The Byzantine reception of Herodotus remains a largely unexplored field. Although solid studies on specific aspects of it have been published, we lack a diachronic overview of the modalities of circulation and appropriation of Herodotus in Byzantium. Admittedly, gathering and understanding the material is not a simple task: the corpus ranges from biographies and critical appraisals (e.g. Photios’ Library and the Suda) to literary imitation (e.g. Prokopios and Laonikos Chalkokondyles), from compilation of passages (e.g. the Palatine Anthology and the Constantinian Excerpts) to glossaries and grammatical treatises (e.g. the Lexeis and Gregory of Corinth on the Ionic dialect). This round table takes a step towards filling this gap in scholarship by bringing together specialists who approach the phenomenon from different angles. The round table investigates the copying of Herodotus’ manuscripts and the agents involved (scribes, correctors and patrons) within their socio-historical context. Consequently, it examines the Byzantine use of manuscripts, especially through annotations made by readers in the margins. The production and consumption of manuscripts are analyzed in relation to significant intellectual enterprises from the Byzantine period, in particular regarding quotations, excerpt collections and wisdom literature, as well as the reuse and reinterpretation of Herodotean themes and characters in Byzantine historiography. The round table looks at Herodotus’s role in shaping Byzantine historical writing and memory. It surveys the afterlife of Herodotus beyond Antiquity and considers the Byzantine perception and representation of the past beyond their own time. Overall, it aims to offer a first set of answers, raise new questions and stimulate further debate on the subject.
This paper offers a cursory introduction to the topic of the Round Table and the challenges it addresses. It reviews the state of the art and outlines possible new avenues for research. Herodotus’ Histories was read throughout the Byzantine period; however, scholarship has largely overlooked the study of its reception in Byzantium. This RT works…
This paper explores the presence and reuse of Herodotus’ Histories in Byzantine chronicles, with special focus on Book 1 and its account of the Persian rise. This narrative served as a significant point of reference, beginning with Sextus Julius Africanus, continuing with Malalas, and culminating in Zonaras (Epit. Hist. 3.26). Indeed, Africanus’ Chronographiae -the foundation…
Herodotus’ Histories have long shaped the imagination of the Greco-Roman and Byzantine worlds. From poetry and rhetoric to history and oratory, countless texts echo and recast Herodotean episodes to meet shifting rhetorical, political, and ideological needs. Yet one dimension of his enduring influence remains less explored: the ways in which his narratives helped construct Byzantine…
The paper will address the presence of Herodotus’ Histories in Greek excerpt collections from Late antiquity to the early Palaiologan period. It will first focus on structured moral encyclopedias like Books 3 and 4 of Stobaeus’ Anthologion (5th century), and the collection commonly known as Ps.-Maximos Homologetes’ Loci communes, in the latter case reflecting on…
This paper is devoted to the last generation of Byzantine scholarship on Herodotus and its reception in Renaissance Italy, through a sub-family of recentiores derived from Plut. Gr. 70.6 (siglum ‘T’), the manuscript of the Histories which Gemistos Plethon edited, rewrote, and supplemented over the final decades of his life as a teacher in Mistra….