Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T17:30:05.889Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Zeno, the epileptic emperor: historiography and polemics as sources of realia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Lawrence I. Conrad
Lawrence I. Conrad*
Affiliation:
Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Several Byzantine sources describe the emperor Zeno as suffering from epilepsy, which, although assigned to natural causes in Greek humoral medicine, was more widely explained in terms of demonic possession. The charge of epilepsy originated with the north Syrian historian Eustathius and comprised an extremist Chalcedonian attempt to discredit the ruler, probably for promulgation of the Henoticon in 482. It is ignored or contradicted by other Chalcedonian writers and by all Monophysite sources. The origins and growth of the legend affirm once again the great influence of confessional discord on historical perceptions; they also illustrate how a single author’s baseless polemic can eventually assume the form of an apparently secure and widely attested affirmation of simple fact, and highlight the crucial role of north Syria in producing the literature upon which modern scholarship on late antiquity must rely.

Type
Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 24 , 2000 , pp. 61 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Jeanselme, E., ‘L’épilepsie sur le trône de Byzance’, Bulletin de la société française d’histoire de la médecine 18 (1924) 225-74Google Scholar.

2. Ibid., 226-28.

3. For example, Martindale, J.R., The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, II (Cambridge 1980) 1202 Google Scholar.

4. De morbo sacre I.33-38; ed. and trans. Grensemann, Hermann, Die hippokratische Schrift ‘Über die heilige Krankheit’ (Berlin 1968) 64-67CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5. See the summary accounts in Temkin, Owsei, The Falling Sickness: a History of Epilepsy from the Greeks to the Beginnings of Modern Neurology, 2nd rev. ed. (Baltimore and London 1971) 3-27Google Scholar; Schneble, Hansjörg, Krankheit der ungezählten Namen. Ein Beitrag zur Sozial-, Kultur- und Medizingeschichte der Epilepsie anhand ihrer Benennungen vom Altertum bis zur Gegenwart (Bern 1987), 6-16Google Scholar.

6. The best-known case of this is ancient Babylonia; see Stol, Marten, Epilepsy in Babylonia (Groningen 1993) 16-19Google Scholar.

7. De morbo sacro I.1-4; ed. and trans. Grensemann, 60-61.

8. Or, at least, the text does not play an important role in subsequent discussions of the disease in either the Greek or the Arabic traditions. This point seems to have been missed in current scholarship. See, for example, Temkin, The Falling Sickness, 3-19, 28-55, 65-67; Lloyd, G.E.R., Magic, Reason and Experience: Studies in the Origin and Development of Greek Science (Cambridge 1979) 15-27, 37-40Google Scholar.

9. De locis affectis III.9-11; = Kühn, VIII, 173:6-201:17; trans. Siegel, Rudolph E., Galen on the Affected Parts (Basle and New York 1976) 86-97Google Scholar.

10. Pro puero epileptico consilium; = Kühn, XI, 357-78; trans. Temkin, Owsei in Bulletin of the History of Medicine 2 (1934) 179-89Google Scholar.

11. See his Ponema iatrikon ariston di’ iambon, ed. Boissonade, Jean François in his Anecdota graeca e codibus regiis (Paris 1829-31; repr. Hildesheim 1962) I, 207:10-208:7 vv. 785–807 Google Scholar; idem, In morbum comitialem, ed. and trans. Antonio Garzya in his ‘Versi e un opúsculo inediti di Michele Psello’, Quaderni de ‘Le parole e le idee’ 4 (1966) 26-28.

12. See, for example, van der Loos, H., The Miracles of Jesus (Leiden 1965) 371–414 Google Scholar; Eitrem, S., Some Notes on the Demonology in the New Testament, 2nd ed. (Oslo 1966) 32-33Google Scholar; Böcher, Otto, Christus Exorcista. Dämonismus und Taufe im Neuen Testament (Stuttgart 1972) 71, 77-137, 166-75Google Scholar; Geller, Markham J., ‘Jesus’ Theurgic Powers: Parallels in the Talmud and Incantation Bowls’, Journal of Jewish Studies 28 (1977) 144-46CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13. Matthew 17:14-20; Mark 9:14-29; Luke 9:37-43.

14. E.g. Matthew 12:28.

15. Still valuable is Harnack, Adolf von, Medicinisches aus der ältesten Kirchengeschichte (Leipzig 1892) 129-32Google Scholar.

16. Origen, Commentariorum in evangelium Matthaeum XIII.3-7; ed. Klostermann, Erich, Matthäuserklärung (Leipzig 1935-37Google Scholar; Origines Werke 10) 185:15-198:27, ad Matthew 17:14-20.

17. Dölger, Franz Joseph, ‘Der Einfluss des Origenes auf die Beurteilung der Epilepsie und Mondsucht im Christlichen Altertum’, in his Antike und Christentum (Münster in Westfalen 1929-36) IV, 95-109Google Scholar.

18. The Testament of Solomon, ed. McCown, Chester Charlton (Leipzig 1922)Google Scholar. It may be this lore to which Josephus refers in his account of the magical powers of Solomon over demons; Antiquities VIII.45-49; ed. and trans. Thackeray, H.St.J. et al. in the Loeb Josephus (London 1926-65) V, 594-97Google Scholar.

19. Athanasius of Alexandria, Vita sancii Antonii XXXVI.1-2; ed. and trans. Bartelink, G.J.M., Vie d’Antoine (Paris 1994) 232:16-234:4 (text), 233-35Google Scholar (trans.).

20. See Smith, Wesley D., ‘So-Called Possession in Pre-Christian Greece’, Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 96 (1965) 403-26CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21. Matthew 12:43-45; Luke 11:24-26.

22. Dölger, Franz Joseph, ‘Der Ausschluss der Besessenen (Epileptiker) von Oblation und Kommunion nach der Synode von Elvira’, in his Antike und Christentum, IV, 110-29Google Scholar.

23. See the discussions in Böcher, Christus Exorcista, 175-80; Haag, Herbert, Teufelsglaube, 2nd ed. in collaboration with Elliger, Katharina, Lang, Bernhard, and Limbeck, Meinrad (Tübingen 1980) 408-20Google Scholar.

24. See, for example, Guilland, Rodolphe, ‘Le droit divin à Byzance’, in his Etudes byzantines (Paris 1959) 207-32Google Scholar; Bonfante, Larissa Warren, ‘Emperor, God and Man in the 4th Century: Julian the Apostate and Ammianus Marcellinus’, Parole del passato 19 (1964) 401-27Google Scholar; Ensslin, Wilhelm, ‘Gottkaiser und Kaiser von Gottes Gnaden’, in Hunger, Herbert, ed., Daz byzantinische Herrscherbild (Darmstadt 1975) 54-85Google Scholar; Rösch, Gerhard, Onoma basileias. Studien zum offiziellen Gebrauch der Kaisertitel in spätantiker und frühbyzantinischer Zeit (Vienna 1978) 37-39,42-43, 62-67Google Scholar; Mango, Cyril, Byzantium: the Empire of New Rome (New York 1980) 218-20Google Scholar; Dagron, Gilbert, Empereur et prêtre: étude sue le ‘césaropapisme’ byzantin (Paris 1996)Google Scholar.

25. Codex Theodosianus XVI.v.42.

26. Malchus of Philadelphia (f1. early 6th c.?), Fragmenta (Frammenti), ed. and trans. Lia Raffaella Cresci (Naples 1982) 83-85 no. 9; Lydus, John (d. ca. 565), De magistratibus populi romani III.45, ed. Wuensch, Ricard (Leipzig 1903) 134:6-17Google Scholar; Evagrius, (wr. 594), Historia ecclesiastica III. 1, 29, ed. Bidez, Joseph and Parmentier, Léon (London 1898) 99:4-100:5Google Scholar, 125:6-7; Theophanes (d. 818), Chronographia AM 5983, 135:18-136:22, trans. Mango, Cyril and Scott, Roger, The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor: Byzantine and Near Eastern History, A.D. 284-813 (Oxford 1997) 208 Google Scholar; Cedrenus, George (fl. 12th a), Compendium historiarum, ed. Bekker, Immanuel (Bonn 1838-39) I, 615:11-17Google Scholar; Zonaras, Joannes (fl. second half of 12th c), Epitome historiarum XIV.2, ed. Dindorf, Ludwig (Leipzig 1868-75) III, 254:29-255:13Google Scholar; Callistus, Nicephorus (wr. ca. 1335), Historia ecclesiastica xvi.l, 24, ed. Migne, J.-P. in PG 147 (Paris 1865) 116C-117D, 160C-161AGoogle Scholar. Cf.Laniado, Avshalom, ‘Some Problems in the Sources for the Reign of the Emperor Zeno’, BMGS 15 (1991) 147-73Google Scholar.

27. See, for example, Galen, De locis affectis V.6 (Kühn, VIII, 341:3-10; idem, De morborum causis III (Kühn, VII, 13:11-15); Alexander of Tralies (d. 605), ed. Puschmann, Theodor, Alexander von Tralies (Vienna 1878-79) I, 539:1-545:18Google Scholar, 553:17-21.

28. Evagrius, Historia ecclesiastica III.29, ed. Bidez and Parmentier, 125:6-7.

29. On him see Hunger, Herbert, Die hochsprachliche profane Literatur der Byzantiner (Munich 1978) I, 323 Google Scholar; Martindale, Prosopography, II, 435-36. His reliquiae are collected in Karl, and Müller, Theodor, eds., Fragmenta historicorum graecorum (Paris 1878-85) II, 138-42Google Scholar. Cf. also the fragment edited in Allen, Pauline, ‘An Early Epitomator of Josephus: Eustathius of Epiphaneia’, BZ 81 (1988) 1-11Google Scholar; and Laniado, ‘Problems’, 151-52.

30. Historia ecclesiastica III.27, V.24; ed. Bidez and Parmentier, 124:3-18, 217:29-219:10. Evagrius copies Eustathius’ list into his own work.

31. Ibid. III.37, ed. Bidez and Parmentier, 136:5-7. See also Malalas, John (d. ca. 578), Chronographia, ed. Dindorf, Ludwig (Bonn 1831) 399:4-5Google Scholar; trans. Jeffreys, Elizabeth, Jeffreys, Michael and Scott, Roger, The Chronicle of John Malalas (Melbourne 1986), 224 Google Scholar.

32. Evagrius, Historia ecclesiastica III.37; ed. Bidez and Parmentier, 136:1-4.

33. Ibid. 1.19, 11.15, III.26, 27, 29, 37; ed. Bidez and Parmentier, 28:13-16, 66:5-7, 123:25-26, 124:3-18, 125:13-17, 136:1-4.

34. Malalas, Chronographia, 399:3-4; trans. E. Jeffreys, M. effreys, and Scott, 224.

35. Allen, Pauline, ‘Zachariah Scholasticus and the Historia Ecclesiastica of Evagrius Scholasticus’, JThS, n.s. 31 (1980) 471-88Google Scholar, esp. 485-88; idem, Evagrius Scholasticus, the Church Historian (Leuven 1981), 8-9, 119-20. Cf. also Laniado, ‘Problems’, 152-53.

36. Brooks, E.W., ‘The Emperor Zenon and the Isaurians’, EHR 8 (1893), 216 Google Scholar; Allen, Evagrius Scholasticus, 7-8, 15, 72, 89, 96, 106, 112, 120, 138-40, 143-44, 157, 238-40.

37. Allen, Evagrius Scholasticus, 120, 121, 140.

38. Historia ecclesiastica III.29; ed. Bidez and Parmentier, 125:6-7. More on this below.

39. Theophanes, Chronographia AM 5938; ed. de Boor, 135:31-33; trans. Mango and Scott, 208.

40. Allen, Evagrius Scholasticus, 106, 139.

41. Cf., for example, Historia ecclesiastica III.24 (ed. Bidez and Parmentier, 122:1-8), on Zeno’s murder of Armatus. As this is a summary of the account that Theophanes (Chronographia AM 5969; ed. de Boor, 125:2-13; trans. Mango and Scott, 192) has in much fuller form, one must conclude that the two had a common source. Cf. another case, concerning an earthquake in Antioch, discussed in Mango and Scott, The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor, 171 n. 4.

42. See Hunger, Literatur, I, 458, 478.

43. The question of the passages cited by Theophanes is discussed in a series of notes in Mango and Scott, The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor, 171 n. 4, 181 n. 4, 182 n. 2, 183 n. 1, 202 n. 11, 211 n. 4, 224 n. 7, 356 n. 1. The role of Eustathius is repeatedly confirmed as Theophanes’ source. Cf. also Gentz, Günter, Die Kirchengeschichte des Nicephorus Callistus Xanthopulus und ihre Quellen. Nachgelassene Untersuchungen, ed. Winkelmann, Friedhelm (Berlin 1966) 154-58Google Scholar.

44. Allen, Evagrius Scholasticus, 9, 139.

45. The role of the Greek Redactor has also been studied in my ‘The Conquest of Arwâd: a Source-Critical Study in the Historiography of the Early Medieval Near East’, in Cameron, Averil and Conrad, Lawrence I., eds., The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East, I: Problems in the Literary Source Material (Princeton 1991) 334-36Google Scholar; idem, ‘The Arabs and the Colossus’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 3rd ser., 6 (1996) 170-72.

46. Cf. the classic study of Mango, Cyril, ‘The Availability of Books in the Byzantine Empire, AD 750-850’, in Byzantine Books and Bookmen (Washington, D.C. 1975) 29-45Google Scholar; and the important research on these problems in Griffith, Sidney H., ‘Stephen of Ramlah and the Christian Kerygma in Arabic in 9th-Century Palestine’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 36 (1985) 24-32CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, ‘Muslims and Church Councils: the Apology of Theodore Abu Qurrah’, Studia Patristica 25 (1993) 284-85.

47. Cf. the comments on this in Haldon, J.F., Byzantium in the Seventh Century: the Transformation of a Culture (Cambridge 1990) 425-27CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Cf. also Kennedy, George A., Greek Rhetoric under Christian Emperors (Princeton 1983) 265-75Google Scholar, on the parallel situation posed by the meagre representation of Greek rhetoric from the sixth century until John of Sardis in the early ninth. The longer-term discontinuities are discussed by Mango, Cyril in his ‘Discontinuity with the Classical Past in Byzantium’, in Byzantium and the Classical Tradition, ed. Mullett, Margaret and Scott, Roger (Birmingham 1981) 48-57Google Scholar.

48. Cf. Evagrius, Historia ecclesiastica IV.24; ed. Bidez and Parmentier, 171:21-22, where Evagrius comments that he has not yet been able to gain access to a copy of the history of Agamias, which had been written nearly fifteen years previously. More generally, see Bertelli, Carlo, ‘The Production and Distribution of Books in Late Antiquity’, in Hodges, Richard and Bowden, William, eds., The Sixth Century: Production, Distribution and Demand (Leiden 1998) 41-60Google Scholar.

49. Conrad, Lawrence I., ‘Varietas Syriaca: Secular and Scientific Culture in the Christian Communities of Syria after the Arab Conquest’, in Reinink, G.J. and Klugkist, A.C., eds., After Bardaisan: Studies on Continuity and Change in Syriac Christianity in Honour of Han J.W. Drijvers (Leuven 1999) 85-105Google Scholar.

50. Cedrenus, Compendium historiarum, I, 622:7-23.

51. Zonaras, Epitome historiarum XIV.2; ed. Dindorf, III, 257:22-258:10.

52. Brooks, ‘Zenon’, 218, shows that better evidence has it that Basiliscus was beheaded.

53. Comes, Marcellinus (6th c), Chronicle, ed. Mommsen, Theodor, trans. Croke, Brian (Sydney 1995) 26 Google Scholar (ad arm. 476); Procopius, (wr. 545), History of the Wars III.vii.24-25, ed. and trans. Dewing, H.B. (London 1914-40)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Malalas, Chronographia, 380:12-27; trans. E. Jeffreys, M. Jeffreys, and Scott, 210; and hence Chronicon paschale, ed. Dindorf, Ludwig (Bonn 1832), I. 602:4-11Google Scholar; trans. Whitby, Michael and Whitby, Mary, Chronicon Paschale 284-628 AD (Liverpool 1989) 94 Google Scholar. Cf. also Evagrius, Historia ecclesiastica III.8; ed. Bidez and Parmentier, 108:6-9; John of Nikiu (wr. ca. 690), Chronicle LXXXIII.42; trans, from the Ethiopie version by Charles, Robert Henry, The Chronicle of John (c. 690 AD), Coptic Bishop of Nikiu (London 1916) 113 Google Scholar; Theophanes, Chronographia AM 5969; ed. de Boor, 124:30-125:2; trans. Mango and Scott, 192; Qîndasî, Michael I (d. 1199), Chronique de Michel le Syrien, ed. and trans. Chabot, J.-B. (Paris 1899-1924) II, 144 Google Scholar.

54. John Lydus, De magistratibus III.45; ed. Wuensch, 134:13-17.

55. Nicephorus Callistas, Historia ecclesiastica XVI.24; ed. Migne, PG 147, cols. 160C-161A.

56. Ibid. XVI.22-24; ed. Migne, PG 147, cols. 157C, 157D, 159A, 162B.

57. Karl, and Müller, Theodor, eds., Fragmenta historicorum graecorum, IV, 535–622 Google Scholar; V, 27-38.

58. See Markopoulos, Athanasios Ph., He Chronographia tou Pseudosymeon kai oi peges tes (Ioannina 1978)Google Scholar. I am grateful to the anonymous referee for BMGS for drawing this work to my attention.

59. Allen, Evagrius Scholasticus, 7.

60. Malalas, Chronographia, 398:11-399:6; trans. E. Jeffreys, M. Jeffreys, and Scott, 224.

61. Ibid., 391:1-4; trans. E. Jeffreys, M. Jeffreys, and Scott, 219.

62. Chronicon paschale, I, 607:3-4; trans. Michael Whitby and Mary Whitby, 98.

63. Malchus of Philadelphia, Fragmenta, 85 no. 9.

64. John of Nikiu, Chronicle LXXXIX.97; trans. Charles, 121.

65. Agathias, Historiarum IV.xxix.2; ed. Rudolf Keydell (Berlin 1967), 160:12-15; trans. Frendo, Joseph D., Agathias: the Histories (Berlin 1975) 132 Google Scholar.

66. Agapius, , Kitâb al-’unwân (Historia universalie), ed. Cheikho, Louis (Paris 1912 Google Scholar; CSCO 65, Scr. arabici 10) 317:7-8.

67. Alexander, Paul J., ed. The Oracle of Baalbek: the Tiburtine Sibyl in Greek Dress (Washington, D.C. 1967) 19:159-62Google Scholar (text), 27 (trans.).

68. E.g. ps.- Zachariah of Mityléně (wr. 569), Chronicle VI.6; trans. Hamilton, F.J. and Brooks, E.W., The Syriac Chronicle Known as that of Zachariah of Mitylene (London 1899) 145 Google Scholar; Chronicon anonymum pseudo-Dionysianum vulgo dictum (late 8th e), ed. Chabot, J.-B. (Paris 1927-33Google Scholar; CSCO 91, 104, Scr. syri 43, 53), I, 248:22-24; Michael, , Chronique, II, 149 Google Scholar.

69. Chronicon miscellaneum ad annum domini 724 pertinens, ed. Brooks, E.W. in Chronica minora, II (Paris 1904 Google Scholar; CSCO 4, Scr. syri 4), 138:27-28; Chronicon ad annum domini 846 pertinens, ed. Brooks, E.W. in Chronica minora, II, 218:9-15Google Scholar.

70. Brooks, ‘Zenon’, 216.

71. Cf. the detailed discussion in Frend, W.H.C., The Rise of the Monophysite Movement: Chapters in the History of the Church in the Fifth and Sixth Centuries (Cambridge 1972) 143-83Google Scholar.

72. Brooks, ‘Zenon’, 222-31; Downey, Glanville, A History of Antioch in Syria, from Seleucus to the Arab Conquest (Princeton 1961) 487-96Google Scholar; Frend, History of the Monophysite Movement, 184-85.

73. Downey, History of Antioch, 498-99, 504-13; Cameron, Alan, Circus Factions: Blues and Greens at Rome and Byzantium (Oxford 1976) 149-50Google Scholar.

74. Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (d. 959), De cerimoniis aulae Byzantinae 1.92; ed. and trans. Johann Jacob Reiske (Bonn 1829-30) I, 419:7-13.

75. Cf. the further remarks in my ‘Muhammad and the Charge of Epilepsy’, forthcoming.

76. Cf. Historia ecclesiastica V.l; ed. Bidez and Parmentier, 195:20-196:1. Here Justin I is also vilified for wanton pursuit of pleasures and perversions, greed, and blasphemous sale of religious offices to the highest bidder.

77. Allen, Evagrius Scholasticus, 15, 120-21, 140-41, 166-70. On the Kaiserkritik of Evagrius, see also Tinnefeid, Franz Hermann, Kategorien der Kaiserkritik in der byzantinischen Historiographie von Prokop bis Niketas Chomates (Munich 1971) 43-48Google Scholar; Cameron, Averil, ‘Early Byzantine Kaiserkritik: Two Case-Histories’, BMGS 3 (1976) 1-17, esp. 16Google Scholar.

78. Theophanes, Chronographia AM 5944; ed. de Boor, 105:21-106:14; trans. Mango and Scott, 163.

79. Ibid. AM 5976; ed. de Boor, 130:13-15; trans. Mango and Scott, 200.

80. Oracle of Baalbek, 18:156-57 (text), 27 (trans.).

81. Ibid., 19:159-61 (text), 27 (trans.).

82. See Frend, History of the Monophysite Movement, 190-220.

83. Marcellinus Comes, Chronicle, 30 (ad arm. 491).

84. This account survives in Agapius, Kitâb al-’unwân, 334:6-335:2.

85. Apud Theophanes, Chronographia AM 6122; ed. de Boor, 334:22-25; trans. Mango and Scott, 464.

86. Cf. n. 75 above.