The Column of Phocas and The Icon of Heraclius: Shift from Rome to Byzantium

Year 2023, , 535 - 553, 26.12.2023

Hüseyin Salikoğlu

https://doi.org/10.48120/oad.1291519

Abstract

It is possible to clarify through the archaeological and art historic perspective when the Roman Empire collapsed and when the Byzantium began. One of the surviving archaeological and material proofs was the tradition of honorific columns that was sustained almost uninterruptedly in the Roman empire. The city of Rome and her heart Forum Romanum housed many honorific columns erected by emperors. They sustained this tradition even after the capital had moved to Constantinople and the empire had been Christianised. These colums were the state monuments that linked them to their past. They represented Roman supremacy, imperial authority, Roman identity, its collective memory and the classical culture. At the beginning of the seventh century, Emperor Heraclius abandoned this tradition. His reign is accepted as the end of the Roman empire by some historians. This was not just a coincidence though. It was the concrete evidence of the changing and transforming world Heraclius lived in. Honorific columns were literally the Rome’s ideological flag in the public sphere. The emperors' abandonment of the tradition of erecting honorific columns meant a break with classical culture and Roman imperial ideals. This historical situation heralded the dawn of a new civilization called as Byzantium today.

Keywords

Column of Phocas, Forum Romanum, Later Roman Empire, Byzantium, Late Antiquity.

Phocas’ın Sütunu, Heraclius’un İkonası: Roma’dan Bizans’a Geçiş

Abstract

Roma İmparatorluğu’nun ne zaman Bizans’a evrildiği konusundaki tartışmaya arkeolojik ve sanat tarihsel kanıtların yardımıyla katkı sağlamak mümkündür. Günümüze ulaşmış birçok arkeolojik ve maddi kanıttan biri de Roma İmparatorluğu’nda neredeyse kesintisiz sürdürülmüş anıtsal sütun dikme geleneğindir. Bu geleneğin son evresi Roma İmparatorluğu’nun Bizans’a evrildiği süreçte önemli bir yere sahiptir. Roma kenti ve bu kentin kalbi Forum Romanum imparatorların diktiği birçok anıtsal sütuna ev sahipliği yapmaktaydı. Başkent Constantinopolis’e taşındığında ve imparatorluk Hristiyanlaştığında dahi bu geleneği hem eski hem de yeni başkentte sürdürmüşlerdi. Bu sütunlar onları Romalı geçmişlerine bağlayan devlet anıtlarıydı. Roma egemenliğini, imparatorun otoritesini, Romalı kimliğini, toplumsal hafızayı ve klasik kültürü temsil etmekteydiler. 7. yy’ın başında İmparator Heraclius bu geleneği terk etti. Onun iktidarı bazı tarihçiler için Roma imparatorluğunun sonu olarak kabul edilir. Bu bir tesadüften ziyade, Heraclius’un içinde yaşadığı dünyanın değişip dönüştüğünün de somut kanıtıydı. Anıtsal sütunlar adeta Roma imparatorluk ideolojisinin kamusal alanda dalgalanan bayrağıydı. İmparatorların anıtsal sütun dikme geleneğini terk etmeleri klasik kültürden ve Roma imparatorluk ideallerinden de kopmak anlamına gelmekteydi. Bu tarihsel durum, bugün Bizans denilen uygarlığın da doğuşuna işaret etmekteydi.

Keywords

Phocas Sütunu, Forum Romanum, Geç Roma, Bizans, Geç Antikçağ.

References

• Temel Kaynaklar
• Cassiodorus, The Variae: The Complete Translation. çev. M. Shane Bjornlie. California, University of California Press, 2019.
• Chronicon Paschale, Chronicon Paschale 284-624 AD. çev. Michael and Mary Whitby. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2007.
• Corippus, Flavius Cresconius, In Laudem Iustini Augusti Minoris. çev. Averil Cameron. London: The Athlone Press, University of London, 1976.
• Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, On İki Caesar’ın Yaşamöyküsü. çev. Güngör Varınlıoğlu. İstanbul, Arkeoloji ve Sanat Yayınları, 2017.
• John of Ephesus, The Third Part of Ecclesiastical History of John Bishop of Ephesus. çev. Payne Smith. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1860.
• John Malalas, The Chronicle of John Malalas. çev. Elizabeth Jeffreys, Michael Jeffreys and Roger Scott. Leiden: Brill, 2017.
• Liber Pontificalis, The Book of Pontiffs: The Ancient Biographies of First Ninety Roman Bishops to AD 715. çev. Raymond Davis. Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2010.
• Nikephoros, Short History. çev. Cyril Mango. Washington D. C., Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2018.
• Parastaseis, Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai: Constantinople in the Early Eight Century. çev. Averil Cameron ve Judith Herrin. Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1984.
• Patria, The Patria: Accounts of Medieval Constantinople. çev. Albrecht Berger. London, Harvard University Press, 2013.
• Patrologia Graeca, ed. Jacques Paul Migne 146. Cilt. Paris: Migne, 1865.
• Pliny, Natural History. çev. H. Rackham. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1948.
• Procopius, Of the Buildings of Justinian. çev. Aubrey Steward. London, Elibron Classics, 2005.
• Prokopios, The Wars of Justinian. çev. H. B. Dewing ve Anthony Kaldellis. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2014.
• Pseudo-Zachariah Rhetor, The Chronicle of Pseudo-Zachariah Rhetor: Church and War in Late Antiquity. çev. G. Greatrex. Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2011.
• Publius Ovidius Naso, Fasti (I-VI) Roma Takvimi ve Festivaller. çev. Asuman Coşkun Abuagla. İstanbul, Yapı ve Kredi Yayınları, 2016.
• Theophanes Confessor, The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor: Byzantine and Near Eastern History AD 248-813. Çev. Cyril Mango ve Roger Scott. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
• Theophylact Simocatta, The History of Theophylact Simocatta. çev. Michael and Mary Whitby. New York, Oxford University Press, 1988.
• Virgil, The Aeneid. çev. C. Day Levis. New York, Oxford University Press, 2008.
• Modern Çalışmalar
• Alexander, Suzanne Spain. “Heraclius, Byzantine Imperial Ideology, and the David Plates.” Speculum LII/2 (1977): 217-237.
• Anderson, Benjamin. “The Disappering Imperial Statue: Towards a Social Approach.”, içinde The Afterlife of Greek and Roman Sculpture: Late Antique Responses and Practices, ed. Troels Myrup Kristensen ve Lea Stirling, Michigan, University of Michigan Press, 2019.
• Arnheim, Michael Thomas Walter. The Senatorial Aristocracy in the Later Roman Empire. London: Oxford University Press, 1972.
• Bauer, Franz Alto. Stadt, Plazt und Denkmal in der Spätantike: Untersuchungen zur Ausstattung des Öffentlishen Raums in den Spätantiken Städen Rom, Konstantinopel und Ephesos, Mainz: WBG, 1996.
• Berger, Albrecht. Untersuchungen zu den Patria Konstantinupoleos (Poikila Byzantina). Bonn: Rudolf Habelt, 1988.
• Bowersock, Glen W, Peter Brown ve Oleg Grabar, Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Post-Classical World. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999.
• Brown, Peter. The World of Late Antiquity: AD 150-750. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971.
• Cameron, Averil. The Mediterranean World in the Late Antiquity: 395-700. New York: Routledge, 2012.
• ———. “Images of Authority: Elites and Icons in Late Sixth-Century Byzantium”, Past & Present 84, (1979): 21.
• Clarck, Gillian. Late Antiquity: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
• Dark, K. R. ve A. L. Harris, “The Last Roman Forum: the Forum of Leo in Fifth-century Constantinople”, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 48 (2008): 57-69.
• Elizabeth H. Pearson. “Political Space”, içinde A Companion to the City of Rome, ed. Claire Holleran, Amanda Claridge, Hoboken NJ, John Wiley & Sons, 2018.
• Foss, Clive. “Archaeology and the "Twenty Cities" of Byzantine Asia”, American Journal of Archaeology, 81/4 (1977): 469-486.
• ———. Byzantine and Turkish Sardis. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976.
• ———. Ephesus after Antiquity: A Late Antique, Byzantine and Turkish City. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
• ———. “The Persians in Asia Minor and the End of Antiquity”, The English Historical Review, 90/357 (1975): 721-747.
• Frakes, James F.D. “Fora”, içinde A Companion to Roman Architecture, ed. Roger B. Ulrich ve Caroline K. Quenemoen, West Sussex: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2014.
• Henzen, Wilhelm, Giovanni Battista de Rossi, Eugen Bormann ve Christian Hülsen. Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum: Vol. VI: Inscriptiones Urbis Romae Latinae. Apud G. Reimerum, 1876.
• Haldon, John. Byzantium in the Seventh Century: The Transformation of A Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
• ———. “The End of Rome? The Transformation of the Eastern Empire in the Seventh and Eight Century”, içinde The Roman Empire in Context: Historical and Comparative Perspectives, ed. Arnason, Johann P. ve Kurt A. Raaflaub, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.
• Iara, Khristine. “Lingering Sacredness: The Persistence of Pagan Sacredness in the Forum Romanum in Late Antiquity”, içinde Religious Practices and Christianization of the Late Antique City (4th – 7th cent.), ed. Aude Busine, Leiden, Koninklijke Brill, 2015.
• Inglebert, Hervé. “Late Antique Conceptions of Late Antiquity”, içinde The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity, ed. Scott Fitzgerald, New York, Oxford University Press, 2012.
• Jones, Arnold Hugh Martin. The Later Roman Empire 284-602 Volume One. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1986.
• Kaçar, Turhan. “Geç Antik Çağ nedir?” içinde Geç Antik Çağ’da Lykos Vadisi ve Çevresi, ed. Turhan Kaçar ve Celal Şimşek, İstanbul, Ege Yayınları, 2018.
• Kaegi, Walter Emil. Heraclius, Emperor of Byzantium. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
• Kalas, Gregor. “The Divisive Politics of Phocas (602-610) and the Last Imperial Monument of Rome”, Antiquité Tardive 25 (2017): 173-190.
• ———. The Transformation of the Roman Forum in Late Antiquity: Transforming Public Space. Austin, University of Texas Press, 2015.
• Leader, Ruth E. “The David Plates Revisited: Transforming the Secular in Early Byzantium”, The Art Bulletin, 82/3 (2000): 407-427.
• Liebeschuetz, Wolf. “The Birth of Late Antiquity”, Antiquité Tardive, 12/24 (2004): 253-261.
• Mango, Cyril. “The Column of Justinian and His Successors”, içinde Studies on Constantinople, ed. Cyril Mango, Aldershot: Variorum, 2005.
• ———. “The Byzantine Inscriptions of Constantinople: A Bibliographical Survey”, American Journal of Archaeology 55/1 (1951): 52-66.
• ———. The Empire of The New Rome. London: Phoenix Giant, 1998.
• Marrou, Henri-Irénée. Décadence romaine ou Antiquité tardive? Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1977.
• McKitterick, Rosamond. “The Papacy and the Byzantium in the Seventh and the Early Eight Century Sections of Liber Pontificalis”, Papers of the British School at Rome 84 (2016): 241-273.
• Mitchell, Stephen. A History of Later Roman Empire: AD 284-641. Malden (Mass.): Wiley Blackwell, 2006.
• Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Museum für Kunst und Industrie 2, 1889, 15ff.
• Murray, John. The Autobiographies of Edward Gibbon. London, John Murray, 1897.
• Nicholas, F. M. “A Revised History of the Column of Phocas in the Roman Forum”, Archeologia 52 (1890):183-194.
• Ousterhout, Robert. “The Life and Afterlife of Constantine’s Column”, Journal of Roman Archaeology 27 (2014): 305-326.
• Richardson, Lawrence. “Columna Phocae”, A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. London: The John Hopkins University Press,1992.
• Roth, Leland M. Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History and Meaning. New York: Routledge, 2018.
• Sarris, Peter. Empires of Faith: The Fall of Rome to the Rise of Islam 500-700. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
• Sennett, Richard. Ten ve Taş: Batı Uygarlığında Beden ve Taş. çev. Tuncay Birkan. İstanbul: Metis Yayınları, 2011.
• Shahid, Irfan. “The Iranian Factor in Byzantium during the Reign of Heraclius”, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 26 (1972): 239-320.
• Shephard, Jonathan. The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
• Talbot, Alice-Mary. “The Restoration of Constantinople under Michael VIII”, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 47 (1993): 243-261.
• Vasiliki Tsamakda, “König David als Typos des Byzantinischen Kaisers”, içinde Byzanz – das Römerreich im Mittelalter, Teil 1 Welt der Ideen, Welt der Dinge, ed. Falko Daim ve Jörg Drauschke, Mainz: Verlag des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums, 2011.
• Vasiliev, Alexander A. Bizans İmparatorluğu Tarihi. çev. Tevabil Alkaç. İstanbul: Alfa Yayınları, 2017.
• Ward-Perkins, Bryan. “The End of the Statue Habit, AD 284-620”, içinde, The Last Statues of Antiquity, ed. R. R. R. Smith ve Bryan Ward-Perkins, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.
• ———. The Fall of Rome and The End of Civilization. New York, Oxford University Press, 2006.
• Weisweiler, John. “From Equality to Asymmetry, Honorific Statues, Imperial Power, and Senatorial Identity in Late-Antique Rome”, Journal of Roman Archaeology 25 (2012): 319-350.
• Wickham, Chris. Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and Mediterranean 400-800. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
• Whittow, Mark. “Early Medieval Byzantium and the End of Ancient World”, Journal of Agrarian Change, 9/1 (2009): 134-153.
• ———. “Ruling the Late Roman and Early Byzantine City: A Continuous History”, Past & Present, 129 (1990): 3-29.