John Italos Seen by Anna Komnene

• Authors: Magdalena Jaworska-Wołoszyn
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The historical work of Anna Komnene is one of the main sources which provides crucial information about John Italos. It is worth noting though that princess Komnene sketches in the Alexiad a portrait of this eminent Byzantine thinker that is anything but flattering. Despite the wide range of perspectives and diverse representations of the philosopher, it is actually quite difficult to find in her opus any comments or opinions of decisively positive nature. As a matter of fact, the final opinion regarding the famous “Consul Philosophorum” is formed solely on the basis of downright hostile statements. John Italos is not regarded as an outstanding figure, but rather as a controversial thinker that hardly deserves any recognition. While the present paper investigates the figure of Italos as shown in the Alexiad by Anna Komnene, its aim is to unravel those elements in the work that caused Komnene to express such an opinion about the philosopher.

Keywords

EN

John Italos; Consul Philosophorum; The Alexiad of Anna Komnene; Timarion; satire

• Publisher: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
• Journal: Peitho. Examina Antiqua
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 279-294

Dates

published

2014-01-24

Contributors

author

Magdalena Jaworska-Wołoszyn

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Identifiers

DOI

10.14746/pea.2014.1.13