ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on exclusively Byzantine Greek-language Christianity, and minimise my delving into Latin, Syriac, Armenian, Georgian, Coptic and other church traditions. It discusses two examples of how the later Byzantine tradition revisited the theme of the Magi. A crucial aspect in forming specific features of Byzantine cultural memory was the Old Testament depiction of an utterly complimentary image of the Persian empire. Christian authors adopted the concept of the Four Kingdoms from the Greco-Roman pagan tradition, which had its roots in Near Eastern historiosophy and likely had an Iranian origin. The doubts about the epistemological foundations of astrology were strengthened by empirical evidence derived, in particular, through the rapid Christianisation of Sasanian Iran. The early exegetes interpreted the identity of the Magi as barbarian and pagan in two ways, which supplemented the metahistorical exegesis of the Old Testament.
