The Moors have been regarded by Graeco-Roman authors with a mixture of ambivalence and admiration. From the highly positive characterizations of Moorish giants like Masinissa (238-148 BCE) whose achievements the Romans lauded, to figures like Jugurtha (fl. 118-104 BCE) and Gildo (fl. 396-398 CE) whose hostilities with Rome earned them both scorn and ridicule, Moorish figures loom large in the pages of ancient historians from Herodotus to Procopius. This thesis examines the shifting portrayal of Moors from their earliest literary depictions in Greek literary sources to the late Roman literary portrayals of the sixth century CE. It argues that certain stereotypes regarding Moors, a problematic term that will be discussed in greater detail, continued relatively unchanged in Graeco-Roman authors, and that this was highly dependent on genre, political context, and intertextuality. It further argues that negative vs. positive portrayals of Moors can be understood better via an examination of the context of an author on an individual level, where political background was key to an historian’s evaluation of a certain Moorish figure or of Moors in general.

Cette thèse s’intéresse aux historiens classicisants de langue grecque de l’Antiquité tardive. Elle développe une analyse sociale de ces historiens et de leurs écrits. Son objectif principal est de souligner les interactions entre l’écriture de l’histoire, vu comme une pratique sociale, et la société romaine tardo-antique. La première partie dresse la biographie des historiens, d’Eunape de Sardes à Théophylacte Simocatta. Le profil social de ces historiens y est défini, et une attention particulière est portée aux liens entre activité littéraire et carrière professionnelle. La seconde partie étudie plus spécifiquement les élites provinciales tardo-antiques, groupe auquel appartiennent en majorité nos historiens. Elle explique pourquoi pratiquement tous les historiens étaient des avocats et comment ces derniers en venaient à écrire de l’histoire. La dernière partie analyse les fondements sociaux de l’histoire. Elle souligne ce que l’histoire devait à l’éducation tardo-antique et montre comment les vertus de l’historien reflétaient les vertus sociales attendues d’un membre de l’élite tardo-antique. / The main objective of this dissertation is to offer a social analysis of the classicizing historians of late antiquity. It aims to underline the interactions between history-writing and society. The first part presents the biographies of late antique classicising historians, from Eunapius of Sardis to Theophylact Simocatta. It describes the social profile of those historians, while insisting on the interactions between professional career and literary endeavours. The second part explains why most historians were lawyers and analyzes the place history-writing occupies in their social life. The third part deals with the social foundations of history writing. It focuses on the role of rhetorical education in the formation of future historians and shows how the virtues of the historian mirrored the social virtues of late antique elites.