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A Prophecy of Empire

The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius from Late Antique Mesopotamia to the Global Medieval Imagination
by Christopher J. Bonura (Author)
Hardcover eBook
Price: $95.00 / £80.00
Publication Date: Nov 2025
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 372
ISBN: 9780520418264
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Illustrations: 11 b/w figures, 2 maps, 2 tables
Series:
Endowments:
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About the Book

The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius was one of the medieval world’s most popular and widely translated texts. Composed in Syriac in Mesopotamia in the seventh century, this supposed revelation presented a new, salvific role for the Roman Empire, whose last emperor, it prophesied, would help bring about the end of the ages. In this first book-length study of Pseudo-Methodius, Christopher J. Bonura uncovers the under-appreciated Syriac origins of this apocalyptic tract, revealing it as a remarkable response to political realities faced by Christians living under a new Islamic regime. Tracing the spread of Pseudo-Methodius from the early medieval Mediterranean to its dissemination via the printing presses of early modern Europe, Bonura then demonstrates how different cultures used this new vision of empire’s role in the end times to reconfigure their own realities. The book also features a new, complete, and annotated English translation of the Syriac text of Pseudo-Methodius.

About the Author

Christopher J. Bonura is Assistant Professor of History at Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland.

Table of Contents

Contents
 
Acknowledgments
Note to the Reader
Abbreviations
 
Introduction. A Syriac Apocalyptic Tract on Political Theology
 
PART ONE. CONTEXT
1. Plague, Taxation, and Conversion to Islam: Pseudo-Methodius’s Date and Historical Context
 
2. Far from Byzantium: The Author and the Literary Context of Pseudo-Methodius
 
3. The Prophecies of Daniel and Syriac Eschatology: The Context of Pseudo-Methodius’s Political Theology
 
PART TWO. CONTENT
4. The Historical Part: A History of God’s Kingship and Daniel’s Four Kingdoms
 
5. The Prophetic Part: The King of the Greeks, the Surrender of Power, and the End of the World
 
PART THREE. RECEPTION
6. From Mesopotamia to Constantinople: The Syriac and Greek Reception of Pseudo-Methodius’s Political Eschatology
 
7. From Byzantium to the Orthodox Kingdoms: Pseudo-Methodius’s Political Eschatology in the Non-Greek East
 
8. From Merovingian Francia to Early Modern Empire: Pseudo-Methodius’s Political Eschatology in the Latin West
 
Conclusion. Pseudo-Methodius: The Unlikely Prophet of Christian Empire
 
Appendix A. Translation of the Syriac Pseudo-Methodius
Appendix B. Early Interpolations in the Greek Pseudo-Methodius
References
Index

Reviews

"This is the best kind of history. Bonura has gone back to the sources, waded through the historiography, and emerged here with a transformative reading of Pseudo-Methodius, both in the moment of its creation as well as in its later transmission. Anyone who works on almost anything related to the medieval world will learn something important from this book."—Matthew Gabriele, Professor of Medieval Studies, Virginia Tech

"A very impressive and wide-ranging study. Bonura convincingly re-contextualizes Pseudo-Methodius in the full depth of its Syriac context and provides an important new translation of the text."—Philip Wood, Tejpar Professor of Inter-Religious Studies, The Aga Khan University