Procopius And The Lord Of The Demons The Synthesis Of The Demonic Justinian Ryan Denson by Ryan Denson instant download after payment.

This article examines the sections of the sixth-century Secret History of
Procopius of Caesarea where the emperor Justinian, and occasionally his
wife, Theodora, were portrayed as demons, further giving special consideration to the three instances where Justinian was referred to specifically as
the “Lord of the Demons” (ἄρχων τῶν δαιμόνων). I argue that Procopius’s
depiction of the demonic Justinian was fundamentally the result of a synthesis of contemporary rumors and apocalyptic thought, imbued with a literary
flourish, while the term “Lord of the Demons” also had a more distinct resonance in the Secret History and in the roughly contemporary commentary
by Oecumenius on Revelation, wherein it is used by both authors to refer
to an Antichrist-like figure in a position of political power. The demonic
Justinian was, then, a figure befitting of a political invective, yet rather than
being a simple caricature premised solely on inversions of the emperor, it
was the manifestation of a complex confluence of political discontent, as
well as aspects of Christian demonology and eschatology.