Title: 410: Honorius, his rooster, and the eunuch (Procop. Vand. 1.2.25–26)
Source document: Graeco-Latina Brunensia. 2020, vol. 25, iss. 2, pp. 131-148
Extent
131-148
-
ISSN1803-7402 (print)2336-4424 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/GLB2020-2-10
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/143320
Type: Article
Language
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 International
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
In his Wars (De Bellis), Procopius shares an extraordinary tale about Emperor Honorius, who allegedly heard about the plunder of Rome from his poultry keeper. First, Honorius misunderstood the report because he also had a huge rooster that bore the same name as that of the city. Therefore, the central element of the tale is the misunderstanding between the emperor and his eunuch about the name "Rome." However, the structural features of Procopius' work – the rooster and its keeper together – form a narrative in which a fowl and Rome were not two entities but one. The possibility of being a monarch ruling over the Eastern and the Western sides of the empire, his aim guarded by the keeper, could have worried Honorius. This paper aims to reveal the historical event behind Procopius' tale and its circumstances, that is, a meeting in mid-January 409 when Rome's first siege was reported to Honorius by Terentius, who had taken an active part in securing the emperor's prospective reign. It was in vain because Honorius was blinded by the possibility of becoming a monarch from the moment when he received the report of Arcadius' death.
References
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[3] Banchich, T., & Lane, E. (Transl). (2011). The history of Zonaras: From Alexander Severus to the death of Theodosius the Great. London: Routledge.
[4] Cary, E. (Transl.). (1937–1950). Dionysius of Halicarnassus: Roman antiquities (Vols. 1–6; Loeb Classical Library). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[5] Croke, B. (Transl.). (1995). The chronicle of Marcellinus: A translation and commentary (Byzantina Australiensia, 7). Sydney: Australian Association for Byzantine Studies.
[6] Dewing, H. B. (Transl.). (1914–1928). Procopius: History of the Wars (Vols. 1–5; Loeb Classical Library). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[7] Dorey, T. A., Walsh, P. G., & Briscoe, J. (Eds.). (1971–1981). Titi Livi Ab urbe condita (Vols. 1–5; Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana). Berlin: De Gruyter.
[8] Falconer, W. A. (Transl.). (1923). Cicero: On old age. On friendship. On divination (Loeb Classical Library, 154). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[9] Foerster, R. (Ed.). (1903–1927). Libanii Opera (Vols. 1–12; Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana). Leipzig: Teubner.
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[11] Godley, A. D. (Transl.). (1920–1925). Herodotus: The Persian Wars (Vols. 1–4; Loeb Classical Library, 118–120). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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[14] Magie, D. (Transl.). (1921–1932). Historia Augusta (Loeb Classical Library). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[15] Marchant, E. C., & Bowersock, G. W. (Transl.). (1925). Xenophon: Scripta Minora (Loeb Classical Library, 183). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[16] Marchant, E. C., & Todd, O. J. (Transl). (2013). Xenophon: Memorabilia. Oeconomicus. Symposium. Apology (Loeb Classical Library, 168). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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[18] Müller, K. (Ed.). (1851). Olympiodori Thebaei Fragmenta. In Idem (Ed.), Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum (Vol. 4). Parisiis: Firmin Didot.
[19] Murray, A. T. (Transl.). (1919). Homer: Odyssey (Vols. 1–2; Loeb Classical Library, 104–105). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[20] Norman, A. F. (Ed.). (1992). Libanius: Autobiography and selected letters (Vols. 1–2; Loeb Classical Library, 478–479). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[21] Pharr, C. (Ed.). (1952). Codex Theodosianus. The Theodosian Code and novels, and the Sirmondian Constitutions. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
[22] Pichlmayr, F. (Ed.). (1993). Sexti Aurelii Victoris Liber de Caesaribus (Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana). Stutgardiae: Teubner.
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[25] Rolfe, J. C. (Ed.). (1939–1950). Ammianus Marcellinus: History (Vols. 1–3; Loeb Classical Library). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[26] Rolfe, J. C. (Transl.). (1914). Suetonius: Lives of the Caesars (Vols. 1–2; Loeb Classical Library). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[27] Scholfield, A. F. (Transl.). (1958–1959). Aelian: On animals (Vols. 1–3; Loeb Classical Library). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[28] Benedicty, R. (1960). Hogyan foglalta el Alarich Rómát? Antik Tanulmányok: Studia Antiqua, 9(1), 75–81.
[29] Boeft, J. D. (Ed.). (2013). Philological and historical commentary on Ammianus Marcellinus XXIX. Leiden: Brill.
[30] Croke, B. (2014). Dynasty and aristocracy in the fifth century. In M. Maas (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to the Age of Attila (pp. 98–124). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[31] Demandt, A. (1969). Der Tod des älteren Theodosius. Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, 18(5), 598–626.
[32] Doyle, C. (2018). Honorius: The fight for the Roman West AD 395–423. London: Routledge.
[33] Elton, H. (2018). The Roman Empire in late antiquity: A political and military history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[34] Erskine, A. (1997). Rome in the Greek world: The significance of a name. In A. Powell (Ed.), The Greek world (pp. 368–383). London: Routledge.
[35] Gibbon, E. (1781). The History of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire (ed. J. B. Bury, 1906, repr., Vol. 2). New York: Fred de Fau and Co.
[36] Gillett, A. (2001). Rome, Ravenna and the last Western emperors. Papers of the British School at Rome, 69, 131–167. | DOI 10.1017/S0068246200001781
[37] Green, S. J. (2009). Malevolent gods and Promethean birds: Contesting augury in Augustus's Rome. Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974–2014), 139(1), 147–167. | DOI 10.1353/apa.0.0019
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[39] Kaldellis, A. (2004). Procopius of Caesarea: Tyranny, history, and philosophy at the end of antiquity. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
[40] Kaldellis, A. (2010). Prokopius' Persian War: A thematic and literary analysis. In R. J. Macrides (Ed.), History as Literature in Byzantium (pp. 253–273). Aldershot: Ashgate.
[41] Lateiner, D. (2005). Signifying names and other ominous accidental utterances in classical historiography. Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 45(1), 35–57.
[42] Linderski, J. (1986). The augural law. In H. Temporini, & W. Haase (Eds.), Religion (Heidentum: Römische Religion, Allgemeines) (Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, Teil 2, Band 16.3; pp. 2146–2312). Berlin: De Gruyter.
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[50] Näf, B. (1995). Senatorisches Standesbewußtsein in spätrömischer Zeit. Freiburg, Schweiz: Universitätsverlag Freiburg.
[51] Nechaeva, E. (2014). Embassies – Negotiations – Gifts: Systems of East Roman diplomacy in late antiquity. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner.
[52] Pollard, J. (1977). Birds in Greek life and myth. London: Thames & Hudson.
[53] Thompson, E. A. (1980). Procopius on Brittia and Britannia. The Classical Quarterly, 30(2), 498–507.
[54] Thompson, E. A. (1996). The Huns. Oxford: Blackwell.
[55] Tougher, S. (2015). Eunuchs in the East, Men in the West?: Dis/unity, gender and orientalism in the fourth century. In R. Dijkstra, S. van Poppel, & D. Slootjes (Eds.), East and West in the Roman Empire of the fourth century (pp. 147–163). Leiden: Brill.
[56] Toynbee, J. M. (1973). Animals in Roman Life and Art. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
[57] Wesselmann, K. (2011). Mythische Erzählstrukturen in Herodots "Historien". Berlin: De Gruyter.