Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
OLBA, ss.67-87, 2024 (AHCI)
Together with Procopius' other texts; namely "Wars" and "Secret History", "Buildings" is one of the principal sources for writing the history of the reign of the emperor Justinian (527-565). "Buildings" is a panegyric and conforms to literary conventions. Procopius portrays Justinian as a powerful patron who expanded and transformed the empire, and ended the schism in Christianity by uniting the Church. The first book of Buildings is dedicated to Constantinople and focuses on the churches of the imperial capital. In the second book, Procopius focuses on Mesopotamia and Syria. He starts with Dara and devotes a passage even longer than the one he wrote on Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. When he wrote Buildings, the discussions about Christology were as pressing as the wars with Persians, and Mesopotamia and Syria were the main centers of Syriac miaphysite Christianity. Procopius rarely mentions the churches in this book on the eastern frontier and he never talks about the miaphysites. Northern Mesopotamia is an important frontier and it may seem only natural that Procopius chose to focus on fortifications to depict a strong frontier. This article argues that while avoiding tackling the Christological disputes of the day, Procopius gave implicit references related to the unity of the Church by employing some literary devices and suggests that some buildings that Procopius neglected may have pointed to the division in the Church. Procopius dedicates a long section to the Church of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople which has been claimed was built in the Hormisdas Palace for the miaphysite refugees and compares it with the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul, which had relics of these saints received from the Pope in Rome. His narration can potentially be interpreted as a reference to the unity of the Church. While discussing Procopius' preferences in choosing his material and treatment, this article shows the potential of analysing the many layers of his texts and reads the "Buildings" in a new light in relation to the miaphysites.