Fashioning Sixth-Century Constantinople

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.

• Foreword and IntroductionForewordNote on the EditionMain manuscripts used for this editionNote on the TranslationNote on the Archaeological CommentaryIntroductionProcopius's Buildings: Significance to ScholarshipConstantinopleConstantinople and Justinian: Context and ImageImperial Patronage in Constantinople: Norms and PracticesOther Texts on Justinian's Constructions in ConstantinopleReconstructing Late Antique Constantinople through Archaeology: Historical Development and MethodsProcopius's Biography and His Relation to ConstantinopleThe Text of the Buildings as a Historical ArtifactThe Date of the BuildingsThe Textual Transmission: Manuscripts, Abridgement and ExtractsThe Byzantine Afterlife of the BuildingsEarly modern reception of the Buildings: editions and translations before HauryThe Text as Literary ObjectThe Procopian Matrix: Style, Narrative and GenreComposition: Macro and Microstructures, Motifs, and ThemesBuildings ClassificationA Brief Note on OrientationMaps and PlansText and translation of the Buildings and chapter-by-chapter commentaryPreface: 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)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)The churches on the Golden Horn: SS. Priscus and Nicholas, SS. Cosmas and Damian, and St Anthimus (1.6.1–14)St Irene at Sykai, the Forty Martyrs and Justinian’s miraculous healing (1.7)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)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 JustinianTextual Sources for the Great PalaceArchaeological Evidence for the Great PalaceThe Topographical Context of the Great PalaceA Reconstruction of the Layout and Internal Organisation of the Great PalaceGates of the Great PalaceConclusionBibliographyList of Editions of the Buildings in Chronological OrderList of AbbreviationsPrimary SourcesSecondary Works