ByzReview: Agathias and Menander

Procopius, who I reviewed last time, is undoubtedly the premier historian of the reign of Justinian the Great (527-565), but his historical works only cover the first couple of decades of Justinian’s reign. Part of the beauty of the Byzantine historical corpus is that, though many works of history are incomplete or cut off abruptly, later historians take it upon themselves to continue these unfinished works or begin their own histories from the very point where their predecessors came to a halt. Perhaps the best example of this is Agathias of Myrina, a 6^th century poet, writer and all-round pretentious dick who decided to continue Procopius’ work, boldly outlining in the preface to his work that this is his intention.

                Agathias is more-or-less a textbook case of a Byzantine ‘Classicising historian’, as opposed to a Chronicler, for he has no interest in relating the entire history of the universe in a series of easily-digestible factual chunks, but instead gives us an eloquently archaic and intensive account of a short and particular period of time – specifically the years 552 to 558. He begins his work with a hefty preface (or prooimion in Greek) in which he outlines his intentions, offers a profound description and justification for the writing of history, summarizes Procopius’ Wars which he intends to continue, and even gives us a little autobiography of himself, mentioning his previous literary works as credentials. It is heavyweight stuff, but it gets even denser once he begins his actual narrative.

Justinian, a bit later in his life

                For a mere six years in the middle of Justinian’s reign, Agathias sheds a lot of ink on the subject. Split into five ‘books’, his dense history covers the ongoing hostilities in Italy during its reconquest by the Roman empire, a messy situation on the eastern frontier with the Persian empire over the future of the land of Lazica, and an incursion from the northern 'barbarian' tribes right up to the walls of Constantinople. For those interested in military history, campaigns, and biased descriptions of the cultures and practices of non-Byzantine peoples (Franks, Slavs, Sassanian Persians, Lazicans etc) will find Agathias most useful. For me I found him dense, awkward, and generally difficult to get through. His ethnographical diversions are interesting, and the recalling of the heroic general Belisarius from retirement to fight one last battle in defence of Constantinople was a good tale, but ninety-five per cent of the whole history is nothing less than a tedious rhetorical description of countless battles, campaigns and speeches. Though the modern edition of Agathias is a handsome slim tome, nicely laid out and containing the occasional helpful explanatory footnote, it was so much more of a battle to get through than John Malalas ever was. If ever there was a clear distinction between a Byzantine Chronicle and a ‘Classicized' history, this is it.

                Like a majority of Byzantine historians, Agathias ends rather abruptly. Having paid the assorted barbarian tribes to war with one another, Justinian the Great has saved the Roman empire from its numerous external foes – and that’s where it finishes. Obviously history never ends, and just as Agathias thought to continue the work of Procopius, so somebody else decided to continue the work of Agathias. Enter Menander, the so called Protector, or Guardsman.

The Roman and Persian empires at the end of the 6th century, with their neighbours

                After Justinian’s death, power passed to his closest living relative, his nephew Justin II (r.565-578). As the final years of Justinian’s reign were consumed by the staving-off of the empire’s external foes (i.e. everybody under the sun), Justin II faced a number of foreign policy nightmares that got the better of him. During the renewed wars with Persia and the loss of the greater part of reconquered Italy, Justin II eventually succumbed to mental illness, leaving the reins of government in the hands of his wife the empress Sophia, and a trusted general named Tiberius. The emperor finally died after several years of regency, allowing Tiberius II (r.578-582) to smoothly ascended the throne, but he continued to face the same foreign policy problems that had plagued his predecessor’s reign.  After stabilising the frontiers, albeit with territorial losses, Tiberius II died and bequeathed the throne to his son-in-law Maurice, who would rule for the remainder of the 6^th century. Although writing in the reign of the emperor Maurice, Menander Protector prudently cuts off his history before then, concerning himself only with the last years of Justinian, and the reigns of Justin II and Tiberius II. For a list of all the rulers of the so-called ‘Justinianic dynasty’, here we are:

Justin I                           (518-527)
Justinian I                      (527-565) – Nephew of Justin I.
Justin II                         (565-574/578) – Nephew of Justinian.
Tiberius II Constantine (574/578-582) – Adopted son of Justin II, co-ruled with empress Sophia.
Maurice                         (582-602) – Married Tiberius II’s daughter, Constantina.

                Now would be the time to mention that Menander’s history is, shall we say, incomplete. As a complete text, this work has sadly not survived the test of time. It is the woeful fact of history that human creations are doomed to death just as their creators were, and if efforts are not made to preserve them, then works of writing, art and architecture will crumble and be forgotten. Chance references in surviving accounts, or occasional preserved fragments are the only clue we have to certain things existing, including books, and for every Procopius or Agathias I daresay there are countless numbers of lost writers and artists. In many cases, what we have left in the modern day has survived only by accident. 

With Menander though, there is a bright side. Considerable fragments of his work were preserved in a number of different locations, split between numerous other texts whose creators thankfully plagiarised him, by taking anything from long sprawling sections of Menander’s work to short, contextless sentences and then populating their own histories and encyclopaedias with them. Thus they lay, separated for many centuries while the complete history of Menander was lost and forgotten, until ambitious modern-day scholars decided to go to the effort of tracking each surviving piece down and reassembling it in some kind of order. This means that Menander, the historian,* has been recreated to some extent, patched together out of what remains of the disparate passages that are all that remain of his work. When read as a book, Menander’s fragments naturally do not act like the unified work it originally was. Rather, it feels disjointed, and awkwardly jumps from one subject to another as one fragment comes to an end and another begins. Some relatively long passages have been preserved – one example being a peace-treaty between the emperor Justinian and the Persians, which is beautifully detailed – and these can be highly useful. Then there are shorter paragraphs which contain little snippets of information, and lastly single sentences which read like proverbs, whose contexts are lost and are about as useful as one of those fucking internet quotations that people plaster over the internet and believe are deeper than they are.

               To illustrate my point, here is one short fragment:

         ‘4. When Baian, the leader of the Avars, was intent upon the siege of Sirmium, he threw Vitalian, the interpreter, and Comita in chains. The Emperor Justin had sent both men to him to request that he discuss certain matters with them. He imprisoned them in contravention of the universally recognised rights of ambassadors.’

                                [Menander the Guardsman, Fragment 12.4, translated by R.C. Blockley, pg. 133]

               Compared to another:

        ‘7. Only freedom from ambition and the abandonment of jealousy can contrive the most timely course of action.’

                                [Menander the Guardsman, Fragment 20.7, translated by R.C. Blockley, pg. 193]

                A fragmentary history such as this certainly has its uses, but it tantalises the would-be reader with questions over what has been lost. The reassembled Menander the Protector is certainly a short text, but we must be grateful for the little that has survived. Assuming that he took Procopius and Agathias as his model, which he certainly claims to have done, then he is simply continuing the foreign policy and Persian War narrative from his predecessors down to his own time, covering the reigns of Justin II and Tiberius II. Less interested in tedious battle and campaign details, and with fewer heroic speeches, Menander seems to be more concerned with the diplomatic side of events – particularly in the so-called Fifty-Year Peace established at the end of the Lazic War (541-562), in the final years of Justinian. This peace treaty, which was intended to shelve disputes between the two empires for the specified time, barely lasted a decade before war once again erupted in 572, during the reign of Justin II, and was to be fought on and off until the time of Maurice.

                So then, to conclude this review of two fairly different Byzantine ‘Classicised’ histories, what can I say? Agathias was difficult to get through, and his efforts to recreate every heroic detail of battles and speeches can be quite draining. Menander on the other hand is a little easier, thanks to the surviving pieces of his work being of a straightforwardly diplomatic flavour, and the whole thing being shorter and more concise, alternating between events on the frontier and in the capital. If there was something to tie these works together, as well as to Procopius’ official history (as opposed to the previously reviewed Secret History), then it’s the near unceasing wars between the Byzantine-Roman empire and the Sassanian-Persian empire. Surrounded by enemies, reeling from its wars of reconquest, and facing conflict with its old enemy on the eastern frontier with only a few heroic generals to fight the tide; this is the picture of the empire presented by Agathias and Menander.

* The more famous Classical Greek playwright, also called Menander, was similarly left in only fragmentary condition for most of history. Must be an unlucky name.

Bibliozantium 5

Agathiae Myrinaei Historiarum Libri Quinque. B.G. Niebuhr (ed). Bonn. [Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae], 1, (1828).

Agathiae Myrinaei Historiarum Libri Quinque. R. Keydell (ed). Berlin: Walter De Gruyter. [Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae], 2, (1967).

Agathias: The Histories. Translated by Joseph D. Frendo. Berlin and New York: Walter De Gruyter. [Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae], 2a, (1975).

Menander Protector. The History of Menander the Guardsman. R.C. Blockley (ed). Liverpool: Francis Cairns. [ARCA Classical and Medieval Texts, Papers and Monographs], 17, (1985).

                [A Helpful Gnote: The Greek text of Agathias is available either in the 19^th century Bonn edition (CSHB), or in a more up to date edition which is part of the Corpus Fontium collection (CFHB). The latter edition has been helpfully translated into English, and exists as a separate volume within the same series. Menander the Protector most conveniently exists as a text with parallel English translation – that is, on one side of the page you get the Greek text, while on the other is the same page translated into English. This is by far the best way to do a translation].

ByzReview: Procopius of Caesarea

The Roman Empire after Justinian's reconquests

In Byzantine history, there is no figure quite so monumental as the emperor Justinian the Great. Ruling from 527 to 565, this emperor was responsible for initiating the dramatic reconquest of Africa and Italy, provinces lost to the Roman empire since the previous century, and his building projects and legal codification ensured his legacy would be felt for the remainder of Byzantine history – if not history in general. It is primarily through the writings of his court historian Procopius of Caesarea that we get the strongest picture of this controversial figure and his reign, and that Procopius’ own writings show many different facets of Justinian’s works and character only makes this period more fascinating.

The Emperor Justinian and his cronies, in the San Vitale mosaics in Ravenna, Italy

                Procopius himself is an oddity in terms of Byzantine historians, leaving behind several works of wildly differing character. On the one hand we have a largely factual, 'Classicisizing' account of the wars of Justinian, then a panegyric about Justinian’s building projects, and finally a vicious, nasty little indictment of every aspect of Justinian’s reign, character and policies. The bulk of Procopius’ work is his Wars of Justinian, which takes up some two-thirds of the total corpus of his writings, in which he recounts the three major wars that occurred during the majority of Justinian’s reign: the Persian War (c.526-532), the Vandalic War (533-534), and the Gothic Wars (535-554). With this being such a long and, seemingly, rather dry piece of work, I haven't yet finished reading it in its entirety. I've only gotten to the end of book 1, to be exact. Likewise, the Buildings, while probably a fascinating book and much shorter than the Wars, I haven't gotten round to reading yet. The thing is, I wanted to get stuck in to that most famous of Procopius’ works: the notorious Secret History.

Hagia Sophia, constructed during Justinian's reign. Isn't it pretty?

                This shorter piece of Procopius, sometimes called the Anecdota, is a curious little example of the two-faced sycophant. Whereas in his earlier works Procopius is respectful and praising of Justinian, his policies, and his talented general Belisarius, in the Secret History we get nothing but scorn and ridicule for everything he once praised. Belisarius is presented as a weak-willed fool who lives at the mercy of his adulterous wife, while Justinian is a semi-demonic tyrant who stops at nothing to suck all the wealth out of the Roman empire and ruin anybody and everybody, and this is nothing to say of Justinian’s wife, the empress Theodora. In the earlier histories Theodora plays a very minor and occasional part in the proceedings, but in the Secret History she almost eclipses Justinian himself with her graphically lurid backstory, her wilfulness, and the power she has over the empire. She is shown as nothing less than a sex-crazed maniac who originated as a stage-performing stripper, a prostitute and concubine who literally screwed her way from Egypt to Constantinople, around the entire eastern Mediterranean. Here is a choice excerpt from the section on Theodora:

                ‘She used to tease her lovers by lounging around with them, and by constantly toying with novel methods of intercourse she could always draw the attention of the lascivious to her; so far from waiting to be approached by anyone she encountered, she herself by cracking dirty jokes and wiggling her hips suggestively would invite all who came her way, especially if they were beardless youths. Never was anyone so completely given up to unlimited self-indulgence.

                ‘Often she would go to a bring-your-own-food dinner party with ten or more youths, all at the peak of their physical prowess and with sex their trade, and she would lie with all her fellow-diners the whole night through; and when she had worn them all out she would turn to their servants, as many as thirty on occasion, and copulate with every one of them – but even so could not satisfy her lust.’

                [Translation by G.A. Williamson and P. Sarris, Penguin Classics edition, 2007. pp.37-38]

                And there are people out there who think history is boring?

The Empress Theodora in the San Vitale Mosaics in Ravenna. Notice how she's still wearing clothes and not screwing everything in reach 

Of course, we must be aware that there is a reason Procopius is presenting Theodora in such a way; for the same reason that Belisarius’ wife, Antonina, is vilified beforehand – to attack their husbands, to present them as unmanly and ruled by the tyranny of lustful women. I don’t wish to go into too deep an analysis of this Anecdota, as that is the realm of scholarship, and not my mere review. I will content myself with saying that we must be careful about what we read – especially this. We have no way of knowing if this representation of Theodora has any historical truth. What matters is that Procopius is presenting a particularly nasty image of this empress in order to pour scorn upon her, and therefore to further denigrate Justinian alongside her.

Overall, the Secret History isn’t actually much of a history. There’s no narrative, as such, but rather a collection of anecdotes (as the name Anecdota might imply). The first short part of the book pokes ridicule at Belisarius and his wife, before it moves onto a damning picture of Justinian and Theodora who, as Procopius says, ‘destroyed the fortunes of the Roman Empire’ [Penguin, 2007. pg.25]. After first describing the ignoble origins of these two characters, the history moves on to describing in tedious vehemence every wrongful policy that the emperor and empress ever made, be it letting the Circus Factions run riot in the streets, playing groups and people off against one another, trusting in corrupt officials or levying wealth from every class of people under the sun. Everything is explained with a brief little example, of instances where Justinian or one of his officials performs some evil deed, and Procopius never pulls his punches when it comes to making a judgement. We get nothing but a picture of tyranny and evil, and far from being Justinian ‘the Great’, this emperor and his wife have driven the Roman empire straight into the ground, never resting in their efforts to ruin absolutely everything. There are no redeeming characteristics, nothing good ever happens, and the downfall of civilisation seems to be just around the corner. Procopius would have made a good ‘Daily Mail’ columnist today.

Byzantine Follis from Justinian's reign, minted in Kyzikos

So that’s the roundup of Procopius of Caesarea, with an added review of his notorious Secret History. If you want non-stop armchair generalship, read his Wars (all eight books’-worth). If you want a panegyric, then maybe read the Buildings. But if you want juicy character assassination rhetoric, something that smacks of pessimism and is very much the opposite of the obsequious, flattering account written about a living, reigning autocrat, then Procopius’ Secret History is well-worth a look.

Bibliozantium 4

Procopius. In 3 volumes. K.W. Dindorf (ed). Bonn. [Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae], 40,41,42, (1833,1833,1838).

Procopius of Caesarea. History of the Wars . In 7 volumes.  transl. by H.B. Dewing. [Loeb Classical Library]. London and New York.

-          1. [L048], (1914) –  The Persian War

-          2. [L081], (1916) – The Vandalic War

-          3. [L107], (1919) – The Gothic War

-          4. [L173], (1924) – The Gothic War – cont.

-          5. [L217], (1928) – The Gothic War – cont.

-          6. [L290], (1969) – The Anecdota or Secret History

-          7. [L343], (1971) – Buildings

Procopius. The Secret History. transl. by G.A. Williamson and P. Sarris. London: Penguin. Revised edition. (2007).

[There are dozens of editions and translations of the Secret History available, many of them freely available on the internet. As with most ancient texts, the most recent Penguin Classics translation will be most useful for anybody who just wants to get a rough sense of the text without needing to go too far in. The Loeb edition is good because, like all the best editions, it presents its translation opposite the original language of the text. Plus, the Loeb collection contains translations of all of Procopius’ works, so if you wanted the entire thing, you need go no further].