Fashioning Sixth-Century Constantinople Text, Translation and Commentary of Book I of the Buildings by Prokopios of Kaisareia

Foreword and Introduction

Foreword

Note on the Edition

Note on the Translation

Note on the Archaeological Commentary

Introduction

Procopius's Buildings: Significance to Scholarship

Constantinople

Constantinople and Justinian: Context and Image

Imperial Patronage in Constantinople: Norms and Practices

Other Texts on Justinian's Constructions in Constantinople

Reconstructing Late Antique Constantinople Through Archaeology: Historical Development and Methods

Procopius's Biography and His Relation to Constantinople

The Text of the Buildings as a Historical Artifact

The Date of the Buildings

The Textual Transmission: Manuscripts, Abridgement and Extracts

The Byzantine Afterlife of the Buildings

Early Modern Reception of the Buildings: Editions and Translations Before Haury

The Text as Literary Object

The Procopian Matrix: Style, Narrative and Genre

Composition: Macro and Microstructures, Motifs and Themes

The Patronage of Buildings by Justinian and Theodora

Classification of Buildings

Maps and Plans

Text and Commentary

Preface: Rhetorical and historical exordium, Justinian’s military, legal and religious achievements and delayed reveal of the subject (1.1.1–19)

Hagia Sophia: Historical context, design elements – focus on the central space (1.1.20–49)

Hagia Sophia: Description of interior features – focus on the rest of the church (1.1.50–66)

Hagia Sophia: Two episodes of Justinian’s personal intervention (1.1.67–78)

The Column of Justinian (1.2.1–12)

Hagia Eirene and the hospices of the patriarchate (1.2.13–19)

The Churches of the Virgin Mary at Blachernai, Pege and elsewhere in the city and its environs; the churches of Anne, Zoe and the archangel Michael in the city (1.3.1–18)

The churches dedicated to the apostles: SS Peter and Paul in the Palace of Hormisdas and the church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus (1.4.1–8)

The church of the Holy Apostles: Description and discovery of the relics (1.4.9–24)

The churches dedicated to the martyrs Acacius, Plato, Mocius, Thyrsus, Theodore, Thecla and Theodota (1.4.25–31)

Constantinople’s maritime topography (1.5.1–13)

The churches on the Golden Horn: St Lawrence, SS Priskos and Nicholas, SS Kosmas and Damian, and St Anthimus (1.6.1–14)

St Irene at Sykai, the Forty Martyrs and Justinian’s miraculous healing (1.7.1–16)

The churches on either side of the Bosporus: The churches of the archangel Michael at Anaplous and Brochoi/Proochthoi, and a church of mary near the latter (1.8.1–20)

The Metanoia convent (1.9.1–10)

The churches of the upper Bosporus (St Panteleimon, the Argyronion leprosarion, archangel Michael at Mochadion) and more in the city (St Tryphon, SS Menas and Menaios and St Ia) (1.9.11–18)

The Augoustaion area: The Baths of Zeuxippos and the Senate House (1.10.1–9)

The Chalke Gate (1.10.10–20)

Arkadianai: Description of the court and statue of Theodora (1.11.1–9)

The water supply of the city and the Basilica Cistern (1.11.10–15)

The harbours and suburban palaces at Hiereia and Joukoundianai (1.11.16–22)

End of the section on Constantinople: The hospice at Stadion (1.11.23–27)

The Great Palace at the time of Justinian

Appendix: The Great Palace at the Time of Justinian

Bibliography

Biography

Max Ritter is an assistant professor at the University of Silesia in Katowice. He received his PhD in Byzantine Studies from Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, where he later continued as a postdoctoral researcher. He also held two research fellowships in Istanbul, which allowed him to engage deeply with the city’s historical landscape and integrate the perspectives of local scholars into this book. His research focuses on building culture and lived religion in Byzantium, drawing on both textual sources and material evidence. Most recently, his research shifted towards Byzantine conceptions of nature, notably focusing on marine environments.

Elodie Turquois completed a doctorate in Classical Languages and Literature from the University of Oxford on materiality and visuality in Prokopios of Kaisareia and has published widely on Prokopios and the Buildings. She is an independent researcher whose work explores Late Antique literary aesthetics, the manuscript transmission of the Buildings; she uses narratology, stylistics and reception theory to approach ancient texts. Her most recent research investigates the reception of Constantinople and its late antique tradition in the writings of sixteenth-century French travellers.

Marlena Whiting has a doctorate in Late Antique Archaeology from the University of Oxford, with a specialism in travel infrastructure and the built environment of monasticism and pilgrimage. Currently a researcher and lecturer at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, she has held visiting fellowships at CBRL Amman and ANAMED in Istanbul, and has worked on archaeological projects in Jordan, Syria and Spain. Her research applies interdisciplinary approaches from social sciences (network analysis, spatial access theory) to material and textual evidence to understand historical contexts from a phenomenological perspective, with a focus on religious life and gendered lived experience.