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Reconstructing Justinian’s Reconquest of the West without Procopius By Travis Colbourne Thesis submitted to the University of Ottawa in partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Classical Studies Supervisor: Dr. Geoffrey Greatrex Department of Classics and Religious Studies Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa © Travis Colbourne, Ottawa, Canada, 2021 Abstract This thesis examines the evidence surrounding the Roman emperor Justinian’s wars in western Europe (Italy and Spain) and North Africa. It argues that without Procopius’ narrative, we would be left with a very bland, cursory account and even find it difficult to get a full grip on what happened when, even though Jordanes in particular does give some sort of narrative. The thesis focuses on the narrative of Justinian’s western wars offered by sources like Jordanes’, Romana and Getica, Victor of Tonnuna’s Chronicle, Corippus’ epic poem and Marcellinus comes’ Chronicle and its addition. It also discusses when each of these sources was written and where, and the background of the author, so that the reader can identify what was important to the author and the potential biases in the presentation of the events in question. The thesis then compares the narrative of the above sources to the narrative of Procopius in order to determine what information historians and scholars would not have if they did not have Procopius’ work. ii Reconstructing Justinian’s Reconquest of the West without Procopius Travis Colbourne Contents: General Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 1 Chapter 1: Sources Other than Procopius of Caesarea…………………………………….. 3 Introduction………………………………………………......................................................... 3 Literary Sources……………………………………………………………………………….. 4 Archaeological and Epigraphical Evidence………………………............................................20 Legal Sources…………………….............................................................................................. 24 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………... 27 Chapter 2: Narrative of Sources Excluding Procopius of Caesarea………………………. 30 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………. 30 1. North Africa…………………………………………………………………………… 30 1(a) Literary Sources………………………………………………………………………...... 30 1(b) Archaeological and Epigraphical Evidence…………………………................................39 1(c) Legal Sources………...………………………………………............................................ 44 2. Italy…………………………………………................................................................ 51 2(a) Literature………………………………………................................................................ 51 2(b) Archaeological and Epigraphical Evidence……………................................................... 65 2(c) Legal Sources……….….………………………................................................................. 68 3. Spain…………………………………………………………………………………... 71 3(a) Literary Sources………………………………………………………………………….. 71 3(b) Archaeological and Epigraphical Evidence……………................................................... 78 3(c) Legal Sources………..…………………………................................................................. 80 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………….. 82 Chapter 3: Narrative of Procopius of Caesarea……………………………………………. 84 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………. 84 1. North Africa………………………………………………............................................ 85 1(a) Literary Sources………………………………………………………………………….. 85 1(b) Archaeological and Epigraphical Evidence ……………………………………………...97 1(c) Legal Sources………..……………………………………………………………………. 99 iii Reconstructing Justinian’s Reconquest of the West without Procopius Travis Colbourne 2. Italy…………………………………………………………………………………… 102 2(a) Literature: Beginning of the War to the Surrender of Vitigis…………………………… 102 2(b) Literature: Rise and Conquests of Totila……………………………………………….. 111 2(c) Literature: Defeat of Totila……………………………………………………………… 114 Conclusion…………………………………………………………......................................... 116 General Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….… 118 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………. 127 iv Reconstructing Justinian’s Reconquest of the West without Procopius Travis Colbourne Abbreviations: For full details of the edition and translations, see the bibliography. Cass. Inst. Div Litt. – Cassiodorus, Institutiones Divinarum Litterarum Cass. Var. – Cassiodorus, Variae Coripp. Ioh. – Corippus, Iohannidos seu de bellis Libycis libri viii CJ – Codex Iustinianus CTh – Codex Theodosianus Greg. Ep. – Pope Gregory I, Epistularum Reistrum Isid. DVI. – Isidore of Seville, De Viris Illustibus Isid. Hist. Goth. –Isidore of Seville, Historia Gothorum Joh. Bicl. – John of Biclaro, Chronicle Joh. Mal. – John Malalas, Chronographia Jord. Get. – Jordanes, Getica Jord. Rom. – Jordanes, Romana Just. Nov. – Justinian, Novellae Landolfus Sagax, Rom. Hist. – Landoli Sagacis, Historia Romana Lib. Pont. – Liber Pontificalis Marcell. com. – Marcellinus Comes, Chronicle Marcell. com. addit. – Marcellinus Comes, Additions to the Chronicle P. Ital. -- Die nichliterarischen lateinischenPapyri Italiens aus der Zeit 445-700 PLRE II – The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire vol II PLRE III – The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire vol. III Proc. Aed. – Procopius of Caesarea, De Aedificiis Proc. Anecd. – Procopius of Caesarea, Anecdota sive Historia Arcana Proc. BG. – Procopius of Caesarea, De bello Gothico Proc. BV. – Procopius of Caesarea, De bello Vandalico PZ. – Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor, Historia Miscellanea Soz. – Sozomenus, Historia Ecclesiastica v Reconstructing Justinian’s Reconquest of the West without Procopius Travis Colbourne Vict. Tonn. – Victor Tonnennensis, Chronicle Xen. Hell. – Xenophon, Hellenica vi General Introduction The reign of the Roman emperor Justinian (527-565) was pivotal. Not only was he able to successfully build some impressive buildings like Hagia Sophia in Constantinople but he also made strides in both the realms of law and warfare. While most scholars consider Justinian’s reforms in law to be the most important or the most influential part of his reign, his wars in the West are arguably just as important. Historians of this period and of ancient warfare in general are fortunate as most of Justinian’s wars in the West are contained in the works of the Greek historian Procopius of Caesarea. All Justinian’s wars in the West, except the one in modern Spain, are documented in Procopius’ work called The History of the Wars of Justinian. This is why many, if not all, historians and scholars think of Procopius as our main source for Justinian’s wars. If Procopius is our main source for this aspect of Justinian’s reign then there have to be other ancient authors who talk about Justinian’s wars in North Africa, Italy and Spain in their works. The model of this thesis lies is Clive Foss’ article on the Roman empress Theodora. In his article, Foss starts by looking at other pictures of empress Theodora, excluding Procopius, and then deploys Procopius to see how they compare. The one difference between the model of Foss’ article1 and this thesis is that our aim is to measure and establish the degree to which we are dependent on Procopius’ narrative. This thesis will firstly identify the sources that discuss or report Justinian’s wars. They will be analyzed for when they were written, where they were written, the author’s background, the author’s reason for writing and what wars (North Africa, Italy, Spain) the source covers. All of this is for the reader to determine the origins of these 1 C. Foss “The Empress Theodora” Byzantion 72 (2002) pp. 141-176. 1 Reconstructing Justinian’s Reconquest of the West without Procopius Travis Colbourne sources, how much information the sources provide for each war, and to determine any potential biases the authors might have through their background, date of writing and where they were writing. Then this thesis will attempt to stitch the narratives and information from these sources together in order to determine what information would be available to historians and scholars without Procopius. Then it will take this narrative and compare it to Procopius’ to determine if the information is different, what information would be lost, and if any information is not in the narrative of Procopius. All of this is done to argue that without Procopius’ narrative scholars would be left with a very bland, cursory narrative and even find it difficult to get a full grip on what happened when. 2 Reconstructing Justinian’s Reconquest of the West without Procopius Travis Colbourne Chapter 1: Sources other than Procopius of Caesarea Introduction Procopius of Caesarea is our main source for the wars during Emperor Justinian’s reign. His account is lengthy, full of detail, full of drama, and full of wonder. He wrote three works on the reign of Justinian: The History of the Wars of Justinian, Secret History and Buildings. Procopius’ work that this project will be focusing on will be the History of the Wars of Justinian and to a lesser extent Buildings. We will be looking more closely at Procopius in Chapter three. Classical historians usually write their works after the reign of the emperor they cover is over. But Procopius wrote his work during the reign of Justinian. He remained mostly neutral, however, was sometimes critical of Justinian who is not known to tolerate disagreement.2 He was born in the city of Caeserea in 500 and became legal advisor or secretary of Belisarius in 527. He completed this work in 550/551.3 He accompanied Belisarius on
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