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Early Byzantine apocalyptic discourses : coping with crises in the sixth and seventh centuries /

"The Byzantine Empire faced many threats, but few were as great as the events of the sixth and seventh centuries, when paranoia, plagues, and wars threatened to tear the empire apart. Like today, prophets predicted horrors to come while preachers called on their congregations to repent. This bo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Strickler, Ryan W.
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Leiden : Brill, [2026]
Series:Brill's series on the Early Middle Ages, volume 32
Subjects:
Apocalyptic literature > History and criticism.
Byzantine Empire > History > 527-1081.
Byzantine Empire > Church history.
Littérature apocalyptique > Histoire et critique.
Empire byzantin > Histoire > 527-1081.
Table of Contents:
  • Acknowledgements
  • 1. Introduction
  • 1. Setting the scene
  • 2. Methodology
  • 3. Late-Antique and Seventh-Century literature
  • 4. Apocalyptic literature and discourse
  • 5. Scholarship on the apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius
  • 6. Conclusion
  • 2. Sixth-Century crises
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. The year 6000
  • 3. Apocalyptic continuations
  • 4. Disasters and riots
  • 5. The plague of Justinian
  • 6. Procopius and Justinian
  • 7. Conclusion
  • 3. The Emperor: Messianic hero or Antichrist?
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Heroic emperors
  • 2.1 Maurice's "martyrdom": prophecies in Theophylact Simocatta
  • 2.2 Heraclius: the empire's new hope
  • 2.3 The Eschatological emperor
  • 3. The emperor as adversary
  • 3.1 Phocas: destroyer of the empire
  • 3.2 Heraclius: usher of the apocalypse?
  • 3.3 Emperor and priest?
  • 4. Conclusion
  • 4. Remaining steadfast: apostasy and identity
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Identity: a fraught subject
  • 3. Narrativity and social identity
  • 3.1 Emplotment
  • 3.2 Apostasy
  • 4. Sources
  • 5. Adversus Judaeos literature
  • 5.1 Papiscus and Philo
  • 5.2 The Doctrina of Jacob the Newly Baptised
  • 6. Apostasy in apocalyptic discourse
  • 6.1 The life of Theodore of Sykeon
  • 6.2 The life of George of Choziba
  • 6.3 Fragment by Maximus the Confessor
  • 6.4 The apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius
  • 7. Conclusion
  • 5. Monsters in our midst: dehumanising the enemy
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Dehumanisation
  • 3. Sources
  • 4. Imperial Dehumanisation
  • 4.1 Phocas
  • 4.2 Heraclius or Armilos?
  • 5. Dehumanisation of the Persians
  • 6. Dehumanisation of Islamic invaders
  • 6.1 Sophronius
  • 6.2 Maximus the Confessor
  • 6.3 Pseudo-Methodius
  • 7. Gog and Magog
  • 7.1 Syriac Alexander Legend
  • 7.2 Pseudo-Methodius
  • 8. Conclusion
  • 6. Conclusion
  • Bibliography
  • Index