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Re)Writing History in Byzantium

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Re)Writing History in Byzantium (Re)writing History in Byzantium Scholars have recently begun to study collections of Byzantine historical excerpts as autonomous pieces of literature. This book focuses on a series of minor collec- tions that have received little or no scholarly attention, including the Epitome of the Seventh Century, the Excerpta Anonymi (tenth century), the Excerpta Salmasiana (eighth to eleventh centuries), and the Excerpta Planudea (thirteenth century). Three aspects of these texts are analysed in detail: their method of redaction, their literary structure, and their cultural and political function. Combining codicologi- cal, literary, and political analyses, this study contributes to a better understanding of the intertwining of knowledge and power, and suggests that these collections of historical excerpts should be seen as a Byzantine way of rewriting history. Panagiotis Manafis is a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Birmingham, UK. His research interests include middle Byzantine literature, with a particular focus on the manuscript transmission of texts. (Re)writing History in Byzantium A Critical Study of Collections of Historical Excerpts Panagiotis Manafis First published 2020 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2020 Panagiotis Manafis The right of Panagiotis Manafis to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Manafis, Panagiotis, author. Title: (Re)writing history in Byzantium: a critical study of collections of historical excerpts / Panagiotis Manafis. Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2020002344 (print) | LCCN 2020002345 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367367305 (hardback) | ISBN 9780429351020 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Byzantine literature–History and criticism. | Byzantine Empire–Historiography. | Byzantine Empire–Abstracts–History. Classification: LCC DF505 .M36 2020 (print) | LCC DF505 (ebook) | DDC 949.5/02072–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020002344 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020002345 ISBN: 978-0-367-36730-5 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-35102-0 (ebk) Typeset in Times by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India To Eleni and Ioanna Contents List of illustrations x List of manuscripts xii Acknowledgements xiv Abbreviations xv Introduction xviii 1 Greek compilation literature from Byzantium 1 1.1 Terminology 1 1.1.1 Byzantine terminology 1 1.1.2 Modern terminology 10 1.2 The culture of sylloge 12 1.2.1 Florilegia, Gnomologia, Catenae, Quaestiones et responsiones 14 1.2.2 Chronicles 17 1.2.3 Condensed ‘libraries’ 20 1.3 The working method of excerptors of historical texts 26 1.3.1 Selection 27 1.3.2 Editing 31 1.3.3 Composition 38 2 Excerpta Anonymi 43 2.1 Dating of the Parisinus suppl. gr. 607a 44 2.2 Content, structure and sources of the Excerpta Anonymi 46 2.2.1 Content 46 2.2.2 The structure of the Excerpta Anonymi 49 2.2.3 The sources of the Excerpta Anonymi 53 2.3 The working method in the Excerpta Anonymi 60 2.4 The EC and the Excerpta Anonymi 66 2.4.1 The EC 67 viii Contents 2.4.2 The chapter Περὶ Ἴστρου τοῦ ποταμοῦ 72 2.4.3 Περὶ Κύρου and Περὶ Ῥώμου καὶ Ῥωμύλου 75 2.4.4 The passages on Roman history 77 2.4.5 The EC as a depository of knowledge 81 2.4.6 Conclusion 84 2.5 Historical and cultural context 84 2.5.1 Portrayals of emperors in the Excerpta Anonymi 85 2.5.2 Comparison of the Excerpta Anonymi and the Parastaseis 86 2.5.3 The politics of ethnography and geography in the Excerpta Anonymi 96 2.6 Conclusions 108 3 Excerpta Salamasiana 110 3.1 Manuscript transmission 110 3.1.1 Vaticanus graecus 96 110 3.1.2 Vaticanus Palatinus 93 112 3.1.3 Parisinus graecus 1763 113 3.2 Excerpta Salmasiana and John of Antioch 115 3.3 Structure and sources of the Excerpta Salmasiana 117 3.3.1 Excerpta Salmasiana I 117 3.3.2 Excerpta Salmasiana II 118 3.3.3 The Agathias part 135 3.4 The selective use of historical material in the Excerpta Salmasiana 135 3.4.1 Agathias on the others 135 3.4.2 The politics of ethnography in the Agathias part of the Excerpta Salmasiana 138 3.5 Towards the methodological principles of the Excerpta Salmasiana 140 3.6 General conclusions on the Excerpta Salmasiana 145 4 The Epitome of the Seventh Century 147 4.1 Manuscript transmission 148 4.1.1 Parisinus suppl. gr. 1156 148 4.1.2 Oxford, Auctarium E.4.18 149 4.1.3 Parisinus graecus 1555 A 149 4.1.4 Athonensis Vatopedinus graecus 286 150 4.1.5 Baroccianus gr. 142 151 4.1.6 The ἀπὸ φωνῆς in Baroccianus gr. 142 153 4.2 The Epitome as an excerpt collection 154 Contents ix 4.3 The structure of the Epitome 159 4.4 The Epitome and the HE of Eusebius of Caesarea 161 4.4.1 The relationship between the manuscripts of the Epitome 163 4.4.2 Passages added to the selected Eusebian text 165 4.4.3 The redaction of the Eusebian part 173 4.5 General conclusions on the Epitome 180 5 Excerpta Planudea 181 5.1 Manuscript transmission 181 5.1.1 The codices 181 5.1.2 The relationship between the manuscripts of the Συναγωγὴ 185 5.1.3 Maximus Planudes 186 5.2 Content and structure of the Συναγωγή 188 5.3 The excerpts on Roman history in the Συναγωγή by Maximus Planudes 191 5.3.1 The origins of the passages on Roman history 191 5.3.2 The source of the Συναγωγή: an earlier corpus on Roman history? 196 5.3.3 Excerpting John of Antioch and Xiphilinus 198 5.3.4 Thematisation of history in the Excerpta Planudea 203 5.4 Conclusions 213 6 Collections of historical excerpts as a specific locus for (re)writing history 214 6.1 J. Signes Codoñer’s classification of Byzantine historical writing 215 6.2 Literary features in Byzantine collections of historical excerpts 218 6.2.1 Language, style, function 218 6.2.2 Period covered and use of sources 221 6.2.3 Structure 224 6.3 Other collections of historical excerpts 226 6.4 Conclusion 228 Appendix I: Texts 231 Appendix II: Tables 282 Bibliography 300 Names and subject index 338 Manuscripts index 345 List of illustrations Figures 3.1 The codex Parisinus gr. 1630 (B) and the Exc.Salm.II A 122 4.1 The relationship between the manuscripts of the Epitome 165 Tables 2.1 The contents of Parisinus suppl. gr. 607a 47 2.2 The chapter Περὶ τῶν ἐπτὰ φιλοσόφων in the Excerpta Anonymi 62 2.3 The chapter Περὶ τῶν βʹ σταυρῶν τῶν ληστῶν in the Excerpta Anonymi 64 2.4 The chapter Τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου περὶ παρατηρήσεως εἰκόνος in the Excerpta Anonymi 65 2.5 The sources of the passage On the Istros river, 42, 5–44, 21 73 2.6 Passages on Roman history excerpted in the Excerpta Anonymi 79 2.7 Peter the Patrician’s Historia in the Excerpta Salmasiana 80 3.1 Excerpts in the Exc.Salm.II A that do not derive from John Malalas 119 3.2 Malalas’ Chronographia in B and in the Exc.Salm.II 122 3.3 Τhe derivation of the Exc.Salm.II 8 123 3.4 Τhe Exc.Salm.II 18, B and the Suda 125 3.5 Τhe Exc.Salm.II 32, Malalas and the Suda 126 3.6 Passages in common between Malalas, the Exc.Salm.II 1–43, Symeon Logothetes’ Chronicon and Ps.-Symeon’s Chronographia 128 3.7 Shared passages in the Exc.Salm.II and the Excerpta Anonymi 129 3.8 Exc.Salm.II B, 66–82 130 3.9 The Exc.Salm.II B, 66–82 and parallel passages 131 3.10 The Exc.Salm.II 66 and 67 131 3.11 The Exc.Salm.II 68 and 69 132 3.12 The Exc.Salm.II and the Leoquelle 133 3.13 Τhe source texts of the Exc.Salm.II 134 3.14 Τhe Agathias excerpt 3 of the Exc.Salm. 141 3.15 Τhe Agathias excerpt 6 of the Exc.Salm. 142 3.16 Agathias-excerpt 15 of the Exc.Salm. 143 3.17 Τhe Agathias excerpt 23 of the Exc.Salm. 144 List of illustrations xi 3.18 Τhe Agathias excerpt 37 of the Exc.Salm. 144 3.19 Τype of textual changes in the Agathias part 145 4.1 The headings in the manuscript transmission of the Epitome 156 4.2 The Epitome in the five extant manuscripts 159 4.3 Τhe Epitome in G. C. Hansen’s edition 162 4.4 Passages added to the selected Eusebian text 166 4.5 Τhe origin of 5 E 170 4.6 Τhe origin of 113 E 172 4.7 Τhe redaction of the Eusebian part 174 4.8 7 E and Eusebius’ HE 176 4.9 64 E and Eusebius’ HE 178 5.1 Content and structure of the Συναγωγή 192 5.2 The EPL and Manasses’ chronicle 194 5.3 The EPL and Paeanius 195 5.4 Excerpts 45–328 in Laurentianus Plut.
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