopius does not describe nomads moving around in the steppe lands. The constraints of the genre that Procopius imitated (periplus) are responsible for the "linear" arrangement of the ethnic names one after the other. Only in the northern segment is a three-tiered classification introduced, as in the case of the Huns-Cimmerians-Cutrigurs. That classification allows the distinction between foes and friends of the Romans. Those closer to the Romans (Cutrigurs) are their enemies, while those farthest from them (Utigurs, Trapezites) are their allies. Both Procopius and Pseudo-Zachariah wrote about Huns, albeit in different languages. Procopius and Agathias mention Cutrigurs, but Jordanes has only Bulgars. Are assemblages dated to the 6 th century and discovered in the lands north of the Black Sea the remains of the Bulgars or of the Cutrigurs? What is, in fact, the basis for any linkage between the historical and the archaeological evidence? The second section of the paper is based on a critical approach to the archaeological record. Judging from the existing evidence, the people in the Black Sea steppe lands regarded prehistoric mounds as "old, " and therefore chose to bury some of their dead in barrows. Such practices may have been connected with claims to the ancestors supposedly buried underneath the mounds. At the same time, the idea of placing the dead in prehistoric mounds may have something to do with the desire to make their tombs visible in the landscape, and thus to communicate the status of an individual or of a family In the steppe lands north of the Black Sea, burial within a prehistoric mound was probably meant to conjure the (imagined) past in order to re-invent traditions. That the earliest cases are from the northwestern area of the Black Sea Lowlands, while in the late 6 th and early 7 th century burials in prehistoric barrows appear also in the northwestern region of the Sea of Azov and in Crimea may not be an accident. During the second half of the 6 th and the early decades of the 7 th century, the Black Sea Lowlands between the Dniester and the Molochna rivers were troubled borderlands, and the written sources clearly point to the dissolution of earlier tribal confederacies, such as the Cutrigurs and the Utigurs, as a result of attacks from Avars and Turks. It is possible that burial in ancient barrows was a response to the claims laid on the Black Sea steppe lands, particularly those in northern Crimea and those between the Dnieper and the Danube, in close proximity to the Empire.