KAZHDAN, ALEXANDER, Looking Back to Antiquity: Three Notes , Greek, Roman and 
Byzantine Studies, 24:4 (1983:Winter) p.375 

Looking Back to Antiquity: 
Three Notes 

Alexander Kazhdan 

I. Nicetas Choniates and Flavius Josephus 

F LAVIUS JOSEPHUS was well known in Byzantium. Not only did 
Photius refer to him,l but even later traces of his works can be 
found in such authors as Zonaras, Tzetzes, and Glycas. The 

comprehensive monograph of Schreckenberg2 presents a long list of 
mediaeval authors acquainted with Josephus but omits Choniates~ in 
his second monograph Schreckenberg mentioned Choniates' work 
Thesauros tes Orthodoxias, even though he was still uncertain whether 
Choniates had used Josephus directly or through intermediary texts.3 

There can be no doubt that Choniates knew Josephus. In the Index 
locorum to the recent edition of Choniates' Chronike Diegesis,4 van 
Dieten indicated one and only one passage, referring to Bellum Ju­
daicum 6. 24ff: Choniates relates (p.241.77-81) that Titus, while be­
sieging Jerusalem, tried not to damage the Temple. There is, how­
ever, another passage in the Chronike Diegesis that seems to reflect 
Choniates' knowledge of the Jewish War. 

Choniates describes Kalojan's siege of Didymotichus in Thrace in 
1206 (pp.632f), and in order to conjure up the image of the Bulgarian 
attack he applies words and renderings borrowed from Josephus' de­
scription of the Romans' siege of Jotapata. I quote Choniates' text, 
indicating the references to Jewish War III and underlining the words 
that are to be found in Josephus. 

KaT' OV8E v T,cPLETO TOV a'Ywvo~ bTaAgEL~ a1TOm,pwv rfj f30 Kat T4J 
POL'CP Kat T4J J.Uy€(JEL TWV acp"EJ¥VWV )(Ep~8wv Kat ywvia~ mJPYwv 
(243) KaTaO"1Twv Kat KaTaPP"f/'Yv~ Ttl TOVTWV (JwpaKta (286). OL 8' 
• \ s:, ,I,.~ \ I ~ I \ 's:,~ (173 I 

E VTO~ upV'fIU.KTOV<; Kat yEppa 1T"f/ aJ.U VOL Kat VEouupa ; 'YEppa 

1 J. Schamp, "Flavius Josephe et Photios," JOE 32 (1982) 185-96. 
2 H. Schreckenberg, Die Flavius-Josephus- Tradition in Antike und Mittelalter (Leiden 

1972). 
3 Rezeptionsgeschichtliche lind textkritische Untersuchungen zu Flavius Josephus (Leiden 

1977) 25f. 
4 Nicetas Choniates, Historia, ed. 1. L. van Dieten (Berlin/New York 1975). 

375 



KAZHDAN, ALEXANDER, Looking Back to Antiquity: Three Notes , Greek, Roman and 
Byzantine Studies, 24:4 (1983:Winter) p.375 

376 LOOKING BACK TO ANTIQUITY 

240) , (192) ~, , \ \ , VaKTl 'TOt~ 'TEtXEUt 'Tf'pO'Tf'E'TaUaV'TE~ ... Kat 'Tf'pO~ E'Tf't-

f3aTTJPI.ov<; E!3AE'Tf'E JLnxava~ (252, 254) Kat 'TO AOt7TOV /xV'Tt'Tf'apE§­
E'TEtVE (255) U'Tpa'TEvp.a 'Tf'OAA.axii, 'TO'TE Kat aV'Tot 'Ta 'TWV lnr07f't'Tf'­

'TO V'TW v a7f'08oop.E VOt 'Tf'POUW'Tf'ELa Kat 'TO v AaJL'Tf'pO v 'Tf'OAEJLW v 'Tf'apa­
<PaLVOV'TE~ EV oi~ Eixov ill..l.:l1vOV'TO (270), EV 'TOt~ 'TELXE(Tt KEtp.Evrl" 
OPWV'TE~ ",V UWTTJpiav Kat JL'Y/8ev rij~ /xva'YK'YJ~ !3c.aW'TEPOV {'TEPOV 
Kpivov'TE~, a'Tf'0yvWo-Et 'TE Kat Ovl-@ (I53) u'TpaTTJ'Y0Vp.EVOL OVK 
" ,,~ ..." [ " J] ~ \' EAciuuw EUpWV wv E'Tf'aUXOV aV'TE'Tf'aUXOV os. XEtPWV Kat 'TOAJLTl~ 
Epya E'Tf't8EtK VVp.E VO£ (I 52) . 

This passage evidently will be of no avail for a future critical edi­
tion of Josephus, but it is very relevant for Byzantinists interested in 
Choniates' technique of employing the ancient heritage. Far from 
being a mechanical compiler, he inserted both individual military 
terms and whole "blocks' of words in his description of a contempo­
rary war, and by doing so he was able to implant in the erudite reader 
an impression that the Bulgarian attack on Didymotichus, if not 
identical with the notorious sack of Jotapata, was to some extent a 
very similar event. 

II. Eustathius of Thessalonica on Arbogastes 

In his Commentary on the Iliad, Eustathius adduces for the flame 
of Diomedes "Abrobastes" the Frank, called "flame-like," ¢AoYOEt­
B7}~, because of his physical strength and the crudeness of his emo­
tions: 'A{3po/3&U'TTJr; <l>payyor; KaTa CtAKT,ll U'Wj.laTOr; Kat (Jv/-Wv 'Tpaxv­

TTlTa ¢AoyoEtBT,r; ~1l. Indeed, adds Eustathius, this man, in his battles 
with barbarians, resembled fire and performed superhuman deeds.5 

Eustathius' Abrobastes is quite probably the Frank Arbogastes, one 
of the most active Roman generals at the end of the fourth century.6 
This identification is the more plausible because the manuscript read­
ing of Zosimus' Vaticanus gr. 156 of the eleventh to twelfth centuries 
(i.e., quite contemporary with Eustathius) is very similar- Arbo­
bastes; 7 Eustathius needed only a metathesis to arrive at his version 
of the name. 

So far as I know, the Greek tradition did not preserve an image of 
Arbogastes as "flame-like." We can only hypothesize in what source 
Eustathius found this expression. We know, however, that he was 

5 Eust. II. 513.20-22 (II 5.9-12 van der Valk: "fontem nescio"). 
6 On him see PLRE I 95-97; see also O. Seeck and G. Veith, "Die Schlachl am 

Frigidus," Klio 13 (I913) 453f. 
7 See Zos. 4.33.1, ed. F. Paschoud II 296 n. 



KAZHDAN, ALEXANDER, Looking Back to Antiquity: Three Notes , Greek, Roman and 
Byzantine Studies, 24:4 (1983:Winter) p.375 

ALEXANDER KAZHDAN 377 

deeply interested in the image of Diomedes, from whose head and 
shoulders, we are told, flame spurted (II. 5.4-7). Eustathius even 
suggested a rational explanation for this marvellous phenomenon 
which Homer credited to Athena: perhaps, he explained, some mir­
rors had been inserted in both his helmet and shield, which struck 
the eyes of those who looked at the hero (513.14-18 [II 5.1-7]). 
Again, we do not know whether this rationalization of the mythical 
image of the flame-like warrior owed something to Byzantine legends 
of victorious generals spurting flames in battle. One of these generals 
was, according to the Life of Saint Basil the Younger, 8 Constantine 
Ducas, the unsuccessful usurper of 913. Eustathius' readers might be 
aware of this text or of a similar legend. 

III. The Cyclopes and the Hermits 

In his Commentary on the Odyssey, Eustathius of a sudden equates 
the Cyclopes, who "trusting in the immortal god [where Homer has 
the plural] plant nothing and dwell in hollow caves" (Od. 9.1 07[, 
I13f), with "the anchorites of our own time," who seek to escape 
from cities and to dwell on lofty mountains and in caves, and who 
neither plant nor labor in any other way, but receive goods without 
sowing or ploughing (I618.31ff). A Byzantine reader would surely be 
reminded of the "fowls of the air" that "sow not, neither do they 
reap" (Matth. 6:26). 

If we recall that Eustathius produced a pamphlet to scold the mis­
conduct of monks,9 that in his Vita of a very suspect Saint Philotheus 
of Opsicium (recorded in no other source) he overtly opposed the 
pious mundane life to hermitic exploits, with the former as the more 
virtuous,lo then his comments on the Cyclopes cease to be an in­
nocuous joke and antiquarian game with ancient topics. Ancient im­
ages could be and actually were used by Byzantine writers as relevant 
tools of their contemporary polemic. We only have to learn how to 
read them. 

DUMBARTON OAKS 

January, 1984 

R S. G. Vilinskij, "Zitie sv. Vasilija Novogo v russkoj literature," Zapiski Novoros­
siiskogo Univ. 1st. -Fit. 7 (I 911) 292.1-14. 

9 Eustathii opllsclIla, ed. T. L. F. Tafel (Frankfurt ]832) 2]4-67. 
10 Tafel (supra n.9) 145-51; Migne, PG 136.141-61; BHG II no. 1535.