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Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 66/2016
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Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Austrian Academy of Sciences Press
A-1011 Wien, Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2
Tel. +43-1-515 81/DW 3420, Fax +43-1-515 81/DW 3400 https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at, e-mail: verlag@oeaw.ac.at |
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DATUM, UNTERSCHRIFT / DATE, SIGNATURE
BANK AUSTRIA CREDITANSTALT, WIEN (IBAN AT04 1100 0006 2280 0100, BIC BKAUATWW), DEUTSCHE BANK MÜNCHEN (IBAN DE16 7007 0024 0238 8270 00, BIC DEUTDEDBMUC)
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Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 66, pp. 127-152, 2017/06/20
This article discusses Aristophanic influence present in two important passages from Niketas Choniates’ Χρονικὴ διήγησις, which are related to gluttonous tax officials from the retinue of Emperor Manuel I Komnenos (John of Poutza and John Kamateros). The first part of the article examines the place of Aristophanes’ comedies within Byzantine learned culture in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and investigates possible reasons for the sudden boom in their popularity within the period. The second part analyses in details the passages in question, situating them within the comic tradition, demonstrating numerous intertextual allusions to Old Comedy (as represented by Aristophanes), and showing how consious appropriation of Aristophanic material added additional, chiefly political, meanings to Choniates’ narrative.