The Depiction of Character in the "Chronographia" of Michael Psellos

272 Pages·2013·2.16 MB·English

by  Frederick Lauritzen

THE DEPICTION OF CHARACTER
IN THE
CHRONOGRAPHIA
OF
MICHAEL PSELLOS
ς
BYZANTIO
Studies in Byzantine History and Civilization
7
Series Editors:
Michael Altripp
Lars Martin Hoffmann
Editorial & Advisory Board
Michael Featherstone (CNRS, Paris)
Bojana Krsmanović (Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade)
Bogdan Maleon (University of Iasi)
Arietta Papaconstantinou (University of Reading)
Antonio Rigo (University of Venice)
Horst Schneider (University of Munich)
Juan Signes Codoñer (University of Valladolid)
Christos Stavrakos (University of Ioannina)
Peter Van Deun (University of Leuven)
Yannis Varalis (University of Volos)
Nino Zchomelidse (Johns Hopkins University)
THE DEPICTION OF CHARACTER
IN THE
CHRONOGRAPHIA
OF
MICHAEL PSELLOS
Frederick Lauritzen
H
F
Cover illustration
Hagia Sophia, Monembasia – Photo Michael Altripp, Greifswald
Cover design by Moxie, Turnhout
© 2013, Brepols Publishers n.v., Turnhout, Belgium
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D/2013/0095/134
ISBN 978-2-503-54841-8
Printed on acid-free paper
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
1 . Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The Life of Psellos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
The Cultural Context of the Chronographia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
The Style of the Chronographia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2 . Character in the Chronographia ........................ 31
Connection between Appearance and Manner . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Reality and Appearance of the Person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Soul and Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
The Soul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
The Inner Mentality (Γνώμη) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Combination of Mind and Soul as Representing the
Internal Aspect of a Person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Manner (ἦθος) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Appearance (εἶδος) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3 . The Unity of Character in Psellos’ Chronographia ........ 55
Fate and Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Character and Appearance and the Direct Connection
between them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Unity through Virtue or Vice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Michael V Kalaphates as an Example of Cowardice . . . . . 62
Isaak I Komnenos as a Man of Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Michael VII Doukas: the Just Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Toleration of Imperfection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Complex Unity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
A Single Main Characteristic of Each Person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Manner of Presentation of Single Virtue or Vice . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Composition of the Books as Reflecting the Interest in a
Characterizing Virtue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Basil II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Romanos III Argyros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Michael V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4 . Platonic Personality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
The Characters of Theophrastus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
A Platonic Physiognomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
The Absence of Weakness of Will . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Platonic Psychology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Unchanging Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Conclusion: the Four Cardinal Virtues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
5 . Rhetorical Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
What is the Rhetorical Genre of the Chronographia? . . . . . . 120
The Encomium and the Chronographia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Relation between History and Encomium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Psellos’ Use of the Encomium for the Chronographia . . . . . . 126
Structure of the Books of the Chronographia Based
on Encomia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
The Chronographia as a Work of Rhetoric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Fabrication (πλάσμα) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Arrangement of Subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
The Incidental Remark (παράφθεγμα) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
6 . Historical Manipulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Historical Interpretation: Constantine IX and Michael VII 147
Psellos and Other Historians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Avoidance of Unpleasant Facts for Constantine X Doukas
and Michael VII Doukas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Individual Responsibility in History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Michael IV Paphlagon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Romanos IV Diogenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Basil II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Romanos III Argyros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Psellos’ Political Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
7 . The Use of Classical Literature to Build Character . . . . . . . . 167
Classical Quotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Classical Models Used to Build Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Classical Authors Employed Systematically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
8 . Conclusion: Unparalleled Lives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Appendix 1: People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Appendix 2: Structure of the Chronographia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Select Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Psellos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Translations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Other primary sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Secondary Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257


PREFACE
It is a privilege to spend time with a great author especially when he re-
veals so much about his attitudes to life and such curiosity about the peo-
ple he encountered . The idea of researching Psellos’ gallery of portraits
originated earlier in Venice and I have to thank the Classics Department
at Columbia University for accepting the proposal, encouraging me and
discussing the final result . I owe a debt of gratitude to the thesis supervi-
sor Professor Alan Cameron as well as Professors Suzanne Said and Car-
mela Franklin for supporting this project . Together with Professors John
Duffy and Federica Ciccolella, they contributed many insights during
the final discussion . Since then some time has passed in rewriting this
text, mainly at the Bibliothèque Byzantine in Paris and at the Fondazi-
one per le Scienze Religiose of Bologna where Professor Alberto Melloni
and my colleagues there have offered invaluable suggestions . During all
this time Professor Antonio Rigo has offered important insights for my
work in Byzantine studies . I also offer my thanks to Professor Silvia Ron-
chey who has encouraged and supported the publication . I am grateful
to Professors Michael Altripp and Lars Hoffmann as well as Bart Janssens
who have supervised the inclusion of this book in the series Βυζάντιος:
Studies in Byzantine History and Civilization published by Brepols .
Many others have aided me in this project and are too numerous to
mention . A special thanks should go to my parents to whom I dedicate
this work, Kallinikos Lazaridis who has helped me with Modern Greek .
Of course my wife’s support, suggestions and patience have been a sine
qua non for my research in New York, Paris and Bologna . All mistakes
are my own, but whatever merits this work may have are the result of
discussions with professors, colleagues, students and friends to whom I
offer my gratitude .
