Ryan Strickler, “Coping with Crisis: Invasion, Defeat, and Apocalyptic Discourse in Seventh-Century"

In September 2018, Ryan Strickler completed his PhD in the Department of Ancient History at Macquarie University. His thesis, titled “Coping with Crisis: Invasion, Defeat, and Apocalyptic Discourse in Seventh-Century Byzantium”, addresses the use of apocalyptic discourse by Byzantine/Roman authors to rhetorically transform their religious and political identity in the wake of the Sassanid Persian and later Islamic invasions of the seventh century. Strickler’s thesis departs from previous studies of apocalypticism by examining its appearance in genres that are not typically known for their apocalyptic speculation, such as court poetry, historiography, letters, sermons, and saints lives.

Traditionally, Byzantines conceived of themselves as the chosen people of God, whose favour was demonstrated by material and military success. When unprecedented defeat at the hands of two non-Christian foes threatened this idea, many Byzantines were faced with a crisis of identity. Strickler argues that Roman/Byzantine authors, writing from numerous cultural, linguistic, and socio-economical backgrounds, used apocalyptic discourse as a way to make sense of their increasingly incomprehensible situation. This is demonstrated by examining several recurring themes, such as the status of the emperor as a supernatural power, religious conflict and apostasy, and the dehumanisation of enemies, as they appear across Byzantine literature from seventh century.

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Ryan Strickler is currently employed as a fixed-term lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Queensland. He was recently awarded Early Career Researcher Fellowship from Macquarie University’s Ancient Cultures Research Centre. He is currently expanding his PhD thesis for publication as a monograph in 2019.