The Question of Natural Knowledge in Theophylaktos Simokatta (d. after 640) Quaestiones Physicae (Translation, Commentary and Context)

Theophylaktos Simokatta (c.580-c.640), a byzantine historiographer, had an interest in abstract thought, theological issues and natural knowledge. He wrote, besides history, Ethical Epistles, On Predestined Terms of Life and Quaestiones Physicae, a short work on the various problems of natural phenomena. This minor work is written in the form of a dialogue (question-answer format). The text deals with some supposed wonders of nature. Some historians consider the work scarcely a serious work of scholarship, but merely a brief example of paradoxographic genre of pseudo-scientific literature of a sophistical nature, intended for entertainment: as an example, one question concerns the ravens that do not drink water in summer. However, other questions may express some more serious content: such is the dialogue about a plant called ruta/rue and why it has an effect on snakes or snakes' bites (venom). Since I shared in the past, at a conference at the University of Bucharest, the importance of this work for the transmission of ancient knowledge in Byzantium (ancient authorities that Theophylakt Simokatta used), the purpose of this presentation, after more research, is to strengthen the case for interest in natural knowledge in Byzantium using paradoxographical texts. His Epistles circulated in the 12th century (Vat. gr. 1349 and 1391) and his Quaestiones Physicae appear also in the 12th century (in Michael Glykas), used as a source of information along with the Physiologus, Claudius Aelianus (On the Nature of Animals) works of Psellos (De omnifaria doctrina), which indicates that we have a text that circulated also as a source of knowledge.