Originally written as a seminar paper at UC Berkeley in 2007; only lightly revised since.

This thesis examines the sixth-century CE Byzantine historian Procopius’ notion of men’s heroic conduct. It argues that, despite Procopius’ reputation as the last great Classical historian, he created heroes that were firmly rooted in the sixth-century CE Christian Byzantine world. Procopius’ writing reveals that sixth-century Eastern Roman society was abandoning Classical constructions of heroism based on an individual’s worldly achievements and military prowess and adopting Christian notions of courage dependant on piety, humility, and divine intervention. In order to understand the innovative aspects of the new Christian heroic ideal as Procopius presented it, the thesis traces the origins and development of both Classical and Christian notions of valor. It focuses on Greek writers from the heroic age of Homer, to the sixth-century CE ecclesiastical and pagan historians. It then examines the similar and different ways these writers defined ideal and non-ideal men. The thesis explores how the new Christian heroic ideal influenced Procopius’ description of foreign peoples. It suggests that Procopius’ descriptions of “barbarians” represented a new Christian vision of ethnicity. People were no longer described as Romans and barbarians, but increasingly, were designated as Christians and pagans. The thesis concludes by comparing and contrasting Procopius’ descriptions of holy men and secular men. It asserts that understanding the new heroic ideal helps explain why secular warrior-heroes like Belisarius and Totila, so familiar from Classical literature, gradually disappeared from literature in the ensuing centuries and were replaced by these “holy heroes of Christ.” """""""

N&N Publication 2016