A Treasury Minister in Hell: A Little-Known 'Dialogue of the Dead' of the Late Twelfth Century: Translated from Medieval Greek with an Introduction

Abstract

This little-known...(dialogue of the dead) satirizes the life and death of the bureaucrat Stephen Hagiochristophorites and the part he played in the downfall of his emperor Andronikos I Komnenos (1183-85). Andronikos became regent for the young Alexios II in April 1182 after overthrowing the government of the dowager empress Maria of Antioch. Andronikos's reign was not a popular one, at least with the inhabitants of the capital, and Hagiochristophorites, as...(logothete of the treasury) and one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the regime, was not one of the more well-liked government ministers of the late twelfth century. Both Eustathios and Choniates tell us that he was generally known not as Hagiochristophorites (St. Christopher) but as "Antichristophorites" (anti- Christopher), and they pillory him for his bloodthirstiness, cruelty, and ambition.' In a reign where burnings, stonings, and other esoteric forms of punishment were not uncommon, Hagiochristophorites emerges in the historical accounts as the most complaisant of Andronikos's henchmen—in themselves an extremely unsavory bunch of ministers and lackeys. Not only did Hagiochristophorites encourage the excesses of his royal master, but he was skilled in torture and assassination in his own right. In fact, despite the generally unpleasant qualities of Andronikos's supporters, Hagiochristophorites "shone in such company like a torch of destruction."