Zeno, the epileptic emperor: historiography and polemics as sources of realia

Several Byzantine sources describe the emperor Zeno as suffering from epile psy, which, although assigned to natural causes in Greek humoral medicine, was more widely explained in terms of demonic possession. The charge of epi lepsy originated with the north Syrian historian Eustathius and comprised a n extremist Chalcedonian attempt to discredit the ruler, probably for promu lgation of the Henoticon in 482. It is ignored or contradicted by other Cha lcedonian writers and by all Monophysite sources. The origins and growth of the legend affirm once again the great influence of confessional discord o n historical perception; they also illustrate how a single author's baseles s polemic can eventually assume the form of an apparently secure and widely attested affirmation of simple fact, and highlighted the crucial role of n orth Syria in producing the literature upon which modern scholarship on lat e antiquity must rely.