John Lydus: On the Months

Persian capture of Antioch in 540.86. Carney, Bureaucracy 2: 16 n. 17. The Suda alleges that this work (as well as De mens. and "other mathematical hypotheses") was dedicated to Gabriel, city prefect of Constantinople in 543. If true, this would seem to indicate that John most likely completed it in fairly short order, but doubts are certainly possible. Richard Wuensch's supposition (on the basis of De mag. 3.30), on the other hand, that John only began laboring on the extant works after his retirement from the civil service is a misreading of John's self-report.87. Wuensch (ed.), Ioannis Lydi De magistratibus populi Romani libri tres (Leipzig, 1903), p. v. More justifiably, John's reference to his own literary works as having brought him to the attention of Justinian could easily be understood as pointing in part to De mens. and De ost.88. Dubuisson-Schamp, 1.1: lxxxiii. The sheer length of De mag. makes a longer gestation period seem likely, however, and its composition is indeed most frequently dated late in John's life. Stein argues that details of the relations with Persia mentioned in 3.55 reveal a date for that third book between 557 and 561.89. 2: 329-30. De mag. 1.2 is sometimes taken to reveal that John was writing the work in 554, but reliance on a clearly mistaken calculation in that passage is dangerous.90. For critical discussion, see T. Wallinga, "The Date of Joannes Lydus' De magistratibus," Revue Internationale des Droits de l'Antique 39 (1992), pp. 359-80; Caimi, pp. 114-17. Caimi in fact argues that there is little reason to assume any writing after 552.91. Caimi, p. 123.

CONTENT OF DE MENSIBUS AND JOHN'S INTERESTS

On the Months is in fact much more than a book about the months of the Roman calendar. In its original form, it seems to have been a general account of the Roman calendar including its supposed historical origins. The nature of the first book is obscured by its mutilated condition, but some sense can be made on the basis of 1.37 (from the preface of De mag.): it contained discussion of the Lydians and the "mysteries" adopted from them by the Etruscans, and of the insignia of magistrates and soldiers instituted by Numa.92. Hence also, Wuensch argues, the other similar cross-references from De magistratibus belong here—and he prints them as 1.38-40. This is the context in which fragments on magistrates' dress or other aspects of the technical details of the state—who established the solar year of 12 months, among other things—should be understood; the apparent confusion is partly due to the fact that frequently John is led to trace the development of early institutions down to his own time (as in the case, for example, of the circus / chariot racing in 1.12). Prior to Numa, John naturally dealt with the foundation of Rome by Romulus—who