The Sixth Century: End or Beginning?

Description

This paperback was originally published as Volume 10 in the series Byzantina Australiensia, Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, Department of Modern Greek, University of Sydney, Sydney nsw 2006, Australia, Brisbane 1996. The twenty-two papers contained in this volume are intended not as published conference proceedings but rather as a collection of essays focused on a theme. Indeed, although the majority were delivered at the conference held by the Australian Association for Byzantine Studies in Brisbane in 1995, six of them, those by Barry Baldwin, Daniel Callam, John Chryssavgis, Michael Maas, Mary Cunningham and Karl-Heinz Uthemann, were not read on that occasion, but were offered by their authors as contributions to a study of the sixth century and the extent to which it can be viewed as an end or a beginning. The choice of this theme is partly an obvious one, given that the preponderance of Byzantine scholarship in Australia focuses on late antiquity and the transition to the Byzantine Middle Ages. Partly, however, it offers a timely occasion to reflect on the strides that have been made in our understanding of the sixth century over the past three or four decades. During this time we have seen the publication of both important text editions (those of the works of Ps. Denys and Romanos come to mind as examples) and monographs, translations and commentaries (it is appropriate to mention here the outcomes of the Australian Malalas project). In addition we have witnessed a growth in awareness of the significance of oriental sources, whether written, monumental or pictorial, for the study of early Byzantium. Then too the concerted attention which the process of transformation of the seventh century has recently been receiving from Byzantine and other scholars incites a fresh attempt to consider the sixth century in context. If further justification were needed for the suitability or topical nature of the theme, one would only have to adduce the European Science Foundation project on the transformation of the Roman world from the fourth to the eighth centuries, coordinated by Evangelos Chrysos, one of the participants at the Brisbane conference. Plates and Figures .vii Acknowledgements ix Abbreviations xi Introduction xv Inheriting the Fifth Century: Who Bequeathed What? / Philip Rousseau 1 Writing the Reign of Justinian: Malalas versus Theophanes / Roger Scott 20 Procopius and the Samaritans / Katherine Adshead 35 Bury, Malalas and the Nika Riot / Michael Jeffreys 42 The Chronicle of John Malalas, Book I: A Commentary / Elizabeth Jeffreys 52 The Use of Pagan Mythology in the Christian Empire with Particular Reference to the Dionysiaca of Nonnus / Wolfgang Liebeschuetz 75 Notes of Christian Epigrams in Book One of the Greek Anthology / Barry Baldwin 92 The Reading of Paul the Silentiary / Ian Martlew 105 Early Monasticism and Ps. Denys / Daniel Callam 112 Impact of St Sabas: The Legacy of Palestinian Monasticism / Kathleen Hay 118 Aspects of Spiritual Direction: The Palestinian Tradition / John Chryssavgis 126 Junillus Africanus' 'Instituta Regularia Divinae Legis' in its Justinianic Context / Michael Maas 131 The Silence of the Sources: The Sixth Century and East-Syrian 'Antiochene' Exegesis / Corrie Molenberg 145 Severus of Antioch and the Homily: The End of the Beginning? / Pauline Allen 163 The Sixth Century: A Turning-Point/or Byzantine Homiletics? / Mary Cunningham 176 Through the Tunnel with Leontius of Jerusalem: The Sixth-Century Transformation of Theology / Patrick Gray 187 Christ's Image versus Christology: Thoughts on the Justinianic Era as Threshold of an Epoch / Karl-Heinz Uthemann 197 Sixth-Century Art and Architecture in 'Old Rome': End or Beginning? / Joan Barclay Lloyd 224 Sixth-Century Ravenna from the Perspective of Abbot Agnellus / Ann Moffatt 236 Forming and Transforming Proto-Byzantine Urban Public Space / Michael Milojevic 247 Byzantium, Planet Earth and the Solar System / Paul Farquharson 263 Climatic Change in the Fifth and Sixth Centuries? / Johannes Koder 270 General Index 287 Contributors 308