A Tangled Web Marriage and Alliance in the Shadows of the Plague, 542–548
A Tangled Web Marriage and Alliance in the Shadows of the Plague, 542–548

Summary/Abstract: Few debates in modern academia are as heated as the oneamong scholars who consider the arrival of bubonic plague in Constatinople in the spring of 542 as a demographic and social disaster and those who argue for less tumultuous outcomes. Whatever side one stands on inthe current discussion, the pandemic’s immediate impact on the adminis-tration, economy, politics, society and religious culture within Constan-tinople and the wider empire seems clear. In this article I will suggest thatincreased competition amongst Constantinople’s elites for a shrunken poolof suitable brides and grooms for their sons and daughters was one hith-erto underappreciated result of the pandemic. The sixth-century easternRoman historian, Procopius of Caesarea, offers ample evidence not onlyabout the devastation wrought by the bubonic plague but also its impacton the political alliances in Constantinople. His digressions in Secret His-tory concerning marital politicking amongst Constantinople’s elites pro-vide evidence of this impact. Capitalizing on advances in our knowledgeabout Procopius both as an author and historical figure, I will analyze hiswritings on three levels: as history, literature and propaganda. By pondering what motivated Procopius to focus on these marital alliances and, more­ over, pondering links between them, the paper offers some revisionist takes on these digressions, both as literary devices and as actual events.

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