ABSTRACT
The Byzantines, perhaps more than any medieval people, did not regard historical change as a Good Thing. 'Novelty' and 'innovation' were negative words in their vocabulary. The optional elements were the Apocalypse of St John, which the Christian East never fully accepted as a canonical work of scripture, and an apocryphal prophetic tradition, part Judaeo-Christian, part Sibylline and pagan, which foretold, among other things, the succession of Roman emperors, and was therefore useful for identifying the sequence of reigns that would lead to the Last Things. The Christian Topography, as its title implies, was not primarily a work of eschatology. It was in the mid to late seventh century that a Syrian Christian incorporated the legend of the Last Roman Emperor into an elaborate apocalyptic prophecy which, circulating under the pseudonym of Methodios of Patara, and translated into Greek and Latin, enjoyed a long future in both East and West.
