ABSTRACT
The comparison between the two redactions of the Buildings reveals new details about some pressing questions of genre, audience and literary taste in the sixth century. Cameron's refreshing views produced a positivist reaction. In his controversial book, Kaldellis described what he believes were the hidden themes behind Procopius' writing, essentially to be connected with a circle of political dissidents inspired by pagan beliefs and Neo-Platonic ideas. The Theotokos near Anaplus reinforces the impression given by the preface that Procopius composed at least the second redaction of the Buildings as a direct response to Justinian's commission. Some remarks are in order about a corollary aspect of Kaldellis's theory. Pointing out the similarity of the authors' political views, Bernard Flusin, who first noticed the gloss, referred the reader to two possible sources for the rendering Augusteum. One of them is precisely John Lydus' De mensibus, the other is the fourteenth-century antiquarian compilation called the Patria, which copied from Lydus verbatim.
