A Subaltern’s View of Early Byzantine Africa?: Reading Corippus as History

Andy Merrills

doi:doi:10.1553/medievalworlds_no16_2022s44

Walter POHL – Andre GINGRICH (Eds.) - Roland Steinacher - Paolo Tedesco - Philipp Margreiter - Andreas Rhoby (Guest Eds.)

medieval worlds • no. 16 • 2022

medieval worlds provides a forum for comparative, interdisciplinary and transcultural studies of the Middle Ages. Its aim is to overcome disciplinary boundaries, regional limits and national research traditions in Medieval Studies, to open up new spaces for discussion, and to help developing global perspectives. We focus on the period from c. 400 to 1500 CE but do not stick to rigid periodization.
medieval worlds is open to submissions of broadly comparative studies and matters of global interest, whether in single articles, companion papers, smaller clusters, or special issues on a subject of global/comparative history. We particularly invite studies of wide-ranging connectivity or comparison between different world regions.

Apart from research articles, medieval worlds publishes ongoing debates and project and conference reports on comparative medieval research.

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Africa 500-1000. Introduction
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A New Age of Saint Augustine? Antoine-Adolphe Dupuch, François Bourgade, and the Christians of North Africa (1838-1858)
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A Subaltern’s View of Early Byzantine Africa?: Reading Corippus as History
Andy Merrills

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Global Epigraphy II. Perception and Representation of the Foreign
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Identification by Architectural Shape. Sarcophagi of Indigenous People and Foreigners in Roman Imperial Lycia
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Imaginations of Barbarians and Barbarian Lands in the Latin Verse Inscriptions
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A Subaltern’s View of Early Byzantine Africa?: Reading Corippus as History

Andy Merrills

medieval worlds • no. 16 • 2022, pp. 44-66, 2022/06/30

doi: 10.1553/medievalworlds_no16_2022s44

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doi:10.1553/medievalworlds_no16_2022s44

Abstract

Corippus’ Iohannis is both the last classical epic poem to be written in Latin, and a major historical source for the early Byzantine occupation of North Africa (c. 533-551). The poem has conventionally been viewed as an uncritical celebration of the imperial occupation, thanks to its classicizing imagery and the panegyric aspects of its narrative of recent military successes. The present paper argues that this was tempered with a more critical retelling of the first fifteen years of the Byzantine occupation. This is presented in a metadiegetic analepsis (“flashback”), in the voice of an African officer in the imperial army of occupation. It is suggested that the catalogue of disasters presented here – internecine warfare, social upheaval, and plague – reflect the ambivalent attitude of contemporary Africans to the occupation itself.

Keywords: Corippus, epic poetry, Byzantine Africa, narrative, Moors, Berbers

Online Edition Table of Contents

Published Online: 2022/06/30 07:42:49

Object Identifier: 0xc1aa5572 0x003d8957

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Walter POHL – Andre GINGRICH (Eds.) - Roland Steinacher - Paolo Tedesco - Philipp Margreiter - Andreas Rhoby (Guest Eds.)

medieval worlds • no. 16 • 2022

A Subaltern’s View of Early Byzantine Africa?: Reading Corippus as History

Abstract