Aristophanes in the Service of Niketas Choniates – Gluttony, Drunkenness and Politics in the Χρονικὴ Διήγησις

Abstract

This article discusses Aristophanic influence present in two important passages from Niketas Choniates’ Χρονικὴ διήγησις, which are related to gluttonous tax officials from the retinue of Emperor Manuel I Komnenos (John of Poutza and John Kamateros). The first part of the article examines the place of Aristophanes’ comedies within Byzantine learned culture in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and investigates possible reasons for the sudden boom in their popularity within the period. The second part analyses in details the passages in question, situating them within the comic tradition, demonstrating numerous intertextual allusions to Old Comedy (as represented by Aristophanes), and showing how consious appropriation of Aristophanic material added additional, chiefly political, meanings to Choniates’ narrative.