Et ainxi comme Dieu het orgueil ... L’allégorie de Prudence faite histoire dans la Chronique de Morée
And so like God and pride ...The allegory of Prudence makes history in the Chronicle of Morea

Summary/Abstract: The Chronicle of Morea, a text written in the 14th century at the crossroads of Western and Byzantine worlds, features an episode in which a certain Kantakouzenos, a Byzantine general, is killed during a brief encounter of the Byzantine and the Moreote armies near a place called Sergiana. The episode appears in all three main versions of the Chronicle—Greek, French, and Aragonese—although the details of the anecdote are different. The French version of the Chronicle explains the death of Kantakouzenos as an act of divine punishment for the deadly sin of pride. This article argues that the episode was at least indirectly inspired by the Psychomachia of Prudentius, an allegorical poem of the early 5th century which exerted an immense influence on the Medieval West, thus proving that the Principality of Achaia belonged to the same cultural space. This recalls several other examples of Psychomachia’s influences, both in literature and art, notably in France. The differences between the three versions of the Chronicle of Morea are also analyzed in connection to this particular episode.

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