sehepunkte 24 (2024), Nr. 11

Albrecht Ziebuhr: Die Exkurse im Geschichtswerk des Prokopios von Kaisareia

Ziebuhr's work offers a well-founded argument for recognising the Herodotean elements in the sixth-century historian, too often neglected in favour of the more obvious Thucydidean touches that mark his writings. It should be noted right away that, although the work was published in 2024, it represents an only slightly modified version of his doctoral thesis, submitted in early 2022. The bibliography consequently omits a number of recent relevant works. No doubt as a result, a notable absence among the works cited is the doctoral thesis of Jakob Riemenschneider, now published by de Gruyter, Prokop und der soziale Kosmos der Historiographie: Exkurse, Diskurse und die römische Gesellschaft der Spätantike. [1] It turns out, therefore, that almost simultaneously two German students were working on digressions in Procopius, apparently quite unaware of one another's work. There are, naturally, overlaps between the two works: both discuss, for instance, his digression on King Abgar of Edessa (Wars 2.12.8-30) and both, in their different ways, are interested in setting the author in the context of sixth-century society and literature. Fortunately, they complement each other rather well. While Riemenschneider offers an extensive discussion of contemporary authors, arguing for contacts and influence that range well beyond traditional genres of literature, Ziebuhr resolutely focuses on Procopius himself and his classical forebears.

Ziebuhr sees his work as a necessary prolegomenon to more detailed investigations of Procopius' literary style, a subject that has long been neglected. His interest lies in how the historian adapted the classical style (of Thucydides and Herodotus) to his own times, and to this end he chooses to focus on the digressions (excursuses). He seeks to understand the extent of Thucydides' and Herodotus' influence and to grasp how Procopius integrates Christian elements into his narrative. As already mentioned, a leitmotif of the whole book is the presence of Herodotus' influence, which Ziebuhr persuasively links to the compatibility of the Ionian historian's insistence on the role of divine forces in human history with Procopius' view of God's role in shaping events (e.g. 103-4). He thus builds on an article that he cites extensively, by F. Basso and G. Greatrex, 'How to interpret Procopius' preface to the Wars' (in S. Janniard and G. Greatrex, eds, Le monde de Procope / The World of Procopius, Paris, 2018, 59-72), in which the authors had highlighted the influence of Herodotus in the first chapter of the Wars, even if the verbal parallels with Thucydides are sometimes more apparent.

The first chapter of the work offers a judicious discussion of how to identify a digression, which, the author insists, is not a precise science. As Ziebuhr notes, digressions could fulfil various functions, sometimes to entertain the reader, but on other occasions to reinforce a point being made in the main narrative. The next chapter is devoted to the criteria for determining an excursus: these are explored in useful detail, taking into account ancient views on the subject. His catalogue, it may be noted, is rather shorter than that proposed by Riemenschneider.

The third chapter moves on to decorative digressions, designed sometimes to amuse the reader, sometimes also to heighten tension before a significant event (like the siege of Rome). As Ziebuhr notes, they can also serve to show the learning and experience of the writer. The fourth chapter focuses on the digression as adiutorium, i.e. as an aid to the main narrative. Here he focuses on the Vandalic Wars and the role of tykhe (fate) in the downfall of the Vandals. By a close analysis of Wars 3.22 and 4.7.18-21, passages on the mutability of fortune, Ziebuhr identifies important stylistic links to Herodotus' account of the fall of the Lydian kingdom under Croesus, both foretold. Though both Croesus (Hdt. 1.86) and Gelimer (Wars 4.9.10-11) recognise the reversal of their fortunes, as Ziebuhr notes (105), their reactions are rather different.

Nonetheless, in the fifth chapter, Ziebuhr takes this introduction of a biblical citation (on the part of Gelimer) as a starting point for his extensive discussion of Jewish and Christian themes in the Wars. Here he succeeds in establishing that Procopius need not be wrong in associating the Moors (a term widely applied to nomads in North Africa) with a Punic inscription and in demonstrating that the whole digression (at Wars 4.10.12-29) about their ancestors, the Canaanites, establishing themselves in North Africa is linked to sixth-century prejudice against their pagan practices. As he notes, the digression is inserted at a point where their cruelty has just been emphasised and reinforces this negative impression, since the Canaanites were decried in the Old Testament (and commentaries) as irredeemable pagans. The analysis, like that of Riemenschneider (V. 4), is convincing, although it is worth remarking that elsewhere Procopius portrays the Moors more favourably, notably in his contrasting their hardy lifestyle with that of the Vandals (Wars 4.6.6-14), as Philip Wood has noted (Byzantion 81 [2011], 446-7), cf. ch. 5, 'The Moorish alternative' by J. Conant (Staying Roman. Conquest and Identity in Africa and the Mediterranean, 400-700, Cambridge, 2012), neither cited by Ziebuhr. The chapter also includes a discussion on the Abgar legend of Edessa, which, Ziebuhr argues, Procopius knew well because of the time he had spent in the city.

The sixth and longest chapter tackles Procopius' 'disaster digressions', that on the plague (Wars 2.22-23) and that on various disasters to afflict the empire in 547/8 (Wars 7.29.1-20). As elsewhere, Ziebuhr is able to detect Herodotean elements in what appears, at first sight, to be a very Thucydidean account. As he argues, Procopius' attribution of the disease to God is one aspect of this. There are also good comparisons between modern descriptions of the symptoms of the pandemic and the historian's, which support his account, although the bibliography here omits some important elements, such as recent work by Peter Sarris. Ziebuhr's analysis of the digression on the series of disasters that struck the empire in 547/8 is a high-point of the book. He rightly perceives the aim of the digression as to exculpate Belisarius: Procopius acknowledged the general's failure to combat Totila in Italy, but, by emphasising the wave of simultaneous catastrophes, he is able to deflect blame from his protagonist. In Herodotean fashion, the Romans were simply destined to fare badly. Beyond this, Ziebuhr draws out Procopius' familiarity with the Sibylline oracles and adduces parallels between the disasters signalled in the excursus and these curious works, at least one hitherto unnoticed.

Ziebuhr's concluding chapter is very brief. This well-argued book, based on close readings of Procopius, succeeds in drawing out how important Herodotus was for his sixth-century successor, offering him a way to incorporate Christian elements while not breaking with the traditions of classical historiography. At the same time, he also demonstrates that Procopius is able to adapt the norms of the genre to his ends rather than slavishly following them and even distorting his own account in order to ape their style.

Note:

[1] The book is available in open access: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111547640/html