ABSTRACT
The fiĞh-century stories of Theodosius’ apple and Marcian’s eagles illustrate several aspects of the significance of good stories in Byzantine culture: first, the initial recognition of their value for political propaganda and counter propaganda by the actual political participants, with each side recognizing the power of their opponent’s fiction and hence the need for a rebuĴal that silently acknowledges the strength of that fiction; then the use of the stories by the earlier chroniclers who, in recording them as history, adapt them for their own historical or literary purpose that differs from the original political use of the stories; finally, as the stories become accepted elements in popular memory of the ‘national’ past, the later telling of them involves further literary adaptation now far removed from the original political purpose. In the course of this process not only do these stories become part of Byzantine history, but their function in historical narrative enables us to observe how chroniclers adapt material for their own literary ends. This laĴer point is important because Byzantine chroniclers are sometimes still seen as simple-minded plagiarists, who simply copy what was in their source. Here by examining Theophanes’ treatment in particular but also Malalas’, we can watch how carefully these two chroniclers adapt the stories to suit their own narrative and interpretation of the past. Limitations of space permit also only a brief look at the later use of the stories in the eleventh and twelĞh centuries where earlier competing strands of narrative are brought together but where, with their historical context now lost or insignificant, the stories are given instead a new moral interpretation suited to contemporary taste. Throughout the whole process, the awareness of an interested audience also helps draw aĴention to a remarkable feature of Byzantine culture, namely a popular interest in history as an important branch of literature.
