Metanarratives of History: Eusebian and Augustinian Perceptions of History in Orosius, Bede, and the Old English Translations Tarcsay Tibor Pázmány Péter Katolikus Egyetem, Bölcsészet- és Társadalomtudományi Kar Irodalomtudományi Doktori Iskola, vezetője: Hargittay Emil, DSc Textológia és régi irodalom műhely, vezetője: Hargittay Emil, DSc Témavezető: Karáth Tamás, PhD Habil. 2019 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................................. 4 List of abbreviations................................................................................................................................................ 5 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................. 6 I. The Evolution of Historical Metanarratives....................................................................................................... 18 Mesopotamian-Semitic historiography ............................................................................................................. 18 Greek and Roman historiography ..................................................................................................................... 20 Philosophical developments .............................................................................................................................. 23 The Imperial cult and its developments ............................................................................................................ 24 The Constantinian reform: The imperial cult merged with Christianity ........................................................... 29 Lactantius and Eusebius: the perfection of history, emperor, and the empire ................................................... 33 Augustine: an anti-metanarrative of imperfection ............................................................................................. 37 II. Orosius’ Historiarum adversus paganos libri septem ...................................................................................... 48 Composition, Idiosyncrasies, Textual History .................................................................................................. 48 Previous evaluation of the Historiae adversus paganos .................................................................................... 50 Orosius’ Ciceronian argumentative strategies ................................................................................................... 56 Salvation history in LH ..................................................................................................................................... 71 Mythopoesis in LH – Orosius’ new Christian past for Rome ........................................................................... 78 The Gothic Sack of Rome ............................................................................................................................... 100 Christian oikuemene ....................................................................................................................................... 103 Conclusions about historiography in LH ........................................................................................................ 106 III. Bede .............................................................................................................................................................. 110 Overview of the scholarly evalution of HEGA ............................................................................................... 110 The Ecclesiastical History of the English People ............................................................................................ 114 Salvation and grace: The English supersession of the Britons ........................................................................ 118 Elements of the Augustinian metanarrative .................................................................................................... 123 IV. The First Viking Age and the Alfredian Reform .......................................................................................... 129 Alfred’s cultural programme and the Alfredian translation strategies ............................................................ 133 V. The Old English translation of Bede .............................................................................................................. 140 Textual history and the overview of the scholarly evaluation of OEHE ......................................................... 140 A new Anglo-Saxon metanarrative: removed from Rome and orthodoxy ...................................................... 142 Anglo-Saxon historical self-perception in OEHE ........................................................................................... 148 Salvation history in OEHE .............................................................................................................................. 153 VI. The Old English Orosius ............................................................................................................................... 158 Description of the MSS ................................................................................................................................... 158 Translation strategies in OEH ......................................................................................................................... 160 The Anglo-Saxon interpretation of Roman history ......................................................................................... 164 2 Salvation history and OEH .............................................................................................................................. 176 A new oikumene: the special role of the Goths in OEH’s metanarrative ........................................................ 184 Conclusions about OEH’s historical metanarrative ........................................................................................ 191 Conclusions ......................................................................................................................................................... 198 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................................................... 205 Primary Sources .............................................................................................................................................. 205 Secondary Sources .......................................................................................................................................... 208 APPENDIX Translations of the Anglo-Saxon citations from the Old English Orosius ..................................... 224 3 Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the many who have helped me during the long years of writing the present dissertation, and who have often helped me steer my way back on course when I strayed. My heartfelt thanks to Katalin Halácsy, friend and unofficial tutor, whose insights and kind advice can embolden even the most despondent to take the task up again and soldier on with resolution and dignity. I am grateful to Tamás Karáth, my supervisor, without whose assistance and patience this text could not have come about. The assistance of Marianne Sághy was invaluable – her remarkable knowledge and keen intellect helped me more than once with finding relevant authors and with the subtler points of Augustine’s writings. Her untimely passing is a great loss. I also deeply thank all my friends and colleagues who have inspired, encouraged, and on occasion consoled me throughout the years. I am finally going to make up for all the time we could have spent together! Although Augustine of Hippo is no close personal acquaintance of mine, it was ultimately his philosophy and faith which set me on the path of writing this dissertation, and whose thoughts often have proved crucial in my personal life – therefore thanks are due to him as well. And last but not least, my deep gratitude goes to two unknown Anglo-Saxon poets, the composers of Deor and The Battle of Maldon. Their inimitable, beautifully concise and powerfully moving lines have helped me in forging ahead and working on my dissertation during particularly forlorn days. Þæs ofereode þisses swa mæg. Hige sceal þe heardra heorte þe cenre mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað. 4 List of abbreviations LH – Orosius’ Historiarum adversus paganos libri septem HEGA – Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum OEH – The Old English translation of Orosius’ Historiarum adversus paganos libri septem OEHE – The Old English translation of Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum 5 Introduction The present dissertation has a twofold aim. I will analyse four historiographical works: two Latin texts, Orosius’ Historiarum adversus paganos libri septem and Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, and their respective Old English translations. The analysis will reveal the texts’ historiographical metanarratives: their ‘global or totalizing cultural narrative schema which orders and explains knowledge and experience.’1 My focus will be narrower than complete epistemology: by historiographical metanarrative I understand the explanation provided for historical causation. This, of course, touches on broad