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- Title
Cavafy and Niketas Choniates: a possible source for ‘Waiting for the barbarians’.
- Authors
Pontani, Filippomaria
- Abstract
This article suggests that a possible source of inspiration for Cavafy's poem ‘Waiting for the barbarians’ can be identified in a passage of the Byzantine historian Niketas Choniates concerning the arrival of German ambassadors at the court of Alexios III in Constantinople in 1196. The context of diplomacy, the city's decadent atmosphere, the emperor's self-humiliation and the unsuccessful ostentation of luxury and royal attire are prominent features linking both texts.
- Subjects
WAITING for the Barbarians (Poem : Cavafy); CAVAFY, Constantine, 1863-1933; CHONIATES, Nicetas, ca. 1140-1213; BYZANTINE antiquities; BYZANTINE civilization; BYZANTINE Empire
- Publication
Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies, 2018, Vol 42, Issue 2, p275
- ISSN
0307-0131
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1017/byz.2018.9