From Rome to Constantinople: Antiquarian echoes of cultural trauma in the sixth century

The subject of this dissertation was the assessment of the cultural meaning of antiquarianism in the sixth century AD. Once subjected to a reasoned re-definition, the concept of antiquarianism appeared as a useful tool for the study of the attitude towards the distant past in late antiquity. During the sixth century, antiquarianism was a textual attitude towards the distant past which was marshalled for debating and coming to terms with several uneasy societal changes, such as the transfer of power and prestige from Rome to Constantinople. This transfer was discussed in sixth-century Constantinople by an extended network of educated bureaucrats, which partly transcended the political, social and linguistic barriers of the period. Antiquarianism was part and parcel of the shared repertoire of this network for debating each other and the imperial government implicitly on the role of Rome and Constantinople. The shared antiquarian lore was used by these educated bureaucrats differently in order to take different stands in this contemporary debate. The antiquarian authors tried to replace Rome partially as the framework for historical meaning by focusing on their own home region, by their own administrative department and by a focus on their personal life.