The Iohannis is a Latin epic, written c.551 by Flavius Cresconius Corippus to commemorate the rec... more The Iohannis is a Latin epic, written c.551 by Flavius Cresconius Corippus to commemorate the recent North African campaigns of the Byzantine general John Troglita. War, Epic and Rebellion in Byzantine North Africa sets the work in its social, political and cultural context. It provides an original historical analysis of the first two decades of Byzantine rule in Africa (c.533-551). Against this background, the Iohannis is reinterpreted, not as a simple work of imperial ‘propaganda’ as has commonly been assumed, but as a nuanced – if idiosyncratic – response to two decades of upheaval and trauma. Corippus magnified John Troglita’s recent victories, but also articulated anxieties about recent imperial crises, not least through a series of digressive ‘flashbacks’ in the voices of different characters. The epic tradition also provided him with the political philosophy that underpins the work as a whole – the Virgilian mantra parcere subiectis et debellare superbos.
The book also explores the value of the Iohannis as a historical source in its own right. Individual chapters explore its importance as a source on the ethnography of ‘Moorish’ North Africa in this period, on military campaigning, logistics and battlefield violence, and on religious practices, including Christian sectarian tensions and African paganism.
The River Nile fascinated the Romans and appeared in maps, written descriptions, texts, poe... more The River Nile fascinated the Romans and appeared in maps, written descriptions, texts, poems and paintings of the developing empire. Tantalised by the unique status of the river, explorers were sent to find the sources of the Nile, while natural philosophers meditated on its deeper metaphysical significance. Andy Merrills' book, Roman Geographies of the Nile, examines the very different images of the river that emerged from these descriptions - from anthropomorphic figures, brought repeatedly into Rome in military triumphs, through the frequently whimsical landscape vignettes from the houses of Pompeii, to the limitless river that spilled through the pages of Lucan's Civil War, and symbolised a conflict - and an empire - without end. Considering cultural and political contexts alongside the other Niles that flowed through the Roman world in this period, this book provides a wholly original interpretation of the deeper significance of geographical knowledge during the later Roman Republic and early Principate.
The present chapter examines the historiography of Vandal and Byzantine religion from ca. 1785 to... more The present chapter examines the historiography of Vandal and Byzantine religion from ca. 1785 to the present. Until relatively recently, extended studies of post-Roman North Africa were scarce. The works of Charles Diehl (1896) and Christian Courtois (1955) are striking exceptions within a field primarily interested in earlier periods of North African history. During the 19th century, the Vandals were primarily viewed for their military and political activity, rather than their religious policies, and Byzantine Africa was generally presented as a coda to Roman and early Christian periods of occupation. The dramatic expansion of archaeological and philological scholarship in the latter part of the twentieth century had an important effect upon the understanding of these groups, but it is only in the last twenty years that detailed scrutiny of the later periods of pre-Islamic North Africa have become widespread.
Isidor von Sevilla († 636) war ein gelehrter Bischof, dessen Etymologiae in Form der titelgebende... more Isidor von Sevilla († 636) war ein gelehrter Bischof, dessen Etymologiae in Form der titelgebenden begrifflichen Ableitungen praktisch alle Wissensgebiete behandeln. Es handelt sich um die im gesamten Mittelalter am weitesten verbreitete Enzyklopädie; unzählige Handschriften und nicht weniger als zehn Frühdrucke aus der Zeit 1470 bis 1530 belegen die weite Verbreitung in ganz Europa während des ganzen Mittelalters. Fast jede bessere Kloster-und Kathedralbibliothek hatte wenigstens eine Abschrift; so gut wie alle mittelalterlichen Enyzyklopädien (und viele andere Werke) sind mehr oder minder stark von Isidors Etymologiae geprägt. In vielen Fällen hat Isidor antikes Wissen zusammengefasst, das in den folgenden Jahrhunderten im Bereich der Westkirche ansonsten kaum oder gar nicht mehr zur Verfügung stand.
This essay examines the intersection of geographical thought and the representation of desert mon... more This essay examines the intersection of geographical thought and the representation of desert monasticism in late antique Christian historiography. It argues that the descriptions of the ascetic fringe provided by Eusebius and his continuators were influenced by the accounts of peripheral groups provided by classical historians. In each case long accounts of the peculiar social, dietary, and sexual habits of peripheral groups could be used to reflect the mores of the society of the center. It is suggested that Philo's first-century work De Vita Contemplativa offered the paradigm for this exploitation of secular motifs of alterity in religious writing but that the approach had new resonances in the late antique world, particularly in the condemnation of schismatics and the celebration of the expansion of the church. Saint Antony could be forgiven if he looked back on his journey to visit Paul the Hermit with a mixture of astonishment and relief. 1 According to Athanasius' biography of the saint, Antony did not regularly cross paths with the monstrous inhabitants of the desert, despite living in the wilderness for the whole of his adult life. Demons, venomous snakes, and Ethiopians he did meet, and on a regular basis; but the shock of the saint upon encountering not one, but two, bona fide monsters on his long 1. Earlier versions of this paper were presented to the International Medieval Congress in Leeds in July 1999 and to the Cambridge University Medieval Research Group in November 2002. I wish to thank Rosamond McKitterick, Brigitte Resl, Peter Sarris, Miri Rubin, and particularly David Frankfurter for their invaluable comments and enthusiasm. I am also indebted to the anonymous referees of this journal for their perceptive criticism. Mistakes that remain are, of course, my own.
The system of royal succession in the Vandal kingdom of North Africa has long been regarded as id... more The system of royal succession in the Vandal kingdom of North Africa has long been regarded as idiosyncratic within the early medieval west, but its fullest implications have rarely been investigated closely. The present article examines the origins of succession by agnatic seniority under the strong rule of King Geiseric, and argues that it was one of several innovations intended to establish the emergent Hasding royal house against other aristocratic challenges. The article goes on to explore the consequences of this law in the two major dynastic crises of the Vandal kingdom: under Huneric in c.481 and under Hilderic in 530. In both cases, the standard narratives of events are challenged, and with them assumptions about the 'constitutional' status of Geiseric's law of succession.
Iohannis is both the last classical epic poem to be written in Latin, and a major historical sour... more 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.
All papers of this peer-reviewed open access journal can be accessed and downloaded at: http://dx... more All papers of this peer-reviewed open access journal can be accessed and downloaded at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1553/medievalworlds_no16_2022.
The history of ancient and medieval North Africa has all too often been written as the history of... more The history of ancient and medieval North Africa has all too often been written as the history of its conquerors. Accounts of Roman, Vandal, Byzantine or Islamic North Africa typically focus on the...
The political hierarchies that developed in Mauretania in the post-Roman period have traditionall... more The political hierarchies that developed in Mauretania in the post-Roman period have traditionally been ascribed either to invading groups from the Sahara, or to indigenous elites who transformed their political authority to respond to changing circumstances. The present article suggests that such interpretations have neglected the role played by seasonal pastoralists within the emergence of these new polities. Human mobility was a crucial feature of the late antique Maghreb, as analysis of the later Roman frontier system reveals. Equally, contemporary anthropological scholarship reveals clearly the influence that mobile groups can have in periods of social and political upheaval and their capacity for hierarchical stratification. The article offers two brief case studies, and argues that Antalas, king of the 'Frexes' in southern Byzacena and the occupants of the 'Djedar' tumulus mausolea near Tiaret, are best viewed as products of a mobile society. In his celebrated short story 'The Invisible Man', G. K Chesterton set his sleuth Father Brown a peculiar problem. One character, an inventor of automata, is persecuted by an old acquaintance. Threatening letters appear as if by magic, and a disembodied voice passes eerie comment as the missives are read. As the tale reaches its climax, the inventor takes refuge in his own apartment, and a sympathetic police inspector ensures that his building is under the constant surveillance of a decorator, a seller of chestnuts and a policeman on the beat. Yet in spite of this, his tormentor still manages to enter the building unseen, murder his victim and spirit the body away. The police are baffled, of course, but Father Brown sees through the problem with little difficulty. The murderer, he deduces, must have been a postman -the sort of individual who can pass unnoticed, even beneath the most expert scrutiny, and who rarely warrants a second glance from the inhabitants of a busy world. As the wise priest notes, the sheer familiarity of the postal worker makes him almost invisible in the course of everyday life. 2 This is a familiar enough trope from the world of detective fiction, but it has some striking resonances in historiography of early medieval North Africa. The emergence of the first 'Moorish' or 'Berber' polities in the post-Roman Maghreb has been the matter of much discussion among scholars over the last few generations. In around 400 CE, the upland regions of what is now Tunisia and northern Algeria were a fully functioning part of the Western Roman Empire, policed and protected by the state military, and governed from the imperial capitals. By 550, the same regions had fragmented into autonomous polities, apparently ruled
The so-called ‘catalogue of tribes’ in Corippus, Iohannis, II.28–161 is central to the historical... more The so-called ‘catalogue of tribes’ in Corippus, Iohannis, II.28–161 is central to the historical ethnography of Moorish North Africa in Late Antiquity, yet the sources behind this passage and its poetic function have never been directly addressed. The present paper argues that Corippus derived this material from the trophies carried in the triumphal procession that marked the successful conclusion of John Troglita's campaigns in 548. The evocation of this ceremony at the outset of Corippus’ narrative corresponds to the ironic tone which permeates the work, but also explains the eccentric form of the material included within the catalogue. The paper concludes with some observations about the implications of this for modern understanding of Moorish ‘tribal’ society in the later Roman and early Byzantine period.
Isidor von Sevilla († 636) war ein gelehrter Bischof, dessen Etymologiae in Form der titelgebende... more Isidor von Sevilla († 636) war ein gelehrter Bischof, dessen Etymologiae in Form der titelgebenden begrifflichen Ableitungen praktisch alle Wissensgebiete behandeln. Es handelt sich um die im gesamten Mittelalter am weitesten verbreitete Enzyklopädie; unzählige Handschriften und nicht weniger als zehn Frühdrucke aus der Zeit 1470 bis 1530 belegen die weite Verbreitung in ganz Europa während des ganzen Mittelalters. Fast jede bessere Kloster-und Kathedralbibliothek hatte wenigstens eine Abschrift; so gut wie alle mittelalterlichen Enyzyklopädien (und viele andere Werke) sind mehr oder minder stark von Isidors Etymologiae geprägt. In vielen Fällen hat Isidor antikes Wissen zusammengefasst, das in den folgenden Jahrhunderten im Bereich der Westkirche ansonsten kaum oder gar nicht mehr zur Verfügung stand.
The Iohannis is a Latin epic, written c.551 by Flavius Cresconius Corippus to commemorate the rec... more The Iohannis is a Latin epic, written c.551 by Flavius Cresconius Corippus to commemorate the recent North African campaigns of the Byzantine general John Troglita. War, Epic and Rebellion in Byzantine North Africa sets the work in its social, political and cultural context. It provides an original historical analysis of the first two decades of Byzantine rule in Africa (c.533-551). Against this background, the Iohannis is reinterpreted, not as a simple work of imperial ‘propaganda’ as has commonly been assumed, but as a nuanced – if idiosyncratic – response to two decades of upheaval and trauma. Corippus magnified John Troglita’s recent victories, but also articulated anxieties about recent imperial crises, not least through a series of digressive ‘flashbacks’ in the voices of different characters. The epic tradition also provided him with the political philosophy that underpins the work as a whole – the Virgilian mantra parcere subiectis et debellare superbos.
The book also explores the value of the Iohannis as a historical source in its own right. Individual chapters explore its importance as a source on the ethnography of ‘Moorish’ North Africa in this period, on military campaigning, logistics and battlefield violence, and on religious practices, including Christian sectarian tensions and African paganism.
The River Nile fascinated the Romans and appeared in maps, written descriptions, texts, poe... more The River Nile fascinated the Romans and appeared in maps, written descriptions, texts, poems and paintings of the developing empire. Tantalised by the unique status of the river, explorers were sent to find the sources of the Nile, while natural philosophers meditated on its deeper metaphysical significance. Andy Merrills' book, Roman Geographies of the Nile, examines the very different images of the river that emerged from these descriptions - from anthropomorphic figures, brought repeatedly into Rome in military triumphs, through the frequently whimsical landscape vignettes from the houses of Pompeii, to the limitless river that spilled through the pages of Lucan's Civil War, and symbolised a conflict - and an empire - without end. Considering cultural and political contexts alongside the other Niles that flowed through the Roman world in this period, this book provides a wholly original interpretation of the deeper significance of geographical knowledge during the later Roman Republic and early Principate.
The present chapter examines the historiography of Vandal and Byzantine religion from ca. 1785 to... more The present chapter examines the historiography of Vandal and Byzantine religion from ca. 1785 to the present. Until relatively recently, extended studies of post-Roman North Africa were scarce. The works of Charles Diehl (1896) and Christian Courtois (1955) are striking exceptions within a field primarily interested in earlier periods of North African history. During the 19th century, the Vandals were primarily viewed for their military and political activity, rather than their religious policies, and Byzantine Africa was generally presented as a coda to Roman and early Christian periods of occupation. The dramatic expansion of archaeological and philological scholarship in the latter part of the twentieth century had an important effect upon the understanding of these groups, but it is only in the last twenty years that detailed scrutiny of the later periods of pre-Islamic North Africa have become widespread.
Isidor von Sevilla († 636) war ein gelehrter Bischof, dessen Etymologiae in Form der titelgebende... more Isidor von Sevilla († 636) war ein gelehrter Bischof, dessen Etymologiae in Form der titelgebenden begrifflichen Ableitungen praktisch alle Wissensgebiete behandeln. Es handelt sich um die im gesamten Mittelalter am weitesten verbreitete Enzyklopädie; unzählige Handschriften und nicht weniger als zehn Frühdrucke aus der Zeit 1470 bis 1530 belegen die weite Verbreitung in ganz Europa während des ganzen Mittelalters. Fast jede bessere Kloster-und Kathedralbibliothek hatte wenigstens eine Abschrift; so gut wie alle mittelalterlichen Enyzyklopädien (und viele andere Werke) sind mehr oder minder stark von Isidors Etymologiae geprägt. In vielen Fällen hat Isidor antikes Wissen zusammengefasst, das in den folgenden Jahrhunderten im Bereich der Westkirche ansonsten kaum oder gar nicht mehr zur Verfügung stand.
This essay examines the intersection of geographical thought and the representation of desert mon... more This essay examines the intersection of geographical thought and the representation of desert monasticism in late antique Christian historiography. It argues that the descriptions of the ascetic fringe provided by Eusebius and his continuators were influenced by the accounts of peripheral groups provided by classical historians. In each case long accounts of the peculiar social, dietary, and sexual habits of peripheral groups could be used to reflect the mores of the society of the center. It is suggested that Philo's first-century work De Vita Contemplativa offered the paradigm for this exploitation of secular motifs of alterity in religious writing but that the approach had new resonances in the late antique world, particularly in the condemnation of schismatics and the celebration of the expansion of the church. Saint Antony could be forgiven if he looked back on his journey to visit Paul the Hermit with a mixture of astonishment and relief. 1 According to Athanasius' biography of the saint, Antony did not regularly cross paths with the monstrous inhabitants of the desert, despite living in the wilderness for the whole of his adult life. Demons, venomous snakes, and Ethiopians he did meet, and on a regular basis; but the shock of the saint upon encountering not one, but two, bona fide monsters on his long 1. Earlier versions of this paper were presented to the International Medieval Congress in Leeds in July 1999 and to the Cambridge University Medieval Research Group in November 2002. I wish to thank Rosamond McKitterick, Brigitte Resl, Peter Sarris, Miri Rubin, and particularly David Frankfurter for their invaluable comments and enthusiasm. I am also indebted to the anonymous referees of this journal for their perceptive criticism. Mistakes that remain are, of course, my own.
The system of royal succession in the Vandal kingdom of North Africa has long been regarded as id... more The system of royal succession in the Vandal kingdom of North Africa has long been regarded as idiosyncratic within the early medieval west, but its fullest implications have rarely been investigated closely. The present article examines the origins of succession by agnatic seniority under the strong rule of King Geiseric, and argues that it was one of several innovations intended to establish the emergent Hasding royal house against other aristocratic challenges. The article goes on to explore the consequences of this law in the two major dynastic crises of the Vandal kingdom: under Huneric in c.481 and under Hilderic in 530. In both cases, the standard narratives of events are challenged, and with them assumptions about the 'constitutional' status of Geiseric's law of succession.
Iohannis is both the last classical epic poem to be written in Latin, and a major historical sour... more 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.
All papers of this peer-reviewed open access journal can be accessed and downloaded at: http://dx... more All papers of this peer-reviewed open access journal can be accessed and downloaded at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1553/medievalworlds_no16_2022.
The history of ancient and medieval North Africa has all too often been written as the history of... more The history of ancient and medieval North Africa has all too often been written as the history of its conquerors. Accounts of Roman, Vandal, Byzantine or Islamic North Africa typically focus on the...
The political hierarchies that developed in Mauretania in the post-Roman period have traditionall... more The political hierarchies that developed in Mauretania in the post-Roman period have traditionally been ascribed either to invading groups from the Sahara, or to indigenous elites who transformed their political authority to respond to changing circumstances. The present article suggests that such interpretations have neglected the role played by seasonal pastoralists within the emergence of these new polities. Human mobility was a crucial feature of the late antique Maghreb, as analysis of the later Roman frontier system reveals. Equally, contemporary anthropological scholarship reveals clearly the influence that mobile groups can have in periods of social and political upheaval and their capacity for hierarchical stratification. The article offers two brief case studies, and argues that Antalas, king of the 'Frexes' in southern Byzacena and the occupants of the 'Djedar' tumulus mausolea near Tiaret, are best viewed as products of a mobile society. In his celebrated short story 'The Invisible Man', G. K Chesterton set his sleuth Father Brown a peculiar problem. One character, an inventor of automata, is persecuted by an old acquaintance. Threatening letters appear as if by magic, and a disembodied voice passes eerie comment as the missives are read. As the tale reaches its climax, the inventor takes refuge in his own apartment, and a sympathetic police inspector ensures that his building is under the constant surveillance of a decorator, a seller of chestnuts and a policeman on the beat. Yet in spite of this, his tormentor still manages to enter the building unseen, murder his victim and spirit the body away. The police are baffled, of course, but Father Brown sees through the problem with little difficulty. The murderer, he deduces, must have been a postman -the sort of individual who can pass unnoticed, even beneath the most expert scrutiny, and who rarely warrants a second glance from the inhabitants of a busy world. As the wise priest notes, the sheer familiarity of the postal worker makes him almost invisible in the course of everyday life. 2 This is a familiar enough trope from the world of detective fiction, but it has some striking resonances in historiography of early medieval North Africa. The emergence of the first 'Moorish' or 'Berber' polities in the post-Roman Maghreb has been the matter of much discussion among scholars over the last few generations. In around 400 CE, the upland regions of what is now Tunisia and northern Algeria were a fully functioning part of the Western Roman Empire, policed and protected by the state military, and governed from the imperial capitals. By 550, the same regions had fragmented into autonomous polities, apparently ruled
The so-called ‘catalogue of tribes’ in Corippus, Iohannis, II.28–161 is central to the historical... more The so-called ‘catalogue of tribes’ in Corippus, Iohannis, II.28–161 is central to the historical ethnography of Moorish North Africa in Late Antiquity, yet the sources behind this passage and its poetic function have never been directly addressed. The present paper argues that Corippus derived this material from the trophies carried in the triumphal procession that marked the successful conclusion of John Troglita's campaigns in 548. The evocation of this ceremony at the outset of Corippus’ narrative corresponds to the ironic tone which permeates the work, but also explains the eccentric form of the material included within the catalogue. The paper concludes with some observations about the implications of this for modern understanding of Moorish ‘tribal’ society in the later Roman and early Byzantine period.
Isidor von Sevilla († 636) war ein gelehrter Bischof, dessen Etymologiae in Form der titelgebende... more Isidor von Sevilla († 636) war ein gelehrter Bischof, dessen Etymologiae in Form der titelgebenden begrifflichen Ableitungen praktisch alle Wissensgebiete behandeln. Es handelt sich um die im gesamten Mittelalter am weitesten verbreitete Enzyklopädie; unzählige Handschriften und nicht weniger als zehn Frühdrucke aus der Zeit 1470 bis 1530 belegen die weite Verbreitung in ganz Europa während des ganzen Mittelalters. Fast jede bessere Kloster-und Kathedralbibliothek hatte wenigstens eine Abschrift; so gut wie alle mittelalterlichen Enyzyklopädien (und viele andere Werke) sind mehr oder minder stark von Isidors Etymologiae geprägt. In vielen Fällen hat Isidor antikes Wissen zusammengefasst, das in den folgenden Jahrhunderten im Bereich der Westkirche ansonsten kaum oder gar nicht mehr zur Verfügung stand.
Political hierarchies in the early medieval Maghrib have often been presented in schematic terms,... more Political hierarchies in the early medieval Maghrib have often been presented in schematic terms, and prominent leaders cast as ‘kings’ with little critical assessment of the implication of this language. The present study challenges this undifferentiated view of early Berber polities through the case study of early Byzantine Africa (c.535–565 CE): the best-documented period of early Berber history. It argues that hierarchies in this period were profoundly shaped by outside imperial authorities, both in modes of status display and in the language of authority. In Justinian’s Africa, there was no place for local ‘kings’, but opportunities were created for new forms of social distinction, which may be traced in our sources. The article concludes with a discussion of modes of political distinction that may have developed in opposition to this imperial presence, and offers reflection for further study.
This contribution assesses the extent to which Vandal maritime activities represented a continuat... more This contribution assesses the extent to which Vandal maritime activities represented a continuation of existing practices within the late antique Mediterranean. It argues that the merchant crews taken by the Vandals when they conquered Carthage in AD 439 had always been involved in trading, ferrying, fishing and piracy and this continued under their new masters. The Vandals were never a naval power in the strict sense of the word, but they integrated into the maritime networks of the western Mediterranean, both trading and raiding effectively for almost 100 years. Résumé. Cette contribution analyse la manière dont l'activité maritime des Vandales s'inscrit dans une continuité des pratiques existantes dans la vaste région méditerranéenne antique. Elle explique comment les équipages marchands capturés par les Vandales après la conquête de Carthage en 439 ap. J.-C. – qui étaient habitués à pratiquer de manière combinée le commerce, le transport, la pêche et la piraterie – furent utilisés aux mêmes fins par leurs nouveaux maîtres. Les Vandales n'ont ja-mais représenté une puissance navale au strict sens du terme mais ont néanmoins insufflé au réseau maritime en place en Méditerranée occidentale une tradition à la fois commerciale et de pillage qui dura presque cent ans.
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Books by Andy Merrills
The book also explores the value of the Iohannis as a historical source in its own right. Individual chapters explore its importance as a source on the ethnography of ‘Moorish’ North Africa in this period, on military campaigning, logistics and battlefield violence, and on religious practices, including Christian sectarian tensions and African paganism.
Papers by Andy Merrills
The book also explores the value of the Iohannis as a historical source in its own right. Individual chapters explore its importance as a source on the ethnography of ‘Moorish’ North Africa in this period, on military campaigning, logistics and battlefield violence, and on religious practices, including Christian sectarian tensions and African paganism.