Finding the Present in the Distant Past the Cultural Meaning of Antiquarianism in Late Antiquity

Finding the Present in the Distant Past The Cultural Meaning of Antiquarianism in Late Antiquity

Gent, 19th – 21st May 2016

Programme

19th May

Morning

9.00 Registration

9.40 Welcome (P. Van Nuffelen, Universiteit Gent)

Theoretical Approaches to Antiquarianism

Chair: P. Van Nuffelen (Universiteit Gent)

10.20 D. MacRae (University of Cincinnati), Late Antique Roman Antiquarianism: History of Silence or the Silence of History?

11.00 Coffee Break

11.40 M. Formisano (Universiteit Gent), Anachronic Late Antiquity (provisional title)

12.20 - 12.50 General Discussion

12.50 - 14.00 Lunch

Afternoon

Antiquarianism in the West

Chair: R. Flower (University of Exeter)

14.00 J.W. Drijvers (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen), Antiquarian Aspects in the Res Gestae of Ammianus Marcellinus?

14.40 C. Ando (University of Chicago), Antiquarianism, Historicism and Presentism in Late Roman Law

15.20 Coffee break

Chair: M. Formisano (Universiteit Gent)

16.00 R. Schwitter (Universität Zürich), Antiquarian Writing in Scholia on Vergil: Historicizing Ancient Rome in the Post-Imperial Era

16.40 F. Foster (University of Cambridge), Servius and Antiquarianism in the Classroom

17.20 final remarks

18.00 end

20th May

Morning

First Session: Antiquarianism in the East

Chair: C. Ando (University of Chicago)

9.00 L. Focanti (Universiteit Gent), Playing with the Past. The Patria and the Greek Cities in Late Antique Roman Empire

9.40 E. Fassa (University of Athens), Antiquitates Aegyptiacae et Antiquitates Romanae in late antique Alexandria: urban intellectuals, the past and the politics of nostalgia

10.20 R. Praet (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen), Antiquarianism in the sixth century AD: Easing The shift from Rome to Constantinople.

11.00 Coffee Break

Chair: G. Traina (Université Paris-Sorbonne Université Paris-Sorbonne / Institut universitaire de France)

11.40 S. Anghel (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen), Plato’s Garden. Neoplatonic Antiquarianism in Late Antique Athens.

12.20 – 12.50 general discussion

12.50 - 14.00 Lunch

Afternoon

Chair: B. Bleckmann (Universität Düsseldorf)

14.00 M. Agnosini (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa), Some Constantinopolitan antiquities and ancient Roman festivals in John Lydus' De mensibus

14.40 R. Flower (University of Exeter), Antiquarianism and Encyclopaedism in Epiphanius of Salamis

15.20 Coffee break

Chair: G. B. Greatrex (University of Ottawa)

16.00 G. Traina (Université Paris-Sorbonne / Institut universitaire de France), Antiquarian traditions on ancient Armenia: Procopius of Caesarea and the so-called Primary History

16.40 Final Remarks

17.20 End

21st May

Morning

Antiquarianism in Byzantium

Chair: J.W. Drijvers (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)

9.00 B. Bleckmann (Universität Düsseldorf), Triumph in John of Antioch (prov. title)

9.40 G. B. Greatrex (University of Ottawa), Antiquarians, modernisers and historiography in sixth- century Constantinople

10.20 P. De Cicco (Université de Nantes), Fictive Past and Modern Propaganda: The Reverse of a Biblical Archaiologia in the Age of the ‘Heraclid’ Anastasius

11.00 Coffee Break

11.40 P. Manafis – R. Praet (Universiteit Gent – Rijksuniversiteit Groningen), Approaches to the past in Byzantium: byzantine Antiquarianism?

12.20 Conclusions

13.00-14.00 Lunch

Abstracts

D. MacRae (University of Cincinnati), Late Antique Roman Antiquarianism: History of Silence or the Silence of History?

In a pregnant footnote in his classic article on antiquarianism, Arnaldo Momigliano pointed out that “the whole history of Roman antiquarian studies from Fenestella to John Lydus is still to be written” (Momigliano 1950: 289 n.4). Starting from this observation, this paper investigates this historiographical silence: why was the history of Roman late antique antiquarianism left unwritten before the twentieth century? I argue that we can identify two chronologically distinct phases in the historiography of antiquarianism, which both diminished late antique antiquarianism. In a forthcoming paper (MacRae forthcoming), I propose a genealogy for antiquarianism as a practice distinct from history proper. I argue that this distinction is not found in antiquity, but became current only in the sixteenth century. In this century, two practicing antiquarians, Onofrio Panvinio and Johannes Rosinus wrote accounts of the history of antiquarianism to their own day in the form of prefaces to intended (Panvinio) or realized (Rosinus) books on Roman antiquities. Both of these antiquarian histories of Roman antiquarianism follow the same structure: Varro is hailed as a founder, followed by a long period of decline towards an antiquarian ‘dark age’, until the discipline was restored in the fifteenth century by Flavio Biondo and his contemporaries. In this way, their story echoed the broader antiquarian outlook of a Renaissance rebirth of the great Roman civilization that had been threatened with extinction in the medieval period. The absence of late antique antiquarianism from the work of Panvinio and Rosinus, then, reflects the notions of temporality favored by the antiquarians themselves. Later histories of antiquarianism disregard pre-modern antiquarianism almost entirely. Johannes Graevius’s potted history of the field in the first volume of his Thesaurus Antiquitatum Romanarum (1694), a definitive collection and edition of Renaissance antiquarianism, delimits the field in terms that matches the contents of his own work. Similarly, Bernhard Stark’s Systematik und Geschichte der Archäologie der Kunst (1880), proclaimed by Momigliano as the ‘the best’ history of antiquarianism, plays down pre-Renaissance antiquarian influence on the modern discipline of archaeology. Graevius and Stark write out ancient and late antique antiquarianism from their accounts in the interest of articulating modern disciplines – antiquarianism and archaeology, respectively. These histories of silence, written in particular intellectual and historical contexts, raise a broader question of what it means to write the history of antiquarianism. From the seventeenth century, alongside the narratives identified above, we can witness the development of a stereotype of the antiquarian – perhaps best exemplified by Nietzsche’s famous caricature of the antiquarian mindset in his On the Advantages and Disadvantages of History for Life. Although initially dismissive, this stereotype – derived from early modern antiquarian practice – has recently enabled a broader comparative study of antiquarianisms and the possibility of breaking the silence on late antique antiquarianism.

M. Formisano (Universiteit Gent), Anachronic Late Antiquity (provisional title)

In my paper I will discuss the presence of antiquarian knowledge in some texts of the 4th century AD, both in prose and in poetry. In particular I will apply the concept of "anachronicity"

4 as it has been launched by the art historians Alexander Nagel and Christopher Wood in their path-breaking 2010 monograph "Anachronic Renaissance".

J.W. Drijvers (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen), Antiquarian Aspects in the Res Gestae of Ammianus Marcellinus?

The fourth-century historiographer Ammianus Marcellinus has been characterized as “the lonely historian” by Arnaldo Momigliano, implying that there was a disconnection between the historian and the world he describes. Auerbach characterized him as a profound pessimist, who sketched the world in which he lived as grim and ugly. Ammianus wrote within the tradition of Greek and Roman historiography and his Res Gestae are a continuation of Tacitus’ historical writings. Unfortunately the first thirteen books of the RG have gone and the remaining books (14-31) deal with the years 353-378. Ammianus refers regularly to the past, in particular the Roman Republic. On the one hand this may have been a way of profiling himself and displaying his knowledge. On the other hand, the past and knowledge of history, as well as cultural memory in general, were important aspects for the vitality and even survival of Roman civilization, according to Ammianus. He displays an idealized vision of the past and criticizes his contemporaries, such as Roman senators in the two digressions about the population of Rome (RG 14.6 and 28.4) or lawyers (31.4), for not being familiar with the political, literary and legal history of the Greek and Roman world. Also emperors are criticized for not having knowledge of the past. It is perhaps therefore not surprising that the words antiquitas and antiquus occur regularly in Ammianus’ work (Antiquitas 15 times; forms of antiquus 23 times). The aim of this paper is twofold. I intend to explore the meaning of antiquus/antiquitas in the Res Gestae and based on that I hope to be able to say something about whether Ammianus could be considered an antiquarian historian.

C. Ando (University of Chicago), Antiquarianism, Historicism and Presentism in Late Roman Law

Legal norms exist in multiple, historically imbricated forms, including original statutory language and interpretation. What is more, legal systems recognize multiple sources of both norms and interpretation, including legislative assemblies, rulings in court, and jurisprudence. In the high and late Roman empire, political and theoretical argument over these topics assumed a particular form. On the one hand, emperors and their agents asserted the superiority of statute law, by way of asserting their own preeminence. At the same time, much Roman law was old, sometimes very old, and neither its language nor its content could be unproblematically applied to contemporary realities. Reading law in late antiquity thus came to involve measuring the distance between present social realities and the contexts of the law's original production. Inevitably, this often meant imagining archaic and non-monarchic versions of oneself. The historical self-consciousness of Roman legal theorists about social, institutional and linguistic change was not, therefore, a purely intellectual matter. It amounted to a push-back against the centralizing and presentist inclinations of monarchic legal authority.

R. Schwitter (Universität Zürich), Antiquarian Writing in Scholia on Vergil: Historicizing Ancient Rome in the Post-Imperial Era

In the on-going discussions about the political and religious implications of antiquarianism in the fourth and fifth century arguments have largely rested upon Macrobius and the Vergil commentators. There is a strong interest in religious institutions in the Saturnalia, and Servius likewise seems to have highlighted Roman cult and ritual in his commentary on Vergil’s Aeneid. Recently, scholars have linked this interest with the contemporary struggle between pagans and Christians. It is, however, questionable whether the antiquarian notes of Servius truly reflect that author’s intention to contribute to a political or religious debate; there had been a long tradition of this kind of writing in Greek and Roman scholia, and in the sixth and early seventh centuries grammarians continued profusely to explain ancient Roman cults, rites, and myths in the works of classical poets. Yet, it is manifest that the cultural meaning and scope of antiquarianism – as it is reflected in learned scholia – at all times went beyond mere literary nostalgia. This paper examines the antiquarian interest in Servius Danielis with simultaneous consideration of the Commenta Bernensia, and the Scholia Veronensia, texts dating from the late fifth to the seventh century. Its focus lies on scholia about the historic, religious, or cultural origins of ancient Rome, often transmitted in the literary form of aitia. Antiquarian speculations of this kind were usually drawn from a long tradition reaching back to Republican authors like Varro, but in the fifth century and later grammarians largely depended on earlier Vergil commentators like Aelius Donatus. It was for good reason, one might think, that in the early fifth century Servius’ didactic approach made him omit many of the learned details his busy predecessors had collected. Strangely enough, in the seventh century an unknown compiler we call Servius Danielis was eager to refill this apparent gap. In fact, not many of his detailed remarks on augural practice or old sacral names were actually elicited by the Virgilian hypotext. Indeed, he often cites material that six centuries before, in the time of Varro, was rather removed from common knowledge, even for learned men. Although it seems obvious why the Aeneid causes later scholiasts to produce additional information about the religious institutions and practices of ancient Rome, the actual output of Servius Danielis, including highly discursive material, was a great deal more than a schoolboy needed in order to understand the text he was reading. This intriguing surge of Varronian scholarship in the post-imperial era clearly calls for an explanation. I will argue that antiquarian writing in Vergilian scholia has to be seen in close relation to the process of cultural self-assertion undergone by the former Roman aristocracy. Within this small elite, knowledge about the origins of Rome and its religious background gained new importance as cultural capital in the attempt to preserve a Roman identity. At that time this primarily consisted in the possession of certain knowledge. Thus, in that ambience Vergil’s literary historicizing of ancient Rome was simultaneously initial and culmination point of antiquarian interest.

F. Foster (University of Cambridge), Servius and Antiquarianism in the Classroom

In the Saturnalia, Macrobius presents an idealised image of a group of educated antiquarian literati meeting to discuss ancient cultural thoughts and texts. One of Macrobius’s interlocutors is the commentator and grammaticus Servius. Macrobius depicts Servius as an antiquarian defending and promoting archaic turns of phrase and linguistic forms, as well as encouraging the reading of ancient Republican authors such as Ennius. However, as Alan Cameron notes, Macrobius misrepresents the historical Servius (Cameron, 2011, 252). In this paper, I will show how the historical Servius presented the past for his students, and how he approached different periods of Roman literature and history.

Servius’s commentary was probably composed between 390 and 410. The commentary can provide insight into his teaching of Virgil, particularly aspects of archaic language, religious and cultural practices, and Virgil’s use of ancient authors. Servius taught at Rome, at what was probably an elite and expensive school, one which the sons of the senatorial and wealthy Roman ruling classes would have attended. The curriculum revealed in his commentary includes considerable focus on linguistic and cultural features which were obsolete by his own day, and yet seem to have been necessary for his students to learn. Servius does not expect his students to imitate archaic uses of language — as Macrobius imagines — in fact, he specifically warns them against using such language, and insists that they should compose in the language of the present. Although he does not expect his students to participate in archaic cultural practices, he sometimes presents these as if they were still current. However, knowledge of these aspects were part of the cultural capital of the Roman elite to which his students belonged. Servius’s attitude to the ancient past is thus more complex than Macrobius imagines in his fictionalisation. In this paper, I will examine Servius’s attitudes to the various aspects of the (distant) past, and to what we might term ‘antiquarianism’. I will place them firmly in the educational context in which they were designed to be read. Such an awareness of their cultural heritage was the way in which elite Romans of late antiquity could demonstrate — and maintain — their social and cultural position. This is not unlike the range of antiquarian knowledge that Macrobius himself demonstrates in the Saturnalia some twenty or more years later.

L. Focanti (Universiteit Gent), Playing with the Past. The Patria and the Greek Cities in Late Antique Roman Empire

From the late imperial age onwards, the word πάτρια has been used to name a particular kind of text presenting the origins of cities and the most attractive monument they had. According to the sources, they were written in verses and could reach a huge length. In spite of the diffusion these antiquarian works had in the eastern empire, none of them has survived: there are just brief mentions in later sources (Stephen of Byzantium, Suda, Photius etc.). Such a scanty material makes a literary evaluation of the patria almost impossible, but does not impede a historic analysis. The aim of my paper is to take these works as evidences of the urbanistic changes in the eastern empire. In other words, to show the connections between antiquarian interests and political and social needs. In spite of the long crisis of the third century AD, the urban network of the Roman East maintained in late antiquity all its complexity. The Greek cities of Egypt, Phoenicia, Syria and Asia Minor kept building and dismantling their connections with their neighbors, and played different roles according to the political, economic and social contexts they faced. The well-marked perception of a strong hierarchy between the cities, along with the possibility for them to advance or regress along the pyramid, made the competition between the different communities particularly intense. The traditional Greek particularism found new ways of expression: the production of patria is one of them. They give testimony to the movements of the cities along the urban hierarchy of the eastern empire. In particular, they show the development of the centers linked to the three capitals of the Roman east: Alexandria, Antioch and Constantinople. Indeed, the presence of the imperial court (and the resulting flow of taxes and supplies) put these cities at the center of extended urban networks. These urbanized areas connecting the three capitals and their hinterland have been defined by Peter Brown ‘corridors of Empire’. The centers entering these large-scale corridors had to legitimate their new position

7 in the imperial network, and the best way to achieve the goal was linking themselves to the mythical and historical circuits of the Greek world. The patria served the purpose. While modeling the collective memory of myths, histories, and traditions of these cities, they officialized the acquainted status. Moreover, they could be the right instruments to level the excessive presumptions of a snobbish rival, or to look better in comparison to an uncomfortable neighbor. My paper will present all these aspects, analyzing the testimonies about the patria in this historic perspective.

E. Fassa (University of Athens), Antiquitates Aegyptiacae et Antiquitates Romanae in late antique Alexandria: urban intellectuals, the past and the politics of nostalgia

The past is a culturally determined category. Constructed through a process of selection and imaginative reinterpretation, the past reflects the needs and deficiencies of the present. In late antique circles, where tradition served as both a bond of coherence between the members of a community and an argumentative tool in the polemical dialectic between dissident religious or ethnic groups, the past was systematically studied and contemplated. In the proposed paper I will examine the fabrication of the past in the rhetorical and philosophical school of Horapollo and its broader milieu in late 5th-century Alexandria. First, I will present the evidence which points to antiquarian interests in this specific Alexandrian context. Although scarce and widely dispersed, the extant sources provide evidence for lively antiquarian activities, which included: (a) research into ancestral rites, with journeys, interviews and extensive study (Asclepiades, Heraiscus, Isidorus, cf. Proclus), (b) the composition of treatises on antiquarian subject-matters (Horapollo, Asclepiades), (c) the introduction and accommodation of antiquarian material in different genres (Zacharias of Mytilene, Aeneas of Gaza, Damascius, possibly Zosimus (cf. Athanassiadi, Damascius, App.II) and the author of Theosophia), and (d) attempts to revive traditional practices (Heraiscus). I will then relate the phenomenon of antiquarianism to the specific social, religious and cultural developments in late antique Alexandria and explore the reasons which prompted these urban intellectuals to deal with antiquarian issues in a period of tremendous social upheaval. Antiquarian interests in the philosophical circles of late antique Alexandria should be viewed within the framework of age-old and complex processes of interaction and cross-fertilization between Egyptian and Graeco-Roman elements. In the urban, oecumenical, but also turbulent society of Alexandria, antiquarianism was incorporated and utilized in manifold ways. First, it served an educational ethos: antiquarian knowledge was a source of material for rhetoric, literature and philosophy. It also increased self-awareness (cf. Cicero, Ad Att. 4.14.1); it contributed to the preservation of tradition (cf. Dillon, ‘Religion of the Last Hellenes’), and it affirmed continuity with the past, thus conferring authority and prestige to its exponents. Especially as regards Egyptian antiquarianism, the intellectuals inspired by it should be situated at the end of a long tradition of cultural reinstatement of the image of Egypt, which was intensified in the early Hellenistic period with Manetho and continued into imperial times with Chaeremon and Aurelius Petearbeschinis. Another significant aspect of antiquarianism in late antiquity was its role in philosophical rivalries. It is well-known that intellectuals in Alexandria operated in a highly competitive environment (see e.g. Damascius, Marinus). Antiquarian knowledge was applied to prove one’s relation to most ancient and revered lore and thus, it was used to advance one’s self-promotion.

Finally, I will argue that despite their conscious attempts to address repeatedly antiquarian issues, Alexandrian intellectuals were significantly distanced from their subject- matter (cf. Horapollo’s Hieroglyphica). Although they systematically tried to claim and appropriate aspects of what they regarded as their ancestral heritage, they significantly misconceived it or were unable to fully comprehend it.

R. Praet (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen), Antiquarianism in the sixth century AD: Easing The shift from Rome to Constantinople.

Antiquarianism is an elusive phenomenon which can be defined in many ways. On the one hand, scholars such as Stevenson (2004) limit themselves to a neat description of antiquarianism as a well-defined literary genre with a set of formal characteristics. On the other hand, antiquarianism has been defined as a broad cultural phenomenon by, for instance, Schnapp (2013). The aim of this paper is to try an approach which treads a middle ground. First, I will define antiquarianism in late antiquity as a mechanism to come to terms with cultural unease. Second, I will apply this approach to a case study, namely the late antique shift of imperial power from Rome to Constantinople. To tackle the evasive phenomenon of antiquarianism, I define it as a textual attitude towards the past which is used to cope with changes or perceived changes in the present. These changes have to be dealt with, as they broaden the distance between the past as a guiding principle and the world of the present. As such, an antiquarian attitude is a recurrent phenomenon in periods of transition and cultural unease, such as late antiquity. Much theoretical work has been done on forms of cultural unease or cultural trauma. I will use the theoretical framework of LaCapra (1999) to ascertain how the mechanism of antiquarianism functions. LaCapra distinguishes between two levels of trauma, a metaphysical absence and a specific loss. The combination of the two levels results in a strong rhetoric of infinite nostalgia and impossible mourning. In my opinion, this mechanism could account for the way in which antiquarian texts deal with cultural unease. One of the fundamental sources of cultural unease in late antiquity was the fall of the western Roman empire and the transmission of imperial power to the east. From the crisis of the 3rd century onward, several cities vied for supremacy as the capitol of the Roman empire (Grig and Kelly 2012). These competitions crystallized into a contest between Rome and its New Rome at the Bosporus. The symbolic end of the western Roman empire in 476 AD triggered a shift of dominance to Constantinople (Croke 1983), and gave rise to a redefinition of “Romanness” in the early Byzantine empire (Sviatoslav 2010). In this paper, I will focus on how historiographical texts from the 6th century deal with the cultural unease of the shift from Rome to Constantinople. In these texts, the distant past was used to meditate on the relationship of Constantinople with Rome. The legacy of Rome was used both positively and negatively to highlight the role of Constantinople. On the one hand, authors as John of Lydia (c. 490 – c. 565 AD) and John Malalas (c. 490 – c. 570 AD) picture the cities of Constantinople and Antioch as a mirror image of the old Rome. On the other hand, these authors debate the moral legitimacy of the old capitol of the empire through a close scrutiny of the questionable character of Romulus, who founded Rome on the blood of his brother Remus.

S. Anghel (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen), Plato’s Garden. Neoplatonic Antiquarianism in Late Antique Athens.

In late antiquity Athens was, by Mediterranean standards, a small city. Most of our evidence for the life of the city comes from only one source, the corpus of Neoplatonic writings. It has often been the custom, in academic writings, to extrapolate the practices of Neoplatonic philosophers, students and supporters to the city as a whole. In particular the active pagan cultic practices of Neoplatonic philosophers and the respect for the traditional religion of Athens has been understood to have been shared by the city as a whole. The present paper argues that this was not the case. Although the city of Athens no doubt rejoiced in having such an influential group among its citizens, more often than not it tolerated, rather than participated in the practices and religious system of belief described in the Neoplatonic corpus. The paper will also argue that the Neoplatonists had constructed an antiquarian Athens, based on their own particular interpretation of Athenian history, culture, religion and topography. Unlike in other cities, in Athens the Neoplatonism did not dissociate antiquarianism from religion or philosophy, nor did they separate the past from the present. Yet they were more concerned with the past of Athens than with the present, and perhaps believed, like many other late antique pagans, that forgetting the past is a grave error. We can document some of their practices. These included moving into a private setting public statues which had become ownerless or by creating lieux de memoire associated with Athenian past and in particular with the lives of Plato or Socrates or investing. We will discuss some of these practices, draw out some of their underlining principles and then compare them with the pagan antiquarianism of other parts of the Roman Empire, in particular Rome.

M. Agnosini (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa), Some Constantinopolitan antiquities and ancient Roman festivals in John Lydus' De mensibus

It has been assumed that John Lydus' treatise De mensibus is «the most straightforwardly antiquarian of his works—and least revealing of sixth-century ideas beyond the fact of its composition» [Maas 1992, 53]. Nevertheless, it is perhaps possible to catch a glimpse of the sixth century social, religious and philosophical milieu by means of some scanty allusions scattered all over Lydus' work. The paper will focus on the passages concerned with Constantinople and the descriptions of some ancient Roman festivals still celebrated during Late Antiquity and the Early Byzantine period. Indeed, the De mensibus mentions Byzantium/Constantinople only three times in passages which often go unnoticed. Two of them (1. 12, 7. 4-14 W.; 4. 132, 171. 7-12 W.), however, deal with monuments (e.g. the Baths of Zeuxippos, the hippodrome and the triumphal column for the victory over the Goths) which were central elements in the city life of sixth- century Constantinople, while one (4. 75, 126. 16-7 W.) focuses on the secret name of Constantinople, which Lydus explicitly compares with one of the secret names of Rome, thus enhancing the parallelism between the two cities and conveying the perception of a symbolic handover from Rome to Constantinople, the «New Rome» [on this topic see Ando 2001, especially 392-404; Tommasi 2014, esp. 204-8]. At the same time, the De mensibus contains several descriptions of ancient Roman festivals.Although it has long been acknowledged that some of them (e.g. the Kalends of January, the Vota, the Maiuma festival and the Brumalia) were still practiced in Lydus' days [Jonkers 1968, 51-2; Rochow 1978, 484, 486-9; Maas 1992, 64-65], only the Brumalia have thus far received adequate attention [Maas 1992, 65; Kaldellis 2003, 312].

The paper will provide a study of the sources of Lydus' information in these passages, a comparison with some contemporary witnesses (e.g. John Malalas and Choricius of Gaza for the festivals) and some hypotheses on the functions the fragments performed in their original context, without avoiding confrontation with the problems of textual transmission. By focusing on the alleged origins of some aspects of sixth-century life, the paper will thus investigate the methods of late antique antiquarian production and shed some light on how Lydus tries to emphasize the continuity with the Roman past.

R. Flower (University of Exeter), Antiquarianism and Encyclopaedism in Epiphanius of Salamis

Epiphanius, the late-fourth-century bishop of Salamis on Cyprus, was notable for his eclectic learning and impressive linguistic aptitude, as well as his belligerent approach to doctrinal disputes. His most famous work, the Panarion, is a massive compendium of information about religious beliefs across human history, all labelled as ‘heresies’ because of their failure to conform with Epiphanius’ own Nicene Christianity. The text contains detailed theological arguments and lengthy quotations from earlier writings, both orthodox and heretical, but it combines these with digressions on a variety of subjects, including lists of Roman consuls and calculations of the date of Christ’s birth and baptism according to eight different calendrical systems. Moreover, Epiphanius’ other surviving works (the Ancoratus, De mensuris et ponderibus and De gemmis) also preserve a wealth of factual information on a collection of different topics, sometimes without any apparent organising principle or rationale. For this reason, Epiphanius can be seen as writing in the antiquarian tradition of classical authors such as Aulus Gellius, as has recently been argued by Andrew Jacobs, who regards the bishop as seeking to ‘demonstrate the power of Christian culture to contain and display perfectly, in tiny bits and morsels, all the knowledge of the world’ (‘Epiphanius of Salamis and the antiquarian’s Bible’, Journal of Early Christian Studies 21 (2013), 437-64, quoting 464). This paper will explore the nature, function and limits of antiquarianism in Epiphanius’ works, especially the Panarion, which presents the best opportunity for examining the bishop’s approach to the accumulation and arrangement of information. The relationship between ‘antiquarian’ and ‘encyclopaedic’ literature will be discussed, as will the similarities and divergences of these two genres, in order to illuminate the implications of categorising Epiphanius’ work in either of these ways. The discussion will consider the issue of whether the Panarion should be regarded not only as an attack on deviant theological and philosophical viewpoints, but also, alongside other Christian literature of the period, as an attempt to undermine and subsume various forms of knowledge that already existed in the ‘pagan’, classical world (as suggested by H. Inglebert, Interpretatio Christiana: les mutations des savoirs (cosmographie, géographie, ethnographie, histoire) dans l’Antiquité chrétienne (30–630 après J.- C.), Paris, 2001, 443-9). Alongside exploring this issue, this paper will also consider the image of the expert antiquarian or encyclopaedist that Epiphanius constructs for himself within his writings. This will involve asking the question of what function, if any, was played by the text’s antiquarianism in furthering Epiphanius’ quest to promote Nicene Christianity’s exclusive claim to orthodoxy. By exploring these issues, new light will be shed on the topic of the authority of antiquarianism in late antiquity and its place within the wider context of literary strategies for the preservation and presentation of knowledge.

G. Traina (Université Paris-Sorbonne / Institut universitaire de France), Antiquarian traditions on ancient Armenia: Procopius of Caesarea and the so-called Primary History

With the expression he tôn Armeniôn historia, Procopius of Caesarea refers to some Armenian written sources he used more or less directly. This is evident for some passages of the Wars and of Buildings, whic show a clear influence of the Epic Histories attributed to Faustus of Byzantium. In another passage of Buildings (3.1.4 ff.), presenting a condensed history of the Armenian kingship, Procopius says that « the Armenians of ancient times used to have a king of their own race (homogenês) »: by this statement, he clearly wanted to dismiss the pretentions of legitimacy by the VIth century Arsacids of Armenia. In this case, the source seems to be the Primary History, a Vth century Armenian chronicle. This paper will consider the antiquarian content of the Primary History, and its relation with Procopius as well as with the controversial History of Armenia by Movsēs Xorenac‘i.

B. Bleckmann (Universität Düsseldorf), Triumph in John of Antioch (prov. title)

Der salmasische Johannes Antiochenus (FHG IV Frg. 167) bietet antiquarische Ausführungen über den Triumph, die offenkundig als Digression zum Triumph des Diokletian und Maximian im Jahre 303 eingefügt waren. Reste dieses Exkurses finden sich auch bei Zonaras, dem "Anonymus post Dionem" und in der Suda. Untersucht werden die Quellenbeziehungen und die Beziehungen zur reichen antiquarischen Literatur zum römischen Triumphwesen.

G. B. Greatrex (University of Ottawa), Antiquarians, modernisers and historiography in sixth- century Constantinople

The reign of Justinian can be seen as having an ambivalent attitude to the Roman past. On the one hand, Justinian’s Novels, for instance, and the works of John the Lydian regularly invoke earlier Roman history and myth for various ends. On the other hand, there is little doubt that the emperor considered himself to have surpassed many at least of his predecessors by his accomplishments (such as the reduction of the Tzani). This paper will argue that traces of a vigorous debate between antiquarians, such as John the Lydian and the anonymous author of the De scientia politica, who upheld traditional Roman practices and norms, and what may be called ‘modernisers’, such as Procopius, can be detected in the latter’s works, notably in his prefaces. Contrary to what has sometimes been supposed, the historian was an ardent advocate of contemporary practices and an admirer of recent technological developments.

P. De Cicco (Université de Nantes), Fictive Past and Modern Propaganda: The Reverse of a Biblical Archaiologia in the Age of the ‘Heraclid’ Anastasius

In a famous section of Leo the Grammarian’s Chronography on the reign of the emperor Zeno, the physical and moral corruption that is usually reproached to Isaurian people by antique sources is explicitly justified by their genealogy, because they are said to descend from Esau. The emperor himself is not exempt from this negative connotation, as he is said to be δασύς and εἰδεχθέστατος («hairy» and «very repulsive») and to definitely look like Pan in Greek representations of the god.

It is easy to see in this ferine description a paroxysm of the biblical characterization of Esau, depicted in the Genesis as δασύς. The legacy of Candidus’ Isaurika, which presented Esau as Isaurians’ eponym and ancestor, is evident as well. We do not dispose of this work anymore, but Photius’ account provides us many information. As for the Isaurians’ origins, the Patriarch affirms that Candidus built a «detailed genealogy» to prove, with «a great effort and narrative», their lineage: this rigorous demonstration was evidently part of an ‘archeological’ section, whose function was to justify Zeno and Isaurians’ arise through the construction of their past. The pseudo-etymology Ἠσαῦ > Ἴσαυροι made the «hairy» emperor a double of the «hairy» Esau in the aim, perhaps, to create a metaphor of the relationship between Romans and Isaurians, as Mischa Meier recently noticed: the two populations had to reconciled each other, just as Esau and Jacob did. But Candidus could not expect that a boomerang effect would occur: Leo’s account shows that, at some moment, the «hairy» descendant of Esau becomes a «hairy» trivial double of Pan. In the same period, instead, Anastasius is celebrated by Procopius of Gaza as a ‘Heraclid’, thanks to being from a city (Epidamnos) whose founder (Phalios) was Heraclid. The same author, moreover, recalls the homeric name of Isaurians (Solymes) to provide an unflattering presentation of this population that involves mythical figures too (Agamemnon and Achilles). Could the ferine association between Zeno and Pan be considered the counterpart of the heroic association between Anastasius and Herakles? It seems to me that the struggle between ancient and new rulers of the Empire in the beginnings of the VIth century resorts therefore to antiquarianism’s weapons: that is, genealogies, etymologies and outdated ethnonyms. The aim of my paper will be to reconstruct the imperial propaganda of these years, by showing how the invention of a biblical or a mythical past contributes to rise or destroy emperors’ authority. Religious themes will be touched, as the reversal of a biblical association (Zeno / Esau) in a pagan one (Zeno / Pan) needs further investigation. My analysis will regard other protagonists of Anastasius’ propaganda too, such as Priscian of Caesarea and Christodoros of Coptos.

P. Manafis – R. Praet (Universiteit Gent – Rijksuniversiteit Groningen), Approaches to the past in Byzantium: byzantine Antiquarianism?

The concept of antiquarianism is almost absent from modern studies on byzantine history. To the best of our knowledge, only Holmes (2010) refers in passing to the term in the context of 10th-century compilation literature. In this paper, we want to assess whether it is useful to apply this concept to Byzantine compilation literature. We attempt to apply this concept to Byzantium by defining antiquarianism as an attitude towards the past which can result in the creation of a plethora of texts, some strictly antiquarian, others only sprinkled with antiquarian passages. This paper attempts at assessing the relationship, the influence, affinities and the differences between late antique antiquarianism and the compilation culture in the early and middle Byzantine period. The antiquarian John of Lydia (c. 490 – c. 565 AD) could be seen as standing between late antique antiquarianism and Byzantine compilation literature. We will use his treatise De Ostentis as a case study to assess matters of continuity or discontinuity between late antique antiquarianism and compilation literature. In fact, the structure of John of Lydia's treatise already foreshadows the compilation practices which reign supreme in the middle Byzantine period. Moreover, the work of John of Lydia is used as a source of inspiration in later periods,

13 and influences later forms of transmitting knowledge. For instance, fragments of this treatise abound in the 10th century Anonymus Treu. Finally, we can perceive a profound parallel in attitude towards the past in both John of Lydia and Constantine Porphyrogenitus. This attitude towards the past reflects the political and personal dimensions of the author, as both authors use the past to enhance their uncertain political position and intellectual authority. If there is a continuity or discontinuity between late antique antiquarianism and byzantine compilation culture, we have to take into account the factors which influenced the gradual change from the original production of antiquarian texts in late antiquity to the selection, rearrangement and compilation of such texts in the byzantine period. These factors could also account for the enigmatic and sudden disappearance of antiquarianism after John of Lydia.