The Politics of Roman Memory in the Age of Justinian DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the D
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The Politics of Roman Memory in the Age of Justinian DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Marion Woodrow Kruse, III Graduate Program in Greek and Latin The Ohio State University 2015 Dissertation Committee: Anthony Kaldellis, Advisor; Benjamin Acosta-Hughes; Nathan Rosenstein Copyright by Marion Woodrow Kruse, III 2015 ABSTRACT This dissertation explores the use of Roman historical memory from the late fifth century through the middle of the sixth century AD. The collapse of Roman government in the western Roman empire in the late fifth century inspired a crisis of identity and political messaging in the eastern Roman empire of the same period. I argue that the Romans of the eastern empire, in particular those who lived in Constantinople and worked in or around the imperial administration, responded to the challenge posed by the loss of Rome by rewriting the history of the Roman empire. The new historical narratives that arose during this period were initially concerned with Roman identity and fixated on urban space (in particular the cities of Rome and Constantinople) and Roman mythistory. By the sixth century, however, the debate over Roman history had begun to infuse all levels of Roman political discourse and became a major component of the emperor Justinian’s imperial messaging and propaganda, especially in his Novels. The imperial history proposed by the Novels was aggressivley challenged by other writers of the period, creating a clear historical and political conflict over the role and import of Roman history as a model or justification for Roman politics in the sixth century. This dissertation examines the parameters of and conflicts between these new histories in order to demonstrate the existence of a coherent intellectual movement whose central concern was influencing the normative narrative of Roman history in the sixth century. ii Dedicated to Christopher Tam iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would never have been prepared to undertake this dissertation if Daniel Alig had not taught me to read in the literary equivalent of the Spartan agoge. Ruth Bellows taught me to love reading and to write like I had something to say, for which, and for many other things besides, I will be eternally grateful to her. Walter Stevenson first directed me toward the sixth century and the tutelage of Anthony Kaldellis. For that and for his unfailing humor and encouragement, I am indebted to him. Benjamin Acosta-Hughes has been an indispensable source of institutional and personal support. Had he not found the funds to send me to Oxford in the winter of 2014 my professional trajectory would have been altered, drastically and for the worse. Likewise, had I not had his humor to fall back on, it is unlikely that this dissertation would have been completed. My department could not ask for a better chair. I owe a great personal debt to many people whose love has made everything else possible, and in return I offer my love and thanks: to my family, especially Maria Ethel de la Luz Piñeyro Kruse, Victor Otte, and Tyler Kruse, for their examples and sacrifices; to Brooke, Kelly, and Amy for shelter and friendship; to Dr. Bellows for long conversations in the attic; to Laura for always standing her ground; to Emily for growing up with me; to Hank and Mike for their camaraderie; to Hanne and Joey for being symmachoi; to Pippa for warmth; and to Michael for the most profound friendship of my life and for walking with me in worlds our eyes have never seen. My chief debt is reserved for Anthony Kaldellis, my mentor and friend, without whom none of this would have been possible. Whatever good ideas are present in this dissertation and whatever success I have found or will find in my professional career, it must all be laid at Anthony’s feet. The debt owed is universal, which is to say infinite and ever-expanding. Since he has no patience for panegyric, I will simply say thank you. I hope that, if I have too often been Thrasymachos, then at least I have never been so gullible as Glaukon. iv VITA May 2004 .......................................................St. John’s High School 2008................................................................B.A. University of Richmond 2008 to present ..............................................Graduate Teaching Associate and Graduate Enrichment Fellow, Department of Classics, The Ohio State University PUBLICATIONS “The Speech of the Armenians in Procopius: Justinian’s Foreign Policy and the Transition between the Books of the Wars,” Classical Quarterly 63 (2013) 866-881. “A Justinianic Debate Across Genres on the State of the Roman Republic,” in G. Greatrex, H. Elton, and L. McMahon (eds.) Shifting Genres in Late Antiquity (Burlington, 2015) 233-245. “Competing Histories in the Sixth Century: Justinian and Procopius,” in E. Turqois and C. Lillington-Martin (eds.) Reinventing Procopius (Burlington, Forthcoming). FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Greek and Latin v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. iv Vita ...................................................................................................................................... v Introduction: Roman History after the Fall of Rome .......................................................... 1 The Historiography of the Sixth Century ...................................................................... 10 The Authors of the Sixth Century ................................................................................. 17 Chapter One: History and Anxiety in the Age of Anastasios ........................................... 25 A Roman Emperor for the Romans ............................................................................... 25 Zosimos: Rome and Anti-Rome .................................................................................... 28 Hesychios of Miletos and the Greek Rome ................................................................... 62 Christodoros of Koptos and the Cultural Identity of New Rome .................................. 83 Anastasios and the Greek Rome.................................................................................. 116 Chapter Two: Administrative Reform and Republican History in the Age of Justinian 119 The Roman Republic in the Sixth Century ................................................................. 119 Novel 24 and the Trajectory of Empire ....................................................................... 122 Novel 13: Administrative Corruption and Urban Reform ........................................... 145 vi Laws, Histories, and Offices ....................................................................................... 166 Chapter Three: Consular History in the Age of Justinian ............................................... 168 Killing the Consulship ................................................................................................. 168 Justinian’s Consular Novels ........................................................................................ 171 Prokopios on the Consulship ....................................................................................... 190 The Consulship in Jordanes’ Romana ......................................................................... 203 Lydos and the Consulship: The Missing Magistracy .................................................. 216 Republicanism and the Consulship ............................................................................. 240 Chapter Four: Rome and Roman History in the Age of Justinian .................................. 244 Inventing the End ........................................................................................................ 244 Rathymia and Imperial Decline in the Novels ............................................................. 249 Rome and Ancient Rome in the Novels ...................................................................... 262 Rome and the Romans in Prokopios ........................................................................... 269 The Sixth-Century History of the Fifth-Century Fall.................................................. 285 The Sixth-Century Consensus ..................................................................................... 299 Conclusion: The Politics of Roman Memory in the Age of Justinian ............................ 302 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 310 vii INTRODUCTION: ROMAN HISTORY AFTER THE FALL OF ROME Therefore, most pius of principes, it befits your power and office that we should seek your concord, which we have done up til now out of friendship. For you are the most beautiful glory of all kingdoms, the helpful bulwark of the whole world, you whom other rulers look up to by law because they perceive that there is something innate to you alone. We, who with divine aid learned in your respublica how we are able to rule Romans equitably, do this most of all. Our kingdom is an imitation of yours, the image of your good intention, modelled on the one and only empire. In so far as we follow you, we surpass all other peoples.1 -Cassiodorus, Variae 1.1.2-3 At some point