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E.A. Mekhamadiev (Saint Petersburg) – West Georgia (Lazica) and the Moors of Northern Africa in the Sixth Century: on the Genre Peculiarities of the “Chronicle” of John of Nikiu

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Abstract

The paper deals with the genre peculiarities of the “Chronicle” by John of Nikiu, a Coptic bishop of Nikiu (Egypt), who lived in the second half of the seventh century. This work survived only in Ethiopic translation contains a lot of valuable and often even unique evidence on the history of Early Byzantine Empire (4th – 6th cc.). Meanwhile, the Byzantine scholars traditionally give little attention to John’s “Chronicle” in comparison to Greek-speaking early Byzantine historians and chronographers – Procopius of Caesarea, Agathias of Myrina or John Malalas. The author of the paper tries to settle a genre of John of Nikiu’s “Chronicle”, while comparing its evidence with the “Chronography” of John Malalas (the second half of the 6th c.), in order to show how genres of Byzantine history writing infl uenced on methods and mind of the Coptic bishop, how he accepted and imaginatively revised the genres of Byzantine historical thought. As subjects of study, the author chooses two topics told by both Malalas and John of Nicia: the Moorish raids on the Byzantine provinces of North Africa. (the second half of the 6th to early 7th centuries) and the Conversion of Lazica (522). After considering these subjects, the author concluded that John of Nikiu combined two genres – the Church history and the secular (pagan) history, made according to patterns of Classical Greek history writing. These patterns followed Procopius and Agathias, and these patterns followed John of Nikiu also, when he described events of a secular (military-political) history, while the events of Christian Church’s life and history (an activity of Church structures, theological discussions, a spread of Christian Faith) are narrated by John from the perspective of Church history writing.

Keywords

John of Nikiu, Egypt, the Church history, the secular (pagan) history writing, the Moors, Lazica.

Evgeniy A. Mekhamadiev

Saint Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg, Russia

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