Procopius and the Lord of the Demons: The Synthesis of the Demonic Justinian

Abstract

Abstract: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.