11

MALALAS, THE MAN AND HIS WORK

Brian Croke

As it stands, in eighteen books, the chronicle of Malalas covers the period from creation to A.D. 563, where Ba(= Oxford, Baroccianus 182, the single manuscript that preserves the bulk of the chronicle; see chapter 9, pp. 245-9) breaks off;1 the chronicle originally continued to the death of Justinian in 565, possibly even as far as 574. The books vary in length, by far the longest being XVIII which is devoted to the reign of Justinian. The first fourteen books cover different expanses of time, while XV to XVIII are each concentrated on the reign of a single emperor (XV: ; XVI: Anastasios; XVII: Justin I; XVIII: Justinian). Book I begins with Adam, includes a summary account of Noah and his progeny and takes the story forward to the Egyptians. Books II-IV then incorporate the earliest history of Greece (the kingdoms of Argos, Athens and Thebes) and V concentrates almost exclusively on the Trojan War. Book VI covers the Babylonian captivity and the kingdoms of the Lydians and Persians, as well as introducing Roman history through Aeneas. The foundation of Rome is the main subject of VII while VIII treats Alexander and the Hellenistic kingdoms. The basic framework for the first eight books is the chronology of Hebrew history from Adam to the high-priesthood of Addous. Sections covering stretches of other history such as that of the Greeks and Persians and the early history of Rome are set within this central chronological structure, beginning with Adam and continuing through the kings and high priests right down to the time of Christ Such a pattern had long been established in Christian chronographical writing and in this respect Malalas was more or less following his predecessors (see chapter 2, pp. 30-33). Although frequently dismissed as an amorphous miscellany of information without any evident purpose, Books I-VIII follow a well-defined path and fit consistently within the author's stated intention. In his preface (P 5) Malalas explains that his purpose is twofold: firstly, to set out the course of sacred history as interpreted by the Christian chronographic tradition (Africanus, Eusebios, and Domninos, amongst others); secondly, to provide a summary account of events from Adam to Justinian. The first explicit purpose is largely covered by Books I to VIII. Book IX treats of Roman republican history culminating with and the incarnation of Christ. This spills over into Book X which includes an important chronological digression explaining that Christ was born in the year 5967 and crucified in the year 6000 from the creation, before continuing on from

1The abbreviations used for the witnesses to Malalas are included in the list of Abbreviations (p. xi ff.) and the texts themselves discussed in chapter 9 (p. 245 ff.). 2 Brian Croke

Tiberius to (A.O. 14-98). Books XI and XII embrace the emperors from to the Tetrarchy (A.O. 98-305), covering little more than the activities of successive emperors in . The Christian empire begins with Constantine and in Book XIII while XIV covers the years from Theodosius II to Leo II (A.O. 402-474), and XV-XVIII from Zeno to Justinian (A.O. 474-565). In other words IX to XVIII continue I to VIII in following the second purpose Malalas indicated in his preface - a summary version of events right up to and including the author's lifetime.2 This chapter will endeavour to ascertain what canbe known about the author and his background.

1. Nomenclatureand era Except for his citation by contemporaries or near contemporaries (Evagrios and John of Ephesos: cf. chapter 9, pp. 250 and 304-6), all that is known of the author of the chronicle has to be gleaned from the work itself. The preface (as preserved in P) tells us only that his name was John and, following the sole testimony of the Slavonic version, that he came from Antioch: A report of John, descended from the time of , beginning from the time of the creation of the world. report:'account of world history' Slav. John:perhaps ''Slav (see the next lemma). descendedfrom the time of Constantine the Great: 'originally from the city of Antioch the Great in (Lesser) Syria' Slav (one should probably conjecture 'Malaly' genitive of Malalas, for 'Malyya', 'Lesser'). 3 Immediately we are confronted by the profound textual difficulties which aggravate study of the chronicle: is the preface a considerably syncopated version of the original or is it complete? If it is complete, then what does 'descended from the time of Constantine the Great' mean? Is it a reference to John's own family? If it reflects a scribal abbreviation then does it somehow refer to the content of the chronicle itself or to the city of Antioch in particular? Or does it simply indicate that, as so often, the opening page of the exemplar available to P was illegible? And what about the Slavonic at this point? Does it reflect the original more closely than the Greek? If so, then we can be sure that the author was from Antioch and was known as John Ma1alas(as is indicated in the apparatus quoted above). If not, then Lltis probably reflects the inference or knowledge of the translator. It has to be admitted that certainty is not possible. Nonetheless it is reasonable to accept the combined testimony of the Greek and Slavonic that the author's

2Note, however, that Scott, 1990, argues suggestively that the chronicle is structured in triads of three six-book sections. Scott has passed on a suggestion from Michael Daniel that the work is also structured in three groups of six books each based on an aspect of Byzantium's triple heritage, Books I-VI providing the Hebrew/Old Testament background, Books VII-XII covering Roman history (Book VII having the foundation of Rome both as its title and principal subject) and Books XIII-XVIII (beginning with Constantine) treating the Christian . This could be summed up as Jerusalem, Rome and . 3Translation and apparatus for this and all passages from Malalas cited elsewhere are taken from Jeffreys/Jeffreys/Scott, 1986. References to this 1986 translation are by book and paragraph, together with a page reference to Dindorrs Bonn edition of 1831 (= Bo).