ABSTRACT
Persian Christianity, as well as the pre-Christian piety of Persia, played an important role in the religious worldview of the Byzantines, as demonstrated in the previous chapters. However, understanding the true impact of Persia on religious consciousness requires considering the other line of the Byzantine tradition. The concept of Persia in the context of Christianity was tightly linked and interwoven with the indigenous ‘secular’ cultural heritage of Hellenic and Roman origins, which the Byzantines rigorously preserved, protected and reproduced. Two seemingly incompatible memories coexisted: the originally Semitic ‘religious’ one and the originally Greco-Roman ‘secular’ one, very often related to the same memorial events, historical figures and imaginary topography. In attempting to reveal mechanisms of mnemonic practices, a significant source to start with is the Myriobiblos of Patriarch Photios.
