Byzantine Apocalypses: History and Prophesy

FAIN: FA-10788-74

Paul J. Alexander
University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, CA 94704-5940)

To study Byzantine apocalypses from 400-1100 A.D. as literary documents, as general historical sources and as evidence for Medieval men's expectations for the future and for the end of the world. The proposed study should call attention to a relatively neglected body of literature. Inasmuch as, unlike most other Byzantine sources, apocalypses are usually composed by and for provincials without much education, power and wealth, they reveal a great deal about hopes, fears and reactions of ordinary men (and women?) and thus serve as a corrective to other accounts emanating from the captial and centers of authority.