RT Article
T1 Procopius on Theodora: ancient and new biographical patterns
JF Byzantinische Zeitschrift
VO 113
IS 3
SP 769
OP 788
A1 Grau, Sergi 1975-
A1 Febrer, Oriol
LA English
PB De Gruyter
YR 2020
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1733533583
AB The Anékdota or Secret History of Procopius of Caesarea tends to raise perplexity among scholars for different reasons, particularly the fact that a courtier wrote this work as well as the Buildings, a clear praise of Justinian through his constructions and foundations, and the Wars, in the most canonical historiographical tradition. It is apparent that the Secret History, as it is usually acknowledged, is related to the tradition of the invective and the pamphlet, even to the earlier classic iambography, but we should try to answer the question with the same analytical tools that have been applied in recent years to the study of ancient biography, whence the author takes inspiration, especially for the portrait of empress Theodora. Here we have identified, alongside the ancient biographical patterns of the classical tradition, new ones, mostly inversions of contemporary hagiographical narratives.
K1 Altertumswissenschaften
K1 Byzantinistik
K1 Diverses
K1 Geschichte
K1 Historische Epochen
K1 Patristik
K1 Theologie und Religion
DO 10.1515/bz-2020-0034