John Lydus and the Roman Past: Antiquarianism and Politics in the Age of Justinian [Hardcover]

Michael Maas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 13, 1992 | ISBN-10: 0415060214 | ISBN-13: 978-0415060219 | Edition: 1

John Lydus and the Roman Past offers a new interpretation of the emergence of Byzantine society as viewed through the eyes of John Lydus, a sixth-century scholar and civil servant. Maas show that control of classical inheritance was politically contested in the reign of Justinian. He demonstrates how the past could be used to convey legitimacy and social definition at a time of profound change.

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About the Author

Michael Maas is Assistant Professor of History at Rice University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 220 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (March 13, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415060214
• ISBN-13: 978-0415060219
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,022,148 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, insightful monograph, August 27, 2006

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Florentius (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: John Lydus and the Roman Past: Antiquarianism and Politics in the Age of Justinian (Hardcover)

This book is a scholarly treatment of the works of John the Lydian, a mid-level bureaucrat in the court of the Roman Emperor Justinian, AD 527 through 565. John is known from three extant works: De Magistratibus (On the Magistracies), De Mensibus (On the Months), and De Ostentis (On Signs). All of these works are considered 'antiquarian' in that they all dealt with Roman traditions from the distant past.

I picked out this book specifically because I had read an article by Charles Pazdernik which dealt with John the Lydian and found him to be a fascinating historical figure. Michael Maas does an excellent job explaining the scope and subject matter of each of John's works, and examines the motives behind why he wrote what he did. As someone who worked within the magistracy of the Praetorian Prefecture, John believed that the Empire--which was falling into ruin--could only be restored by the reinvigoration of the ancient magistracies, particularly his own prefecture. He lauds Phocas who was Prefect for several months (and a crypto-pagan) while excoriating the notorious John of Cappadocia.

Maas speculates about John's own religious outlook and also about the religious make up of the bureacracy in Constantinople in the mid-6th century. Interestingly, in his examination of "On the Months", he delves into the subject of how much the pagan past (festivals in particular) survived into the Christian era and were stripped of their pagan significance. He points out how John's work "On the Magistracies" contains much forced and false chronology, inserted specifically to make his claims for the antiquity of the office of the Praetorian Prefecture seem reasonable. Maas's exposition of "On Signs" marks it as a seminal work in the history of astrology and points out that for the late classical elite, astrology was still considered a science and that many educated people believed that the future, a person's character, and physical appearance could be divined by the movement of the stars.

This book would probably be a more profitable read if one had some familiarity with John's work. Maas refrains from including long translated passages from the work--which might have been helpful, actually. I will now have to seek out John's works--at least one of which (On the Magistracies) is mentioned as having been translated into English in the bibliography. My only other problem with this book was a couple of typos which slipped through--one of which made for very confusing reading.