Fictive Past and Modern Propaganda: The Reversal of Candidus’ Biblical Archaiologia in the Age of the Anastasius

Abstract

This article aims to show that genealogies and foundations were a crucial tool in Late Antiquity in order to build the identity of a people. They were also used to develop political strategies and propaganda in order to support an emperor or to damage his memory. As to display how these strategies worked, we will consider a case-study offered by the historian Candidus : he is the author of a History of the Empire, containing an Archaeology of the Isaurians, that helped to forge the identity of this people. This study will show how this Archaeology lead to the construction of an ethnic consciousness, but it was later overthrown by Late ancient and Byzantine sources (as Procopius of Gaza, the Logothetenchronik, etc.), as to promote a negative image of the emperor Zeno and the Amorian dynasty. It follows that the rediscovery and the manipulation of the mythical past played a prominent role on the political scene during Late Antiquity and Byzantine era.