John Malalas

ANNO DOMINI DCLXX.

JOANNES MALALAS. PROLEGOMENA. LUDOVICUS DINDORFIUS' PREFACE.

(Collectio Byzantina ed. Bonnæ 1850, 8°.)

There is one manuscript of the Chronographia of John Malalas, the Baroccian codex of Oxford, from which Humphrey Hody published the work after it had been transcribed by Edmund Chilmead, who was overtaken by death; and Hody provided a preface to it in such a way that nothing remains for me to add regarding the codex and Chilmead, and very little regarding the writer and the method of this edition. Since a considerable portion of the beginning and toward the end of the Oxford book of John is missing, Chilmead patched up the loss from another manuscript chronographer in the same library, whom Hody convinced himself was George the Monk, commonly called Hamartolus. As for myself, since the beginning does not seem to me to correspond that well with the fragment of George published by Allatius, I would prefer to leave to the judgment of another—one who had the time and inclination to compare the complete part edited by Chilmead with George—the question of whether the Oxford writer should be considered to be George or someone else. For since one Byzantine chronographer is the ape of another, if some agree word-for-word for a few pages, there is no reason for us to think that they are not distinct individuals.

Furthermore, since the loss of the final part of Malalas makes it uncertain whether he concluded his chronicle with Justinian or brought it down further, and thus it becomes a matter of greater doubt as to when he himself should be thought to have lived, Hody exerts every effort to push the writer back to the beginning of the ninth century, as such a degree of ignorance and barbarity as his, he felt, could not possibly fall into an age close to Justinian. And since [vi] John of Damascus, who is known to have died in the middle of the eighth century, uses Malalas as an authority in his third oration on images to recount a certain fable, Hody evades his testimony by saying that that oration could be supposititious. How trivial these points are is easily seen. Between the third and the second orations of John of Damascus, there exists such a great similarity in all matters that if it were not known by whom the other was written, no one who read it would suspect that both had not proceeded from the same man. But even if it could be demonstrated with complete certainty that the third is not John’s, his testimony regarding the age of Malalas would not be changed in the slightest. For as Lequien rightly concluded (vol. I, p. 306), both were written at the time when bishops of the East were indeed threatening anathema against Leo, but had not yet pronounced it, because the same words are found in both (p. 332 and p. 346): *But even if an angel or a king should preach to you anything else than what you have received, do not listen; for I hesitate for now to say, as the divine Apostle said, "Let him be anathema," awaiting his amendment.* As to what Hody adds—that if not the whole oration, at least the passage excerpted from Malalas could have been interpolated by someone—it suffices to note in a word that this is said with no better reasoning than that which he conjures up, convenient to his opinion, regarding the age of Clement, Theophilus, or Hesychius; to which anyone can see what can be answered, Lequien answers on p. 368.

Regarding the talent of Malalas himself and his utter ignorance, and—if one compares him with slightly earlier writers—the barbarity of his language, anyone who thinks such things unworthy of a Syrian man of the sixth or seventh century speaking with the common people must be ignorant of the Byzantine reality. Men who were most learned in Byzantine affairs, Reiske and Gibbon, judged differently. The former (Histor. cap. 40, annot. 11) agrees with Jortin (Animadvers. vol. IV, p. 383)—the very part of whose book I find it difficult to lack—that Malalas wrote shortly after Justinian. Reiske, meanwhile, writes as follows in his Commentary on Constantine, which has been admirably expanded (p. 855): " *Meizoteros* instead of [vii] *meizon* already in Malalas (vol. II, p. 236, 1), whose age, contemporaneous with Justinian, Hody should not have doubted on account of the crudity of his diction. Already in that century, reasoning was inept and diction monstrous. From this, Christian teachers began to disturb the state with useless questions, and, having omitted the study of the humanities, proceeded to ridiculous speculations which they themselves did not even understand; all uprightness in thinking perished, as did clarity, care, and polish in diction. We owe this barbarity not so much to the Barbarians as to the Christians. See how much swelling, how much foreignness is in the Theodosian Code; how often Procopius—without controversy the best of all his contemporaries—is not like an old woman, and how forced and Latinate his diction is. An affected artifice, through which a speech might be rendered more obscure by Cimmerian darkness, was held in praise, and the more learned one was, the more he surpassed Cassiodorus and those like him." But these solecisms, in passing…

...are *peizóteroi* and the like, they were indeed never out of use among the common people, but writers, even those not overly concerned with elegance, refrained from using them. To return to Malalas, his age is evident from his very name. *Malalas* is a Syriac name. The Syriac language prevailed in Syria down to the beginnings of Islam. Upon its rise, as the Saracens were seizing Syria, they extinguished the Syriac tongue, and the Arabic tongue abounded in its place, with Syriac being confined to the narrow limits of Christian churches. Therefore, Malalas must have lived and written in that age when the Syriac language was still in use. For "rhetor," the Arabs say not *Malal*, but *Chathib*. To which it may be added that in descriptions of the affairs and places of Syria, there does not appear even the slightest trace of the status of things having changed there under the Arabs from what it had been under the Byzantines. Furthermore, regarding the fact that Malalas is called *Ioannes Antiochenus* by John of Damascus, I agree with Hody (*Proleg.* § VIII) that this is not meant to be the Patriarch, but a citizen of Antioch; how the phrase *Antiochou [VIII] Kolophon* in the Oxford manuscript misled Bentley in his letter to Mill (p. 8), has been noted. So much for Malalas. Since our edition ought to return intact what Chilmead had noted, and it seemed unendurable that the corrections—even of the smallest errors—be added to these, I have divided his annotations into two parts, so that I might insert into my own those which I judged useful for textual criticism, and relegate the others to the end. I have myself corrected or noted whatever seemed to be errors of writing—though it is understood of itself that it is often ambiguous which mistakes are to be imputed to the scribe and which to the author himself. Bentley deigned to apply his censure to the incompetence of the man in a few sections; may no one dare to say that everything has been refuted. Since the Oxford edition is so negligently printed that it exhibits whole verses omitted, both on page 108 and 145, it would be worth the effort for anyone who considers the labor of comparing the Barocci manuscript again to be of such value. This was also my reason for not touching Chilmead’s translation, which at present serves as a kind of codex. I have, however, rejected the indices of writers and of words and terms omitted by Du Cange, which Hody had added, as they were mangled and meager, substituting new ones in their place. Finally, we note that the Oxford edition was published with a double title bearing the year 1691, to which a third is added in another copy I use, marked with the year 1692; the Venetian edition is entirely useless due to the multitude of its errors, from the year 1733. I was writing at Leipzig on the Ides of October, MDCCCXXX.

PREMONITION CONCERNING THE AUTHOR'S COGNOMEN

[IX] Malalas is a Syriac cognomen. It might have been written by the Greeks *Malalas*; yet it seems more in keeping with their analogy that it should be written *Malalas*; and it would appear to have been so written. In the *Prolegomena*, the author prefers the genuine and original Syrian name, *Malala*. This is shown to agree best with usage in the Latin language, by which a "rhetor" is signified. That this was the cognomen of many learned men. In this sense the author is so called.

In the words of John (who is called) of Damascus and Constantine Porphyrogenitus, from which the title that is prefixed is derived, it does not appear with sufficient certainty whether the author's cognomen, *Malala* (or *Malelas*), descends in the, as they call it, genitive case from *Malalas* (or *Melelas*), as *Barnabas* from *Barnaba*, *Souidas* from *Souida*; or if, as a foreign and alien word, it is rather indeclinable. Following the authority of very great men, whoever has thus far made mention of this cognomen—Gerard and Isaac Vossius, Ussher, Du Cange, and many others—we have accepted it as indeclinable. And certainly not rashly. For although it seems that the masculine names among the Greeks are not allowed to end in *a*; still, it is not inconsistent with their usage that the names of Oriental and barbarian men be pronounced with a Greek mouth without any Greek termination or variation of cases. Nor is anyone ignorant of how the Orientals (from whom our chronicler was) love to form their names and cognomens in *a*. [X] That is evident from those examples which the monuments of Holy Scripture exhibit in many places. The same is indicated by Arabic names and cognomens, *Abdalla, Hanifa, Nahala, Taphala, Mashalla*, and thousands of others of that kind: hence Jesus is for them *Isa*, Darius *Dara*, Kosroes *Kezra*, Basilius *Basila*, as in Said Ebn Batrik. Finally, concerning the Syrians themselves, the countrymen of our author, since they enjoy the same termination, one may consult the *Catalogus Scriptorum Syriacorum* written by the Metropolitan of Sobah. There are celebrated there *Marutha, Barsoma, Hanana, Dan, Resaina, Abrah, Catina, Greg. Sussaira*, along with many others, a great part of the Catalog. But to what end all this? It should suffice to have pointed out that the author's cognomen is clearly Syriac, and that it is agreed it ends with *a* among them. However, a countless multitude of examples demonstrates the extent to which the Greeks are accustomed to receive foreign names of this kind into their Greek with native terminations. In the front rank stands *Ioannes Palaiologos* from Joannes Cantacuzenus. Is he more recent, and not from the ancient heroes?

^A Beware of triumphing over it. See how many and how great are the satellites of this contemptible *ble-paiza*. In the Chronological Series, carried down to Alexius Comnenus, which the most learned Petavius edited, there occurs *Konstantinos ho Doukas* as emperor. In Bartholomæus of Edessa, *Mesia* is mentioned, and the Arabic *Hanifa* is called by him *Chanifa*; although this name may be found in him in the genitive case, it clearly appears that it was placed as indeclinable, both from the accent itself and from other names following it. In the anonymous *Refutation of Muhammed*, his follower *Beira* is commemorated: "He attached himself to Muhammed, a certain *Iakobites* by name *Beira*." In the same place occur *Abdik* and *Audallâ* (Abdalla), other companions of Muhammed. Let this be noted by the most learned men who deny that the name *Abdalla* among the Greeks ever falls into *a*. To the same author again, as also to Nicetas Choniates in the *Thesaurus*, *Tzet-zafa* and *Maroua* are proper names of angels or of Muhammed. Thus, in Euthymius Zigabenus, *Tzitzara* (erroneously) and *Maroua*. Let Agathias be heard, a most trustworthy writer, concerning the King of the Persians, Vararanes: "He was surnamed *Segansta*," and soon after, "and rightly was the boy named *Segansta*." The same author says again of another Vararanes, likewise a King of the Persians, "who was also called *Kermasa*." To these let Eratosthenes be added, that most ancient man and chief of the Greek grammarians; in whose *Catalogue of Theban Kings* the king *Komzetha* contends for us—a word made from ^B or [Ooo] (lest it be attributed to a scribe's error), which was the name for Vulcan among the Egyptians, and is thus written by Porphyry in the nominative case. I add furthermore *Hmoula* was a surname of a patriarch among the Alexandrians themselves. Hear the telling witness Theophanes in his *Chronography*: "Joannes, surnamed *Hmoula*." Thus in Victor of Tunnuna: "Joannes, by surname Hemula." What a brilliant example is this! How can you avoid its force? Will you impute the fault to the scribe? Alas, what an escape! In the same Theophanes, *Eseba* is the name of a King of the Ethiopians: the accent makes one believe that, although it is read in a non-recto case, it is nevertheless indeclinable. But hear other things as well. In the Greek version of the Scriptures, what is more obvious or more common? *Mathousala*, *Sisara*, *Sala*, *Ieddoua*, *Rada*, *Azaria*, and six hundred others. And not only in the version of Holy Scripture have they obtained this termination, but they flew forth with it to all the Greeks and passed into common use. Was not *alpha* changed among the later Greeks to *alphas*? I concede this for some, but I utterly deny it for all. Let the evangelist Matthew bear witness. Celebrated by him are *ho Zara*, *ho Abia*, *ho Asa*. Except for Flavius Josephus, who did not write his work from the Greek version of the Bibles, I yield to give me even one to whom that most long-lived of patriarchs, *Mathousala* (not *Mathousal*,) is applied, even though his name is mentioned passim among so many writers, and, on account of his longevity, was bandied about even in the common tongue everywhere in the world. That *Mathousala* is named by Theophilus of Antioch, Africanus, Eusebius, Syncellus, the author of the *Chronicon Paschale*, Nicephorus the Patriarch, Cedrenus, Glycas, our Hamartolus, the anonymous Petavian, and others. After this example, what does it avail to bring forward other such names, which are read in the same authors, along with Philo Judæus, Joel, and Theodoret in his *History*—*Sisara*, *Sala*, *Tharra*, *Sebachala*, *Ezra*, *Anania*, and most other similar names? May the Muses love me, I am heartily weary of lingering so long on these childish trifles. Yet, for the sake of those who might doubt, I shall here append other certain examples, of which the analogy and reason are the same. *Ho Pambe*, *ho Chale*, *ho Mase*, and the like among ecclesiastical writers, are unknown to no one except those still under the rod. *Alexios ho Mosel*, someone of the Greek magnates, according to Georgius Monachus in the *New Emperors*. Glycas: "But Theophilus had as a son-in-law Alexios, whose surname was *Mosel*." In the continuator of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, *History of Basil the Macedonian*, ^C is mentioned "Romanos ho Mosel," another of the Greek magnates. In another, *Isd Mouzala*. Thus in Codinus and Glycas: *Michael ho Rhangabe*, the emperor of the Greeks himself; in Cedrenus, "Mich. to whom the appellation is *Rhangabe*." Other similar nouns ending in vowels, which have been received into common use from Holy Scriptures, I do not enumerate, lest I appear to be listing some army of the Jews, perhaps that of Solomon or Jehoshaphat. Nor do I recount those countless others that are scattered among the Greek historians, which contrary to the norm of the Greek language, end in consonants. I only observe this concerning the name of the false prophet of the Turks, that although the mention of him among Greek writers is so frequent, he is not even once, so far as I know, given a Greek termination. *Mouamed*, *Moames*, *Moamet*, *Mouchoumet*, *Mouchamet*, *Mameth*, etc.

These things I have discussed (erudite reader) in matters of grammar, not as a grammarian; for I, who have taken *Malala* as indeclinable, am accused of grave error against Greek usage by most learned men, who say it does not permit any male name, however Barbarian, to end in *a*. If they press further (as they do) and think that an argument can be drawn from the accent itself, because it is placed on the penultimate syllable; let them turn their eyes back to *Media*, *Peralta*, *Maroua*, *Hmoula*, *Ieddoua*, *Sisara*, *Azaria*, *Mathousala*. To which others can be added: *Ozaia*, *Abdia*, *Ezrabia*, and a hundred others which are most genuinely in the Holy Scriptures. Nor is the reasoning different for those ending in other vowels, *Ramessemenō* in a certain series of Egyptian kings, *Iezthas*, *Iodas*, etc., or those ending in consonants, *Abimelech*, *Iared*, *Iapheth*, *Issachar*, *Gelimer*, *Tatimer*, etc.

Thus I have delivered ourselves and the aforementioned eminent men from every sin against Greek usage. Let us proceed further: and as it has been shown there is no objection to writing *Malala* in the nominative case, let us now inquire briefly whether it was indeed customary to write it so. Certainly, even if these things are as they are, and although it appears it could have been written *Malala*; yet I do not lack what would easily persuade anyone that it was not so in reality, but *Malalas* that was written. Indeed, this seems to be proven by the fact that it is written *Melēs* by Tzetzes the Chiliast, who everywhere substituted *ē* for *a*, not as an indeclinable, but entirely according to the example and genius of the Greek language. The same seems quite likely to happen, ^D that although the Greek termination is not always assumed by such foreign names, it is nonetheless evident that this is done most frequently.

^A Thus also among more recent writers (to dismiss infinite trivialities), we observe that the word *Alleluia*, when used for a man's name as it is in a certain manuscript, is written *Allelouias*. "A servant of the servants of God, Mardarios the monk, byname *Allelouias*." These things, reader, we once wrote to very learned friends; yet they (which we plainly marvel at) conduct their dispute against us as if we had contended not only that it could be written correctly as *Malala*, but that it had in fact been so written and ought to have been so written.

Let this, therefore, be settled concerning the Greek termination. Let us now look to the Latin. Shall they write him *Malalas* or *Malelas* in Greek letters? Or shall they rather follow the original of the Syrians? Certainly I do not care for the Greek, since the Original is clear, and the former is not yet established by common usage. I favor the genuine Syrian word *Malala*: for the Latins love this same termination in men's names as much as possible, as in *Seneca*, *Nasica*, *Messala*, and six hundred others. Since the genuine word *Malala* is certainly known to us, since it agrees exactly with the analogy of our languages, and since, moreover, this termination has already obtained common usage; what to us, I ask you, pray, if the Greeks added their own Σ? Who will draw water from a rivulet when the very fountain is at hand, and is more convenient for both use and taste? Who in his right mind will say *Abdallas* or *Abdelas* (which is the more common termination among the Greeks) and not *Abdalla*, as the Arabs do? But you object to us: Since the Syrian name is so pleasing, why is the author's forename derived by the Greeks, not Syrians? Why is he called by the forename *John*, and not, as it is in Syrian, *Juhhanan*? Lest any man rashly set up trophies here for himself, here is the answer for you: namely, because *John* has already become a Latin forename. But whither do these trifles carry me? Let the learned say *Malala* or *Malalas* as they please. Let others follow their own opinion. I, for my part, shall not be anxious about such ineptitudes. And since I claim that Seldenian *Περὶ παντὸς τὴν ἐλευθερίαν*, at least in philological matters, for myself, it is fair that I grant the same liberty to others. ^B This much alone I suggest: the Latins were so fond of that termination in men's names that in those very ones which they received closely from the Greeks, they most frequently changed the *ας* of the Greeks into *a*. This appears to have been done almost always by the older Latin writers. Nor are examples lacking even after those times, when all of Greece was pouring itself into Rome, and a contrary custom had begun to prevail; nor, to be sure, in the names of servants or freedmen alone, living in the Latin state, as learned men claim entirely precariously. Hence, in Solinus, Justinus, Orosius, and Jerome in his *Chronicon* of Eusebius, we find *Perdicca* king of Macedonia. (Was he a Roman freedman? Did he live in the Latin state?) Hence again, in Orosius, *Aruba* king of the Molossians, and *Alecta*, brother of Perdicca. Hence in Ammianus Marcellinus, *Hormisda*, a name of some Persian kings, which is nevertheless written *Hormisdas* by the Greeks, from whom the Latins are said to have taken it; as in Theophylactus Simocatta, Syncellus, Theophanes, Zonaras, Cedrenus, Nicephorus in his *Breviarium*, and others. Hence the Pope's name *Hormisda* in the *Pontificale* of Anastasius, and in his own Epistles. One might, with many others, add *Mida* from St. Jerome and others older than him to these: but enough and more than enough of the goats' wool of grammarians.

From the termination of the name to the name itself, from the mire to the flowers, my reader, let us now pass. Hence our John received his cognomen, because he practiced rhetoric, such as it was, in his barbarous age; namely, by teaching it, a pedagogue worthy of his century; or by conducting cases in the forum, a *scholasticus* or advocate. For *Malala* (or *Malela*, as it is written from a somewhat easier and more accepted, though less correct, pronunciation) is in the Syrian language a rhetor or orator, a sophist or *scholasticus*. From which profession, indeed, we may observe that cognomina were wont to cling to very many learned men of old. Do you want examples? Behold, we have many at hand. Many have flourished with the cognomen of rhetors: Demochares, Priscus, Zacharias, Procopius, Diodorus, and another, older John of Antioch. Sophists who flourished with the cognomen include Callinicus, Abas, Eusebius, Metrophanes, Malchus, Eutropius, Eustochius, Nicostratus, Polemon, Bemarchius, and others. Thus, *Agathias*, *Evagrius*, *Socrates*, and *Sozomen* are distinguished by the cognomen of *Scholasticus*. All these, like our *Malala* (for I pass over others knowingly and intentionally), are writers of histories. So far does the rhetorical profession agree with the study of writing histories! But stop, reader, for a little while. I would not have you depart from these matters entirely secure. Why might our author not have acquired the cognomen *Malala* or *Rhetor* for another reason? I will not conceal from you that there was also a *Rhetor* in the East known by that official title. Hence "Theodoros the Deacon, Rhetor" in Saint Maximus the Confessor, who is also wont to call him simply *Rhetor*. Hence also others increased by the title of *Rhetor*: Michael of Thessalonica in an unpublished chronicle; Manuel Holobolus, whose poems in praise of Emperor Michael Palaeologus exist in manuscripts; John the Deacon, writer of the life of Joseph the Hymnographer; and (to pass over others) Georgius Contis (who was recent) in hand-written codices: "Georgios Kontis, the *Rhetor* of the metropolis of Aenos, and *ekdikos* of the great church." ^C In other codices: "Which book belongs to Georgios the *Rhetor* of Aenos." Hence also a dignity in the Church, the *Maistor* of the *Rhetors*, or *Didaskalos*, and *Megas Rhetor*. Manuel the *Megas Rhetor*, who wrote against the Latins, is celebrated in a manuscript volume. Thus that most famous Eustathius, afterwards Archbishop of Thessalonica, is called in the title of a manuscript oration to the Emperor, *Didaskalos* of the *Rhetors*. The same is honored in the inscription of an epistle, which is prefixed to his Commentaries on Dionysius Periegetes, with the title *Maistor* of the *Rhetors*. *Rhetor*, taken in this sense, is sometimes called *Sophist*. In recent scholia on Pindar: "By our *Sophist*, that is, *mystagogos*, Lord Demetrios Triklinios." Whether our Chronographer is decorated with the appellation of *Rhetor* or *Malala* in this sense, let it be left to the judgment of the learned.

Now, Reader, you may proceed to other matters. But before you proceed, be a witness for me of certain vows; and sometime, if ever I should violate them, be my monitor: vows known—oh, the grief!—to scholars until this day only to a few; but which I have constantly, from my very first letters, as I do now, made from the heart. [xvi] May the Divine favor grant that I may either lie hidden in eternal silence among those who do not write, or that I may write as behooves a man of integrity, of liberal and generous education, and a seeker of true philosophy: a sole investigator of truth, without any bitterness of style, gentle, courteous, candid, and so far from being inclined toward what is indecent that I am not even to be moved by it: and finally, a contemner of trifles.

HUMPHREY HODY PROLEGOMENA CONCERNING THE AUTHOR

[xvii] SYLLABUS OF CONTENTS.

John Malalas of Antioch, chronicler, all but unknown to the learned. That there existed another John of Antioch, a chronographer, whose excerpts from the collection of Constantine Porphyrogennetus were edited by Valesius, who is wrongly accustomed to be confused with Malalas, 1, 11. — John of Antioch, chronographer, by which authors he is cited, 111. — That he whom Greek writers adduce is different from Malalas, and appears to be the same as the other previously mentioned, iv. — That there exist in certain libraries Collectanea of John of Antioch distinct from the Collectanea of John of Antioch of Valesius, and also from the Chronographic work of Malalas. That excerpts from the Chronicle of John of Antioch, who appears to be the same as the Valesian John, exist in the Paris library, but that those excerpts are distinct from the Valesian. Concerning the John of Antioch, author of the [ἀρχαιολογία]: that he still survives, and appears to be the same as the Valesian John, and at least different from Malalas. The report of John Malalas lurking in Gaul. That the cause of this is that scholars have confused him with that other chronographer of Antioch, v. — That the John of Antioch, author of the [ἀρχαιολογία], has much in common with John Malalas, vi. — Concerning other Johns of Antioch, chronographers. G. Vossius and Phil. Labbe noted, 7. — That John Malalas was not the Patriarch of Antioch. The translators of John Damascene noted; Gothofredus, Baronius, and others. Concerning the various Johns, patriarchs of Antioch. That in the list of patriarchs of Antioch there is found no John who flourished in the same age in which Malalas lived, 8, 9; 10. — The hallucination of Francis Combefis, confusing our Malalas with the John [xviii] of Antioch, the priest, whom Gennadius mentions, and with John the Grammarian, 10, 11. — That he appears to be counted among the orthodox rather than the heretics, 12. — Other Johns of Antioch listed. Concerning John Mela, Patriarch of Alexandria, 13. — Concerning the age of John Malalas. That he was not contemporary with Justinian the First, as Chilmead and others wish: but is rather to be assigned to the ninth century, or at least to have flourished long after the times of Justinian, 14 to 39. — That he wrote after Justinian appears from the fact that he commemorates all the years that he reigned, 15. — That he did not exist while Justinian was alive is demonstrated from the citation of public records of his own city concerning matters transacted there under Justinian, 16. — From his many and very grave errors concerning the deeds of Justinian, 17. — And from other clear indications, 18, 19, 20. — That Malalas did not converse with the legate of Justinian, as Chilmead thinks, but only read his book; and that he was none other than Nonnosus, 21. — That he did not live before the end of the seventh century is proven from the citation of Clement the Chronographer, who is shown to have written after the year 685, 22. — That he did not flourish before the beginning of the ninth century is concluded further from the citation of Theophilus the Chronographer, who is proven to have died in the year of Christ 785, 23. — That he is wrongly confused by some with Theophilus of Antioch, the author of the work *To Autolycus*. A manuscript fragment from Hesychius concerning the nativity of Christ is produced, in which are cited the chronographers Clement, Theophilus, and Timothy. That this Hesychius seems to have written from Malalas himself, 24. — That the *Chronicon* of Eusebius, which is accustomed to be cited by Malalas, is not the genuine one, 25. — That Malalas lived not earlier than the ninth century is confirmed elsewhere, as well as from the barbarity of his locution, 30, 26, 27. — Arguments are proposed which seem to demonstrate his antiquity. Among other things, he is cited in the third Oration on images ascribed to John Damascene: and in many Narrations he is found to agree word-for-word with the *Chronicon Paschale* or *Alexandrinum*, composed, as is believed, before the year 650, which are thought by Chilmead and others to have been taken from the author of that Chronicle and Malalas, 29. — An index of those narrations, 30. — These arguments are answered, 31, etc. That it is not sufficiently certain that that fragment of Malalas, which is held in the aforesaid Oration on images, was transcribed by the author of the Oration himself: and furthermore, there is reason to suspect that that Oration was not John Damascene's, 32. — Regarding the argument [xix] concerning the *Chronicon Paschale* or *Alexandrinum*, it is answered: 1st, that that Chronicle contains many interpolations, 33, 34. — Nor, 2nd, is it sufficiently certain that the things found in the *Paschale* corresponding to Malalas were taken from him, for it is demonstrated from his tautologies that Malalas was accustomed to copy other historians word-for-word, 35. — And from his citation of Latin writers, whose language he certainly never understood. His gross errors concerning Roman affairs, 36. — Furthermore, in most of those Narrations which are believed to be taken from Malalas, the *Paschale* contains some things that in no way agree with Malalas's accounts, and some things that are clearly repugnant, 37. — That Malalas, where he speaks of older matters as if they existed within his own memory, is merely recounting the words of his own authors. This is a practice typical of writers of lesser quality and of a later age, 38.

PROLEGOMENA

^A I. John Malalas the chronicler, whom the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus calls by the surname Malala, others (1) Malala, and a third (2) Meleles, has remained, I must inform the learned reader, little known even until now. To those illustrious and most learned men who have shone with a certain singular honor in this field of study—Gerard John Vossius (3), Philip Labbe (4), and Leo Allatius—he was known only by name: nor did they possess any further knowledge of him, except for the fact that they had pored over this chronographic work of his. Those most learned men of our own country who applied their diligence and studies to him specifically were Edmund Chilmead and John Gregory.

^B II. Writers of our own nation, when they cite John Malalas from the manuscript codex of the Bodleian Library under the simple title of "John of Antioch"—as if no other John of Antioch, the chronicler, existed—are accustomed to mention him in this way. Thus do the aforementioned learned men, Chilmead and Gregory, as well as Stanley (5), Langbaine (6), Selden (7), Pearson (8), and Fell (9)—all eminent names. But it is certain (and may I say this while preserving the honor of such great men) that there formerly existed several Johns of Antioch, chroniclers, and that to this day there survives, at least in part, another one whom old writers were accustomed to call simply "John of Antioch," whereas our John Malalas is rarely or never mentioned without the addition of his surname. Those great men could have noted this from the aforementioned ^C Collectanea on virtues and vices of the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, which Henri de Valois published to the world more than 50 years ago (10); in the preface to these, where those writers from whom these excerpts were taken are listed, John Malala the chronicler is expressly distinguished from John of Antioch the chronicler, as he is commonly called: "From the following chronicles: 1) Josephus’ Antiquities, 2) George the Monk, 3) the chronicle of John, surnamed Malala, 4) the chronicle of John of Antioch," etc. I wonder that this escaped the most learned and diligent Gerard Vossius, who, although in the later edition of his books *On Greek Historians* he observes that John Malalas is among the number of those writers, nonetheless makes no mention of the other John of Antioch the chronicler, as if he were celebrated in the same volume. Excerpts of this latter one, sufficiently ample and prolix, are published in the said volume under this title: 'Ex τῆς Ἰωάννου Ἀντιοχέως Ἱστορίας χρονικῆς ἀπὸ Ἀδάμ'—*From the chronicle history of John of Antioch from Adam*, with these words appended at the end: 'Τέλος τῆς Ἱστορίας Ἰωάννου μοναχοῦ'—*The end of the history of John the Monk*. But those excerpts which are taken from our John Malala are missing, having been rejected on purpose by Valesius because (as he himself says) beyond three or four fables about Minos, Antiopa, and Bellerophon, and those told in an unrefined style, they contained nothing of any real profit. Although in the cited passage of Constantine Porphyrogenitus it is not even hinted that our John Malalas was from the city of Antioch, but is rather distinguished from John of Antioch, it is nonetheless most clearly evident that he was indeed from that city, from the third oration on Images, commonly attributed to John of Damascus, where he is expressly called an Antiochene; nor does it seem to refer to the author (as an Antiochene) solely from that oration, but also from the chronography itself, which is constructed entirely according to the Antiochene era and specifically recounts and pursues matters concerning that city above all others.

^D III. Concerning John of Antioch, testimonies from other Greek writers of recent ages regarding matters of antiquity are not infrequently produced. In George Codinus’ *On the Origins of Constantinople* (p. 57), I have found him cited regarding the name of the Port of the Bosporus. [xx] By Isaac Tzetzes in two places...

In the first (p. 24), regarding the reason why Cecrops, king of the Athenians, was called *Díphuēs* [double-natured]; since before his time, because there was no marriage among the Athenians, children did not know their own fathers, he (it is said), by establishing a law concerning marriage, caused them to know not only their mothers but also their fathers, etc. In the second (p. 64), concerning the Trojan Palladium, which was fashioned by a certain mathematician named Asius by means of talismanic art and given to the king of Troy, so that as long as it was kept in the city of Troy, it would remain unconquerable and safe. It will not be inconvenient to present his words here: “But John of Antioch writes that the Palladium did not fall from heaven, but that a certain philosopher and mathematician named Asius had predicted—by means of a remarkable horoscope—that the city in which the Palladium was kept would not be captured; and he gave such a Palladium to Troy as a gift.” To these add John Tzetzes, brother of the aforementioned Isaac, who in his *Chiliads* of Histories, chil. 2, hist. 33, lists John of Antioch among those writers who have commented in their works on Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. And again in chil. 6, hist. 69, concerning Pentheus killed by Agave, and the explanation of that fable, he cites the same. The title of this Tzetzean history is as follows: *On the antiochene Agave, who betrayed her son to death.* Which the translator renders thus: *Of him, because the Antiochene... Agave betraying her son to death.* After a few verses about the Bacchants and the descendants of Cadmus, these things are added: [xxiii] "Euripides mythically writes thus in the *Bacchantes*. But the Chronicler John, expounding the fable, says: Pentheus and Labdacus—but more so Pentheus—after the rest of the descendants of Cadmus were killed, Actaeon indeed by his own dogs, Learcho and Melicetus by their father and mother, had hope of obtaining the scepters and seats. But when he heard that Bacchus, the illegitimate descendant of Cadmus, was aspiring to the kingdom, he cast him into chains; but being released by the prayers of his mother, he is killed by her stratagems. Therefore, they invented the fable that he had been killed by his mother."

Regarding this in another manuscript work that is held among the Barocci codices of the Bodleian Library, in the allegorical expositions of Homeric fables, it is cited by the same person regarding the judgment of the Trojan Paris among the goddesses, namely that this fable arose from the fact that Paris, skilled in the art of rhetoric, had written a certain book about Prudence, Fortitude, and Desire, and their comparison with one another. ^A [xxiv] The meaning of which is as follows: Being powerful in the art of rhetoric, he wrote among many other things a comparison of the three goddesses: ^B Minerva (Prudence), Juno (Fortitude), and Venus (Desire); the last of which he preferred to the others, as John the chronographer of Antioch writes. He alone explains this allegorically, leaving aside other matters—namely, the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, Mercury, and Jupiter, and Mount Ida—where he judged those goddesses. But Tzetzes allegorizes all those things subtly. And attend.

IV. In describing these places, we have been verbose so that it might be more conveniently—which is for our purpose—inquired whether this John of Antioch, whose testimony the cited writers use, is the same as our John Malalas, or rather that other one mentioned above, whose excerpts exist in the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus. ^C Gerhard Vossius, who, as we have mentioned above, says nothing at all concerning the *Collectanea* of John of Antioch existing in the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, conjectures that the John of Antioch whom John Tzetzes cites concerning the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra is the same as John Malalas. In that opinion he is followed by Allatius and our ^D John Gregory in his manuscript notes on our author. I rather incline to the opposite view, and not only regarding him whom John Tzetzes cites in that place and the others brought forward above, but also regarding him whom his brother Isaac and George Codinus cite.

For though previously, in the same work, he had cited John of Antioch: *Ταῦτα μὲν Ἰωάννης τις* (thus note) *Μελέλης χρονογράφος*. These things are handed down by a certain John Meleles, chronographer.

V. Since things are as they are, let the judgment be free to the reader: whether this John of Antioch, who is cited in both places by Tzetzes, is the same as our John Malalas, or the same as that other one whose ^A Chronographic Excerpts exist. If the latter pleases, then it must be said that the writer of those Excerpts lived after George the Chronographer, and thus, as learned men have determined up to now, did not flourish under the empire of Heraclius. For Tzetzes, the author of the Chiliads, expressly asserts that John of Antioch, mentioned by him, flourished after George the Chronographer (understand Syncellus or Hamartolus). If the former pleases, then the same must be said of our Malalas, concerning whose age [we shall speak] below. Meanwhile, it is certain that not only do fragments from the Chronography of the monk John of Antioch exist in the *Collectanea* of the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, but also that today there are preserved in library archives other and completely different excerpts from him, as well as the entire Chronography itself elsewhere; or at least some other archaeological work attributed to John of Antioch. By the most learned Alemannus, in *Historical Notes* on the *Secret History* of Procopius, two fragments concerning the Emperor Justinian are brought forward from the *Collectanea* of John of Antioch (as he calls them); and it is necessary that these were different from the Constantinian *Collectanea* of John of Antioch, since nothing at all is read in them concerning Justinian. In a Greek manuscript volume of the Royal Library of Paris, number 2216, among various tracts of diverse subject matter, there occur Excerpts from the Chronicle of John of Antioch; ^C this is gathered from the index of the tracts of that volume, which is held in Greek among the *Varia sacra* of Stephanus Le Moyne, under the title "Index of Antonius Eparchus (the Corcyrean) the legate," through whose gift that volume was deposited in that most illustrious treasury of manuscript books about the middle of the last century. In that index, number 79, it is read thus: *Ἰωάννου Ἀντιοχέως ἀπὸ τοῦ χρονικοῦ αὐτοῦ συντάγματος ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς κτίσεως κόσμου*. Certain [excerpts] of John of Antioch from his Chronicle which begins from the beginning of the creation of the world. The same Excerpts are mentioned in the Labbaean *Analecta* from the catalogs of the same library; and they are cited several times by the most learned Dufresne in his *Notes* on the *Chronicon* (which he entitles) *Paschale*. ^D From his citations, which exhibit the words of the author, it is discovered that these Excerpts are different from the above-mentioned Constantinian Excerpts, and that this chronography is also different from that one.

NOTE. In those Excerpts there is a long passage concerning Paris the Trojan, in which, however, nothing occurs concerning the writing of that libel regarding the *Encomium of Venus*, about which John Tzetzes cites John of Antioch; but it can be said to this point that Constantine Porphyrogenitus was accustomed in those excerpts not to present everything which his authors wrote in their individual narrations word for word, but to contract their accounts and to omit some things from them at will. See, however, what we have said in our Diatribe *De scriptoribus Græcis variis*, chapter 1, where [we speak] of the Antiochian chronicler monk.

^A our Malalian work was different. From the most illustrious Salmasius, in his *Notes on the Historia Augusta* and in his *Plinian Exertitations on Solinus*, and similarly from Leo Allatius in his *Notes on the Hexaemeron of Eustathius of Antioch*, several passages are produced from John of Antioch (or the Antiochean) *On Archaeology*; that this work, too, was different from our John Malalas’s *Chronography*—although that [latter work] also could not inappropriately be inscribed *On Archaeology*—is rendered manifest by the things brought forth from it. Thus, those learned men who have taught that an entire work of our John Malalas is still preserved in France (for I have heard this from some) are entirely mistaken. That was, without a doubt, a source of error for them: either because they thought the work *On Archaeology* was identical with the Malalian Chronicle, or because they believed those Excerpts, which exist in the manuscript of the King of the French, were a complete work, and belonged to our author. Protesting for certain, by heaven, it is clear that not even that most learned of Frenchmen, the celebrated Dufresne, the *chalkenteros* [man of brass guts], ever had the Chronicle of our John in his hands; who nevertheless has perhaps been more conversant with Greek manuscripts than any other mortal of this age. Whenever he mentions John Malalas (as he does indeed cite him a few times in his *Notes on the Chronicon Paschale*, and [in his] *Annals of John Zonaras*, and in his *Glossary of Mediaeval and Low Greek*), he does not derive his testimonies from elsewhere than from other writers who had perused our Oxford copy and had excerpted some things from it; a fact which he himself openly admits in some places. ^B Whether the aforementioned work of John of Antioch *On Archaeology* is the same as the Chronicle so often mentioned, of which Excerpts already exist in the *Collectanea* of Constantine, those to whom the opportunity is given to compare the one with the other will be better able to judge. Meanwhile, it is highly probable: for thus Josephus inscribed his *Jewish History*, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus his work of *Roman History*, as *Archaeology*; the latter of whom, I remember reading, was cited in the same way by the same Salmasius in his *Notes on the Scriptores Augusti* under the title *Dionysii De Archaeologia*. Nor does that work *On Archaeology* deal only with the more ancient things and the fabulous age, but it also embraces the history of more recent things and the deeds of the Roman emperors themselves. This is proven by those Excerpts which are brought forth from it in the *Notes* of Salmasius most recently cited; namely, concerning the death of the Emperor Hadrian (vol. I, p. 180), and the magnificent mausoleum erected in his honor; concerning M. Antoninus (p. 354), who, since the treasury was exhausted by wars, held an auction of the imperial ornaments in the forum; concerning the blinding and death of the Emperor Numerian (vol. II, p. 791); and concerning the notorious cruelty of Carinus, who, once he had become emperor, did not leave unpunished those who had formerly played with the boy and mocked him.

VI. If it is found to be different, then there will be a place for suspicion, not [that it is] the Chronicle, that work of John of Antioch whose Excerpts exist in the possession of the Porphyrogennetus, but rather that the work itself was designated by G. Codinus and Tzetzes, both of them, whenever they cite John of Antioch. But if it should appear to those perusing it that it is the same work (which I would entirely believe), then, from those passages which Salmasius and Allatius bring forth from it, this will be further and more clearly established, [as] we proposed above: that John of Antioch the Monk and our John Malalas are accustomed to agree in the same little narratives; and therefore nothing stands in the way of that John of Antioch, who is praised by the Tzetzes brothers, being the same as the monk, even if those matters for which he is cited are found in Malalas himself. By Leo Allatius (in *Eust. Hexaem.* p. 300 and 303), from the John of Antioch ^C *On Archaeology*, among other things, passages are cited concerning a certain Hesiod, that he taught the Greeks letters; and concerning the exposition of the fable about Endymion, that he wished to learn the name of God from the moon through certain mystical prayers, and that, having been instructed in that through a dream, he never again awoke. Both of these narratives are found in Malalas (p. 70 and 73). Salmasius also (in his *Plinian Exercitations*, p. 902, 903, 908) from the same work, among other passages, brings forth fragments: concerning the hippodrome of the city of Rome built by Romulus; concerning its different parts and the divisions of the people; concerning the division of the factions in the circus by colors of groups and garments, instituted by King Oenomaus; and concerning the 7 spaces of the circus, according to the number of the planets, and, in imitation of the 12 signs of the Zodiac, the 12 gates. All of which also occur in our Malalas (p. 218 to 225) as the fabulous; just as those things which are cited from the same in the *Notes on the Scriptores Historiae Augustae*, concerning the gaming board invented by Palamedes, and concerning the Trojan Palladium devised by the philosopher Asius; which is indeed one of those little narratives for which John of Antioch is cited by Is. Tzetzes. His words are as follows: "The Palladium in Troy was a small image constructed by a certain philosopher named Asius for the protection of the city." And if anyone desires to compare his words about the gaming board of Palamedes with the Malalian [text] (p. 129), they are these: "Palamedes signified the earthly cosmos through the board; the zodiacal circle through the twelve squares; through the dice box and the seven grains within it, the seven stars of the planets; and through the tower, the height of the sky, from which good things and bad are given to all." Thus are cited by Dufresne (Notes on the *Chronicon Paschale*, p. 498, 499, etc.) manuscript Excerpts ^D from the Chronicle of John of Antioch, among other things, concerning various matters which also appear in our [author] (p. 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 43): concerning the exposition of the Homeric fable about Mars and Venus caught by the Sun, from Palaephatus, which is also brought forward by our [author]; concerning the sayings of Hermes Trismegistus about the divine nature, from his own works; concerning the king of the Egyptians named Karache, or Marache, who succeeded Sostris (or Sesostris), and that the succeeding kings of the Egyptians were descended from him; concerning Medusa and Perseus...

^A Persians, the rites concerning the Gorgons; concerning the ancient year of the Egyptians under the times of Vulcan and Sol; concerning Sose and Thuli (or Thuachi) and other kings of the Egyptians; and finally concerning the oracle regarding the Holy Trinity given to king Thuli in Africa. Cited also by the same author (p. 497) are the same matters, concerning Pico Jove, concerning queen Semiramis, and concerning Ninus and Thurra who succeeded him; which narratives, although they are not now found in our copy—since many things are wanting at the beginning—there is nonetheless no reason to doubt that they were present in those portions which are now missing, just as they occur in those which are supplied in it (pp. 19, 20, 21) from the Paschal or Alexandrian Chronicle. I will not regret transcribing one passage from those mentioned above, concerning the ancient year of the Egyptians, so that it may be compared (if it pleases) by the curious reader with Malalas (p. 25): "His son Helios reigned over the Egyptians for two days, such that they were twelve years and seventeen days. For the Egyptians or any others did not yet know how to calculate a year; but some reckoned the periods of the moon as years, others the periods of the day; for the numbers of the twelve months were devised after these things, from the time when it was devised that men be subjects to kings."

VII. And let these things be said here concerning the various John of Antioch chroniclers, lest our Malalas be rashly confused, as is the custom, with that other John of Antioch chronicler or archæologist. There existed other John of Antioch chroniclers, such as John the rhetor, who finished his History under the Emperor Justin the Elder; and, if the Arabs are to be believed, John Chrysostom himself, who from being an Antiochene presbyter became Patriarch of Constantinople, in whose name a Chronicle is now circulated among them, and in their tongue. Concerning these we treat in another work. Gerard Vossius (De Hist. Græcis) and Philippe Labbé (Delin. Apparatus Hist. Byz.) celebrate another John of Antioch chronicler or historian, whom they say flourished after the times of Justinian the Elder, and was a contemporary of Evagrius, the writer of ecclesiastical history, and is mentioned by him. But those learned men are far mistaken; for that historian John was not from the city of Antioch, but from Epiphaneia, as the most illustrious Henri de Valois demonstrates in his Notes on Evagrius, and as we do more fully in [xxx] ^B another work (19) mentioned in a different way. Now, omitting these things, let us proceed to the rest that pertains to our author, and let us enter into a discussion regarding his status: there are those who believe that he was adorned with the mitre of the very episcopate of Antioch while he lived. Translators of the Third Book of John of Damascus on images (as they call it) were of this opinion, as were others of no small name who have followed them. The inscription of the fragment, which is produced in the cited book from our Chronicler, is as follows:

From the chronicle of John of Antioch, also called Malalas, concerning the woman who had an issue of blood, etc.

From the description of times of John of Antioch, pontiff, who is also called Malalas, concerning the woman who had suffered an issue of blood.

VIII. Whether the author of the aforementioned oration on images himself intended, by "John of Antioch," our John to have been prelate of Antioch—which the cited authors have supposed—I would not easily affirm for certain; meanwhile, one must be admonished that a formula of speech of this kind does not always necessarily imply bishops, even though bishops are accustomed to be designated by it in the Catalogues of councils; but other citizens of any kind can also be denoted by it. This Godfried Tilmann seems to have grasped, who in his version of the aforementioned speech has simply "John of Antioch." But whatever may have been the opinion of the author himself, we, however, can by no means descend into the opinion of those who draw our Chronicler ^C from the patriarchal see of the Antiochenes; rather, we have an argument—and a most firm and irrefutable one, if I am not mistaken—that he was never raised to that dignity. I will not note here that he is cited by Tzetzes the Chiliast as an obscure and unknown man: "These things indeed a certain John Meletis, a chronicler," where that word "a certain," seems to be a mark and indication of obscurity; this, I say, I will not note, since it can hardly be denied that this word is sometimes found used among the ancients even of names that are most famous and great. Thus (to mention others) concerning Theodoret, the most learned and most celebrated bishop of Cyrrhus, Theodorus, abbot and philosopher, says in the argument of the Synod of Ephesus: "There was found after John, a certain Theodoret, most learned bishop of the city of Cyrrhus in the East." Thus verbatim Leontius Scholasticus in the book On Sects (act 4, p. 509), transcribing from Abbot Theodorus (as I suppose): "There was found after John, a certain Theodosius, a learned bishop of Cyrrhus in the East." It will be more than enough if we demonstrate from the very Catalogue of the Patriarchs of Antioch that there was no such ^D

^A bishop named John in that age in which Malalas wrote, who flourished. Come then, let us see how many Johns were patriarchs of Antioch, and let us demonstrate that there was none during the same interval of time in which Malalas lived. In the Catalogue of the Patriarchs of Constantinople of Patriarch Nicephorus (which includes more than sixty in number, and carries down to the patriarch Anastasius the Younger, who suffered martyrdom about the year of the Lord’s incarnation 608, or, as others will have it, 611), two Johns are enumerated. The first of them, commemorated by all ecclesiastical writers on account of his schism at the Synod of Ephesus, and most noted for several of his Epistles, was in the order of patriarchs the 39th, and he departed from the living in the year of our Lord 433, having governed the patriarchate for 18 years. The second was in order the 47th, the successor of Peter the Fuller, under the Emperor Zeno, A. D. 476, and was ejected after 3 months. After these two Johns, whom no one fails to see preceded our John Malalas in time, since they flourished before the reign of Justinian, whose first deeds of that name are celebrated by Malalas, no other John appears in the series of the prelates of Antioch [xxxiii] before the eleventh century from the birth of Christ. In that century, namely at the time when the city of the Antiochenes was recovered from the Saracens by our Occidental Christians, that is, A. D. 1098, it is recorded in memory by William of Tyre in his History of the Holy War (book VI, ch. 23) that a certain John, a most holy confessor, held that chair. He, as the same Tyre says, scarcely two years after the city was recovered, resigned his seat and departed for Constantinople. As the following century verged toward its end, namely the twelfth from the Nativity of our Lord, another John held the patriarchal throne of Antioch; the ^B same man who had formerly lived a monastic life on Oxia, an island in the Propontis, and whose *Oration on the donation of monasteries to the laity* survives among the most famous Monuments of the Greek Church by Cotelier. In the volumes of the Councils there is contained a small work by a certain John, patriarch of Antioch, *On the superiority between a council and the Pope*; but he was recent, and not before the fifteenth century, nor is he to be numbered among the Greeks, but the Latins, nor indeed in truth was he a patriarch except by title only. Whether or not any man sat on the Antiochene throne between these two later Johns, as the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries ran their course, I cannot say; nor does it matter at all to our concern; for it is liquidly clear that John Malalas flourished before the tenth century. Therefore, just as those two whom we first mentioned flourished before him, so all these most recently enumerated were by far more recent. In a certain manuscript of the Oxford library, *De translatione episcoporum* (On the translation of bishops), which was composed about 1400, mention is made of a John, Patriarch of Antioch, surnamed Codonatus, who was translated thence to the metropolitan seat of Tyre. He was no other than the second of those whom the patriarch Nicephorus of Constantinople mentions, whom I said was ejected by the Emperor Zeno. That he was surnamed Codonatus is testified by Victor of Tunnuna. By Anastasius of Caesarea, in the treatise *On the Fast of the Mother of God*, a certain John, a patriarch of Antioch, is celebrated as ruling that Church at the time when he himself was writing: in which century he flourished, we do not have so thoroughly explored that we can [xxxiv] determine it for certain and beyond doubt: this, however, is most certain and explored, that he did not preside in the chair of that Church before the eleventh century, or at least the middle of the preceding one: for the same Anastasius is the author who states that he succeeded in that seat Theodosius, the successor of Peter; and it is agreed that there was no Theodosius in that Church who succeeded Peter before (at a minimum) the middle of the tenth century. Nor does it seem that there should be much doubt but that this same man was either that aforementioned John the patriarch, of whom there is mention in William of Tyre, or at least (which pleases ^C me less 20) with the monk of the East.

IX. If any suspicion torments anyone that some John sat in the Antiochene chair between Anastasius the Younger, the patriarch at whom the Nicephorian Catalogue ends, and the tenth century, before which Malalas appears to have flourished, who could have been the same as Malalas: I would wish him to approach the *Annals* of Eutychius, Patriarch of Alexandria, and the *Synopsis* of his chronology prefixed to them. He will find all the patriarchs of that interval enumerated there, with no John celebrated among them. Evidence of the same thing is provided by another Catalogue, which we received, transcribed from some Arabic author (as I believe), from our friend highly to be revered, Edward Bernard, a man of singular excellence in every kind of learning. His patriarchs of the aforementioned interval, because it differs slightly from that of Eutychius, we shall not be reluctant to lay before the eyes of the reader here.

Num. 58. Anastasius the Second, 59. Vacant under the Persians, and Macedonius, 60. Macarius, 61. Theophanes, 62. Thomas, 63. Georgius, 64. Vacant under the Saracens, and Theophylact, 65. Job, 66. Theodorus, 67. Theodoretus, 68. Nicolaus, 69. Stephanus and Thaddaeus,

A. D. an. desin. 9 607 31 638 8 646 5 631 12 663 20 685 21 706 50 754 18 772 25 795 17 812 31 843 26 869 891

NOTES. (20) See *Diut. de script. Graec. var.*

Then Theodosius and other obscure men.

[xxxv] X. Just as the aforementioned writers commit an error when they place our Malalas in the album of the patriarchs of Antioch, so too did François Combefis make a completely different error regarding him. In his *Manipulus* on the origins of the affairs of Constantinople, he determines that our John Malalas of Antioch—whose name became known to him from the Orations of St. John of Damascus on images, cited above—was the same person as that John of Antioch, the grammarian presbyter, whom Gennadius Massiliensis (in *De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis*) and Marcellinus Comes (in his *Chronicon*) relate to have composed a book against the Eutychian heretics. This error, as it is easily refuted, since the *Chronicon* of Malalas extends beyond the time of the aforementioned John, so too is it easily forgiven, since the *Chronicon* itself was never given to him to see. Marcellinus composed his own *Chronicon* in A. D. 534, that is, the eighth year of the reign of Justinian; and Gennadius compiled his catalogue of ecclesiastical writers, in which he makes mention of the aforementioned John, presbyter of Antioch, during the reign of Anastasius, in A. D. 495—that is, some 70 years before the end of the reign of Justinian, celebrated by our Malalas.

^A ...he says, he ordered all followers [of a heresy] to depart from the borders of the Roman Empire, although a respite of three months was granted to any who, during that time, might embrace the orthodox faith. Thus, in another place regarding Justinian: Under his reign, he says, various heresies were prohibited. Among these, it is evident from edicts 5 and 6 in title 1 of the *Codex Justinianus* that the Eutychian heresy, by name, was prohibited. Indeed, another passage is provided therein which perhaps might appear to some to furnish an argument that he [Malalas] was tainted by the opinions of the Eutychians; this is the passage where he speaks of the rebellion of Vitalian against the Emperor Anastasius, a Eutychian who raged against the Catholic faith and drove orthodox bishops from their sees. Victor, bishop of Tunnuna, states that this Vitalian took up arms against him on account of the subversion of the Catholic faith, the condemnation of the Council of Chalcedon, and the removal of orthodox bishops and the succession of heretics in their place. Speaking of that rebellion of Vitalian, our chronicler, recounting how he was put to flight, adds the following: "And Christ the Savior and the fortune of the Emperor were victorious." ^B Indeed, Christ the Savior and the Emperor's fortune secured this victory. These words might appear to indicate his zeal against Vitalian's cause, and that it was his opinion that Christ fought for the Emperor as if for the truth. But however much this may appear to some at first glance, nothing can be rightly concluded from it; for these things could have been said by Malalas simply because Vitalian had taken up arms in rebellion against his sovereign. Thus, other orthodox writers surely speak of the war stirred up by Vitalian as a thing to be condemned, even if the cited Victor appears to have thought well of him. Cyril of Scythopolis, in the *Life of St. Sabas* (chap. 57), appears to condemn his rebellion, but in a somewhat [xxxvi] more cautious manner: "The Emperor Anastasius, being preoccupied... by the barbarian disturbances of Vitalian." Evagrius (*Hist. eccles.* 1. III, c. 45) most clearly says: "Vitalian," he says, "acted as a tyrant against Anastasius." And, in the same place, he says that he had intended to seize the empire.

XI. Combefis makes another conjecture, no more fortunate than this, regarding our chronicler in the same place; as he [conjectures] him to be the same as the aforementioned John the presbyter, so he determines that he was altogether the same as John the historian, known as the Diacrinomenos—that is, the Eutychian; for so the schismatic Eutychians were accustomed to be called. This John the Diacrinomenos flourished before our John, and before the times of Justinian himself, under the reign of the aforementioned Anastasius, as cited by Theodore Lector in his *Ecclesiastical History*, who himself wrote under Justin the Elder, the predecessor of Justinian and successor of Anastasius. Nor are those things which are brought forth by Greek writers from that John called the Diacrinomenos found in our chronicler. Whoever desires more on this matter may consult our *Diatribe* (to which we have already often referred the reader) *On various Greek writers, both profane and ecclesiastical*, especially those from manuscript codices, which will soon see the light of day, where it will be possible to read some things about him that are not common.

[xxxvi] XII. Whether our chronicler was immune from every stain of heresy, or rather favored the parties of the aforementioned Eutychians, such that he deserves to be called the said John the Historian, the Diacrinomenos—if indeed it is worth the effort to inquire—there are not lacking those things that provide certainty that he is rather to be numbered among the orthodox writers. For he calls the faith of the Emperor Justinian—which was opposed to the dogmas of the heretics whom he had condemned by edicts—the orthodox faith.

XIII. Besides these various Johns of Antioch ^D mentioned up to this point, who are known with certainty to be different from our John from what has been said, we have observed in our reading the names of not a few others. The first of them is John of Antioch, archpresbyter, the son of the deaconess and abbess Publica, who was famous under the Emperor Julian the Apostate. The second is John Maxentius, a presbyter (as they claim) of the Church of Antioch under Justin the Elder, of whom some tracts exist in the *Bibliotheca Patrum*. The third is John of Antioch, a presbyter, a writer against the Semi-Pelagian Faustus, praised by Ado of Vienne; unless this person might be the same (which I would easily grant) as the aforementioned John Maxentius. The fourth is John of Antioch, a monk of the Laura of St. Sabas in Palestine, a deacon and canonar...

canonarch, of the Origenist sect, in the reign of Justinian. ^A The fifth is John Scholasticus, former priest of Antioch, patriarch of Constantinople towards the end of the same Justinian's reign: whose *Collection of Canons* and *Ecclesiastical Chapters* are extant; whom some wrongly confuse with John of Antioch the Chronicler, whose *Excerpts* are extant in the *Collection* of Constantine Porphyrogenitus. The sixth is John of Antioch commonly so-called, an Arian, one of the teachers of the pseudo-prophet Muhammad, at which time Heraclius reigned. To these must be added, unless perchance they are the same as some of those already mentioned, John, monk and priest of Antioch, to whom in a certain manuscript codex is attributed an *Oration on the Transfiguration of the Lord*, the same as that which we have published in the name of John Damascene among his works: ^B and John of Antioch, whose name is found prefixed to a certain other manuscript treatise *On Conjurations*. Concerning all these, just as concerning most of those whom we have mentioned above, we have discoursed at length and more fully in the aforementioned *Diatribe on Various Greek Writers*, in the first two chapters, out of our professional concern. I have wished to have them listed here, so that the reader might not be unaware of how many and who those of that name were, and if any one of them appears to be the same as our chronicler, let him use his own judgment, provided I am allowed to use mine. There is no need for me to append to these that a certain bishop of Alexandria is mentioned by Deacon Liberatus (*Breviary*, ch. 18), whose name is very similar to that of our writer, John by surname Mela; whom he says was a Dioscorite, that is, a *Diacrinomenus* or adversary of the Council of Chalcedon. That he is the same as our John Malalas, no one even slightly learned will suspect. For he flourished before the times of Justinian, and, as Liberatus himself is the author, he was second in the succession of Alexandrian prelates after Peter Mongus, the successor of the heretic Athanasius, and the predecessor of the other John surnamed Machiotes (or Niciotes). He began, according to the *Chronicon Orientale*, to preside over the Church of Alexandria A.D. 488, and held the see for 8 years, and a little more. Kircher, in his *Catalogue of the Patriarchs of Alexandria*, refers his beginning to the year of Christ 506. To which year is placed by Baronius not his beginning, but his end. ^D XIV. Regarding our chronicler, kind reader, who he was and what kind, or rather indeed who and what kind he was not, we have inquired so far. The reason of our undertaking now demands that we proceed to other matters, and we begin a disquisition on what kind of writer he is, and concerning his age, and the time in which he wrote. That he flourished under the reign of Justinian the First of that name, which began in the year of our Lord 527 and ended in 565, the opinion has hitherto prevailed among those learned men who have examined the manuscript copy of his chronicle. Thus do Chilmead and Gregorius at the same time, interpreter and scholar, settle it as certain and indubitable; ^A and likewise the most noble Mr. William Lloyd, the present bishop of St. Asaph, who also thinks that he stopped writing around the 25th year of Justinian. We have been informed of this by the most illustrious Antonio Pagi in his *Annals of Cardinal Baronius* (ad A.D. 107): in which excellent work, concerning our chronicler, mentioning the letters of the aforementioned Father sent to him, that most learned man says: *He lived*, he says, *under the great Justinian and it appears he stopped writing in the 25th year of his reign, or thereabouts.* Thus the most illustrious William Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph, of the Protestant sect, a man of most solid judgment. In his excellent and most useful work, *On Ecclesiastical Writers*, with which the most learned Mr. William Cave of ours has obligated the literary world to himself, he is relegated to an age after Justinian, yet so that he could have been alive during his reign, and is conjectured to have lived until the year of Christ 601.

XV. When the most celebrated Pagi says that he was informed by the Bishop of St. Asaph that our chronicler stopped writing in the 25th year of Justinian, or thereabouts, I cannot but suspect that he failed in memory in two respects: for 1st, I easily persuade myself that the most learned prelate wrote of the year of Justinian, not the 25th, but the 35th. For that our *Chronographia*, as it is now held in the manuscript, is carried up to the 35th year of that emperor, is as certain as it is most certain: and it ends indeed in the 38th, or the 37th year of his reign. ^C There is also a suspicion that he only meant that our exemplar ends in that year, not that the author stopped writing in that year; for from where that could be gathered, nothing anywhere, even slight, occurs, when it appears clearer than light itself that the exemplar is mutilated at the end. The exemplar is held among the Barocci manuscripts, on parchment, and written in an ancient hand (as it is right to conjecture) of more than 600 years. From the thickness of the manuscript volume, it seems easy to gather that not many sheets are missing at the end, and that it was scarcely carried beyond the death of Justinian: but whence is it clear that no other thing formerly belonged to this volume, or that it was not formerly divided into two? It is certainly established that the whole work suffered many things formerly, and that all the sheets at one time lay loose from one another through the injury of time. This is indicated by the present condition of the volume, with various sheets in many places most miserably transposed by a later bookbinder. However the matter may be, that our chronicler wrote within 900 years from the birth of our Lord is placed beyond all doubt, since there existed excerpts from his work among the *Collectanea* of the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, who was born in the year 905, and died around the year 959; and that he did not write under the reign of Justinian himself, but after he had finished his supreme day, that is after the year 565, is evident to us with the same degree of certainty, as those words concerning Justinian at the beginning of the seventeenth book openly indicate: [XL] "The most divine Justinian reigned thirty-eight years, and seven months, and days..."

13." This alone can be brought into controversy: did he flourish under Justinian, and compose his Chronography a little after his time? There are indeed things which might easily persuade anyone who is not sufficiently attentive that he compiled his work a little after Justinian; but there are also many other things observed by us which create not unmerited suspicion that he was more recent to that age; and indeed there are those which indicate he should be relegated to much later times. In order that the reader may be able to investigate the truth regarding his age, and to make a judgment concerning his authority, we shall here gather before our eyes whatever notes and indications of his age occur, and place them together in the scales. And first, indeed, let us bring forward and place in the balance those things which seem to point against his such great antiquity; then, let us weigh against them those things which seem to establish it; and if they admit of any answer, let us see to it, as becomes fair estimators of things.

XVI. That our author not only did not write under Justinian the Elder, but did not even exist in his lifetime, this, in the first place, seems to have the force of a strongest argument: that when speaking (part II, p. 179) of the name of his city, Antioch, being changed under Justinian to Theopolis, and of the acclamations of the people of that time, he does not speak ^B of those acclamations from his own knowledge and memory, but appeals to the public Registers of that very city: "Likewise also in the Charts of those who recorded the acts of the same city it was found that they were shouting, giving an omen for the renaming of said city." As for this new name, it is found in the Charts of those who recorded the public acts of this city that the inhabitants acclaimed it, pronouncing good omens for it. Surely, if those acclamations had reached his own memory, although perhaps he might have been able to mention that they were recorded in the public Registers of the city, he would not, however, have alleged them in this manner and form. If either he himself, or his contemporaries, had perceived such acclamations with their own ears, would he have cited the public acts [XL]? Had he related what voices were shouted, and how often it was shouted, it would not have been a wonder to have called upon the public acts (21) regarding them. But if he himself, or his contemporaries, had heard it simply shouted by the well-omening, how could he cite the Registers?

XVII. I seek the second argument from the fact that errors ^A are committed in his Chronography regarding the deeds under the reign of Justinian, so great and so many that it completely contradicts the notion that he lived in those times. To produce here—passing over many—a few examples that are of greater moment to us: That war by which aid was brought to the king of the Lazi against the Persians by the general Irenaeus, etc., he refers to the reign of Justinian (p. 155), and to his 2nd consulship and the 5th indiction, which falls in the 11th year of that emperor’s reign; which, however, can be gathered from Procopius of Caesarea (De bello Pers. l. 1, c. 12), a most trusted writer of the same age, not to have been conducted by the Emperor Justinian, but by his predecessor Justin. He conjectures Justinian’s Edict concerning bishops, orphanotrophs, oeconomi, and xenodochiarii—that they should not issue a testament except from goods held before the office was assumed—to the 2nd year of Justinian (22), an error of no less than 13 years. For Nova Justiniani 131 (23) is designated, which was issued on the 15th of the Kalends of April, in the consulship of Basilius (24), as is seen at its end, i.e., in the 15th year of his reign [XLI], now coming to an end. Our author, making mention to the 2nd year of Justinian (25) of certain Novellar Constitutions promulgated by him at that time, includes among them the Constitution "On granting hereditary right to natural children," according to the law passed by the Emperor Anastasius; which was indeed published not before the 13th year of Justinian’s reign. Although there is a law of Justinian on this matter in the Code, tit. 26, 50, 8, given in his 2nd consulship, i.e., in the 11th year of his reign; yet it seems hardly to be doubted that our author designates a later, fuller, and more famous law on the same subject, ^C which is numbered 89 among the Novellae in the Authenticum, and was given in the 12th year of his reign, while Apion held the consulship; in which, indeed, there is an express mention made of the law concerning the same matter issued by the Emperor Anastasius, as the author not obscurely indicates that a mention of it was made in the law he designates. To the same year he mentions the girls liberated from the most shameful slavery of the panderers by Empress Theodora, and that panderings were prohibited (26); but no one will doubt that this happened immediately before that time at which provision was made by the Emperor against panderings by law: but that law was given on the Kalends of December, in the consulship of Belisarius, in the ninth year of the emperor; and it is numbered 14 among the Novellae. To the same year, namely the 11th of Justinian, and before the consulship of Decius, which began as that year was verging to its end, is referred by our author (27) the codex NOTE.

^A To these must be added that fable which the memory of the Axumites hands down (p. 164), that at the time when Justinian was about to go to war against the king of the Homerites, because he had despoiled Christian merchants passing into the regions of the Axumites of all their goods and their lives, he vowed that if he overcame the Homerite in war, he would become a Christian (for he says: "I take up arms against him on behalf of the Christians"); and when victory was won, he sent ambassadors to Justinian so that a bishop and clergy might be given to him, by whom, having been imbued with the rudiments and mysteries of the Christian religion, he might be dipped in the sacred laver of baptism. That this entire story deviates most widely from the truth is made most certain by Procopius: for he is the author [who testifies] that the king of the Axumites, even before that war, was a worshipper of the Christian religion, and that, too, most fervently—being a Christian and one who cared for this faith as much as possible. And just as it is clear that it is foreign to all truth, so if anyone attends more deeply to it, the method and manner of mythologizing used by more recent Greek writers will easily appear. I cannot but add here what he left written in the *Life of Justin the Thracian*, the predecessor of Justinian, a few years before the beginning of his reign, concerning Euphrasius, the patriarch of his city; that he was put in place of the deceased Paul, and that he severely persecuted those who are called orthodox, many of them even being delivered to death. What a portent of error is this! How absurd, and ^B how ^C irrational! How absurd it is that Euphrasius, an orthodox man, should have delivered the orthodox to death! How absurd that he, who for the very reason that he was orthodox had been promoted to that throne, should have persecuted the orthodox under an orthodox emperor! Who does not know that those heretics whom the Emperor Anastasius had raised to the honor of episcopal sees [XLV] were cast down and expelled by Justin? And who does not know that under him only the orthodox flourished? Indeed, such and so great does this error appear to be that it could in no way have been committed by our author regarding his own city if he himself had lived in that time, or if he had associated with any others who had lived in that age. Nor does it appear that it was written for any other cause than that he copied the account from some Eutychian author; which author, being himself a Eutychian, designated by "orthodox" not those who were truly orthodox, but those who were considered such among the Eutychians; for that these suffered persecution from Euphrasius comes as close to the truth as possible.

^D XVIII. As to the fact that our Chronographer has so remarkably departed from the truth in those other places, the cause seems to be, in part, that he used bad writers, whom he would surely have omitted using had he himself flourished in those times.

XX. Nor should it be passed over in silence here that, although he provides not a few items to memory concerning his own fatherland of Antioch while describing the affairs of Justin and Justinian, nevertheless nothing—not even a syllable—appears regarding himself or his own family that would imply he lived at that time. ^B While he describes that tremendous earthquake which happened about 11 years before the beginning of the reign of Justinian, by which (as he says) the desolation of Antioch was wrought, to which no house remained except those that were by the mountain, and by which about five thousand mortals perished; while he describes another earthquake which happened in the 11th year of Justinian, by which (as he states) five thousand souls perished, and those who remained betook themselves to other cities—describing these things, I say, he has not one word about himself or his own, although it seems highly probable that he would have mentioned something about himself or his own in such places.

XXI. It does not escape my notice that Edmund Chilmead, in his Latin version, interprets some passages as if Malalas implied that he lived under the reign of Justinian. Concerning the embassy from the Emperor Justinian to the king of the Axumite Indians, in the 4th or 5th year of Justinian, Malalas, having a discussion, describes the attire in which the king of the Axumites was clad when the ambassador was received, according to the narration of the ambassador himself: *“As the same ambassador explained, when the king of the Indians received him, he related the style of the royal Indian state, that he was naked,”* etc. Chilmead rendered this in his version thus: *“The attire, however, of the Indian king and the solemn pomp with which he received the Roman ambassador (as we learned from his own mouth) were of this sort. He was naked,”* etc. But this interpretation of Chilmead labors under a most serious fault. For the chronicler intended nothing other than that he had learned these things from the account of the ambassador himself. His words mean nothing else; and that he received this not from a conversation with the ambassador, but from a written narrative that he records, we have demonstrated by the words following shortly after. For after narrating how the king of the Indians was adorned and attended, the chronicler proceeds to explain the manner of the ambassador’s reception with these words: *“And the Roman ambassador being brought in, bowing his knee, he made obeisance; and the king of the Indians ordered me to rise and be brought to him,”* etc. *“The Roman ambassador, therefore, having been introduced, falling on his knees, worshipped the king. But he ordered me to rise and approach closer.”* While he writes from a book ^D upon captured Antioch raging, which by no means he would have omitted, had he himself flourished in those times.

XXII. Just as it seems sufficiently evident and clear from these points discussed so far that our chronicler did not live under the reign of Justinian, so there are matters among these which, if anyone would weigh and consider more closely, he could not persuade himself otherwise than that he must be numbered among much later writers. Other arguments also seem to prove this. From the fact that he calls upon Clement the Chronographer as a witness, it seems to be concluded, not without great probability, that he did not live before the eighth century. For it seems this Clement the Chronographer did not live before the year of the Savior 685. And we gather this from the Greek Anonymous ^B *Demonstrations* (as they title them), or *Collectanea* on the antiquities of Constantinople, by whom it is cited (as it seems entirely) regarding the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus, who exchanged life for death in the aforementioned year of Christ, namely 685. For that anonymous author, writing (p. 32) concerning a certain statue in the city of Constantinople called the Bull, and saying that it was of Theodosius the Elder, adds: *“Clement says that similar and manifold marble statues are of Constantine, son of Constantius.”* But Clement says that the various marble statues of similar form are those of Constantine, son of Constantius. (By which words Combefisius, in his notes, thinks that Constantine Pogonatus is designated, the son of Constans, as he is usually called; and thus, by Hercules, we have observed him being called by others. Constantine Porphyrogenitus, *De Administrando Imperio* (cap. 48, p. 112): *“Under Constantine, son of Constantius, who is also called Pogonatus.”* Constantine, son of Constantius, who is also called Pogonatus. He was indeed, which is known to all, Constantine himself the Great, son of Constantius (Chlorus): ^C but that we should understand him in this place, it seems that this is entirely obstructed by the fact that nowhere is he named in the cited author *Constantine, son of Constantius*, although he makes mention of him very frequently, but always either simply *Constantine*, or *Constantine the Great*, Κωνσταντίνος ὁ μέγας. And thus he is indeed frequently called in the few lines after ^D the cited lines; so that it is most clearly insinuated that it is another and different person from him who is called *Constantine, son of Constantius*.

XXIII. As it seems to be proven from this argument that our writer did not flourish before the beginning of the eighth century, so also it seems possible to infer from this with probability that he was even younger at that time. For even if it is conceded that the aforementioned Clement consigned his monuments to writing at the end of about the seventh century (for one may even suspect that he too flourished after that time), yet our chronicler seems to cite him, not as a writer of his own time, but as one more ancient. As this seems to be concluded even from this, so another argument is available to us, from which, if hardly anything else occurred, it would yet seem possible to be demonstrated that he was more recent than that time, and did not live except after the beginning of the ninth century. I derive this argument from his citation of Theophilus the Chronographer or Historian. For that Theophilus the Chronographer, or Historian, flourished a little before the eighth century was completed, is clear from Abulpharagius’s *Arabic History of Dynasties* (p. 147, 148), which teaches that he departed from the living under the times of the Empress Irene, wife of Leo Porphyrogenitus, in the year of the Hegira 169, that is, in the year of the Christians 785. He says he was a Christian, the son of Thomas, an astrologer of Edessa (*i.e.*, the Edessene), a leader of the astrologers of the Caliph of the Saracens, and of the sect of the Maronites who are on Mount Lebanon; and that he composed an excellent history. Thus in another place (p. 63) he cites his *History* or *Chronology* regarding the years from the creation of the world up to the beginning of the Seleucid epoch. That this same man was the Theophilus the Historian or Chronographer whom our chronicler brings forward, there is no reason, in my opinion, why anyone should doubt, especially since he flourished in the same region of the earth. And lest anyone suspect that Theophilus Abulpharagius was not a Greek writer, but a Syrian (which, however, if it were granted, nothing would prevent him from being the same as the one with Malalas, since his chronicle, written in Syriac, could have been translated into the Greek language), there exist even now in various libraries of Europe certain astrological works of his woven together in the Greek tongue, as the catalogs (which I have seen) of the manuscript codices of various libraries teach; in which Theophilus’s astrological works are wont to be celebrated. That the aforementioned Theophilus wrote such things, as it seems sufficiently evident in itself, since he was an astrologer by profession, as Abulpharagius relates, and indeed the highest and most famous, so it is confirmed by the authority of Abumaschar (35), likewise an Arabic writer, who in his book *On Mysteries*, which is unpublished, among various Greek astrological writers, counts Alexander, Stephanus, and Aristotle.

^A and also Hermetes (36), he enumerates Theophilus the son of Thomas. What of the fact that the aforementioned Theophilus, the Edessene chronographer, was skilled in the Greek language, as we are taught by Abulpharagius himself (pp. 148 and 26)? For it is added by him that this same individual translated the books of the poet Homer *On the Destruction of the City of Ilium* from the Greek language into Syriac most elegantly. Thus John Mansur Damascenus, although he himself similarly flourished in the court of the Saracen Caliph among his advisors, nevertheless adorned the works he published with the Greek language.

XXIV. It might perhaps be easy to suspect that the aforementioned Clement, the chronographer cited by our chronograph ^B, was none other than Clement of Alexandria, who is extensive in historical and chronological matters in his *Stromata*; and likewise that Theophilus the Chronographer, whom the same person is accustomed to call a witness, was none other than Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, the author of the three books *To Autolycus*: in the third of which books *To Autolycus*, not a few things are produced in writing concerning chronological matters, and the series of years from the building of the city up to the author’s own age is deduced in a continuous thread; and indeed that very book is praised by Lactantius Firmianus under the title of a book *On the Times* (i.e. Chronological). Indeed, the most learned Oxonian editor of the aforementioned books *To Autolycus*, ó νῦν ἐν ἁγίοις, in his Preface, without any examination of the matter, considers it as granted that the individual designated by our chronograph, whenever testimonies from Theophilus the Chronographer are brought forward, is that same one, because, forsooth, he had heard nothing of any other Theophilus the Chronographer. But that every suspicion of this kind may be dissolved, we shall note this one thing for the present: that these matters which our historian produces from Clement and Theophilus the chronographers are not found at all in the works of Clement of Alexandria and Theophilus of Antioch. We find these same writers, Clement and Theophilus the chronographers, cited by a certain Hesychius in a homily or discourse *On the Nativity of Christ*, in a fragment which exists in the *Theological Questions* of Anastasius Nicenus (or rather Sinaita), published from the Latin interpretation of Gentianus Hervetus in the *Bibliotheca Patrum*: ^C but there is no reason for this to be dragged by anyone into an argument against those things which we posited above concerning the age of those chronographers. For no necessity demands that the aforementioned Hesychius be held to be the same ^D as Hesychius the Patriarch of Jerusalem, who is thought to have flourished at the end of the sixth century or the beginning of the seventh; since so many much more recent Hesychii have been famous in the Church of the Greeks. Nay, I have little doubt but that this Hesychius is also more recent than our John Malalas, and that he copied from him the things which the cited Fragment exhibits. That this may be left to the judgment of the reader, and because it contributes to correcting somewhat the Malalian numbers of our exemplar, it will not grieve me to bring them before the eyes here; with the Greek text added from a manuscript in the Bodleian library (37), which has not yet seen the light of day (38).

[LI] From Hesychius *On the Nativity of Christ*.

For in the 42nd (40) year of the reign of Augustus, on the 25th of December, on the 6th day, at the 7th hour of the day, our Lord Jesus Christ was born according to the flesh, from the holy Virgin Mary; in the year according to the Antiochians from the creation of the world up to the birth of Christ and the crucifixion 6000 are reckoned: for from Adam up to Phalec, the son of Heber, are 3000 years, and from Phalec up to the 42nd (43) year of the reign of Augustus, 1067 years; and thereafter the Savior conversed with men for 33 years; so that there are from Adam up to the birth of Christ 6000 full years. For Phalec, according to the prophecy of Moses, is said to be the half of the time of Christ’s appearance [LI]. For just as when God had fashioned man on the sixth day, he subsequently fell into sin; so also on the sixth day of the millennium he came into the earth and

Hesychius from that on the Birth of Christ (59)

For in the 42nd year of the reign of Augustus, on the 25th day of December, on the 6th day, at the 7th hour (41) of the day, our Lord Jesus Christ was born according to the flesh from the holy Virgin Mary. In the year according to the Antiochians from the creation of the world up to the birth and crucifixion of Christ, 6000 (42). For it is reckoned from Adam up to Phalec, the son of Heber, 3000, and from Phalec up to the 42nd year of the reign of Augustus, 1067 years (44), and finally the Savior conversed with men for 33 years; so that there are from Adam up to the birth of Christ and [the crucifixion] 6000 full years. For Phalec, according to the prophecy of Moses, is said to be half of the time of the appearance of Christ. For just as God fashioned man on the 6th day, and he subsequently fell into sin, so also on the 6th (45) day of the

millennia, the Lord appeared on earth as the number of the 6 days of the fashioning of Adam, as he saved the human race. Others, however, say that the Lord came in the year 5500. But not many agree on this. In the year 6000, however, all accurate chroniclers agree that Christ appeared. For even if some disagree about this, nevertheless the prophetic voice speaks the truth, which teaches rather that it was in the year 6000 that the Lord appeared.

If one were to compare these things with what John Malalas has at the beginning of book X, nothing, upon my word, will appear earlier to him, nothing more manifest, than that they are the very words of Malalas reduced to a summary. If it pleases anyone that John Malalas wrote from the same chronicler, and then that Hesychius, whoever he may be, wrote the author's verbatim words, and this one with a more concise style: let him enjoy his own judgment, if he wishes; to us, the former opinion is more pleasing, especially since this Hesychius was not a recent writer, that is, he did not live after the ninth century; nowhere in the books does anything occur that makes it clear. That the fragment described above is found in Anastasius’s ^B Theological Questions should not lead anyone into error. For that fragment was not translated by Anastasius himself into his work of Theological Questions, but it is held in the Additamenta or Appendix; just as there are many other things from more recent writers, both added to and inserted into the Questions of Anastasius. Consult our Dissertation on various Greek writers, where the questions of the aforementioned Anastasius have been treated most fully, and the questions—in fact, that the first 24 were truly Anastasius’s, and the others are all additions; and it has been clearly demonstrated from manuscript codices that very many things in those first 24 were interpolated. See also in the same place regarding the aforementioned Hesychius, in the chapter On various Hesychii; and also regarding Clement and Theophilus aforementioned, in the chapters On various Clements and Theophili: where we have discussed them more extensively and fully.

XXV. To these arguments regarding the age of our writer, there seems to be added confirmation from the fact that whenever he cites the Chronology of Eusebius of Caesarea, he does not cite the true or genuine Chronicle of Eusebius, but a certain supposititious Chronicle, accustomed to being circulated under the name of Eusebius. Such, indeed, was the Chronicle ^C among recent Greeks which falsely bore the name of Eusebius, although this has been observed by no learned men until now; and that the one which our chronicler used was not a genuine work of Eusebius, we have shown in the cited book, in the chapter On various Eusebii.

XXVI. Nor does it seem to be entirely disregarded that in the Acts of the Second Council of Nicaea, celebrated in the year of Christ 778, where the opinions and traditions of very many writers concerning images are gathered by the iconolatrous bishops—who with the greatest effort searched for books of any kind whatsoever that were deemed to contribute to their worship—that, I say, in the Acts of that council, where so many writers are alleged concerning images, there is a most profound silence concerning our author (49), who brings forward a remarkable Narration, and also (if one can trust it) the suppliant petition of the woman with an issue of blood to King Herod concerning the statue to be placed to Christ in the city of Paneas; and this, even though from the writers of the minor Narrative, descriptions of that Paneadic statue of far lesser moment are brought forward.

XXVII. Finally, our conjecture concerning the age of Jo. Malalas, that he wrote in the ninth century, or at least was much more recent than the age of Justinian, seems to be remarkably confirmed by the very character and condition of the man. For who would consider a historian so triflesome, so devoid of judgment, so inconsistent with himself, who in almost all parts of his chronology that precede Christ, and in many others with the subsequent ones, is almost nothing other than what Scaliger calls Cedrenus, a stable of refuse: who, I say, would consider such a miserable chronicler as worthy of those more learned times of Justinian, or of Justin the Younger; ^D the times of Procopius of Caesarea and Agathias, those most approved historians? Truly, if it be permitted to form a conjecture and judgment from the character and erudition of a man, he belongs to this ninth century, the most miserable of all.

^A And most tenebrous, he will be a writer most worthy of being denounced. Let there be added, furthermore, his style and the very manner of speaking, which never and nowhere avoids being entirely lacking in refinement, and which those who have perused it will confess is in many places clearly barbaric; it is undoubtedly unworthy of the more cultivated age of Justinian, and most worthy of the aforementioned ninth century. Nor do I assert this, by Hercules, relying solely on my own judgment. But there is added the testimony of the very learned Mr. Edward Bernard, who I remember telling me more than a decade ago, when, on the occasion of our Malalas—at that time completely unknown to me—a conversation had been struck up as we were chatting (for the man of supreme candor and humanity did not refuse at that time to descend to my stammering erudition, but, like the wise Socrates, sometimes took pleasure in playing with a boy), that he wondered if the age of Justinian had degenerated from the ancients to such a degree of barbaric language.

[LV] XXVIII. If it should please anyone that the same man was our John Malalas as that John of Antioch whom John and Isaac Tzetzes are accustomed to cite, that will be for further confirmation, or rather demonstration; since John Tzetzes affirms (as was noted above) that the John whom he cites, the Antiochene, wrote after George the chronographer. I said above that one should understand thereby either George Syncellus the chronographer, who departed this life a little before the end of the eighth century, or at least George Hamartolus, who worked out his Chronographia a little after the middle of the ninth century. I am not unaware that the Chronographia of George of Pisidia is cited by a certain anonymous unpublished Greek chronographer; nor am I ignorant that George of Pisidia flourished under the Emperor Heraclius himself before the middle of the seventh century. But when I weigh the matter more strictly and accurately, I can scarcely doubt that this anonymous writer has confused another George with George of Pisidia; nor, furthermore, does it seem that John Tzetzes would call George of Pisidia simply "George the Chronicler." For he is accustomed—by others generally, as well as by Tzetzes himself [(50)] in that same work of the Chiliads—to be called by his expressed surname, George Pisides, or, to speak more truly, without any first name, simply Pisides. But we are not concerned about these matters at present; for, as has already been indicated, we think rather that this John of Antioch, who is praised by both Tzetzes, was distinct from our Jo. Malalas.

XXIX. And these are the various arguments by which we have been led, not without ease, to believe that our author not only did not live under Justinian, but was much later than him; and we judge that he should be referred to the ninth century rather than the sixth. We now come to those arguments which seem to bolster his antiquity: those of which they who wish to weigh matters with an even scale of truth will concede to our opinion. The first argument, by which his antiquity seems to be capable of being proved, appears to be sought from the fact that he pursues events accomplished under the reign of Justinian with a far more expansive Minerva; and in celebrating them, he employs not only the year, [LVII] but also the month and even the day of the month with great particularity. One might gather the second argument from the fact that he is accustomed to distinguish the senior Emperors Constantine, Theodosius, and Leo from the junior emperors of those same names by the epithets toῦ μεγάλου, i.e., "the elder," and toῦ μικροῦ, that is, "the younger"; but regarding Justinian, the first of that name, he never once uses the epithet toῦ μεγάλου: which, since he wrote before Justinian the Younger, who began his reign in the year of our Lord 685, he seems to demonstrate. To this you might add that—as has now been observed once or twice—a fragment is cited from him by name in the third book *On Images* attributed to John Damascene; for John Damascene finished his life about the year of our Lord 750, whence it would be constructed that our author, if he did not write before the end of the sixth century, at least existed among the living before the end of the following one. The fourth argument may be formed from the fact that in most places he agrees verbatim with the *Chronicon Paschale* or *Alexandrinum* (as it is commonly called), so that the compiler of the *Chronicle* appears to have copied from him, with various indications demonstrating not that our author on the contrary took these things from the *Chronicle*. Indeed, all scholars hitherto have decreed that the author of the *Paschale* wrote from John Malalas in those things in which they agree, with the most famous Dufresne also supporting this in his Notes to the *Paschale*, where he compares Malalas’ narration concerning the death of Julian the Apostate, which he had read excerpted from our codex, with the narration of the *Paschale*. But it is commonly believed by learned men that the *Paschale* was compiled or continued under the reign of Heraclius, before the year of our Lord 650, which would show that our author wrote 40 years after the death of Justinian, namely, before the end of the sixth century or at the very beginning of the seventh, to which he is referred by the celebrated Cave. I do not think I will be doing anything unpleasant to the learned reader, nor anything alien to our intent, if I append here an Index of those Narrations in which, either entirely or at least in part, there is a word-for-word agreement between our author and the aforementioned *Chronicle*.

XXX. There occur in our chronographer things which are held in the *Chronicon Paschale* according to the Dufresne folio edition. [LVIII] Page 38. Concerning Danaus and Perseus [(51)] from the words, ὁ Πήκος ὁ καὶ Ζεὺς, to p. 41, the words Βαβυλωνίων χώρας. Page 41. Concerning Inachus [(52)], Io, Taurus, Phoenice,

Agenore, son of Agenor, the Tyrian Hercules, etc., from the words: *‘ἐν δὲ τοῖς,’* ^A to p. 44, the words: *‘ὁ σοφώτατος ἐξέθετο.’*

p. 45. Concerning the Sun (53), the son of Vulcan, Sesostris, and Hermes Trismegistus, from the words: *‘Μετὰ δὲ τελευτὴν Ἡφαίστου,’* to p. 48, the words: *‘ἐβασίλευσαν Αἰγυπτίων οἱ λοιποί’*; [thus almost everything from p. 38 to p. 48 is the same as in Malalas, but not described in the same order. Nor does it seem doubtful that all these things regarding the tomb of Picus, Faunus, and Vulcan, which are found on p. 45 (54), would also be read in Malalas: this is shown by the beginning of Malalas, which is mutilated, and which was correctly supplied from the Chronicon Paschale by Chilmead. The same must be said about all these matters which are found regarding Semus, Saturn, Picus, Zoroaster, Ninus, etc., p. 36, 37, 38, after the words ^B ‘Περὶ Ἀστρονομίας.’ Which appear to have pertained to the same second book of Malalas.]

p. 109 to 114. Concerning the city of Rome (55), Romulus and Remus, and the circus games.

p. 117. Concerning the chlamydes of the Romans (56).

p. 191, 192. Concerning the tower of the Pharos (57), built as a mole between the island of Pharos and the city of Alexandria, the envoy sent to Antony against Cleopatra, Sosibius the Antiochene, and the titles of Caesar Augustus.

p. 246, 247. Concerning Titus Vespasian (58), devastating the city of Jerusalem.

p. 250, 251. Concerning Apollonius of Tyana (59), and Asclepius killed by the Emperor Domitian, and regarding the death of Domitian.

[LIX] p. 262. Concerning the edict of the Emperor Marcus (60) regarding intestate and ungrateful children.

p. 265. Concerning Artabanus the Antiochene (61).

p. 265. Concerning the founding of Byzantium (62) and the public bath named Zeuxippus.

p. 275, 276. Concerning St. Gelasinus the martyr (63).

p. 284, 285. Concerning the works of Constantine the Great (64) in the city of Constantinople, concerning his being the first of all the emperors honored with a diadem made of precious stones, concerning the birthday and Fortune of the city, and concerning Constantinople being separated from the European province.

p. 297 to 303. Concerning the martyrdom (65) of St. Domitius, the death of the Emperor Julian, his death being revealed in a dream to St. Basil, and the empire being handed over to Jovian, concerning the embassy of the King of the Persians to him, peace made through Arintheus, the city of Nisibis surrendered to the Persians, and ^D the Nisibene village built, concerning Valentinian being relegated to Olymbria and afterwards made emperor, and concerning the public edict against Sallust, concerning the magnates guilty of injuries, the Rhône being committed to the flames, the empress being proscribed, and the death of Valentinian.

p. 310 to 313. Concerning the marriage of the Emperor Theodosius (66) with Eudocia, her brothers promoted to honor, and the dignities conceded to Paulinus.

p. 316 to 319. Concerning the murder of Paulinus (67), and the deeds of Eudocia in the cities of Antioch and Jerusalem, concerning Attila the king of the Huns, Cyrus the patrician, the earthquake at Constantinople, and the death of the Emperor Theodosius.

p. 321 to 335 (68). Concerning the death of St. Symeon Stylites (69), the philosopher Isocasius [LX] (Mal., p. 77), the order for Sunday to be kept for holy days (p. 78), Aspar and Ardaburius (ibid.) being put to death, the persecution suffered by the Arians under the Emperor Leo (p. 79), concerning the rain (ibid.) of ash (ibid.), the fire (ibid.) at Constantinople, Zeno being assumed as partner in the empire by Leo Junior (p. 84, 85), the death of Leo, Verina the mother-in-law of Zeno (p. 87), and concerning the emperors Basiliscus and Marcus (p. 88), concerning the war between Zeno and Basiliscus (ibid.), Armatus, the Samaritans (p. 93), and the Roman woman (p. 95) Juvenalia, and the death of Theodoric, concerning the count (p. 103) Maurianus, Pelagius, and the riot of the faction (p. 108) of the Greens, concerning the city of Doras (p. 115), Areobindus (p. 126), the vision of the Emperor Anastasius (p. 127), and Justin being raised to the empire (p. 130), concerning Amantius and Andreas being removed from the middle, Apion, etc. (p. 152), recalled from exile, and concerning the comet (ibid.), concerning the king of the Lazs (p. 134), concerning the embassy of the Coad of the Persians (p. 136) to the Emperor Justin, and the king of the Huns (p. 157) Zilgui or Zilgibus, and finally concerning Justinian (p. 147, 151) being assumed as partner in the empire.

Thus almost all the histories and narratives which are contained in about 80 pages in Paschales are found in this Chronographia of ours either entirely verbatim, or nearly so.

XXXI. These arguments, although to one weighing them lightly they all seem to be supported by no slight appearance of probability and to obtain some force of demonstration, nevertheless, if we inspect them more closely and, after recalling them to examination, weigh them by their own significance, they will not seem to have so much value that we are compelled to concede to the received opinion. For as regards the first, what is surprising if the life and deeds of Justinian under his empire are committed to memory much more fully than those of others, since they provided so much material for writing, and he protracted his life for almost 39 years, being a long-lived and very famous emperor? And what is surprising if he attaches not only years, but also months and days, to most of his deeds? He did this, to be sure, not because he lived at that time and was present at those events, but because his own [people] had done so.

[51] ...as it frequently happens also in those [works] which precede: the Lives of the Emperors [LXI]. As to the second point, [it is argued] that he never calls Justinian "the Great" or "the Elder," just as he never bestowed that title upon his predecessor, Justin, although it is certain that he composed his work no earlier than the reign of Justin the Younger. Therefore, just as this argument regarding Justin the Younger is invalid, so too it does not contradict the possibility that he wrote his work after the reign of Justinian the Younger.

XXXII. Regarding the third point, we respond that if it were to be granted that the third book *On Images*, which is attributed to the name of John of Damascus, was truly composed by him, one could not undeservedly doubt the value of its arguments. For who is so much a stranger to the works of the ancients as to not know how prone their books are to be interpolated by readers? Who does not know that it was the custom of readers and scribes alike, when they found testimonies of others gathered together in books, to add and insert things of their own if anything occurred to them? Do not the infinite writings of the ancients teach this, and especially those in which the fragments of more ancient authors are heaped together without any orderly connection of discourse, as in the aforementioned third book *On Images*? Examples of this matter are the *Theological Questions* of Anastasius of Sinai, of which we spoke just now; and (to pass over others) those which treat of the same subject—namely, the veneration of images—the *Acts* of the Second Nicene Council, in whose fourth session, where the various passages of writers in favor of images are gathered together, one finds in certain copies various testimonies other than those which were actually recited in that synod. Thus, in the ancient manuscript of the Vatican Library (as noted in the marginal comment [Vol. VII, p. 272] to the *Acts* of the Council), many sentences of the Fathers occur which are neither found in any other manuscript nor correspond to the order of the proceedings. So too in the Greek edition of that synod is found the *Narrative from the Life of St. John the Faster*, Patriarch of Constantinople, which neither other Greek copies nor the old Latin edition acknowledge (p. 767). I said, "if it were to be granted" that the third book *On Images* which is fronted by the name of John of Damascus was truly composed by him; because (if I may be permitted to say what the situation is) there are not wanting things which persuade me [LXII] that this treatise is falsely designated by the name of John of Damascus; just as others are various treatises on the same subject falsely ascribed to him—namely, because later, less-educated Greeks attributed to him almost everything they had that had been written by anonymous authors in favor of the doctrine of iconolatry, on account of the great name he had earned for himself by his defense of images. Concerning these various treatises, and what special argument we have against the aforementioned book, see our *Diatribe on various Greek writings*.

XXXIII. Regarding the final argument about the Alexandrian Chronicle, whose author is commonly thought to have lived under Emperor Heraclius and to have drawn most of what he recounts from our author, this also admits a double response. For first, if we grant (though some men of great name even doubt this) that the Paschal numbers were brought to a conclusion by an author living under Heraclius, [52] yet who will guarantee that these things, which are found also in our own [author], were inserted by the chronographer himself and not by his interpolators? Who does not perceive that that Paschal Chronicle is filled with nearly infinite interpolations? Do not its tautologies clamor for this? Do they not very clearly speak of contradictions? If you inspect the edition of the most celebrated Dufresne, it will show that many passages appear in the edited [text] that are missing in the Holstenian manuscript; and among these, many things are missing which the edited Paschal Chronicle concurs with our author. Thus, all those things that are contained between page 45, from the words *Since therefore these [things] we have mentioned*, up to page 48, to the words *the rest of the Egyptians*, are absent from the Holstenian codex; in which are found all those things in which our author agrees with the common Paschal exemplar concerning the fabulous affairs of the Greeks and Egyptians.

Likewise is missing a great part of that passage which deals with the city of Rome, Romulus, and Remus, and the circus games, namely the entire intermediate part which treats of the King of the Piseni, Oenomaus, and the games instituted by him and Romulus, from the words *and from the four elements* page 110 D, up to those [words] *and the parties had great hostility toward one another* page 112 D, which in our *Chronograph* are read from page 218, line 28, to page 223, line 20. There is also missing in the Holstenian manuscript the greater part of that passage which concerns the storming of Jerusalem by Titus, in which our [author] and the Paschal [Chronicle] also agree; to wit, all those things which are held from the words *And all the provinces*, to *until this day* [LXIII]; [which is] in our [edition] p. 337, line 7, to the following page, line 11. Nor does the published exemplar of the Paschal [Chronicle] only abound with many added fragments, but the Holstenian exemplar itself also has its own insertions in other places. To omit those things which are not of this place: because all these other things concerning Romulus and Rome in the aforementioned place, which are read also in the Holstenian manuscript, and which our author also acknowledges, were inserted into the Paschal [Chronicle], from this a sufficiently probable argument is drawn, because it is said in that place that the Capitol was built by Romulus and Remus, when yet in another place shortly after, the exact opposite is reported, namely that Numa Pompilius built the Capitol from the foundations in the fourth year of his reign. *Numa Pompilius in the fourth year of his reign builds the Capitol in Rome from the foundations.* Thus it appears that these three passages which are held in the Paschal [Chronicle] coinciding with our own—concerning Cleopatra, the Pharos tower, Sosibius of Antioch, and those titles in which Caesar Augustus delighted, up to the word *Autocrat*—were stuffed in by some interpolator. This is gathered from the fact that they neither cohere among themselves as they are read there, nor with the subsequent passage. For in the first of them it is...

reported that Antony was sent by the Romans against Cleopatra and the Egyptians with an army; and in the second, it is immediately subjoined that a certain Sosibius, a senator of Antioch, accompanied Augustus Caesar as he was returning to Rome: returning from where? Truly, from the conquest of Egypt, as is manifest from our writer. But concerning his campaign against the Egyptians, there is no mention made beforehand. Thus, in the third paragraph, the titles of Augustus Caesar are enumerated, just as if he were alone, administering the empire without any colleague; and yet in the following paragraph, mention is made of his campaign against the Egyptians, and of their subjugation; from which time his monarchy was reckoned, as is acknowledged in the same place. Αὔγουστος ἐλθὼν εἰς Αἴγυπτον, etc. Augustus, coming into Egypt, captured that region; with the extinction of the kingdom of the Ptolemies, which had lasted for 296 years. The great Joseph Scaliger knew this; regarding the name of Antony, in the place noted, where it says he was sent against Cleopatra and the Egyptians, he wrote instead "Augustus," and thus "Augustus" was substituted for "Antony" in the new Latin version of Du Cange. But that was done rashly by learned men. For although Antony was never sent by the Romans against Cleopatra, the interpolator of the Paschal [LXIV] Chronicon had read it so in his author. This appears most clearly from our author, in whom not only is the same name "Antony" found, but it is also added that, when he was descending into Egypt and encircling Alexandria with a siege, he was solicited by Cleopatra—to whom he had been known previously, when he had accompanied Julius Caesar into Egypt—with flattering letters, and, captured by love for her, he entered into marriage with her and waged war upon his own Romans.

XXXIV. From these things it is clear that it can in no way be concluded that any places among those in which our author and the Paschal Chronicle agree were written by the primary author of the Paschal Chronicle. Nor does there seem to be any reason to doubt that, in that part also which the continuator added, which begins from the 18th year of Constantius, most of the histories and narratives were inserted. Not to mention that it is to be suspected that those very passages where the Emperor Heraclius is called "our emperor" were nothing other than the words of some writer who flourished under that emperor, translated into that Chronicle by the interpolator. This alone seems to be concluded by anyone for certain: that the things which are read both in it and in our author were described in that Chronicle some 700 years ago, more or less. This is gathered, indeed, from the fact that they are found, just as they are now exhibited in print, in another very ancient copy of the Paschal Chronicle in the Vatican Library, which 700 years ago [sic] seemed to the most learned men, Jo. Mabillon and Michael Germain, Benedictines of France, to have been written, as Du Cange teaches in his Preface, who had requested them to inspect that codex while they were staying at Rome. Concerning this Paschal or Alexandrian Chronicle—concerning its age, author, and continuator, and which things in it are spurious—we have had the opportunity to discourse professedly in another work not yet published, ^A On the writers of Egyptian affairs, in his third book, specifically, where we treat of the writers of Alexandrian or Ptolemaic affairs, just as we dealt in the first book with the writers of the more ancient historical affairs of that race, and in the second with those who celebrated in their writings, ex professo, their theological or philosophical, strange, natural, and artificial matters; and in the fourth, of the writers of that race's affairs as they pertain to Jews, Christians, and Muhammadans. In this fourth book of the same work (if it may be permitted to mention this in passing, lest perhaps our silence be taken by the less prudent as an argument), we have recalled to examination those things which were written against [LXV] our Dissertation against the History of Aristeas concerning the LXX interpreters, and we have shown that the most illustrious and eminent Isaac Vossius, of blessed memory, [ὁ μακαρίτης], in place of a reply, responded nothing.

XXXV. We respond, secondly, that it is not sufficiently evident to one considering the matter more than perfunctorily that these things, which appear in him and in the Paschal Chronicle at the same time, are to be attributed to our author. For to whom is it not clear that our author was accustomed to copy verbatim from other writers? This becomes most clear from those things which he ^B ineptly repeats in a tautology; this appears from those other things which we have brought forth above, where we touched upon his errors concerning matters managed under Justinian. And he does not only play the tautologist concerning matters transacted under Justinian, but he is also manifest in his carelessness in other places. In book XVI, discoursing on the works of Constantine the Great in the city of Constantinople, he makes mention of the construction of the Hippodrome twice. Likewise, he writes twice in book IX concerning Egypt being subjugated to the Roman domain by Augustus Caesar. He says that in a naval battle near Epirus he slew Antony and cast the queen of Egypt, Cleopatra, into chains; setting sail from there and proceeding into Egypt, he reduced that region into his own power and celebrated the victory with a triumph (pp. 285, 286, 287): then he subjoins that, having sailed past all Europe, he came to Byzantium and subjugated Gallatia, Lydia, Pamphylia, Phrygia Pacatiana, and Lycaonia to the rule of the Romans: from there he proceeded into Syria, and approached Antioch, and there triumphed over his victory against Antony and Cleopatra; ^C from thence he strove for Laodicea, and there also he "celebrated a triumph over his victory"; then, after a few things, these follow: "Proceeding into Egypt from Palestine, he subjugated it, and when he had reduced it into Roman servitude, entering Alexandria, he triumphed over his victory." To this city, moreover, he gave its first prefect from among his own, named Cornelius Gallus, whom he also distinguished with the dignity of Augustalis, a mark of his own name.

XXXVI. The same thing appears, even more clearly by itself, from the fact that he is accustomed to bring forward as witnesses the Latin writers—Florus, Livy, Lucan, Pliny, Servius, Sallust, Suetonius Tranquillus, and Virgil [LXVI]—though he held their works

^A in his hands, never saw them with his own eyes, and indeed did not understand their language, is most certain. That he had not read those good and serious writers of the Romans is most certainly proven by his supine ignorance of Roman affairs and his errors, which are more than old-womanish. To leave many other such stables of his waste untouched, lest they offend the reader: how delightful is that which, regarding Cicero and Sallust himself—whom he cites elsewhere—he records to memory, namely that they were Roman poets! "In these times flourished Cicero and Sallust, the wisest poets of the Romans." How charming is that which he holds concerning Julius Caesar, that he captured and killed Pompey the Great in Egypt! And again, the absurdity he utters regarding the duration of that empire; that the Roman Empire lasted for eighteen years! How ridiculous is that which he holds regarding M. Antonius, that he was sent by the Roman Senate against Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, and, descending into Egypt, surrounded the city of Alexandria with a siege! How absurd is that which he holds regarding Lucullus, that he was sent against Tigranes by Augustus Caesar! Finally, how well he understands the reader of the aforementioned Roman writers, when he writes concerning Claudius Caesar, that he "founded the city of Britain, not far from the Ocean!" Thus, in his city (if it pleases our little Greek), our great Britain has vanished, which among all Roman writers is the most celebrated of islands; ignorance proper and peculiar to the people of the Orient, and to those to whom Latin historians are utterly unknown. So, indeed, Rabbi Abraham Zacuth of Salamanca, in his book *Juchasin*, or *Book of Genealogies*, makes mention of the construction of England. He is cited by Rabbi Ganz in his *Germs of David*, or *Chronology*, in the second part to the year 830 of the third millennium: "And Juchasin wrote (page 136), that in this time Ausonia, Padua, and England were constructed." Thus he calls the city ^B England! The Samaritan Sichemites call it so in the letters which they recently sent to the English people, through the very worthy man Rob. Huntington, the current president of Dublin College in Ireland. That, moreover, our chronicler was not even polished by any knowledge of the Latin language—just as there were very few among the Greeks who instructed themselves in a skill of the Latin language—is clearly concluded from two or three places. In one he says the Latin word *consilia* signifies "day of largess": *Kousilia*, which is interpreted as "day of provision." How egregiously and learnedly! In another place, where he discourses on the four different factions of the circus introduced by Romulus (as he says, but falsely) and distinguished by different colors, namely the Green, the Blue, the Red, and the White; he says the Green (that is, the *Viridem*) was so named by Romulus as if it were "Permanent"; for, he says, *Prasinum* signifies "permanent," deduced from the verb *prasenteuo*, which signifies *paramenein*, to remain. Illustrious (by Jupiter) and expert! In that same narrative about Romulus, saying that he and Remus were commonly held to have been nurtured by a she-wolf, he adds that this fable arose from the fact that they were found and nurtured by a certain rustic woman: "For in that region," he says, "even until now, they call those rustic shepherdesses 'she-wolves' (*lupas*), as those who spend their life among wolves." But who, I ask, of men has ever heard the word 'she-wolf' (*lupa*) used among the Latins in that sense? And who does not perceive that this was accepted from I know not what babbler? Let Titus Livius be heard, whom our compiler of nonsense brings forward as though he had read him in that narrative about Romulus and elsewhere: "There are those who think that Laurentia, being of common body, was called a She-Wolf (*Lupa*) among the shepherds: thence the place was given over to the fable and the miracle." ^{C D} [LXVIII] XXXVII. As is apparent from these things, our author is accustomed to copy verbatim from other writers, and therefore it is not necessary that things which have correspondence with his words in the *Chronicon Paschale* should be thought to have been taken from it; thus there are certain other peculiar arguments which confirm that they were not specifically described from it. This is to be noted first, that in some of those places which are found both in our author and in the *Chronicon Paschale*, Latin writers are invoked; which, from what has been said, is rendered conspicuous as being things he himself had never read. Thus, in the narrative about Romulus and Remus, the aforementioned Virgil, Pliny, Livy, and also Licinius the Roman chronicler are cited: for the second and third of whom, in the *Chronicon Paschale*, one reads by corruption 'Apollonius' and 'Silvius.' In the place which deals with the Roman cloaks (chlamyds), *Suetonius* Tranquillus is cited, who is also cited in the same place in the *Chronicon Paschale*, and that with the addendum of the name Suetonius, which is not recognized by our author. To be observed second, that in many of their places.

NOTES.

(70) The inscription of the letters written in Hebrew, and in this sense, was held by the interpreter the most learned Edv. Bernard: "May it rightly reach 'sous theou' (God willing) this writing to the city of England and to the synagogue of the children of Israel, the Samaritans (thus they thought the English to be), whom may the Lord preserve." And another inscription in Arabic: "Let it be delivered to Lord Robert Huntington, the European, with care, who may take care to deliver it to the synagogue of the children of Israel, the Samaritans, who dwell in the city of England in the region of Europe."

(71) Hence it is that countrywomen, and not harlots, were called she-wolves (*lupas*). Thus indeed among Plautus that word is found used for a harlot, and thence *lupanar* and *lupanarium* for a brothel. *'Publicizing sometimes the beauty of the body,'* says Dionysius of Halicarnassus, *'those who dwell about the Palatine took the name Lupa. But this is both Greek and ancient, set upon those who earn their gain by Aphrodite, whom now they call by the more seemly title, "companions" (hetairai).'* To her (Laurentia), on account of her formerly common body, the inhabitants of the Palatine hill gave the nickname *Lupa*. This is to the Greeks a primitive appellation of those prostituting their venal voluptuousness for Venus; whom now they are accustomed to call by the more specious term *hetairai* (as if 'friends' and 'companions'). Saint Jerome in the *Eusebian Chronicle*: "Which (Laurentia), on account of the beauty and rapacity of her gain-making body, was called *Lupa* by her neighbors. Whence to our memory the cells of harlots are called *lupanaria*."

I omit many other instances (73) of this sort here, lest I should weary the reader of a more refined judgment. From such things, indeed, I do not seek a laurel of Mustacis.

XXXVIII. Thus, from what has been said (unless I am very much mistaken), it is most clearly concluded that nothing can be argued regarding the age of our chronicler from the fact that there are found in the *Chronicon Paschale* matters that correspond word for word with his accounts. Furthermore, let no one use as an argument that, because he speaks of things that seem more ancient as if they lasted down to his own memory, we should believe these are all his own words; rather, I would advise the reader that all these things—the *heos arti* ("until now") and *heos nyn* ("up to the present") and the like, which occur so repeatedly—belong not to him, but ^B to the authors whom he followed. No one who has considered what we have just discussed could fail to conclude that this is the case, and one can easily infer the same from most of the passages themselves. Thus, there is nothing more customary and solemn for writers of this sort than to disfigure their own works with such signs of poor judgment, exposing them to the laughter and nausea of sensible readers. This is well known, I think, to learned men and fully established; but I am writing not only for the learned: therefore, certain examples must be provided.

In the supposititious Dorotheus, in the *Synopsis on the Life and Death of the Prophets*, concerning Jeremiah being buried in Egypt and held in great veneration by the Egyptians because he had delivered them by his prayers from an infestation of crocodiles, it is subjoined in word-for-word fashion: "Whence as many as are faithful to God, even to this day, offer prayers in that place," etc. ^C Which very words are found in the *Chronicon Paschale* at Olympiad LXX, where almost the whole booklet of Dorotheus is transcribed, though not as his own, but with his name suppressed; they are found also in the booklet *On the Lives of the Prophets* which bears the name of St. Epiphanius; and likewise in another anonymous manuscript *On the Sixteen Prophets* in the Royal Library at Paris, and in Simeon Logothetes in his manuscript *Chronicle*, whose words are brought forward by the most illustrious Dufresne in his *Notes on the Chronicon Paschale*. The same Dorotheus, in that place—

[NOTES] (72) What our author has concerning the sack of Jerusalem is compared in the *Paschale* to the year thirty-nine of the Lord’s Assumption and the consulship of Vespasian alone: *Triakostō ennatō etei*, etc., although in our author it is expressly stated to have occurred in the year thirty-eight after the Assumption of Christ, under the consuls Commodus and Rufus, who indeed held the consulship, according to Cassiodorus, three years after the capture of Jerusalem. The *Paschale* is entirely silent about them. Moreover, a large part of this account is missing in the Holstenian codex (as was shown before). To the same year in the *Paschale* is referred both the disgrace of Cyrus the Patrician and the earthquake that occurred during the reign of Theodosius the Younger, which was in Constantinople, and also another account of the death of the Emperor Theodosius, which our author clearly implies occurred in different years. The account of the Emperor Zeno returning from Isauria to Constantinople is in the *Paschale* assigned to his own consulship: *Toutō tō etei*, etc., which, however, our author expressly states happened while Theuderich (or Theoderich) was holding the consulship, whose consulship, according to the *Paschale* itself, falls in the sixth year after that. Thus, that narrative which is had in both, concerning Tzathius the king of the Lazi, is referred in the *Paschale* to the consulship of Symmachus and Boethius *en toutō tō chronō*, etc., although in our author there is mention immediately before of the consulship of Vitalianus, which is connected in the *Paschale* itself to the year two years prior.

(73) The items that are read regarding the reign of Severus in the *Chronicon Paschale* concerning the city of Byzantium, Barbysius, Phedalia, and the Fortune of the city of Ceroe, although for the most part they are had in our author as well, the first part, which is sufficiently long, is nevertheless missing from him. Our author does indeed have, in another place, some things about Barbysius, Phedalia, Byza, and the Fortune of the city of Ceroe, namely in the reign of Constantine the Great; as for the rest, it will be clearly apparent to anyone who compares them that what is described in the *Paschale* was not taken from those, for these are different in their wording and fuller in their subject matter. Furthermore, add the narrative regarding Diogenianus and Philoxenus, together with Apion, who were restored from exile by the Emperor Justin; in which they are called *ex-magistri* in the *Paschale*, whereas by Malalas they are called only *senatores*.

^A We ourselves, however, have received [the account] concerning the legations of the Romans to foreigners—those which have not yet been published—some things of the same subject matter from the *History* of George the Monk, surnamed Hamartolus, who arranged his History after the middle of the ninth century. And indeed, "We," he says, "have heard," etc., "from the descendants of Antigonus and Ptolemy, men grave in age; we have received, Alexander the Macedonian," etc. These things are found to be the very same, as if the individuals themselves had heard these things, in the *Chronicon Paschale*, at the author cited in the manuscript booklet *On the Sixteen Prophets*, and in the same Symeon the Logothete. In the same Logothete, the *Chronicon Paschale*, and Pseudo-Epiphanius are found also these [words] of Pseudo-Dorotheus concerning the Egyptians in the same chapter: "Wherefore, to this very day they worship the Virgin-Mother as a goddess, and they adore the infant in the manger: as also many other similar places." Nor indeed does it seem that one ought to doubt much that Pseudo-Dorotheus himself transcribed the aforementioned passages word for word from the authors. You have heard him in the *Life of Isaiah* (in Latin for the sake of brevity): "Whenever, therefore, they came together with Isaiah (to Siloam, the Jews) so that they might draw water, it would go out; whence, to this very day, it suddenly bursts forth even now as a proof of a great miracle. But after this was performed through Isaiah, the Jewish people magnificently and zealously buried him beside Siloam, so that from his prayers a like abundance of water would be supplied to them, since, furthermore, it had been enjoined upon them by an oracle to act in such a way. His tomb lies beside the burial mounds of the kings. For Solomon indeed constructed the sepulchers of David in such a way that they would face the East of Sion, which has an approach from Gabaon far from the city, by twenty stadia; which approach he made so oblique and hidden that it would be perceived by no one, so that its entrance is even today unknown to most priests and the whole people." "Until this day, [a thing] unknown to many of the priests and to the whole people." Which words seem to refer to a writer who lived before the uprooting of the Jews and their fatherland. But these words, "until this day," which occur twice in this place as well, are held in the *Chronicon Paschale*, *Pseudo-Epiphanius*, and the *Logothete*; namely, those who similarly transcribe this place from Pseudo-Dorotheus, but with the name omitted. Six hundred other examples of this kind among Suidas, Cedrenus, and other writers of minor nations and of a later age will suggest themselves here and there to those who study our books more diligently with industry and profit; so that there is no doubt that the same must be said of our author.

[[LXXII] XXXIX. Furthermore, lest it seem to anyone an argument for the antiquity of our author that the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus deigned to hold his *Chronography* in such high regard that he replaced excerpts from it among his *Eclogues*; let it finally be added to all these things, that it is established that the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus was accustomed to transcribe in his *Eclogues* not only from authors of proven antiquity, but even from those who immediately preceded his own times. Thus he drew excerpts from that other John of Antioch, the monk and chronographist, who does not seem to me, at my own judgment at least, to have written before the ninth century, tending either toward the middle or the end. Thus also, in his *Excerpts* concerning legations of the Romans to foreigners, which are not yet published, some things of the same subject matter are held from the *History* of George the Monk Hamartolus, who adorned his *History* after the middle of the ninth century.]

XL. And now I have finished the work, learned Reader, concerning the age of our chronographist; such a thing, to be sure, I would not dare to pronounce, nor would I wish to determine anything confidently before the judgments of more learned men have supported me. I have finished a long and tiresome [labour], I confess, which perhaps you might have desired to be much more concise; but for a threefold reason I deemed it prudent to institute a disquisition on his age so broadly and extensively. First, because the things that we established, since they clash with the received opinion of his own interpreter and of other learned men, seemed to need to be confirmed with the greatest strength of arguments possible: lest perhaps we might seem to some to have attacked great and robust men with a reed sword, and to have received their blows with an entirely papyrus shield. Nor, furthermore, was the author himself lacking that which seemed to demand and merit our greatest diligence; since there is no historical writer, of whatever station, whose age it is not of great importance to compare, for the sake of the things reported and the authors cited. And what wise man (I pray) accuses of imprudence one who is about to build a tower, because he is solicitous about the first stone of the foundation, however common it may be in its nature, where it must be laid? Added to this is that those things which have been brought forward by us, beyond the fact that they contribute to investigating his age, are such as might have seemed under another name to deserve a place in an introductory Dissertation of this kind, inasmuch as they serve to demonstrate his authority, how slight it may be, and what kind of writer he is, and they contain not a few observations which pertain to him sufficiently in other ways. Thus, if we succeed less in what we argue concerning his age, still it is to turn out for us no less fortunately than it usually does for chemists, who are accustomed to obtain no less profit from the means themselves than from that very thing toward which they seem to have aimed primarily; and although that towards which they primarily directed their studies may completely escape them, nevertheless they reveal many things along the very path which are a just reward for their labor and effort.

XLI. Now it remains, most candid Reader, that, having bid farewell to John Malalas, we turn ourselves to another author, who is prefixed to him in this edition, by the arrangement of the most learned Chilmead; and afterward, let us make you aware of a few things concerning this edition and the most worthy interpreter himself. As for those chronological matters which are prefixed to this edition under the title of *An Anonymous Author of Chronological Excerpts*, they are nothing other than the beginning of the *Chronicle* of George the Monk, called Hamartolus or the Sinner. This becomes fully established to us: for the beginning of these is the same as the beginning of the *Chronography* of George Hamartolus, which from a manuscript codex [A by L. Allatio in Diatriba de Georgiis exhibetur.]

^A that Leo Allatius describes in his *Diatriba de Georgiis*. Leo Allatius himself also provided Excerpts in his book *De Ecclesiarum consensione*; Jo. Meursius in his *Glossarium Græco-barbarum*; and Dufresne, the "admirable," in his *Glossarium mediæ et infimæ Græcitatis*; and (unless my memory fails me) [LXXV] in the notes to the *Annals* of John Zonaras. If anyone desires further information on this subject, let him see the aforementioned work of Allatius *De Georgiis*, and our own *Diatriba* on various Greek authors, where it is discussed fully and copiously, and where Allatius’s views are corrected in many matters. On this point, I shall add only this: that he lived in the same century as Malalas, that is, the ninth of the Incarnation of Christ, and carried his *Chronicle* not only to the beginning of [the reign of] Michael, the son of Theophilus—which some scholars assert—but even up to his death, that is, up to the year 866.

*Chronicon short, collected from different chroniclers and expositors, and composed by George the Monk and Sinner. Book of the generation of men, on the day that God created Adam according to his image and likeness. And Adam begat three sons, etc.*

The *Breve Chron.*, excerpted from various annalists and expositors, and arranged by George the Monk and Sinner. The *Book of the generation of men* begins from the day on which God created Adam according to his image and likeness. Adam had three sons, etc. This is evident not only from the beginning but also from the Preface which is prefixed at the start of the manuscript codex from which 74 [LXXIV] Chilmead made his transcript; which Preface is entirely the same as that which Allatius places there from George Hamartolus. The entire work exists in various European libraries, and Allatius writes that he had prepared it for publication and had translated it from the Greek language into Latin. If anyone desires to read other parts of it, various excerpts have already been published from it. By Jac. Gretser, in the book *De cruce*, a fragment is published from it in Greek and Latin regarding the invention of the Cross. By Dion. Petavius, in the *Appendix to the Historical Breviary of Nicephorus of Constantinople*, a fairly long fragment is published from the same, in Greek, concerning the reign of Heraclius, under the false name of George Syncellus. From the same, Matthæus Raderus published in Latin the *Syntagma* (as he calls it) *De statu morientium*, which contains the sayings and fragments of many ancient Fathers. By the same Raderus, in another little work, namely, *Adnotationes ad Viridarium sanctorum ex Menæis Græcorum*, a fairly long fragment is extracted in Latin concerning the miracle performed in the city of Carthage under the reign of Heraclius. Another, but brief, fragment is produced from the same, by Peter Lambeck in book 11 of his *Commentaries on the Bibliotheca Vindobonensis*, concerning the Emperor Theodosius. From the same

^B [XLII] As concerns this edition of John Malalas and its translator, almost an entire age has passed, namely, more than 37 years, since this work was prepared for the press. Concerning the work then awaiting the press, and the praises of the interpreter and annotator Chilmead, Edward Bysshe has these remarks in our notes to Nic. Upton's *De militari officio*, printed in the year 1654, in which he transcribed from Malalas the account concerning the death of the Emperor Julian: "Which book," he says, "is in my possession, and has been awaiting the printer for an entire year: the most learned Edmund Chilmead translated it, whose untimely death is the more lamentable for the reason that it has deprived us of the most welcome labors of so great a talent." Edmund Chilmead once shone, while he lived, among the most illustrious academics of the day in terms of literary repute; besides his skill in antiquarian and critical studies, which this work made most evident, he was a notable mathematician, a most accomplished musician, a clever orator, and most expert in many languages—not only the learned ones, as they are called, but also French and Italian. He was born [LXXVI] in the county of Gloucester, in the village of Stow-on-the-Wold, and in that Academy he...

[NOTES] (74) Although he did not inform the reader where it might be found, I find among the Greek manuscript volumes (the Barocci collection of the Oxford Public Library, no. 194) a paper [codex], and among various leaves of differing subject matter, fol. 61', without any author's name or title of the work, it begins thus: *Πολλοὶ τῶν ἔξω φιλόσοφοι καὶ φιλόλογοι*, etc., just as Allatius has it. It contains many other things besides those which Chilmead transcribed. In the beginning are contained those things which Chilmead placed at the beginning up to page 6, the words *ὡς φησιν Ἰώσηπος*. Then follow those things which, having been transposed by Chilmead, are read on page 18, concerning Nimrod, etc., from these words: *Μετὰ ταῦτα γέγονέ τις γίγας* etc. (for which it pleased Chilmead to write these things of his own accord, on account of the transposition of the passage; *Ἐν δὲ τοῖς προειρημένοις χρόνοις γέγονε* up to page 21, the words *Νίνου μεγάλης βασιλεύσας*). After these, the author continues with the ancient, fabulous times of the Assyrians, Egyptians, and Greeks, along with the origin of the city of Rome, and the deeds of Alexander the Great; all of the same character—nothing that is not fabulous. Then he recurs again to Adam, and having set down some things about Moses, because he was older than all the wise men of the Greeks, he proceeds to those things which are contained in the published editions, from the words: *Σὴθ δὲ γενόμενος ἐτῶν σε'*, page 6, up to the end of page 17, the words: *Τὰ πάντα ἔτη σε'*, which conclude our exemplar, which comprises only 5 folios, the scribe having apparently opted to skip transcribing the rest.

(75) From which he gave some books translated into the vernacular. In particular, he translated from the Italian—which is not listed in the published list of his works—the *History of the Rites, Customs, and Manner of Life of the Jews throughout the world*, written by Leone Modena, a Venetian Rabbi; ed. London, 1650, in-8. He is also reported to have written *De sonis* and *De musica veterum*: which work I have no doubt whatever was the same; and it exists indeed, under the title *De musica antiqua Græca*, at the end of [the edition of] Aratus, printed at Oxford in the year 1672, along with his *Adnotations on the Odes of Dionysius*. Our supreme and famous friend, Hen. Dodwell, transmitted those from Ireland, where they had lain among the papers of the most reverend Ussher; he also sent along with them the Latin interpretation of Dionysius from the same hand of Chilmead: however, the editors omitted this, who preferred the Greek alone. His honorable mention [is found] in the Preface to [the work of] D. Hen. Holcroft.

^A Woldam, I say, who placed his early training in this our Academy, in Magdalen College; after [his time there] he became chaplain of Christ Church, having attached to him his companion and fellow-scholar John Gregory, a man likewise most instructed in every kind of learning. Then, in the year 1648, on account of his loyalty toward the royal majesty, he was ejected by the Parliamentary visitation, reduced to such straits that it was necessary for him—alas! how unhappily, a nursling of the Muses!—to procure a meager living for himself from the alms, namely, of a weekly concert which, having recruited for himself certain fellow-musicians, he had instituted in London. Not wanting to him, however, was the munificence of the most distinguished man Edward Bysshe, later decorated with the honor of knighthood, whom we praised a moment ago; a munificence which others also, afflicted by the calamity of the times, experienced, as well as the aforementioned John Gregory. He rendered his soul to God on February 19, 1658, aged about 44. These things regarding him are handed down by our friend, a man most expert in English antiquities, and especially those pertaining to writers, and one who has deserved exceptionally well of his mother academy, Anthony à Wood, in the *History and Antiquities of our Academy*.

There is no need that anything be added concerning our chronograph so as to commend it to the reader and the literate world: it will have sufficed to say just this, that a work is now coming forth in public, which has been greatly sought and desired by learned men for many years; a work containing very many things which, if it had not been brought out from its hiding places into the light of day, would have completely escaped the knowledge of even the greatest men, and remained utterly in darkness. And who, I ask, among men of letters, would hold in contempt an ancient stone—which reveals many unknown things—merely because it is rough and jagged, or because it has characters carved by a less skilled craftsman? Who rather would not rejoice that such a thing is now being unearthed from the earth? And who would not gratefully acknowledge himself beholden to the one digging it up?

^B The reader ought to be reminded that, before Chilmead had undertaken to adorn this work, the aforementioned John Gregory (he died in the year 1646) had prepared for the press certain Excerpta collected from it, with the addition of some Animadversions which he had worked out for it. To him alone is the credit given that, although our copy of Malalas’s *Chronographia* was mutilated at both the beginning and the end, this work nonetheless appears to us as being Malalas’s. This was successfully discovered by him from the collation of a fragment regarding the Woman with the Issue of Blood, which is produced from the Malalian Chronicle in the 3rd Oration on Images attributed to St. John Damascene. The same is confirmed from those fables [(77)] which Tzetzes the Chiliast brings forth under the name of Jo. Malalas in *Chiliad* 5, history 29 and 30.

All of which things are indeed committed to memory in this our *Chronographia*. Gregory deals with these matters in the short preface which he prefixed to his Animadversions. He has nothing else about the author. Now, it seems that Chilmead had intended for this little work of his Animadversions to be prefixed to his edition in place of Prolegomena; for in a certain place of his annotations, he refers the reader to John Gregory’s Prolegomena concerning the author. And indeed, this was the intent of our typographers and the curators of this present edition at the beginning; but finally, when a large part of the work had been finished by the press, it pleased them to honor me—though I am far from deserving it—with such deference, that they asked me to take upon myself, these things notwithstanding, the province [(LXXVI)] and to fashion *new* Prolegomena of my own for the work now coming forth. Yielding, my reader, to their exhortations, I have boldly embarked upon this, whether prudently, others will judge: however it may be, if deserve I any praise for having devoted effort to an arduous and entirely unattempted task, I do not entirely despair of earning pardon at least from the learned. Indeed, I have steered my ship into a certain new world, and as it were another America (would that it were also as rich!): if I should run against rocks or shoals, a navigator not yet familiar with the waves, I would wish that those more experienced correct me as I wander, and lead me back to the path, I who am always wishing to learn, always ready to listen.

^C [(LXXVII)] XLIII. It had almost slipped my memory that we hinted at the beginning of this Dissertation that not only the aforementioned Edm. Chilmead, but also John Gregory, whom we have just celebrated, had applied diligence and study to our chronograph; and that elsewhere I had mentioned his Animadversions concerning the same. Finally, regarding this matter: If this seems true, yield your hands: or if it is false, arm yourself against it.

^D NOTES. [The Latin notes are provided by the printed text; index: entries preserved.]

Chronographia. Anonymous Chronological Works

1 “Book of the generation of men, on the day in which God created Adam after His image and likeness.” Thus, then, the first man was created by God, whose name was Adam, and his wife [was] Eve; “Male and female created He them.” And Adam begat 2 from his wife three sons, Cain, Abel, and Seth, and two daughters, Azoura and Asuam. And Adam, according to the command of God, gave names to all cattle and to the birds and to the amphibians and to the reptiles and to the fishes and to his own children; but he and his wife received their own names from an angel of the Lord. And Cain took as wife his first sister, Azoura, and Seth [took] as wife the second, Asuam. And Abel was a virgin and righteous and a shepherd of sheep, from which, having offered sacrifices to God and having been accepted, he is killed, being envied by his brother Cain.

Cain, happening to be a farmer, and after the condemnation having lived more wickedly, was the first to devise measures, weights, and landmarks of the land; then, having built a city in the land of Naid opposite Eden, he named it after the name of his son, Enoch, and by forcing his kin to gather into one [place], he occupied himself with wars. And after these things, the house ^B falling upon him...

^A killed him, as some say, while others say that Lamech killed him. But Cain begat Enoch, and Enoch begat Gaidad, and Gaidad begat Maleleel, and ^B Maleleel begat Mathusala, and Mathusala begat Lamech, who, having taken two wives, Elda and Sela, begat Jobel, Jubal, and Thobel. Now Jobel was a herdsman; Jubal discovered the psaltery and the cithara; and Thobel was occupied with the hammering of copper and iron. And so the one, choosing to live in tents, devoted himself to cattle-breeding and agriculture; the other devised cithara-playing and tragedy for demonic practices; and the third contrived to provide swords and weapons for wars. Thus the race of Cain up to this point, being worthy of mention, is excluded from the number of the patriarchs, ^C so that he is neither reckoned with the first fathers, nor recounted among those that follow. The saying therefore, "Everyone that slayeth Cain shall suffer vengeance sevenfold," has this solution: "Each one shall die for his own sin, but you, having been the first to commit murder and having become the guide for others in this sin, shall suffer vengeance sevenfold," that is, you shall be punished seven times over and in many ways. For it is customary for Scripture to use this number for a multiple, and it is a sign of an indefinite multitude, as in that passage: "Render to our neighbors sevenfold," and, "The barren has borne seven," and, "I say not to you until seven times, but until seventy times seven." For in the crimes ^D committed by Cain, the first sin was envy; second, guile; third, murder; fourth, because it was against a brother; fifth, because it was the first murder; sixth, because he brought grief to his parents; seventh, because he lied to God. These are the seven sins of Cain. But the punishments which were inflicted upon him by divine justice are these: first, "Cursed is the ground because of you"; second, "You shall till the ground"; third, "It shall not give you its strength"; fourth, "You shall be groaning and trembling"; fifth, along with the former, "You shall be upon the earth"; sixth, which Cain himself judged with these words: "If you cast me out from you, I shall be hidden from your face"; seventh, that this punishment was not hidden, but manifested to all by a notable sign; for it was said: "And the Lord God set a sign for Cain, lest anyone who found him should slay him."

Adam, being two hundred and thirty years old, begat Seth. This Seth was the first to discover ^D Hebrew letters and wisdom, as well as the signs of heaven, the revolutions of the years, the months, and the weeks; and he gave names to the stars and the five planets, only so that they might be recognized by men: the first planet he named Saturn, the second, Jupiter, the third...

^A Mars, the fourth, Venus, the fifth, Mercury; for the two luminaries, namely the sun and the moon, God bestowed the names.

Seth, having lived two hundred and five years, begat Enos, who ^B hoped to call upon the name of the Lord. His descendants, and Seth himself, instructed from above, wrote of the things to come regarding the deluge upon tablets of stone and of baked clay, indicating that the whole world was destined to be consumed and destroyed either by fire or by water; and if by fire, the letters would be preserved on the tablets of baked clay, but if by water, upon the stone tablets. After the deluge had come and destroyed everyone, Noah alone, with his sons and his daughters, was saved for the renewal of the world. After the deluge, however, Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, wrote down the science of ^C astronomy, having found the inscription of names of the stars—as it has been said—upon the stone tablet of Seth and his children. This pillar was found after the deluge on the mountain of Siris, and remains to this day, as Josephus testifies.

Adam, then, having been born for two hundred and thirty years, according to the wisest and divine prophet Moses, begat Seth, and died on the (anniversary of the) day of the transgression. For since the day of God has the duration of a thousand years, Adam, having lived only nine hundred and thirty years, finished his day; and it is said that he was buried in the land of Jerusalem, as Josephus testifies.

Seth, having reached the age of two hundred and five, begat Enos, and after this he lived eight hundred and seven years, and he died, having lived in total nine hundred and twelve years. Concerning him it is said: ^D "The sons of God went in unto the daughters of men," namely, unto the women descended from Cain. For the men of that time called him God on account of his having invented the Hebrew letters and the names of the stars, and in addition to these, they admired his great piety, so that he was the first to be called and named God, just as the Lord says to Moses: "I have made you a god to Pharaoh."

And concerning the virtuous and spiritual men and the judges of the people, he said: "You shall not revile God, nor curse the ^A rulers of your people." ^B Rightly, therefore, may the sons of Seth, Enos, and Enoch be understood, according to Symmachus, as "sons of God" and "sons of the gods," who, burning with love for the daughters of Cain, approached them; and from these profane unions giants were born—strong and very large, because of the righteous Seth, but wicked and most evil, because of the unjust and profane Cain.

Enos, having reached the age of 140, begat Cainan, and after this lived 740 years, and died, having lived in all 880 years.

Maieleel, having reached the age of 165, begat Jared, and after this he lived 830 years, and died, having lived in all 995 years.

Jared, having reached the age of 162, begat Enoch (who is said to have been translated: and after this he lived 800 years, and died, having lived in all 962 years).

Enoch, having reached the age of 165, begat Methuselah, and after this he lived 802 years, and died, having lived in all 967 years.

Lamech, having reached the age of 188, begat Noah, and after this he lived 565 years, and died, having lived in all 753 years. ^C But Scripture makes mention of two Lamechs: one, who was descended from Cain; the other, who was the father of Noah. For Noah was born not from the Lamech who traced his origin to Cain (who also killed a man and a youth), but from a later one who bore the same name and was of the progeny of Seth. For that former one says: "I have slain a man for my injury, and a youth for my bruise." And because he had committed two murders and had taken for himself both wives of the slain men, Adah and Zillah, he declares himself worthy of seventy-sevenfold punishment. For, he says, "Sevenfold vengeance shall be taken on Cain: but on Lamech seventy-sevenfold." And for this reason Lamech was considered worthy of greater, punishments (which he also suffered), because he had removed from the midst the righteous brethren of Enoch; ^D who, on account of his faith, therefore prayed to God that he might not himself perish by such a death: and, his prayer having been heard, he was translated. Now Enoch was of the righteous Seth, from whom Christ is descended, being genealogized according to the divine and pious

^A Luke, and indeed traced back as far as Seth and Adam and God.

Noe, when he had reached the age of five hundred years, begat three sons, Sem, Cham, and Japheth. And after one hundred years from the birth of his sons, he entered the ark, being six hundred years old, and thus the flood occurred. And in the six hundred and first year of his life he went out from the ark, and after the flood he lived three hundred and fifty years, and he died having lived in all nine hundred and fifty years. ^B Since, however, the flood had ceased, all fear did indeed depart, but he was seized by a very great depression of spirit, and he experienced that prophetic state which is spoken of concerning the day of the Lord by Amos: "As if a man should flee from the face of a lion, and a bear should meet him, and he should enter into his house, and lean his hands upon the wall, and a serpent should bite him"—so it happened to him at that time. For even having looked forth from the ark, and having been delivered ^C from that fetid and claustrophobic prison, another storm, not at all milder than the former, overtook him, for he contemplated the distress and the very destruction of his race.

Sem, two years after the flood, being one hundred and two years old, begat Arphaxad, and after this he lived five hundred years, and he died having lived in all six hundred and two years.

Arphaxad, being one hundred and thirty-two years old, begat Cainan, and after this he lived four hundred years, and he died having lived in all five hundred and thirty-eight years. ^D

Cainan, being one hundred and nine years old, begat Sala, and after this he lived three hundred and thirty years, and he died having lived in all four hundred and sixty-seven years. But Sala, having grown older, was instructed by his father in letters; and once, when Sala had gone out to search for a settlement, having come into the land of the Chaldeans, he encountered letters inscribed upon certain stones; and they were, in fact, the work of the Watchers

^A; and Sala, having written these down, both sinned in them himself and instructed others in the same absurdities. Sala, at 130 years of age, begat Heber, and after this he lived 403 years, and he died, having lived in all 533 years.

Heber, at 134 years of age, begat Jectan and Phalec. In the time of Heber, men conceived the plan of constructing a tower reaching to heaven in order to avoid the flood, as if God were plotting against them; for they were all of one language. But the giant Nebrod, the son of Chus the Ethiopian, was the originator of this enterprise for others, providing them also with animals taken in hunting for their food. But Heber, the son of Sala, was charged to urge on the construction of the tower and of Babylon, which signifies confusion. While the whole multitude was pressing on towards the construction of the tower and the city, there were 72 prefects; but Heber alone did not consent to their foolish attempt; wherefore, while the languages of all the others were confounded ^B and divided into 72 tongues according to the number of their rulers, God did not deprive Heber alone of the ancient language. Whence those who remained in the earlier language named it Hebrew, according to the name of him who held fast to it, Heber, for the race of the Hebrews, who are called Hebrews patronymically and eponymously. Therefore, the descendants of Adam used the Hebrew language, and it is manifest that Abraham and Noah’s sons, and even the second Adam—I mean Christ—used the same Hebrew language that the first Adam of all used, as is shown by such words as "Ephata," and "Talitha Cumi," and "Lama sabachthani," and the like. Moreover, an ^C argument can also be taken from the names of the ancients that this is the language which men used before the confusion. For whenever a question has arisen concerning any of these, it can find its solution from this language alone; just as the names of Adam and the others cannot be explained from any other language but the Hebrew. That this language is also called Syriac, the most learned Origen testifies in his Commentaries on the Syriac Bible, interpreting from the Syriac book ^D and

^A asserting that the Hebrew dialect is Syriac. For the ancients called Syria Judea, and the Syrians they called Palestinians. The tower, then, was built in the time of Heber over a period of forty years, and it is ruined, its traces being preserved only between Assur and Babylon; and it was 1,322 units [of measurement].

Phalec, having become 130 years of age, begat Ragau, and after this lived 209 years, and died, having lived in all 339 years.

The years from Adam to the flood are 2,262, and from the flood to the confusion of the tower-building and the death of Phalec (14)—which signifies "division"—are 536 years.

And thus occurs the division, or rather the dispersion, of the sons of Noah and those born of them; wherefore ^B they were also called *Meropes* [articulate-speaking] from the divided language and from the division of the earth. Now Shem begat Elam and Assur and Arphaxad and Lud; and Ham begat Chus and Mesraim and Phud and Chanan; and Japheth begat Gomer and Magog and Thiras and Jovan and Jectan (15) and Thobel and [14] Mosoch and Madai, from whom the Medes originated, and having taken hold of the Babylonians, the region was called Media properly and eponymously, ^C according to their own names.

After, then, the confusion and the destruction of the tower, the three sons of Noah summon all those born from them, and give to them in writing the division of the places (16), which they had received from their father Noah; and they obtain by lot for each, and for the tribes and families of each, the territory, and the climates, and the lands, and the islands, and the rivers, according to the exposition set forth below. And they were allotted by lot: to the firstborn son of Noah, Shem, from Persia and Bactria as far as India and Rhinocorura (17) towards the east; to Ham, from Rhinocorura as far as Gades towards the south; to Japheth, from Media as far as Gades towards the north.

The lands which fell by lot to Shem are these: ^D Persia, Bactriana [15], Hyrcania, Babylonia, Cordena (18), Assyria, Mesopotamia, Arabia the old, Elymais, India, Arabia the Blessed, Coelesyria, Commagena,

^A and all Phoenicia, and the river Euphrates. To Ham fell Egypt, Ethiopia that faces ^B towards India, another Ethiopia from which the river of the Ethiopians flows out, Erythra facing the east, Thebais, Libya which extends as far as Cyrene (19), Marmaris, Syrtis, Libya another, Numidia, Massyris, Mauritania which is opposite to Gades. And in the regions to the north by the sea (20) he holds Cilicia, Pamphylia, Pisidia, Mysia, Lycaonia, Phrygia, Camalia (21), Lycia, Caria, Lydia, another Mysia, Troas, Aeolia, Bithynia (22), the ancient, Phrygia, and the islands likewise, ^C Sardinia (23), Crete, Cyprus, and the river Geon, which is also called the Nile.

To Japheth fell Media, Albania, Armenia little and great, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia (24), Galatia, Colchis, Bosporus, Maeotis (25), Derbe, Sarmatia, Taurianis, Bastarnis, Scythia, Thracia, Macedonia, Dalmatia, Molossia, Thessalia, Locris, Boeotia, Aetolia, Attica, Achaia, Pellene (26), which is called the Peloponnese, Arcadia, Epirus (26), Illyris, Lychnitis (27), Adriana, from which the Adriatic Sea [takes its name]; and he held islands: Britain, Sicily, Euboea, ^D Rhodes, Chios, Lesbos, Cythera, Zacynthus, Cephalenia, Ithaca, Corcyra (28), and a certain part of Asia, that which is called Ionia, and the river Tigris, which separates Media from Babylonia.

Having thus made this partition, the son of Ham Cha-

-^A naan, seeing that the land bordering on Lebanon was good and fertile, and much better than his own, seized it by tyranny and drove out the offspring of Shem, and so the entire land of promise has been called Chanaan. Therefore, the just Judge afterwards surrendered it to the Israelites, who were descended from Shem, through Jesus son of Nave, just as He had promised to Abraham.

Ragau, being one hundred and thirty-one years old, begat Seruch, and lived after this two hundred and seven years, and died, having lived in all three hundred and thirty-nine years.

Seruch, being one hundred and thirty years old, begat Nachor, and lived after this two hundred years, and died, having lived in all three hundred and thirty years.

Nachor, the son of Seruch, being seventy-nine years old, begat Thara, and lived after this one hundred and twenty-nine years, and died, having lived in all two hundred and eight years.

Thara, being seventy years old, begat Abraham, and Nachor, and Aran, the father of Lot, who also died before his father Thara; and after this Thara lived one hundred and thirty-five years, and died, having lived in all two hundred and five years.

In the aforementioned times, there was a certain giant, by name Nebrod, son of Chus the Ethiopian, of the tribe of Ham, who built the city of Babylon and, having first introduced hunting and magic, was the first to rule over the Persians, teaching them astronomy and astrology, as if indicating all things concerning those born by the motion of the heavens; from whom the Greeks, having learned genethlialogy, began to judge those born under the motion of the stars. Therefore, astronomy and astrology and magic began from the Magusaeans, ^B that is to say, the Persians; for the Persians are called Magog by the inhabitants, who also say that Nebrod was deified and became what they call Orion among the stars of heaven, concerning whom Moses says: "The beginning of his kingdom was Babylon, and Chalane in the land of Sennaar; from whence went out Assur, a son of Shem, from whom are the Assyrians."

And having taken Syria and Persia and the remaining parts of the East, he appeared, and another of giant stature arose, the son of a certain Coelus and Venus, his wife, Saturn, by the name of a planet

and he too, having become very powerful and having subjected many, and having ruled over them, first demonstrated the art of reigning and holding power over other men. He, having been the first to rule Syria for 56 years, subjected all of Persia, beginning from Syria. Having as his wife Semiramis, also called Rhea by the Assyrians, he had two sons and one daughter; and he named the one Jupiter after the name of the planet, and the other he named Ninus, and the daughter Juno, whom Picus, who is also called Jupiter, took as his wife, being his own sister.

^B After Saturn, his son Ninus reigned for 52 years, who, having taken his own mother Semiramis as his wife, a law came to be among the Persians to take their own mothers and sisters, because Jupiter—who is also called Picus—had taken his own sister Juno. Now Ninus, having become ruler of Syria, and having built a city very great, a journey of three days, he called it by his own name Nineveh, and was the first to reign in it. From his lineage came also Zoroaster, the renowned astronomer of the Persians; who, being about to die, prayed to be consumed by celestial fire, saying to the Persians: "If the fire consumes me, take the remains of my burnt bones and preserve them; and the kingdom will not be taken ^C from your country as long as my bones are guarded." And having prayed to Orion, he was consumed by celestial fire, and the Persians, having taken [the remains] from his burnt bones, keep them preserved to this day.

After Ninus, a certain Thuras ruled over the Assyrians for 30 years, whom they also named Ares, after the name of the planet. To this Ares the Assyrians first erected a statue and, worshipping him as a god even until now, call him in the Persian tongue Baal, which is to say, the warlike Mars. Daniel also makes mention of him as being worshipped and served by the Persians.

After Ares, Lames reigned for 20 years; after Lames, Sardanapalus the Great reigned for 35 years, and he was slain by Perseus. ^D But his sycophants and imitators of his fleshly indulgence, gluttony, and lechery, inscribed upon his tomb, as if uttered by him, the following: What I have enjoyed I have dissipated, what I have eaten and drunken, and the delights of love which I have pursued; but all those many and blissful things are left behind.

^A For now I am but ashes, I who once ruled over great Nineveh.

The brother of Ninus, Picus, who is also called Zeus, remained, holding the kingdom of Italy. At that time there was neither city nor any administration in the West, but simply the whole of that land lay occupied by those who had migrated there from the tribe of Japheth, the son of Noah.

Picus, who is also called Zeus, lived for one hundred and twenty years, governing the West and ruling over it; and he had many sons and daughters from noble women. This Picus, who is also called Zeus, had a son named Faunus, whom he also called Hermes, after the name of the planet.

^B After the death of this same Picus, who is also called Zeus, his son Faunus, who is also called Hermes, ruled Italy for thirty-five years; he was a very clever man, skilled in mathematics, and he was the first in the West to discover the metal of gold and the method of smelting it. ^C Learning that his brothers, born to Picus who is also called Zeus—the father of them all—by the women he had taken, were envious of him—for they, being many, about seventy in number, wished to kill him, since Zeus had begotten many children by his sexual relations with many women—he gathered together a vast amount of gold, left Italy, and went away to Egypt to the tribe of Ham, the son of Noah, who received him with honor. While he dwelt there, he looked down upon everyone, and wearing a golden robe, he practiced philosophy among the Egyptians, telling them prophecies of things to come; for he was by nature extremely intelligent. They worshipped him, calling him the god Hermes, because he spoke of future events and provided them with answers from God regarding the future, acting as a messenger; and he also provided them with wealth, for which reason they called him the giver of wealth, naming him the golden god.

When this Hermes came to Egypt, Mesraim, of the race of Ham, was then reigning over the Egyptians; and when he died, the Egyptians made Hermes their king, and he ruled over the Egyptians for thirty-nine years in great arrogance. ^D After him, Hephaestus ruled over the Egyptians for one thousand six hundred and eighty days, which amounts to four years, seven months, and three days; for at that time the Egyptians did not know how to measure years, but called the cycle of a day a year. They called this same Hephaestus a god;

cosus indeed, and ingenious: who, having set out for war, fell down together with his horse and was left lame thereafter. ^A

This Vulcan, by a law enacted, ordained that Egyptian women should live chastely, being content with a single husband; and that those caught in adultery should pay the penalty. The Egyptians were grateful to him for this, because they had received this first law of chastity. ^B

The same Vulcan, by some mystical prayer, obtained from the air a pair of tongs, in order to manufacture weapons from iron; whence he was also found to be the master of iron for use in war. Therefore, he was enrolled among the number of the gods on account of the law of chastity he had established, and because he had shown mortals the method of earning a living through the manufacturing of arms, and at the same time had opened the way to attain power and victory in wars. Before his time, they fought with clubs and stones. ^C

JOHN MALALAS CHRONOGRAPHIA. BOOK TWO.

23 After the death of Vulcan, his son Sol reigned over Egypt for a period of 4407 days: from which emerge twelve years, with 97 days. Those ^D

Egyptian people at that time, and various others, had no other method of computation than this; but some counted the revolutions of the moon as years, and others counted the revolutions of the days as years. For the numbering of the twelve months was devised after this, from the time when men were first named ^A subjects to kings. The same Sol, the son of Vulcan, was ambitious and powerful; he was informed by someone that a certain Egyptian woman, who was among those of wealth and standing, was having an adulterous affair with a certain lover. And having heard this, Sol sought to catch her, so that the law laid down by his father Vulcan might not be violated; and taking soldiers from his own army, and learning the time at which her adulterous meetings took place at night, he attacked her; and when her husband was not there, he found her sleeping with another man, her lover. He immediately brought her down ^B and led her in procession through the whole land of Egypt, punishing her; and a great change towards temperance occurred in the land of Egypt. He also slew the adulterer, and was thanked. Regarding this matter, the poet Homer writes poetically, saying that Sol detected Venus sleeping with Mars at night; by Venus, he signifies the lust for sexual intercourse, which was reprimanded by King Sol, while the true reality of the matter, as written before, the most wise chronographer Palaephatus recorded in his writings.

After the death of King Sol, son of Vulcan, Sosis ^C reigned over the Egyptians, and after his reign Osiris reigned, and after Osiris, Horus reigned, and after Horus, Thulis reigned, who took with him a great army and conquered every land as far as the Ocean. And as he was returning through the region of Africa, he went to the oracle in his arrogance; and having performed sacrifices, he inquired, saying: "Tell me, fire-born, truthful, blessed one, who turns the ethereal course, who, before my reign, has been able to subject all things to himself, or who will be able to after me?" And this oracle was given to him: ^D "First God, then the Word and the Spirit with them; all these are co-eternal and merge into one, whose power is eternal. Depart quickly, mortal, whom uncertain fates await." He immediately

^A departed from the oracle and, having been conspired against by his own people, was slain in Africa. These most ancient and primitive historical accounts of the kings of the Egyptians were written down by Manetho; in whose writings it is also recorded that the names of the five planets were once called differently. For the one called Saturn they used to call the "Shining One" (Lampon), Jupiter the "Phaethon," Mars the "Fiery One" (Pyroeis), Venus the "Most Beautiful" (Kallistos), and Mercury the "Glistening One" (Stilbon); which things the most learned Sotates later interpreted.

In the times following this, the first of the tribe of Ham to reign over the Egyptians was Sostris ^B; who, having armed himself, made war upon the Assyrians, and brought them, together with the Chaldeans and Persians, under his power as far as Babylon. Likewise, he also subdued all of Asia and Europe, ^C and Scythia and Mysia. And while he was returning from the Scythian lands to Egypt, he selected fifteen thousand young warriors; these he made settlers (metanastas) and commanded them to live in Persia, giving them a land there that they themselves had chosen. And those same Scythians remained in Persia from that time until the present day; they were called "Parthians" by the Persians, which in the Persian tongue means "Scythians," and they have retained the dress, the language, and the laws of the Scythians even to this day, and they are most valiant in war, just as the most learned Herodotus has recorded.

In the days of the reign of the aforementioned Sostris, there flourished ^C Hermes Trismegistus the Egyptian, a man of stupendous learning, who declared that three most great

^A persons exist, but a single Godhead. For this reason he was called by the Egyptians Hermes Trismegistus, that is, "thrice-greatest." It is found in various of his discourses to Asclepius, where, speaking regarding the nature of God, he says this: "If a providence of the Lord of all did not exist, so that I could reveal this Word to you, such a desire would not have seized you to enquire about this; for it is not possible to disclose such mysteries to the uninitiated, but you yourselves have heard. There is only one ^B intelligible Light before the intelligible Light; and there was always a bright Mind of the Mind, and it was nothing other than the unity of this, always existing in itself, and always comprehending all things by the same Mind, Light, and Spirit. Outside of this, there is no God, nor angel, nor daemon, nor any other essence; for He is the Lord and God of all, and all things are under Him and in Him. For His Word, having come forth from Him, being all-perfect and fruitful and a creator, falling into a fruitful nature, in a fruitful wave, made the water pregnant." And having said these things, he began to pray, saying: "I adjure thee, O heaven, wise work of the great God, be propitious. I adjure thee, Voice of the Father, which He uttered first, when He established the whole world by His counsel: Voice of the Father, which He uttered first, His only-begotten Word." These things are also contained in the writings against the Emperor ^C Julian gathered by the most holy Cyril, showing that Hermes Trismegistus, though ignorant of the future, nonetheless confessed the one essence of the Trinity.

Now King Sostris, having returned to Egypt after his victory, departed this life. After him, the kingdom of Egypt was obtained by Pharaoh, who is also called Maracho; from whom the subsequent kings of the Egyptians were descended. ^D

^A In the aforementioned times of Picus, who is Jupiter, ruling over the Western parts, there began to appear a certain man from the region of the Argives, Inachus by name, who was descended from the race of Japheth. He was the first to rule over the Argives, and he founded a city there in the name of the Moon—for he rendered worship to her—which he called Iopolis. For the Argives even until now keep the name of the Moon in their mysteries as a secret, calling her "Io." He also built a temple in the city to the Moon and erected to her a statue of bronze, with this inscription: *Io, Beata, Lucifera.* This Inachus took to wife a woman named Melia, from whom he had three children: Cassus, Belus, and a daughter, whom he named Io after the name of the Moon; for the girl was of most excellent beauty. ^B In the meantime Picus, who is Jupiter, who ruled over the Western parts, having heard about Inachus—that he had a daughter, a virgin of very beautiful form—sent agents and seized Io, the daughter of Inachus, and violated her; and having made her pregnant, she had a daughter by him, whom he named Libya. But Io, bearing the injury done to her with indignation, and disdaining to have further relations with Jupiter Picus, abandoned her daughter and, avoiding the sight of her father for shame, fled secretly from all and sailed to Egypt, and there established her abode. When she had stayed there for some time, she learned that Mercury, the son of Jupiter Picus, held royal power there. Fearing him, therefore, she fled from Egypt to Syria to Mount Silpius, where, in later times, the Macedonian Seleucus Nicator founded a city and named it, after the name of his own son, Antioch the Great. Now Io finished her life in Syria, where she had fled, just as the most wise Theophilus has written. Others, however, have set forth that Io died in Egypt. But Inachus, her father, sent her brothers and kinsmen to search for her, and also Triptolemus ^C with other Argives; these, searching for her everywhere, did not find her. But the Argive Iopolites, learning that Io had died in the land of Syria, came and stayed there for a while, knocking on every door and saying: "Salva sit Ius anima." And having received an oracle in a dream, they seemed to themselves to see a heifer, addressing them in a human voice thus: "Here I..."

am, the Io." And, having awakened, they remained wondering at the power of the vision. And reflecting that Io lay upon that same mountain, they built a temple to her and went away ^B to Mount Silpius, having founded a city for themselves, which they called Iopolis. Some were called "Ionites" by the same Syrians until the present day. Now, from that time when the Argives arrived and sought Io, the Syrian Antiochenes perform a memorial, knocking annually at that time upon the houses of the Greeks even until now. But the reason the Argives themselves remained there in Syria was because they were commanded, when departing from the Argive land by King Inachus, the father of Io, as follows: "Unless you bring back my daughter Io, do not return to the land of the Argives." Therefore, the same Ionites ^C built there a temple of Saturn on Mount Silpius.

Libya, the daughter of Io and of Picus, who is also Jupiter, was married to someone named Neptune, to whom she bore three sons named Agenor, Belus, and Enyalius. From these, Agenor and Belus set out into Syria to search for Io, to see if she were still alive, along with her brothers, if there were any; for they were related to them. But having found no one, they returned; and Belus went to Egypt, and there, having married Sida, he had two sons, Aegyptus and Danaus. But Agenor, having gone to Phoenicia, married Tyro; and he built a city, which he called Tyros, after the name of his wife. He reigned there, and he had sons by Tyro: Cadmus, Phoenix, Syrus, and Cilix, and a daughter, whom he called Europa. And Agenor reigned over those regions for sixty-three years. But the poets declared Europa to be the daughter of Phoenix, the son of King Agenor, not agreeing with the chroniclers. And Taurus, the king of Crete, invaded the city of Tyros; and having joined in naval battle, he captured the city toward evening: which having been despoiled, he led away many captives; among ^D

whom he also took Europa, the daughter of King Agenor. Now Agenor and his sons were engaged in fighting at the border ^A. This border Taurus, the king of Crete, suddenly attacked by sea; the memory of which evening event the Tyrians keep even to this day, calling it the "Ill-omened Eve." Taurus led Europa away into his own homeland, whom he also took as his wife, she being a maiden and beautiful; and he called those regions by her name, Europaeia. From whom he had a son, Minos, just as the most wise Euripides also wrote poetically, who says that Zeus, having transformed himself into a bull, carried off Europa. The same King Taurus also built a great city on the same island of Crete, which he called Gortyna ^B, in the name of his mother, who was of the lineage of Picus Zeus; and he called the fortune of the same city Callinice, in the name of the maiden who had been sacrificed by him. But King Agenor, having returned from the war to Tyros, and having learned of the sudden incursion and abduction committed by Taurus, immediately sent forth Cadmus to find Europa, supplied with much money and an army. When he was about to die, the same King Agenor ordered that all the land he had subjected be divided among his three sons. And Phoenix took Tyros and its surrounding territory, calling the land that came under his rule Phoenicia; likewise also Syrus, having called ^C the region that fell to his lot by his own name, Syria. In the same way also Cilix called the climate that fell to his lot Cilicia, after his own name. And in the times of the reign of Phoenix there was the philosopher Hercules, called the Tyrian, who discovered the purple dye.

APPENDIX

For when he was walking along the Tyrian shore, he saw a shepherd’s dog eating what is called a *conchyle*, which is a small kind of sea-shell, and the shepherd, thinking the dog was bleeding, took a tuft of wool from his sheep and wiped away what was flowing from the dog's mouth, and stained the wool. Hercules, having observed that it was not blood, but the power of some strange dye, was amazed; and having learned that the dye dripping onto the wool came from the conchyle, he took the wool from the shepherd and presented it to Phoenix, the king of the Tyrians, as a great gift. And he himself, being struck with wonder at the sight ^B of the strange color of the dye, and marvelling at its discovery, ordered wool to be dyed with this conchyle liquid, and a royal mantle to be made for him. He was the first to wear a purple mantle, and this royal garment, being an unusual sight, excited the admiration of all. Thereafter, King Phoenix issued an edict that no one of his subjects should presume to wear this garment, which is worthy of earth and sea, except himself and the successors of the king after him, so that the army and all the populace might recognize their king by this wonderful and strange garment. For before this time, men did not know how to dye the colors of garments, but they ^C made and wore garments from the wool of sheep, just as it was by nature. And the kings, too, wore garments of the same simple wool colors and were not easily recognized by the subject populace. Therefore, the kings of different places, that is, the local rulers and governors, having heard of this, devised for themselves—some, mantles, and others, golden brooches and cloaks—dying them purple or red with certain herbs, and they used to wear them so that they might be recognized by their own people, just as the very wise Palaephatus has written. After a long time, the Romans, having subdued the country of Phoenicia, prepared for themselves a royal garment from that true and anciently discovered purple, which they called in their own language a *toga*, which the Roman consuls are still accustomed to wear even now. But Numa, also called Pompilius, who reigned over the Romans after Romulus and Remus, when to him the Pelasgian—

ambassadors came, wearing chlamydes having red [k] tablia, just as those from the region of the Isaurians do, he was pleased by the attire, and was the first in Rome to devise that chlamydes should be worn: the royal ones purple, having gold tablia; but those of his senators and those in dignities and military service, chlamydes having as a sign of the royal attire purple tablia, signifying the dignity ^B of the Roman state and subjection, and he commanded that no one 39 should be permitted to enter the palace to him without the attire of the same chlamys. And those guarding the palace would not allow anyone to enter unless he wore a chlamys having the distinction of royal clothing, just as the most wise Tranquillus [l], the Roman historian, wrote these things.

The Syrian 68, the son of Agenor, was a wise man, who wrote in the Phoenician language the arithmetic philosophy; he posited that principles are bodiless, and that bodies and souls are changed into other-born living things. This man first set these things forth, as the most wise Clemius 7 wrote.

In these times was Phalec, the son of Eber, a God-fearing and wise man, who lived three hundred and thirty-nine years: concerning whom Moses 8 the prophet wrote. There are therefore from Adam until Phalec 3000 years according to the prophecy.

The aforementioned Picus, who is also Zeus, in the aforementioned ^C times had, besides Hermes and Hercules 10, another son, Perseus, from a beautiful woman named Danaë, the daughter of Acrisius who was descended from the region of the Argives; concerning whom the most wise Euripides 11 fabulates in the composition of the same drama that she had been cast into a little chest and thrown into the sea 40, as one corrupted by Zeus who had transformed himself into gold. But the most wise Buttius 69, the historical chronicler, set forth that this same Picus, who is also Zeus, while she was in a small room adjacent to the sea, persuaded her with much gold and was able 70—having snatched her ^D as...

he did, he abused her. From her he had a son named Perseus, the one mentioned before. They write of him as winged because the boy had the greatest bodily agility from childhood; whence his father Picus, who is also Zeus, taught him to perform and accomplish the sorcery of the abominable 71 cup (m), teaching him all the mystical and impious delusions concerning it, saying to him, "You will conquer all your enemies and your adversaries and every man against you, and all those who look at you will be blinded in that very face and remain as if dead and be slaughtered by you."

And so Perseus, being persuaded by his own father Picus, who is also Zeus, in the time after this, after the death of his father Picus, having reached full maturity, coveted the kingdom of the Assyrians, being jealous 41 of the children of Ninos 72, his uncle, the brother of his father. And having received an oracle, he went off into the land of Libya; and along the way, a certain virgin met him, a rustic girl, having savage hair and eyes. And stopping, he questioned her, saying, "What is your name?" She answered with confidence, "Medusa." And Perseus, having seized her hair, with a sickle-sword 75 he was carrying, cut off her head; which, having taken, Perseus immediately processed mystically, just as he had been taught by his own father ^B Picus the abominable 74 witchcraft, for help against all enemies and adversaries to subdue and destroy them. The head he named Gorgon [(n)] because of the swiftness of the aid and its effectiveness against his opponents [(o)].

Passing from there, he came to the land of Ethiopia, which was ruled by Cepheus; and having found there a temple of Poseidon, he entered it and saw in the sanctuary a maiden left behind 42, having been exposed at the command of her own father Cepheus, the virgin named Andromeda. And he drew her out of the sanctuary, and having violated her because she was beautiful, he took her as his wife. And having sailed away, he departed from that land; coming toward the land of the Assyrians, he arrived in the land of Lycaonia [(q)]; and those who knew [(r)] immediately resisted and fought against him; and having used the delusion of the sorcery—which he carried for his own aid—he used it to subdue and destroy ^C them. The head he called Gorgon because of the sharpness of the aid and because of the effective energy against his opponents.

^A And he found a village called Amandrus and made it a city; he set up for himself a pillar outside the gates which bore the image of the Gorgon, and having performed a sacrifice, he called the fortune of the city "Persis" after his own name; which pillar stands there to this day. He called this city Iconium, because he took there ^A the image of his first victory, along with the Gorgon. He also subdued the other lands, with no one resisting him. And arriving in Isauria and Cilicia, and while he was sustaining various attacks of his enemies, he received this oracle: "Where, dismounting from your horse, you shall fix the heel of your foot into the ground, thence you shall carry off victory." And so, dismounting from his horse at the village called Andrasus, he fixed the heel of his foot there into the ground; and relying on the head of the Gorgon, he won the victory. ^B From that village he built a city, which he named Tarsus from the oracle of his own foot, having sacrificed an innocent virgin named Parthenope for the purification of the city. Then, having given thanks, he rushed from there through the Argeian mountain against the Assyrians; and having conquered them and slain their king Sardanapalus, who was of his own lineage, he brought them under his power, and reigned over them for fifty-three years. And he called them Persians by his own name, having taken from the Assyrians their kingdom and their name. He also planted trees, which he called "Persian trees"; and these he disseminated in memory of himself not only there, but throughout the Egyptian parts as well. He also taught the Persians the rites of the abominable and godless mysteries of Medusa, and because of this instruction, he called their country Media.

^C Now the same Perseus, after having reigned over the Persian land for many years, having learned that Ionians who were from Argos had settled in the Syrian country, went into Syria to them at Mount Silpius, as to his own kinsmen. They, having received him with all honor, worshipped him, the Argive Iopolites knowing full well that he too was descended from the line of the Argives, and they rejoiced and sang his praises. And when winter came, and the river flowing nearby, which is now the Orontes, flowing past Iopolis, flooded beyond measure,

^A he asked the Ionians to pray. And as they were praying and performing the sacred rites, a ball of lightning fell from heaven, which caused the winter to cease and the river’s currents to be checked. And Perseus, marveling at what had happened, immediately lit a fire from that fire, and kept it guarded with him; he carried this fire to the Persian lands to his own kingdom. And he taught them to honor that fire, which he claimed to them he had seen brought down from heaven. This fire the Persians hold in honor to this day, as something divine. The same Perseus built for the Ionians ^B a temple, which he named the temple of Eternal Fire. Likewise, he also built a temple of Fire in Persia, and established holy men to serve it there, whom he called Magi. These things the wisest chronicler Pausanias has written down.

And after some time, Cepheus, King of the Ethiopians, the father of Andromeda, came against him and made war upon him. Now Cepheus, by reason of his old age, had no sight. And Perseus, having heard that he was warring against him, was exceedingly angry, and went out against him ^C carrying the head, and showed it to him. And Cepheus, not seeing, rode against him on horseback; but Perseus, not knowing that he could not see, thought that the head of the Gorgon which he was holding was no longer exercising its power, and turning it toward himself, he looked at it; and being blinded, he stood as one dead and was slain. And thereafter, the son of Perseus and Andromeda reigned over the Persians, having been proclaimed by his own grandfather, Cepheus, the King of the Ethiopians; who gave orders, and that abominable head of the Gorgon was burned with fire, and he returned to his own country. And thenceforth the race of Perseus continued to reign over the land of Babylon.

In the aforementioned earlier times, Cadmus, son of Agenor, left Phoenicia and occupied the land of Boeotia; for he had been sent by his father ^D to search for and bring back his sister, Europa. Now, the same...

Cadmus, having learned ^A that she was reigning in Crete, hastened toward Boeotia; where, having stayed for a long time, he taught the Phoenician letters to those who were previously ignorant of them, and they held him in highest honor and made him king of Boeotia, for he was also of handsome appearance. Cadmus therefore reigned over Boeotia for sixty-two years, where he took to himself a wife named Harmonia; by whom he fathered six daughters, whose names were Ino, Agave, Semele, Eurynome, Cleantho, and Eurydice, who were also called the "Præcellentes" or Cadmiades. He also founded a great city in Boeotia, which he named Cadmia after his own name; where he also placed the seat of the kingdom: he furthermore recalled from exile Tiresias, a Boeotian philosopher, a hunter of wild beasts, who was very wealthy in riches, in status, and in wisdom. ^B This man introduced to the Greeks the doctrine that all things happen by chance and that the world is governed by no providence of the Divine; and the priests conspired against him, and he was relegated to the temple of the Daphnean Apollo, on the grounds that he had an effeminate mind. For he inquired with more than enough curiosity how it happens that a woman conceives from the intercourse of a man: how also it could be that the nature of blood is distributed into bones, flesh, veins, and nerves, and finally into blood itself; and in what manner the fetus is formed alive in the womb, and comes forth into light. Just as the most wise Cephalion reported concerning him. For the most wise Sophocles spoke of him poetically in his drama, namely that Tiresias, having seen Minerva bathing, had been changed into a woman. But he also adds that this same Tiresias had solicitously searched for the wisdom of the Supreme Maker, which, however, he could not attain; whence Sophocles himself, in his writings, put forward these things as true: ^C There is one God, who fashioned the frame of the sky and the earth, the azure backs of the sea, and the unbridled south winds; but we miserable ones, wandering in our hearts, have devised for ourselves remedies for our calamities, statues of gods of stone, wood, or cast in gold, or of ivory, and while we offer sacrifices to these, and celebrate empty festivals, we think we are acting piously. For Sophocles himself seemed to hold the belief in a Monarchy. Cadmus, moreover, gave his daughter Agave in marriage to a certain Echion, a noble man; who from her had a son named Pentheus, a man sagacious and prudent ^D in all things. Semele, indeed, the other daughter, of remarkable

beauty ^A, was loved by a certain man named Polymedon, the son of Etherion, a senator, descended from the lineage of Picus Jove; and having persuaded her, he corrupted her, and from him she had a son. Now while she was pregnant with the child during the wintertime, there were great flashes of lightning and thunder; and the girl Semele was terrified, and she brought forth the infant prematurely at seven months, and being unable to endure the pains of childbirth, she herself expired. And Cadmus sent the infant to the region of Nysia, and there he was raised; for this reason did he write that Jove preserved the remainder of his time in his own bosom, since he had a share of life outside the maternal womb, being born before the time of his birth, as Palaephatus the most wise one has written. His grandfather Cadmus gave the boy the name Nysius, but others called him Dionysus ^B, as being of the paternal lineage, and because he performed certain wonders by solar prayer, and they deified him because he provided men food from the vine; for he set forth certain things both concerning the vine and concerning agriculture. He also learned certain mysteries, and became a man wise and initiated in mysteries, this same Dionysus, and he performed certain illusions of wonders. Who also went to the Persians and to the Indians and to many countries, and while warring, displayed certain illusions of wonders, having also a great army with him. Now Cadmus, having grown old, yielded the administration of the kingdom of the Boeotians to the son of Echion, to Pentheus, his grandson; who was praised by the senators and by all. And Cadmus, taking Tiresias, spent a long time in the country of Boeotia on Mount Cithaeron ^C. Now Dionysus, having heard that his grandfather had grown old, came to the city of Cadmea with great status and arms, intending to reign. And having seen him performing certain illusions and having armed men, and calling together all his kin, and teaching the kinswomen the mysteries of the solar revels—which they called Bacchantes—and likewise teaching the citizens the initiations of certain solar prayers ^D, in order to persuade the Boeotians that he was able to maintain the kingdom, adorned with armor and an army—whom, he says, he called *Scirti* because they were wild and leaping; for they were from the Bessian country, and educated in mystical wisdom; having learned these things, Pentheus envied him,

^A hearing also that he desired the kingdom of the Boeotians. And becoming enemies, they joined battle in the city, and Pentheus, having conquered him, took him, bound him, and guarded him until the arrival of Cadmus, their grandfather. But Agave, as his aunt and the mother of Pentheus, persuaded her own son to release him. Having been released, he deliberated how he might destroy Pentheus; and having armed himself, he summoned Agave and asked her to be reconciled to Pentheus and to go with him to Cadmus. She, having done much for Pentheus, her own son, persuaded him to be reconciled to him and to go to Cadmus, because she was grieved for them (84), and Agave had ^B prepared to go with them and persuade her own father. But Dionysus was enraged against Pentheus, since he had been bound and reproached by him; for he said to everyone that the same Dionysus had been born of fornication. For this reason, even Euripides, having found after a long time the book of the *Bacchantes* like this, published a drama as if spoken by Pentheus, saying these things: “Semele, having been impregnated by some mortal, brought the guilt of the sin to Zeus.” When they were reconciled, Dionysus ordered his own army to anticipate them on the road in a narrow place and to seize Pentheus. As they were about to go out with a few men, Dionysus came to him; and consequently Pentheus, ignorant of the plot, also took a few men with himself; and Agave was with them. As they were traveling, the army of Dionysus threw themselves at him and seized Pentheus; and at once Dionysus commanded that he be beheaded and his head given to his mother, as she had insulted the same Dionysus. And Dionysus returned to the Cadmeia to rule. For this reason they say that Agave beheaded her own son, because she persuaded Pentheus to be reconciled to Dionysus and became the cause ^C of the death of her own son. Therefore, the senators and citizens of the city of Cadmeia did not accept the same Dionysus to administer their kingdom, saying that he had killed his own first cousin when he was not king; if he should reign, he will destroy the Boeotians. And they exhorted and entreated Lycurgus, a wise man, telling him what had happened; and he armed himself against him, and drove him out of the city of Cadmeia and from Boeotia. And Dionysus, having learned this, that he had armed himself against ^D

^A him, fled from Lycurgus; and having gone away to Delphi, he died there. And the remains of the same Dionysus were placed there in a coffin; and he himself had hung his arms there in the temple, just as the most wise Dinarchus wrote concerning this same Dionysus. Likewise, the most wise Philochorus also wrote the same things, in which account he spoke concerning the same Dionysus: "It is possible to see his burial at Delphi beside the Golden Apollo." It is supposed, however, that the coffin is a pedestal, ^B in which it is written, "Here lies the deceased Dionysus, son of Semele." Similarly, the most wise Cephalion also set out the same things in his own work.

After, then, the death of Cadmus, king of Boeotia, Nycteus reigned. He had a daughter, a priestess of the temple of the Sun, by the name of Antiopa; who was instructed in the solar prayer, that is, the initiation of the Dionysian Bacchic rites, and from that she was called a Baccha. Her father, Nycteus, had a brother named Lycus, the king of Argos. This King Lycus had a senator named Theobous, ^C a son born of a certain Bronton, a cousin of Dirce, descending from the lineage of Picus Zeus. This same Senator Theobous, having come from Argos according to the ordinance into the temple of the Sun to sleep [for an omen], and having seen the priestess Antiopa, who was most comely and tall, was struck with love for her. And having remained in the temple under the pretext of the ordinance of prayer, as one who was a relative of hers, he played the hypocrite and debauched her and made her pregnant; and fearing Nycteus, the king of Boeotia, he retreated to his own country. But King Nycteus, her father, having learned that she had been defiled, took her out of the temple; and having examined her, he learned from her [who was] the defiler, Theobous, that he was of the race of the senators of his brother Lycus and of his wife. But Nycteus, her father, not knowing that she was pregnant, sent her to his own brother, Lycus, the king of Argos, so that he might also examine the matter of her defilement, ^D and that he might find out if, indeed, he were among his Argives.

^A Since it was true that she was from Argos, he sought to punish her for having been a priestess who had been defiled, and to take vengeance on him, as one who had dared to commit such an act against a priestly body. King Lycus, having brought Antiopa in for examination, and seeing her beauty and learning that she was pregnant, showed her mercy, saying that he must wait until she gave birth, and only then punish her for having insulted the priestly order. This same King Lycus had a wife named Dirce, and, handing Antiopa over to her, he told her to keep her in her custody until she gave birth. King Lycus was the uncle of Antiopa. This Antiopa gave birth to twins, whom she named Amphion and Zethus. The infants, once brought into the world, were ordered by King Lycus to be exposed in the village called Rasthea, not far from Mount Cithaeron. ^B However, a certain farmer from Ordios, who was childless, took pity on them and received the infants from those to whom the task of exposing them had been entrusted; knowing that they were the children of the priestess Antiopa—for he knew her to be a priestess—he raised them. After some time had passed and a war had broken out in the Argive territory, King Lycus set out for the war and remained away for a long time. Now Dirce, the wife of King Lycus, reasoning that he had not yet punished Antiopa—no longer burdened by the pains of childbirth—but had instead left her alone out of a desire for her, and because he was secretly sleeping with her, believing her to be very fair, took her with a few soldiers as if she were going into the country. She headed towards Mount Cithaeron ^C to the village where her sons had been raised. Dirce, however, did not know this; she had a wild bull brought from the same region, and having fixed a torch to its horns and tied a rope around its neck, she ordered Antiopa to be bound to it, so that she might be dragged by the bull and thus perish. Those who lived in that village, hearing of the punishment intended for Antiopa,

^A a crowd of peasants [whom the village of Rasthea kept in great numbers 48] left the village of Deras, as it is called; there were many peasants in it. Likewise, the two sons of Antiope were with them, along with their foster father, Ordion the farmer. And they begged Dirce not to cause her death by such a fate. But she replied to them that she was a priestess of the Sun, and that [Antiope] had been defiled and had borne two children from adultery, and that she must be punished.

When the sons of Antiope, Zethus and Amphion, heard from their foster-father Ordion that it was their mother, Antiope, who was about to be punished, they gathered the people of the whole countryside, and, going out with them 57, they slew the soldiers. And having taken Dirce, they stripped her of her royal ornaments and released Antiope from her bonds. Being freed from her bonds, Antiope ordered her own sons, Amphion and Zethus, to put Dirce to death. They took Dirce and tied her to the same wild bull, and Dirce perished, being dragged by the bull. The bull, from running, grew thirsty, and finding a spring, it stopped to drink. And the rope being cut, it left the remains of Dirce near the spring. And that spring, from that time until now, is called Dirce in that land.

Then Zethus and Amphion took their mother, Antiope, and fled to their own land, Boeotia; and having appeared there, they became known to the Boeotians. Their grandfather, Nycteus, the king of the same Boeotian land, had grown old and died of illness. After the death of King Nycteus, all the Boeotians asked them, Amphion and Zethus, to be their kings, as they were of the royal lineage of Nycteus. And they were proclaimed kings, and the musicians Amphion and Zethus reigned over the Boeotian land.

And immediately, Amphion the lyrist 89 built a very great city, seven-gated, which was formerly a village [58] called Enchilia, ^B which the same brothers named Thebes, in the name of their father, according to the command of their mother, Antiope. And they reigned over Thebes for many years, and thereafter the same region was called Thebes.

Meanwhile, King Lycus, the husband of Dirce and their uncle, died in war, just as Cephalion has set forth according to the truth. For the wisest poet Euripides writes in a fable that Antiope was defiled by Jove, who turned into a satyr; and that thence were born Zethus and Amphion, the musicians. ^C And he says that Jove, having been turned into a satyr, defiled Antiope, ^D

^A which in the Boeotian dialect signifies some baser corporeal frame, defiled Antiope, and from that union were born Zethus and Amphion, the musicians. And as to the change of metempsychosis, he said that their father Theobous, who was descended from Jove Picus, was brought low, that Jove had been changed into a satyr, which is, according to the Boeotian tongue, to enter a baser body, and defiled Antiope.

After the reign of Amphion and Zethus, those of their line reigned in Thebes until the reign of Oedipus, the son of Laius and Jocasta. This Laius, king of Thebes, had a son, Iokkan, who was later called the aforementioned Oedipus. And having been warned by an oracle that he would cohabit with his own mother, Jocasta, ^B he ordered the soldiers who were in attendance upon him to take Oedipus to the woods, and to place his feet into a perforated piece of wood having holes, and to nail the wood shut. From this, therefore, has been devised what is called by the soldiers even to this day, *Cuspus*. And the soldiers, having done as they were commanded, left Oedipus in the woods, so that he might be devoured by wild beasts. And there coming a certain rustic named Meliboeus to the woods to cut wood, he found him crawling upon the ground and his feet swollen; and taking the axe with which he was working, he broke the wood in which his feet were trapped, and taking him up, he reared him, calling him Oedipus on account of the swelling of his feet, and he grew up to be a noble man.

In that region there appeared a certain widow, Sphinx by name, deformed, ^C large-breasted, and rustic; who, after the passing of her own husband, gathered together a multitude of rustic brigands like herself from her own village, called Moabe, which lay between two mountains, between which there was only one narrow passage. And she, having occupied the other peak of the mountain with her brigands, murdered all the passersby and merchants who traveled that way, and plundered all their possessions, whence her fame spread throughout all Thebes. And so King Laius ^D sent his chief captains with forces against her; these things Cephalion wrote down in truth. For the most wise Euripides relates in a tragedy that Jove, [having been changed] into a satyr, defiled Antiope, and from thence Zethus and Amphion, the musicians, were born.

^A

He sent a great army against the Sphinx; but they were all in vain, as much because of the inexpugnable narrowness of the mountains as the multitude of rustic brigands, whom she had joined to herself, sharing with them the spoils of citizens and strangers. Now Œdipus, having become an adult, when he heard that a certain woman, a marauder by the name of Sphinx, was most troublesome to men traveling to Thebes, and that she was indeed bringing the city itself—from which he understood he had originated—into straits, he immediately conceived a crafty plan by which he might remove the Sphinx from the midst. Having gathered from that neighborhood where he had been raised some of the more robust rustics, intending, as he himself gave out, to enter into an alliance of brigandage with the Sphinx, he approached the Sphinx, seeking to be admitted into the fellowship of her robbery. She, however, having beheld the comeliness of the youth and his companions, received him and those with him; and he himself also attacked passersby. But when an opportunity offered itself, in the absence of the crowd of brigands, having snatched up a spear, he pierced her; and having also killed many of the brigands at the same time, he seized all their goods. ^B Then he brought the corpse of the Sphinx to the city of Thebes, expecting for himself and his followers a reward for the deed from King Laius. And indeed the Theban citizens, led by admiration, were celebrating him, and proclaimed him worthy of the kingdom of the Thebans. ^C The king, however, taking this ill from the citizens, sent an army against them. Now as the civil war was raging, he himself went out, so that he might appease the citizens with some purgation; but meanwhile, being struck by a javelin hurled at him, he perished. Jocasta, however, fearing that she might be cast out of the kingdom, and also desiring to gain favor among the nobles and the people, took Œdipus—whom she had learned was unmarried—as her spouse and designated him king. And so Œdipus held the kingdom of the Thebans for nineteen years, with Jocasta and Œdipus meanwhile not knowing that she was his mother. He had by her two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, and as many daughters, Ismene and Antigone. But after some time had passed, ^D Jocasta asked Œdipus whence he was and from what parent he had sprung. He replied that he was from his foster-father, Meliboeus. The queen therefore took care to have him sent for, and learned from him that he was by no means his

^A son, but that he had found him in the woods. ^B And having inquired about the time, she realized that he was her own son, and she spoke to him. And Oedipus, having heard this, took nails, and having pierced his own eyes, he died, leaving the kingdom to his two sons to rule turn by turn for a year; but they, having reached enmity over the kingdom, fought with one another, and slaughtered each other in single combat. For Polynices, having been driven out of the kingdom and chased away from Thebes by his brother Eteocles, went away to Argos; and he took to wife the daughter of Adrastus, the king of Argos. And having encouraged King Adrastus and other kings, he came with a multitude of an army against his own brother, against Thebes; and those who were persuaded and campaigned with him were Adrastus, Capaneus, Amphiarus, Parthenopaeus, and Hippomedon. And when the two brothers, as has been said, had perished, the kings returned with their own armies to their own lands, and the kingdom of Thebes, or of the Boeotians, was dissolved, having lasted three hundred and sixty-nine years. All these things written above ^C the most wise Palaephatus set forth as true. For the most wise Euripides set forth poetically a drama concerning Oedipus, and Jocasta, and the Sphinx. For the kingdom of the Thebans was set forth by Africanus the chronicler.

In the times written above, there existed Seruch, sprung from the line of Japheth, who first began the doctrine of Hellenism through idolatry, as Eusebius Pamphili wrote; because they honored with statues as pillars those among the ancients who had been soldiers, or leaders, or who had done some brave or virtuous deed in their life worth remembering, especially those who had performed some mysteries by a certain hidden power, as being their ancestors, and all worshiped them as benefactors ^D as if they were gods, and honored them by sacrificing to them, because they had found something good, either through skill or through...

^A any other virtue, and these they deified, just as the very wise Rheginus wrote down the names of those who were deified. But men after this time, being ignorant of the intention of their ancestors—that they had honored them in memory only, as forefathers and inventors of good things—worshiped them as heavenly gods and offered sacrifices to them, not as people who had been mortal men and subject to the same passions. Concerning whom the very wise Diodorus also says these things in his writings: that they were men who became gods, whom men, because they supposed they had obtained immortality for their good deeds, called gods, and some even had titles conferred upon them ^B and ruled over lands. And men did this, filled with ignorance. The form of this deification was as follows: In their priestly books, their names were inscribed when they died, and at the same time they celebrated their festival and sacrifice in the tombs where they lay, saying that their souls had gone to the islands of the blessed and were no longer judged or burned by fire. And this remained ^C until the times of Thara, the father of Abraham. For Thara was a sculptor, making and selling gods from stones and wood, and he introduced the error of statues and idolatry to men through likenesses of their forefathers, especially those who had discovered letters and the arts. To these things the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the Phrygians from Greece eagerly flocked; for they were of this religion, and they themselves were makers of statues, and expounders of mysteries, and ^D initiates. From whom, in particular, the same religion was brought to the Greeks.

by a certain Hellene named Hellen, the son of the Jupiter Picus himself, a man who performed certain mysteries among those dwelling in Greece, and was of the lineage of Japheth, the third son of Noah. Now the Ionians, who were from Io, were the leaders of these men; for they had been taught by the giant Joanes, who was one of those attempting the construction of the Babylonian tower, whose languages were also divided; wherefore men are called *meropes*, because their speech was divided into many languages and tongues. ^B Plutarch of Chaeronea, in his discourse on the ancient philosophy of the Greeks and Barbarians, critiques them, as those who introduced the superstitions of statues. Yet he himself, he says, thought it appropriate to deify the luminaries in the heavens, bringing in the Sun and the Moon, as the theology of the Egyptians holds, saying that it is they who govern the whole world, nourishing and increasing all things by the third motion of the five planets and the rest of the stellar arrangement, in accordance with generation and the air. Now Porphyry praised this Plutarch of Chaeronea in his own philosophical Chronographia. ^C This religion was brought forth from a certain Hellene, by name the son of Jupiter Picus himself—a man who conducted certain mysteries among those living in Greece, and was of the family of Japheth, the third son of Noah. And the Ionians, who were from Io, were the leaders of these people; for they had been instructed by the giant Joanes, one of those who attempted the works of the Tower of Babylon, and whose languages were separated; wherefore men are called *Meropes*, because their speech was divided into various modes of speaking and idioms. Plutarch of Chaeronea, however, where he discusses the ancient philosophy of the Greeks and Barbarians, indeed reproves them, inasmuch as they introduced the superstitions of images. But he himself thinks that those heavenly luminaries, the Sun and the Moon, should rather be held as gods, according to the theology of the Egyptians; for he said that by them the whole world is administered, and that they provide nourishment and increase to all things, by that triple motion of the five planets and the rest of the positions of the stars, according to generation and the air. And Porphyry celebrated this Plutarch of Chaeronea in his philosophical Chronographia. ^D

THIRD BOOK: ON ABRAHAM COMING TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD

^A Now Abraham, having arrived at the knowledge of God and having considered that the images which his father Thara had made were of dead men, and that they ought not to be honored as gods in heaven, since they were but dust and ashes, reproached his own father Thara, saying: "Why do you lead men into error for the sake of base gain? There is but one God in heaven, who created all these things that we see." And having taken them, he broke all the images, and leaving his father, he departed for Mesopotamia, just as Eusebius Pamphili, the wise chronographer, has recorded.

In the times of Abraham there flourished also Melchisedec, ^B a man who worshipped God, but was a Gentile, descended from the line of Sidus, the son of Aegyptus, king of the Libyan country, from whom the Egyptians get their name. This Sidus the Egyptian, having come out of Egypt, attacked the region of those called the Gentile Canaanites—that is, the land now called Palestine—and reduced it to his own power. Having built a city there, he called it Sidon after his own name, which is now under the Phoenician territory. And subsequently, from the lineage of this Sidus was descended Melchi, the father of Sedec, who, being king and priest, was named Melchisedec, as was written before. This man, then, being priest and king of the Canaanites, built a city on the mountain which is called Sion, which he named Salem, which is "city of peace." ^C And he reigned in it for 113 years, and died, a just and chaste man, just as Josephus has set forth in his *Antiquities*; and John and Cyril, most holy bishops, have said the same things.

BOOK THREE

^A From the deluge, therefore, until Abraham, eight hundred and ninety-three years are reckoned; but from the construction of the tower, five hundred and twenty-three years. And it came to pass afterward from Abraham and Isaac, his son, and Jacob, his grandson, and their seed, from whom are the Hebrews, that from the times of Abraham they received the character of the nation through circumcision. There are, therefore, from Adam until Abraham three thousand seven hundred and forty-five years.

And Abraham was one hundred years old when he begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, who was also called Israel. And the Jews were named from Judah, the fourth of the twelve sons of Jacob; for he had twelve sons. And the tribe of Judah ruled over the Jews and led them; whence also they had the name.

^B In these times, a certain man from the lineage of Japheth, named Hesiod, appeared; who discovered the letters of the Greeks, and arranging the letters, he was the first to set them forth for the Greeks.

In these times of Abraham, Indelechus reigned over the Assyrians, from the lineage of Shem, son of Noah, being the first to reign over them after the race of Perseus had ceased. And the kingdom came again to the Assyrians.

The first king of the Egyptians to hold the kingdom from the lineage of Ham, son of Noah, was Pharaoh, who was also called Naracho. Now the ancient dynasties of the Egyptians before this Naracho were set forth by the most wise Manetho, as has been said above. But the later dynasties of the Egyptians, I mean from Naracho ^C and downward, were recorded by the most wise chronographer Theophilus.

In the times of Abraham, Naracho, from the lineage of Ham, reigned over the Egyptians. And Petephres, the chief cook of the same King Pharaoh, bought Joseph, the son of Jacob—whom his brothers had sold to the Saracens, being moved by envy toward him because he was beloved by his own father; and Joseph was beautiful to behold. This Joseph interpreted the dream to King Pharaoh, which he saw concerning the famine about to occur in Egypt ^D and in every land,

^A and in honor he held him; and he gave him the daughter of the high priest of Heliopolis, who was in Egypt, as his wife, commanding him to govern all of Egypt for seven years and to have the power to act as he wished. This Joseph built storehouses, and stored therein the grain of the seven years, and he everywhere provided for himself both the purchase and the distribution of the sale, acting as he himself willed. And the famine having occurred in every land, his brothers came from the land of Canaan into Egypt to buy grain. And Joseph, having recognized them, commanded them to be seized, and he spoke boldly to them ^B that he was their brother, and he forced them to depart and to bring to him his younger brother Benjamin and his father Jacob and all his household. His brothers, having departed, brought to Joseph their father and their brother Benjamin and their entire household, both male and female names. And Joseph kept them there, and they resided in Egypt for many years; and an infinite multitude of these Hebrews came to be, living in Egypt until Moses, who was commanded by God to lead the people of the Hebrews out of the land of Egypt, just as all these things are set down accurately in the Hebrew writings.

And during the times of the aforementioned kings, there appeared in the region of Caria a philosopher born of giants, of the lineage ^C of Japheth, by the name of Endymion; who, by reciting mystical prayers to the moon, asked it to learn from it the divine name in a vision. And while he was praying, he fell into sleep and heard the divine name in a dream; and he never again awoke, but his remains exist until this day in Caria, his body thus being a dead man who yet quivers; and every year they open his tomb in that region, and they see his remains as a quivering corpse, as they say. Things which Auleas the wisest wrote down; about whom, he says, they record as a story that the moon fell in love with Endymion.

From Abraham, therefore, to the exodus of the sons ^D of Israel with Moses from Egypt, there are five generations, four hundred and forty-three years. And from the flood until

the birth of Moses, there are 1,495 years. From Adam until the birth of Moses, there are 3,436 years. Moses lived 120 years. And Joshua, the son of Nun, and Phinehas led Israel after Moses. From Adam, therefore, until the death of Moses and Aaron, there are 4,156 years.

^A In the times of Joshua, the son of Nun, from the tribe of Japheth, a certain native named Ogyges reigned over the Attic land for 32 years. During his time, a great flood occurred in that region, and he himself perished, as did every living creature throughout the whole of Attica and that land alone. And from that time, the same land remained deserted and uninhabited for 270 years, just as is recorded in the writings of Africanus.

^B During the days when the sons of Israel were about to exit Egypt with Moses, a certain native named Aides reigned over the land of the Molossians. He had a very beautiful daughter born to him by his wife Melindia, whom he called Proserpina. The Molossians were accustomed to calling beautiful women *korae* in their own language. Perithous, one of the leading men of Aides’ kingdom, a rich young man, fell in love with her and schemed to abduct her at night, even if she were not willing. When the king, Aides, learned of this, he was indignant and pondered within himself how he might avenge himself upon Perithous while appearing to everyone as if he were ignorant of the deed. Therefore, he stationed his ferocious shepherd dog—which was called Tricerberus because of the size of its body and its having the head of three dogs—before the doors of the girl. After the mother of the girl had long since died, the girl, being entirely ignorant of the whole affair, was attacked by the dog when Perithous came by night to abduct the virgin, and it killed him. Proserpina herself also ran out at the disturbance, and the dog killed her as well; from this arose the legend that Pluto had abducted the girl, which Palaephatus the most wise recorded.

^C In the times of Moses, Erechtheus reigned over the Assyrians, and Pelissonius—who was also Pharaoh the comedian—reigned over the Egyptians. He had with him outstanding magicians.

^A Jannes and Jambres. During his reign, the race of the Jews in Egypt greatly increased, from the descent of Jacob with his son Joseph into Egypt, down to their deliverance through Moses and his brother Aaron. Now Moses took as his wife an Egyptian woman, the daughter of Jothor, the high priest of the Greeks—a man held in the highest honor by King Pharaoh and the Egyptians. This same Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. The Egyptians, however, began to fear the Jews as they had become numerous. When they made this known to Pharaoh, the king ordered the Jews to act as laborers for the Egyptians and to set bricks under compulsion. If, therefore, any of the Egyptians wished to build a house or adorn a small estate, he demanded from the Jews the bricks and their labor at the same time. Since Moses and his brother Aaron perceived the whole Jewish race groaning under these burdens, they worshipped God with supplications. The Lord God commanded Moses to go in to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to say to him, "Let the people of Israel go, that they may worship me." Moses, therefore, taking his own brother Aaron, went in to Pelissonius Pharaoh, the king of Egypt—for he had license to speak, as he was the son-in-law of the same Jothor, the priest of the Greeks, and as the leader of the Jews—and he announced to him the command of God, saying: "The God who created the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything that is in them commands that you release his people, that they may worship him." Pharaoh, hearing this, says to him, "If you tell the truth that your God commanded you to say these things to me, behold, there are Egyptians with me who perform wonders. If you overcome them by petitioning your God, I shall grant you what you ask as you say." He set ^B Jannes and Jambres against Moses and Aaron. Pharaoh sat with his nobles, and Jannes and Jambres, by means of sorcery, turned their rod into a serpent, and it attacked Moses. But Moses, having prayed, threw the rod which he was holding onto the ground, and his rod also became a very large serpent, and it swallowed up the serpent which Jannes and Jambres had made; and Moses triumphed, and the king and everyone ^C were amazed. Jannes and Jambres, however, turned the waters of the most limpid rivers into blood before the king and everyone; but Moses, having poured out prayers to God, restored their original clarity to them.

They also performed other things against one another, but Moses overcame them. And Moses said to Pharaoh, "Behold, you have seen the power of the God of Israel. Let us go, so that we may worship Him." But Pharaoh, while agreeing with him, procrastinated; and Moses prayed to God to send plagues upon him and the Egyptians, so that their king might be forced to let Israel go. And God sent a sevenfold wrath ^A upon the Egyptians, so that the king had to beseech Moses and say to him, "Pray to your God so that this land may be delivered from such great evils; and as the Lord your God lives, I will not hinder you from taking your people, the Israelites, to worship Him." These things are recorded in the Hebrew scriptures. Now, Pharaoh Petissonios, the king, immediately went to Memphis to consult that most renowned oracle, and after performing sacrifices, he asked the Pythia these words: "Declare to me, who among you is the first and great God of Israel?" And this response was given to him: "It descends from the great heaven, surpassing the ethereal flame, a perennial, immortal fire, which all things tremble at—heaven, earth, and sea, and the infernal ^B demons shudder. This God is His own father, without a father, and He is the son of Himself, most blessed. But how small are we among the angels? Having been taught the truth, depart in silence." When King Pharaoh heard these things from the oracle, he ordered them to be inscribed upon a stone tablet; and this response, inscribed on the same tablet, exists to this day in the temple at Memphis, where the river Nile flows. And King Pharaoh, having departed from the oracle, immediately released the Israelites, along with Moses and Aaron; who, having borrowed gold and much finery from the Egyptians, all departed from Egypt. But King Pharaoh, when the Hebrews [had taken] the ornaments and silver from the Egyptians... ^{C D}

from the Egyptian women and men, along with untold silver. And after they had departed, Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, repented, having been informed that they had taken along ornaments, silver, and wealth, and had fled (52). And ^A he pursued them with his chariots and all his armed force; and he reached them by the sea. And the Israelites, having turned and seen King Pharaoh and his army coming behind and the sea in front of them, cried out with a loud voice to God; and Moses, the leader, struck the waters of the sea with his staff for the people, and it became dry land, and they walked across. And Moses, having remained behind all the people and having turned to look back, struck the dry land again with his staff, and it became a surging sea. And ^B Petissonius Pharaoh, the king of the Egyptians, was drowned in the sea, along with his chariots and all his forces, and the waves of the deep covered him and those with him. But the Lord saved the people of the Jews with Moses and Aaron, as they fled from Egypt, leading them through the waves of the sea as if on dry land, in the number of six hundred and thirty thousand, just as Moses himself wrote in his most wise Chronographia.

BOOK FOURTH

OF THE TIMES OF THE KINGDOM OF THE ARGIVES

Of the ^C Argives, after Inachus, Phoroneus reigned, and many others until the reign of Lynceus, who took Hypermnestra, the daughter of Danaus, as his wife. This Lynceus, having waged war against King Danaus, killed him and took the kingdom and his daughter, just as the most wise Archilochus wrote. And after the reign of Lynceus, Trioppas reigned in the land of the Argives for five years. And in that same fifth year ^D of his reign, the kingdom of the Argives was dissolved, and the kingdom was held by the Sicyonians, after it had lasted for [blank] years, as the most wise Diodorus has left written. As for the Sicyonians, who now...

^A are called Helladici, Aegialeus was the first to rule them for 52 years, and subsequently other kings, 26 in number, up to Zeuxippus, who ruled them for 32 years. And thereafter their priests governed the land, and their kingdom lasted for 995 years, as the most wise Africanus has written.

The West, that is to say the parts towards Italy, had at that time no king, but was governed by the sons of Picus—who was also identified as Zeus—and by their descendants. In these times Moses and Aaron died in the wilderness, and Jesus, son of Nave, was in charge of the Israelite people, as has been said before. It was he who, waging war, captured Jericho and the aforementioned city of Jerusalem, which the same Jesus, son of Nave, called Jebus. After having taken the territory, he dwelt in the city called Sychem, renaming it Neapolis. And after the death of Jesus, son of Nave, who had led the people of the Jews across the Jordan river at the command of God and brought them into the land of Palestine, and who with a mystical trumpet caused the walls of Jericho to collapse—after him Phinehas led Israel; and after Phinehas, 13 judges ^B chosen from the people succeeded in guiding Israel.

In these same times, Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas, and the all-seeing Argus—whom they called "the Hundred-Eyed" because of the keenness of his eyes and his intelligence—and Deucalion, the son of Hellen, a grandson of Picus, became known among the Greeks. Argus himself was the first to demonstrate technical craft to the western regions, while Atlas practiced the science of astronomy; because he spent his time in the contemplation of celestial things, they spun the fable that he carried the heavens, for he possessed the heavens in his heart. Prometheus discovered the philology of grammar; regarding him, they say that he fashioned men, because he raised ^C people from a rude state to an understanding of things through philosophy.

^A They say Epimetheus was the author of music; and Deucalion recorded the history of the partial flood, as the most wise Eusebius Pamphylus wrote down.

After the death of the judges of the Jews, Barach, the son of Abinoam, ruled the people ^B. There was also a certain prophetess named Deborah, who told the Jews all things that were to happen. In those times, there was also among the Greeks a prophetess named Sibylla; and at the same time, Pharaoh, who was also called Naracho, ruled the Egyptians. And Cecrops, a certain man who hailed from Egypt, ruled the Athenians; he was of enormous size, and for this reason they called him "double-natured" (Diphyes). This man was the first king ^C of the Athenians after the flood of Attica; and after the flood of Attica, the kingdom came to the Athenians. While this Cecrops alone reigned over the Athenians, he commanded that the women who were under his rule, being virgins, should be married to one man. In his decree, he called these virgins "nymphs," because the young virgins appear like fountains, producing offspring and pouring forth milk from hidden passages. For before his reign, all the women of the Attic region and of Athens and the neighboring lands mingled in a beastly manner, consorting with whichever man pleased them, if she herself so wished; and the woman being seized was called by no one's [name], but they approached all men, giving themselves over to prostitution. And for as many days as anyone wished to keep them, they remained at his house, being fed; and if he wished, he let her go again to whoever wanted her. This was forbidden from the Attic region, so that they would not be forced to cohabit with a man with whom they did not wish. Therefore, no one knew who was their son or daughter, and the mother would give the child born to her to whichever man she wished who had consorted with her, whether she had borne a male or a female, and they received them gladly. But this Cecrops, coming from Egypt, proclaimed this law, stating that the Attic land had perished because of this. And thenceforth all became sober, and the unmarried virgins joined themselves to men, and any who had been promiscuous were married to one man whom she wished; and the Athenians marveled at the king's law. ^D As some have also explained, it was because of this that the Athenians called him "double-natured."

because he had caused the children to know their own parents. Cecrops reigned over the Athenians for 50 years, and after him Cranaus reigned for 9 years. In those times, Sappho, the first poetess, ^A became known. And after Cranaus, Phoroneus and others reigned until Codrus, who reigned over them for 21 years. Their kingdom lasted, then, for 492 years.

In the times of the archons, Draco first gave laws to the Athenians, and after him Solon, and Solon abolished the laws of Draco. And again, Thales the Milesian legislated. And again, Aeschylus was the first to rule over them for one year, and after Aeschylus, Acmæon ruled over them for two years; regarding whom the most wise Euripides composed a tragedy. And after Acmæon, 18 others ruled over them until Arexion, who reigned over them for 12 years. And the kingdom of the Athenians was dissolved, having lasted for 807 years, according to what the most wise chronographer Africanus has set forth.

Shortly after this time, Gideon was leader of Israel. Contemporary with him was the most wise Orpheus the Lyrical, an Odryssian from Thrace, ^B a most wise and celebrated poet; who set forth the theogony and the creation of the world and the fashioning of men, having stated in the beginning of his work that he had set forth nothing from his own intuition concerning God or the creation of the world, but he said that having requested it by his own prayer, he learned from Phoebus Titan Apollo the theogony and the creation of the world and who made it; for it is contained in his exposition through poetic verses thus:

"O King, son of Leto, far-darter, Phoebus mighty, O Lord, son of Day, who from afar shootest at all things with thy rays, immaculate and powerful, Universal overseer, ruling over mortals and immortals." ^C

^A O sun, who with thy golden wings art lifted on high, O sun, who with thy honored wings art exalted into the air, The twelfth time now I have heard this voice from thee, The twelfth time now have I heard this divine utterance from thee, Thou speaking, and I, O far-darter, call thee thyself to witness. Since thou hast spoken to me, I place thee thyself, who shinest from afar, as witness. And the same Orpheus spoke many other verses about this; he explained it as he set it forth from the aforementioned poetic verses; and it was not possible to insert the multitude of the verses into this book. The things which Orpheus set forth are these: that from the beginning, in time, the ether was manifested, having been created by God, and from here and there the ether was chaos, and dark night kept and covered all things that were under ^B the ether, signifying that night was first, having said in his own exposition that there is something incomprehensible and above all, and also older and creator of all things, and of the ether itself, and of the night, and of all that is under the ether and being covered creation; but the earth, he said, was invisible under the darkness; and he explained that the light having broken the ether illuminated the earth and all creation, saying that that is the light which broke the ether, which was aforementioned, the supreme of all, whose name the same Orpheus, having heard from the oracle ^C spoke out, Metis, Phanes, Ericepaeus (50) which is interpreted in the common tongue as counsel, light, life-giver. Having spoken in his own exposition the same three things... [alt-version omitted]

ED. CHILMEADI NOTES

(50) "Metis, Phanes, Ericepaeus." ^D These are also found in Cedrenus, though mutilated: he reads, etc., the first word of the Orphic response having been uttered, the rest omitted. But what the word signifies, or whence this word is derived, is not so easy to say: yet since nothing more probable occurs to us, I will propose here the conjecture of our most learned Gregory, which he proposed in his *Notes and Observations* written in English, upon certain places of the Holy Scriptures. The Hebrews, he says, among their arithmetical traditions, also have this numerical notation of the name Jehovah; which they derive in this way: [footnote skipped] ... this is the notation of the name of the divine *Hamphorash*, or numerical, and therefore the signification of this word as uttered by the oracle. Thus he. In vain, therefore, do Suidas in his *Orpheus*, and Cedrenus, labor together with our author, who attempt to seek the interpretation of these words from a Greek source. *Metis* sounds as "counsel," and seems to have a certain affinity with the word *phaos* (light). But where at last will "Ericepaeus" be found, which said authors, because they did not understand it, omitted? Certainly it is apparent that Orpheus was not ignorant of the Hebrew Scriptures, from his Hymn to God, where among many things redolent of the Deity, these are contained: "Holding the beginning himself, and together the middle and the end. As the word of the ancients, as the water-born ordained, having received from God by counsels according to the twofold law." Where he hints at Moses, with regard to the origin of his name, it is clear. For because he had been drawn from the waters, he was therefore named Moses: as the Holy Scriptures testify, Exod. II, [10]. Josephus offers the reason for this name, *Antiq. Jud.* II, 11, saying that the name was given to him from what had happened: for the Egyptians call water *moy*, and *hises* are those who have been extracted from water. The same things are also held by Philo Judaeus. And

in their common tongue, council, light, life-giver. He speaks in his own exposition of these same three divine powers of the names as being the one power and authority of the only God, whom no one sees, and of whose power no one can know the idea or nature; and that from this power all things have come into being, both the incorporeal principles and sun, moon, authorities, and all the stars, and earth and sea, and all that is visible and invisible in them. Regarding the race of men, he speaks ^A in the same manner as Moses himself, the all-wise, declared, saying that this was fashioned from the earth as the work of God himself, and received from him a rational soul, just as the all-wise Moses set these things forth. The same Orpheus, in his own book, recorded that through these same three names, yet one divinity, all things were made, and he himself is all things.

Orpheus himself described the miseries of the human race in many verses, of which these are a part: *Bruta volatilia atque hominum nequissima turba.* 1. Brute beasts and winged creatures, and the most wicked [throng] of men. *Idola efficta, et telluris inutile pondus.* 2. Burdens of the earth, fashioned idols, which are entirely ignorant of the laws and reason of being born and of dying. *Quique mala haud norunt sibi præsentire futura.* 3. They who know not how to foresee future evils coming upon them. *Nec, longe remotæ quæ sunt, effugere noxas;* 4. Nor how to avert from afar the injuries that are already impending; ^C *Præsentisve boni studiis attendere gnari.* 5. Nor are they skilled in applying themselves to present good; that is, they do not know how to make use of goods when they come, nor how to avoid what is evil, nor to embrace what is beautiful. *Irrita sed cunctos agitant conamina.* 6. But they stir up all their efforts to no purpose, and are driven by a rash impulse, back and forth, sensing nothing at all.

This most wise Orpheus also set forth many other verses. Now we have all these things from Timotheus, the most wise chronicler, who observed that Orpheus, so many centuries ago, declared that the consubstantial Trinity created all things.

After Gideon, Thola led Israel. ^D In the times of Thola, there was in Phrygia Marsyas the philosopher, who discovered... [index: entries preserved]

the construction of flutes from reeds through music. And he became deranged, deifying himself, and saying: "I have discovered nourishment for men through the melody of musical reeds." This same Marsyas lived on his own fields for all his time; this Marsyas, having been struck by divine anger, lost his own mind, and having become insane, threw himself into the river and perished: which river the inhabitants of that same region call Marsyas even to this day. Regarding him, the poets tell that he came into contention with Apollo; they say this, he says, that because he blasphemed, he lost his own mind and was killed, just as the most wise Ninus also wrote. And the most wise Lucian also mentioned this story, who asserted that he was from Chalcis. ^B

In the times of Thola, there were the hero Hercules and the Argonauts, namely Jason the Thessalian, and Castor and Pollux, and Hylas and Telamon and the others. Who, crossing the Hellespont, were suddenly attacked by Cyzicus, 94 king of the Hellespont. And having joined battle, they killed King Cyzicus; and entering by night, they took Cyzicus, the metropolis of the Hellespontine province. And having learned from the citizens and the senators that it was Cyzicus who had been killed by them, they grieved for him, because he was a kinsman of theirs and carried his lineage from their own region. And they sought forgiveness for the ignorance of both sides, and having made an apology to them, they built a temple in that same city of Cyzicus after the victory. ^C And the Argonauts went off to the oracle, where the so-called "Pythian hot springs" are, and having performed a sacrifice, they asked, saying this: "Prophesy to us, prophet, Titan, Phoebus Apollo, to whom this temple ought to be dedicated, and what it will be?" And there was given to them by the Pythia this oracle: "You, indeed, follow those things which incite to virtue and decorum. I, however, announce to you the triune one God, alone reigning in the height. Whose immortal Word a maiden intact shall bring forth: which, as a fire-bearing arrow, will pass through the middle of the world, and holding all things captive, will give it as a gift to the Father; to this maiden the house must be consecrated; Maria, indeed, is her name." ^D

And having written this oracle on a stone, or rather marble, in bronze letters, they placed it on the lintel of the temple, calling the house that of Rhea, the mother of the gods. This house, many years later, in the reign of Zeno, became a church of the holy Theotokos Mary.

^B The Argonauts, setting out from the Hellespont, directed their journey to the Princes' Islands; from there they sailed to the crossing of Chalcedon, wishing to transit the entry into the Pontic sea. They were forbidden by Amycus, who attacked them with arms. Fearing his power, they withdrew into a certain bay, desolate and quite uncultivated, and overgrown with woods. And lo, a certain spirit descended from heaven, terrible to behold and bearing eagle’s wings on its shoulders, which they saw approaching them. Divinely admonished by this as to the victory they were to report against Amycus, they regained their strength; and having joined battle with him, they slew the defeated Amycus. Then, departing in gratitude, they founded a temple in the same place where the apparition had presented itself to them, also erecting a statue that bore the likeness of the power they had seen. They named the temple itself Sosthenium, from the salvation gained there, by which name this place is called to this very day. ^C This temple was later restored by Emperor Constantine the Great when Byzantium began to become the seat of the empire; and he, having become a Christian, observed the figure of the statue placed there when he happened to pass by on his journey, and immediately recognized it as the form of an angel in the habit of a Christian monk. Struck with awe at the reverence for the place and the structure, he asked through prayers to know what sort of image of angelic power this was. Reclining in that place, he was taught the name of the angel through a dream; therefore, having awakened, he immediately adorned the place, and having offered prayers towards the east, he made that place an oratory, sacred to the holy archangel Michael.

The Argonauts, indeed, after the victory over Amycus, departing from there, were carried into the Pontic sea; and thence to Colchis, for the sake of the golden fleece, which they also carried away from there, together with Medea, the daughter of Aeetes, ^D king of Scythia, from the land of the Colchians; whence arose that which [is recounted] concerning Jason and...

Glauca, the daughter of Creon, king of Thessaly, who also perished by an accident ^A together with her father during the very wedding solemnities, as well as the rest of the history which the most wise historian Apollonius wrote down.

After Thola, Eglon the Zabulonite ruled over Israel. In those times there flourished among the Greeks another Sibyl, called the Erythraean. During these times, Tros reigned over Phrygia, who was the father of Ilus and Ganymede. He founded two cities, Troy, in his own name, and Ilium, named after Ilus, his eldest son. When he had finished the walls of the cities, he summoned to himself all the rulers—that is to say, the kings—of the European ^B region, except for Tantalus, the king of the Mycenian territory. Tantalus was grieved at this and conceived a great enmity against him. Now, Tros had vowed before he began to build the cities that he would send gifts and perform sacrifices in the temple of Zeus located in the European region. Once he had finished the walls, after two years, he sent his own younger brother, the one called Ganymede, whom he loved dearly because he was handsome and young, to bring the gifts to the temple of Zeus and to fulfill the prescribed sacrifice, having given him fifty men. He crossed the sea and set out for the temple of Zeus. ^C But Tantalus, having learned of this and thinking that he had come to spy on the region of Europe, sent many armed men, and they seized Ganymede and those with him before they could reach the temple. Ganymede, having been seized with fear, fell into a sickness; and Tantalus questioned him, saying, "In foreign kingdoms how did you dare to come as a spy?" And he told him that he had come, he and those with him, for the sake of the sacrifices to Zeus. Knowing this, Tantalus ordered him to stay and to be cared for on account of his illness. But the same Ganymede, having been sick for three days, expired. Tantalus then ^D took care that the gifts and sacrifices which they had brought should be sent on to the temple of Zeus, and that the remains of Ganymede himself should be buried inside the temple of Zeus for the sake of honor. Those who had been sent with him made a sarcophagus for him and laid him there, along with the sacrifice, having inscribed upon it, "Tros, king of Asia, consecrated his son Ganymede, lying here with the offerings, to Zeus." This was done by Tantalus to appease his father; for it was not the custom for the Greeks to bury

^A the remains of any mortal man inside a sacred temple, lest the divine things be defiled. This account was recorded by the most wise historian and chronographer, Didymus. Hence, some people fabulate that Ganymede was carried off by an eagle, because he died a sudden death.

After Tros, Ilus reigned over the Phrygians. During his time, that athletic triumph of Pelops the Lydian against Oenomaus the Pisean was celebrated in the Solar festival; which the historian Charax recorded. ^B

After these times, there was a judge and leader of Israel named Samson, a man valiant and mysterious, who performed wonders, as is recorded in the Hebrew writings. During these times, Lapathus ruled the land of the Egyptians. He had two sons, Achaeus and Lacon. Being near death, he commanded his sons to divide his kingdom and territory between them. Achaeus, therefore, after the death of his father, divided the entire region into two parts and gave one half of the territory from their ancestral kingdom to his brother Lacon. Lacon called the region reigned over by him by his own name, Laconia; and Lacon reigned for thirty-three years, and he built a city by the name of Githillia on the coast. ^C And after him, many others reigned over the Laconians until the kingdom of Thestius, king of the Laconians, who built a city named after himself, Thestia, beside the river called the Eurotas. This same Thestius had three daughters of surpassing beauty: Leda, Clytia, and Melanippe, who as they grew up were called the Laconides. Their father Thestius gave Leda in marriage to a certain man named Tyndareus, who, after the death of Thestius, reigned over the land of the Laconians. Tyndareus had a daughter by Leda named Clytemnestra, whom, after she had grown up, Agamemnon, the king of the Mycenaean land, took as his wife. ^D But she was corrupted, having been seduced by a certain younger nobleman named Cycnus, the son of Ederion, king of Achaia, who was descended from Jupiter Picus, while Tyndareus, the husband of Leda, remained unaware of the adultery. Leda was corrupted while she was passing time in her own suburban villa situated by the river Eurotas, where she was staying at that time for the sake of recreation. Having become pregnant by Cycnus, the son of king Ederion, she brought forth at one birth three infants: Castor, Pollux, and Helen, a maiden of wondrous beauty; whom the same Tyndareus afterwards gave in marriage to Menelaus, the king of the Argives, a comrade of Agamemnon, just as the most wise Palaephatus recorded, also testifying that the poets were mistaken in that fable about Leda being violated by Jupiter turned into a swan.

^A

In the times of Samson, Dardanus, the son of Ilus, reigned in the land of the Phrygians. ^B At the same time, a certain Abas reigned over the Greeks, that is to say, over Greece, for twenty-three years. After him, Proetus reigned for sixty years. His wife, Stheneboea, who was also called Antea, was enamored of Bellerophon; she sent certain persons to him, but he would not be persuaded, saying, "King Proetus found me as a wanderer before he attained his kingdom, and he reared me and deemed me worthy of the honor of dining with him like a son. Shall I do such a thing against him? There is no such custom among the Greeks." ^C When Stheneboea heard this, she calculated that, since he might have the boldness of a son toward him, he might tell him that she had sent people to him as if desiring him. Privately, she said to her own husband, "Bellerophon desires me and approaches me; I fear lest he give me some poison, and I die, while I am guarding your chastity, because I love you as a husband." Proetus says to her, "It is a custom among the Greeks not to do evil to one who eats at one's table. But I will send him to your own father, Iobates, with whom he has never eaten, writing to him to execute him as a conspirator against my kingdom and your own." ^D Doing so, he gave him letters, having sealed them with a royal seal. Bellerophon took the letters, ignorant of the plot against him, and went to King Iobates, and he found him at his midday meal. When Iobates learned that he had come, he invited him, and because he was beloved by Proetus, his son-in-law, he ordered him to dine with him like a son. And having received the letters and read what was written to him, and knowing that he had dined with him, Iobates said to himself that [it was better...]

being unjustly accused; for if he were conscious of any evil in him, justice itself would not have permitted him to partake in a common table. For among the Greeks, it is considered a sacrilege to do injury to those with whom one has eaten. ^B Therefore, in accordance with these things, he wrote back to his son-in-law Iobates; and as for what follows, it is according to Euripides, who wrote a tragedy on this matter.

After the reign of Proetus, the second king, Acrisius, reigned for thirty-one years, and subsequently after the victory won against Oenomaus, Pelops reigned for thirty-two years, from whom the Hellenic people were later called Peloponnesians. ^C He also founded a city, which he called the Peloponnese; from that time on, the kingdom of Hellas was called Peloponnesian.

At the same time flourished Democritus the philosopher, who taught philosophy; he who set forth these things in his own philosophical writing, that he who wishes to become a philosopher must practice temperance, must abstain from all evils, and must understand and do all things rightly, and when he will have philosophized in this way, then he will learn the nine-lettered name ^D and will see the Son of God, the Word, impassible, yet seemingly passible. These things are found in the writing of Theophilus, the most wise chronographer. In the same times, Hippocrates the philosopher also flourished, teaching medical philosophy.

After Pelops, Atreus succeeded to the kingdom and reigned for twenty years, and after him Thyestes for sixteen years, and after him Agamemnon for eighteen years, and after him Aegisthus reigned for seven years. The kingdom of the Hellenes, that is to say, the Peloponnesians, lasted therefore for one hundred and sixty-four years.

In the aforementioned times above, Minos, the son of Europa, reigned first over Crete; who, having dominion over the sea, made war against the Athenians and imposed laws upon them. Regarding him, the most wise Plato mentions, as he says, in his books on laws. Around those same times, Daedalus [106] were famous...

on account of Pasiphae, the wife of King Minos, and Taurus, her notary, with whom Pasiphae had relations. From him, having committed adultery, she bore a son who was called the Minotaur, the go-between for this adultery of fornication being Daedalus and Icarus. King Minos, having locked Pasiphae in a bedchamber ^A with two maidservants, provided her with food and left her there, seeing her no more. And she, being oppressed, as she was stripped of royal dignity, fell into a disease and died. Daedalus and Icarus were subsequently killed; Icarus, while fleeing his guard, fell into the sea while sailing and was drowned, while Daedalus was slain by the sword. Regarding Pasiphae, the poet Euripides wrote a play.

At those same times ^B, Hercules, that celebrated and mystical initiator, having performed his labors, went away into the land of Libya and encountered Antaeus, who himself was a mystic and performed certain earthly arts. And Hercules, having defeated him, killed him. This Hercules, after his victory, having been struck by a disease, cast himself into a fire ^B and died; concerning whom the most wise Didymus wrote. At that time, after Dardanus, Laomedon, his son, reigned over Ilium. After Samson, Eli the priest judged Israel.

In these former times, Androgeus, the son of Pasiphae and Minos, King of Crete, also died; and likewise, Minos himself died, and as he was about to die, he ordered the Minotaur to reign over Crete. And after this death of Minos, the Minotaur, the son of Pasiphae and Taurus, her notary, reigned over Crete. And the senators of Crete ^C, considering it an insult that they should be ruled by the Minotaur as one born of adultery, conspired against him. They approached Theseus, as a valiant man, the son of Aegeus, King of Thessaly, to fight against him, agreeing to betray the Minotaur and the whole country to him, and also to give him as wife his sister, Ariadne, the daughter of Minos the King and Pasiphae; for from Pasiphae and Minos, the King had had Androgeus and Ariadne. Theseus came suddenly against him into Crete, and all the senators and the army, having abandoned the Minotaur, decided to flee the city of Gortyna. The Minotaur, having ^D perceived the betrayal, fled himself into the Labyrinth region; and when he reached the mountain, he entered a certain cave and hid. Theseus

having pursued him and learned from someone where he was hidden, brought him out and killed him immediately. And having entered the city of Gortyna, he celebrated a triumph for his victory over the Minotaur; and he was praised ^A by the senators and by the whole country. And he asked them to go with him to Aegeus, his own father, so that he might celebrate the victory there also. But before he could sail down to his father, a certain sailor arrived and announced to King Aegeus, the father of Theseus, that the Minotaur had escaped from the city. And he believed that the Cretans had done him some great wrong (for it was said of them, "Cretans are always liars"), and he cast himself into the sea and perished. When Theseus arrived, therefore, he found him dead; and being persuaded by his own senate, he disregarded the kingdom of Crete and Ariadne, since his own father’s kingdom of Thessaly was now to be his, and he took as his wife Ilia, who is also called Phaedra. Ariadne, however, retiring into the temple of Zeus, remained there as a virgin dedicated to the holy rites until she died.

^B In those times, a false rumor spread regarding the love of Phaedra for Hippolytus, her stepson, the son of Theseus by a concubine; about whom the most wise Euripides later wrote a play in poetic form. Now, the events concerning Phaedra happened fifty-two years after the death of Pasiphae, as the most wise chronicler Domninus has recorded. As for her appearance, Phaedra was of perfect figure, well-proportioned, tall, and modest. Hippolytus, in turn, was perfect in figure, robust, dark-skinned, short-haired, snub-nosed, broad-faced, with large teeth, a sparse beard, devoted to hunting, and possessed of a wise and calm spirit. King Theseus, however, when he heard what was being disseminated among the people about his wife, Ilia Phaedra, was troubled by it; and being stirred to wrath ^C against his own son Hippolytus, he did not reveal the matter to them. But taking a white bull, he offered it as a sacrifice to Poseidon, cursing his son Hippolytus and praying—which was a most wicked thing—for his destruction. And it happened that, three months later, as Hippolytus went out...

^A to hunt on horseback, his horse stumbled and he was thrown off, falling to the ground; but he was holding the reins of the horse in his left hand, and the lead strap became entangled in his hand, and he was dragged by the horse. Having received a wound to his head, he was carried by his servants into the city and into the palace; and on the sixth day, he died from the wound to his head. He was twenty-two years old.

King Theseus, mourning for him, expressed his own grief to Phaedra, reproaching her and speaking to her of the things being bruited about in the city and the country concerning Hippolytus and herself. But Phaedra, upon hearing these things, swore to him by oath that she knew nothing of such a thing, and furthermore, that the slander was aimed at her in vain, and she swore that the things rumored by the ignorant populace about Hippolytus were false and wholly empty. Theseus, however, placing no ^B faith in her, and being additionally ashamed that his own leaders could not have been unaware of these things, removed her from his sight and commanded her to flee from his presence forever. He meanwhile was miserably lamenting the fate of his son, whom he had loved uniquely. Phaedra, however, conscious of her own innocence, and bearing it ill that she had been cast out by her husband because of a false rumor of the people, overcome by shame, brought death upon herself, being thirty-nine years of age; just as the most wise Cephalion recorded these events in his writings, saying that the poets fabulated in vain about the desire of the chaste Phaedra for Hippolytus, having devised these things poetically about her.

At about those same times, Eurystheus reigned first ^C over the Lacedaemonians for forty-two years, and other kings after him, eight in all, reigned for a duration of two hundred and forty-six years; then Alcmanus for thirty-seven years. The kingdom of the Lacedaemonians therefore lasted for three hundred and twenty-five years, as the most wise Africanus has recorded.

After the prophet Eli, Saul, the son of Cis from the tribe of Benjamin, reigned first over the Judeans for twenty years in the city of Gibeah. Among the Corinthians, after the Lacedaemonians, Aletes reigned at that time for thirty-five years, and other kings, eleven in number, for two hundred and seventy-seven years; and later, one more reigned for one year. The kingdom of the Corinthians lasted in all for ^D three hundred and thirteen years.

In the times of Saul, the Pisans first devised the games...

instituted the Olympic games, then celebrated that universal festival to Zeus Olympius, regarding whom the most wise Africanus wrote in his Chronography. At the same time, Samuel the prophet was high priest of the Jews; who, by the command of God, appointed David, son of Jesse, king of the Jewish nation.

BOOK FIVE

ON TROJAN TIMES

91 In the times of David, ^B Priam, son of Laomedon, reigned at Ilium, or Phrygia. While he reigned, Troy and the entire land of the Phrygians were simultaneously devastated by the Greeks: their more famous leaders were Agamemnon and Menelaus, together with Neoptolemus Pyrrhus, and the rest who moved their arms against Ilium on account of the abduction of Helen, by whose love Paris, who was also Alexander, had been captivated. For Helen was of fair stature, comely, with elegantly shaped breasts, white as snow, with beautiful eyebrows, an elegant nose, an excellent face, curly and yellowish hair, rather large eyes, gracious, with a sweet voice, and finally, a stupendous spectacle for beauty among women; she was, at that time, in her twenty-sixth year. But the cause which brought ruin to the regions of Trojan Phrygia and to all its kingdoms, is reported to have been of this nature.

92 When Paris was born of Hecuba, his father Priam consulted the oracle of Apollo, as to what should be expected regarding the son born to him. The prophet gave this response: "A son is born to you, Paris, an ill-fated boy: who, upon reaching his thirtieth year, will bring about the destruction of the Phrygian kingdoms." When his father heard these things, having changed his state—

^A Priam immediately renamed him Alexander, and sent him to a field called Amandra, to be reared by a certain laborer, until the thirty years mentioned by the oracle had passed. Leaving the same Alexander, who was also Paris, in that field, Priam his father built a great wall in that same field and called it Parium. And there Paris remained, growing up, living, and reading in that place; he became learned and well-educated, and he composed a laudatory speech on Venus, claiming that no goddess was greater than her, not even Juno or Athena. For he said that Venus was Desire, and he declared in his treatise that everything is born from desire. Hence the account that Paris acted as judge between Pallas, Juno, and Venus, and gave the apple—that is, the victory—to Venus, saying that desire, which is Venus, gives birth to all things: children, wisdom, temperance, arts, and all other things, both in rational and irrational beings, and that there is nothing greater or better than her. The same Paris also composed a ^B hymn in her honor, which he called the *Cestus*. After the thirty-second year had passed, Priam, calculating that the time of the oracle given regarding the thirty years of Paris had elapsed, sent men to bring the same Alexander, also called Paris—whom he loved dearly—from the field with all honor. And Priam himself went out to meet him, accompanied by his senators, his brothers, all the people of the city. And that same Paris entered Troy in his thirty-third year, in the month of Xanthicus, which is April. When Priam saw him so handsome in appearance, in vigor, and in speech, he ordered him to take gifts and depart for Greece to offer sacrifices to the Daphnaean Apollo, saying: "God has pitied my old age and averted the announced evils; for ^C the time of the oracle has passed." And King Priam having written letters to all the kings, or toparchs, of the European territory, instructing them to receive his son Paris, or Alexander, as he went to the Oracle of Apollo to perform the sacrifices according to his vow, and to receive him with the dignity due him.

^A Paris departed, therefore, after ten days, during which time he had been engaged with Troy—on the eighteenth day of the month of Daisios, or June—having accepted many gifts from the king and having taken with him a hundred young men from the flower of Phrygian youth, and set sail. He arrived at a certain city of Greece named Sparta, which was ruled, or rather governed, by Menelaus, the son of Plisthenes. This Menelaus had been raised in the palace of Atreus, King of the Argives, together with Agamemnon, his son—whence both were called the Atridae. Menelaus, in fact, was ready to sail at once to the island of Crete, together with his kinsmen, as he was obligated to sacrifice to Zeus and Europa in Gortyna, a city of Crete, at the time when Paris reached the city of Sparta. For it was a custom Menelaus had to hold festivals and sacrifices at that same time each year in memory of Europa, as he was of her lineage. Having received Alexander, also called Paris, and the letters of King Priam of Phrygia and Asia, and the royal gifts which had been bestowed by him, he embraced Paris Alexander, and having welcomed him most kindly as his own son, he assigned him, with all honor, his own living quarters in his palace, and every necessity for him and his attendants, along with every comfort, telling him to stay in that city for as many days as he might wish, asking him to remain to recover from the exhaustion of the voyage, ^B and then to depart to fulfill the command of the sacrifice at the temple of Apollo. And immediately, after providing him with great care, Menelaus sailed to Crete, having left him in his own palace.

While Menelaus was sojourning in Crete, sacrificing to Zeus Asterios and to Europa in the city of Gortyna, it happened one day that Helen descended into the garden of her palace with Aethra, Menelaus’ ^C kinswoman, to converse with the...

^A kinswoman of Menelaus from Pelops and Clytaemnestra, who was of the lineage of Europa. Paris, looking down into the garden and noticing the beauty of Helen and her youth, was seized with love for her; and having been helped by desire for her, and having seduced Helen by means of Aethra, the kinswoman of Menelaus the Pelopid and of Clytaemnestra of the lineage of Europa, he took her and fled with the ships he had brought with him from Troy, along with three hundred pounds of money and much precious ornamentation and silver, together with Aethra, who was of the lineage of Pelops and Clytaemnestra of the lineage of Europa, and her five chambermaid-servants. He sailed across to Sidon, and from there to Proteus, the king of Egypt, no longer going to the temple of Apollo and performing the sacrifice in Greece. ^B Now the soldiers who guarded the palace of Menelaus, having learned of the flight of Helen, and fearing, immediately sent three soldiers from the city of Sparta in Greece to the city of Gortyna in Crete to report to King Menelaus the theft of Helen by Paris, and that he had also taken with him Aethra, his kinswoman and that of Clytaemnestra. And Menelaus remained, having heard that he was "exechos" (out of his mind); for he was much grieved because of Aethra, for he held a very high opinion of her as a chaste woman. And immediately setting sail, he returned to Greece to the city of Sparta, sending out everywhere in search of Helen and Paris and those with her, but they did not find them. After some time, Paris came from Egypt having Helen and the money ^C and all her wealth. Priam and Hecabe...

Hecuba, ^A when they saw Helen with Paris and admired the extraordinary beauty she possessed, inquired of her who she was and from what parents she was descended. But Helen said, "I am a relative of Alexander, who is also called Paris, and I belong more to Priam and Hecuba than to Menelaus, the son of Plisthenes." For she claimed that she derived her lineage from Danaus and Agenor, the Sidonians, just as Priam did, and that she herself was of his own kin. For from Pleione, the daughter of Danaus, were born Atlas and Electra, from whom came King Dardanus, from whom came Tros and the kings of Ilium. And through Phoenix, the son of Agenor, from whom descended King Dynas, the father of Hecuba; and she said that Leda also came from the race of Dynas. ^B Having said these things to Priam and Hecuba, Helen asked them to take an oath that she would not be betrayed, and she stated with an oath that she had taken nothing of Menelaus', but that she had brought only her own possessions with her. Then Hecuba embraced and kissed her, and held her dearer than all the others.

When those around Agamemnon and Menelaus learned of the arrival of Helen at Troy with Paris, they sent ambassadors to demand that Helen be returned; for her sister, Clytemnestra, was pressing her own husband, Agamemnon, the king of Argos, regarding the arrival of Helen, her sister. She even wrote a letter ^C and gave it to Menelaus to be delivered to Helen, by which she endeavored to persuade her of her return. And Menelaus came to Priam, seeking Helen, his own wife, before the war, but the Priamids were not persuaded to give her up. Consequently, the sons of Atreus, the kings, campaigned against Ilium, urging on the champions, that is, the local governors. They also induced Peleus and his wife, Thetis, and her father, Chiron, the philosopher king, to grant them Achilles, the son of Thetis and Peleus and grandson of Chiron. ^D Chiron sent for him and brought him, for he was living on the island with King Lycomedes, his [Achilles'] father-in-law, the father of Deidamia. And the same Achilles went with the sons of Atreus, having his own army of what were then called Myrmidons, but are now called Bulgarians, numbering three thousand, together with Patroclus, the camp marshal, and Nestor; and they were urged on by Chiron, Peleus, and Thetis to accompany Achilles. He set out therefore

^A with his own army alone, for Ilion, along with the Argives and the Myrmidons. The same Atridae kings also urged—that is, they importuned—the other kings, or rather the provincial governors, and the champions from each region of Europe, each with his own army and ships. And they all sailed away and gathered in the region thus called Aulis. When winter came and the seer Calchas declared that Agamemnon must offer his own daughter as a sacrifice to Artemis, the goddess of that land, Odysseus went away ^B under a ruse, as if by letters from Agamemnon, to Argos, and he brought back the king’s daughter, Iphigenia. When Agamemnon saw her arriving, he wept bitterly; but fearing the army and the provincial governors, he handed her over for sacrifice to Artemis. And as she was going to the temple of Artemis to be slaughtered, a deer crossed her path, running in front of the kings, the army, the priest, and the maiden Iphigenia. When the priest and seer saw it, he said: "Seize the deer and bring it as a sacrifice to Artemis in place of the maiden." And the deer, being caught, was slaughtered to Artemis; and he returned Iphigenia to her father, Agamemnon; whom Agamemnon left there in the temple of Artemis as a priestess. And thereafter she was proclaimed, and Agamemnon was made king of all by the army there; and from there, they departed and set out for Troy.

When the same Greeks arrived at Troy, ^C the Trojans stood against them and did not allow them to land. Many were slaughtered on both sides, among whom Protesilaus, a champion of the Danaans, was killed; and the Danaans did not give way until they prevailed. And they landed on the coastal strip of Troy and secured their ships with ropes. When evening fell, the Trojans entered the city and secured their gates; but at midnight, one Cygnus by name, a relative of Priam, living not far from the city, having heard of the arrival of the Greeks at Troy, went out from the city of Neandria with a great quantity of forces and attacked them. A nocturnal battle having been joined, this same Cygnus was killed by Achilles, and his men fell ^D before daybreak. And thereupon it seemed good to the Danaans to take possession of the cities neighboring Ilion and Troy, as they had taken up the cause of Priam. Binding themselves to one another with oaths, they...

brought everything they captured into the midst of the kings, the champions, and the army, ^A setting apart Achilles, Ajax son of Telamon, and Diomedes. And Diomedes immediately set out and occupied the city of Neandria, which belonged to Cycnus, a champion of the Trojans, and ravaged its territory. He took captive his two sons, Cobes and Cocarchus, and his daughter named Glauca, who was eleven years old and of singular beauty, and he seized all his goods and everything in the region, and brought them into the midst of the whole army. Achilles, meanwhile, having immediately departed with the Argives and his Myrmidons—that is, his own army—approached the city of Lesbos and the region ruled by Phorbas, a kinsman of Priam who felt great enmity toward the Greeks. ^B Having occupied the city and the region, Achilles slew Phorbas himself; and having despoiled his kingdom, he carried off his daughter Diomeda as a captive. This maiden was fair, with a round face, grey eyes, well-proportioned stature, yellowish hair, and a slightly snub nose, being twenty-two years of age. Achilles, having returned, brought the spoils from Lesbos to the Greek army. Again, he set out and went to the Euxine Sea, and devastated that region and drove off the booty. Furthermore, he captured the city of Lyrnessus; and Eetion, the king who was over it, was put out of the way; he also took captive his wife Astynome (who is also called Chryseis), the daughter of Chryses, a priest of Apollo, and brought the riches of the king himself and the region back to the ships. ^C This Astynome, who is also called Chryseis, was of short stature, slender, fair, with golden hair, an elegant nose, and small breasts, and was nineteen years of age. He also slew the army of the Cilicians whom Eetion had summoned to his aid and that of the Trojans. Departing from there, he came to the sons of Brissus, a cousin of Priam, in the city called Legopolis. Having ravaged the whole of its territory, he remained, besieging the city, and slew many men; he took the city and took captive the daughter of Brissus, Hippodameia, who was called Briseis, and was the wife of Menetes, ^D

But Menetes, the husband of Hippodameia (who is also Briseis), was not in the city of Lygos itself; he had gone away to solicit help for the alliance of the Phrygians from Lycia and Lycaonia. This King Menetes arrived immediately with the help of the Lycians and Lycaonians ^A after his country had been seized by Achilles, along with the city and his wife, Hippodameia (who is also Briseis). He did not yield, but immediately, despite the fatigue of the journey, joining battle with those who were with him, he fought fiercely against Achilles, until he was struck by a spear by Eurytion, one of those who were with Achilles, acting as an officer of the army belonging to him (27); and all those who were with Menetes were destroyed.

Hippodameia, who is also Briseis, was tall, fair, with beautiful arms, comely, with joined eyebrows, a beautiful nose, large eyes, ^B attached eyelids, curly hair, hair flowing down her back, and charming, aged twenty-one years. Having seen her, Achilles desired her; and falling into love for her, he took her and hid her (28) in his own dwelling, not bringing her into the midst of the multitude of the Greeks. But the riches, and Astynome (Chryseis), and all other things, he brought very close to the front-line troops, the army, and the kings. But when everyone knew, because of the daughter of Brissus [128], who was the wife of Menetes, that Achilles had hidden her with the clothing she wore (29), they were grieved toward him and were angered against him, because he had perjured himself ^C on account of the love which he felt for her; and everyone upbraided him because he had hidden her. And, having gathered in council, they forbade Achilles from any longer attacking and taking cities and plundering regions, appointing others in his place: Teucer, the brother of Ajax the Telamonian, and Idomeneus, who took Cyprus, Isauria, and Lycia, having plundered and destroyed them.

Ajax the Telamonian, having set out, besieged the Thracians in the Chersonese and their king, Polymestor. Polymestor, fearing the strength of the man ^D, gave him much gold and grain for one year for the expenses of the Achaean army, and delivered up the son of Priam who was the youngest of all, Polydorus by name, who had been entrusted to him by Priam his father along with much wealth; for he loved Polydorus, as being the youngest of all, and as quite handsome; for this reason he had placed him in another land, so that, as he was tender, he would not be terrified by the clamor of weapons. But Polymestor also made a written covenant with Ajax that he would not bring aid to Priam. Then, Ajax departing, having engaged in battle with King Teuthrantas, he took him by the sword; and having despoiled his city, and having seized all his riches, [he took] his daughter, Tecmessa, and all the riches, by night to the Greeks.

^A Now Tecmessa was in her bloom 30, dark-skinned, with beautiful eyes, a slender nose, dark hair, with delicate features, a virgin, being seventeen years of age. The Danaans, having set Polydorus, the son of Priam, opposite the wall, signified to Priam that he should send Helen and receive back his son Polydorus, and that peace should be made; otherwise they would kill him. And they did not choose [to do so]... 130 from the motion of the seven planets which, according to fate, bring joys and sorrows to men, having defined the board as the earthly world, and the twelve boxes as the zodiacal number, and the dice, and the seven stones in it as the seven stars, and the tower as the height of heaven, from which to each are returned good and evil things.

Meriones was short, broad, fair, bearded, with large eyes, black pupils, curly hair, a broad face, a hooked nose, keen, magnanimous, a warrior.

Idomeneus was of stature exceeding the mediocre, dark in color, with beautiful eyes, well-proportioned limbs, strong, with an elegant nose, a hirsute beard, a handsome head, curly hair, a bold warrior.

Philoctetes was tall, well-proportioned, dark in color, with joined eyebrows, vigorous, with beautiful eyes, an elegant nose, black and abundant hair, wise, skilled in archery, magnanimous.

Ajax the Locrian was tall, robust, fair, ^C squint-eyed, with an elegant nose, curly black hair, a bristly beard, an oblong face, a bold warrior, magnanimous, woman-hungry.

^A Pyrrhus, who is also Neoptolemus, was of large body, robust, slender, fair, with an elegant nose, reddish curly hair, large bluish-gray eyes, yellow eyebrows, a reddish downy beard, a round face, impetuous, daring, impatient, and a very keen warrior. He was the son of Achilles by Deidamia, the daughter of Lycomedes, who, after the death of his own father, was sent forth by Thetis and Peleus, as his grandfather, at the request of the Achaeans, since Achilles had been slain by treachery, to avenge his father’s blood. And having armed himself, he campaigned against Ilium with twenty-two ships from Peleus, having taken his own army of Myrmidons, numbering 1,650. And having sailed he captured Troy, and found in the tents of his own father, Achilles, Hippodamia, who is also Briseis, the guardian of all things that had once been Achilles'. Having received her, he held her in great honor, asking her to be the guardian also of his own things in his father’s tent. And after a little time Briseis died, having been struck by disease. ^B Calchas was of short stature, fair, gray-haired both on his head and chin, with thick hair, a prophet and a most excellent augur.

But these were the most excellent men of Troy: Priam was in stature very tall, large, handsome, ruddy, with bluish-gray eyes, a long nose, joined eyebrows, beautiful eyes, gray-haired, and composed in manner. Hector was dark-skinned, tall, entirely bulky, powerful in strength, with an elegant nose, curly hair, a full beard, squint-eyed, with a crooked nose, noble, a fearful warrior, and deep-voiced. Deiphobus was of stature exceeding the middle, ^C robust, and fine-eyed.

(η) A prophet and most excellent augur. Concerning the one prophetic staff—for a golden one did not exist, But a wooden and curved one, useful for prophecies; For pouring ash from the hearth onto the ground, With this staff they would skillfully write the prophecies, Looking toward the sun and speaking the future. This staff Plutarch calls a *lituum*, But Quintus Cassius Dio says *lituus*.

^A [He is] muscular, with beautiful eyes, a depressed nose, of swarthy color, with a broad face, vigorous, [and] bearded.

Helenus, tall, with well-proportioned limbs, fair-skinned, hardy, flaxen-haired, with eyes reflecting the color of wine, hooked-nosed, letting down his first down, slightly stooped, wise, a warrior.

Troilus, of large body, with a beautiful nose, soft and straight hair, yellow skin, beautiful eyes, black hair, bristly beard, a sturdy warrior and swift in running.

Paris, who is also Alexander, of tall stature, sturdy, fair-skinned, with an elegant nose, beautiful eyes, black pupils, black hair, [with] first down, with an oblong face, lowered eyebrows, wide mouth, charming, eloquent, agile, skilled at javelin-throwing, timid, [and] a lover of pleasure.

Aeneas, short, stout, deep-chested, robust, reddish, with a broad countenance, elegant nose, fair-skinned, bald in front, bearded.

Glaucus, robust, prudent, pious.

Antenor, tall, slender, fair-skinned, with flaxen hair, small eyes, a hooked nose, crafty, timid, cautious, very learned, eloquent.

Hecuba was flaxen-haired, with beautiful eyes, of proper stature, elegant nose, ^B beautiful, ambitious, affable, quiet.

Andromache, her stature was more than medium, slender, graceful, with an elegant nose, beautiful breasts, beautiful eyes and eyebrows, curly hair, yellowish, with hair tied back at the nape, oblong face, beautiful neck, with a smiling countenance, charming, and of keen intellect.

Cassandra, short, with a round mouth, fair, of masculine body structure, with a becoming nose, beautiful eyes, black pupils, yellowish hair, curly, with a beautiful neck, large-breasted, with small feet; quiet, ingenuous, a priestess, a notable prophetess, and foreknowing all things, a holy virgin.

Polyxena, tall, neat, very fair-skinned, with large eyes, black hair, and hair turned backward, with a beautiful nose, beautiful cheeks, a snub nose, roseate lips, small feet, a sweet maiden, and extremely beautiful: ^C being of the age of [blank in text].

^A which was fifteen years old, was slain; just as the wisest Dictys the Cretan, who previously wrote of what has been spoken of above, and of all the other things that were done by the Greeks who campaigned against Ilium, faithfully committed to memory. For this Dictys was the secretary of Idomeneus (who had come down into this war together with the other Achaeans), and at the same time he was involved in the war along with him; and thus, having been an eyewitness himself, he carefully recorded the deeds in his history. Now, as for those who came, having been called to the parts by Agamemnon and Menelaus, the kings of the Greeks, each with his own army and ships, they are recorded by Dictys in this manner: First of all was Agamemnon, son of Atreus, king of the Mycenaeans, with one hundred ships, and besides these, thirty transport ships. Menelaus, Leistus, Arcesilaus, Prothoenor, and Clonius, with fifty ships. Elpenor from Euboea, with sixty ships. Menelaus, son of Plisthenes, king of Sparta, with sixty ships. Diomedes from Argos, with eighty ships. Ascalaphus and Ialmenus, with thirty ships. Schedius and Epistrophus, with forty ships. Meges from Doliche Helladica, with forty ships. Ajax Telamonius from Salamis, with forty ships. Nestor, with ninety ships. Thoas, with forty ships. Agenor and Teuthides, with sixty ships. Prothous and Magnitor, with forty ships. Eumenus, with eleven ships. Nereus from Mycene, with three ships. Chalias from Tricca, with forty ships. Leonteus and Polypetes, with forty ships. Amphigenias from Ilium, with forty-three ships. Menestheus from Athens, with fifty ships. Idomeneus and Meriones from Crete, with eighty ships ^B. Ulysses from Ithaca and Cephalenia, with twelve ships. Tlepolemus, with nine ships. Ajax the Locrian, with nine ships. Achilles from Argos of Hellas, together with Patroclus, with fifty ships. Protesilaus and Podarces with ^C ships. Palamedes with twenty ships. Philoctetes from Mothone, with twelve ships. Nereus from the Perrhebi, with twenty-two ships. Sorthes, Philippus, ^D and for the number of the ships, look, if you wish, at Jo. Tzetzes in the work cited.

of the Greeks were 1250 in number. The Greeks, as it had been decided among them, having assembled their ships, were first carried to the Aulidean region; and from there, landing in the land of the Phrygians, they ravaged their kingdoms, as has been written before, taking King Priam and putting him to death, and Queen Hecuba, and having taken their children captive and plundered all the royal palaces, they returned to their own lands. Thus, the kingdom of Ephesus, which was that of Phrygian Troy and all of Asia, lasted for a total of 219 years. ^B

After the capture of Troy, all the Achaeans, having divided the spoils and the wealth, and wishing to set out for their own homelands, prepared their own ships; some sailed away, but others remained, Ajax the son of Telamon, and Ulysses, and Diomedes having entered into a struggle. For the Telamonian Ajax sought to take the image, which is the Palladium, a small wooden figure of Pallas, which they said was perfected for victory, guarding the city where it was stored, inviolable. Now this same Palladium was given to the Trojan king when he was about to build the city by a certain Asius, a philosopher and initiate. And in gratitude, the Trojan king, in memory of him, renamed the whole land under him, which was formerly called Epitropos, Asia, after Asius the philosopher. This image Ulysses and Diomedes stole according to the counsel of Antenor, ^C a leader of the Trojans, whose wife, by the name of Theano, was a priestess of Pallas, where the same image was kept; and those around Ulysses and Diomedes, having entered by night into the ^D

^A shrine of Pallas, when the Phrygians and the Greeks were celebrating the festivals of the Anathema. The Danaans did this because a prophecy had been given to them that it was not possible for you to take Troy unless you carried off the Palladium. Then the Telamonian Ajax sought to take it for his own fatherland, saying: "It is owed to me, for I have labored for the Achaeans. For the request made of me by Hector in the duel he had with me is enough for me. And again, I made an assault upon the gate of Ilium, chasing the Trojans alone, and having saved the ships of all you Greeks, and having struck down many of the Trojan hero-men, I was not wounded. And I consider this sufficient for my glory, that I brought the body of Achilles out of the shrine of the Thymbraean Apollo to the camp."

But Ulysses opposed him, saying, "I will take it to my city; for you have not labored more than I for the Greeks. For from the beginning, after the theft of Helen by Paris, I set out for Ilium with Palamedes and King Menelaus. ^B Likewise, I summoned the kings and heroes from all directions; and similarly, I brought about the death of Paris. For when battle was joined between the Trojans and the Greeks, as you know, and many had fallen, and those who were in the forefront of the Trojan ranks, and you, the leaders of the Greeks, were standing and pressing one another to decide the war, I urged the hero Philoctetes to challenge Paris to an archery duel. And suddenly, Philoctetes went out into the midst of the kings and challenged Paris to an archery duel. And Paris, having heard, set out himself also, a shooter opposite him, and with him Deiphobus, his brother. And I went out and measured the distance of the space for them, where they had to stand. And having cast lots, it fell to Paris to shoot first; and Paris shot and missed. But Philoctetes, with me crying to him to be of good courage, ^C shot back, and pierced Paris's left hand; and immediately, launching a second arrow, he blinded his right eye. And as he cried out and turned away, I launched another arrow at his feet

^A and it pierced them at the ankles, and Paris fell. They all fled, having snatched up the body of Paris; and upon entering the city, he called for his three sons whom he had from Helen—Bunemus, Corythaeus, and Idaeus—and when he saw them, though they were small, he remained speechless and in the middle of the night gave up his soul. His former wife, Oenoe, seeing him, committed suicide by hanging. Deiphobus, the other son of Priam, who had been mutilated in his extremities by King Menelaus, as you all are well aware, took Helen as his wife. And as for Polyxena, it was by my counsel that she was taken to the tomb of Achilles to be sacrificed by the hero Pyrrhus. ^B And Ulysses, crying out, said: "Who is to be compared to me, who contrived the destruction of Paris in vengeance for Menelaus and Achilles and all the Greeks?" To this, Agamemnon and a great part of the army shouted their applause. Then Ulysses again said: "Nor do I believe that I should remain silent about the other dangers I underwent, I and Diomedes, when we sought to carry off the sacred statue of Pallas; how, while remaining in Ilium with the barbarians, we would return to the camp by night and report to you kings all that was happening to them—things which I would like to repeat even now. For when the Trojans were at that time celebrating the festival of the Anathema [offerings] at the seasonal time, this sort of portent occurred in the city at the altar of Apollo: they applied fire to the altar for the sake of offering the sacrifice, but it did not burn. ^C And though the fire was applied repeatedly, it did not ignite; moreover, everything that was placed upon the altar fell onto the ground. As other portents also occurred, the Trojans, being knowledgeable, said that the omen was not good for them. And the leading men of the Trojans, along with Priam and the army, compelled Antenor to go out to you, the kings, and by means of his own embassy to persuade the Danaans to accept a ransom and dissolve the war. Having learned of all these things, we returned to the camp and reported them to you all. Antenor, having accepted the commission, went out on the embassy and spoke these things as if from Priam and the others. Kings

^A of the Greeks, do no longer what belongs to enemies, but what belongs to friends. We have paid the penalties that we owed for our offenses. For Ilium has paid for the injury done to Menelaus by Alexander, who is also Paris; the graves of those who perished in the wars testify sufficiently to this. We bring you the price, by which we who are left from the war are to redeem our children, our country, and our gods. Since you are Greeks, therefore, liberate now for a price your suppliants, who formerly were defiant. We all, having agreed with Antenor, sent myself and Diomedes to Priam to determine the quantity of the funds. Having entered Troy to Priam, and after much was discussed between us, we finally decided that two talents of gold should be given to you, and just as much of silver besides. Then, having returned to the camp, we informed you about the agreement, having designated the weight of the funds to be given to you. Moreover, while you were performing the sacrifices, I bound everyone by an oath not to set sail from Ilium until we should have made the wooden horse, and having adorned it with suitable timbers and skillfully crafted it with every artifice, we should seem to sail away directly to Tenedos, the island nearby, setting fire to our tents; and the barbarians, thinking that we had departed, would remain relaxed, feasting, and at night, we would return from Tenedos and, having entered, would make the city fire-ravaged, and having put Priam to death, would restore ^B Helen to the palace of Pleisthenes. Since my counsel prevailed, the gods granted us victory over the barbarians. Therefore, you kings and heroes, become judges of my labors.

And Agamemnon and Diomedes, and their army, took the side of Ulysses; but Pyrrhus Neoptolemus, with his own men, took the side of Ajax the son of Telamon, inasmuch as he was related to him by birth, and his army likewise. After many other things were discussed among the leaders until evening, finally it was decided that Diomedes should keep the Palladium in trust until the following morning, and that each of them should commit it [to him], so that on the following day a decision might be made as to which of them the Palladium ought to be given. But Ajax, being incensed against Ulysses, Agamemnon, and Diomedes, withdrew to his own tent; and during the night Ajax was slaughtered with a sword. In the morning his corpse was found; and the army ^C fell into sedition.

those who were preparing to do so. In truth, he, having drawn off his ships, and providing for his own safety with flight, directed his course into the Pontic Sea; where having remained for some time, he then intended to return to his own country and city, Ithaca, with his fleet and army. But as he was traveling through the region of Maronides, the inhabitants resisted him: whom, attacking in turn, Ulysses defeated, and he became the master of much wealth; and conceiving the hope that, to whatever region he might land, he would certainly defeat all who came before him and carry off their riches, he also joined battle with the Lotophagi, into whose region he came. But being defeated by them, and when he was not far from having his forces destroyed to the last man, he took to flight, and at length, exhausted by the long voyage, he landed on the island of Sicilia, which is now called Sicily. This island was very extensive, and three brothers, mighty and of one mind with each other, possessed it divided among themselves—I say Cyclops, Antiphantes, and Polyphemus, who were born sons of Sicanus, king of the same island. These three brothers were men of savage character; ^B and they were not at all devoted to receiving foreigners, but rather to killing them. Ulysses, however, approaching with his fleet and army, entered into that part of the island which was subject to Antiphantes; and having engaged in battle with him and his Laestrygonians, when Ulysses had seen that many of his men were cut down, he boarded his ships and took to flight from there, intending to attack another part of the island—that, namely, which was subject to Cyclops and has mountains called the Cyclopean [mountains]. When Cyclops heard of this, having gathered his forces, he set out against him: he was of an enormous size of body and of deformed countenance; and having unexpectedly attacked Ulysses while he was lingering in his territories, he laid his army low far and wide, and took captive by hand Ulysses himself and some others of his retinue. Among them was a certain Miccalion, ^C a man of noble spirit, who had shown himself a valiant leader at Troy. This man, Cyclops, having seized him by the hair of his head, in the sight of Ulysses and all those with him, disemboweled him with his sword, as one who had dared to take up arms against Cyclops. But the rest he consigned to custody, whom he intended to finish off one by one. Ulysses, however, falling at his feet, begged as a suppliant that he would release him and the remnant of his army, through the mediation of a great price and gifts. But scarcely brought to this, ^D

the Cyclops promised his release when evening should come; yet he himself, wishing to depart that same night and to murder him and his men, and to seize all the wealth and ships he brought with him, released him and those with him toward evening. When Ulysses was set free, fearing the cruelty of the man, he immediately sailed away from his territories. But the Cyclops, casting about at night and not finding the ships, in his fury ordered stones to be thrown into the sea, lest they had perhaps anchored somewhere else inside the land. Since it was deep night and darkness covered the land and the sea, and being ignorant of the places themselves, they put in at other parts of the island, which belonged to Polyphemus, the brother of the Cyclops and of Antiphantus. This Polyphemus, having learned that some had sailed in by night and put in at the territory belonging to him, immediately took his own aid, and coming against Ulysses, waged war on him. And they fought all night long, and many of Ulysses’ men fell. When morning had come, Ulysses brought gifts ^B to Polyphemus as well, and fell at his feet, saying that he had come, a wanderer from the Trojan shores, after suffering much distress from the waves, and recounted to him the various calamities that had befallen him on the sea. This Polyphemus, feeling compassion for him, took pity on him and received him and his men until the sailing weather became favorable. But the daughter of Polyphemus, named Elpe, became enamored ^C of a certain handsome man among those with Ulysses, named Leon; and when a favorable wind blew, they snatched her away and set out from the island of Sicily. These things were set forth by the most wise Sisyphus of Cos. For the wise Euripides set forth in his drama about the Cyclops that he had three eyes, signifying the three brothers, as being sympathetic to one another, and watching over one another’s places on the island, and being most ready to help and avenge one another; and that he was able to escape the Cyclops by making him drunk with wine, because Ulysses made the same Cyclops drunk with much money and gifts so that he would not devour those with him; and that Ulysses, taking a burning torch, blinded his one eye, because he had snatched away the daughter of his brother Polyphemus, Elpe, who was a virgin, she having been ^D scorched by the torch of love—this is, he inflamed one of the eyes of the Cyclops, by snatching away Polyphemus’ own daughter. Which interpretation the most wise—

Phidias the Corinthian has set forth, having said that the wise Euripides transformed all things poetically, not having agreed with the most wise Homer, who set forth the wandering of Ulysses.

^A Ulysses, setting sail from Sicily, came to the Aeolian islands; and he was welcomed by Aeolus, the king of the islands. Now he, when he was about to die, distributed the two islands to his daughters, and they were queens of the two islands [(79)]. Now Circe was a priestess of the Sun, having been given by her own father from infancy to be reared in the temple on the island called Aeaea [(80)], who, having grown up, became a mystic sorceress; and she was very beautiful. But her sister Calypso, being jealous of her, had great enmity towards her, saying, as it is said, "Why does she deny her own father, Atlas, and claim herself to be the daughter of Titan, the Sun?" And Circe feared her, since Calypso had a multitude of brave men on her own island, lest, provoked to anger, she might attack and treat her badly. ^B Therefore, Circe, not being able to procure for herself any allies and guards, having prepared a very powerful philter by means of the forces of certain herbs through witchcraft, greeted the passing strangers, it is said, and by the administration of the draught, caused the strangers who drank of it to be overcome by the compulsion of a terrible spell, and by a desire to remain and a forgetfulness of their own fatherland; and all of them remained with her in excess, slumbering on the same island, forgetting their own fatherland, and she gathered many. But Circe, having learned that the ships of Ulysses had arrived at her own island, ordered her own people to welcome Ulysses and his army zealously; ^C for she desired to have him and his men as warriors for her own alliance. But Ulysses, when he had only just arrived at her island, saw many men on that same island from different countries; and recognizing some men who were of the Achaean army, having come to him, he questioned them, saying: "For what reason do you dwell on this island?" And they said to him: "We are of the Achaean army, and by the violence of the sea's waves we were driven to this island, and having taken a magical drink from Queen Circe, having been struck with terrible love for her, we now hold this island as our country." They reported these and other things; and having heard this, Ulysses, having gathered all his own people, commanded them not to partake of anything offered to them by Circe, whether of food or of drink, ^D because those things had a certain sorcery in them, but from the food provided for him...

^A by King Aeolus and the provisions previously stored in the ships, each man took what he needed for sustenance. But as for the things which Circe offered as food and drink, having been bewitched, they took absolutely nothing from her. When Circe learned this, she supposed that Ulysses, not being ignorant of the magic arts, had foreseen her designs, and she sent for him to come to the temple. He, having been summoned, came to her, attended by a military guard and with Achaean boldness, bringing her Trojan gifts. She, having seen him and those with him, asked him to remain on the island until the winter season had passed, having given him an oath in the temple that she would keep him and his companions ^B unharmed. Ulysses, obeying her words, stayed there for a short time, cohabiting with her in marriage, as she desired. Regarding this Circe, the most wise Sisyphus of Cos and Dictys of Crete have set these things down in their accounts. But the most wise Homer, in the manner of poets, told how she transformed the strangers who came to her by means of a magic potion, making some lion-shaped, others dog-headed, others swine-shaped, and others bear-formed and boar-headed. However, the aforementioned wise man, Phidalius the Corinthian, set forth this poetic composition, interpreting it thus: That it would have been of no use to Circe for her own desire if she had turned the crowds of men who came to her into beasts, but the poet was indicating men seized by the madness of love, portraying them as men whom Circe, ^C as she pleased, drove to fury, maddened as they were by desire for her. For love of this kind has a natural impulse such that it rushes headlong toward the desired object, even despising death. For indeed, by the force of desire, men migrate, as it were, into brutes, doing nothing consonant with reason; but, having put off the human form, they show forth bodies, shapes, and even mores that are beastly while they gape for women. It is also in their nature that rivals are borne against each other with a beastly impulse, attacking one another unto destruction. But they behave in different ways according to these lusts: for some, like dogs, couple more frequently; others, as lions are wont, seek only to satisfy the urge of present lust; others, finally, like bears, couple foully, defiling themselves; ^D just as this author has explained more fully and in accordance with the truth of the matter in his writings.

Ulysses, setting out from the island of Circe and tossed by contrary winds, was carried to another island, where he was received with honor by Calypso, the sister of Circe, and deemed worthy of much care.

having been united with her in marriage. Departing thence, he arrived where there was a great lake near the sea, called Necyopompos, ^B and the men dwelling there were seers, who revealed to him all things that had befallen him and those that were to come. And having set sail from there, a great storm having arisen at sea, he was cast upon the rocks called the Serenides, which from the striking of the waves produce a peculiar sound. Having escaped from there, he came to the place called Charybdis, into wild and rugged terrain; and there he lost all the ships he had remaining and his army, while he himself, Odysseus alone, was carried on a plank of the ship upon the sea, awaiting a violent death. But some Phoenician sailors, who were sailing by and saw him swimming in the waters, took pity on him and saved him, and brought him to the island of Crete to Idomeneus, a leader of the Greeks. And Idomeneus, having seen Odysseus naked and in need, behaving with compassion, gave him most abundant gifts along with his own army and general, and two ships and men to save him, and sent him off to Ithaca. All of which the wise Dictys, having heard from Odysseus himself, wrote down.

Likewise, Diomedes also, having taken the Palladium with him, departed from Troy to return to his own country.

But Agamemnon, having with him Cassandra, whom he loved, ^C crossed the sea of Rhodes, desiring to hasten to the city of the Mycenaeans.

Finally, Pyrrhus, having seen that all the others had sailed away, cremated Telamonian Ajax and, having taken [his remains] in an urn, buried him with great honor near the tomb of Achilles, his kinsman and the father of Pyrrhus, in a place called Sigris.

Teucer, however, the brother of Telamonian Ajax, who had come for his aid from Salamis, a city of Cyprus, fell in with Pyrrhus, and being informed by him of those things that had taken place; and having been made certain also of with how much honor he had committed the remains of Ajax to the earth, he praised Pyrrhus; and having prayed for all good things for him: Nothing, in

^A truth, have you done unworthy of yourself, who are the heir of that divine mind of Achilles. For time consumes the remains of heroes, but virtue shines even after death. Then Pyrrhus invited Teucer to partake of food and drink with him. And at the banquet, as one of his own kin, Pyrrhus asked Teucer to relate to him everything from the beginning that had happened to his father, claiming he knew nothing certain about it. And so Teucer began to speak as follows:

That victory which Achilles gained over Hector, no age shall consign to oblivion; for when he heard that Hector wished to meet Queen Penthesilea by night, having anticipated his journey, he concealed himself and his own men in an ambush; and as Hector and all his followers were crossing the river, he put them to the sword, leaving only one alive, whom he mutilated by cutting off his hands and sent to Priam to announce the death of Hector. And while none of the Greeks knew what had happened, he brought Hector’s remains to the ground [before dawn]; and having harnessed them to a chariot, with Automedon driving the horses, your father did not cease to drag his body, lacerated with lashes. When Priam heard of Hector’s fate, he wailed, and all with him; and so great was the cry raised among the multitude of the Trojans, while the Greeks were celebrating their own triumph with answering shouts, that even the birds of the sky were terrified. Then immediately the gates of Ilium were barred. Your father, having established a festival of contests for the kings and for all, bestowed many gifts. ^B On the following day, Priam, wearing garments of mourning, and taking with him his daughter Polyxena, a virgin, and Hector’s wife Andromache, with her two little sons, Astyanax and Laodamas, came to the Greeks, bringing with him also much finery, gold, silver, and clothing. When there was silence among the leaders of the Greeks, and he had come near, all marveled at the boldness of Priam himself, and they went out to him wishing to learn the reason for his coming. When Priam saw them, he threw himself to the ground ^C (87), casting dust upon his head, and besought them to become intercessors with Achilles on his behalf for the body of Hector. Nestor and Idomeneus pitied him and agreed to be his intercessors with Achilles for the body of Hector, and they moved your father on behalf of Priam. And he ordered him to enter his tent; and Priam, having entered, fell at his feet prostrate (88), supplicating, and with him Andromache and her children. But Polyxena, having embraced your father’s feet,

^A promised to serve him forever if he would yield the corpse of her brother Hector. The kings, pitying his old age, made intercession for Priam. But your father, Achilles, said to them: "He should have restrained his sons earlier and not participated in their wickedness. But the desire for things not his own took hold of him; for he did not so much desire Helen as a wife, but rather lusted after the riches of Atreus and Pelops. Give satisfaction, therefore, for the wrong you have committed; let Greeks and barbarians alike be disciplined by your example."

But the leaders persuaded him, upon receiving the ransom, to grant them the corpse. ^B Here, however, reflecting on the pleasant things of life (89), he raised up Priam, Polyxena, and Andromache, and commanded Priam that, once he had washed, he should take bread and wine with him, threatening that otherwise he would not hand over the body to him. Priam, suspended between hope and fear for the future, and supported by Polyxena, went in humbly to take food and drink with your father. When much had been said between them, they eventually rose; and the ransom having been placed upon the ground, Achilles, seeing the multitude of the gifts, accepted for himself gold and silver and some of the clothing; ^C the rest he granted to Polyxena and returned the corpse. When Priam asked that he keep Polyxena for him there, he told him to take her away to Ilium, deferring what concerned her to another time.

Priam therefore, mounting the chariot and carrying Hector’s corpse with him, returned with his party to the city; and having reduced the body of Hector to ashes, they buried him outside the wall of Ilium, mourning him bitterly.

In the meantime, Penthesilea arrived from the opposite Chersonese, bringing with her a large multitude of Amazons and brave men. ^D Having learned that Hector had been slain, she hastened to return; but Paris, hearing of this, persuaded her to stay, giving her much gold. Resting for a few days with her own army, she was finally equipped, and with her multitude marched out onto the plain. Having divided her army into two parts, the archers took the right flank, while the heavy-armed infantry, being more numerous than the horsemen, occupied the center; Penthesilea herself took her place in the middle of the horsemen with the standard. The ranks of the Greeks, however, having organized themselves in opposition...

^A to the enemy's archers stood I, Teucer, Menelaus, Meriones, and Ulysses; against the heavy-armed infantry stood Diomedes, Agamemnon, Tlepolemus, Jalmenus, and Ascalaphus; and against the cavalry stood your progenitor Achilles and the two Ajaxes, as well as Idomeneus, Philoctetes, and the remaining leaders with their own armies. I, Teucer, slew such a great multitude that I was praised as having excelled in valor, while the Ajaxes, having broken into their midst, destroyed the heavy-armed infantry ^B. Your father Achilles, being in the midst of them, kept his eyes on Penthesilea, seeking to kill her as she fought fiercely. Having approached her horse, he struck her with his spear and cast her from the animal, and while she was still alive, he dragged her by the hair. Seeing her fall, the rest of her army turned to flight. When the Trojans closed the gates against those fleeing, we Greeks pursued those who had been left behind and killed them by the wall, refraining from the Amazon women, whom the entire army, having bound them, divided among themselves. Penthesilea was still breathing, and a decision arose among us ^C as to whether she should be thrown into the river while alive or handed over to be torn apart by dogs for food; Achilles, however, asked that she be buried after death, but when the multitudes heard this, they clamored for her to be thrown into the river. Immediately, Diomedes, taking hold of her by the feet, cast her into the river Scamander, and she died right away.

A few days later, a certain Tithon, ^D called by Priam, arrived to give aid, bringing with him Indians on horseback and on foot, as well as the most fierce Phoenicians and their king, Polydamas. The number of them was so great that neither Ilium nor the entire plain could hold them. Many Indians and their kings also arrived by the naval fleet; all the kings and the entire army were marshaled under the powerful Memnon, king of the Indians. Memnon brought with him on his ships a great amount of wealth. Having rested themselves, they went out into the plain, bearing strange swords, slings, and square shields; the allies of Ilium and the sons of Priam joined with them, and Memnon himself came riding in a chariot into the field. We Greeks also, taking up our arms and meanwhile anticipating every evil, went out nonetheless; for we, the leaders, and...

our army were struck with dread upon seeing the enemy. ^A A shout having been raised, the Trojans, along with Memnon and the rest, attacked us; we withstood their first charge, and many were wounded on both sides. But when a great multitude of our men had fallen, we, the leaders of the Greeks, retreated, no longer able to bear the violence of the masses; and the barbarians would have burned our ships as well, if night had not come upon us. When night fell, we gathered the Greek army together and, collecting the bodies of the slain, we burned them. That same night, we took counsel as to which of the kings could stand against and charge at Memnon, while the others were occupied in fighting against the masses. The lot having been drawn among all of us leaders, it fell by some chance to Ajax Telamonius, my brother. Before the sun rose, we Greeks all went out armed, as did the Trojans and Memnon, the King of the Indians, and all their multitudes. When the engagement took place and many had fallen, my brother Ajax, having given the signal to the Greek leaders to fend off the rest of the Indians and Trojans, charged at Memnon, the King of the Indians, with the hero Achilles, your father, vigorously supporting him from the rear, concealing himself. ^B Memnon, having caught sight of Ajax and his charge against him, descended from his chariot and immediately came near; and they tested each other with their spears. Ajax was the first to tilt his shield, having turned it with his spear, and fell upon him heavily. As those who were near Memnon came against Ajax while he was engaged with Memnon, your father Achilles, seeing this, cast his spear into the throat of that same Memnon, and, the tendon having been laid bare, he killed him unexpectedly. When he suddenly fell, a great tumult and flight arose among the barbarians; and we Greeks, realizing this and filled with courage, killed all the Ethiopians. As Polydamas was attacking Ajax, the Telamonian Ajax charged at him, and having struck him in the groin with his spear, he took him out of the way. ^C When he too had been killed, and many others, the Ethiopians perished in the very act of fleeing, as the horsemen trampled them; and the whole plain was filled with corpses. As night was falling, the Trojans negotiated with us for the dead; and since we Greeks agreed, both sides built pyres and cremated the dead.

^A The Trojans, having secured the gates of Ilium, remained mourning for their leaders and for Memnon. A few days having passed, when your father Achilles challenged the Trojans to battle along with us Achaeans, Paris and Deiphobus, brothers, went out leading the barbarians ^B; and with them amidst the multitude were Lycaon and Troilus, who were also sons of Priam. Achilles, your father, having rushed forward again with those of us Greeks who remained, pursued all the barbarians; and as they fled, many fell into the river Scamander and perished, and many were clearly taken alive. Achilles slew the sons of Priam, Troilus and Lycaon, while we Achaeans slew the rest. And there was great mourning in Ilium over Troilus, for he was still young and noble and handsome.

After some days there occurred the feast of the Offerings, and a truce ^C was made in the war, for sacrifices were being performed, both the Danaans and the Trojans sacrificing to the Thymbraean Apollo in the grove which was a short distance from the city. Polyxena, having gone out with Hecuba to the temple, was seen by Achilles, who marveled at her. Priam, having seen Achilles walking alone through the grove, sent a certain man named Idaeus to him, carrying words concerning Polyxena, promising to give Achilles Polyxena if he would stay alone in the grove of Apollo. And Achilles, having heard the report concerning her, was inflamed ^D; but we Greeks, seeing Idaeus speaking privately with Achilles, were thrown into great turmoil, fearing that your father Achilles might be betraying us. We sent to him in response my brother Ajax, along with Diomedes and Ulysses, to warn him not to trust himself alone to the barbarians. They, having departed, waited for him outside the grove to tell him the reply. Your father Achilles, however, agreed with Idaeus to take Polyxena in marriage. A little later, Paris came secretly to Achilles, as did his brother Deiphobus, encouraging him regarding the marriage of Polyxena. Achilles received them privately, suspecting nothing evil because they were in the grove of Apollo. Paris stood by the altar as if to confirm with an oath what had been agreed between him and Achilles. But while Deiphobus was embracing Achilles, and Paris was at his side, as he was kissing him, Paris drove the sword he was carrying into him. And while Deiphobus held Achilles, Paris dealt a second blow to Achilles, and he finally became weak and fell. Paris and those with him and Deiphobus departed unsuspected through another exit of the grove; and when they were a short distance away, they ran at great speed back into the city. Ulysses, having seen them, said to Ajax and Diomedes: "It is not good, that which those men are engaged in."

Let us go in to Achilles. Having entered the grove, they saw your father, Achilles, lying on the ground by the altar, covered in blood ^A and still breathing. Then my brother Ajax said to him, "Was there truly any man among mortals who could kill you, excelling as you did in strength? But your own impulsiveness destroyed you." And Achilles said, "By deceit Paris and Deiphobus put me to death 96 on account of Polyxena." And he died. When 167 he became dead, having taken his body upon his shoulders, my brother Ajax carried it to the tents. The Trojans, seeing this, came out, intending to snatch his body and mutilate it. We Greeks, seeing what was happening, were in great distress; and we burned his body, and having placed it in an urn, we buried it in silence.

^B Pyrrhus groaned deeply on hearing this; but Teucer praised him, and with eyes intent upon him, said, "Who is able to declare your virtues? From your father you bear the blood of Peleus, king of the city of Phthia, a land of Thessaly; and from your mother, you bear the blood of Lycomedes, king of the Scyrians. In vengeance for your father, you have destroyed all of Ilium and Troy." Then Teucer stood up and embraced Pyrrhus, and he requested of him to take the sons of Ajax, his own brother—the Aiantides, born of Glauca, the former wife of Ajax, and Eurysaces, born of Tecmessa—and Tecmessa herself. And Pyrrhus granted them to him. Having taken them, Teucer immediately set sail for Salamis.

^C Likewise, Pyrrhus also took his own fleet and sailed away, and the whole Achaean army and the heroes departed to their own homelands. Sisyphus the Coan [[108]], who was present at the war with Teucer, committed these things to writing; having found this account, the poet Homer published the Iliad, and Virgil the rest. These same things are also contained in the writings of Dictys the Cretan, a work which, many years after Homer and Virgil, was found in a chest in the time of [(97)] Emperor Claudius Nero.

Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon, having previously heard concerning her own husband that he loved Cassandra, and having found an opportunity, gave herself over to adultery with Aegisthus, the senator, son of Thyestes. And having heard of the ^D impending arrival of Agamemnon, who was returning to the Mycenaeans [(98)], she plotted with Aegisthus how he might, upon arrival, be murdered by Aegisthus by means of treachery.

^A And when Agamemnon had reached the city of the Mycenaeans and had been received by the city and the senate and Aegisthus, he entered his own palace and was slaughtered. His wife immediately made Aegisthus king, and was married to him by law. And she had by him a daughter, whom she called Erigone, who, after the death of her father and mother, fearing Orestes, destroyed herself by a noose. The senate and the city and the army hated Aegisthus. But Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, having heard of his own father’s presence in the city of the Mycenaeans, returned from ^B Schyneus, to whom Agamemnon, when he was about to go to war, had entrusted him to be raised and educated. And his sister, taking him aside, revealed to him that Aegisthus was plotting to kill him. And as Orestes was considering what he ought to do, Strophius, a kinsman of Agamemnon, arrived in Mycenae together with his son Pylades, who had been raised and schooled with him. And Strophius, having learned the things that had happened to Agamemnon, advised Orestes to make war against Aegisthus. And taking Orestes, he went to the oracle of Apollo to learn about Orestes. And he received an oracle that Orestes must kill his mother and Aegisthus. Then Orestes also asked to learn if he would survive after killing them; and it was told to him that he would take possession of his father’s estates and the whole of the Peloponnese. ^C And he asked Strophius to return to his own country, leaving his son Pylades with him; and Strophius, being persuaded, did so. And subsequently Orestes and Pylades came to the city of the Mycenaeans according to the oracle; and he entered secretly to Electra, his sister, and besought her to persuade his mother Clytemnestra to receive him. Which Electra persuaded her own mother, and she received Orestes. And Clytemnestra, having been entreated, importuned Aegisthus; and Orestes, having been received by Aegisthus, endured it in a state of madness, wishing to avenge the blood of his own father, saying to all, "The kingdom is mine." And having found an opportunity, he slaughtered his own mother and Aegisthus the king, his stepfather. And he fell into ^D alienation of mind due to his madness, being beside himself.

^A And, because he was sometimes sane and lived in tranquility, and sometimes mad, for the healing of those of the city and of the senate—since they loved Orestes and wished for him to be king—the priests, having purified Orestes ^B and cleansed him, propitiated him from his madness concerning the matricide. And having led Orestes to the temple of Athena, where the Areopagus existed, ^C the case was heard between Hyacus, who acted on behalf of Tyndareus and Clytemnestra, and Orestes. Which Menestheus, having cast his vote, judged Orestes rightfully to avenge the murder of his own father, especially for the sake of other women, so that no other woman might commit such a wicked deed. Dictys set this forth in his sixth rhapsody.

The priests, therefore, having taken Orestes from the trial of the Areopagus after the vote, led him away to Delphi to the temple of Apollo to remain there, so that, having laid aside his madness, he might rule. And Orestes, having departed to the temple, being in his right mind, along with Pylades, and having performed a sacrifice, besought the Pythia to escape from his maddening sickness. And a response was given to him through the Pythia in verses, which is thus in the common dialect: ^D "Orestes, you must not otherwise put off the madness of your harsh sickness, unless, having crossed the waves of the Pontus and reached the land of Scythia, you also arrive at the region of Aulis. Having been taken in the temple of Artemis, you shall be saved from..." [alt-version omitted]

^A the grip of the barbarians, having traversed the land, you shall reach the land of Syria, which is shaken, and across from the mountain range of Silpius you shall find a mountain named Melantium, where there is a great temple of Hestia. There you shall put away your frenzied madness; depart quickly. I have spoken the fates that await you." ^B Orestes, having noted this oracle, set sail without delay, intending to go to the Aulis of Scythia together with Pylades. As soon as they had reached there and had proceeded about two miles on foot from the sea, Orestes caught sight of a temple, and around it the bones of dead men cast about. And Orestes says to Pylades, "Does it seem to you, ^B that these are the dwellings of the goddess we seek? For I see, indeed, the bones of dead strangers." And Pylades, having looked, says to Orestes, "Let us flee, if we are to be saved." But Orestes said, "We shall not flee; for we are not accustomed to flee, nor shall we despise the oracle."

Meanwhile, herdsmen who had by chance seen them ran to Iphigenia, ^C saying to her, "O virgin, born of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, there are present two young men, arrived by sea." And she questioned them, "What kind of men? Of what land? What are the names of these strangers?" For Iphigenia was accustomed to ask all who were captured and led to sacrifice from what land they came, and only then would she ^D slaughter them, desiring to learn about her own father, Agamemnon, and his affairs, and what had happened in the war against the Trojans. But the herdsmen said to her, one speaking to the other, "He called the other Pylades; but we do not know the name of his companion; for he did not say." And she said to them, "What business, then, have herdsmen with the sea?" And they replied, "We led our oxen there to wash them in the dew of the sea." And having sent Scythians, Iphigenia seized them; and they were led off to sacrifice in chains, just as the most wise Euripides set forth in his drama in poetic fashion, from which we have taken these few parts.

And when they had been bound, she commanded one of them to be set apart, and the other to be led to sacrifice. And the Scythians kept Orestes separated from the one; but they led Pylades to the altar for ^C sacrifice. And when Iphigenia questioned him…

^A of whose country he might be. He said: "I am a Greek by country, from the city of Mycenae, an unfortunate man." She, having heard the [175] country and the city where her father had reigned, wept. Thinking that they had been educated by the shepherds, she said to him: "If you have come from Mycenae, you also know who reigns there." He said: "Agamemnon was formerly." She again to him: "If you know Agamemnon well, tell me who is his wife, and what children he had from her?" He said: "He had from Clytemnestra, Orestes and Electra and Iphigenia, who, as they say, was offered as a sacrifice to Artemis, and the goddess rescued her; and it is not known where she is." He also had other daughters, Chrysothemis and Laodice. ^B Having heard these things, Iphigenia ordered him to be freed from his bonds [176] and, having written on a diptych (15), she gave it to him, saying: "Behold, the goddess has granted you life through me. Swear by her that you will deliver this diptych to Orestes, and bring me back a letter from him." He swore to her that "I shall place it in his hands and bring him to you." And having received the diptych, he went out before the temple, where Orestes was guarded, and requested the Scythians to let him speak with him. And he handed him the diptych, saying to him: "Go to your sister." And the Scythians remained, marveling at what had happened. And they brought him together with Pylades to Iphigenia. And Pylades says to her: "Behold Orestes." But she did not recognize him. ^C Thinking that it is not he, she says: "My brother has the mark of the Pelopeian race, an olive, upon his shoulder." Having looked at his right shoulder-blade (14), she saw that he had the Pelopeian sign; and she embraced Orestes, and ordered the ships to be brought to the land and the sailors in them; and having hauled the ships ashore, they remained through the winter. When summer arrived, Orestes, together with Pylades, secretly taking Iphigenia and the statue of Artemis made of solid gold, fled [177] by means of the ships they had, and crossed over to the land

of the Adiabeni. From thence they came into the east to the Saracen ^A frontier; and they went up into the region of Palestine to Tricomia. And the inhabitants of Tricomia, seeing the priestly habit of Iphigenia, received her with honor; and they remained there, Orestes having been seized there by his madness. The Tricomites built a great temple to Artemis, and requested Iphigenia to sacrifice a maiden to Artemis, and to give the name of that maiden to the village; and having brought to her a maiden named Nyssa, they performed the sacrifice to Artemis. Having made a bronze statue of the sacrificed maiden, which they called of Fortune (16), Iphigenia called the city (which had formerly been a village) the city of Nyssa, in the name of the maiden who had been sacrificed by her; and having built an altar for it, she inscribed these things: "Receive those fleeing from the ^B land of Scythia, O Goddess Poa Nyssa" (17); which are inscribed there even until now.

[178] But when Orestes had recovered his own senses, Iphigenia saw in a dream a hind saying to her: "Flee from that land" (18). And rising in the morning, together with Orestes and Pylades, she fled to the coast of Palestine; and having sailed from thence, they came to Syria according to the oracle.

Now the king of Scythia ^C named Thoas, having heard that Iphigenia had taken the solid gold statue of Artemis and fled, sent out many Scythians to pursue her, having said to them: "Do not return to Scythia unless you bring back to me the solid gold statue of Artemis with you." So they, pursuing and searching everywhere, reached the land of Palestine and the city formerly called Tricomia, Nyssa. And learning that those who were with Iphigenia and Orestes had descended to the coast and had immediately sailed away, [179] being delighted with the ^D location and the city of Nyssa and the temple of Artemis, and fearing their own king, they remained there dwelling, and called the city by their own name, Scythopolis (19).

Orestes, having arrived in Syria with his companions, disembarked from his ship and began to inquire of the inhabitants about the Melantios Mountain and the temple of Vesta. Having found them, he entered the temple, and after performing sacrifices, he remained there for a while resting, until he was delivered from his most grievous illness. ^A Then, having departed, he went down to the waters of the two rivers (which the Syrians call Melantia, because they flow down from the Melantios Mountain) to bathe himself. Having crossed the Typhon river, which is now called the Orontes, he came to Mount Silpius to greet the Ionites.

The Argive Ionites, who dwelt in Syria, having heard that Orestes had recovered from his illness, went to meet him, for he was of the same people as they and born of royal blood. And having encountered him ^B, they recognized those who were with him from the temple of Vesta. They asked them, "Who is this?" and they replied to them, "It is Orestes, whom we have brought here to you." The Ionites then greeted him, saying to him, "Orestes, where did you lay down your madness?" Orestes, still shuddering at the rage of that disease, did not turn himself around nor point out to them the temple or the mountain where he had been freed from the illness; but, raising his right hand over his head, he indicated those places to them with the finger of his hand, saying, "In that mountain, in the temple of Vesta, I laid down my heavy madness."

The Ionites therefore placed a bronze statue on a column, in the likeness of Orestes as he stood pointing out those places to them, in honor of that region and of Vesta, and for a perpetual memorial of the event, signifying to those who came after where Orestes had laid down his furious madness; ^C which bronze statue is seen there to this day. And the Ionites also called the Melantios Mountain "Amanus," so that posterity might know where Orestes had laid down his rabid insanity.

Orestes, having greeted the Ionites, went down to the coast of Seleucia (which was formerly called Palaeopolis); and having found ships there, he returned with Iphigenia and Pylades to Greece. There, having given his sister Electra in marriage to Pylades, he ruled over the country of the Mycenaeans until his death. The Syrians, however, observing the statue of Orestes and having learned the reason from the Ionites, and taking it ill of him, called him a fugitive; for the reason that he, having obtained so great a benefit in their land and having been rescued from such evils, had not given thanks to God, nor rendered back to the Divinity what was owed for that grace, ^D nor did he deign to return and show more attention to the Ionites regarding the temple of Vesta; but, having basely turned away from the memory of the event which he should have always cherished, [he abandoned] the mountain and the temple, where his savage madness

had been assuaged and he was saved. This statue of Orestes is called the "Runaway" by the people of Antioch to this very day; for not far from the city is this same statue of Orestes. The wise Domninus recorded these things. ^A

In the times following the capture of Troy, a certain Themis was much admired among the Greeks; for he was the first to discover tragic melodies and was the first to present dramas. After him came Minos, and after Minos, Auleas, who also wrote tragic choruses for dramas. Later in time, Euripides, having chanced upon many stories from these, also applied himself to writing tragedies. ^B

Then David, the son of Jesse, reigned over Israel for forty years and two months; he restored the city once called Salem, and later Jebus, and renamed it Jerusalem. Thus, from Adam to David, there are 4755 years.

After David, his son Solomon reigned for forty years. He was the first to build the temple in Jerusalem, having fixed in it brazen Cherubim and Seraphim; he was the first to begin building sanctuaries for the Jews, for they had none before. He also built a city in the desert, which he called Palmyra, because that place had formerly been the lot of Goliath, who was killed by his father. ^C Thus, from Adam to Solomon, there are 4795 years.

After the reign of Solomon, others reigned; among whom Ahab, king of the Jews, reigned. In the time of his reign was the prophet Elijah the Tishbite, who was taken up.

Others reigned also until Hezekiah; in whose times flourished the wise Homer, the poet who wrote of the war between the Trojans and the Greeks. Thus, from Adam to Hezekiah, king of the Jews, there are 5266 years. At that time, during the reign of Hezekiah, there was a certain prophet among the Jews, Isaiah. And it came to pass in the fourteenth year of the reign ^D

of this same Hezekiah, king of Judah, that Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, went up against the fortified cities of Judah and took them. And the king of the Assyrians sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem against King Hezekiah with a great force. And he stood at the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road of the fuller's field. And there went out to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, the steward, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder. And Rabshakeh said to them, "Tell Hezekiah: Thus says the king of the Assyrians: In what do you place your trust? Is it by counsel and the words of the lips that war is waged? And upon what have you relied, that you have rebelled against me? Behold, you have trusted in this broken staff of reed, on Egypt, upon which if a man leans, it will go into his hand. So is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all who trust in him. But if you say to me, 'We trust in the Lord our God,' ^B now come, make a pact with my master the king of the Assyrians, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to provide riders for them. And how will you be able to repulse one captain of the least of my master's servants, even though you trust in Egypt for horses and riders? And now, have we come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it?" And Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah said to him, "Speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it, and do not speak to us in the language of the Jews, and why do you speak in the ears of the men who are on the wall?" And Rabshakeh said to them, "Has my master sent me to your master or to you to speak these words? Is it not rather to the men who sit on the wall, so that they may eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?" Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried out with a loud voice in the language of the Jews, and said, "Hear the words of the great king, the king of the Assyrians. Thus says the king: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you with words, for he will not be able to deliver you. And do not let Hezekiah tell you that God will deliver you, and that this city will not be delivered into the hands of the king of the Assyrians; do not listen to Hezekiah. Thus says the king ^C of the Assyrians: Make a treaty of peace with me, and come out to me, and everyone shall eat of his vine and his fig tree, and everyone shall drink the water of his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine and bread and vineyards. Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, saying: 'The Lord will deliver us.' Have the gods of the nations delivered each his own land from the hand of the king of the Assyrians? Where is the god of Hamath and Arpad? And where is the god of Sepharvaim? Has Samaria been able to be delivered from my hand? Who among all the gods of these nations has delivered his land from my hand?"

^A And they were silent, and no one answered him, because the king had commanded that no one should answer him. And Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, the steward, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, son of Asaph, the recorder, went to Hezekiah, with their clothes rent, and reported to him the words of the Rabshakeh. ^B And it came to pass when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his garments and wrapped himself in sackcloth and went up to the house of the Lord; and he sent Eliakim the steward, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, clothed in sackcloth, to Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet, and said to him: "Thus says Hezekiah: This day is a day of trouble, of rebuke, and of blasphemy; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. Perhaps the Lord your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and to reproach with the words which the Lord your God has heard; therefore, pray to the Lord your God for these who are left." And the servants of the king came to Isaiah, and Isaiah said to them: "Thus shall you say to your master: Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the envoys of the king of Assyria have reproached me. Behold, I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor, and shall return to his own land; and he shall fall by the sword in his own land." And the Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria besieging Libnah. And the king of Assyria heard that ^C Tirhakah, king of the Ethiopians, had come out to fight against him. And upon hearing this, he sent the Rabshakeh to meet him with a great force; and he himself remained, and sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying: "Thus shall you say to Hezekiah, king of Judea: Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you, saying: 'Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hands of the king of Assyria.' Have you not heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the land, and that the gods of the nations have not delivered them? Have my fathers destroyed Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, which are in the land of Theman? Where are the kings of Hamath ^D and Arpad and the city of Sepharvaim?" And Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it before the Lord; and Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying: "O God of Israel, who sits above the Cherubim, for you are the only God, the King of all the world, who made heaven and earth. Hear, O Lord,

^A look, O Lord, and see the words which Sennacherib has sent, railing against the living God. For in truth the kings of Assyrians have laid waste the entire habitable world and its regions, and have cast their idols into the fire; for they were not gods, but works of human hands, wood and stone; and they destroyed them. And now, O Lord our God, save us from their hand, so that every kingdom of the earth may know that you alone are God."

And Isaiah, the son of Amoz, was sent to Hezekiah, and said to him: "Thus says the Lord God of Israel: I have heard what you prayed to me concerning Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians. Thus says the Lord concerning the king of the Assyrians: He shall not enter into this city, nor shall he shoot an arrow into it, nor shall he shield it, nor shall he cast a rampart about it, but by the way he came, by it he shall return. For thus says the Lord: I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for the sake of David my servant."

And the angel of the Lord went out by night and slew from the camp of the Assyrians 185,000. And rising in the morning, they found all the bodies dead; and the king of the Assyrians, having turned back, went away and dwelt in Nineveh. And while he himself was worshipping in the house of Sarach, his ancestral god, Adrammelech and ^B Sarsar, his sons, struck him with swords; they themselves, however, escaped safely into Armenia. And his other son, Nachordan, reigned over the Assyrians.

Hezekiah was succeeded in the kingdom of the Jews by Manasseh, who reigned for fifty-five years. There are, therefore, in all from Adam to Manasseh 5,321 years.

During that time, the Rhodians (brought under no one's power, but independent and masters of the sea), in gratitude for such great happiness, erected in their island a huge statue of bronze to the Sun: which, ^C because it was of a stupendous size, they called a Colossus; and from that time they even named themselves Colossians.

After Manasseh, his brothers Eliakim and Joakim held the kingdom of Judea for forty-five years. ^A From Adam, therefore, the total number of years is reckoned at 5,365.

BOOK SIX

CONCERNING THE TIMES OF THE KINGDOM OF THE ASSYRIANS AND OF AENEAS ASCANIUS.

^C Now, during the reign of King Joakim, 31 Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, arming himself against the Judeans, came up with an army, and he took Jerusalem and the entire land of Judea, just as the prophets had predicted to Israel. And he led away Joakim, the king of the Judeans, a prisoner; he also made all the royal vessels and all the people taken with the spear captives, and he no longer reigned 191 over the Judeans, neither in Jerusalem, a city of Judea, nor in Samaria. And henceforth the kingdom of the Judeans was handed over into the hands of the Assyrians, and they mastered them. In the fifth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, the entire captivity of the Judeans occurred in Babylon, just as Eusebius 39 Pamphili recorded in his Chronicle.

^D At these same times, the Lydians took the kingdoms—that is to say, the toparchies—by force from the neighboring 40 peoples. And of the Lydians, Ardeus 52 was the first to reign for thirty-six years. He also sub-

- ^Ajected the neighboring nations and kingdoms, and lived in pride.

After the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, Belshazzar his son reigned. He used the holy vessels of the Jews for the service of his table; and, in mockery, he ordered that wine be mixed in them for his concubines and all his guests. While the king was indulging himself in his arrogance and feasting, suddenly, on the wall opposite the dining hall, there appeared the joint of a human hand ^B writing: *Mane, Thecel, Phares*. This hand's joint wrote these things and vanished. Belshazzar, having read the writing, called to him all the enchanters, magi, astrologers, and interpreters of dreams who were in Babylon, questioning them: "What is the meaning of this joint, or what interpretation does the writing from it have?" But no one was able to interpret these things for him. The king, having been informed that a certain Daniel, from the Captivity of the Hebrews, had been held in high regard by his father because of the interpretation of dreams, sent for Daniel and says to him: "Since the grace of God is with you, interpret for me what my eyes have seen, and make known to me the meaning of the writing."

Daniel, having heard and seen the power of the writing, says to him: ^C "Grant me pardon, O king, and do not be angry, and I will explain to you the meaning of the writing." The king swore not to do him any harm for the interpretation. And Daniel says to him: "The God of heaven and earth, having become angry with you, has brought your kingdom to an end." When the king heard this, he released him to see if it would come true. And after a few days Darius the Mede, being sixty years of age, moved his army against the king, having behaved tyrannically, and slew him, and took his kingdom.

After the reign of Darius, other kings of the Assyrians reigned until Astyages. And then Astyages reigned over the Persians, who marched against the Lydians, coming with a great army. At which time the sun was eclipsed for many hours of the day, Thales the philosopher having predicted the eclipse of the sun. At the same time Pisistratus ^D

^A, ^B waging war used demagoguery, although the Lydians were not defeated in the war, but Astyages withdrew of his own accord. Then, learning of this, the Pisæans ^C celebrated a second festival, the Pythian games, giving thanks to the Sun, and placing themselves under the Lydians and the power of his might.

And subsequently, in the times that followed, the same Pisæans invented a third festival, the Isthmian games for Pluto. And the same Pisæans invented a fourth festival of games, and they celebrated the Nemean games for Dionysus.

After the reign of Ardeus, eight kings of the Lydians reigned until Croesus the proud; and this same Croesus reigned for 15 years. Thus, the kingdom of the Lydians lasted for a total of 232 years.

In the times of his reign, this same Croesus subjugated all the provinces, that is to say kingdoms, those near him and those far away, receiving tribute from those who obeyed him, and from those who resisted him, he took them and their kingdoms. And he had great fear, as he was successful and a conqueror; and he became arrogant. In these times, Solon flourished as a philosopher.

After the reign of Astyages, king of the Persians, Cyrus the Persian became king; who loved the wife of the king before him, Darios, named Bardane, and he took her. And in the fourteenth year of the reign of Cyrus, Croesus the king of the Lydians, having been taught by his senators regarding the previous hostile arrival of Astyages, king of the Persians, against Lydia, became indignant. And he signified to Cyrus, the king of the Persians, ^C to cede to him his kingdom and withdraw, or to accept the arrival of his most fortunate kingdom to do battle. But Cyrus, king of the Persians, having received the sent envoys, and having read the things written by him, said to the ambassadors: "For what injury has been done by me to Croesus, who is separated by such a great expanse of land from me and my kingdoms? Or how, after so many years have passed, does he now finally demand satisfaction for injuries from invaders?" And indeed Cyrus, anxious in his mind, [intended to flee into the Indian country].

But his wife, seeing him despondent and having inquired and learned the matter from him, says to him: "In the reign of Darius, my former husband, there was a certain Hebrew man, a prophet, possessing the wisdom of God, whose name was Daniel, from the captivity of the sons of Israel, whom King Darius held in great honor, and without whom he did nothing in wars. And when he consulted him 196 whenever he had war, he overcame his enemies. This man, after the death of that king, being wealthy and having grown older, retired to live a private life in the Marabitide region." Cyrus, having heard these things, sent his grandees to him so that they might bring him with honor. The envoys, meanwhile, who had been sent by Croesus to Cyrus, having returned to the Lydian country, reported to their own king the answer given to them by Cyrus.

Croesus, however, the king of the Lydians, having selected some of his own faithful men, and having given them both vile gifts and other royal gifts, sends them to Delphi ^B to the oracle, having said to them: "Change your attire and wear Egyptian attire, and upon coming to the oracle, hand over the vile gifts to the priest, saying to him, 'We are Egyptians, and we have come to consult the Pythia, and because of the length of the journey, it has completely escaped our minds why we have come to consult or to ask; but pray and ask the goddess why we have come.' But if she says to you, 'Why have you come?', then you shall also give her the royal gifts, and furthermore ask him to learn from Apollo whether I will defeat the king of the Persians, Cyrus."

The envoys, therefore, having received the gifts, departed to Delphi to the temple, and gave the vile gifts, and said that they were Egyptians, and that "It has escaped our memory why we have come." Having heard this, the priest was astonished, and having accepted the vile gifts, he entered the temple: ^C and having offered vows, he brought back this answer from the Pythia: "I know the number of the sand, and the measure of the sea; I hear the one who does not speak, and I understand the silent one. Is it that I am mocked by Croesus and his Lydians with such tricks?" And the priest, having gone out, said to them: "You are not Egyptians, but Lydians; and you have not forgotten, but by mocking the Divine, you have said these things." And the priest handed to them the answer of the oracle, inscribed on diptychs, so that Croesus might know the miracle. ^D

^A The envoys, astonished, presented even more precious gifts to the priest, saying: "Croesus our king is about to wage war with Cyrus, the king of the Persians; he has sent us, therefore, to inquire whether he shall emerge victorious." The priest, having entered again and prayed, brought back this response: "Croesus, having crossed the river Halys, will destroy a great empire." The priest then gave this response also, inscribed on tablets, to be delivered to King Croesus, and thus he sent them away.

^B The prophet Daniel entered before Cyrus, king of the Persians, who said to him: "Tell me if I shall conquer Croesus, the king of the Lydians." When Daniel delayed his answer, the king, becoming angry, ordered him to be cast into the den of lions. Having learned thereafter that he had suffered no harm from the beasts, he ordered him to be brought up, and falling at his feet, he said: "I have sinned against you, but invoke your God and tell me if I am able to withstand this rapacious and arrogant Croesus, who has occupied all the land and is not yet satisfied." Daniel, having prayed to God, answered him: "You shall both conquer Croesus and take him captive. For regarding you, God, who created all these visible things, spoke through his prophet Isaiah: 'Thus says the Lord to my anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I have taken hold of, that nations might obey before him; and I will break the strength of kings; and gates shall not be shut before him. I will go before him, and I will level the mountains, and I will shatter the gates of bronze, and I will break the iron bars; and I will give you the dark, hidden, and invisible treasures, that you may know that I am the Lord God. ^C I raise him up with justice, and all his ways are straight. He shall build my city, and he shall release the captivity of my people, not for ransom nor for gifts,' says the Lord of Hosts."

King Cyrus, having heard these things, fell at the feet of Daniel, saying: "The Lord your God lives; I will release the people of Israel from my land, that they may worship their God in Jerusalem." And having armed himself, he marched against Croesus.

^D King Croesus, having heard the answer of the oracle, went out against Cyrus with a great force; and he crossed the Halys, a river of Cappadocia. And he clashed with Cyrus, while it was winter, with much...

mud, and being defeated, he wished to take flight himself and his multitudes. But the river, having overflowed due to the winter, he was unable to flee or cross over. And he himself was taken prisoner along with his multitudes, ^A five hundred thousand. Cyrus then took the survivors from among them as prisoners, along with Croesus. 200 And having placed him on a wooden tripod, bound on high, he celebrated a triumph over him before his army. And he took him and brought him down into Persis. These things the most wise Thales, Castor, and Polybius committed to writing, and after them Herodotus [(405)] the historiographer [(μ)]; which also the wise Theophilus recorded in his Chronography.

Cyrus, the king of the Persians, released all the sons of Israel from captivity immediately. Or rather, when he had taken his kingdom, he permitted those who wished to go up to Jerusalem with Zorobabel. But two tribes and a half, that is, men with their wives and children, fifty thousand in number (because they themselves willed it so, being afraid of the nations that were around them), remained in the Persian lands. But the remaining nine tribes and a half returned to their own country, as the chronographer Timotheus wrote. And they were liberated ^B by the entreaty of Daniel to him.

After the kingdom of the Lydians was overthrown, the Samians, having obtained maritime empire, ruled over those regions. When Cyrus, the king of the Persians, heard of this later, he campaigned against them, and joining a naval battle with them, he was defeated and fled; and having arrived in his own land, he was slain [(48)]. The most wise Pythagoras the Samian composed the history of this war between Cyrus and the Samians, who also stated that Cyrus died in that war. The wise Africanus also recorded all these things in his Chronography.

After the reign of Cyrus, his son Darius, who was also called Cambyses, and many others, ruled the Assyrians [(49)]. ^C During the times of the reign of Darius, the son of Cyrus, Anaximander the philosopher flourished among the Greeks. He said that the earth is in the middle of the whole cosmos, and that the sun is not smaller than the earth, and that air is the beginning of all things, from which all things arise—

He also declared the human soul ^A to be aerial and to be the breath of the whole, introducing a vain opinion of error. He himself also set forth the equinoxes and the solstices. The aforementioned Pythagoras of Samos also wrote on arithmetic; and introduced into Greece the teaching of deeming that there are certain incorporeal principles. The wise Timotheus recorded these things in his Commentaries.

In the reign of Darius, son of Cyrus, a war was stirred up against him by the Ethiopians, who were treating him badly. When the Jews living in the land ^B of Media learned this—there being a great multitude of Jews—they left Media and returned to Jerusalem. When Darius, son of Cyrus, learned of this, he sent his general named Holophernes with a great force to Jerusalem. And he besieged Jerusalem, and something fearful occurred at that time. For there was a certain Hebrew woman named Judith, and she plotted against the Persian leader Holophernes, pretending, as she claimed, that she wished to betray the nation of the Jews. And she came to him in secret; and Holophernes, having seen her beauty, fell in love with her. And she said to him, "Let no one of your own be near me here, ^C because they come to me, wishing to violate me." And, being persuaded, he lived alone with her. Having persevered with him for three days, as she slept with him at night, she arose and cut off his head; and going out at midnight through the postern gate, she entered Jerusalem, carrying his head. And he had permitted it to be hung; for near the wall, for her sake, Holophernes had pitched his tent. Therefore, the Jews, having received the head from her, fixed it upon a pole above the wall before dawn, showing it to his army. When morning came, the Persians, having seen the head of Holophernes ^D impaled on a pole, suspected that this had happened by means of some power, and they fled; the war was dissolved, and the Jews obtained victory over the Persians. These things are contained in the Hebrew Scriptures. The wise Irenaeus also committed these things to memory.

After the reign of Darius, Artaxerxes reigned over the Assyrians; and Nehemiah the priest, who was of the seed of David, having boldness toward him, entreated Artaxerxes—for he loved him, and even caused him to rule over his eunuchs—and obtained from him that he might have his freedom.

^A and be sent away to Jerusalem to rebuild its ruins. For this was the first captivity of the city of Jerusalem, and the first destruction of the temple. And Nehemiah, having been released, went up to Jerusalem and raised it up, and the wall of the city, and he made its streets wide and improved it; for it had been desolate for seventy years. This was the second reconstruction of the temple. And the temple was completed in the space of forty years. The same Artaxerxes, having been besought by some of his senate, also released the remaining Jews, and whoever was willing at that time to go up to Jerusalem went up with Ezra the prophet and leader; to whom he also gave the sacred vessels and the sacred books that were found. And this same Ezra made records of the books that were not found, writing them from his own memory.

At those same times the Macedonia region began to be obedient to a king. The first who reigned there was Cranaus for twenty-eight years. And subsequently others reigned for twenty-three years until Philip. There were also at that time teachers among the Greeks—philosophers and poets—Sophocles and Heraclides and Euripides and Herodotus and Socrates and the great Pythagoras. Now ^B Hercules was born in the aforementioned times in Lato of Thebes, tracing his lineage from the Hercules who was the son of Alcmene and Picus Zeus; who was raised in the land of Spain, and having become a man, he came then from Spain to Italy, fleeing from king Eurystheus; and he reigned for thirty-eight years. He took as his wife Auge, the daughter of king Aleus; and he laid claim to the kingdom of Italy for himself, as one descended from Picus Zeus. Whence also those who followed him, from his kin, who reigned as kings, or rulers, in the furthest parts of the West, set up golden and purple statues to him; which statues stand to this present day.

There have elapsed, therefore, from Adam until these times, five thousand three hundred and sixty-two years. And after Artaxerxes, many others reigned over the Assyrians until Darius the Younger. In Italy, there reigned the son of Hercules, who was from Auge, Telephus. And after him ^C

^A his son likewise reigned, whom he called Latinus. This Latinus reigned in that land for eighteen years, and from his own name he called those who were previously called Citieans, Latins.

At that time 206, Aeneas, the son of Anchises, the Phrygian, fleeing from the destruction of Ilium, that is, from the Trojan War, went away to Libya to the Phoenician Dido, who was also called Elissa. And after tarrying there, he left her secretly and fled, as if fearing Iarbas, the king of Africa; just as Virgil, the wise poet of the Romans, wrote. But the most wise Servius the Roman set forth in his own writings, saying that Dido lived many years after Aeneas had died, from a small city called Chartima ^B, which was on the coast of Phoenicia, between the borders of Tyre and Sidon. Now this Dido was very wealthy; and she had a certain husband named Sichaeus, who was himself also very wealthy. But this same Sichaeus was murdered while hunting by the brother of Dido, named Pygmalion, who envied him because he was very rich and held command over all that land. For there were two of them, riders, hunting a wild boar and carrying hunting spears; coming then from behind, Pygmalion struck Sichaeus 207 in the back with his spear and killed him—for he was a brave man—and taking his corpse, he threw it down a precipice. And having returned, he told those related to him and to his wife that while he was chasing the boar, he had fallen headlong and perished. Pygmalion also intended to kill his own sister and take all her wealth. To this Dido, her own husband Sichaeus appeared in a dream ^C and said to her: "Flee, lest Pygmalion kill you," pointing out to her also the place of the wound. And so, the same Dido, having eluded her brother Pygmalion and found an opportunity, took all her wealth, and having loaded it onto ships with her own people, she fled and sailed away out of Phoenicia, and came to Libya, a region of Africa. And she built there a very great city, which she called Carthage, and she reigned in it, and there she died, having lived modestly.

Aeneas, having received an oracle, sailed away from Libya, wishing to come to Italy. But a contrary wind having arisen, he was cast with his own ships near Sicily into Calabria, at a city called Argyrippa, founded by Dio- ^D medes.

^A Tydeus, however, was an Aetolian by race, tracing his lineage from Oeneus, king of Aetolia. This Oeneus, having taken as wife a woman named Eriboea, had of her Tydeus. Eriboea having died, he married another woman named Althaea; and of her he had Meleager and a daughter named Dejanira. A certain young man named Achelous, son of Posidonius, a councillor of Tydeus, became betrothed to her. ^B But Achelous, before the marriage, secretly defiled Dejanira, and after this said to her father, Oeneus: "I will not take your daughter in marriage except on the condition that you also grant me the administration of your kingdom." Oeneus not being persuaded by him, Achelous, together with his own father, brought war against him. Compelled by necessity, therefore, Oeneus called to his aid from the region of Phthia a certain brave commander, Hercules, who was called Polyphemus, promising to give him his daughter Dejanira as his wife. Polyphemus, therefore, coming with an army, moved his forces against Posidonius and his son Achelous. In that very engagement, Polyphemus killed Posidonius, the father of Achelous, with a sword; ^C on account of this, poets have fabricated that Hercules tore off the horn of Achelous, which is to say his paternal power. And having seen his own father fallen, he fled on horseback. Therefore they write of him as a Hippocentaur. And while Polyphemus was pursuing Achelous, Achelous turned and, having shot an arrow at him, wounded him near the breast. But Polyphemus, for his part, in turn shot an arrow at Achelous as he was crossing the river called Phorbas. And Achelous, having been transfixed, was thrown from his horse into the streams of the river and perished. And from that time on, that same river has been called Achelous by those of the Aetolian region to this very day, just as the wise Cephalion records. And Polyphemus Hercules died a few days later from the wound received in his breast.

Meleager, however, the son of Oeneus, brother of Tydeus and Dejanira, undertook a truly great contest, laying low a horrendous boar in the Calydonian land. ^D He had as a companion in this deed Atalanta, the daughter of Schoeneus, who had herself also struck the boar with arrows first; for this wild beast was devastating that whole region. And Meleager gave the hide of the slaughtered beast as a gift to Atalanta, having been smitten with love for her. But when Meleager had returned to his father Oeneus, he demanded that the spoils of the killed boar be given to him; where when

^A he had learned that he had given the hide to Atalanta, he was angered against his own son. For he possessed an olive branch, which was kept by Althaea, his own wife and the mother of Meleager; which olive branch Althaea, being pregnant and desiring it, had eaten, and having swallowed the olive leaf, she immediately gave birth and brought forth the olive leaf together with Meleager. Concerning this, an oracle was given to his father Oeneus that Meleager would live for as long a time as the olive leaf which was born with him was preserved. This leaf, Oeneus, having been angered against his own son, threw into the fire, and it was burned; and immediately Meleager died, just as the wise Euripides set forth in a play concerning this same Meleager.

After the reign of Oeneus, his other son, Tydeus, the father of Diomedes, reigned over Aetolia. But Diomedes, after the death of his own father Tydeus, reigned over the land of the Argives, having taken a wife from Argos named Aegialia. And being reckless, he subjugated his own country, Aetolia, having made war upon them; and having dissolved its kingdom and made it subject to the Argive kingdom—that is to say, ^B under his own power—he immediately set out with the Achaeans for the Trojan War. But when he had returned after the victory at Troy to his own kingdom, he was not accepted by his own city or by his senate, but they opposed him, fighting with force. Having learned, however, that his wife, Aegialia, was contriving his death, as she had been debauched by some senator of his who was also resisting him strongly, and having likewise heard that she had been debauched by Oeax, the son of Nauplius—who, because of their love for her, were fighting against him with great strength, as the wise Didymus set forth—and Diomedes, seeing the leaders and all the land of the Argives resisting him, and being unable to depart, nor even to go to Aetolia, his own kingdom, as he had dissolved its kingdom, he retreated, having abandoned his own kingdom, and sailed away to the Calabrian region. And he founded a city there by the sea, which he named Argyrippa, as has been written before, which is called Beneventum ^C now. And having received Aeneas, who had been cast ashore, he detained him in the same city, holding him in great honor and care; and Aeneas spent the winter with him. ^D

^A Eneas addressed Diomedes, saying: "I know that the divine Palladium which was kept in Troy was received by you, since an inscription indicates that the Palladium belongs to Aeneas." Diomedes replied to him: "Ever since I took this with Odysseus, neither I nor my army have ceased to suffer calamities; hence, I was compelled to ask the Pythian oracle about it, and an oracle was given to me to return it to the Trojans." And Aeneas said: "Give it to me." And Diomedes, having immediately performed a sacrifice, handed the Palladium to Aeneas. Having received it, Eneas, when summer arrived, set out for Italy towards Latinus; and having united himself with him, along with the armed army of Phrygians he had, he campaigned against the Rutulians. In this war Latinus, the son of Telephus, was slain, and the victory ^B belonged to the Rutulians.

Then Aeneas went to Evander and his son Pallas, men most warlike, who were living in Italy, dwelling in a village called Valentia, governing one province. In that village Pallas had built a very great house, such as that region had not known, which house was called the Pallantium, and from that time the royal residences were called "Pallantium" ^C from Pallas. Aeneas requested that they provide him with military aid; to which the same Pallas and his father Evander provided four hundred brave, warlike men. And again, having gone to other local rulers, the same Aeneas obtained much military aid, since that entire region was opposed to the Rutulians and to Turnus, their king. And Aeneas joined battle with them, and the Rutulians were defeated in the war by Aeneas, and Turnus was slain; and Aeneas, after the victory, obtained the kingdom and the daughter of Latinus, Albania. And the same Aeneas founded there a great city, which he named Albania; and Aeneas deposited the Palladium he had received from Diomedes in that same city of Albania. And Aeneas reigned after Latinus for nineteen years.

After Aeneas, Ascanius Iulus, the son of Aeneas by Creusa the Trojan woman, the first wife of that same Aeneas, reigned there for twenty-five years. And he built the ^D city of Lavinium, where he also established his seat of government.

^A And the same Ascanius transferred the Palladium from the city of Alba to the city of Lavinium, which he had founded, and bestowed the kingdom upon the Lavinians.

At that same time, after the return from Babylon of the two and a half tribes who had gone up to Jerusalem, the high priest of Jerusalem was Eliakim, the son of Jesus.

In these same times lived Hippasius, the Pythagorean philosopher, who was the first to construct the celestial sphere out of the twelve signs of the zodiac; having suffered shipwreck at sea, he perished. At that time also flourished Isocrates, Pericles, and Thucydides, who wrote the history of the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians. ^B In the time of Thucydides lived also Phidias the sculptor, and Stesichorus, and Bacchylides, who were inventors of the art of dancing and poets; they were somewhat later than the aforementioned philosophers, and they subsequently became teachers among the Greeks. After these, Demosthenes and Aristophanes the comic poet also appeared.

After the reign of Darius the Younger, Artaxerxes, who was called Mnemon, reigned over the Persians for thirty-nine years.

Albas, the son of Ascanius, reigned over the Albans for thirty-six years, and he founded the city of Silvia; from then on, the kings were called Silvii. The same King Albas transferred the Palladium to the city of Silvia. ^C And from then on, those of the lineage of Aeneas, who are called the Aeneadae, reigned for three hundred and thirty years.

BOOK SEVEN

ON THE FOUNDING OF ROME

^A After this, Romulus, the founder of Rome, reigned with his brother Remus; hence they received the name Romans. They found the weapons of Hercules, who was sprung from the race of Picus Zeus, and deposited them in the city they had founded, Rome—formerly called the village of Valentia—in the Forum Boarium, within the temple of Picus Zeus, where they are to be seen to this day. Furthermore, these brothers restored the so-called Pallantium, which was the royal house built by Pallas, and having built a great temple to Zeus, they called it in the Roman tongue the Capitolium, which means "the head of the city." They also brought the wooden statue called the Palladium from the city of Silvia and deposited it in Rome. These brothers, while reigning together, fell into mutual hatred; Remus was killed by Romulus, and Romulus reigned alone.

^B From the time he killed his own brother, the whole city of Rome was shaken by disturbances, and his reign was agitated by internal seditions. The same Romulus departed to the oracle and asked: "Why do these things happen during my sole reign?" The Pythia answered him: "Unless you appoint your brother as an assessor to you on the royal throne, your city of Rome will not be able to be freed from disturbances, nor will there be an end to the tumult of the people or to wars." Therefore, having ordered a golden breastplate—a statue—to be fashioned from his brother's likeness and face, that is, his features, he placed it upon the throne where he himself sat. Thus, during the remainder of his reign, ^C the statue of his brother, made of solid gold, sat beside him; and the shaking of the city ceased, and the seditions of the people were calmed. The king, moreover, if he would proclaim anything, as if [he were with his brother]...

he used this formula: We have commanded and we have decreed. Whence that custom originated which has persisted among kings even to the present: to suggest edicts under this formula: We have commanded and we have decreed. From then on, to the individual cities of the Roman dominion, he sent solid gold statues of himself and his brother, so that they might be placed beside the magistrates of the city.

The Seventh Book

^B The same King Romulus, once the city had been encircled by walls and adorned, also erected a temple to Mars; and in that same month he performed a great festival of sacrifice to Mars, naming that very month March, which was formerly called Primus, which is interpreted as [belonging to] Ares. This festival the Romans observe by custom to this day, calling the day of the celebration "Martis" in the Field. And immediately, again, he began to build the Hippodrome in Rome, wishing to disperse the multitude of the Roman people, because they were seditious and were attacking him on account of his brother. And he was the first to perform a chariot race in the region of Rome for the festival of the Sun, he says, and in honor of the four elements beneath Him, that is to say of the earth and the sea and the fire and the air, having reasoned this too, that the kings of the Persians are always successfully borne in wars because they hold these same four elements in veneration. ^C For Oenomaus, the king of the Pisan territory, performed a competition in the European regions [219] in the month of Dystrus, which is also the 25th of March, to the Sun-Titan as he was rising, while the earth and the sea, that is to say Demeter and Poseidon—who are the elements subject to the Sun—were striving, he says. And a lot was cast between this same King Oenomaus and the one arriving from whatever part of the world he might have come, who was about to contend with him. And if

^A the lot called upon Oenomaus to contend on behalf of Poseidon, he wore a costume of dark blue garments, which represents the waters, and his opponent contending against him wore the green costume, which is that of the earth. And again, if the lot brought it about for Oenomaus to wear the costume of Demeter, he wore the green costume, and his opponent wore the costume of Poseidon, which is that of the waters—the dark blue. And the one who was defeated was put to death. A limitless multitude would come from every land and city to watch this annual royal contest; and the citizens living in the maritime cities and on the islands, and those in the coastal villages, and the sailors, prayed for the one wearing the dark blue costume—that is, Poseidon's—to win, presaging that if the one contending for Poseidon were defeated, there would be a scarcity of all kinds of fish, shipwrecks at sea, and the necessity of violent winds. Those citizens living inland, and the local farmers, and all those who labored in agriculture, prayed for the one wearing the green costume to win, presaging that if the one contending for Demeter—that is, for the earth—were defeated, there would be a famine of grain and a shortage of wine, oil, and all other fruits. Oenomaus defeated many opponents and for many years; for he also had Apsyrtus teaching him the art of charioteering. This Oenomaus was defeated by Pelops the Lydian and was killed.

The inventor of this equestrian contest was a certain man named Enyalius, a son of Poseidon, who took as his wife Libya, the daughter of Io and of Picean Zeus, who, having gained control over the southern regions, named the very land over which he reigned Libya, after the name of his wife. This same equestrian contest Enyalius first celebrated with two-horse chariots, ^B just as the wise Callimachus recorded these things in his *Aitia*.

And then, after him, Erichthonius performed this same contest with four-horse chariots; for which reason he also became famous, as it is recorded in the *Histories* of Charax, who also wrote this: that the structure of the hippodrome was built according to the order of the universe—that is, of the heaven, the earth, and the sea; he related the twelve gates to the twelve houses of the zodiac, which governs the earth and the sea and the fleeting path of human life. The floor of the hippodrome represented the whole earth, and the Euripus the sea, ^C intercepted by the middle earth; the turn which was at the gates [represented] the east, and the one at the...

sling represented the west, and the seven *spatia* (85) the course and the astronomical movement of the seven stars of the Great Bear (j)(84).

Romulus, the king, finding the race in Rome for the honor of the Sun himself and the four elements subject to it, was the first to introduce it, and he conducted it in the region of the West, that is to say in Italy, with four-horse chariots, which correspond to the earth, the sea, the fire, and the air. Romulus also gave names to these same four elements; he called the faction of the earth the Green (*Prasinon*), on account of its green color; the faction of the sea, which is for the waters, the Blue (*Veneton*), as being azure; the faction of the fire the Red (*Rousseon*), as being red; and the faction of the air the White (*Albon*), as being white; and from thence the four factions in Rome were devised. He called the Green faction, which in Latin is *emparamon*, ^B for *praisentuein* (k) is said for 'to remain' (85), because the grassy earth always stands firm with its groves. And he called the Blue (86) faction from the fact that beneath Rome there is a large province and region called Venetia (1), of which Aquileia is the metropolis, and from thence come the blue, that is to say, the Venetian dyes for garments. And he attached to the Green faction, which is the earth, the White, saying it is the air, inasmuch as it rains and ministers and is suited to the earth; and to the Blue faction, which is the waters, he attached by mixing the Red faction, which is the fire, inasmuch as water extinguishes fire as if it were subject to it. And henceforth the inhabitants of Rome were divided into these factions, and they were no longer in concord with one another, because they began to love their ^C own victory and to claim their own faction as if it were a religion. And a great schism arose in Rome, and the factions held great enmity towards one another in Rome, from the time when Romulus first [introduced] that spectacle of the equestrian contest ^D and its astronomical movement, [alt-version omitted] the seven stars of the Great Bear (j)(84) in the manner of the seven planets. Romulus, moreover, and he himself, for the honor of the Sun, and of the four elements which are subject to it, was the first to introduce this contest into Rome; he performed it first in the West, that is, in Italy, with four-horse chariots, corresponding to the earth, the sea, the fire, and the air. Romulus further gave names to these four elements; from the earth he named the *Prasinus* faction, on account of its green color; from the sea the *Veneta*, on account of the azure color of the waters; from the fire the *Russeus*, on account of the reddish color; and from the air the *Albus*, on account of the whiteness of the color. Thence those four factions in Rome. He called the *Prasinus* faction thus, because the green earth with its groves stands always firm. For *Prasinum* is 'permanent' to the Latins. He called the *Veneta* faction, because from the Venetian province, which is subject to Rome, and whose metropolis is Aquileia, Venetian cloths, that is, those dyed with an azure color, are brought. Moreover, to the *Prasinus* faction, or the earth, he joined the *Albus*, that is, the air; from which the air becomes accommodated to the earth, irrigating it and serving it. To the *Veneta* faction, or the waters, he assigned the *Russeus*, that is, the fire; because water extinguishes fire as if it were a thing subject to itself. Furthermore, the Romans, distracted in this manner into factions on account of the partisanship for the factions, while each desired that one to be superior which he himself favored the most, were no longer concordant among themselves. For each struggled for his own faction as if for a religion; thence arose internal hatreds and most grave dissensions among the factions in the city, from the time when Romulus first ^D

^A devised for them the spectacle of the hippodrome. And whenever Romulus saw in any quarter those peoples or senators who were grieving and opposing him because of the murder of his brother, or for any other reason whatsoever, he seemed to side with the opposing party, and thus he held them both well-disposed and counteracting the objective of his adversaries. From that time on, the kings of Rome who came after him employed the same artifice.

As Romulus was reigning, his army grew very large, gathering from everywhere; and there was in the city a huge number of rustic soldiers, for whom—given their great numbers—there were no wives. And when the cohorts of young men were seized with the itch of lust, they were molesting women everywhere in the forum: whence arose sedition and civil war. And Romulus was despondent, being at a loss what to do; for not one of the women would endure to have relations with the soldiers, as they were wild and barbaric. ^B And he proclaimed a law that the soldiers should take as wives virgins, whom he called Brutidas; but no one chose to give them his own daughter, but rather they said that they had no hope of their living from day to day, being exposed to whatever fortunes of war might befall. And so, all the Roman citizens were betrothing their daughters to others. Romulus, being troubled at this, went to the oracle; and an answer was given to him that he should set forth a spectacle of an equestrian contest for the women, so that the army might somehow acquire wives for itself. ^C And having assembled the multitude of the army in the palace, he held a horse race, ordering that only women should observe the hippodrome. And as though a certain unusual spectacle were about to take place, from all the surrounding vicinity and from distant cities and villages, multitudes of women came into the city of Rome, and the hippodrome was filled with wives and younger virgins; and there came also the daughters of those called the Sabines—a region being near to Rome—women of great beauty. And Romulus gave secret orders that no wife of a Roman citizen should observe it, and gave instructions to his own army that they should not dare to touch any married woman, but solely to seize the virgins and those who were entirely without husbands. ^D And as the horse race was being carried out, when the army was released from the palace, they rushed into the hippodrome, and from the tiers dragged off the virgins...

and women who did not have husbands; and they took them for themselves as wives. ^A Romulus intended for this to happen only once, as the most wise Virgil has set forth; and the Roman historiographer Pliny likewise wrote of it, as did Livy. Other historians have written that Romulus first performed the equestrian games for them with pack-mules.

It is rumored that the brothers Romulus and Remus were suckled by Lupa, when the king Amulius, their grandfather, ordered them to be cast into the woods as illegitimate; because their mother Ilia, a priestess of Ares, had been defiled, having been violated by a certain soldier—regarding whom they mythologize, saying that Ares made her pregnant—and she brought them forth as twins, and for this reason their grandfather cast them into the woods. And a certain countrywoman, who was pasturing sheep, found these same children; and having taken pity because they were beautiful, she reared them with her own milk. In that region, even until now, they call the countrywomen who pastor sheep "she-wolves," as they always spend their life and conduct with wolves. ^B On account of this, therefore, Romulus devised what are called the Brumalia, saying, he asserts, that it is necessary for the king for the time being to feed his entire senate and those in positions of honor and all the armies inside the palace, as men of honor in the winter season, when military matters have a lull. And he began to invite and feed first those whose names started with alpha, and then in order following that, up to the last letter; he ordered also that the senate should invite the people in the same manner. And so these also invited the entire army and anyone else they wished. And the musicians (panduristai) of the individual squadrons would go to the homes of those providing the banquet the evening before, and would sing there until the following day, ^C

so that the person might know that they would be fed by him on the morrow. And the custom of the ^A Brumalia was maintained in the Roman polity [228] down to the present day. This same Romulus did, wishing to erase the stain of his own reputation, because the Romans, who were hostile to him and hated and mocked him, said that it was not fitting for him to reign, being an insulted man, because the two brothers had been fed by others from their swaddling clothes until they arrived at mature age and reigned, meaning that they had been fed by Faustulus the farmer and his wife Lucina, eating of others' bread, as has been written before. For it was a reproach among the Romans and among all the ancients at one time for one to be fed by others: whence also in the symposia called 'Friendly' (96), each of those gathered for the banquet brings his own food and drink with him, and everything is placed in common, and they eat, adhering to the ancient custom down to the present day, so as not to be called eaters of others' bread. For this reason, therefore, the same Romulus devised this, in order to wipe away that insult to himself, having called the very name of the ^B banquet 'Brumalium' in the Roman tongue, as the most wise Licinius, the chronicler of the Romans, has set forth.

After Romulus and Remus the brothers, others reigned in Rome, up to that unjust Tarquinius Superbus. For he was the seventh king of the Romans after the city was founded; and the royal power was taken away from him. In the times of his reign, the Cumaean Sibyl flourished, the prophetess. That same Tarquinius had a son named Arruns, who was the cause of Tarquinius the father being disturbed from the kingdom, because the son of Tarquinius, Arruns (98), had forced and violated Lucretia, a noble lady; and she slew herself.

And a great civil war arose in Rome in the course of time, and many were slaughtered. This the wise Servius, a Roman writer, recorded.

^B Tarquinius was cast out of his kingdom in this manner. War having been stirred up against the Romans by the nation of the so-called Ardeates, King Tarquinius, having gathered his forces, came to wage war against the territory of the Ardeates. And his enemies, the senators, finding an opportune time—Brutus, the uncle of Lucretia, and Collatinus, her husband, men of the senatorial order, together with the other senators and all the people—devised among themselves how to cast him out of the kingdom. They also persuaded those who were to guard the palace and the city of Rome, the so-called Celeriani (99), who were very warlike men in battle, to join them in the alliance and not to receive Tarquinius as king any longer upon his return to Rome.

When Tarquinius learned of the plot formed against him ^C by the senate, the army, and the people, he himself sent and subverted the son of Brutus, who was a friend and contemporary of his own son, Arruns. And being persuaded, he agreed that as the same Tarquinius came against Rome, he would betray the city and slay his own father, Brutus. But the slave of Brutus, Vindicius (2), who was accompanying his son, learned of this and secretly reported to his own master, Brutus, the plot that was about to be carried out against him by his son. And Brutus, having heard this, immediately seized his own son, and in the forum of Rome, having examined him before everyone, forced him to reveal the things he and Tarquinius had deliberated. And he confessed to his own father the arrangement he had made to betray him to Tarquinius; and he immediately slew his own son.

^D And then the entire senate of Rome gathered and denounced Tarquinius from the kingdom, recording his deposition in writing; and they voted first (5) and designated two consuls, Brutus the Great and Collatinus, the husband of Lucretia, to administer the Roman commonwealth, choosing them by their own discernment as magistrates; and [they decreed] that henceforth there should be no king in Rome, and they wrote to the army that was with Tarquinius to abandon him; and they departed immediately. But only after Consul Brutus had advanced, immediately bringing his own...

^A slave, Vindicius, out of gratitude for having faithfully guarded his own master, and having instituted a solemn festival to Justice, and having seated himself on the high 232 tribunal, he brought Vindicius up on high opposite him, and stretching out his right hand and applying three blows with his palm upon his cheek, he cried out with a loud voice, saying these things: "Having shaken off the fortune of your servitude, O Vindicius, and having cast off its yoke, be clothed in the breastplate of Roman liberty for the whole time of your life." And taking from his own finger a gold ring, he placed it upon his right hand, having granted him also the rank of Count and a portion of his own substance, and calling that same day of the festival *Consilia*, which is interpreted as the day of largesse. He also commanded all the proconsuls and governors of the provinces to celebrate on that same day a sacred vigil and an annual festival to Justice, in memory of the expulsion of Tarquinius and the liberty granted to Vindicius for his deserts: so that from this, in truth, all slaves might take a lesson in rendering due fidelity to their masters, and be destined to earn such liberty and honor for their deserts. Which *Consilia* the 233 consular governors of the provinces continue to celebrate with festivities even until now. Concerning these things, the wise Livy and many others have written.

After a long time, the Gauls, having turned to tyranny, stirred up war against the Romans. The senate of Rome, having learned of this, appointed against them a powerful general by the name of Manlius Capitolinus. ^B He, having armed himself and having taken a most warlike army, marched against the Gauls, and joining battle, defeated them decisively. And having returned, he celebrated a triumph for the victory in Rome, and entered it, appearing arrogant toward the senate and the army and the people. On this account, the senate and everyone else were grieved. Envied by a certain enemy of his, a senator, a man of power by name of Februarius (o), who descended 234 from the lineage [of [missing text]].

the Gauls, he was framed. For when Manlius Capitolinus entered the comitium, and the common body of the senate was sitting, the senator Februarius rose up and said to Manlius: "As for the Roman army having conquered the Gauls, do you overstate yourself, as if you fought the single combat? We acknowledge that Roman Fortune is everywhere victorious. Yet the cause of this your pride does not escape us: namely, your hope of attaining the kingdom. But you shall be in vain." When the senate, the army, and the people had heard these things, they rose up against Manlius Capitolinus. And the people, having risen up in accordance with the opinion of the senate, shouted that the same Manlius Capitolinus should be cast out of the city of Rome; who, fearing the army and the people, departed to his own estates, near the region called Apulia, and there he dwelt in quiet. When he had fled, the Roman people went to his house, and plundered everything belonging to him.

The Gauls, meanwhile, having appointed for themselves a powerful king in war, Brennus by name, immediately marched against Rome, having heard also about Manlius, that he had been cast out of Rome. And Brennus, having made a rush, entered suddenly into Rome, and took it by night in a storm, on the fifteenth day of the month of Sextilis, having sent ahead secretly those whose duty it was to kill the gate-keepers and open the gate for him. And when these were killed, there arose a panic; and the senators, knowing of the capture of the city, all fled, and the prominent men of the city along with their wives and children entered into the Capitol, into the temple of Jupiter, ^B with their own wealth. Brennus the king, having taken the city of Rome, slaughtered many citizens and some of the soldiers, and took some captive; and he remained besieging the Capitol on account of the senators who were in it and on account of their wealth. The senators, however, being able to do so, wrote, begging Manlius Capitolinus to gather [the forces] that were distributed throughout the Roman cities and regions...

^A and to come to the rescue and aid of Rome. Upon receiving the senate’s letter, Manlius Capitolinus, learning that Rome had been captured and the Capitol was being besieged by Brennus, the king of the Gauls, was troubled; and having immediately gathered a multitude of troops from all sides, he set out, and came suddenly and unexpectedly against Brennus, the king of the Gauls, into Rome. Conducting his own army by night through the thoroughfares of the city, he attacked Brennus and all his men, who were caught in the middle, as if they were strangers, and slaughtered them. Having gained the upper hand, he seized Brennus the king himself, immediately beheaded him, and fixed his head upon a spear. ^B After cutting down his multitudes and his counts, he rescued all the captured Romans, and recovered everything that had been plundered by them. The Roman senate, after the victory won by Manlius Capitolinus, came down from the Capitol and immediately decreed that he alone, with the army and the remaining populace, should administer the affairs of the Romans.

Having again taken control of Rome, Manlius Capitolinus was immediately distressed by the seizure of the city of Rome and by the insult and the defeat of the Romans. In the month called Sextilis, he curtailed the days of that same month, ^C as it had been ill-omened for the city of Rome, and struck out its name, so that it might no longer be called that. He also seized the senator who was his enemy, the one who had plotted against him—the one called February, who had also caused him to be cast out of the city of Rome—and having stripped him of all his goods, he distributed them at once before his eyes to the soldiers who had come with him to avenge the city of Rome. He addressed the senate and the army, saying, "This February is born of the Gauls, as you well know, and it was in vengeance for them that he plotted these things against me. He also lives a shameful life; for he is a catamite, and he ought not to live in the city of Rome, but rather he should be cast out ingloriously, and his name should be blotted out even while he lives. Do you, however, devote him to the gods of the underworld." The senate and the army consented; and immediately, having stripped him of his rank, they left him naked, and having wrapped him in a reed mat, ^D and having girded him with a rope, [he was led out]. Having put upon the same senator [the name of] February, and because of this he was stripped of his clothing, and wrapped in a reed mat, he was cast out of the city naked, covered in a reed mat and girt about the loins with a rope, and having been in this manner cast out of the city, this senator February perished, consecrated to the gods of the underworld. Manlius also warned by edict that the month...

of Sextilis should thereafter be called February by that senator, so that this inauspicious month might also bear an inauspicious and dishonorable name. He commanded the *vernaculi*, that is to say the patrols, ^A to strike it with willow rods and to cry out, "Depart, February," which in the Greek tongue is "Depart, Peritius." And thus, driven out of the city of Rome, this same senator perished, having been sacrificed to the gods of the underworld. And the same Manlius, having permitted the priests to perform a sacrifice in the same month of February, commanded that in every city of the Romans this same ceremony of the mat be performed every year, and that February, which is also called the month of Peritius, be chased and beaten outside the city, signifying the victory over Brennus and the Gauls, and the vengeance taken against the enemy of Manlius, which is done unto this day in every city of the Romans. This account I found in the city of Thessalonica, and having read it, I found the book inscribed: *The History of Brunichius the Roman Chronographer*.

Postea vero, after the consuls had administered the Roman Republic for many years, Octavianus Augustus was the first to return to imperial rule. He blamed ^B Manlius Capitolinus for having placed the inauspicious month of February in the middle of the months, and by his own divine edict, the same Augustus at once commanded that the name of the month of February be placed last of all the months. He ordered that in its place, the sixth month from the first be called Augustus after his own name, and that the month preceding it be called Julius after the name of his uncle, Caesar.

After Tarquinius had been cast out of the kingdom, the aforesaid two consuls, Brutus the Great and Collatinus, the husband of Lucretia, administered the city, and many other consuls followed until Julius Caesar, for a period of 464 years.

In the aforementioned times, after Joachim, ^C Addus was the high priest of the Jews; among the Greeks, the philosopher and educator Plato flourished. He, writing to Timaeus concerning God, said that the Divine is in three names, but there is one power and deity, saying that the first cause is the Good, which is propitious to all things; the second cause he called Mind, the creator of all things; and the third cause the life-giving Spirit, which ^D brings all things to life. These three powers...

one might acknowledge to be one divinity. This, Cyril, the most holy bishop of Alexandria, included in his writings against Julian the Apostate emperor, saying that all who were ignorant of the future had predicted the holy Trinity as a unity of divinity.

In the time of this same Plato, there were also other philosophers who were teachers of the Greeks: Xenophon, Aeschines, and Aristotle. These men introduced that error of the transmigration of souls into the world. Hence they say Callisto, the daughter of Lycaon, had her soul transmigrate into a she-bear; Hippomene, the daughter of Megareus, into a lion; Io, the daughter of Inachus, into a heifer; Atalanta, the daughter of Schoenus, into a peacock (25); Philomela, the daughter of Pandion, into a swallow (24); and her sister Procne into a nightingale; and Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus, into a stone ^B. Such things and many others were invented like fables by them and those who followed them.

After the aforementioned Artaxerxes, king of the Persians, died, his son Ochus received the kingdom. He waged war against the Egyptians and, having conquered their entire region, he devastated it. At that time, Nectanebus was ruling over the Egyptians; he, having understood through divination by a basin (27) that Egypt was to be occupied by Ochus, the Persian king, shaved his own hair from his head and changed his royal attire, and fled through Pelusium to Pella, a city of Macedonia; where he subsequently lived.

At that same time, a rumor spread concerning Nectanebus and Olympias, that by means of some illusion he had slept with her and from her had sired Alexander; whom they claim to be the son of Zeus ^C Ammon. Now the first Theban ^D kingdom lasted...

through 1663 years. The wise chronicler Irenæus left these things written in his Chronicles.

At the same time, the high priest of the Jews was Jaddus; and thus the Hebrew high priesthood lasted for 202 years.

At the same time, the island of Rhodes was entirely shaken by a divinely-sent earthquake in the nighttime of the month of October; the statue of the Colossus fell and lay upon the ground. At that time the high priests of the Jews and the whole nation paid tribute to the Assyrians. The Assyrians were puffed up at that time, as was Ochus, their king; and they played the tyrant over the whole earth, and the kingdom was delivered into the hands of the Assyrians, Persians, Medes, and Parthians.

Philip governed Macedonia for 20 years; who, having conquered ^B Thessaly with arms, founded a city in Macedonia which he named Thessalonica, that which was formerly called the village of Thermæ. Dionysius, however, has set forth that thereafter it was named Thessalonica in the name of a certain queen of the lineage of Philip. The kingdom, or rather the local lordship, of the Macedonians lasted for 602 years, counted up to the reign of this same Philip, according to what the most wise Eusebius Pamphili chronicled.

After Philip, Alexander, son of Philip, ruled over Macedonia. Among the Babylonians, after Ochus, Darius the Mede, son of Assalamus, reigned; and he held mastery over all.

In the time of his reign, the Romans, having become more powerful, began ^C to extend the borders of their territory; and promoting warlike men to the consulship, they gradually annexed whole regions to themselves.

BOOK EIGHT: THE PERIOD OF THE MACEDONIAN REIGN

^A In the fourth year of the reign of Darius the Mede, son of Assalamus, God stirred up against the Assyrians, Persians, Parthians, and Medes, Alexander, the son of Philip, ruler, or king, of Macedonia. He built a great city out of a certain village formerly called Racustis; which he named Alexandria after his own name, having sacrificed an untouched virgin to whom he had himself given the name Macedonia. He also built a shrine to Serapis the Sun, and a public bath ^B named Hippus, and other shrines. This King Alexander, having encouraged his like-minded and noble generals, and being angered at the insolence of the Assyrians, was the first to tempt the fortune of war against Darius, the King of the Persians. Coming into Byzopolis in Europe, he built a place there which he called the Strategion; for, having planned there the matters of the war with his own army and his allies, he crossed over from there with his own forces directly to a trading post of Bithynia called Discos. But wishing to encourage his own army, he distributed a great amount of gold among them there, and renamed that same trading post Chrysopolis, by which name it is called even ^C until this day. Then moving from there, he came to Troy; and having performed sacrifices at the tomb of Achilles (from whom he was also descended), he ^D

asked that his spirit cooperate with him in war. For Olympias, the mother of this same Alexander the Macedonian, was descended from Molossus, the son of Pyrrhus and Andromache. And immediately, like a leopard, Alexander rushed forth from there, and together with the generals who were with him, he seized all the regions. And having conquered Darius, King of the Persians, the son of Assalamus, he took him and his entire kingdom and the whole land of the Assyrians, and Medes, and Parthians, and Babylonians, and Persians, and all the kingdoms of the earth, as the most wise Bottius ^A has written; and the same Alexander liberated all the cities, regions, and lands of the Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians from the servitude of the Assyrians and the Persians, and restored to the Romans all that they had lost.

There are, therefore, from Adam until the victory of Alexander the Macedonian, 5557 years ^B (38). At that time, the high priest of the Jews was Addous.

The Persian parts and its kingdom were then dissolved; and the empire of the Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, and Parthians yielded to Alexander the Macedonian and his fellow soldiers. Having therefore conquered and slain Darius, he entered into the palaces of the same Darius. And the same Alexander legislated for their land and reigned over them; and the Persians raised up for him an equestrian statue of bronze in Babylon, which stands until this day.

The same Alexander, taking as a captive Roxane, the daughter of Darius the king of the Persians, being a virgin, took her to wife. And the same Alexander also seized all the Indian parts and their kingdoms, taking Porus, the king of the Indians, captive; and all the other kingdoms of the nations besides the kingdom of Candace, the widow who was ruling the inner Indians ^C, who captured the same Alexander in this way.

The same Alexander had a custom ^D that, when he sent his ambassadors to opposing kings, he would himself enter in the guise of a soldier to see what kind of king that was. But Queen Candace, having learned of this, scrutinized what his appearance was like and what badge he had.

^A Being informed that he was of short stature, with teeth that were large and prominent, and that he had one grey eye and one black, she committed these marks to memory. Accordingly, when Alexander came in to her along with the envoys sent by him, recognizing him from these signs, she detained him and said to him, "King Alexander, you have taken the whole world, yet one woman has taken you." But Alexander said to her, "Because of the seriousness and keenness of your mind, I shall keep you unharmed, along with your children and all your land; and I take you as my wife." Candace, having heard this, gave herself to him; and Alexander straightway took her with him and went into Ethiopia and other lands.

When Alexander was about to die, he ordered ^B his commanders and fellow soldiers to rule over the same regions to which he had appointed them, and to hold those places. The same Alexander lived thirty-six years; he reigned, having subjected all things, for seventeen years; his wars lasted nine years; he subjugated twenty-two nations of Barbarians and thirteen tribes of Greeks, and he and his associates founded very many cities.

There are, therefore, from Adam until the death of Alexander the Macedonian, 5993 years, as Theophilus the Chronographer wrote.

After the death of Alexander the Macedonian, the regions which he himself had subjected along with his allies were divided into four tetrarchies, that is, kingdoms, which ^C were overseen by Alexander’s commanders, just as he had ordained while dying, in this way: Philip, his own elder brother, was to hold and reign over Macedonia and all of Europe. And Philip reigned, and after Philip reigned Cassander; and after Cassander reigned the sons of this same Cassander, and after them reigned Demetrius, and after Demetrius reigned the Epirote Pyrrhus, and after Pyrrhus the Epirote reigned Meleager, and six other kings reigned until the kingdom of Perseus the Epirote. And their kingdom lasted after the death of Alexander for 157 years. ^D

^A The same Alexander had also arranged for the same Ptolemy son of Lagus, the astronomer, to hold and rule over all of Egypt and Libya. He reigned over the Egyptians under the Macedonian rule for 44 years. The second king was Ptolemy, his son. ^B In the reign of this same Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, the sacred Scriptures of the Jews were translated into Greek by the seventy-two teachers within a space of 72 days. For they had been written in Hebrew; because the same Ptolemy desired to read the power of the Jewish books in the Greek language. After his reign, the third king, Ptolemy Philadelphus, reigned for 37 years, and after him the fourth, Ptolemy Euergetes, reigned for 25 years, and after him the fifth, Ptolemy Philopator, reigned for 17 years, and after him the sixth, Ptolemy Epiphanes, reigned, and after him the seventh, Ptolemy Philometor, reigned for 11 years. And five other Ptolemaic kings reigned for 92 years; and the twelfth Ptolemy reigned by the name of Dionysus for 29 years, who had a daughter named Cleopatra and a son named Ptolemy. And finally, the thirteenth sovereign ^C of the Ptolemies was Cleopatra; and this same Cleopatra, daughter of the same Dionysus, reigned for 26 years. So the 13 Ptolemaic Macedonians reigned over the entire Egyptian territory from Ptolemy son of Lagus until Cleopatra, daughter of Dionysus, for 300 years, until the 15th year of the reign of Augustus Caesar, also known as the emperor Octavian Augustus, who defeated Antony and the same Cleopatra in the naval battle at the place called Leucas, and killed them, and subjugated all of Egypt, just as Eusebius Pamphili and Pausanias, the chroniclers, have recorded. ^D He then arranged for the rule and kingship of Asia...

^A Antigonus, the so-called Poliorcetes, as far as Cilicia and the river Draco—which is now called the Orontes, and which divides the territory of Cilicia from Syria, and was once called Typhon and Ophites. Over Syria, Babylonia, and Palestine, he appointed Seleucus Nicator ^B to rule and reign; and he also reigned over Asia, having defeated Antigonus. For he had made war against him because he had built a city near the lake and the river Draco, which he named Antigonia. And Seleucus, having conquered him, took possession of all Asia and everything belonging to that same Antigonus. This Seleucus entrusted the care of the satrapy of all Asia to Nicomedes and Nicanor, his kinsmen, the sons of Didyma, his sister. The same Seleucus Nicator took a wife in war from the Parthians, a virgin by the name of Apama; he took her away after killing her father, Pithamenes, a great leader among the Parthians. From this Apama, the same Seleucus had two daughters, Apama and Laodice. And after his wife, Apama from the Parthians, had passed away, he became captivated by the love of another girl named Stratonice, a maiden of very elegant form, the daughter of Demetrius, who was the son of Antigonus the so-called Poliorcetes, whom he had slain. Seleucus found this maiden in the city of Rhosus—which was founded by Cilix, the son of Agenor—hiding with her father Demetrius. Seleucus also had a daughter by this Stratonice, named Phila. And thereafter, this same Seleucus reigned over Syria, and all of Asia, and Babylon, and Palestine, for forty-three years. ^C Seleucus Nicator, immediately after the victory over Antigonus Poliorcetes, intending to found various cities, began by founding them on the coast of Syria. And descending to the sea, he saw a small city situated on a mountain, which had once been founded by Syrus, the son of Agenor. On the twenty-third day of the month of Xandicus, he went up to Mount Casius to perform sacrifices to Zeus Casius; and having completed the sacrifice and having cut the meat, he prayed to know where the city should be founded. And suddenly, an eagle snatched a piece of meat from the sacrifice and carried it down to the old city; and it pursued

^A the meat, and found it cast by the sea below the old city in the trading post of what is called Pieria. And having marked out the walls, he immediately laid the foundations, calling it Seleucia after his own name. And giving thanks to God, he went up to Iopolis and after three days celebrated a festival there to Zeus Ceraunius in the temple built by Perseus, the son of Pikus and Danaë, which is on Mount Silpius, where Iopolis is situated, having offered the sacrifice on the first day of the month of Artemisios. And arriving in the city of Antigonia which had been built by Antigonus Poliorcetes—for the city of Antigonia lay in the middle of a lake that had another river flowing out of it, the Archeuthas (also known as Iaphtha), and it was situated in safety—he offered sacrifice there to Zeus upon the altars established by Antigonus. He cut the meat and prayed, together with the priest Amphion, to learn through a given sign ^B whether he ought to dwell in the same city, renaming it Antigonia, or whether he ought not to dwell there, but to build another city in a different place. And suddenly a great eagle descended from the air and snatched a piece of the burning meat from the sacrificial altar and went away toward Mount Silpius. And having pursued it along with his men, he found the sacred meat and the eagle standing upon it. And the priest and the augurs and Seleucus himself, having seen the miracle, all said, "It is here that we must dwell, and in Antigonia we must not dwell, nor should it become a city, because the divine will does not desire it." And subsequently he consulted with them as to the place where he should securely ^C build the city. And fearing the floods of Mount Silpius and the torrents coming down from it, he built the foundations of the city in the plain of the valley opposite the mountain, near the great river Draco (which was later called the Orontes), where the village called Bottia was, opposite Iopolis. There they marked out the foundations of the wall, having offered sacrifice through the high priest and initiate Amphion to a maiden named Aemathe, in the middle of the city and the river, in the month of Artemisios, which is May, on the 22nd day, at the first hour of the day, at the rising of the sun; and he called it Antioch in honor of his own son, the one called Antiochus Soter. He immediately built also a temple, which he called the temple of Bottian Zeus, having erected ^D the walls with great speed and in an awe-inspiring manner through the architect Xenaeus, and he set up a bronze statue of the maiden who had been sacrificed, as the Fortune of the city, above the river, immediately performing a sacrifice to this Fortune. And going away, he destroyed the city of Antigonia down to its foundations, having carried away its materials.

^A from there by the river, and having made for the Fortune of Antigonia a bronze statue of a pillar having a horn of Amalthea in front of it. And having made there a four-column structure, he set up this same Fortune on high, having placed a high altar in front of it; which pillar of Fortune, after the death of Seleucus, Demetrius, the son of Antigonus Poliorcetes, carried away to Rhosus, a city of Cilicia. This same city of Rhosus was founded by Cilix, the son of Agenor.

Seleucus, indeed, after destroying Antigonia, caused the Athenians who inhabited it, having been left there by Antigonus along with his son Demetrius, and besides them also the Macedonians (the number of all of whom was 5000 men), to migrate to Antioch the Great, which he had founded; where he also placed a truly stupendous bronze statue of Athena on account of the Athenians who worshipped her. He also brought down the Cretans from the acropolis, whom Casus, the son of Inachus, had left to dwell above; who, having migrated to the same Antioch along with the Cypriots, because King Casus had taken as his wife Amyce, who was also called Cittia, the daughter of Salaminus, the king of the Cypriots; and the Cypriots came with her and inhabited the acropolis. And Amyce died, and was buried at a distance of 100 stadia from the city, from whom the region is called Amyce. ^B The same Seleucus also urged the Argive Ionites, and brought them down from Iopolis to dwell in the same Antioch; whom he appointed to act as administrators, being noble and of priestly rank. The same Seleucus also set up a stone statue of an eagle before the city. He also commanded the months of Syria to be named after the Macedonian months, because he found that giants had inhabited that same region; for two miles from the city of Antioch there is a place containing bodies of men turned to stone by the wrath of God, whom they call giants to this day. And they say that in the same way a certain giant named Pagram, an inhabitant of that place, was struck by fire from heaven and perished there. ^C But before the city, upon the further bank of the river, Seleucus also placed another statue, having the form of a horse's head; and near it a gilded helmet; upon which are inscribed these words: "To this (one sitting)

"By which, while fleeing, Seleucus was saved from Antigonus." And having returned from there, he slew him. ^A The same Seleucus also raised a marble column for Amphion, the priest with whom he himself had taken the auspices, inside the gate called Romanesia, while he was performing a bird-sacrifice with him. The same Seleucus Nicator also founded another maritime city in Syria named Laodicea, after the name of his own daughter (which had previously been a village named Mazabda). Having performed the sacrifice to Zeus according to custom, and having asked where he should found the city, an eagle flew down again and snatched [a piece] from the sacrifice. And while he was pursuing the eagle, a great wild boar met him, coming out from a reed-bed, which he slew with the spear he was carrying. And having killed the boar and dragged its carcass, and marking out the walls with its blood—letting the eagle go—he thus founded the same city over the blood of the boar, having sacrificed an unblemished maiden named Agave, for whom he also erected a bronze statue to the Fortune of the city. The same Seleucus Nicator also founded another great city in Syria named after his own daughter, Apamea, having found a village previously called Pharnace. ^B And having walled it, the same Seleucus called it a city, naming it Apamea, after performing a sacrifice. This city he himself later renamed Pella, because of the Fortune of that same city of Apamea having that name; for the same Seleucus was from Pella, a city of Macedonia. He performed the sacrifice of a bull and a goat; and the eagle, coming again, carried off the heads of the bull and the goat, and he marked out the walls with their blood. The same Seleucus also founded many other different cities in other provinces and in the Persian regions, the number of which is seventy-five, as the wise Pausanias ^C the chronicler wrote down, whose names he also set forth, according to his own name and those of his children, as seemed good to him, Seleucus. But the wise Pausanias maintained that the same Seleucus gave the name of the great Antioch to it, after his own father, since his father was also called Antiochus. But no one founding a city calls it by the name of one who is dead; for that is nonsense; but he calls it by the name of one who is living and present. This city he called after the name of his own son, Antiochus, as was said before. But the same most wise Pausanias also wrote many other things poetically.

^A The same Seleucus also planted cypresses in the city once called Heraclis, but now called Daphne, near the temple of Apollo, after the cypresses that had been planted by Hercules the initiate, who founded Daphne in his own name and called the city Heraclis. This city was built outside the grove ^B near the temple of Minerva; for the temple of Apollo, which was called the Daphnaeum, occupied the middle part of the grove. This Hercules was the one who first taught the art of wrestling. Subsequently, the same Seleucus died in the Hellespont at the age of seventy-two, and was buried in Seleucia of Syria.

After the reign of Seleucus, his son Antiochus, surnamed Soter, reigned for twenty years. This Antiochus fell in love with his own stepmother, Stratonice, the daughter of Demetrius, and took her as his wife; by her he had two sons: Seleucus, who died as a small child, and Antiochus, surnamed Theoides. Upon the death of Antiochus, the son of Seleucus, Antiochus the Theoides succeeded him in the kingdom ^C and reigned for fifteen years. After him, his son by Bernice, Seleucus Callinicus, reigned for twenty-four years; and Alexander Nicator reigned for thirty-six years; and Seleucus Philopator reigned for ten years; and Antiochus Epiphanes reigned for twelve years.

Under his reign, as a plague was raging and many of the city were perishing, a certain Leius, an initiate, ordered a stone from the mountain looming above the city to be carved, featuring a very large face, crowned, and looking toward the city ^D and the valley, and having inscribed something upon it, he halted the pestilence. This face the Antiochenes call the "Charonium" to this day. The same King Antiochus, surnamed Theoides, also...

also first built in the great city of Antioch, outside the city walls, the so-called senaculum, in order that all his senators, the magistrates, and all the city’s dignitaries might assemble there together with the officials to deliberate upon what needed to be done regarding urgent matters, and then refer the beneficial outcomes to him. He also built other structures outside the city, naming these parts after himself as the city of Epiphania, though he did not build a wall around it, but left its dwellings thus upon the mountain [(70')].

The same King Antiochus Epiphanes ^B was incensed against Ptolemy, the King of Egypt, because he demanded tribute from the Jews who were in the territory under his authority. For the Jews had come from Palestine to Antioch and had petitioned the King Antiochus himself to write to Ptolemy, the governor and King of Egypt, not to demand tribute from them for transporting grain for their own sustenance, a great famine having occurred at that time in Palestine; for the Jews used to transport grain from the Egyptian territory. This Ptolemy, having received the letters from Antiochus, ordered that they be taxed even more strictly by their collectors. And so, King Antiochus Epiphanes marched ^C against Ptolemy because he had not been persuaded by his letters; and a battle having taken place between them, a great multitude of the same Antiochus fell, and having fled, he departed to the border [(71)]. The Jews of Jerusalem, having learned of this and thinking that Antiochus was dead, held celebrations for the sake of Ptolemy, submitting themselves to him. But Antiochus Epiphanes, having gathered a multitude, cast it against Ptolemy and slew him, having cut down his forces as well. And having learned regarding the Jews of Jerusalem what they had done against him, and how they had rejoiced at his defeat, he armed himself against Jerusalem; and having besieged it, he waged war, ^D and captured it, and slaughtered everyone; and he brought the high priest of the Jews, Eleazar, and the Maccabees [(72)] to Antioch, and having punished them, he killed them. He also abolished the high-priesthood of the Jews, and the Temple of Solomon [(75)], which belonged to the Jews, he made that of Zeus Olympius and Athena, defiling the house with swine’s flesh, and he forced them to Hellenize for three years. The same Antiochus then died, and there reigned...

his son, Antiochus Glaucus, ^A also called Hierax, for two years.

He was succeeded by Demetrianus, son of Seleucus, who reigned for eight years. A certain Jew named Judas, who came to Antioch the Great, prevailed upon King Demetrianus by his entreaties, and he was granted the temple back along with the remains of the Maccabees, which Judas buried in Antioch the Great in the place called Cerateum; for there was a synagogue of the Jews there. For shortly before, Antiochus had put them to death near the city, in the region of Jove of Cassius, on the mountain that is ever-weeping. Judas then, having purified the temple and restored the city, celebrated the Pasch to God. This was the second captivity of the Jews, as Eusebius Pamphili has recorded in his Chronicles.

Demetrianus was succeeded on the throne by Antiochus, grandson of Grypus, son of Laodice, the daughter of Ariarathes, king of the Cappadocians, for nine years. During the eighth year of his reign, ^B Antioch the Great suffered from an earthquake, in the time of the same Macedonians, 152 years after the foundations of the walls were first laid by Seleucus Nicator, at the tenth hour of the day, on the twenty-first day of the month of Peritius, which is February. It was renewed entirely, as the chronicler Domnus has recorded; and after the walls and the whole city had been completed, it suffered 122 years later, and it became better.

Antiochus, grandson of Grypus, was succeeded on the throne by Antiochus Evergetes, who was provoked to tyranny by the Parthians and campaigned mightily against them. And when many of the Parthians had been destroyed, they entered into friendship; and for his son, Antiochus, who was called Cyzicenus, he took as a wife the daughter ^C of Arsaces, the Parthian who had tyrannized him, named Brittane; and thus the war ceased.

After Antiochus Evergetes, there reigned of his lineage nine other kings until the reign of Antiochus Dionicus the Leper, the father of Cleopatra and Antiochides.

During the times of the kings who preceded the aforementioned Antiochus Dionicus, the king, or toparch, of Epirus, Pyrrhus, invaded the Romans, trusting in an oracle that it would come to pass that he would perish by a woman. The Roman consul Curius joined battle with him and came out the victor in the war; and Pyrrhus, ^D having turned to flight, arrived at a certain city,

^A having buildings outside the walls; and a woman, having hurled a tile at his head, killed him.

After these things, there was a Roman consul, Magnus, who was also called Paulus Macedonicus. He killed the king of Macedonia, Perseus by name, in war, and, having taken Macedonia, he brought that country under the Roman empire. Sallust mentions this in his Catilinarian work, where he recites the oration delivered by Caesar. After this, Perseus the Epirote, the naval commander and toparch of Thessaly, ruled over his own country; Eutropius, the historian of the Romans, named this Perseus in his own work in his translation. Palæphatus also mentions him. And Lucius Paulus, a Roman consul, killed this same Perseus in war. ^B

In these times, a certain Hannibal, king of the Africans, tyrannized over Rome for twenty years; it was then without a king, being governed by the consuls. He destroyed the greater part of all Italy, having subdued it in wars, and he slaughtered the aforementioned Paulus. And thereafter the Roman senate appointed as consul a man powerful in all things, but especially in warfare, the one called Scipio the Great. This Scipio, while Hannibal was lingering in Italy, took a multitude of the army and departed to the land of Hannibal, to Africa, and destroyed it, having burned the city where the king, Hannibal, was located, namely Carthage, and having taken it captive ^C and having taken all his people with his own senate, he brought them to Rome.

Having learned of this, Hannibal departed to Bithynia to Antiochus, the son of Nicomedes, the king

of ^A Asia; and he pleaded with him to become his ally. The Macedonians had held alliances 88 with the Romans from the time of Alexander, because they had even given soldiers to Alexander against Darius. Antiochus, the king of Asia, having been persuaded by Hannibal, joined him and went forth with him against the Romans, trusting in his own army, having set out from Bithynia. When the Roman senators heard of this, they proposed a capable consul, the second Scipio, the brother of the first Scipio, 89 [269] and they sent him against those two, Antiochus, king of Asia, and Hannibal, the king of Africa. And having met them, he joined in great battle with them; and many having been slain, Hannibal, seeing Scipio's power and that he was gaining the upper hand, fled; and having done violence to himself, 90 having drunk poison, he died. And Antiochus, having seen that Hannibal had fled, turned his back; and Scipio pursued him as far as the mountain of Isauria, called Taurus; and having gone up there, ^B Antiochus sent ambassadors to him, entreating him, as having no enmity against the Romans, but having fought on behalf of another. And Scipio received him, and made him subject to the Romans according to the opinion of the Roman senate, on the condition that he provide to the Romans every year four talents of gold [270] and as much of silver 91 and some other things until the end of his life. And having prepared a banquet, Scipio called him and granted to him the first place, honoring him as a king. And with glory Scipio returned to Rome, just as the most wise Florus has recorded from the papers of Livy.

^C In the fifteenth year of the aforementioned Antiochus Dionysus, the Leper, king of Syria (of whom we spoke above), a certain Tigranes, king of the Armenians, came and waged a great war against the same Antiochus. And Tigranes, king of the Armenians, having defeated the same Antiochus, took the Great Antioch, and his kingdom, and as well the goods that he possessed.

[alt-version omitted] [index: entries preserved]

^A Antiochus himself fled into the region of Persia. Pompey the Great, having left Rome because of Caesar, came with an army against the Cilicians, enemies of the Roman empire; and having defeated them, he turned his arms against Tigranes, king of the Armenians. Having conquered him, he took Armenia, Cilicia, and Syria, and dissolved their toparchies. He avenged the Antiochenes, and entered the same city of Antioch, making it subject to the Romans. He granted them many things, and rebuilt the council chamber, for it had fallen. He honored them, as descendants of the Athenians. ^B Byblus, a certain powerful general who, chancing upon a village on the coast of Phoenicia, built walls around it and made it a city, calling it Byblos after his own name; this man, I say, took those marvelous statues—which Seleucus had once set up for Jupiter Ceraunius and Minerva—having obtained them as a favor from the Antiochenes, and sent them to Rome to be placed in the Capitol, as they were sights worthy of admiration and monuments of the Roman victories. These statues are visible at Rome to this day, inscribed in this manner by Byblus: "In gratitude to the Romans, the people of Antioch bestowed these statues." ^C Antiochus Dionicus, the king, when he heard of the defeat of Tigranes, the king of the Armenians, and of the victory of Pompey the Great over him, went to Pompey and, falling down at his feet, asked him to restore his kingdom to him. Pompey acceded to his requests, and having restored the kingdom of Syria to him, he returned to him Cilicia and all that the same Antiochus had previously held. And on the 19th of the month of Daisios, Pompey departed from Antioch for Egypt; and the same Antiochus the Macedonian, the Dionicus, reigned again. ^D In these same times flourished Cicero and Sallust, the most learned poets of the Romans.

Antiochus Dionicus, when about to die, bequeathed his empire and all his wealth to the Romans. ^A Upon his death, therefore, great Antioch, along with all of Syria and Cilicia, and all that the Macedonians had held, ceded to the Roman empire. Thus the Macedonians reigned over great Antioch—that is, over Syria and Cilicia and other regions subject to them—from Seleucus Nicator until the time when the empire was handed over to the Romans, for 263 years.

BOOK NINE

CONCERNING THE TIMES OF THE ROMAN CONSULS

^C The Roman state was first administered by consuls for 464 years, down to Julius Caesar the dictator. He was not born naturally, but his mother having died in the ninth month, they cut her open and brought him forth from her womb as an infant; hence he was called Caesar, which in Roman signifies "dissection." Upon growing up and becoming a man, ^D

^A he was made triumvir with Pompey the Great and Crassus; for the Roman state was managed by these three. After Crassus had been captured in war by the Persians [in the region of Persia] [(4)] and killed, Caesar, the dictator, continued the war with his forces in the regions of the West. And having succeeded to the consulship, or rather the triumvirate [(5)], by a certain probation of the Roman Senate and Pompey the Great, his son-in-law [(6)], this same Julius Caesar, being aggrieved, played the tyrant over the Romans; and having exhorted those who were enemies to the Romans, he marched against the Senate of Rome [[276]] and Pompey the Great. And reaching Rome, he seized it, having destroyed [wait, the text says: by doing away with/removing] all the senators [(7)]. Pompey ^B having gone out against him and seeing that he could not fight him, left the Western regions and set out for the East, wishing to hold those parts. The aforementioned Julius Caesar, the dictator, having become master of Rome and all the Western regions by his own authority, marched against Pompey the Great; and having overtaken him, he destroyed him in the country of Egypt [(8)], even as the most wise Lucan hath written concerning him. This Caesar, therefore, was the first and only man to rule the Romans with great fear and he avenged all things. For the Macedonians who followed Seleucus Nicator, being powerless [**], neglected the region of Babylonia, allowing the Persians to appoint a king for themselves. In the same way, they also permitted the Jews to receive tetrarchies [*] of royal power from the Roman Senate. ^C During these same times, Livy the wise [[277]] was a Roman historian, who wrote many things concerning the Romans. And Julius Caesar the dictator, which is to say monarch, after these things ruled over all for eighteen years, with the greatest haughtiness,

^A and tyranny for eighteen years. He was the one who also discovered the bissextus ^B and gave laws to the Romans, and he himself appointed consuls each year, whomever he wished.

At this same time, Virgil, the wise Roman poet, wrote the history of Aeneas and Dido of Phoenicia, and the wooden horse, and the capture of Troy.

^C And straightway the news of the arrival of Julius Caesar the dictator, that is to say monarch, the one who played the tyrant and took Rome and slew the senate and became monarch, was announced. And the notice reached the city of Antioch on the 12th of the month of Artemisios, which is also May, of the following indiction. 278 And the freedom of Antioch was proclaimed, when it came to be under the Romans, on the 20th of the month of Artemisios, having been sent by the same Caesar Julius. The edict, therefore, was published, containing as follows: "In Antioch, the holy, inviolable, autonomous, imperial, and presiding metropolis of the East, Julius Gaius Caesar, etc." And the same Julius Caesar ^D the dictator entered Antioch on the 23rd of the month of Artemisios; and he built a basilica, which he called the Caesarium, opposite the temple of Ares, which was later called the Macellum, setting up there a bronze statue to the Fortune of Rome. He likewise built, up on the so-called Acropolis on the mountain of the same great Antioch, a public bath for the use of the inhabitants there, bringing in water from the so-called waters of the Laodicean road 279 through an aqueduct built by him. He also built there a gladiatorial arena and a theater; and he restored the Pantheon as well, which was about to collapse, having erected the altar.

^A And traveling to the great city of Alexandria, the same Caesar built there [a structure] in the name of his own son whom he had by Cleopatra, whom he had loved for being beautiful; and whom he had found in the Thebaid, having been driven there by her own brother Ptolemy, who was angry with her. Caesar, having seduced her, made her pregnant; and she bore a son, whom she named Caesarion. In the name, therefore, of his own son, the same Julius Caesar also built the Caesareum in the great city of Alexandria. And having cast her brother Ptolemy out of the kingdom of the Egyptians, he gave the kingdom of the Egyptians to her, having also killed the two eunuchs who had persuaded Ptolemy to banish Cleopatra to the Thebaid. But he [the child] died while young.

^B But upon arriving in Rome, the same Caesar was slain by the second Brutus and other senators who had conspired with him, during the consulship of Isauricus and Antonius for the second time. The great Antioch therefore reckons [its] first year in honor of the same Caesar Gaius Julius.

And after Caesar Gaius Julius, the senate of Rome chose Augustus Octavianus, the kinsman of Caesar, and Antonius, the husband of Augustus's sister, and Lepidus; and they became the three triumvirs, and they themselves managed the affairs of the Romans, appointing consuls ^C each year.

And in the fifteenth year of the triumvirate of the same Augustus Octavianus, the Egyptians began to rebel. Cleopatra also, having built the Pharos in the great city of Alexandria, ^D on the island called Proteus and being opposite Alexandria,

^A by throwing in stones, she made it dry land; and she caused the sea itself (truly a stupendous work!) to be as if it were a continent, so that a free passage was open for men and beasts as far as that island and the Pharos. This terrifying feat the same Cleopatra accomplished through the engineer Dexiphanes of Knidos ^B, who turned the sea into dry land. When the tyranny of the Egyptians and the fact that Cleopatra was their queen became known to the Romans, Antonius set out from Rome, having armed himself against Cleopatra and the Egyptians and against the Persian regions, because they were disturbing the East. And Antonius descended into Egypt with a great force of troops; and upon reaching the great city of Alexandria, he sat down and besieged it, signaling Cleopatra to hand over the city, for he knew that she had previously come to Egypt with Julius Caesar. But Cleopatra replied to him, having beguiled ^C him—as if she were in love with him. Antonius, therefore, was deceived, and, smitten by love, he kissed her and submitted to her. Now Cleopatra was somewhat short in stature, but most distinguished in appearance and subtle in mind. Receiving Antonius and his army into the city, she took him as her husband; and shortly after, Antonius made her a partner in his empire, having spurned and repudiated his former wife, the sister of Augustus. Antonius then, having gathered from all sides the greatest forces he could, and having brought the Persians also into alliance for war, ^D having been repulsed by the Parthians, at length retreated into Egypt, where he surrendered himself entirely to Cleopatra.

^A And the same Antony, having taken her as his wife, played the tyrant together with her against the Romans. And having despised and renounced his own wife, the sister of Augustus Octavian, and having gathered another great multitude, and having prompted the Persians also and made many covenants with them, and having prepared ships of the dromon class, he sailed against the Romans with Cleopatra, wishing to take Rome itself, desiring to go up to Rome through the land called Epirus.

And when such tyranny of Antony and ^B of Cleopatra became known in Rome, the same Octavian immediately armed himself against them, both because of the indignity to his own sister, and because the same Antony had scorned her. And the same Augustus took a powerful commander, having selected him from the senate, named Marcus Agrippa, and joined to him his own sister Octavia. And he set out from Rome together with the same commander Agrippa and his military forces. And having reached the land of Epirus at the place called Leucas, he joined battle with Antony and Cleopatra, a great naval war, just as the wise Virgil wrote in the description of his shield in his eighth book. And the multitude of both armies covered the land and the sea. And a great multitude of the forces of Antony and Cleopatra were slaughtered in the naval battle, so that the waters of the sea, having been mingled with blood, ^C appeared as if they were nothing but waves. And Augustus Octavian, having been victorious, killed Antony, but he took Cleopatra and, having bound her, he celebrated a triumph, having commanded that she be guarded so that he might take her to Rome as a captive to be paraded in a procession. This Cleopatra did away with herself; she died having been bitten by an asp; for she carried asps and other reptiles onto the ships for the war. As she was being guarded by the soldiers, she died having been secretly bitten by an asp, so that she would not be taken alive to Rome. But after her death, her corpse was taken to Rome, having been embalmed with myrrh, for the consolation of the sister of the same Augustus Octavian, just as the wise chronicler Theophilus wrote. But... ^D

setting forth the ancestral traditions of great Alexandria, that Cleopatra was left behind in Egypt, and other things as well that do not agree ^A with the Roman historians.

After such a victory, the same Augustus Octavian, together with the general Agrippa, his son-in-law 285, setting out from the village of Epirus, came and brought the Egyptian territory into subjection and celebrated his own victory in a triumph. And proceeding with his forces, he brought other regions into subjection, putting an end to their local governments. He was eighteen years of age when he became triumvir. And the war for Egypt lasted for many years.

Augustus Octavian then traveled across all of Europe, came to Byzantium, and from there crossed over to the city of Chalcedon in Asia. And he immediately appointed as governor in Bithynia, from among his own men, ^B a certain man named Lausus, having replaced the one who was directing that same region, Dienarus, who had been appointed by his uncle Caesar; for Bithynia already had a governor, since Pompey the Great had previously taken the same Bithynia upon the death of Nicomedes, who governed it and was of the Macedonian race; he, at his death, left it to the Romans.

Furthermore, the same Augustus Octavian brought Galatia into subjection after defeating Dejotarus, its petty king, and by walling in the village called Arsine, he made it a city, which he named Ancyra ^C because it lies between two seas,

^A and of the Euxine and Asian seas. Having sacrificed a virgin named Gregoria for ritual purification, and having made it a province, he left Gallic soldiers there to guard the region and the city, and named both the province and the River Gallus after them. Likewise, he took the provinces of Lydia and Pamphylia, which had been governed by the same Dejotarus, and placed them under Roman rule, having sent Curio, a general of his, with a large force to them. He also brought Phrygia Pacatiana, which had been under the same tetrarchy and under Roman rule, by sending there with the aid of a force his general Pacatianus. ^B He also received the submission of Lycaonia, which was governed by Lycaon, son of Capnos, whom Augustus, having perceived him to be a vigorous man, took as a companion to Egypt. Syria and Cilicia had already previously come under Roman rule in the time of Julius Caesar.

Augustus, having entered Syria, went to Antioch the Great to celebrate his victory over Antony and Cleopatra, together with his own son-in-law Agrippa. This Agrippa, having been charmed by the location of the city of Antioch, built a public bath there outside the city by the mountain, having found a spring there, which he named after himself the Agrippianum, the one currently called the Ampelinum bath. He also built a series of dwellings ^C and a bath, naming the neighborhood the Agrippianum. Furthermore, on account of the crowd of the Antiochene people, Agrippa added a second tier in the theater of Antioch above the first.

Departing thence, Augustus reached the city of the Laodiceans in Syria, and built in that city a very large theater, setting up for himself there a marble statue. He also built the large tetrapylon in that same city, which had previously been small; and having adorned it with columns and marbles and renovated it, he triumphed in it over his victory, setting up in the same tetrapylon a bronze statue with four horses.

He also subjected Phoenicia; and having sent generals with forces, Lucullus and Pontius...

they defeated Tigranes ^A, the governor of it, and made it a province. And he also brought the so-called Arabia under himself—that is, under the Romans—which was held by Arabes, king of the Saracen barbarians; and he walled in a village which he named Bostra, in the name of Bostrus, the general sent by him. He did the same as well with the remaining governorships, except for the Cappadocia that is governed by Archelaus and the tetrarchy of Herod, who was tetrarch of the land of Judea, since both of them had offered him great gifts.

Herod, king of Judea, in his honor also paved with white stones the public road outside the great city of Antioch, for it was difficult to pass ^B. Both governors also named their own capital cities in his honor by the name of Caesar: Herod, the king and governor, named Caesarea of Palestine, formerly called Straton's Tower, and Archelaus, the king and governor, named Caesarea of Cappadocia, formerly called Mazaca. For Caesar was the uncle of the same Augustus, who had granted them to hold the kingship of the tetrarchy during the years of their lives.

Setting out from Palestine, he took also Egypt; and having subjected it, he entered the great city of Alexandria, and there he celebrated a triumph over his own victory, having also brought Egypt under the Romans. And he gave the Egyptians in the great city of Alexandria a governor from among his own men, by the name of Cornelius Gallus ^C, to whom he gave the dignity of Augustalis as a seal of his own name.

And having departed from Egypt, the same Augustus

embarked for Rome, puffed up with pride and despair having subdued the world; and having tyrannized over the Senate, he reigned in haughtiness ^A of his own, putting to death also Brutus, who had murdered Caesar, his uncle. This Brutus, while holding Thessaly with a force, he sent against and decapitated during the consulship of Calvisianus and Pollio, as Lucan, the wise Roman poet, has recorded.

At this time, a certain Sosibius ^B, an Antiochene senator, having come up to Rome with Augustus, died, leaving by testament his revenues to his own city, so that every five years in the month of Hyperberetaios, for thirty entire days, varied contests—musical, theatrical, athletic, and horse racing—might be exhibited to the people.

Agrippa, the son-in-law of the same Augustus, arrived in Antioch on his second visit, and he cleared away the mounds of the old hippodrome which had gathered from the former earthquakes; and he himself viewed the varied spectacle and, having marveled, departed thence. Now, this old circus was built in former times by Quintus Marcianus, a Roman leader, when, having arrived in Antioch of Syria to ^C Philip Barypus the Macedonian, who was reigning in Antioch, he was sent to impose tributes to be paid by him to the Romans.

The same most divine Augustus became the first and sole emperor of the Romans and the high priest. And he gave himself these titles: Augustus Caesar Octavianus, Tropaioüchos (victor), Sebastos (august), Krataios (mighty), Imperator—which is "autokrator" (supreme ruler). And the same Augustus reigned for a total of 56 years. He was of short stature, slender, with lank and straight hair, beautiful eyes, and an elegant nose.

In his reign ^D he built the temple of Zeus in Rome and renovated the Capitol, making both of them magnificent structures.

In the 39th year and the 10th month of the reign, Agrip-

pa, II, and Donatus, consuls, he ordered by edict that all the regions subject to the Roman empire, as well those which he himself had subjugated as those which the Romans had held before, should be registered for the census. This census was conducted throughout the Roman empire by Eumenes and Attalus, men of the senatorial order. He held great reverence among all, for he was very prone to anger. ^A

But after the passing of the forty-first year and the sixth month of his reign, on the twenty-fifth of the month of Dystrus, at the second hour of the day, on a Sunday, the blessed Virgin and Theotokos Mary received the joyful message from the archangel Gabriel in the city of Nazareth, in the consulship of Quintus and Longinus, while Vitellius—who had recently been appointed by Augustus Caesar—was prefect of Syria. ^B

BOOK X. ON THE TIMES OF EMPEROR AUGUSTUS AND THE INCARNATION OF GOD.

In the forty-second year and the fourth month of the reign of the same Augustus, on the eighth day before the Kalends of January, the twenty-fifth of December, at the seventh hour of the day, our Lord and God Jesus Christ was born in the city of Judæa named Bethlehem, near ^C to Jerusalem (this was the forty-second year of the Antiochene era), when Cyrenius, a man of consular rank, was at that time prefect of Syria, in the consulship of Octavianus himself and Silvanus, and while Herod, the king, held the kingdom of Judæa.

There are counted, therefore, from Adam to Phalec, the son of Eber, 3513 years, and from Phalec to the 42nd [year] ^D

of the reign of this same Augustus Caesar, 5500 years.

And thereafter, our Lord and God dwelt upon the earth with men, as is recounted in the Scriptures, for 33 years, so that there are reckoned from Adam to the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh, and his crucifixion, 5533 years. For Phalec, according to the prophetic voice of Moses, is said to be the half-way point of the time of the coming of the future Christ. For just as God formed man on the sixth day, as Moses set forth—having ^B recorded in his writings also this, "And one day is with the Lord as a thousand years,"—and on the sixth day, as the Scripture previously said, God formed man, and man fell into sin; so it is evident that likewise in the sixth millennium on earth our Master Jesus Christ appeared, and saved man through the Cross and the Resurrection. These things the wise chroniclers Clement, Theophilus, and Timothy recorded, being in agreement with one another. But the most pious chronicler Eusebius, son of Pamphilus, who became bishop of Cæsarea in Palestine, also says himself that the Saviour and Lord of all, Jesus Christ, appeared in the sixth millennium of years, according ^C to the number of the days of the creation of Adam. He said that before the six-thousandth year was completed, our Lord and God Jesus Christ appeared upon the earth to redeem the race of men. He says that he was born and became incarnate in the year 5500; and the same man affirms that our Lord Jesus Christ suffered, rose again, and was taken up into the heavens in the year 5533. For in the six-thousandth year all agree that the Lord appeared. Therefore, whether it be more or less, if they said that he appeared in the 6000th year according to the prophetic voice—and even if they do not agree as to the numbering ^D of the years—he appeared in the last times, as the divine Scripture signifies. Now, under the reign of the same Augustus Caesar, the divine wrath

^A devastated a city of Palestine named Salamine, which the same Augustus rebuilt and called Diospolis.

At this time Herod, the king of the Jews—or rather, the toparch—was informed that certain Magi from Persia had arrived to spy on the land of Judea, and he ordered them to be arrested. For those Magi from Persia, being not unaware of mysteries, had understood from the star that appeared, signaling in the East the incarnation of our Savior Christ, that they should bring gifts to Him as to a great King and victor. And having come to the East ^B they inquired, "Where is He who has been born, the King of the Jews?" And the report spread among the Jews. These Magi, having been discovered, were arrested and brought before King Herod. And he asked them, "Why have you come to the land of Judea as spies?" The Magi related to him the miracle of the star and that a great King had been born to the world, and that they had come bringing gifts to Him as to a great King, and to offer Him the gifts they carried as to God. "For we saw His star in the East, and we have come to worship Him." Hearing these things, Herod remained astounded, considering what kind of power the King who had been born could have after Augustus Caesar. ^C Now those Magi had come to Jerusalem in the consulship of Vindicius and Valerius. Herod then inquired diligently of them the time the star appeared and said to those Magi, "If you find Him, come back and tell me, so that I too may go and worship Him." The Magi departed, and guided by the star which they had seen in the East, they found Jesus and His mother in the city of Bethlehem. And falling to the ground, they did obeisance to the Savior Christ, for they said among themselves, "This star shows us a greater God than it, whom we worship as God." Having presented to Him the gifts they carried as to God, and being divinely warned, having disregarded King Herod, they departed toward the borders and escaped through pathless ways to the Persian regions.

Herod, when he sensed that he had been mocked by the Magi, was moved to wrath. Having inquired ^D more curiously from the chief priests of the Jews where Christ was to be born, and having learned that it was in Bethlehem of Judea, he sent soldiers there and put to death all the infants in the city of Bethlehem of Judea, just as the divine Scripture says. Herod was immediately seized by an incurable disease and died, eaten by worms; and Archelaus, his son, became king, or rather toparch, of the Jewish nation for nine years, in the consulship of Lamia and Serellianus, just as the most wise chronographer Clement has set forth.

^A Augustus Caesar Octavianus, in the 55th year of his reign, in the month of October, which is also called Hyperberetaios, went to the oracle; and having offered a hecatomb sacrifice, he asked: "Who will rule over the Roman state after me?" But no answer was given to him by the Pythia. And again he performed another sacrifice, and asked the Pythia why no answer was given to him, but the oracle remains silent. And these things were told to him by the Pythia:

A Hebrew boy, a god who rules over the blessed ones, Commands me to leave this house, and to return again to Hades. Depart now, therefore, from our altars.

^B Augustus Caesar, having gone out from the oracle and come to the Capitol, built there a great, high altar, upon which he inscribed in Latin letters: "This is the altar of the First-born God." This altar is in the Capitol to this day, as the wise Timotheus wrote.

The same Caesar Octavianus, having been struck by a disease, died in Rome, being an old man of 75 years, childless, and having disciplined himself from bodily sin. For he was a mystical high priest and king.

After the reign of Augustus Caesar, in the consulship of Sextus and Sexticianus, Tiberius Caesar reigned for 22 years. ^C He was of medium height, advanced in age, slender, with beautiful eyes, dark-skinned, curly-haired, thick-haired, flat-nosed, and very fond of building. He marched against the Persians, but did not engage in war; rather, having been entreated by them, he settled all matters in peace.

^A Returning to Rome, he came to Antioch the Great; and he built outside the city two large porticoes near the mountain called Silpius, having intervals of four miles, two-storied and very splendid. And in the street, having built four-way arches, he embellished them with mosaic and marble, and he decorated the square with bronze works and statues ^B and walled in these same porticoes and enclosed the mountain within; he attached to this same wall the new wall to the old wall of the city, which had been built by Seleucus, enclosing within his own wall both the Acropolis and the Iopolis. And the Senate and the people of Antioch set up a bronze statue to this same Tiberius Caesar above a large Theban column in the square, midway between the two porticoes built by him: which place is called the Navel of the city, having also a representation of an eye engraved in the stone. And that statue is seen there to this day.

Now the same Tiberius Caesar, learning that King Seleucus, ^C fearing the torrents of water which, overflowing from the mountain during the winter season, used to stagnate, had abandoned the mountain and built the city on the plain; and having himself employed the services of a certain Ablaccon, a priest and mystic, placed a stone casket near his statue, mystically prepared: namely, in order that by this incantation he might repel the floodings of the Parmenius torrent and the cataracts of water coming down from the mountain, so that that part of the city might not be harmed, nor the porticoes built by him be destroyed. But the citizens of Antioch say this stone casket is the ^D "Redeemer" of their city, inasmuch as it renders that wall built by Tiberius impregnable, having as it were redeemed that part of the city from the incursions and plundering of the barbarian Saracens and Persians. For formerly that part of the city which is situated by the mountain, built by that illustrious Antiochus (namely the public senate-house and other sacred places), was not inhabited protected by any wall. Likewise, also, King Antiochus, the one called Philadelphus, built many things outside the city; who also built in the grove at Daphne two temples, one of Apollo and 460 one of Artemis, having placed in them two golden statues, granting privileges to those fleeing there, so that no one should be dragged out from these temples. These things were built when the Macedonian kingdom existed. And Tiberius Caesar built in the same Antio-

^Achia a great temple to Jupiter Capitolinus. Likewise, the same emperor built a public bath near the fountain of Olympias, which had been founded by Alexander the Macedonian in the name of his mother; for Alexander, having come there and drunk from that water, said, "I seem to myself to have drunk my mother's milk." This fountain is situated by the mountain; Tiberius enclosed it within the city wall. The same Emperor Tiberius also built a temple to Bacchus by the mountain, placing two large statues of the Dioscuri—born of Antiope, namely Amphion and Zethus—outside the temple in their honor. The same Tiberius also renamed the river of the city, which was formerly called Draco, "Orontes" in the Roman tongue ^B (73), which is interpreted to mean "Eastern." He also built the theater, having added another section by the mountain, and having sacrificed a young maiden named Antigone; hence he did not complete that theater to perfection. Upon the Eastern Gate, which he himself built, he placed a stone statue of the She-Wolf, the nurse of Romulus and Remus, signifying that those new city walls of the same city of Antioch were a Roman work. Furthermore, he built a temple of Pan, looking toward the rear of the theater. These things the wise chronicler Domninus has recorded in writing.

The same Tiberius also built a city in the territory of Judaea by a lake, which he called Tiberias, having found hot waters in that place, and he built a public bath for the city that was not heated by fire, but provided the use of the hot springs ^C to the city. Upon the death of Archelaus, its ethnarch, he also brought Cappadocia under the Roman empire.

In the times of this same Tiberius, a fire occurred in Antioch of Syria in the 72nd year of its autonomy, in the night, burning hiddenly the greater part of the market and the senate house and the temple of the Muses, which had been built by Antiochus Philopator from the funds that had been left by the testament of Maro, an Antiochene who had moved his residence to Athens and had ordered at that time from his own [means]

to construct the temple of the Muses and the Library. ^A Tiberius also founded another city in Thrace, which he called Tiberia.

In the 15th year of his reign, in the consulship of Albanus and Nerva, St. John the Forerunner began to preach the baptism of repentance and to baptize, as had been predicted by the prophets. And all the region of Judea went out to him. Then at last our Lord Jesus Christ established the beginning of human salvation, being baptized by the same John the Forerunner, when He was about thirty years of age, and then first performing miracles. ^B He was baptized in the Jordan, a river of Palestine, in the month of Audynaeus, which is January, on the sixth day, at the tenth hour of the night, in the consulship of Rufus and Rubellio. From that time John the Baptist began to become known to men; and Herod the king, the brother of Philip—he who was the toparch, or rather the ruler, of the country of Trachonitis—beheaded him in the city of Sebaste, on the eighth day before the Kalends of June, in the consulship of Flaccus and Rufus, because of Herodias, his wife, for John said to him: "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife," as these things are recorded in the holy Scriptures. And being aggrieved on account of John, the same King Herod, the second, the son of Philip, ^C left Sebaste and withdrew to Paneas, a city of Judea. And a certain very wealthy woman came to him, residing in the same city of Paneas, by the name of Veronica, wishing, as one who had been healed by Jesus, to erect a statue to Him. And not daring to do this without royal permission, she presented a humble petition to the same King Herod, seeking permission to erect a statue to Christ the Savior in the same city. Which petition is as follows:

^A To the most august Herod, Toparch and Lawgiver of the Jews and Greeks, King of the Trachonitis region, humble petition from Veronica, inhabitant of the notable city of Paneas.

Justice, benevolence toward men, and every excellence of all the virtues encircle your divine person. ^B Knowing this, I have approached you with good hope of obtaining what I seek. What the foundation of this present preface intends, the following discourse will teach you. From childhood, I suffered from a flow of blood; I spent ^C my livelihood and wealth upon physicians, yet I found no healing. But when the fame of the miraculous Christ reached me—who was so great in wonders that He could resurrect the dead, restore sight to the blind, cast demons out from the bodies of mortals, and heal every malady among the sick by a word alone—I then ran to Him as to God. And observing the crowd thronging Him, I was afraid to disclose to Him my incurable disease, fearing that, recoiling from the unclean nature of the affliction, He might be angered against me and the plague of the infirmity might come upon me more severely. I reasoned within myself, therefore, that if I could but touch the hem of His garment, I would surely be healed. And secretly insinuating myself into the crowd around Him, I stole the healing, having touched His hem; and the fountain of my blood being staunched, I was immediately made whole. But He, as one who knew the intent of my heart beforehand, cried out: "Who touched me? For power has gone out from me." I, however, turning pale and groaning, and fearing that the disease might return to me with greater force, fell at His feet and watered the earth with my tears, confessing my audacity. But He, ^D as Goodness itself, being moved with compassion for me, sealed

^A my healing, saying: "Be of good courage, daughter; thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace." ^B Likewise do you also, most august sovereigns, grant this urgent petition to her who asks it.

King Herod, having heard these things, was astonished ^B by the account of the healing; and, fearing the mystery of the cure, he said to the petitioner: "This healing which has been wrought in you, O woman, is worthy of a greater monument. Go therefore, when you wish, and erect a statue to Him, ^C showing the honor you desire to Him who healed you."

And immediately that same Veronica, who had formerly been the woman with the issue of blood, ^D erected in the midst of her own city, Paneas, a statue to our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, made of beaten bronze, having mixed in a small portion of gold and silver. ^A Which statue remains in the city of Paneas until today, having been moved long ago from the place where it stood in the midst of the city to a holy house of prayer. I found a record of this in the same city of Paneas, in the possession of a certain Bassus, ^B who had converted from Judaism to Christianity; among whose papers was the history ^C of all the kings who formerly reigned over the Jewish land.

The same King Herod, the brother of Philip, having become bloated, was afflicted for eight months. And when these were finished, ^D he was slain in his bedchamber, his wife being privy to it, just as the most wise Clement has written.

In the eighteenth year of the reign of the same Tiberius Caesar, and in the month corresponding to March, Jesus Christ, our God and Savior, being about thirty-three years of age, was betrayed by Judas Iscariot, His disciple; ^A the same Lord and our Savior, in the month of Dystrus, which is March, on the twenty-third day, the moon being on its thirteenth day; it was the fifth day of the week, the fifth hour of the night. And He was led away to the high priest Caiaphas, ^B and from there was delivered to the governor Pontius Pilate; and

^A immediately the wife of the same Pilate, Procla, signaled to him: "Have nothing to do with this righteous man; for I have suffered much today in a dream because of him." And when the Jews learned of this, they began to riot, shouting: "Take him away, take him away" (or, as some others less accurately write, "Take him"), "crucify him." And our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified on the 8th day before the Kalends of April, the 24th of the month of March, with the moon in its 14th day. It was the 6th hour of the day, and the day was Friday. And the sun was darkened, and there was darkness over the whole world. Concerning this darkness, the most wise Phlegon the Athenian wrote in his own work the following: "In the eighteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, there was a great eclipse of the sun, such as no previous age had ever seen. For at the sixth hour of the day, there was such night that the stars could be seen."

^B And our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, gave up His spirit on the same Friday, at about the 9th hour. And immediately there was a great earthquake throughout the whole world, and the tombs were opened, and the rocks were split, and the dead were raised, just as it is recorded in the Holy Scriptures with all truth; so that the Jews themselves said: "Truly this was the Son of God, whom we crucified."

And Jesus Christ was buried at the 10th hour of the same day, Friday, in the consulship of Sulpicius and Sylla, the seventy-ninth year of the era of the great Antioch, with Cassius governing Syria at that time, who had also been promoted by the same Tiberius Caesar.

^C Our Lord and God Jesus rose on the month of Dystrus, which is also called March, on the 25th, at the 10th hour of the night, as Sunday was dawning, the 26th of the same month of March, with the moon being in its 16th day; and He appeared to the apostles and to many other saints, and remained with them on the earth for 40 days after His resurrection. And our Lord and God Jesus Christ was taken up into the heavens on the month of Artemisium, which is the 4th of May, at the 2nd hour of the day, on the fifth day of the week, in the sight of the holy apostles and of a great multitude of others, how He was taken up by clouds, and the holy angels said: "Why do you gaze into the heavens, you men of Galilee? This is Jesus," etc.

^D [alt-version omitted]

^A And the holy and life-giving Spirit descended upon His holy apostles on the fourteenth day of the month of Artemisios, which is May, on the Lord’s day, at the third hour of the day, during the administration of Judea by the aforementioned Pontius Pilate; who had been posted to rule the nation by the same Tiberius Caesar, who had dissolved the kingdom of the Jews and appointed over them a governor according to his own will, while Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests of the Jewish nation.

^B Now, four years after the resurrection and ascension of our Savior Jesus Christ, during the reign of the same Tiberius Caesar, after the holy Paul had departed from Antioch the Great—having there first preached the word in the street near the Pantheon called that of the Singonians, together with Barnabas—and had gone off to Cilicia, Peter came from Jerusalem to that same Antioch and taught the word. And having established himself there, he was persuaded by those who had become Christians from among the Jews, and he did not welcome or love the believers from the nations; but, having disregarded them, he departed from there. But the holy Paul, having returned to Antioch the Great after this, and having been informed of these things concerning the holy Peter, removed the offense from every place and equally welcomed and loved everyone, urging them all, just as these things were recorded by the most wise chroniclers Clement and Tatian.

^C But King Tiberius yielded to nature and died a natural death in the palace, being seventy-eight years of age.

Tiberius was succeeded in the empire by Aelius Gaius Caligula. While still a private citizen, he was a great terror to the barbarian nations: and for this reason the senate declared him emperor, during the consulship of Gallus and Nonianus; and he reigned for four years and seven months. He was tall, well-proportioned in his limbs, with a thin face, of an attractive complexion, showing his first beard, with soft and hanging hair, small eyes, a sharp intellect, irascible and magnanimous. ^D In the first year of his reign, Antioch the Great, together with a certain part of the suburb of Daphne, suffered the divine wrath—this being the second hardship to befall it after the times of the Macedonians, in the year eighty-five according to the calculation of the Antiochenes—in the month of Dystrus, which is March, on the twenty-third day, in the morning hours. And King Gaius provided much money to the same city and the surviving citizens. And he built

^A a public bath near the mountain of Gaius Caesar, having sent a prefect named Salianus from Rome to Antioch to build the public bath. He made a great aqueduct from Daphne, cutting through the mountain and bringing the waters into the public bath [which had been] built by him. He also built temples.

The same Gaius Caesar further sent two other very wealthy senators again from Rome, whose names were these, Pontus and Varius. [He sent them] both to guard the city and to build it up from the generous gifts of the same emperor, and likewise to provide from their own means to the same city, and to reside in it. They built very many dwellings from their own [funds]; and besides these dwellings, the same senators also built in the same city of Antioch, from their own money, a great public bath called the Varian [bath], below by the wall near the river, where they also built their own dwellings near the public [bath], and a very beautiful ^B Trinymphum, adorning it with statues so that all the citizen virgins might be adorned for marriage. And from these generous gifts they raised many buildings in the same city of the Antiochenes; and these same senators remained living in that city. And the same Gaius Caesar also honored the surviving proprietors with dignities.

From the first year of Gaius Caesar, the Green faction, having obtained freedom of speech from him, began to dominate in Rome and throughout the cities for three years until his reign; for he took pleasure in them. In the third year of his reign, those of the Blue faction in that same city shouted in the theatre of Antioch in Syria to the Greens there, while Pronous, an official of consular rank, was watching: "Time elevates and brings down; now is the battle of the Greens." ^C And a great public disorder occurred, and a calamity befell the city. For the Greek Antiochenes, having joined a public battle with the Jews who were there, killed many Jews and burned their synagogues. When the priest of these same Jews in Palestine, Phineas by name, heard of this matter, having gathered a multitude of Jews and Galileans, who were citizens, numbering about thirty thousand, he came suddenly to the same city of Antioch from the city of Tiberias. He killed many, having entered suddenly with armed men; and having ceased, the same Phineas went away again to Tiberias. When King Gaius learned these things, he was angry with the senators ^D

of Pontius and Varius, who dwelt in ^A Antioch, and having sent [agents], he confiscated their possessions, carrying off all their wealth, and put notices on the houses belonging to them in Antioch [(94)]. These dwellings were called "royal" from that time on in the same Antioch of Syria; he brought them also in iron chains, because they had neither quelled the disturbance of the city nor stood against the priest Phineas, who was ravaging the city [(95)].

He also sent to the city of Tiberias in Palestine, and laid hold of the same Phineas, the priest of the Jews, and beheaded him as a tyrant, and he destroyed many Jews and Galileans. And he fixed the head of the priest Phineas on a pike outside the city [(96)] of Antioch, across the Orontes river; and those things which had been burned in the city he restored, having sent money.

And in the same year the same King Gaius was slaughtered inside the palace by his own guards, ^B the cubicularian eunuchs, with the approval of the senate, being thirty-nine years of age.

After the reign of Gaius Caesar, Claudius Caesar Germanicus reigned in the consulship of Cassius and Solon [(97)]. This same Claudius Caesar reigned for fourteen years and nine months [(98)]. He was round-featured, stout, with grey eyes, graying hair, fair-skinned, with an oblong face, and a very mild disposition. He founded a city, which he called by his own name Claudiopolis. He also founded ^C the city of Brettania [(99)] near the Ocean.

The same Emperor Claudius also granted standing to the faction of the Greens. Under his reign, Ephesus and Smyrna, along with many other cities of Asia, suffered from a divine visitation, for the restoration of which the emperor provided much. At that time, also, the great city of Antioch was shaken, and the temples of Artemis and of Ares and of Herakles were rent through the middle, and many buildings collapsed. And the same Emperor Claudius remitted the smoke-tax [(1)], which was accustomed to be paid to him by the associations of the Antiochenes, [to be used] for the restoration of the row of porticoes in that city, which had been built by Tiberius Caesar.

^A At the beginning of the reign of that same Claudius Caesar, eleven years after our Lord and God Jesus Christ was taken up to heaven, Evodius became the first to receive the laying on of hands for the episcopacy of the great city of the Antiochenes in Syria, after the holy apostle Peter, having become patriarch. And under him, they were called Christians, with that same Bishop Evodius speaking to them and bestowing this name upon them. For formerly, the Christians were called Nazarenes and Galileans.

In the eighth year of the reign of the same Claudius Caesar, the Jews made a great persecution against the apostles and their disciples and were plotting tyranny against the Romans. Hence, a chiliarch named Festus was first sent against them ^B; and from that time, destruction came upon them. For the same King Claudius also appointed over them a ruler named Felix, who was distressing them.

Eighteen years after our Lord and God Jesus Christ was taken up into the heavens, on the day of the Pentecost feast of the same Jews, the priests on that same day heard a human voice speaking from the inner temple, which is called the Holy of Holies, "Let us depart hence." The same priests heard this voice spoken a third time while they were performing sacrifices, and this became known to the whole nation. And from that time, destruction began for the Jews, ^C just as Josephus ^D the Hebrew philosopher wrote these things, having also said this, that from the time the Jews crucified Jesus, who was a good and just man—if indeed it is right to call such a man a man and not rather God, who was such a person—pain did not cease from the land of Judea. The same Josephus set these things forth to the Jews in his Jewish writings.

^A During the reign of the same Claudius, the leading men and citizens of Antioch sent a petition to the emperor, asking that by his divine edict they might be granted the power to redeem the Olympia from the Pisæans of the Helladic region, using the annual revenues from the funds left by a certain Sosibius, a senator and citizen of theirs. The Emperor Claudius granted them the power to redeem the Olympia in the 12th year of the Antiochene era. The Antiochenes did this because they were indignant at the local magistrates of their city regarding the aforementioned revenues of Sosibius, which had been abandoned to their city. Concerning this Sosibius, the wise chronicler Pausanias recorded that a certain Sosibius, upon his death, bequeathed to the great city of Antioch an annual income of fifteen gold talents, as has been written in the earlier times of Augustus Octavianus. These revenues were intended for the performance of the varied spectacle for his fellow citizens every five years for thirty days in the month of Hyperberetæus, which is October, consisting of stage performances, musical shows, tragedies, an athletic contest, horse racing, and gladiatorial combat. ^B At first, the gymnasiarchs performed these games according to custom; later, however, seeking small profits, they omitted this celebration entirely, until at last, by the divine edict of the emperor and at the request of the city's leaders, they were compelled to redeem the Olympia from the Pisæans. Then they informed all the citizens that they were prepared to present to them the Olympic solemnities (as they had been before), and they exhorted them to prepare themselves for them. With the leaders of the city, the priests, and all the people consenting, the request was granted to them. ^C The magistrates then celebrated the aforementioned contests of stage, athletic, musical, tragic, and equestrian games, as before, for thirty days starting from the new moon of the month of October, repeating every five years, until the arrival of the five-year term.

But again, the same magistrates, finding a plausible excuse when various wars were stirred up in the East—and indeed, when the city of Antioch itself was captured by enemies, and likewise when it suffered divine wrath from frequent earthquakes and fires—adjourned the aforementioned five-year spectacle and did not perform it again at established times as before. ^D Instead, they performed it at intervals of fifteen or even twenty years, according to their own whim (and this occurred only six times), even at those times when the city of Antioch, having departed from those evils, was enjoying its former peace.

^A In the thirteenth year of the reign of the same Emperor Claudius, the island of Crete suffered from a divine visitation of disaster. At that time, the history of the Trojan War, written by Dictys the Cretan himself in accordance with the truth of the events which took place, was found in his tomb within a tin box. Those who were passing by that way, thinking that the box, which lay at the head of the buried man, contained treasure, carried it to the Emperor Claudius. He ordered it to be opened, and upon learning what it was, he commanded that it be transcribed and deposited in the public library. Claudius also bestowed many benefits upon the Cretans for the restoration of ruins. He subsequently fell ill and, after a sickness of two days, died in his palace, in the sixty-fifth year of his life. ^B

Following the reign of the Emperor Claudius, his son Nero succeeded to the throne, in the consulship of Silvanus and Antoninus, and he reigned for thirteen years and two months. He was tall, thin, handsome, with a fine nose, a fresh face, large eyes, hair that was straight and drooping, gray-haired, with a bristly beard, and of composed manners. As soon as he began to reign, he made inquiries concerning Jesus; for when he was still a private citizen, he had heard that He was a great philosopher and a worker of wonders. Ignorant that He had already been crucified, he sought to have Him brought to Rome in order to question Him on certain matters. For the selfsame Emperor Nero favored the doctrine of those called Epicureans, who hold that all things happen by chance and that there is no intervening Providence. ^C When the Emperor Nero learned that the Jews, driven by envy, had crucified Him long before—though He was blameless and had not been found guilty of any crime—he became enraged. He gave orders, and Annas and Caiaphas were brought to Rome through Maximus. He also had Pilate, who was living in Palestine having completed his term of office, brought there through Maximus. ^D And having said much concerning Pilate...

^A they taught that they had indeed handed him over to be judged according to the laws. And Annas and Caiaphas, having disbursed money to many, and having successfully managed their business, were released.

During the reign of the same Nero, the holy Paul went to Athens, the city of Greece. And he found there a philosopher by the name of Dionysius the Areopagite, an Athenian, who was famous and who expounded the dogmas of philosophy. He asserted that the sun emanated from the effluence of divine light, and he philosophized on several other things regarding the manufacture of the universe. The holy Paul, seeing him, spoke to him. Dionysius said to him, "What kind of God are you preaching, you babbler?" But when he had perceived the doctrine of the holy Paul more attentively, he fell at his feet and begged to be immersed in the washing of baptism and to become a Christian. And so the holy Paul, baptizing him, made him a Christian. And having observed the fervor of his faith, the holy Paul appointed him bishop in that region. And this Dionysius, who had been among the number of the philosophers, wrote books against the Greeks. And the holy Paul returned to Jerusalem.

Also in the times of Nero, a certain Egyptian magus named Simon came to Rome. Using certain magical illusions, he touted himself as being Christ. The holy apostle Peter, having heard of him, journeyed to Rome. And while he was traveling through Antioch the Great, it happened that Evodius, the bishop and patriarch of Antioch, died; in his place, the holy apostle Peter appointed Ignatius. At the same time, it also happened that Mark the apostle and patriarch of the great Alexandria died. Being about to die, he appointed his disciple Anianus in his place, just as the wise chronicler Theophilus has recorded.

Now, the apostle Peter, coming to Rome and having been informed where Simon the magus was staying, went to him where he resided. He found there a very large, fierce shepherd dog by the gate, bound with chains, which, unless a sign were first given by Simon, forbade anyone coming to him from entering. And this was previously held to be a miracle by all who approached the magus. However, Peter, having seen that very large and fierce dog, and having also been warned by those standing outside the gates that he could not...

^A Peter, having seen the dog to be so huge and fearful, and having learned from those standing outside the gate of his master that unless Simon commands the dog, the dog does not allow anyone to enter, but rather attacks and kills those who approach it, Peter grasped the dog’s chain, released it, and said to it, “Go up to Simon and say to him in a human voice, ‘Peter, the servant of the God Most High, wishes to come up.’” The dog immediately went up running ^B and, while Simon was teaching some magical deceptions, the dog stood in their midst and said in a human voice to Simon, “Peter, the servant of the God Most High, wishes to come up to you.” Those who heard the dog speaking with a human voice were amazed, saying, “Who is this Peter, or what is this power of Peter whom the dog spoke of, that he caused a dog to speak in human fashion and provide an answer to him?” And Simon said to those standing by and marveling at Peter, “Let not this astonish us, for behold, I too say to him—to the dog—to bring back an answer to him in the same human voice.” And Simon said to the dog, “I command you to go out and say to Peter in a human voice that Simon says, ‘Come up.’” And Peter went up to Simon and contended with Simon the Egyptian, the sorcerer, performing healings. And many believed in Peter ^C and were baptized by him.

There was a great disturbance and clamor in Rome because of Simon and Peter, because they were performing miracles against one another. When Agrippa the prefect heard of the disturbance, he reported to Nero, the emperor, that there were some in this imperial city performing miracles against one another, and one says he is Christ, while the other says, “He is not, but he is a sorcerer; for I am a disciple of Christ.” And the emperor Nero commanded that Simon and Peter be brought before him, and that Pilate also be brought from the prison. They were brought before the emperor, and Nero asked Simon, saying, “Are you the one whom men call Christ?” And he said, “Yes.” And Nero also asked Peter, saying, “Is this man truly Christ?” Peter said, “He is not. For I was a disciple of that One, and with my own eyes I saw Him taken up into the heavens.” And calling for Pilate, he said to him concerning Simon, “Is this the one whom you gave over to be crucified?” And Pilate, having looked intently at him, said, “It is not he; for this man is long-haired ^D and stout.” And he asked him concerning Peter, “Do you recognize this man as His disciple?” And he said, “Yes.”

^A I brought him in as his disciple, and he denied it, saying he was not his disciple; and I released him. And subsequently Nero, as Simon had lied and claimed himself to be Christ, which he was not, and as Peter had again been convicted by Pilate and had denied Christ, ordered that both be cast out of the palace.

Thereafter they remained in Rome, competing with one another in the performance of miracles. ^B And indeed Simon the Magician, having brought a large bull into the midst, whispered a word into its ear, and immediately the bull died, and everyone marveled at Simon. But Peter, having immediately prayed before everyone, caused the bull to come to life again; and the bull was restored to its own master. And everyone praised Peter, saying that to make a dead thing live is a greater miracle. They also performed many other signs before one another, which are recorded in the Acts of the Holy Apostles. But the apostle Peter, through his prayer, killed Simon the Magician, who wished to be taken up into heaven. For Simon had said to Peter, as he said, that "Your God Christ was taken up; behold, I too am being taken up." And Peter saw him being lifted up by magic into the air in the midst of the city of Rome; and Peter prayed, and Simon the Magician was brought down from the air to the earth into the square and perished. His remains lie there to this day where he fell, and it has a stone railing round about; and that place is called from that time on the "Simonion."

When the emperor Nero heard that Simon had been killed by Peter, he was moved to anger, and ordered that he too be seized and put to death. ^C And as soon as the holy Peter was seized, he designated as his successor in the Roman episcopate a certain Linus, one of his disciples, who had also been his follower when he was seized. Now the divine Peter was advanced in age, in stature slightly taller than average, balding, having short hair, gray on his head and beard, of pale complexion, with eyes the color of wine, bearded, long-nosed, with joined eyebrows, quick, prudent, prone to anger, changeable, timid, speaking by the Holy Spirit and working miracles.

Linus, after St. Peter, was bishop, or patriarch, of the Roman see, as the wise Eusebius Pamphili wrote in his Chronicles. ^D

The holy apostle Peter suffered martyrdom, being crucified head-downwards.

ὀρ-^Aθῶς ὅτι Μὴ ὡς ὁ Κύριός μου σταυρωθῶ. Καὶ ἐτελειώθη ὁ ἅγιος Πέτρος ἐπὶ τῆς ὑπατείας Ἀπρωνιανοῦ καὶ Καπίτωνος (25).

Ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ κατὰ τοῦ Πιλάτου ἠγανάκτησεν ὁ αὐτὸς βασιλεὺς Νέρων, καὶ ἐκέλευσεν αὐτὸν ἀποκεφαλισθῆναι (24), λέγων· Διὰ τί ἐξέδωκε τὸν Δεσπότην Χριστὸν τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις, ἄνδρα ἄμεμπτον καὶ δυνάμεις ποιοῦντα; Εἰ γὰρ ὁ αὐτοῦ μαθητὴς τοιαῦτα θαυμάσια ἐποίει, ὁποῖος ὑπῆρχεν ἐκεῖνος δυνατός; ^B Ὁ γὰρ αὐτὸν ἔνορκον κατεστήσατο, μήπως καθ’ ὃν τρόπον ὁ Κύριος σταυρωθείη, ταὐτὸν καὶ ἐκείνῳ συμβείη. Τοῦτο δὲ γέγονεν ἐπὶ τῆς ὑπατείας Ἀπρωνιανοῦ καὶ Καπίτωνος.

Ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς αὐτοῦ βασιλείας κατέφθασεν εὐθέως ἐν τῇ Ῥώμῃ καὶ ὁ ἅγιος Παῦλος πεμφθεὶς ἀπὸ τῆς Ἰουδαίας χώρας παραστάσιμος· καὶ ἐμαρτύρησε καὶ αὐτὸς ἀποτμηθεὶς τὴν κεφαλὴν τῇ πρὸ γ' καλανδῶν Ἰουλίων (25) ἐπὶ τῆς ὑπατείας Νέρωνος καὶ Λεντούλου. Καὶ ἐκέλευσεν ὁ βασιλεὺς Νέρων τὰ σώματα τῶν ἁγίων ἀποστόλων ταφῇ μὴ παραδοθῆναι, ἀλλ’ ἄταφα μεῖναι. Ὑπῆρχε δὲ ὁ Παῦλος ἔτι περιὼν τῇ ἡλικίᾳ κονδοειδής, φαλακρός, μιξοπόλιος τὴν κάραν καὶ τὸ γένειον, εὔρινος, ὑπόγλαυκος, σύνοφρυς, λευκόχρους, ἀνθηροπρόσωπος, εὐπώγων, ὑπογελῶντα ἔχων τὸν χαρακτῆρα, φρόνιμος, ἠθικός, ἐξόμιλος, γλυκύς, ὑπὸ Πνεύματος ἁγίου ἐνθουσιαζόμενος καὶ ἰώμενος.

Ἔπεμψε δὲ κατὰ τῆς Ἰουδαίας καὶ τῆς Ἱερουσαλὴμ ὁ αὐτὸς βασιλεὺς Νέρων, καὶ πᾶσι κακῶς ἐχρήσατο, πολλοὺς φονεύσας στρατιωτικῇ συμβολῇ, ὅτι τυραννίδι φερόμενοι ἐξεφώνησαν ὑβριστικὰς φωνὰς κατὰ τοῦ Νέρωνος, διότι ἀπεκεφάλισε τὸν Πιλάτον (26) ὡς εἰς ἐκδίκησιν Χριστοῦ· καὶ ἦλθεν εἰς αὐτὸν οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ ὅτι καὶ αὐθεντήσαντες τὸν ἡγεμόνα ἐσταύρωσαν τὸν Χριστόν· καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἠγανάκτει κατ’ αὐτῶν ὡς τυράννων, καὶ ἐσφάγησαν τότε ὑπὸ στρατιωτῶν ἐν τῇ συμβολῇ ὅ τε Ἄννας καὶ ὁ ^C Καϊάφας.

Παρέλαβε δὲ ὁ αὐτὸς Νέρων ἐν τῷ βασιλεύειν αὐτὸν χώραν ἄλλην ἐν τῇ Πόντῳ (27), πέμψας Πολέ-

πέμψας Πολέμωνα στρατηγὸν αὐτοῦ· καὶ ἐποίησεν αὐτὴν ἐπαρχίαν, καλέσας αὐτὴν Πόντον ^A Πολεμωνιακόν. Ὁ δὲ αὐτὸς Νέρων ἔχαιρε τῷ Βενέτῳ μέρει πολὺ.

Ἐπὶ δὲ τῶν χρόνων τῆς βασιλείας αὐτοῦ Λουκανὸς ὁ σοφώτατος ἦν παρὰ Ῥωμαίοις μέγας καὶ ἐπαινούμενος. Ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς ὑπατείας Ἱτορικοῦ καὶ Τολπιλλιανοῦ τοῦ καὶ Τροχέλου ἀφανὴς ἐγένετο Νέρων ὁ βασιλεὺς καὶ ἐτελεύτα, τῶν ἱερέων τῶν Ἑλλήνων κατασκευασάντων αὐτῷ διὰ πότου δόσεως, ἐντὸς τοῦ δόγματος τῶν Ἐπικουρείων τοῦ μετ’ αὐτὸν λαβόντος παρὰ τῶν ἱερέων σύνταξιν τῆς βασιλείας καὶ εἰσελθόντος ἰδεῖν αὐτὸν, ὡς ἄγνωστον, καὶ κεντήσαντος αὐτὸν ἐν τῷ παλατίῳ. Καὶ τελευτᾷ ὁ αὐτὸς Νέρων, ὢν ἐνιαυτῶν ξθ’.

Μετὰ δὲ τὴν βασιλείαν Νέρωνος ἐβασίλευσε Γάλβας Αὔγουστος μῆνας ζ’. Ἦν δὲ μακρός, γενναῖος, λευκόχρους, ὑπόστραβος, γρυπόρυγχος, μεξυπόλιος, μανικός. Ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ αὐτοῦ Γάλβα ταφῇ παρεδόθησαν τὰ σώματα τῶν ἁγίων ἀποστόλων κατὰ κέλευσιν τοῦ αὐτοῦ βασιλέως· ἐν ὁράματι γὰρ ἐκελεύσθη δοῦναι τὰ σώματα τῶν ἁγίων ἀποστόλων εἰς ταφήν. Καὶ τελευτᾷ ὁ Γάλβας ἰδίῳ θανάτῳ ἐξαίφνης φλεβοτομηθείς, ὢν ἐνιαυτῶν μθ’.

Μετὰ δὲ τὴν βασιλείαν Γάλβα ἐβασίλευσε Λούκιος Ὄθων μῆνας γ’. Ἦν δὲ κονδοειδής, πλατύς, γενναῖος, ἀπλόθριξ, μικρόφθαλμος, ὑπόσιμος, ψελλός. Ἐν δὲ τῇ αὐτῇ βασιλείᾳ ὁ ἅγιος Ἰάκωβος ὁ ἀπόστολος, ὁ ἐπίσκοπος Ἱεροσολύμων καὶ πατριάρχης, ὃν ἐνεθρόνισεν ὁ ἅγιος Πέτρος ἀντὶ ἑαυτοῦ ἀνιὼν ἐπὶ Ῥώμην, ἐτελεύτησε· καὶ παρέλαβε τὸ σχῆμα

σχῆμα τῆς ἐπισκοπῆς Ἱεροσολύμων Συμεὼν ὁ καὶ Σίμων, ^A καὶ ἐγένετο πατριάρχης.

Τελευτᾷ δὲ ὁ αὐτὸς Ὄθων ἐτῶν νγ' (57) ἀρρωστήσας.

Μετὰ δὲ τὴν βασιλείαν Ὄθωνος ἐβασίλευσε Βιτέλλιος Αὔγουστος ἔτη θ' καὶ μῆνας η' (58). Ἦν δὲ διμοιριαῖος, εὔστηθος, 335 γλαυκός, πυῤῥάκης, δασυπώγων, ἐξόφθαλμος, δειλός. Ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς βασιλείας εὐθέως ἔπαθεν ὑπὸ θεομηνίας Νικομήδεια, πόλις μεγάλη, τῆς Βιθυνίας μητρόπολις. Καὶ πολλὰ αὐτοῖς τοῖς περισωθεῖσιν ἐχαρίσατο καὶ τῇ πόλει εἰς ἀνανέωσιν ὁ αὐτὸς βασιλεύς· ἦν γὰρ καὶ πρώην παθοῦσα ὑπὸ θεομηνίας καὶ ἐστραμμένη· καὶ ἀνήγειρεν αὐτήν.

Ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ αὐτοῦ Βιτελλίου Καίσαρος ἐτυράννησαν οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι καὶ ἐφόνευσαν Κυρήνιον (59) τὸν ἄρχοντα αὐτῶν λιθοβολήσαντες αὐτόν. ^B Τῷ δὲ λε' ἔτει μετὰ τὴν τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν καὶ Θεοῦ ἀνάληψιν ἐπεστράτευσε κατ' αὐτῶν ὁ Βιτέλλιος βασιλεύς, πέμψας στρατηγὸν ἑαυτοῦ Οὐεσπασιανὸν (40) καὶ Τίτον υἱὸν αὐτοῦ. Καὶ ἐπέστησαν τῇ Ἰουδαίᾳ χώρᾳ, πολεμοῦντες αὐτὴν καὶ τὴν Ἱερουσαλήμ. Καὶ ἐν τῷ πολεμεῖν αὐτὸν ἀπέθανεν ἐν τῇ Ῥώμῃ ὁ Βιτέλλιος βασιλεύς, νόσῳ βληθείς, ὢν ἐνιαυτῶν μη' (41).

Καὶ μετ᾿ αὐτὸν ἀνηγορεύθη βασιλεὺς ὁ θειότατος 336 Οὐεσπασιανός, καὶ ἔστεψεν αὐτὸν ὁ στρατός, ἐπὶ τῆς ὑπατείας Ρούφου καὶ Καπιτιανοῦ (42). Ἦν δὲ κονδοειδής, φαλακρός, προγάστωρ, πολιός, πυῤῥάκης, ἔχων οἰνοπαεῖς ὀφθαλμούς, ^C πλάτοψης, ὀργίλος. Καὶ ἐάσας Τίτον τὸν ἑαυτοῦ υἱὸν πολεμεῖν τὴν Ἰουδαίαν χώραν, ἦλθεν ἐπὶ τὴν Ῥώμην, καὶ ἐβασίλευσε ἔτη θ' καὶ μῆνας ι'. Ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς αὐτοῦ βασιλείας ἐγένετο διωγμὸς μέγας τῶν Χριστιανῶν ἐπὶ τῆς ὑπατείας Δεκίου καὶ Ῥουστικίου (43). Τῷ δὲ λη' ἔτει μετὰ τὸ ἀναληφθῆναι τὸν Σωτῆρα Χριστὸν Τίτος τὴν Ἰουδαίαν παρέλαβε καὶ τὴν Ἱερουσαλὴμ ἐπὶ τῆς ὑπατείας Κομμόδου καὶ Ρούου (44).

^A His father Vespasian reigning, he despoiled Jerusalem and all of Palestine and destroyed the Temple of the Jews on the very day of the feast when he took the city, and he destroyed one hundred and ten thousand souls, having cut them down with the sword 357 (45); and he carried off other myriads of captives, young men and male children, and virginal maidens, just as the most wise Josephus has written; for he was a Hebrew and was present at the war. And Titus destroyed all the provinces of Judea. The wise Eusebius of Caesarea wrote as follows: that on their feast day the Jews crucified Christ, and on that same feast day they all perished, the Savior having delivered them up. There were three destructions of Jerusalem including this one, as the most wise Eusebius has written.

Titus, having celebrated the triumph over the Jews, departed for Rome. But Vespasian, from the Jewish spoils, built before the gate of the great city of Antioch that structure which is called the Cherubim ^B. For there he set up those bronze Cherubim which his son Titus had found installed in the Temple of Solomon, and when he overturned the Temple, he took them away from there and brought them to Antioch along with the Seraphim, celebrating the victory won over the Jews under his reign; [setting up a bronze column on high], in honor of the moon, [558] with four bulls facing toward Jerusalem; for he took it at night, while the moon was shining. He also built the theater of Daphne, having inscribed upon it: *Ex praeda Judaea* (47). The site of the same theater had formerly been a synagogue of the Jews; and to insult them, he tore down their synagogue and made it a theater, setting up a marble statue of himself there, which remains to this day.

Vespasian also built in Caesarea of Palestine, from the same Jewish spoils, a very large Odeum, like a theater, in the same place where the synagogue of the Jews had previously stood ^C. He also made Macedonia a second province, separating it from the first. Under his reign, Corinth, the metropolis of Greece, suffered from a divine visitation in the month of Desius, or June.

in the depth of night. ^A He bestowed many gifts upon the survivors and upon the city. He also built many things in the provinces of Pannonia and Comagene. He divided Europe from Thrace, and having built the city of Heraclea—formerly called Perinthus—he designated it a metropolis, giving it a governor. He also built a temple in Antioch the Great, near the theater, which he named the Temple of the Winds.

Being seized by disease and becoming paralytic, he died, in the seventy-first year of his age.

He was succeeded by his son Titus, who reigned for two years. He was tall, slender, fair-complexioned, with soft, short, and thin hair, and small eyes. Being seized by an incurable malady, he departed this life in the forty-second year of his age. ^B

After Titus, the most divine Domitian reigned for fifteen years and two months. He was tall, slender, fair, blond, with curly hair, gray eyes, slightly stooped, and a profound philosopher. During his reign, there was a persecution of the Christians; he even summoned the holy John the Theologian to Rome, and examined him. But having marveled at the wisdom of the same Apostle, he secretly granted him the opportunity to return to Ephesus, saying to him, "Go, and remain in peace where you came from." He was spoken against, and he was ex- ^{C D}

^Ailed to Patmos. He punished many other Christians as well, so that a multitude of them fled into Pontus, just as Bottius, the wise chronographer, wrote against them.

^B The same Emperor Domitian loved a certain dancer of the Green faction of Rome, who was called Paris. On account of him, he was reproached by the Roman Senate and by the poet Juvenal for taking pleasure in the Green faction. The Emperor exiled this same poet Juvenal to the Pentapolis in Libya, but he loaded the dancer with gifts and ordered him to go to great Antioch and to live there outside the city. And so the dancer Paris departed and went to live outside that city, building for himself a suburban house and a bath, which is visible even to this day, called "Paradise" and the "House." There, too, in the gardens that look out from behind those houses, the dead Paris lies buried in a sarcophagus.

The same Domitian built in great Antioch a public bath called the "Medea," because he had placed a magnificent statue of Medea in the middle of it. And so, from her name, the citizens called it that, and no longer the "Domitian." This public bath was built near the mountain close to the stadium and the temple of Aphrodite. The same Emperor also built a temple of Asclepius there.

^C In the days of the reign of this same Domitian, there flourished the most wise Apollonius of Tyana; and he thrived, traveling around and everywhere performing "telesmata" (charms) for the cities and the regions. After leaving Rome, he reached Byzantium; and, having entered that city, which was once the city of Byzas but is now, by its greater fortune, Constantinople, he performed many charms there, at the request of the Byzantines, both that against the storks and that of the Lycus River, which flows through the middle of the city, and that of the

^A tortoise and that of the horses, and other wonderful things. Then, departing from Byzantium, the same Apollonius performed charms in the cities. And he came to Syria from Tyana, and entered into Antioch the Great; and the owners of Antioch asked him to perform charms there also regarding things they were in need of. And he made one against the north wind, having placed the same charm at the eastern gate of the city. He likewise performed a charm in the same city against scorpions, so that they would not dare approach the region; and he placed the same charm in the middle of the city, having made a bronze scorpion and burying it, having set a small column above it. And the scorpions disappeared from the entire territory of Antioch. He performed many other things there also. The citizens asked him to perform a charm against mosquitoes, so that the same city of Antioch might have no mosquitoes. And he did so, having ordered them that on the seventh day of the month of Daisios, which is also June, the equestrian contest in the same Antioch of Syria, which is called the Grastense and is accustomed to be held in the month of June, should be celebrated in this manner. On the said day of the Grastense solemnity, he commanded that every citizen should carry a solid leaden image, bearing the face of Mars, attached to a reed; from here there was a shield hanging from the reed, tied to red leather; and from there a small sword ^B hanging similarly by a linen thread, having said to them to shout while riding in saying, "Let the city be free of mosquitoes," and after the conclusion of the hippodrome, each one should deposit it in his own house. And no mosquito appeared again in Antioch the Great.

While the same Apollonius of Tyana was going around and examining the same Antioch with the owners of the city regarding its topography, he saw in the middle of the same city a porphyry column standing and having nothing upon it, but the column itself had been scorched by Typhonic fire. And having inquired about it, what this is, he learned from them that after the disaster of the city in the time of Gaius Caesar, a certain philosopher and magus named Debborius performed this charm so that the city, being shaken by an earthquake, would not fall, having set up the column and a marble breastplate above it, and on its breast he wrote, "Unshaken, ^C Inconcussable." This

^A, however, was consumed by Typhonic fire from a flash of lightning; the breastplate placed above the column fell, and we fear lest our city suffer again. But be entreated, and do you yourself make a potent spell, so that the city, being shaken, might not suffer any longer." Then Apollonius, groaning, delayed to make another spell against earthquakes. And seeing him groan, they persisted in entreating him; and taking a diptych, he wrote these things: "And you, ^B wretched Antioch, twice shall you suffer! But again a time will come, when you will lie in distress from earthquakes; and again the second time you shall burn with fire, you who are by the shores of the Orontes; unless you suffer once more." And he gave the diptych to those same Antiochene leading men. And having set out from the city of Antioch, he went down to Seleucia of Syria; and he sailed away to Egypt. And the same Apollonius lived thirty-four years and eight months, just as Domninus, the most wise chronicler, has written in his records.

The same most divine Emperor Domitian founded a city in Isauria, which he called Domitianopolis. ^C This same Domitian also put the famous Asclepion to death, because he had predicted to him that he would perish by the sword. But Domitian, having entered the temple of Jupiter a little later for the sake of sacrificing, was removed from the midst by the senate, through treachery plotted against him, when he was in his forty-fifth year; yet a rumor was spread among the people that he had been snatched up into heaven, as a philosopher. But it was true that he was killed, having been slaughtered in that same temple of Jupiter by the senate, as he was arrogant and ^D insulting to them. These senators caused the purple chlamys which he was wearing to be hung up on one of the chains from which the lamps in the temple were hanging, and all who were entering the temple were deceived.

thinking that he had been taken up into the air. But it was discovered after this that he had been slain; ^A and there was a great tumult, because he had been slain within the temple.

After the reign of Domitian, Nerva Augustus reigned for one year and one month. He was of more than average height, old, with fine eyes, long-nosed, well-built, with hair turning grey, dark-complexioned, curly-haired, with a thick beard, and of good character. During his reign, Diocesarea, a city of Cilicia, suffered a third disaster by the wrath of God, as did Nicopolis and its surrounding region. And immediately the same emperor sent a Roman senator to that place named Zarbus to rebuild it, providing him with eight hundred *centenaria*. And having arrived in Cilicia, the same senator Zarbus, having seen what had fallen, applied great zeal and rebuilt the city, making it better. Whence the city was also called by his name, the citizens being grateful to him. For the senator had called it the city of Nerva in the name of the emperor. ^B

It happened, however, that the emperor died before it was completed; and they changed its name to Anazarbus, instructing the scribes to enter it into the public records in this way. For it was said that from the beginning this same city was called Cyinda; and it suffered its first disaster under the consuls of Rome, and it was rebuilt and renamed the city of Ciscus. And again it suffered its second disaster under Caesar Julius; and it was rebuilt and renamed Diocesarea; and having suffered as has been said under the Emperor Nerva, it was renamed Anazarbus. ^C And having offered a sacrifice, Zarbus made a bronze statue for a native girl named Cepara, as the Fortune of the city. And Zarbus informed the same emperor concerning the citizens, and the same emperor, being generous, bestowed many things upon the surviving citizens. Who, namely Nerva, recalled the holy apostle ^D

as he had directed. The same Nerva ^A recalled the divine Apostle John from exile; who, returning from Patmos to Ephesus, dwelt there. Under his rule, Manes began to disseminate his dogmas and to entice the populace to himself. Also, under his administration, gladiatorial games were forbidden to the people, and in their place, hunting spectacles were substituted. Nerva, the emperor, falling ill, paid the debt of nature, having lived seventy-one years.

BOOK XI

CONCERNING THE TIMES OF THE EMPEROR TRAJAN AND THE THIRD ANTIOCHENE PASSION.

269. Nerva was succeeded in the empire by the most divine ^C Trajan; he ruled for nineteen years and six months. He was tall, thin of body, dark-complexioned, with a small face, closely cropped gray hair, and sunken eyes. Up to the second year of the reign of the Emperor Trajan, the holy John, Apostle and Theologian, was appearing and teaching in Ephesus, where he was bishop and patriarch. But afterward, withdrawing himself, he disappeared; nor is it known until this day what became of him, just as Africanus and Irenaeus, most wise chronographers, have recorded in their writings.

Under the reign of the same Trajan, a great persecution of the Christians occurred, and many were punished. At that same time, the king of the Persians, Meerdotes—who was a Parthian by birth and brother to Osdroes, king of the Armenians—marched with arms against the Romans; ^D who, being equipped with very great forces, and having with him his own son Sanatrucius, captured and spoiled many cities and regions. And while he was plundering the Euphratesian region, his horse bolted, and he was thrown from it, being gravely injured by the fall, and he passed away

^A in his own natural death. As he was about to depart, he appointed his son, Sanatrucius, known as Arsaces (74)—which means "king"—to replace him; in Persian, it is interpreted as *Torcum*, meaning "king." This same King Sanatrucius of the Persians continued to ravage the Roman territory. Osdroes, the king of the Armenians, who was the brother of Meer-dotes, heard of his death and immediately sent his own son, Parthemaspates (75), from Armenia itself with a large army to assist his own cousin, Sanatrucius, the King of the Persians, against the Romans. Upon hearing this, the most holy Emperor Trajan immediately campaigned against them in the twelfth year ^B of his reign, leaving Rome in the month of October, which is also called Hyperberetaios. He arrived first in the East, having set out with a great force of soldiers and senators, among whom was his nephew Hadrian (77). He arrived in Seleucia of Syria in the month of December, which is also called Apellaios, by a *dromon* (78), from the so-called Butyllium 353 landing place, which is a natural harbor near Seleucia of Syria. The Persians had already taken the great city of Antioch, though without fighting, by a friendly agreement, and they held it, occupying it and guarding it for the Persian King Sanatrucius, since the magistrates of Antioch had, of their own volition, arranged for total peace and submission through an embassy they sent to the King of the Persians. The same King of the Persians, being persuaded, sent two Barzamanatae ^C—those whose names were Phurtunus and Gargaris—with a large Persian auxiliary force of three thousand men. The Emperor Trajan ^D had no sooner arrived by that *dromon*

^A to the city of Seleucia in Syria than he wrote secretly to the esteemed citizens and all the people of Antioch, giving notice of his arrival and declaring: "We have learned that your city possesses a considerable body of men of its own, apart from the established military detachments. The enemy Persians who are in your city are few in number compared to your own multitude. Let each one of you, therefore, kill the Persians he has in his own house, taking courage from our presence, for we have come as avengers of the Roman cause." Upon learning this, the people of Antioch ^B rushed out in the silence of the night against the Persians who were in their city, and staying awake, they killed them all. They also seized the two Persian commanders called Barsamanatae—that is, Phurtunus and Gargaris—and after killing them, they dragged their corpses through the whole city, shouting this cry about them: "Behold, for the victory of the Lord Trajan, Phurtunus and Gargaris are being dragged! Come, come, Gargaris, come, Phurtunus!" ^C Those Persians who were able to escape from being dragged by the crowd fled outside, and that same night they set fire to and burned a small part of the city in the quarter called Scepina. Hearing these things, the Emperor Trajan commended the bravery of the citizens of Antioch; and when his army's ships had arrived from Seleucia, he went up to the sacred Daphne to pray and offer sacrifice in the temple of Apollo. He then sent messengers from Daphne instructing the people of Antioch to remove the corpses of the slaughtered Persians from the city, and to carry them off to a distance and burn them. He also ordered the city to be purified ^D with pyres [555] made of laurel branches here and there at the gates of the city, and that much incense should be cast into the fire of the laurel boughs, and that over the whole city *taureas* should be beaten, in order to drive away the unjust spirits of the slaughtered Persians. And so it was done. The same Emperor Trajan then descended from Daphne and entered Antioch of Syria through the Golden Gate, which is called...

of the Daphne gate, wearing on his ^A head a crown of olive branches, on the seventh of the month of Aethenaeus, also called January, on the fifth day of the week, at the fourth hour of the day. He ordered the bull-fights to be held also, up to thirty days, each night, ordering this too, so that every year at the same time it might be done in memory of the destruction of the Persians. These things Domninus the chronographer wrote down.

While the same Emperor Trajan was residing in Antioch of Syria, deliberating on matters of war, Tiberianus, the governor of the first province of Palestine, gave him information in these terms: "To the invincible Emperor, Caesar, most divine Trajan. I have taken pains, by punishing and killing the Galileans, those of the sect of the so-called Christians, in accordance with your decrees; and they do not cease to inform against themselves for the purpose of being executed. Whence I have wearied myself by exhorting these and threatening them not to presume to inform ^B me that they are of the aforesaid sect; and even being driven away they do not cease. Deign, therefore, to provide me with the things that are consistent with your victorious empire." And the same Trajan ordered him to cease from killing the Christians. Likewise, he also ordered the rulers everywhere, not to kill the so-called Christians for the future; and there was a small respite for the Christians.

And the same Trajan departed from the great city of Antioch, having stirred up war against the Persians; and he conquered them by force in this way. Learning that his own cousin, Parthemaspates, was having a dispute with Sanatrucius, king of the Persians, Emperor Trajan sent to him and suborned him, promising to give him the kingdom of the Persians ^C if he would join him in the war. And being suborned, he came to him by night; and having taken him into his own camp with his multitude, the same most divine Trajan rushed against Sanatrucius, king of the Persians; and after many Persians had fallen, he captured Sanatrucius, king of the Persians, as he was fleeing, and killed him. And the same Trajan appointed in his place as king of the Persians, for the Persians who were left and who had bowed down to him, according to the arrangements, one by the name of Parthemaspates, the son of Osroes. And he notified the Roman Senate about these things

that he could not maintain such immense and vast lands, and territories so far removed, for Roman administration, but that they should grant them a king subject to the power of the Romans. ^A And the Senate wrote back to him from Rome to do everything as he might wish, and as he himself might perceive to be advantageous for Roman interests. And Parthemaspates, son of Osroes, reigned over the Persians. The war itself and the victory of the most divine Trajan over the Persians were set forth by the most wise chronographer Arrian, who recorded and wrote down everything accurately.

The same emperor also made Amida a metropolis, naming the province Mesopotamia, separating it from Osrhoene, and granting it both a governor and metropolitan rights. He also created another province along the Danube river, which he called Parapotamian Dacia.

Under the reign of this same most divine Trajan, great Antioch, which is situated near Daphne, suffered its third catastrophe ^B on the month of Apellaios, which is December 13th, on the first day of the week, after the cockcrow, in the year 164 of the Antiochene era, two years after the arrival of the most divine Emperor Trajan in the East. Those of the Antiochenes who survived and remained alive at that time built a temple in Daphne, upon which they inscribed: "The rescued have erected this to Zeus the Savior."

On that same night when great Antioch suffered, the island city of Rhodes, which belonged to the Hexapolis, also suffered its second catastrophe by act of God. The same most pious Trajan ^{C D}

^A He constructed in the great city of Antioch, having begun first with the building called the Middle Gate near the temple of Ares, where the Parmenius torrent flows, very close to what is now called Macellum, carving above it an image of the she-wolf nourishing Romulus and Remus, so that posterity might know that this was a Roman work. He also sacrificed there a fair maiden, a citizen named Calliope, for the ransom and purification of the city, having performed a wedding for her. And immediately he raised the two large porticoes, and he built many other things in the same city of Antioch, both a public bath and an aqueduct, diverting the water that flowed from the springs of Daphne to the so-called Agriae, and bestowed his own name upon both the public bath and the aqueduct. He also completed the theater of the same Antioch, which was previously unfinished ^B, placing in it, above four columns in the middle of the proscenium, a gilded bronze statue of the maiden he had sacrificed, seated upon the river Orontes, for the fortune of that city, crowned by the kings Seleucus and Antiochus. The same Emperor Trajan was residing in the same city when the divine catastrophe occurred. And at that time, under him, the holy Ignatius suffered martyrdom 361, the bishop of the city of Antioch; for he was angry with him because he rebuked him. He also apprehended at that time five names of Christian women of Antioch, and examined them, saying: "What is your hope, that you thus deliver yourselves to death?" They answered, saying that, "Though slain by you, we shall rise again in the same bodies into eternal life." And he commanded them to be burned by fire, and he mixed the ashes of their burned bones with bronze, and he made the bronze into the basins of the public warm bath. And when it began to provide for the public, if anyone bathed in that public bath, they would be seized by vertigo, fall, and could not exit unless sustained by others. But Emperor Trajan, learning of this, changed those same bronze basins and made others from pure bronze, saying: "I have acted evilly, by mixing the ashes of the bodies and contaminating the bath." This he said, because the Christians were boasting about this ^C and repeatedly provoking the Greeks. Transforming those first bronze basins, he instead erected five statues to the aforementioned women, saying: "Behold, I [have honored] them, and not their God (as they themselves said)."

^A These statues stand to this day in that same public bath. He also prepared a furnace of fire and commanded such Christians as desired to do so to cast themselves into it voluntarily. Many therefore cast themselves in and suffered martyrdom. Among their number was the holy Drosina and many other virgins.

The same emperor also built a temple of Artemis in Daphne, situated in the middle of the grove. The same emperor also established two provinces beyond the river Danube in the western parts, which he called Dacia Prima and Dacia Secunda. Then, being seized by a disease, he died, having reached the age of sixty-six. ^B

Trajan was succeeded by Aelius Hadrian, in the consulship of Apronianus and Niger, who reigned for twenty-two years and five months. He was in stature taller than average, with a stout body, fair-skinned, graying, handsome, with a shaggy beard, blue-gray eyes, quiet, eloquent, and skilled in sacred rites. This man also built a public bath and an aqueduct in great Antioch, both of which were named after him. He also erected the theater of the springs ^C of Daphne and diverted the waters flowing thence through the ravines which they call Agriae, by driving piles into the ground and fixing them firmly and building them up with expensive masonry, so that they might break the force of the flowing waters and lead the abundant supply of water through an aqueduct to the city of Antioch itself for the use of the city. He also built the temple of the same springs, from where the streams flow, in that same Daphne, erecting in that same temple a great statue of the Nymphs, sitting and holding the eagle of Zeus in honor of the Naiads, as a thanksgiving ^D for having brought such an astonishing work to completion. He also caused the gushing water of the spring called Saramanna to go out through a channel and to be poured into that same channel of the spring in the small theater, flowing from the temple in five different streams, which he himself called Pentamodium, Tetramodium, Trimodium, Dimodium, [and] Modium. The same Hadrian also instituted a festival day for the springs, to be celebrated duly with sacrifices on the twenty-third of the month of Daisios, which is June. He also had the spring that is in the Agriae, called [the spring] of Pallas—a ruinous temple—enclosed by a wall, and built an aqueduct for the use of those inhabiting the sacred Daphne.

^A The same Emperor Hadrian, before he was emperor and while he was a senator under the Emperor Trajan, whose son-in-law he was, was staying in great Antioch at the time when that same city suffered from the divine wrath; at that time he was acting as a senator. There were also many senators from Rome in that same city of Antioch, who, by order of the Emperor, built many houses and baths in Antioch. In the reign of this same most divine Hadrian, Cyzicus, a great metropolis of the Hellespont province, suffered from the divine wrath, being shaken by tremors at night in the month of November. The Emperor contributed much toward the restoration of the city and bestowed money and honors upon the surviving citizens. This same Hadrian built in that same Cyzicus a great temple, one of the wonders [of the world], ^B and placed there, upon the roof of the temple, a statue of himself in white marble of very great size, on which he inscribed, "Of the Divine Hadrian," which is there to this day.

The same Hadrian, being angry at the Jews, ordered Greeks to dwell in Jerusalem, having renamed it Aelia. In his reign, the same Hadrian also raised up the Colossus of Rhodes, which had fallen in the earthquake of the divine wrath during the previous period when the city and island of Rhodes also suffered, and which had lain on the ground for 311 years without any part of it being lost. He spent [a great sum] on raising it and setting it in its own place, using machines, ropes, and 300 craftsmen, as he wrote below regarding the time and the costs. ^C During the reign of this same Hadrian, a certain Marcion disseminated the impious Manichaean doctrine, saying that this earthly creation had its origin from a certain evil author. And having subverted many Greeks, Jews, and Christians to himself...

and received him, as the most wise Clement has set forth.

The same Hadrian founded a city in Thrace, which he called Hadrianopolis; and he founded another city, which he called Hadriani Therae. He also founded a city in Egypt, which he called Antinoe. Suffering from dropsy, the same Hadrian died at Baiae, being 65 years of age.

After the reign of Hadrian, there reigned Aelius Antoninus Pius, the pious, for 23 years. He was of just stature, comely, fair-skinned, gray on both his head and beard, with a handsome nose, a broad face, reddish eyes, ruddy, of laughing countenance, and very magnanimous. ^A He built in Heliopolis of the Phoenician Lebanon a great temple to Zeus, which is also to be reckoned among the wonders of the world. He also built in Laodicea of Syria a forum, a great and spectacular sight, and the Antoninian public bath.

He took up arms against the Egyptians, who having revolted, had put to death the Augustalis ^B Dinarchus. And after the vengeance and the victory, he came down to great Alexandria and built the Gate of the Sun and the Gate of the Moon, and the course.

Coming also to great Antioch, he paved the square of the great colonnades built by Tiberius, and indeed the whole city, paving it with millstone transported from the Thebaid, at his own expense; for this is confirmed by the stone tablet, which, inscribed with the title of this magnificence, he erected at the gate called that of the Cherubim, from which point he began the work. Which ^C monument is still visited there to this day, in memory of such a great work.

He also built a public bath in Caesarea of Palestine, and another in Nicomedia of Bithynia; and yet another in Ephesus of Asia; all of which he called by his own name. And having returned to Rome, he built there a great aqueduct. ^D

^A XI. And he burned the records of the treasury, concerning which the senate had formally acknowledged in the time of Caesar Julius Gaius, at his command, that it was not permitted for a senator to make a will for his own kindred, unless half of his possessions were distributed to the emperor then reigning; the same most pious Antoninus having declared through his own imperial ordinance that everyone should enjoy his own [possessions] and dispose of them as he wished. The same Antoninus, while staying in Lorium, was seized by an illness and died after a few days, at the age of seventy-seven.

After the reign of Antoninus, Marcus Antoninus the philosopher, his son (16), reigned for eighteen years and nine months. He was of short stature, slender, of fair complexion, with hair turning gray, short-cropped hair, beautiful eyes, bearded, ^B of small face, and with a prominent nose. This same Emperor Marcus proclaimed a most just law, that even in cases of intestacy (17) children might inherit from their father, and that to an ungrateful child a fourth part of the paternal estate should be given (18). During his reign, the nation of the Germans was subjugated. Likewise, in the times of his reign, the deeds of Julianus Chaldaeus the Great were admired.

The same Emperor Marcus built, or rather restored, in great Antioch the public bath called the Centenarium (19); for it had fallen during the time of Trajan in the earthquake. He also built ^C the Museum, and his Nymphæum called the Ocean (20). The same Emperor Marcus Antoninus favored the Green faction. ^D

Having then set out for Pannonia, he died of a disease. ^A His son, Antoninus Verus, succeeded Marcus Antoninus in the empire; he reigned for eight years. He was tall, thickset, hook-nosed, fair-eyed, dark-complexioned, with curly and short hair, bearded, and extremely addicted to women. Having defeated the nation of the Huns, and having brought back a victory from there, he also accepted the surrender of very many other nations: for he was generous. At length, however, he was slain in Proconnesus, in his thirty-ninth year.

^B ED. CHILMEADI NOTES. ...the work, imitating the Ocean, he adorned, as appears below from our author, in [the life of] the emperor Probus: where, instead of *forte*, one should read *uti*, as it is written elsewhere. ...Antoninus Verus as his son-in-law and partner in the empire for ten years, as Julius Capitolinus maintains, and those as the first [years] of his empire; he therefore did not have him as a successor, but his son Commodus. ...perhaps refers to that very dangerous Marcomannic [war], which was finished by the emperor Marcus alone, and not without effort, as the author wishes, but with much sweat and blood. ...for he died of apoplexy at Altinum, in his forty-second year, as Jul. Capitolinus testifies.

BOOK XII

ON THE TIMES OF THE EMPEROR COMMODUS, AND THE OLYMPIC GAMES PRESENTED AT GREAT ANTIOCH.

After Antoninus Verus, Commodus Augustus reigned for twenty-two years and eight months. He was, however, of a stature exceeding the average, fair-skinned, with bluish eyes, a broad face, flat-nosed, broad-chested, with yellowish curly hair, growing a beard, a lover of building, and learned in sacred rites. He built at great Antioch a public bath, which he called the Commodian [bath]. He also restored the temple of Athena situated opposite it, and in the middle between these two he established the so-called Xystus, having built steps and porticoes: and lower down, at the entrance to the Xystus, he erected a temple to Olympian Zeus.

Under his reign, the leading men and the people of Antioch presented a report to the emperor Commodus, requesting that by his divine command

^A he might assign to the public treasury the revenues that Sosibius, aforementioned, had left to the city of Antioch for the agonistic games and other kinds of spectacles to be celebrated there; and they besought him, that by his divine edict he should provide that the magistrates might no longer convert these revenues to their own use, but that, being secured for the public treasury, they should serve for the meeting of the expenses of the Olympic games and other such spectacles which were to be presented for the delight of the people of the city of Antioch. And immediately the same emperor Commodus, by his own divine edict, assigned the revenues to the public treasury, having ordained that the Olympics be celebrated (26) and having set apart from the public treasury a manifest sum of money to be provided for the expenses of those serving the sacred and public festival of the Olympics, further legislating that it be celebrated faultlessly every four years during the festival of the votive offerings, that is, sacrifices customary of old, in the month of Panemus, known as July, and in the month of Lous, known as August, for forty-five days, in honor of the Olympian ^B Zeus; likewise having also set apart from these same revenues another manifest quantity of gold for the hippodrome, to be celebrated faultlessly on the day of the Sun, that is, on Sunday. Likewise also, for the sake of the nocturnal stage festival celebrated every three years, that is, the so-called Orgia—which is the mysteries of Dionysus and Aphrodite—that is, the so-called Maiuma (27), because the same festival was celebrated in the month of May, also called Artemisios, he set apart a manifest quantity of gold for the sake of torches, lamps ^C and other things which contribute to the festival of the thirty pleasant nights. Of this nocturnal festival, Virgil, the most wise poet of the Romans, makes mention in the fourth book of his work, expressing these things in the Latin tongue:

. . . . Trieterica Baccho Orgia: nocturnusque vocat clamore Citheron (28).

VARIAE LECTIONES

ED. CHILMEADI NOTES

(26) "Having ordained the Olympics be celebrated": The revenues assigned by Sosibius to the Antiochenes were for general games, to be celebrated every fifth year in the month of October, as we learn from the author, book IX, at the end. But the emperor Commodus decreed that these be used for the expenses of the Olympic celebration, to be held in the months of July and August: the time of year was changed, yet the same period of recurring celebrations was maintained. For the author's "every four years" is to be understood regarding the celebration of the games after the fourth year is completed, at the beginning of the fifth: which span of time he also calls "five years" above, under the emperor Claudius, in which manner the Olympics were also accustomed to be celebrated. (27) "Of the so-called Maiuma": A festival mentioned by Suidas, about which Jo. Meursius in his Glossarium Graeco-barbarum [writes]. It seems to have been different from ours. For in Suidas it was annual; in our author it is triennial. These solemnities were celebrated in honor of various [deities]. (28) "Trieterica Baccho / Orgia, nocturnusque vocat clamore Citheron": This passage of Virgil, by unskilled Greek scribes—on account of their ignorance of the Latin language, as it seems—was very poorly treated; by our author, it was perhaps expressed in Greek characters in this manner:

Trieterica Baccho Orgia; nocturnusque vocat clamore Citharon, which are read in Virgil thus, Aeneid, book VI.

^A The Emperor also set aside ample funds for the Cynesios [hunting games], which by ancient custom were wont to be celebrated periodically over four years; these he wished to be conducted for only thirty-one months, so that by abstaining from hunting for the other five months, a collection of wild beasts might be gathered for the feast day sacred to Diana and Mars.

Then, for the first time, Artabanius, a magistrate of Antioch, was appointed Syriarch by the leaders and the whole populace. He also distributed the remaining money to mimes, dancers, and other such spectacles which it was customary to exhibit to the people. Therefore, whatever was necessary for those games was all supplied properly for the future to the Antiochenes from the public treasury. The Antiochenes, for their part, erected a bronze statue of the Emperor Commodus in the middle of their city. In the year of the Antiochene era 260, by the divine edict of the Emperor, as mentioned earlier, the Olympic games were celebrated for the first time for the Syrian Antiochenes in the Xystus, which had been built by Commodus, in accordance with the divine order of him [the Emperor], as has been previously stated, in the year 266 of their own calendar, in the Xystus founded by him. ^B The Antiochenes also purchased these same Olympic games from the Pisaeans of Greece for ninety periods of the Olympic games—making it for 360 years—by means of an unwritten contract.

By that same imperial edict, an Alitarcha was then appointed for the first time, Aphronius, formerly a prefect, a citizen of Antioch. So long as he wore the habit of the Alitarcha, divine honors were paid to him by everyone, just as to Jupiter himself. Yet during all that time he did not enter any house, nor did he recline on a bed, but sleeping on the ground under the open sky, he lay down upon clean coverings, a reed mat, and stones. He wore a garment... ^C

^A white as snow, and a crown of lychnites, pearls, and other precious stones, and he held an ebony 35 staff, wearing white sandals on his feet. During these same days, he slept in the open area of the so-called Basilica, the Caesareum, which was built by Julius Caesar the dictator, where the statue of the same Caesar stood outside the conch of the Basilica. This same Caesareum was situated opposite the temple of Mars, where the so-called Macellum is, because only pork is cut and sold there, 377 near the temple of Mars.

The scribe 56 was appointed as the first person by the Senate and the people under the name Pompeianus, a Quaestor, hailing from the lineage of the Roman senators; he also wore a white robe and a crown of solid gold in the shape of laurel leaves. Him they honored and worshiped, he says, as a kind of Apollo.

The same Senate and the people again appointed ^B an Amphithales by the name of Casius Illustris 57, who likewise walked about wearing a white holoseric robe and a crown woven from laurel leaves, and in the middle a gold breastplate having Zeus [upon it]. Whom this Amphithales they honored and worshiped as Hermes, just as the wise Domninus the chronographer 378 wrote about all these things.

Now to this same sacred contest of the Olympics, noble youths came from every city and land, contending according to their rank, and they divided them against one another. And with much temperance and moderation they lived, not requiring anything from anywhere; for they were wealthy, each having his own slaves for service according to his own wealth; and many of them were even virgins. ^C

^A They also brought much gold from their own homeland; but they contended for the sake of a vow and of their order, and because they had prestige in their own land. They therefore had a great struggle and fear when they arrived; and some were wrestling, others running, others playing the trumpet (58), others competing in the pancratium, while others were boxing with box-wood fingers (59), making pugilistic strikes 379, while others drove horses that had not yet been yoked (40), and others were declaiming tragic songs. ^B There were also virgin maidens who were students of philosophy, and who came according to their order of modesty, and competed, and wrestled with *bombōnaria* (41), and ran, and recited tragedies, and sang certain Greek hymns; which women fought against women, competing bitterly both in the wrestling matches and in the running and the vocal performance. And if any of them, whether a woman or a youth, was crowned by the shout of the sacred people, as the report says, the one crowned remained chaste as a victor until his death; for he was sealed immediately after the competition and became a priest. In like manner also, the virgin philosophers [*sic*] who were crowned became priestesses after the competition. And from there all would return. Those who possessed agricultural estates paid no taxes, but remained exempt from the time they were crowned, for the duration of the life of the one crowned. And if he also possessed certain workshops, they remained duty-free for the duration of his life, so long as the competitor owned the workshops. ^C So many were those who came to compete that they were not to be surpassed, not in number, but they used to view all who happened to come according to their order, whether they were young men or virgin maidens. And at one time a great multitude would come, at another time few would come, depending on the seasons and the winds of the sea. ^D

^A Under the reign of the same Commodus, Nicomedia, the metropolis of Bithynia, suffered its third disaster from a divine visitation, as far as Mydopolis and the river Sangarius, together with the surrounding regions, in the month of May, which is also called Artemisios, on the third day, towards dawn. And the emperor bestowed many gifts upon that same city and rebuilt it.

During the reign of the same Commodus, a certain proprietor and magistrate of great Antioch, Artabanus by name, an Alytarch, after having completed the Olympic games in Daphne, was moved to generosity and distributed to the people at sacred Daphne ^B many small tokens for bread, which were to be of perpetual validity. He called these "civic" loaves, because he had gifted them to his own city, and he set aside from his own estates an income calculated to cover the cost of the same loaves. In return, the Antiochenes erected to him a marble statue in Daphne, with the inscription: "Artabanis, eternal memory."

The same Emperor Commodus, having gone to the house of Faustinus, his kinsman, died suddenly from a hemorrhage.

After the reign of Commodus, Pertinax, who was also named Lucius Augustus, reigned for two months and eighteen days. He was ^C tall, broad-chested, aquiline-nosed, smooth-haired, large-eyed, an old man, and completely gray. He died having been killed by the soldiers as he was going out from the palace to the Campus Martius, being in his seventieth year.

After the reign of Pertinax, Didius Julianus, who was also called Silvius, reigned for seven months. He was tall, somewhat bald, ^D and gray-haired, with a thin face and honey-colored...

^A complexion. He built in great Antioch what is called the Plethrum, because previously the wrestling matches used to take place in the theater during the Olympic games. And upon the request of the leaders of the city of Antioch ^B who petitioned him, he provided them with money to build the said Plethrum. They built it near the Caesarium, having purchased the house of Asabinus, a local politician, a Jew by religion, near the Xystus and the Commodian public baths. But the same Julianus Didius was slaughtered by a cubicularius at the fountain of the palace in Rome, as he was feeding the fish, due to a conspiracy of those after him; he was sixty years of age.

Didius Julianus was succeeded by the most divine ^B Severus, also named Septimius, who was hailed as emperor by the Roman senate, during the consulship of Flaccus and Clarus. He reigned for seventeen years and nine months. He was of medium height, slender, broad-chested, with a long nose, beautiful eyes, dark skin, curly hair, completely gray, with a large beard, suffering in his feet, noble-minded, and prone to anger. ^C Under his reign, Albinus the senator attempted a usurpation; the army, waging war against the Gepidae (to whom he had been sent by his predecessor, the emperor Didius), had proclaimed him emperor, having forced the senate to comply. Severus pursued him into Thrace and, having captured him, put him to death.

^A Severus, upon coming to Byzantium and observing the pleasant situation of the city, restored Byzantium and built a public bath, which was called the Zeuxippus, because there stood in the center of the Tetrastoon a bronze statue of the Sun, and beneath it he inscribed ^B the mystic name of the Sun: "To the god Zeuxippus." For the Thracians used to call the sun by this name. But the people of the city—Byzas—used to call this same public bath "Zeuxippus" according to the name the place previously had, and they no longer called it "Severian," as the emperor had asked, after his own name. The emperor Severus, moreover, added the Tetrastoon, in the middle of which stood the statue of the Sun, to the public bath he himself had built, or rather, while building in its place upon the acropolis of the same city of Byzantium a temple, to wit a sanctuary, to the Sun, near the two other sanctuaries already existing there, which had been built previously—the one by Byzas to Artemis with the deer ^C, and the other by Phidalia to Aphrodite—he moved the statue of the Sun from the Tetrastoon and set it up above the sanctuary. The same emperor also built a very large hunting-ground (Cynegium) opposite the sanctuary of Artemis, and a theater opposite the sanctuary of Aphrodite. The most divine Severus also constructed the Hippodrome in the same Byzantium, having purchased houses and having cleared the area of trees; yet he did not bring it to completion. The same Severus also restored the Strategium, which had been built long ago by Alexander the Macedonian when he took up arms against Darius; this ^D...

he also called "the Strategium," for it was there that he had planned his military strategy before setting out across the frontier against the Persians. ^B During the reign of the same Severus, another senator named Niger, who was marching against the Persians, usurped power. After he had made peace with the Persians and his army heard that certain members of the Roman Senate had named him emperor, they proclaimed this same Niger emperor. He took control of the entire East as far as Egypt, although the Syrians of Laodicea would not accept him, but instead resisted him. He therefore besieged Laodicea, and having captured it, he razed it to the ground and put all the inhabitants to the sword. ^C Severus himself marched against him, pursued him, and caught him in the Thebaid of Egypt, where he took him captive in battle and killed him. After his victory, the emperor went on from the Thebaid to Alexandria. He was angry with the Alexandrians because they had welcomed the usurper Niger and had inscribed on their gates: "The city of the Lord Niger." When the populace of the great city of Alexandria met the Emperor Severus, they cried out, "We admit that we said: 'The city of the Lord Niger'; but you were the lord of Niger." The emperor, taken by this sudden apology of the Alexandrians, forgave their error and, granting them indulgences, returned to favor with them. He also built a public bath there, which he named the Severianum. He also consecrated a temple to the Great Mother. ^D As he was about to depart, he ordered that a certain Thermus, who had been a supporter of Niger, be arrested and his property confiscated. This Thermus was one of the leading notables of great Alexandria and was beloved by his fellow citizens, as he had built a public bath at his own expense, which he called "Thermae" after his own name. Severus confiscated the property of this Thermus as a partisan of Niger. Leaving Alexandria, he came to Laodicea in Syria, where he praised the surviving Laodiceans and bestowed many gifts upon them. He granted the city metropolitan rights for as long as he, the emperor, should live. He also decreed that the Laodiceans be called "Septimii" after his own name, and he honored the surviving citizens of the city of Laodicea with senatorial rank, because they had rejected the rebel Niger and had even taken up arms against him. He also gave them grain funds with a generous hand, and decreed by edict that they should have annual public funds for the restoration of the city.

^A For when Niger had taken the city, he had burned and overturned it, and massacred all those who had resisted him and fought against him. Severus also built for the same Laodiceans a Hippodrome, a hunting theater, and a public bath near the harbor, having discovered a spring there. He also built there what is called the Hexastoon.

Upon coming ^B to Antioch the Great, he bestowed many gifts upon them also; for they gave him an omen of victory, shouting as he was setting out for Egypt against Niger. He built for the same Antiochenes a large public bath by the mountain, which he called the Severian after his own name. He commanded the magistrates there to build for the city another public bath out of the surplus of the remaining encaustic materials from the ruins of the collapsed public baths. The magistrates, therefore, having purchased the entire house of a certain Livia, a citizen of Antioch, along with her bath and garden, built a public bath there in the plain of the city. When they had finished this public bath, they fell to bickering among themselves regarding the competition for naming it, and it was called the Livian, after the name of the former mistress of the site. The same Severus, having set out for another war, died ^C in the barbarian land—in the West—at the age of sixty-five.

After the reign of Severus, Antoninus Geta reigned for one year. He was short, with a broad face, a snub nose, partially bald, with graying hair, pot-bellied, big-mouthed, fair-skinned, and small-eyed. The army killed him, and he died at the age of fifty-one.

After the reign of Antoninus Geta, Antoninus Caracalla, the son of Severus, reigned for six years and twenty-two days. He was tall ^D and robust, of florid complexion, with a crooked nose, a shaggy beard, and graying, curly hair. He was dear to the whole Roman populace, but he favored the Green faction. He was slaughtered at the palace as he was going out to the temple, at the age of forty-seven.

After the reign of Antoninus Caracalla, Valerian reigned for six years. He was short, slender, with graying hair, a snub nose,

^A dark-bearded, dark-complexioned, large-eyed, timid, and stingy. Under his reign, a certain Mariades, one of the magistrates of Antioch, who had been cast out of the senate by the common vote of the senate and the people (for he used to shirk the horse-racing duties; whenever he was commissioned for any part of the games, he would not buy horses, but would pocket the public funds intended for the circus), went away to Persia and offered himself of his own accord to Sapor, the king of the Persians, as a traitor to his own city, the great Antioch.

Sapor, therefore, the king of the Persians, having been equipped with vast forces, led his march through the frontiers of Chalcis; and he occupied and ravaged all of Syria. He also seized and plundered the great Antioch in the evening; he destroyed the city and consumed it with flames. The year of the Antiochene era was then 314. ^B He also beheaded Mariades, the Antiochene magistrate, as a traitor to his own country. He then spread his forces through the whole East, as far as Emesa, a city of Phoenician Lebanon, and having slain the inhabitants everywhere, he captured, ravaged, and burned everything.

However, a certain Sampsigeramus, a priest of Venus, having been escorted by a rustic band of local inhabitants, went out to meet Sapor. King Sapor, having observed the priestly habit, ordered his own men that no one should shoot an arrow, nor move their weapons against that crowd; he even received the priest, saying that he had come as an ambassador for his country. But meanwhile, while King Sapor, sitting on a high altar, was holding a conversation with the priest, one of the rustics, having brandished a stone against the king, struck him on the forehead; ^C he immediately fell down dead. A tumult having arisen from this, the king’s army understood that he had died. Thinking that the Romans had arrived, they all took to flight; and leaving all their booty behind, they returned to their own lands, while Sampsigeramus the priest, with his rustic crowd, followed them in the meantime. As they were returning through the frontiers, Odenathus, an ally of the Romans, a king of the barbarians, attacked them.

^A All [who were caught] were terrified by the rustics and the priest Sampsigeramus, and abandoning all the spoils, they vanished. Odenathus, king of the barbarian Saracens, the one who ruled the land of Arabia and possessed as his wife Zenobia, the Saracen queen, encountered them along the frontier while defending the Romans. Odenathus, king of the Saracens, destroyed all those Persians who had come to the aid of Sapor, just as the wise chronicler Domninus has set forth. The most wise Philostratus, however, wrote differently about Sapor, king of the Persians, stating that he captured the whole of Syria, burnt the great Antioch, and many other cities, and likewise captured Cilicia, having burnt Alexandria the Lesser, Rhosus, Anazarbus, Aigai, Nicopolis, and many other cities of Cilicia; and that he returned to Persian territory through Cappadocia; and that Odenathus, king of the Saracens, had encountered him, having come, as he says, as his ally in war, and that he killed him. But Domninus set forth the matter more truthfully, having said that [Sapor] sent his satrap Spates with a multitude against Cilicia.

^B The emperor Valerian, having departed from Rome, set out for war against Mediolanum; and being informed of the eastern disturbances, he wished to turn back and descend into the East, but he could not; instead, being intercepted, he was slaughtered there in Mediolanum, being in his sixtieth year.

[594] After the reign of Valerian, Gallienus, who was also called Licinianus, reigned for fourteen years. He was in his prime and noble by nature, dark-skinned, with curly hair, thick beard, well-proportioned nose, large eyes, and a great soul; he favored the Blue faction. ^C When he first reigned, he campaigned against the Persians and went down to avenge the Romans; and he provided much to those who had been despoiled and to the survivors, and he restored what had been burnt and lightened the taxes for four years. He also built a great temple in Emesa. And having joined battle against the Persians, and many having fallen from both sides, he made peace. And returning from there, he went away into Arabia and joined battle with Odenathus, king of the barbarian Saracens, and killed him, and took possession of Arabia. And he returned to Rome, and having been struck by a disease, he died, being in his fiftieth year. ^D

^A After the reign of Gallienus, who was also called Licinianus, 395 Claudius Apollianus reigned for nine years. He was of more than average stature, fair, pot-bellied, with straight hair, a wide face, a flat nose, light-grey eyes, somewhat blond, with a twisted mouth, slightly stuttering, and magnanimous; he favored the Green faction. During his reign, Nicomedia, the metropolis of Bithynia, suffered its fourth disaster from a divine calamity reaching as far as the rivers and Dacibiza. And he bestowed many honors upon the survivors and upon the city. At that same time, Zenobia the Saracen, the wife of Enathus, avenging the death of her own husband, having taken his relatives with her, seized Arabia, which at that time was subject to the Romans, having killed the Roman dux Trassus and destroyed all the auxiliary forces with him, during the reign of the same Apollianus, who was also called Claudius. The same emperor Claudius was waging war at Sirmium, and there he ended his life, being fifty-six years of age.

After the reign of Apollianus Claudius, Quintillianus 396 reigned for seventeen days. He was of more than average stature, slender, with an elongated face, a prominent nose, dark-complexioned, with straight hair, bulging eyes, and graying at the head and beard. And he died in the palace—he was sick, indeed, at the time when he was proclaimed emperor under severe necessity—being forty-one years of age.

^B After the reign of Quintillianus, the most divine Aurelian, the warlike, reigned for six years. He was tall, slender, partially bald, small-eyed, ^C completely gray, magnanimous, and quick-tempered; he wore a diadem adorned with a star. He reigned alone. He began to build the massive walls of Rome; for they had decayed with time. He himself oversaw the work, and compelled the guilds of Rome to assist in the building.

^A Once the walls were completed in a very short time, he issued an imperial decree that from that time forth, all the craftsmen of the entire city should be called Aurelians, receiving the rank of the imperial name in recognition of their honor and labors.

The same Aurelian, having received a report, marched against Zenobia, the queen of the Saracens, having departed for the East. For it had been reported concerning her that she had plundered and burned the eastern regions as far as the borders of Antioch the Great, having encamped near the Orontes River. No sooner had the Emperor Aurelian reached Antioch, than he departed immediately to engage her; and having joined battle, he cut down all of her forces. Having taken Zenobia herself, he placed her upon a dromedary camel, and leading her in procession through all the eastern lands, he brought her also to Antioch the Great. ^B And having observed a hippodrome there, he brought her in upon the dromedary camel. Then, having erected a platform in that place in Antioch, he set her upon it, bound, for three days; and the place he built he called the "Triumph." Bringing her down from there, he led her away to Rome, as the queen of the barbaric Saracens; and having celebrated her triumph in Rome in the former manner, he beheaded her. ^C

The same Emperor Aurelian also killed the kinsmen of Enathus the Saracen, who were holding Arabia, having slaughtered them all, and restored it as a province under the Romans.

When he was about to depart from Antioch the Great, the so-called Monetarii [Minters] of Antioch rebelled against him, crying out over certain customs. Being incensed against them, he punished them.

The same Aurelian also made Dacia a province, the one situated by the river, being near the Danube River. The same Aurelian engaged in another war; and he was killed by his own army by treachery in a place that...

called the New Fort, as he had commanded the army poorly. And he died in the sixty-first year of his age.

After the reign of Aurelian, Tacitus Augustus reigned for seven months. He was of a stature exceeding the average, of thin build, slightly bald, eloquent, with short hair, grey-haired, with a thinner nose, and prudent. In his reign appeared a certain Manichæan by the name of Cerdo, dogmatizing, and teaching, and gathering crowds. In the reign of the same Tacitus, there occurred a war in the Pontic region; and the same emperor went down to wage war, and he was slaughtered in Ztannica of Pontus, being in the seventy-fifth year of his age.

After the reign of Tacitus, Florianus Augustus reigned for two months. He was of a thick-necked appearance, fat, bald, fair, with wine-colored eyes, flat-nosed, with grey mixed into his head and beard, and very sharp-witted. He marched against the Persians, and as he was coming down to Tarsus, he was slaughtered by his own men, being in the sixty-fifth year of his age. ^B

After the reign of Florianus, Ælius Probus reigned for three years and three months. He was of a stature exceeding the average, pot-bellied, straight-haired, unshorn, with a thick beard, black-skinned, ruddy, beautiful-eyed, and extremely prudent. He was a partisan of the Green faction. In his reign he adorned the so-called Museum in great Antioch and the sigmatoid Nymphæum therein, having inscribed the Ocean upon it by means of mosaic work. The same emperor also decreed that the grain rations for that same city of Antioch should be provided from the public treasury, so that they might instruct [the youth] for free, having decreed this by his divine order. ^C

The same emperor Probus waged war against the Goths in Sirmium; and as he was waging war, there was a great universal famine, and because there were no ^D [provisions]...

the army mutinied. And having set upon him, they slew him in Sirmium, being fifty years of age.

[401] After the reign of Probus, the most divine Carus reigned for two years. He was of short stature, with a firm chest, fair, straight-haired, with hair turning gray, light-blue eyes, a broad face, a handsome nose, thick lips, and haughty. During his reign, he subdued a territory which he called Caria, making it a province. He marched against the Persians, and having entered, he took the Persian lands as far as the city of Ctesiphon, and returned. He fortified a camp on the border which he made into a city, giving it the status of a city, which he called by his own name, Caras. Having returned to Rome, he set out on another war against the Huns, and was slain during the consulship of Maximus and Januarius, being sixty and a half years of age.

After the reign of Carus, Numerian Augustus reigned for two years. He was [402] tall, slender, straight-haired, long-faced, with refined features, well-built, with hair turning gray, a handsome nose, beautiful eyes, and dark skin. During his reign, there was a great persecution of the Christians; among whom the holy George the Cappadocian and the holy Babylas were martyred; for he was the bishop of the great city of Antioch. And the same emperor Numerian arrived, on his way to wage war against the Persians. And wishing to spy on the divine mysteries of the Christians, he desired to enter into the holy church, where the Christians were gathered, in order to see what the mysteries were which they performed, having heard that those same Galileans performed their liturgies in secret. And ^B having come near, he was met suddenly by Saint Babylas, who hindered him, saying to him, "You are defiled from the sacrifices of idols, and it is not permitted for you to see the mysteries of the living God." And the emperor Numerian, having grown indignant, slew him immediately. And he departed from Antioch and marched against the Persians; and as he was joining battle [405] against them, the Persians set upon him, and killed the great

...and the greatest part of the imperial army having been cut down, he himself escaped by flight into Carrhae. The Persians, however, surrounding the city with a siege, took him prisoner, and having straightway handed him over to slaughter, they flayed him; and having stripped off his skin, they fashioned it into a wineskin, and having seasoned it with spices, they preserved it for their own glory; the rest of the army that remained they utterly destroyed. Emperor Numerian departed from the living at the age of thirty-six. ^B After Numerian, his brother Carinus Augustus reigned for two years. He was in stature short, stout, having a broad face, fair, with curly hair, balding, frugal, and magnanimous; he favored the Green faction.

This man, having assumed the empire, without delay brought war upon the Persians in vengeance for his own brother Numerian, and soundly defeated them. During his reign, the holy Cosmas and Damian, having become odious to their own master, were put to death in this manner. For they were physicians by profession, and were held in high regard by the emperor Carinus because of the cures they effected; it was to him, in fact, that something of this kind had happened. After the Persians were defeated in battle and an infinite multitude of them destroyed, the Persians sought a truce of three months. The emperor, therefore, on account of the severity of the winter and having regard for his own army, worn out by wars, granted terms of peace for three months. Meanwhile, he set out for the region called Cyrrestica, wanting both to refresh his own army and so that those wounded might be healed. ^C While he was staying there through the winter and attending to matters pertaining to the war, it suddenly happened that his face was twisted backward. And when those physicians who were very numerous in his retinue could effect nothing at all, the physicians of that region were called to the emperor, as those who had a deeper understanding of the power of the air of their own region. Among these, those holy men, Cosmas and Damian, had come to the emperor along with their master. And since all the physicians had been in vain in healing the emperor, the holy Cosmas and Damian, having spoken secretly with certain of the emperor’s chief men, asked that they might have permission to heal him. So, having been sent in during the night, these holy men healed the emperor by their prayers: who thereafter ^D...

believed in them, saying that these men were servants of God the Most High. And when he had recovered and was restored as he had been before, he held them in honor, as did all his ^A chief men. Being entreated by these holy men, he immediately issued a divine decree of his own for the whole Roman state, so that no one should henceforth suffer any harm to those called Christians, nor be prevented from worshiping as they wish.

But their overseer, having been introduced among the other physician officials who were following the emperor, and having seen the love which the emperor had toward the holy ones, persevered in envy against them. And after the same Emperor Carinus had departed from the Cyrrhestica region to the Persian lands, the overseer of the holy Cosmas and Damian took them, together with his own men, and cast them down from the mountains ^B, as being followers of the dogma of the Christians; and thus these righteous ones were perfected.

In the meantime, during the war, this same Carinus died by his own hand (18), being thirty-two years of age.

Diocletian succeeded Carinus, and ruled for twenty years and nine months. He was tall, thin, thin-faced, with gray hair and beard, pale of body, light-eyed, with a thick nose, slightly stooped, very high-minded, and quite keen on building. He was proclaimed ^C emperor during the consulship of Bassus and Quintianus (19).

During his reign a great darkness (20) occurred all day long. Three years after the start of his reign, he made his son Maximian (21), who was also called Herculianus, Caesar. As the Persians had taken up arms, Diocletian, having armed himself, set out on a campaign together with Maximian. And when they had reached great Antioch, this same Diocletian sent Maximian the Caesar against the Persians, while he himself remained in Antioch. And he built there a great palace, having found foundations previously laid by Gallienus, also called Licinnianus. The same Diocletian also built a public bath on the plain, [407] ^D near the old hippodrome, which he called the Diocletianum. He also built public granaries for storing grain; and he established standards of grain and of all other goods for sale, so that those who carried on trade might not be harmed in any way by the soldiers. He also built the stadium, which they call, in

^A Daphne, for the Olympic and other contestants, so that they might not have to depart to the Argyrus river and be crowned there, but, after all had competed in great Antioch, might ascend to the place called Daphne, and not travel such a long distance as the road to the Argyrus river in the Cilician grain-depots—both the Olympic victors and the Antiochenes departing according to the Olympic games, just as he also commanded in his divine decree that those competing in the Olympic games be crowned in Daphne. He also built ^B in this very stadium of Daphne a temple of Olympian Zeus, and in the curve of the same stadium he built a temple to Nemesis. He also restored the temple of Apollo, decorating it with various marbles. He also consecrated an underground temple to Hecate, into which one descended by 315 steps. Furthermore, he built a palace in Daphne, so that the emperors who came thither might stay there, since previously they had used only tents pitched by the grove. Moreover, he erected factories there, in which weapons might be manufactured for the use of the army; he also erected factories at Edessa, so that weapons of war might be close at hand. Likewise, he also erected factories in Damascus, having considered the incursions of the Saracens. He also erected a mint at Antioch, so that coins might be struck there; for that same mint had been destroyed by an earthquake ^C and was restored. He also built a bath, which he called the Senatorial, and likewise three other baths.

Meanwhile, Caesar Maximian, having totally defeated the Persians and won a great victory over them, returned to Antioch, bringing with him as a captive the wife of the king of the Persians, whom he had pursued as she was fleeing with her husband the king towards the Indolimits, the rest of the army having been utterly destroyed, and the multitude of them having been consumed. The queen of the Persians, Arsane, was kept in Daphne ^D by order of the Roman emperor Diocletian, with honor, for some years. But afterwards, when conditions of peace had been mutually established, the queen was sent into Persia and restored to her own husband, having been kept with honor. At the same time, the emperor, on account of the victory won, distributed gifts throughout the Roman empire for the triumph.

The same Diocletian built camps here and there along the frontiers from Egypt as far as the Persian borders, having stationed limitanei soldiers in them, and having appointed dukes throughout the provinces further

^A to stand guard. And they presented to the emperor and the Caesar steles on the frontier of Syria.

At this same time, the Egyptians rebelled against their governors and slew them. The emperor Diocletian himself marched against them and fought in the great city of Alexandria, besieging it and constructing fortifications; he cut off the aqueduct, diverting it from the so-called Canopus, which provided the supply for the city. Having taken Alexandria, he burned it. He entered the city on horseback, his horse walking over the corpses. He had commanded his expeditionary force not to refrain from killing until the blood of the slaughtered should rise to the knee of the horse upon which he sat. ^B It came to pass, by the command of God, that as he entered near the gates, the horse on which the emperor sat trampled a human corpse, and stumbling upon it, knelt, and the knee of the horse was stained with blood. Having observed this, he granted an indulgence, and the soldiers ceased striking the citizens of Alexandria. The Alexandrians themselves set up a bronze statue to the horse in gratitude, and this site is called to this day, "The Horse of Diocletian." And from that time it began to be reckoned as the first year of Alexandria. Thus, from that time, dates the era of the Alexandria of Egypt.

Under his reign, there appeared in the city of Rome a certain Manichaean by the name of Bundus, who seceded from the doctrine of the Manichaeans, bringing in his own teaching, arguing that the good God fought against the wicked one and conquered him, and that the victor ought to be honored. ^C He went also into Persia teaching this. This Manichaean doctrine is called in the Persian tongue the *Daristhēnon*, which is interpreted as "that of the Good."

The same Emperor Diocletian set in motion a persecution of the Christians, and many who witnessed were punished, among whom was Saint Menas who suffered martyrdom. And the churches were demolished, and there were grave threats and great fear.

At the time of the Olympics, the same Emperor Diocletian arrived in Antioch, having come from Egypt. ^D And as the Olympic games were about to be celebrated, the Emperor Diocletian assumed the dress of the alytarch. It was the custom that the alytarch should wear a white, all-silk robe; but the emperor, instead of the white, took for himself a purple one; in all other respects he reflected the habit of the alytarch in every way, holding the sacred rod and venerating the people according to custom, and for all the appointed days, he watched the Olympic games.

^A And some of his dignities came down to the Olympic games to display their virtue; some wrestled, some boxed, some practiced the pancratium, and some ran; and he provided sacred charters for the victors and distributed many gifts to all, just as the most wise Domitianus had written down. And the same Diocletian became alytarch in Antioch, and having laid aside the imperial habit, and after the completion of the Olympics, he did not desire to reign, saying, "I have laid aside the empire and I have worn the habit of the immortal Zeus." And from that time he remained thus; and he died a private death, being seventy-two years of age.

After Diocletian had laid aside the empire, Maximian, also surnamed Herculius, reigned for ^B nineteen years. And having gone up to Rome, he celebrated a triumph for the victory over the Persians and the Egyptians. He was tall, robust, with greying hair, straight hair, bearded, dark-skinned, with an elegant nose, beautiful eyes, and eloquent. He was also hostile to the Christians and put many saints to death, among whom were Saint Pantaleon, Saint Hesychius, Saint Hermippus, Saint Hermolaus, and Saint Hermocrates, martyrs.

It happened also under the reign of this man that the Olympics were celebrated, at which time, having led an army into ^C the East against the Armenians who were rebelling against the Roman empire, he completely subdued them. And having been informed that the most famous Olympic festival was then at hand, he came to Antioch; where he himself, wearing the habit of the alytarch, performed its duties. And those who had gathered there, the sons of senators and the younger senators themselves, wrestled before him; they engaged in the wrestling school, in running, in the pancratium, in chariot racing, and in boxing, and some also in vocal contests. And the victors (besides the gifts which he bestowed upon them) were increased by him with greater honors, while others were promoted to military dignities. ^D Now Maximian himself, after laying down the empire, stripped himself of the purple and all royal adornment; and wearing the habit of the alytarch, when the days of the Olympics were finished, he did not deign to perform the imperial duty any longer, but returning to Rome, he resigned from the kingdom and lived a private life thereafter.

^A After this period, he died a natural death, being fifty-seven years of age.

After he had laid down the empire, Maxentius, who is also called Galerius, reigned for three years. He was short, broad-bodied, curly-haired, fair-skinned, bearded, cross-eyed, snub-nosed, and irascible. He favored the Venetine faction.

In his reign, the philosopher Iamblichus was teaching, residing in Daphne until his death.

At the same time, the Persians, joined by the Armenians, invaded the Roman borders and ravaged the lands. The same Maxentius campaigned against them and fought the Persians; he consumed them by descending upon them through Armenia, tore away lands from the Persarmenians, and placed them under the Romans, calling it the First and Second Armenia of the Romans. ^B While the same Maxentius was in Persarmenia, the Persians attacked Osdroene, captured a city there, burned and ruined it, and after taking much spoil, suddenly withdrew. It is said the city captured by them was Maximianopolis. The same emperor Maxentius raised it up, building walls, and having bestowed many favors upon the survivors, he relieved them of tribute for three years. Having returned to Rome, he was killed, being fifty-three years of age.

After the reign of Maxentius, Constantius ^C Chlorus reigned for thirteen years. He was tall, thin, grey-haired, with a fair complexion of body and eyes, handsome-nosed, sparse-bearded, quiet, and magnanimous.

During his reign, the city of Salamis in Cyprus suffered by divine wrath, being cast down by an earthquake.

^A Its greater part was swallowed into the sea, and the rest collapsed to the ground. The same Constantius raised it up again, being very generous, and granted the surviving citizens an exemption from taxes for four years. Having built it with various edifices, he wished that the city—formerly called Salamias, but from that time renamed Constantia—be called by his name, which is the metropolis of Cyprus to this day.

Under his reign, Maximus Licinianus was sent with a huge army to the Eastern regions to protect them from the incursions of the Persians and Saracens, who had previously harassed the East as far as Egypt. It happened that at that same time the emperor Constantius fell ill and died forty days later, in the sixtieth year of his age.

^B After the death of Constantius, the army in the East greeted Maximus Licinianus as emperor. Leaving Phestianus there with the forces to guard the East, he himself set out for Rome. Before he left Antioch, he wished to watch the games in the circus, where the people of Antioch provoked him with taunts because he had bestowed no gifts upon their city, even though he had been declared emperor there for the first time. The emperor, indignant at this, ordered armed soldiers to go out against them; the soldiers shot the people with arrows in the circus, and two thousand were killed. Maximus the emperor then arrived in Rome, ^C where he reigned for seven years. He had a firm chest, black hair, well-proportioned limbs, a hairy beard, beautiful eyes, an aquiline nose; he was fond of soldiers, irascible, and capable of handling business.

Under this emperor, permission was granted to the Christians to no longer remain in hiding but to come out into public. It happened during his reign that the holy Gelasinus suffered martyrdom in Heliopolis of Phoenicia. He was a second-rate mime, who, while the people were watching,

and entered the theater where an assembly of all the people was being held. And, as a multitude were looking on, they cast him into a large bath ^A of warm water, making a mockery of the Christian religion and holy baptism. But this same Gelasinus, the mime, when he had been baptized from the basin and had come out wearing white garments, refused to act out the mime any longer. He addressed the whole assembly, saying, "I am a Christian; for I have seen the terrible majesty of God in the washing, and a Christian I will die." When all the people who were watching in the theater of the city heard these things, they were moved to extreme rage; and immediately all of them rushed from the tiers onto the stage, seized Gelasinus, dragged him out of the theater, and while he was still wearing his white garments, they pelted him with stones and ^B killed him, and thus the righteous man was perfected. And those who were related to him by birth took his remains and carried them to the village which is called Mariamme, whence he himself had originated, which is situated outside the city of Damascus at a distance of one and a half miles. And a house of prayer was built for him.

The emperor Maximus Licinianus died from the incisions of surgeons, being forty-six years of age.

BOOK XIII ON THE TIMES OF CONSTANTINE THE EMPEROR

^C After the reign of Maximus Licinius, the most divine and most faithful, the son of Constantius Chlorus, Constantine the Great, began to reign on the eighth day before the Kalends of August, during the consulship of Severus and Maximianus, and he remained reigning for thirty-two years. He was tall, red-haired, ^D magnanimous, calm, and beloved of God.

^A Under his reign, a great war broke out in the West; to repress this, the most divine Constantine set out with his army. But the emperor was overcome and was being encircled on all sides by the Barbarians. Being placed in such straits, when he was about to lie down for sleep, he sought in prayer to God to be delivered from these evils. Having fallen into sleep, he saw in his rest a cross in the sky, upon which was inscribed: "In this conquer." Having read the inscription, he was awakened from sleep. Having risen, he made a sign of the cross corresponding to what he had seen in the sky and made it go before him. Encouraging his own army by saying, "We are conquering," and charging and joining battle with the Barbarians, he won the war with such force that not one of the Barbarians was saved, but all perished. He returned to Rome with victory and great joy, having the sign of the cross in front of him. He explained to everyone the power of the vision and of the cross's sign, testifying: "This sign is of the God of the Galileans, who are called Christians." Without delay, therefore, he destroyed the temples and shrines of the pagans from their foundations and, having sent his imperial letters everywhere throughout the empire, ordered the churches of the Christians to be opened. Then, after he had fasted and had been instructed in the rudiments of the Christian religion, he was baptized by Sylvester, bishop of Rome, himself together with his mother Helena and all his relatives and his friends and a vast multitude of other Romans. And thus the said Emperor Constantine became a Christian.

^C After this, he moved his arms against the Persians and was victorious, and he made a peace treaty with Sarabarus, the King of the Persians, at the request of the Persian for peace with the Romans. The same Emperor Constantine also established Euphratesia as a province, separating it from Syria and Osrhoene, and granted it metropolitan status at Hierapolis. Having returned, he came to Antioch the Great and built there the Great Church, a massive structure, having dismantled what was called the public bath of King Philip; for it was an old bath, ruined by time and no longer suitable for bathing. He also built a hospice nearby; likewise, he also built what is called the Basilica of Rufinus. This had formerly been a shrine of Hermes, which Rufinus, the prefect of the sacred praetoriums, had demolished. Having departed with the emperor to the war, he was ordered by him to remain in Antioch the Great, and he completed the same basilica upon the return of the same emperor regarding Sarabarus.

^A As the emperor Constantine was about to depart from the same Antioch, he himself first appointed as governor of Antioch of Syria one Plutarch by name, a Christian; and he was commanded to oversee the construction of the church and the basilica. This same Plutarch, while building the hospice, found there a bronze statue of Poseidon, prepared as a talisman against earthquakes so that the city might not suffer from them in the future; having taken it up, he melted it down and fashioned it into a statue for the same Emperor Constantine, setting it up outside his praetorium, and writing underneath it, "To Good Constantine." Which bronze statue stands there to this day.

The same emperor also, in the same great city of the Antiochenes, first appointed a Count of the East, who should hold the place of the praetorian prefect, [appointing] for this office one Felicianus by name, a Christian; and he assigned to him for his praetorium the shrine of the Muses. This was done in the consulship of Hillus and Albinus, and he granted to the same city of the Antiochenes, by his own divine decree, the dignity and right of a secundus comitatus, in the year of the Antiochene era 382, since before that time the Count of the East did not have his seat in Antioch the Great; but whenever some war was stirred up, a deputy sat there for a time, and when it was finished, his deputation ceased. ^B But the Emperor Constantine departed from Antioch, having left behind Rufinus the prefect, who, by applying his efforts diligently, finished the basilica; and for this reason it was called the [Basilica] of Rufinus.

^C The Emperor Constantine sent his own mother, the lady Helena, to Jerusalem to search for the venerable cross; and she, having found it, brought back the same venerable cross with the five nails; and from that time the fortunes of the Christians increased in every way.

The same emperor also made a third Palestine a province. And under his reign, Byzantium was restored during the consulship of Gallianus and Symmachus ^D of the same emperor.

^A Since Emperor Constantine had spent a considerable time on this process, having come from Rome to Byzantium, he renewed the former wall of that city, built by Byzas; and having added another, newly constructed wall adjacent to the old wall of the same city, he ordered it to be called Constantinople. He also restored the Hippodrome and made it more splendid with bronze works and every virtue, building within it a royal seat for viewing, in the likeness of the one in Rome. He also built a large and handsome palace, in the likeness of that which is in Rome, near the Hippodrome, which was called the Cochleum. ^B He also built a spacious and remarkable forum, in the middle of which he placed a pillar of porphyry, a work entirely worthy of admiration, and upon this same pillar he set up a statue of himself, having seven rays on its head—a bronze work which he had brought from Ilium, the Phrygian city, where it had previously stood. This same Constantine also took the so-called Palladium, which had been secretly removed from Rome, and placed it in the forum he had built, beneath the column of his own statue, as some of the Byzantines assert, affirming that it lies there. As for the fortune of the city that he had restored and named after himself, he wished it to be called Anthusa, offering an unbloody sacrifice to God. The first foundations of this city were laid by ^C Phidalia, who at that time gave the fortune of the city the name Ceroen. Byzas, the king of Thrace, took this same Phidalia as his wife after the death of Barbysius her father, who had been the lord of that place and warden of the emporium. As he was about to die, Barbysius left instructions for Phidalia that she should surround that place with a wall leading to the sea. Byzas, therefore, having named that place after himself, established the seat of his kingdom there. ^D Furthermore, Constantine built two porticoes from the entrance of the palace as far as the same forum, splendid and decorated with statues and various marbles, having named the place…

^A the Regia; and near it he also built a basilica, ^B and outside, great columns and statues, which he called the Senate, having set up opposite his own mother, Helen, Augusta, a statue placed upon a small porphyry column, having named the place the Augustaeum. ^C In like manner he also completed the so-called Zeuxippus public bath, having adorned it with columns and variegated marbles and works of bronze; for he found it incomplete, although the same public work had been begun earlier by the Emperor Severus. He also built the Hippodrome and many other things; and when he had completed everything, he celebrated the chariot races, having been the first to view them there, and having then for the first time worn on his own head a diadem of pearls and precious stones, desiring to fulfill the prophetic utterance which says: "Thou hast set upon his head a crown of precious stone." For none of those who reigned before him wore such a thing. And he celebrated a great festival in the month of May, which is also called Artemisios, on the 11th, in the 378th year according to the Great Antioch, having commanded by his own divine edict that on the same day the festival of the birthday of his city should be celebrated, and that on this same 11th of the month of May the public bath, the Zeuxippus, situated near the Hippodrome and the Regia and the palace, should be opened; and he made for himself another gilded statue, the Fortune of the same city, and it also gilded, holding in its right hand the Fortune of the same city, which he called Anthusa, having commanded that on the same day of the natal chariot races this statue should be brought in by the soldiers wearing chlamydes and campagi, all holding wax candles, and that they should go around ^D the upper turning point of the Hippodrome and come to the arena opposite the imperial seat, and that the Emperor who held office at the time should rise and do obeisance as he viewed the same statues of Constantine and the Fortune of the city. And this custom has been preserved until this day. The most divine Constantine, at the completion of his consulship, bestowed a largess upon the Byzantines in Constantinople, by scattering to the populace calami

^Aties of daily bread that were to last in perpetuity; these loaves he called 'palatines', because the loaves themselves were distributed from the palace, having set apart for this purpose wine, meat, and clothing 62 from his own revenues, and he called them 'civics'. The same Constantine remained reigning in Constantinople, having taken it from the province of Europe and from Heraclea, its metropolis, and made it his own jurisdiction, with the right of imperial rule granted to him by God, having appointed for it a praetorian prefect, a city prefect, and the other great magistrates, all of whom he made Christians. And from that time it remained successfully reigning.

The same Emperor Constantine also made Phrygia Salutaris a province. And under his reign, the synod of three hundred and eighteen bishops was held against Arius concerning matters pertaining to the Christian faith. And present at this synod was also the most holy bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, the chronographer 10.

Under the reign of this same Constantine, Maximianopolis in Osrhoene ^B suffered the divine wrath a second time, after it had been captured by the Persians. And the same Emperor Constantine restored the city and raised up its walls, for they had fallen, and he granted much to the survivors; and thereafter he called the city, by his own name, Constantina. He also bestowed the right of a city upon a village in Bithynia, formerly called Sugan 63, recently constructed, and he named it Helenopolis after his own mother; and he also called the province itself Helenopontus after the name of his mother.

^C At the same time, the same Emperor Constantine gave orders that the three temples which were situated in that place which was once called the Acropolis—those of the Sun, that is to say, of Diana (the Moon), and of Venus—should thereafter remain deprived of their revenues.

Not long after, the Emperor Constantine, having made a journey into Bithynia, fell ill in Nicomedia. When he had been lying in bed for six days in a certain suburb of that same city called Achyron 64, not far from the city, he reached the end of his days, before he had brought to completion that magnificent work, to be numbered among the wonders of the world, the ^D great building of the great Church in Antioch in Syria 11. He died being sixty years of age and three months old 65, just as these events have been recorded and the times of all.

^A As the most wise Nestorian the chronographer has recorded these things in his memory, who also described the achievements of the aforementioned emperors in his Chronicle.

CONSTANTINUS JUNIOR, ROMAN EMPEROR. — After the death of Constantine, his son Constantine held the kingdom at Rome; whom his father, while he was still alive, had appointed king there, in the consulship of Ursus and Polemius. ^B This Constantine Junior reigned at Rome for twelve years. After the death of his father, while he was setting out on a journey, he was slain at Methone by the soldiers of his brother, being twenty years of age.

CONSTANS ROMAN EMPEROR. — Constans, brother of Constantine Junior, succeeded him in the Roman empire: who, after he had reigned there for sixteen years, died of dysentery, twenty-seven years of age.

CONSTANTIUS EMPEROR OF CONSTANTINOPLE. — But Constantius, the youngest of the sons, succeeded Constantine the Great in the empire of Constantinople: who reigned for thirty years. He was a man of great spirit, and an Exocionite, that is, an Arian. Under his reign the Persians moved, that is, King Abburarsacius; and he marched ^C against them, having appointed his relative Julian as Caesar. And having arrived at...

^A Antioch the Great, he completed the great church, inscribing upon it these lines:

Constantius raised this holy temple to Christ, Likened to heaven’s vaults, shining with highest splendor: Thus following the pious commands of king Constantine.

The care of the structure was left to the count Gorgonius.

Afterward, he set out for Persia, and having engaged them in battle, with many slain on both sides, a truce was made for a sufficiently long time. The Emperor, therefore, returned to Antioch and celebrated the dedication of the same Great Church. From there, intending to proceed to Constantinople, he led his journey through Cilicia, where he constructed a bridge over the Pyramus River, a magnificent work. ^B And entering Mopsuestia, a city of Cilicia, he fell ill and died there, at the age of forty.

JULIAN THE EMPEROR. — Julian the Apostate, his relative, whom he himself had previously created Caesar, succeeded Constantius in the empire, in the consulship of Marmentius and Neveta; and he reigned for two years. He was famous for his eloquence; but he was called Apostate because he had renounced the faith of his ancestors—the Christian faith—and had turned to paganism. He had as a friend and contemporary Libanius, the most celebrated sophist of Antioch.

Under his reign, Saint Domitius suffered martyrdom. ^C For Julian marched against the Persians with a powerful army, and having arrived, he occupied Antioch; and having gone up to the mountain called Casius, he offered there a hecatomb to Zeus Casius. And having descended from there and come to Daphne, he performed sacrifices there also to Apollo. And as he lay down to sleep, he saw in

^A a dream a fair-haired boy saying to him, "In Asia you must die." Coming then from Daphne into Antioch, he was met by his senators and officers and by the populace. And the citizens of Antioch shouted insulting remarks at him, as they were fervent Christians, and by their cries they gave him an omen that he would not return. Among them were two Christians, candidates of his own retinue, whose names were Juventinus and Maximianus; they departed from the imperial train and mingled with the mob who were abusing him, inciting the people all the more to cast insults. Seeing them, the Emperor Julian ordered them to be seized; and straightway he beheaded them in Antioch, and their remains were placed in the martyr-shrine that is called the Cemetery, whom the Antiochenes call the Gentiles. And being enraged against the Antiochenes, he threatened them, saying that he would return and punish them, as they had not given him a good omen, and he spoke of the Antiochenes in a discourse, slandering them as tyrants. And he caused the discourse ^B against them, spoken by him, to be posted outside the palace of that same city at the so-called Tetrapylon of the Elephants, near the Regia. And setting out through the Cyrrhestica, he marched against the Persians; and passing by the city of Cyrrhus ^C, he saw in the region a crowd standing at the cave of Saint Domitius, who were being healed by him. And he asked some, "Who is that man to whom the crowd is gathering?" And he learned that there was a monk in the cave of the mountain, and that the crowd standing there was gathering to him, desiring to be healed and blessed by him. And Emperor Julian made these things known to Saint Domitius through a Christian referendary: "For the sake of pleasing your God you entered the cave; do not wish to please men, but live in solitude." And Saint Domitius sent back this message to him: "As one who gave my soul and body ^D to God long ago, I shut myself away in this cave; but I cannot drive away the crowd that comes to me in faith." And the Emperor Julian ordered the cave to be blocked up with large stones, and for the righteous man to be inside. And thus the holy Domitius reached the end of his life.

Notes by Chilmead

^A The Emperor Julian, marching against Sabbur-saces, the King of the Persians, arrived at Hierapolis. Having sent messengers to Samosata, a city of Euphratensis, he had ships constructed, some of timber, others of hides, as the most wise Magnus of Carrhae, the chronicler who served with him under the Emperor Julian, has written. Leaving Hierapolis, the emperor came to the city of Carrhae, and from there he found two roads: one leading to the city of Nisibis, which formerly belonged to the Romans, and another to the Roman fort called Circesium, ^B which lies between the two rivers, the Euphrates and the Abboras, and which the Roman Emperor Diocletian built. The same emperor, having divided the army, sent ten thousand infantrymen to Nisibis under the two commanders, Sebastianus and Procopius. The same Julian arrived at the fort of Circesium, and having left there all the six thousand garrison soldiers he found, he added to them another four thousand infantrymen under two commanders, Accameus and Maurus. He departed from there, and crossed the river Abboras by the bridge, the ships having reached ^C the Euphrates River; these ships numbered one thousand two hundred and fifty. Having assembled his own army, with Anatolius the magister, Sallustius the praetorian prefect, and his generals with him, he ascended a high dais and personally addressed the army, praising them and urging them to fight against the Persians with readiness and sobriety. He immediately ordered them to embark on the ships, and the emperor himself also boarded the vessel prepared for him, and ordered five hundred scouts—valiant men from the number of the lancearii and mattiarii—to lead them, ^D commanding that his flags and also his companion Lucianus, a most warlike man, be carried with him; who ravaged many of the Persian camps bordering the Euphrates, and those situated in the islands amidst the waters, while the Persians guarded them.

^A He appointed Victor and Dagalaiphus to be behind the rest of the ships and to guard the troops. And the emperor set off with the whole army through the large canal of the Euphrates, which connects with the river Tigris; and he entered the said river Tigris, where the two rivers merge and form a great lake. And he disembarked into the Persian territory in the region called that of the Manzanitae, not far from the city of Ctesiphon, where the Persian royal palace was. And having become master of the area, the emperor Julian pitched his tents on the plain of the same city of Ctesiphon, intending to enter as far as Babylon with his own senate and occupy those parts.

The Persian king Sabborarsacius, suspecting that the Roman emperor Julian was coming through Nisibis, rushed against him with his entire force. But having been informed that the Roman emperor Julian was behind him, occupying the Persian territories, and that in front of him were the Roman generals with a large army, and realizing that he was caught in the middle, he fled toward Persarmenia. Fearing that he would be captured by the enemy, he deceitfully sent two of his own nobles, after having their noses cut off with their own consent, to Julian, the emperor of the Romans, in order to deceive him, so that by not pursuing him, he might not be caught. ^B These nose-cut Persians came to the Roman emperor, saying that they wished to betray the king of the Persians, as he had punished them. ^C Being deceived by them after they had bound themselves by an oath, the emperor Julian followed them with his own army; and they led him into the desert and waterless region for 150 miles, having led them astray, on the twenty-fifth of the month of Daisios, which is also called June. And having found there the ancient ruined walls of a city called Bubion, and another village, where the dwellings were still standing, but which was deserted, called Asia; the emperor Julian and the whole Roman army arrived there and pitched camp. ^D Having reached these places, they ran out of food, and there was not even fodder for the pack animals; for it was a wilderness. And the whole Roman army, knowing that the emperor had been deceived and had led them astray into desert regions, fell into great disorder. On the following day, the 26th of June, having brought the Persians who had deceived him, he interrogated them; and they confessed, saying: "For the sake of our fatherland and our king,

we have given ourselves over to death and have deceived you; behold, we, your servants, have died." The emperor accepted them, and, not slaying them, gave them a safe-conduct ^A so that they might lead the army out of the desolate region.

Around the second hour of that same day, as the emperor Julian was inspecting the army and urging the soldiers not to behave in a disorderly fashion, he was wounded by an unknown hand; and having withdrawn into his own tent, he died during the night, as the aforementioned Magnus related. However, the chronicler Eutychianus, a Cappadocian, who was a soldier and vicarius of his own unit of the Primoarmenians, and was present himself at the war, wrote that the same emperor Julian, having traveled for fifteen days into the Persian regions ^B via the Euphrates, entered them, and having become victorious and overcome all, he captured the land as far as the city called Ctesiphon, where the king of the Persians was sitting. The latter fled to the regions of the Persarmenians, and Julian, intending with his own senate and army to press on the next day to Babylon and to take it by night, fell asleep. While sleeping, he saw in a dream a certain mature man, clothed in a breastplate, who entered the royal tent pitched in Asia, near the city of Ctesiphon, and struck him with a spear. Being terrified, he woke up shouting, ^C and the cubicularii, eunuchs, and spatharii, as well as the soldiers who were keeping watch over the tent, rose up and entered to him with the royal lamps. Julian however...

NOTES BY ED. CHILMEAD

^A "Gave a safe-conduct" signifies an indemnity; in which sense it occurs even below, as in book xiv concerning the empress Eudocia, asserting *her* brothers, and in book xv concerning Zeno.

^B "Vicarius" is a term used by more recent writers; meaning "Number," that is to say, a cohors: Suidas, etc. But how great the number was, one may gather from Cedrenus, when compared with our author. For where our author has, concerning Tzitta, who was sent by Justinian as prefect into Armenia, Cedrenus renders this: "four thousands of numbers." *Vicarius* in turn, or *vicarius* of a unit, which was twofold, political and military: the *vicarius* of a cohort, whom the French call a *lieutenant*.

^C "Stage" or "station." This word occurs in this sense also in Theophanes, in the *Justinian*; in which place Anastasius the Librarian translates it as "mansions." He asserted that they had complete security, and that they did not fear anyone at all, because the army was being moved against them, in such a way that Gelimer was tarrying at a distance of four mansions [of the sea]. But what is "four mansions" in Theophanes and Anastasius is written in Procopius (for indeed in book i, *Of the Vandalic War*, whence Theophanes brought these very things to us, Procopius, speaking about the expedition of Belisarius against Gelimer, has these words): and so the "four mansions" of Theophanes and Anastasius are four days' journeys; and they are of our author for that reason, which we in English would call a "fifteen day march," or that space which an army is accustomed to traverse in fifteen days. Also, in the public post-routes of the couriers there were "stations," or "mansions," where those making the journey had horses kept in readiness for them. These distances, which for the Persians were parasangs, were called by the Lazi *anapauiai*, or "mansions": as Agathias teaches us in book ii. However, neither of these "mansions" seems to fit our current purpose.

^D *Zaba* is, however, a military garment, which Suidas renders as "breastplate," in *Zabareion*. Justinian also in *Novell. LXXXV*: "We prohibit private persons from manufacturing and purchasing bows and arrows, swords and javelins (which they are accustomed to call *parameria*), and the so-called *zadas*, that is to say, breastplates," in a village called Radia.

(Note: Asia. C. *Radia*. This is preferred in the Vatican Codex; and below *Rastia*, which reading our author approaches more nearly. Zonaras has *Phrygia*.)

^A And having entered toward him with royal torches, and Emperor Julian, having observed that he had been wounded near the armpit, asked them, "What is the name of the village where my tent is placed?" And they said to him that it is called Asia. And immediately he cried out, "O Sun, you have destroyed Julian!" And having poured out all his blood, he gave up his soul at the fifth hour of the night, in the year of the Antiochene era counting 441.

And immediately the army, before the enemy Persians knew it, went away [25] to the tent of Jovian, a count of the domestics ^B and of military rank, and they took him, though he was unaware of it, to the royal tent, as if Emperor Julian had supposedly summoned him. And when he entered the tent, they surrounded him and proclaimed him emperor on the 27th of the month of Daesius, which is also June, before dawn. But the multitude of the army that had pitched camp at Ctesiphon, and which was at a great distance, did not know the things that had happened until the rising of the sun, as they were at a distance. Julian the same emperor thus died, being in his 33rd year.

32.

For the emperor Julian honored him both as a man of learning and as his associate, and wrote to him frequently. And the holy Basil, descending for the early morning prayers to the church, called together all his clergy and revealed to them the secret of the vision, and that the emperor Julian had been slaughtered and had died that night. And they all begged him to remain silent and not to tell such a thing to anyone. But the most learned chronicler Eutropius did not agree ^B with some of these things in his writings.

JOVIANUS IMP.

the Emperor Jovian to conclude the peace treaties ^A immediately and without any delay. Jovian therefore, thinking it beneath his dignity if the Emperor himself were to negotiate the terms of peace with a senatorial man, namely the envoy of the Persians, designated for the performance of this task Arintheus the patrician, from among his own counselors; after the agreement had been established concerning all the things upon which they might agree with the Persian envoy, and after a three-day truce had been granted, during which deliberations concerning the peace might be held. An agreement was therefore made ^B between Arintheus the Roman patrician and Surenas, a senator and envoy of the Persians, that the Romans would concede to the Persians the entire province called Mygdonia, and its metropolis called Nisibis, stripped of its people and containing only the walls. This having been confirmed, and the peace being consigned to writing, the Emperor Jovian took with him one of the Persian satraps who had come with the envoy, named Junium, to safely conduct him and his baggage out of the Persian territory and to take possession of the province and its metropolis. The Emperor Jovian, having arrived at the city of Nisibis, did not enter it, but pitched his tents outside the walls. ^C Junium, the Persian satrap, having entered the city by order of the Emperor, placed a Persian standard upon one of the towers, the Emperor having ordered all the citizens, with all their belongings, to depart to a man. Silvanus, a count and the governor of the same city, having gone out to him, fell at the feet of the Emperor, begging him not to surrender the city to the Persians; but he did not persuade him. For he said that he had sworn an oath, and did not wish to have the reputation of being a perjurer before all men. And having walled in a city outside the wall of the city of Amida, and having called the village Nisibis, he made all those from the country of Mygdonia ^D dwell there, along with Silvanus the governor. And having crossed over into Mesopotamia, he immediately rebuilt all the churches of the Christians and committed the administration of affairs to Christians; and he appointed Christian governors and exarchs throughout the entire East. And the same Emperor, having left the East,

^A because of the winter, which was severe, hastened with his troops toward Constantinople. On his return, having reached the region of the Galatians, he died a natural death in a village called Dadastana [(19)], being sixty years of age [(20)].

After the reign of Jovian, Valentinian was made emperor in the city of Nicaea [(21)], a man of stern character, ^B having reigned for sixteen years [(22)]. He was a Christian. This man was advanced by the Senate and crowned emperor by Salustius, the Praetorian Prefect, who had chosen him and compelled him to reign. For the Emperor Julian the Apostate had sent the same Emperor Valentinian into [(23)] Salabria, because he was a most ardent Christian, making him a tribune of a regiment; for he had known in a vision that he would reign after him. The prefect Salustius, having sent for him, brought him from Salabria and said to the army that no one made a Roman emperor like this one. ^C And as soon as he began to reign, he immediately relieved the same prefect Salustius of his office [(24)], and having arranged for bail, he posted a public notice against him, so that if anyone had been wronged by him, he might approach the emperor. And no one came forward against Salustius; for he was most blameless. The same Emperor Valentinian built many things in the great city of Antioch. He also moved against the Persians, having sent his own brother Valens, whom he had made Caesar, on the first day of April [[30]]; and the same Valens did not fight, but having arrived, he settled everything regarding peace; for he had all authority in the person of his own brother; the Persians having come down and requested peace.

Valens, having come with his army to Antioch in Syria on the tenth of November, in the fourteenth indiction, tarried there for the purpose of negotiating peace with the Persians. He confirmed a treaty for seven years, with the Persians returning to him half of Nisibis. Being delighted by the location of the city of Antioch, both on account of its air and its waters, Valens first built the forum, a magnificent work, having dismantled the basilica formerly called the Caesarium, which was situated near the clock and the public bath of Commodus—which is now used as the praetorium of the count of Syria—extending as far as the place called the Plethrium. He also renovated its apse and built arches over the torrent called the Parmenius, which flows from the mountain and runs through the middle of the city of Antioch. He built another basilica opposite the bath of Commodus, and adorned the four basilicas with great Salonitic columns. He also decorated the ceilings with carvings, variegated marble, and mosaic work. Having marble-faced the entire middle space built over the arches of the Parmenius, he completed his forum. He also decorated the four basilicas with varied ornaments and placed statues in them; in the middle of these, he set a very great column, upon which he placed a statue of his brother, the Emperor Valentinian. He also dedicated a marble statue in the Senate of the Apse, and a third, made of precious stones and seated in form, he dedicated to the same most divine Emperor Valentinian in the middle of the basilica located in the Apse. He also built the two ^B curves of the Cynegium, having vaulted them and filled them with tiers of seats, since it had previously been a gladiatorial arena. He also built a public bath near the Hippodrome. He built many other wonderful works in the same city.

The most divine Emperor Valentinian brought death upon many senators and governors of provinces because of their rapine, extortions, and other unjust acts committed by them. ^C But Rhodanus, the praepositus of his palace, a man most powerful and wealthy, who managed the palace—as he was the chief eunuch and held in great honor—he ordered to be burned alive with brushwood in the curve of the Hippodrome, while he himself was watching the games. For this Rhodanus, the praepositus, had seized the property of a widow, and ^D

Veronica by name, having circumvented her by deceit as though he were a man of power. The woman appealed to the Emperor Valentinian concerning these things, who at once appointed to them as judge the patrician Sallust; he condemned the said praepositus Rhodanus. And when the same Emperor learned of the verdict from the patrician Sallust, he ordered that same praepositus to restore to the widow what he had seized from her. ^B But the same Rhodanus was not persuaded to restore it to her, but instead appealed against the patrician Sallust. And the same Emperor, having become indignant, ordered the same woman to approach him while he was watching the games. So the woman approached him at the fifth *bavion* of the morning. And as the same praepositus Rhodanus was standing close to him on the right, the same Emperor gave the command, and he was seized from his seat, in the presence of the whole city, and was carried off to the turning-post of the Hippodrome and burned. And the same Emperor Valentinian bestowed upon that same widow all the property of the same praepositus Rhodanus; and he was lauded by the entire populace and the senate as a just and severe judge. And a great fear fell upon those who acted wickedly and those who seized the property of others, and justice prevailed.

^C Similarly also involving his wife, the Augusta Marianē, who had purchased a suburban estate that had an income, and had given for it a price lower than the estate was worth [34]—and having been honored as Augusta, he heard of it and sent to have the same estate appraised, and put [the sellers] on oath ^D and ordered them to provide a valuation; and learning that it was worth much more than the purchase price, he was indignant…

against the empress, and banished her from the city, and returned the suburban estate to the woman who had sold it. ^A

The same emperor declared his son Gratian Augustus. Gratian, having been constituted Emperor of the Romans by his father, recalled his mother, Mariana, from exile.

But the most divine Valentinian, being seized by sickness, died not long after in the fort of the Birgitini, in the fifty-fifth year of his age.

After the reign of Valentinian the Great, the austere, the army, setting aside the authority of the senate, made a certain Eugenius emperor, and he reigned for twenty-two days and was immediately slain. ^B

Valens Imperator. Then the most divine Valens, brother of Valentinian the austere—a man strenuous in war—assumed the empire, being proclaimed emperor by the senate of Constantinople, in the year 326 of the Antiochene era. For when his brother Valentinian died, Valens was not in Constantinople; rather, his brother had sent him while still alive to fight against the Goths at Sirmium. Having conquered them decisively, he returned; and having assumed the diadem, he reigned for thirteen years. He was in his dogma an Exocionite, a warrior, and was magnanimous and very devoted to the construction of buildings. ^C

As soon as he began to reign, he granted the Great Church in Constantinople to the Arians, a thing which he also did in the other cities. And he treated the Christians throughout his empire very badly. ^D

^A The same Valens also made the second Cappadocia into a province, separating it from the first. In his reign, Nicæa, a city of Bithynia, suffered from a divine visitation 35 in the month of September, in the eleventh indiction. The same Valens died after having set up a camp at Adrianople in Thrace; having gone out to build a factory there before the city in another field, and the building and the field having mysteriously caught fire, and the ladders having been set ablaze during the night, he perished along with his chamberlains and guards, being forty-nine years of age. ^B After the reign of Valens, the most pious Gratian, the elder son of Valentinian, reigned, in the consulship of Ausonianus and Hermogenes 37. He reigned for seventeen years 38; he was peaceful and respectful. During his reign, Theon, the most wise philosopher 39, was teaching and interpreting astronomical matters, as well as the writings of Hermes Trismegistus and Orpheus. In the sixth year of the reign of that same Gratian, Theodosius the Spaniard 40 was proclaimed emperor by him, having married Placidia, the sister of Gratian. Before the reign of Gratian, Valerian 41, the emperor of Rome, the son of Valentinian and elder brother of Gratian, having reigned over Rome only a very few years, departed from the living, ^C and in his stead, his kinsman Valentinian 42 became emperor in Rome.

VARIOUS READINGS

NOTES BY CHILMEAD

^A The Emperor Gratian, having fallen ill with a splenic complaint, was sick for a long time. While he was ascending to the Hippodrome in Constantinople by the Cochlea to watch the games, at the gate called the Decimus, he was murdered and died, in the twenty-eighth year of his age.

After the reign of Gratian, the Senate of Constantinople proclaimed Theodosius as Emperor, as he was of their kin ^B and came from the land of Spain. Being proclaimed by the Senate, the most divine Theodosius the Spaniard, the great brother-in-law of Gratian, reigned for seventeen years. He was a Christian, wise, pious, and very capable in public affairs. As soon as he began to reign, he sent letters throughout the empire, restored the churches to the Orthodox, and drove out the Arians. This same Emperor crowned his two sons, whom he had by his former wife Galla, with the diadem, and made Arcadius emperor in Constantinople, and Honorius in Rome. This same Emperor Theodosius utterly destroyed all the temples of the Hellenes. He also demolished the great and renowned temple of Heliopolis, called the Trilithon, and turned it into a church for Christians. Likewise, he turned the temple of Damascus into a church for Christians; and he converted many other temples during his reign, and the affairs of the Christians were greatly increased under his rule. ^C

The same Emperor also separated Phoenicia Libanesia from the coastline and made it a province, granting it the rights of a metropolis and a governor.

^A He also divided Pontus and made it a province, which he named Haemimontus (51).

In his reign, a certain Albinus the Isaurian seized power and ravaged the cities of Cilicia—Anazarbus, Irenopolis, and Castabala—but he was captured by the master of soldiers, Rufus, and put to death.

At the same time, the Emperor Theodosius destroyed the three temples that were in Constantinople, located at what was formerly called the Acropolis. The one that belonged to the Sun he converted into residential quarters and granted it to the Great Church of Constantinople; this courtyard has been called "the Sun" to this day. ^B He turned the temple of Artemis into a "tabloparochion" for gamblers (52), which place is still called "The Temple" and the nearby lane "The Stag" (53). The temple of Venus he converted into a "carrucharium" for the praetorian prefect, building hospices around it and ordering the very destitute prostitutes to lodge there for free. The same Theodosius also raised the place formerly called the village of Rophinanon to the status of a city, which was subsequently renamed Theodosiopolis, having received from that time on the rights of a city, which it retains to this day, during the consulship of Merobaudes and Saturninus (56).

The same Theodosius in his own reign convoked the council of 150 bishops at Constantinople regarding the consubstantiality of the Holy Spirit. ^C Furthermore, the same Emperor Theodosius appointed as praetorian prefect Antiochus, surnamed Chuzon the Great, who hailed from Antioch the Great. No sooner had he assumed the office than he reported to the same Emperor Theodosius that the Great City of Antioch in Syria had expanded and grown, and that it had many dwellings outside the walls for the distance of one mile (57). The same Emperor Theodosius ordered that the buildings situated outside the city should also be enclosed by a wall; and the wall was built from the gate they call the Philonauta to the place called...

Phurninum, which is a stream flowing forth from the caverns of the mountain; having brought stones for this purpose from the old amphitheater which stood higher up towards the Acropolis ^A. He also demolished the aqueduct which Julius Caesar had constructed, which brought water from the Laodicean road to the Acropolis to supply the bath that he had built on the mountain for the use of the Acropolitans, who had once settled there; they were the remnant of those whom Seleucus Nicator the Macedonian had persuaded, upon bringing them down into the plain, to dwell in the great city of Antioch which he himself had founded. At the same time, Gindarus, Lytargus, and many other country towns of Syria were encompassed with walls.

During his reign, the Tzanni crossed over ^B and invaded Cappadocia, Cilicia, and Syria; and after plundering, they departed.

The same Emperor Theodosius separated New Epirus from the Old, and made it a province, granting the rights of a metropolis and a governor to the city of Dyrrhachium. Likewise, he separated the Second Palestine from the First and made it a province, granting the rights of a metropolis and a governor to the city known as Scythopolis.

The same Emperor Theodosius, setting out from Constantinople for Rome, made his journey by way of the city of Thessalonica. Since the military multitude with him caused a disturbance over lodgings [(j)], the people of Thessalonica were stirred to sedition and insulted the emperor. The emperor, however, who was then watching the games in the Hippodrome, to which a dense multitude had gathered, ordered the soldiers to shoot the people with arrows; and a multitude of fifteen thousand perished ^C. On account of this, Ambrose the bishop was indignant at him and placed him under interdict; and he remained for many days without entering the church ^D, until the bishop, having been entreated, received him, on the feast of the Theo-

^Aphany, but on this condition: that if he were to issue an imperial decree, whatever the occasion might be that had provoked the emperor, the sentences of the judges should not be considered valid until an interval of thirty days had passed.

The same Theodosius also separated the second Galatia from the first and made it a province, granting to the city of Pessinus the rights and prefect of a metropolis ^B.

Furthermore, Emperor Theodosius, having undertaken an expedition, fell ill at Milan and there succumbed to his fate, at the age of sixty-five; his remains were subsequently transported to Constantinople. Dying, Theodosius, having learned that Arcadius had come to Rome to visit his brother Honorius, who at that time was lying ill, exhorted him by letter to return to Constantinople and look to the East. But because Arcadius, while staying for a long time in Rome with his brother Honorius, and also delaying along the way, could not reach Constantinople ^C sooner than a certain Gainas, one of the senators, had seized power. Finally, however, Arcadius, coming to Constantinople, did away with that rebel Gainas.

IMPERATOR ARCADIUS. — And so, Arcadius, the son of the great Spaniard Theodosius, succeeded him in the empire, coming from Rome to Constantinople, where he reigned for twenty-three years, having left his younger brother Honorius in Rome. Arcadius was a man of very keen intellect and suitable for managing affairs; and as soon as he had returned to Constantinople, he took his son, Theodosius the Younger, as his partner in the empire.

The same Arcadius also instituted a private regiment, which he named the Arcadiaci. Falling suddenly ill, he died at the age of thirty-one.

IMPERATOR HONORIUS. — After the death of Arcadius, his brother Honorius reigned in Rome for thirty-one years. He was prone to anger, but a man of sound mind.

^A The same king ordered the temple of Serapis of the Sun, which was in great Alexandria, ^B to be closed.

During his reign, a great popular disturbance having arisen in Rome, he left in anger and departed for the city of Ravenna. He sent and brought Alaric, the general, from the Gauls ^C with a multitude, so that he might discipline Rome. Alaric came to the city and surrendered it to the city itself and to the senators who were enemies of Honorius. He harmed none of the city’s inhabitants, but rushing into the palace, he seized all the wealth of the palace and Placidia, the sister of Honorius by his father, who was still a young maiden. He then departed again for the Gauls to play the tyrant. Constantius, who was still a count with Alaric, having been entrusted by him with the maiden Placidia, was able to take her; and fleeing from Alaric, he brought her to the emperor Honorius. In gratitude, Honorius made him a senator and gave him Placidia in marriage, and made him king in Rome. From her, this same Constantius had a son whom he named Valentinian. At the same time that Honorius was with Constantius during his reign, he killed the four tyrant senators, Attalus, Sebastianus, Maximus, and Constans, who had risen up against him by corrupting the populace. After they were killed and their property confiscated, Honorius left Constantius to rule in Rome and went to Constantinople, reigning with Theodosius the Younger. Constantius, king of Rome, died a natural death during the reign and lifetime of Honorius; and a certain senator named John played the tyrant.

who had acted in concert with the others among the senators, ^A seized the tyranny, claiming for himself the empire of the West. When this was heard, Honorius was seized by a fit of rage; and, suffering from dropsy, he died in the forty-second year of his age.

BOOK XIV

CONCERNING THE TIMES OF THEODOSIUS THE YOUNGER DOWN TO THE EMPIRE OF LEO THE YOUNGER

^B After Honorius, the most divine Theodosius the Younger reigned alone; he who had been proclaimed emperor by his father Arcadius, the brother of Honorius, during the consulate of Stilicho and Aurelian. He held the empire for fifty years and seven months. He favored the Green faction, and ^C supported their cause everywhere throughout the empire. In Constantinople, he moved the Greens, who previously sat on his right to watch the games, and ordered them instead to occupy the rows on the left; and he transferred the infantry soldiers who used to watch from opposite the imperial seat to the side of the Blues. ^D

^A And he gave the rows to those of the Green faction, having six colonnades, telling Cyrus the prefect that he wished to see those whom he held dear opposite himself. And those of the Green faction in Constantinople shouted to the same emperor: "To each his own." And he sent them orders through the head messenger, saying that he had moved them to the left of the seat where he was watching, as a mark of honor to them; and they acclaimed him. And he commanded that throughout the city the Greens should watch from the left of the magistrates.

The Emperor was proclaimed while he was still a child; but when he had grown older, the same Emperor Theodosius took his lessons in the palace while his father Arcadius was still alive. ^B After the death of his father, another younger and very intelligent youth named Paulinus, the son of the Count of the Domestics, was associated with him in his studies. Now after the death of his father, Theodosius the Emperor, having come to manhood, sought to take a wife in marriage, and he appealed to his sister, the Augusta Pulcheria. She, being a virgin, as she loved her brother so dearly, did not choose to marry anyone; and indeed, having made careful inquiry about many young maidens, daughters of patricians or of royal blood, she spoke to the same Emperor Theodosius, her brother, while she was dwelling with him in the palace. And the same Emperor Theodosius said to her: "I wish, if you can find me a very beautiful young maiden, such that no woman in Constantinople may possess such beauty, whether she is of royal blood or of the blood of a leading senator. ^C But if she is not of extraordinary beauty, I have no need of illustrious lineage, nor of royal blood, nor of wealth; but even if she is the daughter of anyone at all, if only she is a virgin and of most excellent appearance, I shall take her." And the Augusta Pulcheria, having heard these things, sent everywhere making inquiries; and Paulinus was also running about everywhere to please him.

In the meantime, it happened that a young maiden of Greek descent, singular in beauty and outstanding in learning, came to Constantinople with her own relatives, by the name of Athenais, who was also

^A called Eudocia, the daughter of Leontius the philosopher, an Athenian man of great wealth. This maiden was compelled to come to the imperial city to see her aunt for this reason: Leontius the philosopher, her father, having two adult sons, Valerius and Gesius, when he was about to die, arranged his testament, appointing his two sons as sole heirs to all the wealth he left behind ^B and stating in his will: "To my most beloved, true daughter Athenais, I wish that only one hundred gold coins be given; for her own fortune, which surpasses that of all her sex, suffices for her." And the same Leontius the philosopher died in Athens. After his death, the same Athenais, also called Eudocia, implored her brothers, as they were older than her, casting herself down at their feet and beseeching them not to have regard for that testament, but to divide the paternal estate with her into a third part, saying that she had done no wrong, as they themselves knew, toward their common father. "And I do not know," she said, "for what reason my father, when he was about to die, left me in such straits and granted that you should enjoy your own fortune and the inheritance after his death." But her brothers remained unmoved, and being angered, they cast her out of her father's house where she had been living with them. Then her mother’s sister received her, and as one orphaned of her parents, she kept her as a virgin. Having taken her, she went up to Constantinople to her father’s other sister, his own sibling. These women, having taken up her cause, arranged for her to be brought before the most pious Empress Pulcheria, sister of the Emperor Theodosius, to petition against her brothers regarding the paternal goods. ^C When she was brought to Pulcheria, she explained in a most eloquent speech how unjustly she had been treated by her brothers. Pulcheria, seeing Athenais endowed with such beauty and learning, asked her relatives whether she was a virgin. They told her that she was an untouched virgin, guarded by her father, the Greek philosopher, and thoroughly imbued with the precepts of philosophy. And so, together with the virgin, her relatives... ^D

^A under the care of the cubicularii, having ordered her to remain there, Pulcheria took the suppliant petition received from her and brought it to her brother Theodosius; and she said to him: "I have found for you a Grecian virgin, the daughter of a certain philosopher, young, extremely beautiful, pure, elegant, educated, a Hellenic maiden, the daughter of a philosopher." On hearing this, the emperor, being a young man, was inflamed. Having summoned his partner and friend Paulinus, he asked his sister Pulcheria to introduce Athenaïs into her own bedchamber under the pretext of some business, so that he himself, with Paulinus, might view her through a veil. Consequently, having been introduced, the virgin was brought in; and while Paulinus admired her, the emperor yearned for her anxiously. Having made her a Christian (for she had been a Hellene) and changed her name to Eudocia, he took her as his wife, celebrating the union with royal nuptials in her honor. He then had a daughter by her named Eudoxia.

But the brothers of the Empress Eudocia, when they perceived that their sister was reigning, were struck with fear and fled into Hellas. Eudocia, having given them a guarantee of indemnity, summoned them from the city of Athens to Constantinople, and made them dignitaries, the emperor having advanced them: the one named Gessius he made Praetorian Prefect of the Illyrian nation, and the other, Valerius, he made Master of Offices. Empress Eudocia said to her brothers: "Had you not treated me badly, I would not have been compelled to come and reign. ^B Therefore, you granted me the kingdom that came to me outside the lot of my birth; for if you had not stood as opponents to my wishes, my good fortune would not have made you suffer for my sake, but rather your own intent towards me."

Emperor Theodosius also promoted Paulinus, as his friend and as one who had mediated at the wedding and taken part in the banquet with them, through every degree of honor to the dignities, and thereafter distinguished him with the dignity of Master of Offices. Thus was Paulinus enriched with honors; and since he had very great ^C influence with Emperor Theodosius...

^A and because he was his groomsman, he often had access to the Augusta Eudocia, just as the same Paulinus, being Master, often entered in to the Augusta.

The same Emperor Theodosius then sent the patrician Aspar with a great army to Rome against the tyrant John. Aspar conquered this John in battle, drove him from the Roman throne, and put him to death. The Roman Emperor was then proclaimed by Theodosius to be Valentinian the Younger, the son of the great Placidia and Emperor Constantius, his own kinsman. He also gave to him in marriage his own daughter, whom he had had by Eudocia Augusta, the daughter of the philosopher, by name Eudoxia; from whom the same Valentinian had two daughters, Eudocia and Placidia.

It happened after a time, when Emperor Theodosius was going out to church during the holy Theophany, that the Master Paulinus remained at home; for, being ill with his foot, he pleaded sickness. Meanwhile, a certain poor man ^B presented to Emperor Theodosius a Phrygian apple, one that was very large and of unusual size; and the Emperor himself and all his nobles were astonished by its size. The Emperor, having given to the one who had brought it one hundred and fifty gold coins, sent it as a gift to the Augusta Eudocia; and the Augusta sent it to the Master Paulinus, as a friend of the Emperor. But the Master Paulinus, being ignorant that the Emperor had already sent it to the Augusta, took it and sent it to Emperor Theodosius as he was entering the palace. When the Emperor received it, he recognized it and hid it away. Then, having summoned the Augusta, he questioned her, saying: "Where is the apple which I sent you?" She replied, saying, "I have eaten it." He then adjured her by his own salvation to tell whether she herself had eaten it or had sent it as a gift to another. She swore that she had ^C eaten it and had not given it to anyone. The Emperor then ordered the apple to be brought, and showed it to her. He was angry with her, suspecting that because she was in love with the same Paulinus, she had sent the apple to him and had denied it. Because of this, Emperor Theodosius did away with the same Paulinus. The Augusta Eudocia, having been insulted, took this action of the Emperor very ill; for it became known everywhere that Paulinus had been put to death for her sake—for he was a very handsome young man. The Augusta therefore entreated Emperor Theodosius that she might go down to the holy places to pray; and he granted it to her ^D. She went down from Constantinople to Jerusalem to pray; and she built many things in Jerusalem, and she also restored the walls of Jerusalem, saying that the prophet David spoke for her: "That even in your good pleasure..."

Lord, the walls of Jerusalem shall be built." And remaining there and having built a royal tomb for herself, she died and was buried in Jerusalem. But as she was about to die, she swore ^A that she was innocent of the charge brought against her in the matter of Paulinus.

The emperor Theodosius was a man of letters, beloved by the whole populace and the senate. During his reign and that of Valentinian, Attila, of the race of the Gepids, marched against Rome and Constantinople, leading with him a multitude of many myriads. He signified, through a Gothic envoy, to Valentinian, the emperor of Rome: "My master and your master, Attila, commands that you prepare your palace for him." In like manner, he also signaled the same words to the emperor Theodosius in Constantinople through a Gothic envoy. Aetius, the first of the Roman senators, having heard of the extraordinary audacity of this insane reply from Attila, set out for Gaul to Alaric, who was an enemy of the Romans, and urged him along, bringing him with him against Attila; for he had ravaged many cities of the Roman Empire. Suddenly, falling upon him as he was encamped near the Danube river, they cut down many thousands of his men. In the clash, Alaric, having received a wound from an arrow, died. ^B Similarly, Attila also died ^C from a flow of blood that occurred through his nostrils at night, while he was sleeping with a Hunnic concubine; and it was suspected that she had killed him. The most wise Priscus the Thracian wrote about this war. Others have written that Aetius the patrician corrupted his spatharius, and he, having stabbed him, killed him; and that the patrician Aetius returned to Rome having been victorious.

The emperor Theodosius, in these same times, built the great church in Alexandria, which is called to this day "the Theodosian," for he greatly loved Cyril, the bishop of Alexandria.

^A Around these same times, the Alexandrians, relying on their bishop and taking to themselves the license to do whatever they pleased, burned with brushwood the renowned philosopher Hypatia, a venerable woman, famous in the mouths of all. During his reign, the island of Crete also suffered divine wrath; it had one hundred cities situated in the midst of the sea, as the most wise Euripides once sang concerning this island. And all the surrounding country also suffered. In the same Crete, the public bath of the metropolis of Gortyna, which had been built by Julius Caesar, collapsed; it had twelve distinct domes, each intended for the use of an individual month, yet (a marvel to behold) all of them were heated by a single furnace. Of these domes, the emperor Theodosius rebuilt six—which is to say, two sections of the bath, the summer and the winter—at the request of the leading men of that city. He also further bestowed many things for the restoration of the same city and island.

The emperor also built in great Antioch a large and very beautiful basilica, translucent and magnificent, situated opposite the place called the Athla, which the Antiochenes call "the Anatolian." For Anatolius, the master of soldiers of the East, had been set over the construction by the emperor, having received funds from him when he was made master of soldiers of the East by him; and for this reason, when he completed the work of the basilica, he had inscribed upon it in golden mosaic these words: "Work of Theodosius the emperor," as is fitting. Above them were two emperors, Theodosius and his kinsman Valentinian, who reigned in Rome. ^C This same Theodosius also gilded the bronze doors of the Daphnetic gate, after the likeness of the gate which he himself gilded in Constantinople, which is still called to this day the "Golden Gate"; and in the same way, in great Antioch, it is called to this day the "Golden Gate," having been gilded by Nymphidianus, a consular, at the time when the death of Valentinian, emperor of Rome, was reported, for he had been slain by the senator Maximus, who seized power and reigned in Rome.

^A The same Emperor Theodosius treated Antiochus, the praepositus and patrician, badly; he was a man who had great power in the palace and had controlled affairs. For he had been the one who raised the same Theodosius while his father was still alive, and as a cubicularius he had received the duty of managing the empire from the same father, Arcadius. And he remained, after he [Theodosius] had come of age, as a patrician exercising authority over the same Theodosius. Being indignant at him, he confiscated his property and, having shorn him, made him a papas of the Great Church of Constantinople, establishing a regulation that eunuch cubicularii, after the completion of their service, that is to say those who had been praepositi of the palace, should not enter into the ranks of the senators or patricians. And the same Antiochus died, while yet an elder. ^B The same Emperor appointed the patrician Cyrus, a philosopher and a most wise man in all things, as Praetorian Prefect and Prefect of the City. And he ruled, holding both offices for four years, proceeding in the prefect’s carriage of the city and taking care of the buildings and renewing all of Constantinople; for he was most diligent. Regarding him, the Byzantines cried out in the Hippodrome all day long while Theodosius was watching these things: "Constantine built, Cyrus renewed." But Cyrus, astonished, uttered: "Fortune over-smiling does not please me." And the Emperor was angered ^C because they cried out about Cyrus, with Constantine, saying that he had renewed the city; and thereafter he was contrived against and branded as a Hellene, the same Cyrus, and he was despoiled of his authority. And taking refuge, he himself also became a papas, and he was sent to Phrygia, becoming a bishop.

Commentary on the notes of Chilmead

^A That which is called Cotyaeum: for those same citizens killed four bishops, but Cotyaeum is a city of the province of Phrygia Salutaris. And the aforementioned Cyrus arrived at the city of Cotyaeum before the holy Nativity. The clergy and citizens of the city, knowing that the emperor had sent him as a Greek so that he might be put to death, suddenly cried out to him in the church on the holy Nativity to deliver a sermon to them. And being compelled, he went up to preach; and after the customary peace, he spoke as follows: "Brothers, the Nativity of our God and Savior Jesus Christ should be celebrated in silence, because by hearing alone was the Word conceived in the holy Virgin." Glory to Him unto the ages. Amen. And having been applauded, he came down, and remained there until his death. And Antiochus Chuzon, the grandson of the great Antiochus Chuzon—who had provided the great city of Antioch with an increase of funds for the Hippodrome and the Olympic and Maiuma festivals—was promoted to Prefect. And after him, the Prefect Rufinus, a relative of the same emperor, was promoted; and he was killed as one who had attempted a tyranny.

The same Emperor Theodosius loved with passion a certain chamberlain, Chrysaphius, called Ztommas, ^B as he was very handsome; and he granted him many things, whatever he asked of him, and he had influence with him, and he took control of all affairs and plundered everything. For he was the patron and protector of the Green faction. And during his reign, Nicomedia, the metropolis of Bithynia, suffered ^C at the hands of divine wrath, its fifth calamity, in the dead of the night, and it was destroyed and submerged in the earth and the sea. And he constructed much there, both the public works and the colonnades and the harbor and the theaters and the martyrdom of Saint Anthimus and restored all its churches.

^A During his reign, brigands from Isauria, making their way through the mountains, seized Seleucia of Syria by force and plundered it; and having laid waste the whole region and carried off everything, they returned to their own Isauria. This took place in the month of February, during the consulship of Theodosius himself and Romoridus.

During his empire, Constantinople first experienced divine wrath through an earthquake on the twenty-sixth of January, in the night time; it was shaken by tremors of the earth from the so-called Troadensian colonnades as far as the bronze tetrapylon. The Emperor, therefore, with the senate and the populace and the entire clergy, went barefoot for many days, propitiating God with prayers.

At about the same time, the King of the Persians, Blasses, took up arms against the Romans. Upon hearing this, the Roman Emperor appointed the patrician Procopius as Master of Soldiers of the East, and sent him with an army to do battle. And as he was about to join in the engagement, the King of the Persians declared to him in these words: "If there can be found in your whole army a man capable of fighting in single combat and defeating a Persian whom I shall bring forward, I will immediately grant you the terms of peace for fifty years, and the customary gifts." And when this had been agreed upon by both sides, the Persian brought forward one of his men from the division of the so-called ^B Immortals, by the name of Adrazanes, while the Romans brought forward a certain Areobindus, a Goth, count of the Foederati. And the two men went out armed and mounted on horseback. Now Areobindus was carrying, according to the Gothic custom, a *socharem*. The Persian was the first to charge with his lance; but Areobindus, having inclined his body to the right, evaded the blow, and having entangled him with a lasso, threw him from his horse and slew him. And thereafter the King of the Persians fulfilled all the conditions of peace. ^{C D}

Areobindus, however, after the victory was won, returning to Constantinople with Procopius, the master of soldiers, received the favor he deserved from the emperor, being promoted to the consular dignity.

^A The same emperor divided Lycia from Lycaonia and made it a province, having given the prefect and metropolitan rights to Myra, a city of Lycia; where there is also a divine miracle, fire bursting forth of its own accord from the earth. The same emperor also separated the Second Syria from the first and made it a province, with prefectorial and metropolitan rights granted to the city of Apamea. Furthermore, he divided the Second Cilicia from the first and made it a province, with metropolitan rights and a prefect donated to the city of Anazarbus. He also created another province, having separated it from Bithynia, which he called Honorias after the name of his same uncle Honorius, giving the metropolitan rights and a prefect to Heraclea, a city of Pontus.

[alt-version omitted]

ED. CHILMEADI NOTES

^B ...corruption. As we have it in our author, for [Greek term omitted], and this for [Greek term omitted]. But what these words might be, or other words of the same family which occur below, i.e., [Greek term omitted], I would very gladly learn from someone. Certainly, these words are so unheard of that even very learned men consider them suspect and remove them from the authors. So in this passage of Olympiodorus in Photius: "Adaulphus, having learned this, went to meet [him], bringing ten thousand soldiers, having eighteen or twenty men around him; who, having performed heroic deeds worthy of wonder, was scarcely taken alive with lassos and later slain." ^C For [Greek term omitted], the most learned Hoeschelius, although he confesses to have found it written otherwise in an old codex of H. Stephanus, thinks it should be replaced [by another term]. Andr. Schottus, however, wishes it to be read entirely as [Greek term omitted], believing it, clearly, to be more suitable for capturing living enemies than [the original term]. These [readings] do not please me much; but from where are we to expect sounder ones? To me, certainly, examining the matter more strictly, it finally occurred to suspect that it is a kind of lasso, suitable for entangling enemies and pulling them off horses, and accustomed to be carried in wars by the Goths and other barbarian nations. And this conjecture of ours seems to be confirmed in some way by what we read in Isidore, *De originibus*, book 18, chapter 59, concerning the Roman "laquearii" (lasso-fighters), in these words: "The fight of the laquearii was [one] where they fought, having entangled fleeing men with an inserted lasso, and followed to prostrate them," etc. ^D ...or implies, *I impede with a lasso*, or *I entangle*. And Hesychius agrees with this meaning of the word. [Note: The remainder of the notes consist of philological discussions on specific Greek terms translated in the text and further classical citations, specifically regarding the "fire of Lycia," which ancient authors identified as the volcanic phenomena of the Chimaera.]

BOOK FOURTEENTH

^A Under his reign, Nestorius flourished. He was later the bishop of Constantinople, and when tumults were stirred up by the people while he was preaching, the aforementioned Theodosius was compelled to convene a synod of two hundred and forty bishops in Ephesus 40 against Nestorius himself, and to depose him from the episcopacy. Cyril, the bishop of the great city of Alexandria, presided over this synod.

At that same time, while the Augusta Eudoxia, having become a widow—the wife of King Valentinian and the daughter of Emperor Theodosius and Eudocia—was living in Rome, she was grief-stricken ^B toward Maximus the tyrant, who had murdered her husband and taken the throne. She urged Zinzerichus 41 the Vandal, the king of Africa, to come against Maximus, the ruler of Rome. He suddenly came to the city of Rome with a multitude and captured Rome; Maximus the emperor was destroyed along with all his forces, and he plundered everything in the palace down to the bronze statues 42. He also took the surviving senators 43 captive, along with their wives; among these he took the very lady who had summoned him, the Augusta Eudoxia, and her daughter Placidia (the wife of the patrician Olybrius, who was then staying in Constantinople), and also the maiden Eudocia, as captives. He led them all away to Africa, to the city of Carthage. This Zinzerichus immediately gave the daughter of the Augusta Eudoxia, the maiden Eudocia the younger 44, to his own son, Honorichus, as his wife; and he kept them both, mother and daughter, in honor with him.

^C Emperor Theodosius, having learned that Rome had been betrayed according to the counsel 45 of his own daughter, was resentful toward her; he allowed her to remain a captive in Africa with Zinzerichus, without sending a single word to him about her, but instead, after some time had passed, he set out from Constantinople to Ephesus, a city in Asia. There he entered the church of Saint John the Theologian and, having poured out his prayers, he asked him who would rule after him. And he learned in a vision; and he came

to Constantinople. After a short time he went out ^A to ride, and while riding he fell from his horse; his spine having been injured, he was brought into the palace on a litter. Then, having called his sister, the Augusta Pulcheria, he spoke with her regarding Marcian, who was to succeed him in the empire. Having also summoned Marcian, who had been a tribune, he said to him, in the presence of Aspar and the entire senate: "It has been revealed to me by God that you must become emperor after me." Two days later this same Theodosius passed away, being in his fifty-first year.

MARCIANUS IMP. — Upon the death of Theodosius, the most holy Marcian received the empire, being crowned by the senate. The year of the Antiochene era was 499, indiction 4. He was tall, with limp hair, gray, ^B and afflicted in his feet; and immediately upon receiving the empire, he took for himself as wife the Augusta Pulcheria, the sister of the emperor Theodosius, who was a virgin of fifty-four years. Marcian reigned for six years and five months.

Under his reign, the city known as Tripolis of Phoenicia by the sea suffered divine wrath in the month of Gorpiaeus, in the night. The emperor restored the summer public building that had collapsed, which was called "Icarus." For there were in it two bronze statues, which were themselves among the spectacles, Icarus and Daedalus, and Bellerophon and the horse Pegasus. He also restored the Phacidium and other notable buildings of the same city, ^C along with the aqueduct. The emperor also convened the Synod of Chalcedon of the 630 bishops under his rule.

In the time of his reign the Augustae Eudoxia and Placidia were sent back and returned to Constantinople; and Olybrius took his wife Placidia again, and she bore Juliana in Byzantium.

The same emperor also beheaded and confiscated the property of Chrysaphius the cubicularius, surnamed Zummas, whom the emperor Theodosius had held as very dear, for he had been accused by many who had been injured by him, and because he had undertaken the role of leader and patron of the Greens. ^D Furthermore, Marcian gave his daughter, born to him from a previous wife, to Anthemius in marriage, and also handed over to him the Roman empire. From her, Anthemius [had a daughter...].

whom he gave in marriage to Ricimer, the master of soldiers.

Marcian, moreover, favored the Veneti faction throughout the empire. Consequently, when a tumult was raised by the Prasini (the Greens), he issued an imperial edict forbidding anyone from the Prasini faction from holding office or serving in the military for three years. Being more than usually angered by the tumult that had been stirred up, he was seized by his habitual infirmity of the feet. After lying ill with this for five months, he eventually developed gangrene and died, at the age of sixty-five, two years after Pulcheria Augusta had departed from the living.

^B After the reign of Marcian, the most divine Leo the Great, a Bessian by nationality, was crowned by the senate. He reigned for sixteen years and eleven months.

During his reign, Anthemius, whom Marcian had raised to this dignity, reigned in Rome.

In the reign of Leo, great Antioch suffered the fourth visitation of divine wrath on the thirteenth of September, at first light; the day was a Sunday, and the year of the Antiochene era was 506, under the consulate of Patricius. The emperor bestowed much upon the citizens and the city for its restoration.

During his reign, the holy Symeon the Stylite passed from this life; at that time, the master of soldiers of the East was the patrician Ardaburius, the son of Aspar. The people of Antioch cried out and requested the remains of the righteous man, and the same Ardaburius sent an armed force of Goths and brought the relics of the holy Symeon to great Antioch; the Antiochenes built a great martyrium for him, and he was placed there in a stone coffin.

During the reign of this same Leo, Isocasius the ^C quaestorius, a philosopher, ^D was accused...

was brought before the emperor, and accused of paganism. He was a citizen of Great Antioch who had held many magistracies with praise, for he was a man of the highest prudence. However, by the order of the emperor, he was apprehended and stripped of his rank at Constantinople, where he was dwelling at the time, and was sent away to Chalcedon to Theophilus, the prefect of Bithynia, who also received his examination. ^B Now there was a certain Jacob surnamed Psychistrus, a count and archiatrus, who was very dear to the emperor himself, to the senate, and even to the entire populace; for this reason, as an excellent philosopher and physician, the senate had set up a statue of him in the Zeuxippus. This Jacob besought the emperor to have Isocasius, on account of the quaestorian rank he had held, plead his case at Constantinople before the senate and the praetorian prefect, rather than the provincial prefect. The emperor, being persuaded, ordered Isocasius to be brought back from Chalcedon. Having been led to the Zeuxippus, he was subjected to an examination by the praetorian prefect, Pusaeus. And as Isocasius approached the tribunal naked, ^C with his arms bound behind his back, Pusaeus chided him, saying, “Do you see yourself, Isocasius, in what state you stand?” To which Isocasius replied, “I see it, and I am not surprised. For since I am a man, I have fallen into human calamities. But do you judge me with pure justice, just as you have judged with me.” When the Byzantine populace, who were standing around awaiting the outcome, heard this from Isocasius, they celebrated the emperor Leo with repeated auspicious acclamations; and having taken Isocasius, they led him from the Zeuxippus to the Great Church, where he was enrolled in the register of Christians, instructed in the elements of the faith, and, having been cleansed in the sacred font, was sent back to his own region.

The same most divine emperor Leo ordered that on Sundays one must desist from all work, having promulgated a divine edict concerning this, so that no one should play the flute or the lyre or any other musical instrument on Sunday, but that all should rest; and every man obeyed.

^A Around this time, the Emperor, suspecting that the Patrician Aspar was plotting tyranny—as he was the first of the senate—ordered him to be killed; and inside the palace, he also gave over to slaughter in the assembly his sons, Ardabur and Patricius, who were themselves senators, having their bodies cut to pieces. A commotion subsequently arose in Constantinople; for there was a great multitude of Goths there, along with counts and other attendants and a large number of men-at-arms who remained with them. Whence one Goth among those attached to the same Aspar, Ostrys by name, a count and one of Aspar’s followers, entered the palace shooting with other Goths; and a conflict having occurred with the Excubitors ^B and this Ostrys, many were cut down. And having realized that he was defeated, he fled, taking with him Aspar’s concubine, a comely Gothic woman, who went out on horseback with him into Thrace; and he ravaged the country districts. Concerning him, the Byzantines cried out: "No one is a friend of the dead, except for Ostrys alone."

The same Emperor Leo set on foot a persecution of the Arians and Exocionitae because of Aspar and Ardabur, having sent out edicts everywhere that they should not have churches or gather together.

In his reign, ashes fell in Constantinople instead of rain ^C and lay upon the roof tiles to the height of a palm's breadth; and everyone trembled and prayed, saying to one another that it was fire, and it was quenched, and it was found to be ash, God having shown mercy to mankind.

In his reign, a great fire occurred in Constantinople, such as never before; for the city burned from sea to sea. Fearing for the palace, the Emperor Leo abandoned it and crossed the water to St. Mamas ^D, and he spent six months there.

^A He built a small harbor there and a portico, which he called the New Portico; by which name it is called even today.

The same Emperor Leo engaged in a fearful naval war against Sinzerichus the Vandal, King of the Africans, and sent against him a great fleet with the patrician Basiliscus, brother of Verina Augusta, the wife of the same Leo. But Basiliscus, having accepted money from Zinzerichus, the King of the Vandals, betrayed the ships, the commanders, the counts, and the entire army; and he alone, with his own ship, that is to say a liburnian, was the first to flee, while all the other ships and the army perished, being sunk in the sea. Among these was Damonicus, a leader from the dukes, who had become a general of the expedition and hailed from the great city of Antioch; having fought ^B strenuously against the Africans and having become a monk, he was seized and, while still in armor, cast into the deep. Basiliscus, meanwhile, having been defeated in the war, returned to Constantinople.

During the reign of the same Leo, Anthemius the Roman Emperor was slain at Rome; for he had fallen into enmity with his own son-in-law, the general Recimer. Fearing him as a Goth, the Emperor Anthemius went to St. Peter’s seeking sanctuary, pretending, it is said, that he was ill. When the Emperor Leo heard this, he sent the Roman patrician Olybrius to Rome after his consulship, which had been celebrated together with Rusticius, in order, it is said, to make friends of the Emperor Anthemius and his son-in-law Recimer, both being senators of Rome. ^C He commanded him that, after Anthemius and Recimer had become friends, he should depart Rome and go to Zinzerichus the Vandal, the King of Africa—as he had rapport with him, since he had the sister of his, Zinzerichus's, wife, Placidia, betrothed to his own son—and persuade him to return to friendship with him. Indeed, the same Emperor Leo suspected that the said Olybrius favored Zinzerichus and was secretly acting on his behalf; and so Leo was on his guard against him, lest by chance Zinzerichus should ^D stir up war against Leo,

^A for the same Olybrius, being related to Zinzerichus, might betray Constantinople to him and thereby secure the empire for himself. After Olybrius had departed for Rome, having left his wife Placidia and their daughter in Constantinople, the most holy Emperor Leo sent letters by a magistrianus to Anthemius, the king of Rome, to this effect: "I," he said, "have removed Aspar and Ardaburius from the middle, so that no one might resist my orders. Do you also kill your son-in-law Ricimer, so that there may be no one to rule over you. Behold, I have also sent the patrician Olybrius to you; I would have you kill him as well: so that you may reign, ruling others instead of being ruled." Now Ricimer had stationed Gothic auxiliaries at each of the gates of Rome and at the harbor; and if anyone entered Rome, he was searched to see what he was carrying. ^B And when the magistrianus Modestus, who had been sent by Leo to the Emperor Anthemius, had departed and been searched, the imperial letters from Leo to Anthemius were taken from him and delivered to Ricimer, who in turn showed them to Olybrius. Ricimer then sent for Gundabarius, his sister's son, and brought him from the Gauls, for he was a master of the soldiers there. Upon his arrival, he killed the Emperor Anthemius, who was in the holy house of the Apostle Peter, and immediately the same Gundabarius departed for Gaul. Ricimer then crowned Olybrius as emperor with the consent of the Roman senate; and the same Olybrius reigned over Rome for a few months, and then fell ill and died. Ricimer then made ^C another man, Majorinus, from the same Roman senate, emperor; and they killed him as well, because he was friendly to Zinzerichus, the king of the Moors. In his place, the same Ricimer made another man from the senate emperor in Rome, by the name of Nepos; and Ricimer died. The same Emperor Leo took husbands for his two daughters: for the elder, Leontia, he provided the patrician Marcian, the son of Anthemius, the king of Rome, and for Ariadne, Zeno the Isaurian, Codisseus: whose ^D [alt-version omitted]

^A both he honored with the dignity of patrician and the command of the present militia. The most illustrious Ariadne gave birth to a firstborn male child, whom she called Leo; for the most illustrious Leontia produced only daughters. ^B

LEO JUNIOR IMP. — Emperor Leo took his grandson, Leo the Younger, the son of Zeno, into the partnership of the empire, and crowned him with the diadem in Constantinople. Having thus been made Caesar, Leo the Minor entered upon his consulship in the month of January of the twelfth indiction, in the year 522 of the Antiochene era. In the following month of February, on the third day, the Emperor Leo the Great passed away from dysentery, in the seventy-third year of his age.

After the death of Leo the Great, Leo the Younger held the empire for one year and twenty-three days. Being a tender child, at the suggestion of his mother, the most illustrious Ariadne, and of his father Zeno, the master of the soldiers and patrician (while he himself venerated him as emperor), he placed the royal diadem upon his head on the ninth of February, of the twelfth indiction; and they ruled together from that time. ^C

ZENO IMP. — Thus the Emperor Zeno the Isaurian, of Codisseus, reigned together with his own son, Leo, for a short time. For the most holy Leo the Younger, once he had entered upon his consulship in the year 522 of the Antiochene era, of the twelfth indiction, and in the eleventh month of his consulship, fell ill and departed from the living in the month of November, of the thirteenth indiction, in the year 523 of the Antiochene era, being in his seventh year, just as Nestorianus, the wisest chronicler, left it written, who brought his History down to Leo the Younger.

BOOK XV. ON THE TIMES OF EMPEROR ZENO UNTO THE EMPIRE OF ANASTASIUS.

^A After the death of Leo the Younger, the most sacred Zeno held the empire for fifteen years. In the eighth month of his reign, he sent to Antioch as bishop and patriarch Peter, the paramonarius of St. Euphemia in Chalcedon. After he had reigned for two years and ten months, the Augusta Verina, his mother-in-law, because of a certain matter which she had requested of him and he had not granted, plotted against him. Being anxious of mind because of these things, and fearing that he might be killed by some of those in the palace (for his mother-in-law dwelt in the palace with her son-in-law), he betook himself to Chalcedon; from there he fled by post-horses—though he was emperor—into Isauria. Empress Ariadna, too, followed him ^B to Isauria, fleeing secretly from her own mother, where she lived with her husband.

EMPEROR BASILISCUS.

Immediately after the flight of Zeno and Ariadna, the Augusta Verina proclaimed her own brother, Basiliscus, emperor, adorning him with the diadem. This Basiliscus, the brother of Zeno’s mother-in-law Verina, held the empire for two years. At the same time that she appointed him emperor, Verina also designated a consul, along with Armatus, whom Basiliscus himself had appointed as the great Master of Soldiers; and thus these two held the consulship together.

Basiliscus, as soon as he began to reign, proclaimed his son Marcus emperor; and both of them reigned together. During the reign of this Basiliscus and his son Marcus, the city of the First Syria suffered the divine wrath, being named…

Gabala, in the month of Gorpiaios, around sunrise; and Emperor Basiliscus granted fifty pounds of gold to that same city for its restoration.

Zeno the emperor, accompanied by a great multitude, returned from Isauria ^A to Constantinople, having sent Isaurian guards and Trocundas, a general, to Antioch the Great. When Peter the patriarch, who had been created bishop by him, heard of these things, he nevertheless adhered to the party of Basiliscus. But Basiliscus, upon hearing of the arrival of Emperor Zeno, sent Armatus, the master of the soldiers of the presence, equipped with all the military reinforcements he had in Thrace and in Constantinople and in the palace ^B, having adjured him by the holy baptism in which he had been recently immersed not to betray him to Zeno. Armatus, therefore, took the mass of the army and crossed over; and when Emperor Zeno learned of this beforehand, he sent a legate to the same Armatus, promising him many things, and the command of the army for his life, and that he would even make his son Caesar. Being thus enticed by Emperor Zeno, the same Armatus betrayed [Basiliscus] and was found on the side of Emperor Zeno; and the same Armatus did not meet Zeno as he was coming, but seemed to be setting out by another road to Isauria.

When Zeno set out, he crossed through what are called the Gates and entered the palace with his own soldiers in the fourteenth indiction; and he was received by the armies and the senate. He was confident ^C regarding the Green faction, because he was beloved by them; for Emperor Zeno himself also rejoiced in the Green faction.

When Basiliscus suddenly heard that Emperor Zeno had rushed into the palace and had entered, and that everyone had received him, including the Empress Verina, his mother-in-law, Basiliscus took his wife and children and fled to the Great Church of Constantinople, to the great baptistery, having been betrayed by Armatus, during the consulship of Theoderic.

The most sacred Emperor Zeno, having displayed the veil for the use of the circus, immediately went up and watched the games, the whole city rejoicing at his return. Thus, having been received by his own people, in the middle of the circus games ^D he sent to the Great Church and took from Basiliscus and his wife and his son the insignia of the empire; and having brought them out from there, he sent him and his wife and his children to Limnae, having given an assurance that their heads would not be harmed and that they would not be put to death.

^A And they were cast into a certain tower of the fortress, and its door was blocked up, and a large body of Isaurian soldiers guarded the tower and the fortress, until the same Basiliscus himself, along with his wife and children, having suffered starvation, gave up their spirits; and they were buried there in that same tower in Cappadocia.

And Zeno reigned after his return for another 12 years, that is to say, in all he reigned for 15 years and two months; some, however, also count in his reign the two years during which Basiliscus reigned. The same Emperor Zeno, upon his return, immediately deposed Peter, the bishop and patriarch of Great Antioch, because he was a friend of Basiliscus, and exiled him to Euchaita, a city of Pontus, and appointed Stephen as bishop of Antioch in his place. ^B The same Emperor Zeno also granted gifts to all his subjects for his successful return. During his reign, the bishop of Antioch, Stephen, was slaughtered by his own clergy with sharpened reeds, outside the same city, as he was entering the gathering of the Holy Forty at what is called Barlais, because he was a Nestorian; and his corpse was thrown into the Orontes river. When Emperor Zeno learned of this, he appointed another one, named Calandion, as bishop and patriarch in the same city of the Antiochenes in Syria; but he, too, was exiled because he was a Nestorian. Then, when the clergy and the people of Antioch asked it of him, the Emperor recalled Bishop Peter from exile. And so, having been recalled from Euchaita and restored to the patriarchate, he finished his life on his own throne in Antioch.

^C During the reign of Zeno, he was appointed by him, according to agreements, and became Caesar, the son of Armatus, the master of soldiers of the present, named Basiliscus. And Basiliscus sat with Zeno himself while watching the races in the Hippodrome, and the emperor and the Caesar honored the charioteers. But Zeno, reflecting upon the fact that Armatus, the master of soldiers of the present, the father of the Caesar, had perjured himself, having sworn by the holy baptism to Emperor Basiliscus that he would not betray him, and being urged by...

^A my [the Emperor's] rule, he says, he will keep faith; for if his son, the Caesar, grows to manhood after a short time, he will certainly betray even me. But I did not betray him; rather, I made him a Patrician and a General on the spot, and his son a Caesar. He ordered, therefore, that Armatus be slaughtered as a perjurer, and he was slaughtered as he was coming to the ^B Decimum to watch the games. And after Armatus was killed, he ordained his son, Basiliscus the Caesar, a child, as bishop in Cyzicus, the metropolis of the Hellespont.

Under his reign, the Samaritans dwelling in Palestine, seizing tyranny, crowned a certain robber-chieftain, a Samaritan named Justasas; and he entered Caesarea and watched the circus games and killed many Christians, while Porphyrius was holding the prefecture of Syria Prima. This same Justasas also burned the church of the Holy Procopius ^C during the episcopate of Timothy of Caesarea. And when the Dux of Palestine, Asclepiades, came with his forces, together with Rheges, the pursuer of robbers, an official of Caesarea, with the Arcadiaci, they rushed against him, engaged him in battle, and captured him. They beheaded this same Justasas, and his head, together with his diadem, was sent to the Emperor Zeno. And immediately the Emperor Zeno made their synagogue, which they had on Mount Gargazi, into an oratory of the Holy Theotokos Mary, having also restored the Holy Procopius ^D; he issued an ordinance that no Samaritan should serve in the military, and confiscated the goods of their wealthy, and thus order was restored.

^A Under his reign, Theoderich, an ex-consul and son of Valemer—who had been brought up in Constantinople and was imbued with letters, and who had finally been appointed Master of Soldiers in the presence (that is, of the court)—having seen what fate had befallen Armatus and fearing King Zeno, took his own forces and departed from Constantinople, going toward Salabria on account of the military units stationed there. Having turned to tyranny, he seized all of Thrace; and he came against King Zeno as far as Sycae, across from Constantinople, having also burned the aqueduct of the city. Having spent many days there and being unable to harm the emperor, he withdrew from there and set out for Rome ^B, which was then held by Odoacer, king of the Barbarians. Having warred against him according to the counsel and betrayal of the Roman senate, he took the same Rome and King Odoacer without difficulty; and he killed him, took possession of Rome, and became king in his place for 47 years. ^C Theoderich later became reconciled with the emperor, and did everything according to his will, and he would appoint the consuls of Constantinople and the praetorian prefects, and he received the codicils for his own great officials from the emperor Zeno after informing him whom he wished to be promoted; and he received the batons of the consuls upon the authority of his emperor.

The same Theoderich became sole king. A widow, a Roman patrician by the name of Juvenalia, approached him, informing him: “For thirty years I have been in litigation with the patrician Firmus; but do set me free.” And having called for the advocates of both parties, he said to them: “If you do not produce a decision for them by tomorrow and the day after, and set them free, I will behead you.” And having sat for two days, they gave their judgment according to the laws, having given them a decision and set them free. ^D And having lit candles, Juvenalia approached him, giving thanks that she was freed from the lawsuit; and the same Theoderich was indignant...

^A with the pleaders, and having brought them, he said to them: "Why, what you accomplished in two days and freed them, did you not accomplish in thirty years?" And having sent [for them], he beheaded the pleaders of both sides, and there was great fear. And he made a decree concerning every law.

^B Then, having left Rome, he lived in Ravenna, a seaside city, until his death. And after his death, his grandson Alaric (94) became king of Rome. He was an Arian in doctrine, that is, an Exocionite (95) (k).

In the reign of Zeno, Constantinople suffered for the second time from the divine wrath of an earthquake; a small part of the city, up to the Taurus, was shaken by the tremors. At that time, Nicomedia, the metropolis of Bithynia, also suffered its sixth [disaster], as did Helenopolis of the same province; and the same Zeno bestowed many things upon them for their restoration.

In the same reign, the patrician Illus, an Isaurian by birth, rose up against the emperor, [though he was] also a friend of the same Emperor Zeno—the one who had brought back the same Emperor Zeno ^C with much help for his second return from Isauria, when he had fled from Constantinople while reigning. This Illus, having come up to Constantinople with the same Emperor Zeno, and as one feeling secure by him and trusting in him, deliberated with the same Zeno that the mother-in-law of the same Zeno should be cast out from Constantinople, so that she might not plot again, as before. And Zeno sends the same Illus to Isauria, so that he might bring back Longinus, the brother of Zeno. And the same Illus, having gone down, remained in Isauria, writing, as it is said, to Zeno so as to receive from him a formal guarantee through the Augusta Verina, the mother-in-law of the same Emperor Zeno, as though he feared Emperor Zeno. And Emperor Zeno, her son-in-law, persuaded the same Augusta Verina, according to what had been decided between Illus and the same Zeno, to go down and give Illus a guarantee of security, as one fearing Zeno, and to bring him and his brother Longinus back. And the same Verina went down to Isauria; and Illus, having received her, ^D [closed her in...]

a fortress in Isauria which had much provision, and having ordered that she be guarded by soldiers, and having taken Longinus the brother of the emperor, he went up to Constantinople. And the same Illus became a senator and consul and magister and patrician, administering the entire commonwealth. Likewise also Longinus, the brother of the emperor, became a general of the palace and consul; and he provided to the four factions of Constantinople ^B four minor *Emmali* dancers. For those dancing in Constantinople were former performers, and he made them exempt, having bestowed many gifts upon them. And he gave to the Blues the *Emmalus* Autocyon, called Caramallus, from Alexandria the Great, and Rhodon, called Chrysomallus, an Alexandrian himself, to the Green, and Helladius from the city of Emesa to the Reds; and he gave the one called Margarita, [and] the Catzamyn from Cyzicus, having brought them to the Whites. And Longinus laid down ^C his second consulship.

The Empress Ariadne, the wife of the same Zeno, having received letters from her own mother in secret, besought the Emperor Zeno that the Augusta Verina be released from the fortress ^D where the mistress was held confined. And the Emperor Zeno said to her that she should ask the patrician Illus concerning her. And the Empress Ariadne, having sent for Illus, besought him with tears on behalf of her mother. But Illus, turning away from her request, said, "Why, pray, do you seek Verina for yourself?"

So that she may make yet another man emperor against your husband?" Ariadne said again to the Emperor Zeno, "Is Illus inside the palace, or am I?" The Emperor said to her, "If you can do anything, do it; I am with you." ^A From that time, therefore, Ariadne plotted against Illus. When the circus games were being held, as Illus was passing by the Pulpita toward the Decimum, a certain scholarian named Sporacius, who had been hired for this purpose, attacked him with a sword at his head, with the intention of cleaving him in two. But it happened that Illus's spatharius was standing nearby; noticing the sword approaching, he intercepted the blow with his right hand. However, the point of the sword, in its descent, glancing toward Illus's head, cut off his right ear, and the scholarian was killed on the spot. Illus, helped up by his men, was carried home. ^B When Emperor Zeno heard of these things, he swore that he was ignorant of the plot against Illus; but Illus did not believe him. Being indignant at this, he meditated vengeance; but when he was feeling somewhat better, he went to the Emperor, with the intention of carrying out some deed. Finally, when he was completely recovered and the wound had scarred over, he approached the Emperor, requesting permission to withdraw to the East for a time, allegedly on account of a change of climate, for he said he had not yet sufficiently recovered from the wound. The Emperor Zeno, acceding to his wishes, released him from the office of Master and appointed him Master of Soldiers in the Orient, with full authority granted to him. Furthermore, Illus asked that the patrician Leontius, son of Paulina, be given to him as a companion, ^C so that he might hand over the Augusta Verina, mother of the Empress Ariadne, to be escorted to Constantinople. Illus also requested of the Emperor permission to select other senators as his travelling companions, and he granted this to him. Illus therefore, having joined the patrician Leontius and other senators to himself, set out for Antioch the Great; where he stayed for a short time, bestowed many gifts upon the citizens, and then continued his journey into Isauria. There, bringing the Augusta Verina out of the fortress, he immediately charged her with this task: to crown the patrician Leontius (whom he had brought along for this purpose, as a man of free status) with the diadem. And this was done at the church of St. Peter, situated outside the city of Tarsus in Cilicia. ^D Moreover, Verina, through imperial and sacred edicts issued everywhere throughout the empire, demanded of the prefects and soldiers everywhere that they, without opposing anything, should acknowledge Leontius as their emperor. But also a certain sacred

missive written with many opprobriums against Zeno, she published. And Leontius reigned in Antioch for a few days. ^A

When Emperor Zeno learned these things, he sent a great auxiliary force with the general John the Scythian. When Leontius, Illus, and those with them heard this, they withdrew with Verina ^B to the Papyrius castle. There Verina, yielding to nature, ended her days. A certain Pamprepius, being a traitor among them, was slain, and his corpse was thrown into the mountains. Illus and Leontius, however, being surrounded by siege, were taken. While they were on their way to the prefect of Seleucia in Isauria, they were beheaded on account of their sedition; and their heads were brought to Zeno in Constantinople and fixed upon poles. ^C And a great crowd went out to see them; for they had been taken across to Sycae at Saint Conon.

During his reign, Perozes ruled over the Persians. At that same time, the Green party caused great disturbances and murders in Antioch; for, as it is said, they killed the Jews, sparing none. The then-count of the East, Theodore, was incensed at this, and the popular disturbances were quieted. ^D The event—the impiety committed by the Greens against the Jews—was reported to the Emperor Zeno himself; and he was angry with the Greens in Antioch, saying: "Why did they burn only the dead Jews? They ought to have burned the living Jews as well." And so the matter was silenced.

The same Emperor Zeno, having asked Maurianus the most wise count—who used to predict many things to him, for he also knew certain secrets, and who it was that would reign after him—he replied that someone from the silentiarii would succeed him in both his empire and his wife. [When Emperor Zeno heard this, he seized the patrician Pelagius, who had long ago reached the highest rank of the silentiarii] and had been promoted to the patrician dignity, a wise man; he ordered his goods to be confiscated and him to be kept in custody. Whom the guards strangled at night and

and handed him over to custody. But upon the order of the emperor himself, the guards strangled him during the night and threw his body into the sea. ^A Arcadius, the praetorian prefect, when he heard this, reviled the Emperor Zeno over the slaughter of Pelagius; and when this came to the ears of Zeno, he ordered that he be killed the moment he entered the palace. Arcadius, having learned of this, while being summoned by the emperor as he passed by the church, stepped down from his carriage and feigned a desire to pray, and having entered the Great Church of Constantinople, he remained inside and was thus delivered from death, while his property was in the meantime confiscated by the Emperor Zeno. Not long after this time, the Emperor Zeno was seized by dysentery and succumbed to fate, having lived sixty years and nine months, on the ninth day of April, in the five hundred and thirty-ninth year of the Antiochian era, in the fourteenth indiction. ^B There are, therefore, from Adam until the end of the Emperor Zeno, five thousand nine hundred and eighty-three years.

BOOK XVI. CONCERNING THE TIMES OF THE EMPEROR ANASTASIUS.

^C The most divine Anastasius, named Dicorus, succeeded Zeno in the empire; he had been among the silentiaries and was a native of Dyrrachium in New Epirus, and he was inaugurated in the consulship of Olybrius, son of Areobindus. He was inaugurated in the month of April, on the Holy Thursday of the Great Week; and he took to wife Ariadne, the widow of Zeno, who had reigned before him. He reigned for twenty-seven years and three months. He was of very tall stature, with short hair, handsome, round-faced, with head and chin turning gray, the pupil of the right eye being blue, ^D while the left was black, and with his eyes nonetheless

^A beautiful; his beard was shaved frequently.

Upon becoming emperor, he appointed the patrician Hierius as praetorian prefect, who designated his own kinsman Calliopius as Comes Orientis. When the latter assumed authority, the Prasini of Antioch rose up against him in the praetorium; he escaped safely by flight. Hearing of this, the prefect Hierius reported the matter to the emperor, who immediately appointed Constantius the Tarsian as Comes Orientis, granting him full power over all, since the Prasinus faction, dominating at Antioch, were frequently rising up against the prefects. Constantius therefore brought it about among the population ^B of Antioch that they subsequently obeyed their magistrates. The year of the Antiochene era was 543.

But the emperor was highly partial to the Russati in Constantinople, and he suppressed the Prasini and Veneti everywhere they were causing disturbances.

The same emperor, having heard that the Isaurians were gathering in their own region, intending to seize power for themselves, immediately campaigned against them. He fought them by sending as generals John, surnamed Gibbus, master of soldiers of the praesental, and the patrician Diogenianus, kinsman of the Augusta, along with others, with a host of Scythian, ^C Gothic, and Bessic forces. They routed those Isaurians and laid waste to their region, destroyed their cities, and burned their forts with fire. They also captured those who were the ringleaders of this tyranny: Longinus, indeed, the bald ex-magister; Athenodorus the Younger; Longininus the Limping; and Conon, son of Fuscianus, former bishop of Apameia. Longininus was the first to perish in the clash of war, when they encountered one another at Cotyaeum, a city of Phrygia; he was slain there in the first engagement. After him, Conon, son of Fuscianus, fell, run through by a spear. The other leaders, however, with the Isaurians turned to flight, were seized alive; they were beheaded, and their heads were brought to the same emperor Anastasius, who, having secured this victory, distributed gifts to all the tributaries under his empire.

^A The divinest Emperor Anastasius instituted a golden tax to be paid for each iugum throughout the empire, so that it might not be collected by the exactors in kind to be dispensed for the sustenance of the soldiers.

Under the same emperor, those of the Greens among the Constantinopolitan populace, while the horse-races were being held in the circus, besought the emperor that those who had been seized by the city prefect for throwing stones in the circus might be released from their bonds. The emperor, not assenting to their requests, was even angered at them; and he ordered the military to attack them. A huge tumult then arose among the people; and as the crowd descended upon the guards and reached the imperial box, a stone was thrown at the Emperor Anastasius himself. ^B The emperor stood up and dodged the blow. The guards, therefore, seeing the man's audacity, rushed upon him and cut him limb from limb; and thus he gave up his soul. The populace, being pressed into straits, threw fire into the so-called Chalke of the circus, and the portico burned down as far as the imperial box. The public portico likewise, as far as the Hexaippos and the Forum of Constantine, was totally burned and collapsed, with slaughter occurring on all sides. After many had been seized and punished, the crowd finally quieted down; but not until a certain Plato, a patron of the Green faction, had been promoted to the city prefecture.

Under the same emperor, there appeared in Antioch the Great a certain man from the city of Amida, by the name of John the Isthmeus, ^C a chemist and notorious impostor. Craftily entering the workshops of the silversmiths, he offered them whole hands and feet of statues made of gold, as well as other small images; saying that...

he had discovered a treasure filled with such images of pure gold. By these evil arts he deceived many and amassed money in abundance; whom for this reason ^A the Antiochenes called Bagula, which is to say, a most crafty impostor. Then truly, having departed for Constantinople unknown to all, he there too swindled many silversmiths, whence he eventually became known to the emperor himself. Having been seized and brought before him, he offered the emperor a horse bridle of solid gold, with the curb ^B interwoven with pearls. The emperor Anastasius, taking it in his hand, said: "You shall not deceive me." And so he banished him to Petra; where he ended his days.

At the same time, when the emperor Anastasius himself was consul for the third time, a certain Calliopas, a charioteer from the factions of Constantinople, came to the great city of Antioch and was assigned to the Green party, while Basilius of Edessa was count at that time. He therefore occupied the stable of the Greens, which was vacant ^C at that time, and was everywhere victorious as a charioteer. A little while later, the solemnity of the Olympic games, as they are called, was celebrated at Daphne in Antioch according to the custom. And when a large crowd of Antiochenes had gathered at Daphne, those from the cavalry, together with the charioteer Calliopas, invaded the synagogue of the Jews situated at Daphne, and devastated it with fire, killing many and carrying off everything that was in the synagogue. This act occurred on the ninth day of July, in the fifteenth indiction. ^D Then truly, having fixed the venerable cross there, they converted it into a martyrium of the holy Leontius. But the emperor Anastasius, having heard these things, appointed as count of the Orient, from among the merchants, a certain Procopius_

^A of Antioch, who brought with him from the imperial decree a newly appointed night-prefect (nycteparch) named Menas, a Byzantine. And a riot having been stirred up by those of the Green faction, the same Menas decided to arrest some of the troublemakers; and when those seditious ones perceived this, they fled to the church of Saint John, located outside the city. The night-prefect, having been informed of this, took a Gothic guard with him and hastened there at midday. He rushed suddenly into the holy house, and found there under the holy altar table of the sanctuary one of the troublemakers named Eleutherius; and having stabbed him there with a sword, and dragged his corpse out from the sanctuary, he decapitated him, in such a way that the holy sanctuary was also stained with blood. Having taken the head, he returned to the city of Antioch, and having come as far as the bridge of the Orontes river, he threw the head into the river. He then approached Procopius, the count of the Orient, and recounted the events to him as they had occurred. But in the afternoon, when the report of this matter had become known to the Greens, they went to the church of Saint John and found the trunk of Eleutherius. ^B Taking his remains onto a litter, they brought them into the city, carrying them. They were met across from what is called the Basilica of Rufinus, near the bath called that of Olbius; and, having engaged in a battle in the street of the mariners with the aid of the night-prefect and the citizens of the Blue faction, the people of the Green faction prevailed. Having laid hold of the Basilica of Rufinus and the so-called Basilica of Zenodotus, they set them on fire, and the entire Basilica of Rufinus was burned, along with the two tetrapyla that stood on either side, and the praetorium of the count of the Orient; all these things were destroyed and collapsed in the fire. Meanwhile, the count of the Orient fled to Alexandria of Cambyses ^C. The men of the Green faction seized the night-prefect Menas, and after shearing his hair, they cut off his private parts. They dragged him through the city and hung him by the bronze statue standing there, called the Colonisium, situated across from the middle of the forum. His corpse was cast outside the city of Antioch and burned in the crematorium. The emperor Anastasius, when he had heard these things, appointed Irenaeus as count of the Orient.

^A Irenaeus the Pentadiastes, an Antiochene, who, by punishing the people, struck terror into everyone.

The same emperor, by his divine edict, completely abolished the perpetual tribute called the Chrysargyron, and in its place provided revenues from his own private resources for the sacred largesses. This is truly a miraculous and remarkable example of royal magnificence. The same emperor also restored the basilica of Rufinus at Antioch, and built various structures throughout the cities of Romania.

During his reign, Amida—a very fortified metropolis of Mesopotamia—and Theodosiopolis were captured in war by Coades, king of the Persians, who had attacked with a great force. The same king of the Persians took ^B captive Constantine, a most capable Roman general who was guarding Theodosiopolis, along with many others; all of these men died in the regions of Persia.

Therefore, the emperor Anastasius waged war against the Persians, sending Areobindus, the son of Dagalaiphus and husband of Juliana, as master of the soldiers of the Orient; and the patrician Patricius, master of the great praesental soldiers; and Hypatius, son of the patrician Secundinus, master of the praesental soldiers; and also the patrician Appion, whom he appointed as praetorian prefect of the Orient. He sent forth an army under their command, most well-equipped with both cavalry and infantry forces.

When the battle was joined, ^C a great many were slaughtered and fell on both sides. The wisest chronographer Eustathius began a history of this war, but, overtaken by death, he did not bring it to completion. The emperor Anastasius recalled the master of the soldiers, Hypatius, son of Secundinus, from Persia to Constantinople, and appointed in his place Celer the Illyrian, a most illustrious and prudent man, under whose auspices was occupied...

^A the cities that had been held by the Persians. And there was peace and a cessation of the war, and the expeditions and the whole army of both Romans and Persians withdrew.

The most divine Anastasius immediately walled in Doras, a settlement of Mesopotamia, very large and heavily fortified, situated between the borders of the Romans and the Persians; and he constructed therein two public baths, churches, porticoes, granaries for the storage of grain, and cisterns for water. This same settlement, they say, was so named Doras by Alexander the Macedonian, because he captured the king of the Persians there, and from that event it derives its name. Now, however, having been granted the rights of a city, it was renamed Anastasiopolis. And statues of the same Anastasius were erected there.

^B During his reign, Euphemius, the patriarch of Constantinople, because he had adhered to the faction of Nestorius, was deposed from his see and banished to Euchaita in Pontus as a Nestorian; and in his place Macedonius became patriarch of Constantinople, who also himself was deposed as a Nestorian. Similarly, Flavian, patriarch of Antioch, as a Nestorian, was banished to Petra, a city so called, which is in Palaestina Tertia. And in his place Severus, a monk, became patriarch in great Antioch on the 6th of November, in the year 561 according to the Antiochene era.

The same emperor, ^C having relieved John the Paphlagonian from the duty of handling the public papers of the praetorian prefecture, made him an ex-consul, and in his place appointed Marinus the Syrian as tractator and logothete. He also relieved all the magistrates of senatorial rank from their duties, and in their stead installed those called 117 Vindices in every city of Romania.

^A The same emperor appointed John the Paphlagonian, an ex-consul, surnamed Caiphas, as Count of the Largesses in Constantinople. He commanded that the coins called Minuti henceforth be struck as follerales throughout the whole empire.

The same John also melted down all the bronze statues which the most divine Emperor Constantine had brought together from every city to the adornment of the city of Constantinople, on account of their excellence. The same John, having melted them down, made from them a statue of immense magnitude of the same Emperor Anastasius, and placed it upon an enormous column which stood empty in the Forum of the Bull, which column had formerly supported a statue of Theodosius the Great, but which had long since been cast down by the force of previous earthquakes. ^B

At the same time, the Emperor Anastasius provided by his edict that no one should make a "copidermia" contract, and he would not even have the name of "copidermum" exist anywhere. The words of the edict are as follows: "Since it is our desire that all should be free from the yoke of servitude, how then can we allow free men to be brought into a servile condition?" The same emperor also sanctioned by his divine edict that no one should adopt any persons, whether male or female, as children for themselves without imperial letters, inasmuch as adopted children have the same rights as legitimate ones to inherit the property of the adopter, even without a will.

In the same period of his reign, the populace of the great city of Alexandria rioted due to a shortage of oil, and murdered their Augustalis, Theodosius, ^C who was a native of Antioch, the son of the patrician Calliopius, because of...

a shortage of oil, in the year ^A of the Antiochene era 564, the 9th indiction. The Emperor, having been angered by this, punished many of the Alexandrians, as they had acted like tyrants against their own governor.

During his reign, Vitalianus the Thracian ^B rebelled, using as a pretext, as he claimed, the cause of the exiled bishops. He took possession of Thrace, Scythia, and Mysia as far as Odessos and Anchialus, having with him a multitude of Huns and Bulgars. The Emperor sent Hypatius, the Master of Soldiers of Thrace, against him; he engaged him in battle, but was captured by treachery and fell into the hands of Vitalianus; and after a large sum of money was paid, he was restored to the Romans. But after his return to Constantinople, the Emperor removed him from his command, ^C substituting in his place Cyril the Illyrian; he also engaged in armed conflict with Vitalianus, and in the battle that ensued, very many on both sides fell; but Cyril, having prevailed, entered the city of Odessos and stayed there, as Vitalianus had withdrawn from those regions. Vitalianus, however, by the distribution of money, suborned those guarding the gates of the same city of Odessos, having sent money and certain promises through some of the relatives of the gatekeepers. Treachery having thus occurred, the said Vitalianus entered the city of Odessos at night and captured ^D the Master of Soldiers of Thrace, Cyril, and killed him. Then he marched out again, ravaging all of Thrace and Europe until he came to Sycae and the crossing opposite Constantinople, intending to take Constantinople itself. And he sat at the crossing at the place called Sosthenion, in the prayer-house of the Archangel Michael. The Emperor Anastasius had previously summoned through Marinus, Proclus the philosopher, the Athenian, a man of great renown, and the Emperor Anastasius said to him, "What am I to do, philosopher, about this dog, who is thus troubling me and the state?" But Proclus said to him, "Do not be discouraged, O Emperor; for as soon as you have sent some armed men against him, he will take to flight without delay." The Emperor therefore issued instructions to Marinus the Syrian, the ex-prefect, who was conferring with Proclus...

about arming against the same Vitalianus, who was on the farther shore of Constantinople. And Proclus the philosopher says 121 in the presence of the Emperor to Marinus the Syrian: "Take what I give you, and go out against this Vitalianus." And the same philosopher ordered a large amount of what is called "living ^B fire" to be brought, saying that it should be ground into a fine powder, and he gave it to the same Marinus, saying to him: "Wherever you cast it, whether upon a building or upon a ship, after the sun has risen, the building or the ship will immediately catch fire and be consumed by the fire." Marinus then besought the Emperor to send one of his generals taking this aid; and the Emperor immediately summoned Patricius the Phrygian, the master of soldiers, and John, the son of Valeriana, and told them to arm themselves ^C against this Vitalianus on the farther shore, taking dromon ships and soldiers. And they fell at the Emperor’s feet, saying that they had always been friends of both him and his father, and that they feared that some mishap should occur and they would be suspected as traitors. The Emperor, having become angry with them, put them out of the palace and ordered Marinus the Syrian to take the dromons and the living fire and the armed military aid, and to go out against Vitalianus. But Vitalianus, having heard that Marinus was setting out against him with great aid, seized whatever ships ^D he found and loaded them with Hunnic and Gothic soldiers 122. And he pressed on to enter into Constantinople, confident that he would definitely take it and destroy Marinus as he was meeting him with his auxiliary forces. Marinus had sprinkled the living fire, which the philosopher had given him, onto all the ships of the dromons, saying to the sailors and the soldiers that there was no need for weapons, but for them to throw some of this onto the ships coming toward them, and they would burn. "And if we go across to the houses where the enemies of the Emperor are, throw it there." Marinus, as the philosopher had told him that the ships are ignited by the fire and are sunk with all their men on board, gave the order to throw it; and he pressed on to the farther shore against Vitalianus and his men. And Vitalianus's ships also arrived, and they...

^A met each other opposite the holy Thekla in Sycae at the place of the current which is called the Bytharium. There the naval battle took place at the third hour of the day; and suddenly all the ships of the tyrant Vitalianus were ignited by fire 123 and sank into the depths of the current, along with the Gothic, Hunnic, and Scythian soldiers who were with him. Vitalianus and those who were in the other ships, having seen what had happened—that their ships were suddenly ignited by fire—fled and turned back to retreat. Marinus, however, the ex-prefect having crossed over to Sycae, killed everyone he found of Vitalianus's men in the suburbs or in houses, pursuing them as far as the temple of Saint Mamas; and when evening came, Marinus and his supporting force remained, guarding the place. Vitalianus ^B fled by night with those who had been left to him, having traveled sixty miles that very night; and when morning came, not even one of Vitalianus's men was found on the other side 124. And the Savior Christ and the fortune of the Emperor were victorious. The Emperor Anastasius made a procession to Sosthenion, to the Archangel Michael, giving thanks to God for many days. The philosopher Proclus the Athenian asked the Emperor for permission to leave and was dismissed, refusing to take anything from the Emperor; for the Emperor had ordered him to take four centenaria. Having gone away without accepting them, he preferred to depart for his own city, where he died shortly after. Some in Constantinople said that because the living sulfur was of such a fine nature, when it was thrown into the air it ignited from the heat of the sun, and that this is a natural phenomenon. Vitalianus went off and sat quietly in Anchialus.

In the times of the same Emperor Anastasius, the Hunnic Sabiri, a most warlike nation, crossed the Caspian Gates, ^C and penetrated as far as Cappadocia.

^A Having plundered it and all the Roman territories they passed through, they slew many, burned the estates, and departed with a great amount of booty. Those who had been spoiled by the captivity came, and the Emperor provided abundantly for those of every city who had been despoiled. He also built walls for the great districts of Cappadocia and fortified both Cappadocias; and he granted to all the provinces that had been despoiled a full remission of taxes for three years.

During his reign, the island of Rhodes suffered its third nocturnal tribulation from a divine manifestation; and the Emperor bestowed much upon those of the inhabitants who remained and upon the city, by way of rebuilding.

Under his rule, a popular insurrection arose among the Byzantines in Constantinople, on account of religion, because the same Emperor wished to add to the Trisagion the clause, "Who was ^B crucified for us," [have mercy on us], as they say in the Eastern cities. The multitude of the city gathered and rioted vehemently, as if some strange thing were being added to the faith of the Christians. There was such a great tumult in the palace that the Prefect of the city, Plato, fearing for himself, fled and hid to be safe from the wrath of the people. For the rioters were shouting, "A new Emperor for Romania!" They went to the house of Marinus the Syrian, the ex-Prefect, and burned his house and plundered all his goods; for they did not find him. Having heard that the great crowd of the people was coming to his house, he had fled; for they said that he, as an Oriental, had advised the Emperor to say this. ^C Having plundered his public property, they cut his silver into pieces with axes and divided it among themselves. They found an Oriental monk in his house; seizing him, they killed him, and carrying his head upon a pole, they shouted, "This is the conspirator against the Trinity." They came also to the house of Juliana, the most illustrious patrician, and shouted for her husband, Areobindus, to be Emperor of Romania; and Areobindus fled in a boat. ^D

^A Areobindus, therefore, escaping by flight, hid in the crossing. But the Emperor Anastasius, coming into the circus, ascended the royal throne without his diadem. When this became known to the people, they all flocked to the Hippodrome; and the Emperor at length won over the whole crowd with his divine speeches, urging them further not to rush upon anyone so rashly or to perpetrate further slaughter. Then indeed all the tumult subsided; the people themselves also imploring him to wear the diadem he had resumed. But as soon as the tumult had settled and the people had each returned to their own homes, the Emperor ordered that the seditious persons be apprehended; some of whom he subjected to punishments, while others he handed over to the city prefect for custody. When they had endured this for several days, and an infinite multitude of men had been put to death, there followed thereafter a most tranquil state of affairs; and a great fear was struck into the minds of men in Constantinople, and in all the cities of Romania.

The Emperor Anastasius, not long after this, saw in his sleep a certain mature and adorned man standing before him; who, carrying a written codex, was reading: and having turned five leaves, and read the name of the Emperor, he said to him: "Behold, because of your insatiability, I erase fourteen years"; and at the same time he struck them out with his own finger. The Emperor awoke from sleep, terrified, and called to himself Amantius the cubicularius and praepositus, to whom he disclosed ^B what he had seen in his sleep. Amantius said to him: "May you live forever, Emperor. I also had a dream this very night. For while I was standing before Your Majesty, a certain pig, bearing the appearance of a huge boar, seemed to come at me from behind; which seized the edge of my chlamys in its mouth and bit it; and dragging me down, it tore me with its teeth, and once I was trampled under its feet, it devoured me entirely." ^C Therefore, Proclus the Asian philosopher, a most sagacious interpreter of dreams, was summoned by the Emperor.

exposed the meaning of the vision to the emperor, namely, that they would shortly perish.

^B The Emperor Anastasius, moreover, beyond the gifts we have already mentioned, distributed other largesse to all the tax-gatherers of his state. He also erected various buildings, walls, and aqueducts in every city of Romania; he cleared the ports, built public baths from their very foundations, and provided many other things throughout every city.

A short time later, having fallen ill, he was lying down; and since a great thunderclap and flash of lightning occurred, the Emperor Anastasius, terrified by this, gave up the ghost, at the age of ninety years and five months.

BOOK XVII

ON THE TIMES OF JUSTIN THE EMPEROR

After the death of Anastasius, the most holy Justin, a Thracian by origin from Bederiana, took up the empire, in the consulship of Magnus, on the ninth day of July, in the eleventh indiction. Him the army of the excubitors who guarded the palace, together with the people, by divine decree, adorned with the diadem, proclaimed emperor; for he was Count of the Excubitors. He reigned for nine years and twenty-two days. In stature he was slightly above medium height, with a firm chest, curly and grey hair, and a nose

^A of good proportions, possessed a ruddy and handsome face, was well-versed in warfare, and magnificent, though otherwise unlettered. As soon as he began to reign, he removed from his path Amantius the praepositus, his own cubicularius Andrew, and Theocritus the count, who was a familiar of the same Amantius. Amantius had intended to make this man emperor, and had even given money to Justin himself to distribute as a donative, so that Theocritus might become emperor; and Justin did indeed distribute it. The army and the populace, however, having received it, did not choose Theocritus to be emperor, but by the will of God made Justin emperor. After he had become emperor, he put to death within the palace those who had intended to conspire against his rule. The same emperor recalled the patrician Appion, and Diogenianus, and Philoxenus, who were senators and had been sent into exile by the emperor who preceded him; and he appointed Appion as praetorian prefect, Diogenianus as Master of Soldiers in the East, and, somewhat later, he appointed Philoxenus as consul. ^B In the beginning of his reign, a formidable star appeared in the East, called a comet, emitting a ray downwards; they call it "bearded," and at the sight of it, men were terrified. ^{C D}

^A The same emperor immediately won over Vitalian, who had stirred up rebellion against the emperor Anastasius and the state, and appointed him Master of Soldiers in the presence. ^B In the first year of his reign, Severus, the patriarch of Antioch, fled to Egypt, fearing Vitalian; and in his place was created patriarch Paul, who had formerly been in charge of the hospice of Eubulus. He inscribed the names of the six hundred and thirty bishops of the Council of Chalcedon into the diptychs of the churches of every city; and because of this, a great schism occurred, and many did not communicate with him, saying that those who followed the council held to the opinions of Nestorius.

In his reign, circus games were presented for the Seleucians and Isaurians. And at the same time, a certain woman from the region of Cilicia appeared, giant-born, who in stature exceeded the height and breadth of a normal human by one cubit. She wandered throughout the whole Roman state begging for alms; and she was also found in great Antioch, where she received one follis from every workshop.

The same emperor Justin raised Vitalian, the Master of Soldiers in the presence, to the dignity of consul. And so, Vitalian having been given as consul to the Romans, while he was presenting the consular games to the people, after he had cast his first cloth, he was slain in the palace, as one who had rebelled against the empire and had ravaged many cities and regions of Roumania. ^C

In his reign, Ztathius, the king of the Lazoi, because he was angry and had withdrawn from the Persian territories—for he was a friend of Coades, who at that time was ruling over the Persians, and yet Ztathius was also subject to the empire of the same Coades, so that whenever it happened that one of the kings died, in the kingdom...

^A of the Lazes, he was designated and crowned by the king of the Persians, although he came from the race of the same Lazes. But this same king of the Lazes, having fled from the dogma of the Greeks because he had not been designated by Coades, king of the Persians, to perform both sacrifices and all the Persian customs, or merely because his father Damnazes had died, straightway went up to the emperor Justin in Byzantium, and having surrendered himself, he besought him to be proclaimed king of the Lazes. And having been accepted by the emperor, he was baptized, and having become a Christian, he took a Roman woman as his wife, the granddaughter of Nomus ^B the patrician, named Valeriana. And he took her with him into his own country, having been crowned by Justin, the emperor of the Romans, and having worn a royal Roman diadem and a white all-silk chlamys, which had in place of a purple tablion a golden royal tablion, on which there was in the middle a genuine medallion, bearing the likeness of the same emperor Justin, and also a white paragauda tunic, which itself had golden royal studs, likewise bearing the likeness of the same emperor; for the tzangia which he wore, he had brought with him from his own country, having pearls in the Persian style; and likewise his belt also was made of pearls. And he himself and his wife Valeriana also received many other gifts from the same emperor Justin.

But as soon as these things had become known to Coades, the king of the Persians, he informed the emperor Justin through an envoy of these things, that, while friendship and peace were being discussed between us,

^A you are performing acts of hostility. For look, you have inaugurated as king of the Lazi a man subject to me, who has never been under the Roman administration, but has been under the Persian polity from the beginning of time. To these charges, the Roman emperor Justin replied through his envoy: We have neither received into our empire anyone subject to your Majesty, nor have we enticed anyone to our side; but a certain man named Ztathius came to our imperial court ^B and prayed, falling before us, to be delivered from the Hellenic religion, from impure sacrifices, and from demonic error, and to become a Christian, being deemed worthy of the power of the eternal God and Creator of all things. And it was not for us to forbid the man who wished to come to a better state and to know the true God, so we encouraged him. Having thus become a Christian and been deemed worthy of the heavenly mysteries, we sent him back to his own country. And from this there arose enmity between the Romans and the Persians.

And at that same time, the king of the Persians urged on a king of the Huns named Zilgibis, ^C when the emperor Justin heard this—that although he himself had previously encouraged him toward an alliance with the Romans (for he had sent him many gifts and had received a treaty from him with an oath)—he was filled with great grief when he heard that he had gone over to the king of the Persians. Now this same Hun, provoked by Coades, king of the Persians, came against the Romans with twenty thousand men, intending to fight the Romans. But the most holy Justin informed King Coades by means of an envoy, along with a friendly reply for the sake of peace, as if writing about some other matter, he says, ^D of the treachery and perjury of the same King Zilgibis of the Huns, and that he had received money from the Romans against the Persians, being obligated to betray them and to fight on behalf of the Romans at the time of the battle, and that we, being brothers, ought to speak to one another in friendship and not be mocked by these dogs. And having learned these things, the king of the Persians questioned Zilgibis, asking whether he had received gifts from the Romans.

The king ^A of the Persians, Koades, turned against the Persians, and Zilgibis spoke the truth and confessed. Koades, the king of the Persians, was enraged and killed him, suspecting that he had come to him by treachery; and by night he slew many of his troop, having sent against them a great multitude, as they were unaware that the multitude had been sent against them by the king of the Persians, but thinking that they had come against the Huns and their king from some other region, as he relates; and the rest of the Huns who survived fled. Then, finally, it seemed good to King Koades to treat regarding terms of peace, having sent letters regarding this matter by an envoy, by the name of Labroius, to Justin, the emperor of the Romans.

Around this time, Paul, the patriarch of Antioch, passed from the living; in whose place Euphrasius of Jerusalem was appointed, who carried out a great persecution ^B against those called orthodox, putting many of them to death.

In these same times, the Venetian faction was stirring up commotions everywhere through the cities, mixing everything with stonings, riots, and murders. Indeed, they were rising up against the city prefects everywhere, having taken the start of the rebellion from Constantinople. Nor did the rioters cease until Theodotus, ex-count of the Orient, was appointed city prefect, which occurred in the first indiction. This man therefore quelled the insurrection of the Byzantine people, putting many of the riotous to death by command of the Emperor Justin himself. Among these, having arrested a certain Theodosius, by the name of Zticcas, a man who existed in great wealth and was of the dignity of Illustris, and having acting on his own authority, he put him to death without awaiting the emperor's command. The emperor, not tolerating this in him, removed him from his magistracy and stripped him of his honors, ordering him to depart into the Orient. ^C When he had arrived there, not yet sufficiently secure of his own safety, he took flight from there in the third indiction, fleeing for refuge to Jerusalem, and he lay hidden there; and in his place was appointed city prefect Theodorus, an ex-consul, by the name of Teganistes. In Antioch, Ephraemius of Amida was appointed prefect, who fought against the rioting Venetian faction; and thenceforth the faction of the Venetian party ^D ceased from making disturbances in the cities; the spectacles were removed, and the dancers were expelled from the entire Orient, all of them except for those in the great Alexandria of Egypt.

The same emperor also forbade the Olympic games from subsequently being performed in Antioch.

^A From Afranius, moreover, up to the year [of the Antiochene era] 568, at which time those games were forbidden, 77 alytarchs are counted.

At the same time, when Anatolius, son of Carinus, was Count of the Orient, it happened that Antioch was consumed in a fearful manner by divine wrath; and this conflagration was a sure sign of the resentment of God that was to come. For the fire burned from the Shrine of Saint Stephen to the Praetorium of the Master of Soldiers. After this, many other fires occurred in various neighborhoods of the same city, and many houses were burned and many souls perished, and no one knew whence the fire was kindled. Upon the petition of Ephraemius ^B the Patriarch of Antioch, the same Emperor was moved to generously grant two centenaria of gold for the rebuilding of the burned sites.

In that same time, it happened that the city called Dyrrachium, a city of the province of New Epirus, suffered by a divine visitation; from this city originated the Emperor Anastasius, who built many things there, and had also provided them with a hippodrome. Emperor Justin, however, granted much for the restoration of this same city of the Dyrrachians, which was formerly called Epidamnus, and likewise showed his generosity to the survivors. ^C At the same time, Corinth, a city of Greece, also suffered the divine wrath; to this city likewise, the Emperor gave much for its restoration. Amidst these events, Anazarbus, a city of Cilicia, also experienced a fourth visitation of divine wrath; its own restoration was also carried out by the same Emperor. At the same time, Edessa, a great city of the province of Osrhoene, was swallowed up by the divine visitation of river waters in the evening, as the river called Scirtus, which flows through the middle of the city, overflowed; it perished together with its buildings and inhabitants. Those who survived ^D and remained in that same city said that at another time also this same river had flooded the same city, but had not destroyed it in this way; for we have learned that in other times it also happened that—

this same ^A pattern was seen. But after the wrath had ceased, near the foundations of the same river, buildings which were of fine appearance were found, and a large stone slab upon which these words were engraved: "The Scirtus river will dance ill-omened dances for the citizens." This same city of Edessa was founded by Seleucus Nicator, the Macedonian, and provided with walls; this same Seleucus called it Antioch Miso-barbaros, but when it suffered its first disaster, it was renamed Edessa. The same emperor bestowed much upon each city, having renovated many with beauty and granted much to the survivors, and he renamed Edessa Justinopolis.

In the seventh year of his reign, however, in the month of May, during the consulship of Olybrius ^B, Great Antioch suffered its fifth disaster from a divine visitation. For such great terror from God came upon mortals during that time that those who were trapped by buildings were buried in the earth and consumed by fire; and from the air as well, sparks of fire seemed to fall, and they burned everyone they encountered like lightning. The very floors of the earth seethed, and the foundations of buildings were shaken from below and struck by lightning, and they caught fire. And to those who were rushing out to save themselves, flames appeared everywhere in their path. Indeed, it was a terrible and miraculous spectacle to behold: fire gushing forth as rain, a rain of terrible furnaces, flame dissolving into rain, and rain becoming enkindled like flame, consuming the wretches who were crying out under the earth. ^C Henceforth, Antioch became desolate; for not one house of prayer, nor monastery, nor any other holy place remained intact, because all other things were completely destroyed. The Great Church of Antioch, however, which had been built there long ago by Constantine the Great, the emperor, while all other things were falling to the ground, remained standing for two days after the occurrence of the terrible threat of God; but it, too, having been overcome by fire, was brought down to the ground. ^D And other houses also, which had not fallen through the divine ordeal, were dissolved down to their foundations by the fire. And there perished in that terror up to two hundred and fifty thousand people; for the great feast of Christ our God, the Ascension, was being celebrated, and there was a great multitude of strangers present.

From this anger of the Divine, one can conjecture how numerous the population of Antioch was. But many also who were dug out of the ruins alive suddenly breathed their last. Some of the citizens who had escaped, gathering up whatever they could of their possessions, looked to their own flight; but they were waylaid by rustics upon the road, stripped of their goods, and even deprived of their lives. ^A Yet here, the mercy of God toward men was shown. For as for those who had committed these robberies, some rotted away, others were struck blind, and others perished miserably under the surgeon’s knife; and as they confessed their transgressions, they rendered up their souls. Among them, at that same time, was a certain Thomas, a silentiary, who had fled to save himself from the divine wrath. About three miles from the city, near the gate called that of Saint Julian, he had taken up residence and, through his servants, was stripping all those who escaped of their possessions. After he had carried out these robberies for four days, plundering everything, he died suddenly, with no illness intervening. God was praised by all for this. In the very place where he died, he was also buried, and the goods he had plundered were all taken away from him. ^B Yet even more venerable signs of the divine mercy toward men appeared; for pregnant women were dug out of the ruins, unscathed, after twenty or even thirty days. Many of them, even amid the labor pains caused by the collapse of the buildings, emerged unscathed from the ruins together with their infants, having survived the wrath of the Divine. Other little ones were also found safe after the thirtieth day, and many things more terrifying than these occurred. On the third day after the destruction, the image of the venerable cross appeared in the sky, through the clouds, over the northern part of the same city; when all saw it, they remained weeping and praying for the space of one hour. ^C After the destruction of the city, there occurred yet other earthquakes for the duration of a year and six months. At Seleucia and Daphne, which were about twenty miles away, buildings were shaken and collapsed. The Emperor provided an abundance of funds to the cities that had suffered these calamities. Having been instructed as to how great the mercy of God toward men was, he himself bore these disasters most bitterly; nor were spectacles held in Byzantium as was the custom. When the holy feast of Pentecost arrived, laying aside his diadem, he himself and all the senators, dressed in dark-colored garments, went to the church weeping.

^A At the same time, the same emperor sent Carinus the count, equipped with five centenaria; and with him he sent Phocas the patrician and Asterius, prudent men, having given them also a great weight of money, which was for the restoration of the city, the aqueducts, and the bridges of the river; for he knew this city well, ever since he himself, having descended with the commanders into the Persian war, had stayed there for some time. He frequently exhorted these aforementioned patricians, in his letters, to take care of the city.

JUSTINIAN EMPEROR. When the eighth year of the reign of Justin had been completed, and nine months besides, he took to himself as a partner in the empire the most divine Justinian, together with Theodora Augusta; whom his most sacred uncle, in the consulship of Mavortius, invested with the diadem. This Emperor Justinian ^B bestowed much upon the same city of the Antiochenes, and established great order in every city of the Roman state. And in each city he sent forth sacred letters, so that those who committed injustices or murders, from whichever faction they might be, should pay the penalty, in order that no one might henceforth dare to commit any disorder, thus showing fear to all the provinces.

In Great Antioch, for a short time, the factions were in harmony. ^C He built in the same Antioch a house of prayer to the holy Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, opposite the so-called Rufinian basilica, and built nearby another house to the holy Cosmas and Damian. Likewise, he also built a hospice, baths, and cisterns. Furthermore, the most religious Theodora also bestowed many things upon the city; she built a very magnificent house to the Archangel Michael; and she founded the so-called Anatolian basilica, having sent the columns for it from Constantinople. ^D The same Augusta Theodora, having made a precious cross decorated with pearls, sent it to Jerusalem. The same Justinian sent gifts to all the subjects of the Roman state.

The same emperors appointed the patrician Hypatius as master of soldiers of the East, to guard the eastern parts against the raids of the Saracens. At the same time, many Manichaeans were being punished throughout the cities...

^A among this number was the wife of the senator Erythrius, and many others with her.

At the time when the earthquake occurred, Ephraemius was Count of the East; a short while later he was compelled to take up the patriarchate ^B of Antioch. For Euphrasius, his predecessor, had perished consumed by heavenly fire. The most religious emperors, having heard that Ephraemius, the Count of the East, had been canonically ordained patriarch by the clergy, appointed in his place as Count of the East a certain Zacharias, a Tyrian. This same Zacharias, when he had seen this great desolation of Antioch, requested through his letters to the same most religious emperors that he be summoned to Byzantium to act as an envoy there on behalf of the city of the Antiochenes. Taking with him the bishop of Amida, ^B a pious man, and other clerics, they went to Constantinople. When they had transacted their business there with happy success, they returned to great Antioch, provided with royal gifts and carrying with them thirty centenaria of gold, along with imperial decrees concerning various matters, which served to ensure that the ancient customs would be observed in the city of the Antiochenes. A short time later, the same emperors gave to the city another ten centenaria.

Meanwhile, ^C it came to pass that the most divine Justin fell ill from an ulcer on his foot—for he had received a wound long before from an arrow in battle—and as he lay there, he departed this life on the first of August, in the fifth indiction, at the seventy-fifth year of his age. In total, therefore, he reigned for nine years and twenty-two days, including those four months during which he had his nephew as a partner in the empire.

BOOK XVIII ON THE TIMES OF THE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN

^A After the death of Justin, the most divine Justinian held the empire for thirty-eight years, seven months, and thirteen days, having been inaugurated on the first day of April, in the fifth indiction, when Mavortius was consul, in the year 575 of the Antiochene era. He was short in stature, with a firm chest, a well-proportioned nose, fair of skin, with curly hair, a round face, handsome, with a receding hairline, a florid complexion, his head and chin beginning to be grey, and a strenuous champion of the Christian religion. He favored the Blue faction; he himself also had his origin from Bederiana in Thrace.

The same emperor, in the month of October, in the sixth indiction, appointed as Comes Orientis at Antioch an Armenian named Patricius. He gave him a large sum of money and commanded him to set out and rebuild from the ground up the city in Phoenicia called Palmyra, which was situated on the borders of the empire, as well as the churches and public buildings there. He ordered that a body of soldiers be added to the limitanei ^B to be stationed there under the Dux of Emesa for the protection of the Roman and Jerusalem frontiers. Palmyra was formerly a great city; for in this place, before the foundations of the city were laid there, David, in single combat, attacked the armed Goliath and struck him down with a stone, and running up, cut off Goliath's head with his own sword. Taking it for himself, he kept it with him for some time; then, having fixed it upon a pole as a sign of victory, he wished it to be carried before him into Jerusalem. King Solomon, therefore, in memory of this victory brought back by his father David, founded a beautiful city there and gave it the name Palmyra, as being the portion ^C of Goliath. For previous to this, this city yielded to Jerusalem in pro-

^A pugnaculum: under which the king of the Persians, Nebuchadnezzar, seeking to make war on Jerusalem, and deeming it not safe to leave behind him this city, which was furnished with a numerous garrison of Jews, first captured it, though with much labor, and once captured, laid it waste with fire; and after this occupied Jerusalem itself.

Justinian also, in the month of January, in the sixth indiction, distributed consular coins to the people.

At the same time, the Persian made war against Zathius, king of the Lazoi, because he had gone over to the side of the Romans. The king of the Lazoi, therefore, sent and sought help from the emperor of the Romans; and the emperor Justinian, consenting to his petitions, sent him three generals—Gildericus, Cerycus, and Irenæus—equipped with large Roman forces, to his aid. ^B A battle was then joined, and many fell on both sides. The emperor, however, having learned that these generals, burning with mutual hatred, had betrayed one another to the enemy, was moved to anger, removed them from their commands, and sent Peter, who went and deprived them of their rank; and, having himself become the leader of the forces, he withdrew from there.

The same emperor restored the city of Armenia named Martyropolis, renaming it Justinianopolis, and having rebuilt its walls and porticos from the foundation, as they had been destroyed by time, he stationed there the Oriental number. At the same time, the king of the Heruli, named Grepes, ^C wishing to enter into an alliance with the Romans, came to Byzantium escorted by his own army, and did obeisance to the emperor Justinian, and asked to become a Christian. And being baptized at the holy Theophany, the same emperor Justinian became his sponsor in the immaculate baptism. Along with him, his twelve senators and kinsmen were likewise enlightened. And having bestowed many gifts upon him, he dismissed him, and he set out for his own country with his own bodyguard, the Roman emperor having said to him, "Whenever I wish, I will let you know."

Under his rule, various heresies were forbidden, and the churches were taken away from them, with the exception of the so-called Exocioniti Arians. ^A The total time, therefore, from the beginning of Augustus and Octavian the emperor until the completion of the second consulship of the emperor Justinian, in the seventh indiction, amounts to 559 years; such that the entire number of years from Adam to that same indiction is 5947, as I found the number of years in the writings of Clement, Theophilus, and Timothy, the chroniclers who agree among themselves. But in the times of Eusebius Pamphili, I found the number of years from Adam to the seventh indiction of the emperor ^B Justinian to be 5832. However, those around Theophilus and Timothy calculated the times more accurately and set them forth. Thus, all the writings indicate that the sixth millennium of years has been completed. There are also 1880 years, more or less, from the founding of Rome to the second consulship of the most divine Justinian, and from the founding of Constantinople to the aforementioned consulship of Justinian and the completion of the seventh indiction are 219 years; but one should not calculate the times of the ancient emperors by the aforementioned number of their reigns, because two often reigned at the same time. Similarly, their fathers also crowned their children from infancy, and they reigned along with them. The chronicler, therefore, finds it necessary ^C to write down how many years each emperor reigned. But in the meantime, the chronicle ^D TABLE OF VARIOUS READINGS (omitted)

[Note: The Latin column "ED. CHILMEADI NOTÆ" is a scholarly apparatus commentary on these calculations, specifically addressing the discrepancies between Eusebius, Clement, Theophilus, and Timothy, and the proper way to calculate the 199 years from the founding of Constantinople to Justinian's second consulship, noting that the text contains errors in its summation of years.]

^A It is necessary, therefore, for those who read chronicles to attend to the quantity of the elapsed years and only to the reign of all those previously mentioned.

[157] In these times, as I said before, reigned the most divine Justinian; of the Persians, the king was Coades Darasthenus, son of Perozes; in Rome, Alarich, 52 grandson of Valemeriacus; of Africa, Gelimer, 53 grandson of Gizerich; of the Auxumite Indians, reigned Andas, 54 who became a Christian; and of the Iberians, Zamanarus. [61.62]

^B In the aforementioned year of the reign of Justinian, a Master of Soldiers of Armenia was sent out, by the name of Ztittas. 34 For in preceding times, Armenia itself did not have a Master of Soldiers, but rather duces, archontes, and counts. The said emperor gave to the same Master of Soldiers numbers of soldiers taken from the two praetorian [armies] and the East. And having drafted local 35 scriniarii, he made them for himself Master-of-Soldiers’ scriniarii by divine order, having asked the emperor to draft natives, as being familiar with the regions of Armenia. And he granted this to him, and the rights of the Armenians, the duces, and the counts, and their 158 proconsuls, 36 who were formerly castrensiani soldiers; for the authorities that previously existed had been dissolved. He also received from the Master of Soldiers of the East four numbers; 37 and from that time there was a great guard for the Romans. This man was also a warrior; he took to wife the sister of Theodora Augusta, 38 by the name of Comito, whom he had betrothed in the house of Antiochus, near the Hippodrome of Constantinople.

At the same time, the same emperor proclaimed a holy edict concerning bishops, orphanotrophoi, economoi, and xe-

^Anodochoi, that they should not issue a will for any property except that which each man had in his possession before assuming his office; and that immediately upon assuming the office, the inventory of his goods should be published.

At the same time, the emperor rebuilt the ruins of Sycae; and having restored the theater and the walls there, he renamed it Justinianopolis.

About this same time there joined the Romans a certain widow, a woman of great strength and wisdom, queen of the Sabir Huns, by name Boa. She was the mother of two small sons and had under her command one hundred thousand soldiers;[1] she ruled over the Hunnish regions after the death of her own husband, Blach. This woman, whom the Emperor Justinian had won over to himself, adorning her with the most generous royal gifts, with various silver vessels, as well as with a great sum of money, held captive two other Hunnish kings, whom Coades, the king of the Persians, had recruited into a military alliance against the Romans. When they were setting out into Persia to Coades, King of the Persians, with twenty thousand armed men, the queen herself attacked them; and a battle having been joined, she destroyed their entire force and, having taken prisoner one of the kings, by name Tyranx, she sent him in chains to the Emperor Justinian at Constantinople, who also had him executed on the further bank, near Saint Conon. For the other Hunnish king, by name Glom, was killed in the battle by the queen's troops.

At the same time, also, the king near the Bosphorus^B

^A of the Huns, by name Grod, came to the same Emperor; and having arrived in Constantinople, he was baptized. The Emperor himself accepted him for baptism, and having bestowed many gifts upon him, he dismissed him to his own country to guard the Roman territories and the Bosphorus—a city which Hercules the Spaniard had founded 164 (44) and which he had established to pay tribute to the Romans in the form of oxen every year instead of money, having given to that city the name 'Ox-Tribute' (45), which it continues to pay as he commanded. And in that city he stationed a number of Roman soldiers, that is to say, of Italians, who are called Spaniards (46), having given them also a tribune to guard ^B the city with them. And there were in the city dealings (47) between the Romans and the Huns.

Now the same king, having become a Christian, returned to his own country near the Bosphorus, where he found his own brother; and having left him with Hunnish reinforcements, he departed. These same Huns worshipped statues, and having taken them, they melted them down; for they were of silver and electron (48). And they exchanged them at the Bosphorus, having received in their place miliaresia (49). And the priests of the same Huns, having gone mad, slaughtered the king and made his brother Mugel (50) king in his place. And being in terror of the Romans (51), they came

to the Bosporus and slaughtered those guarding the city. ^A And the same Emperor, having been informed of these things, created John, an ex-consul, count of the straits of the Pontic sea; and he instructed him to take up a position at what is called the Hieron (52) at the very mouth of the Pontus, and sent him with Gothic aid. The same emperor also sent an expedition against these same Huns, dispatching ships through the same Pontic sea filled with soldiers and a commander, and likewise also sending much aid and the general Baduarius by land. ^B And the Barbarians, having heard this, took to flight; and the Bosporus subsequently remained in peace, inhabited by the Romans.

At the same time it happened that a mutual war broke out between the Indians—who are called the Auxumites (53)—and the Homerites (54). The cause of this war was as follows. The king of the Auxumites is further inland than the king who occupies the interior, but the king of the Homerites is closer to Egypt. Now Roman merchants, when seeking the interior of the realms of the Indians, make their journey through the Homerites. For there are seven kingdoms of the Indians and Ethiopians; three belong to the Indians, while the four that border on the Ocean and turn toward the Eastern parts are under Ethiopian dominion. Therefore, when Roman merchants were passing through the parts of the Homerites for the sake of practicing trade, Dimnus, the king of the Homerites, attacked them and despoiled them of all their goods, and deprived them of life. For he said that the Jews are treated ill by the Roman Christians even within their own borders, with many of them being put to slaughter each year: consequently, trade was prohibited to such merchants. The king of the Auxumites, however, remonstrating with the king of the Homerites by letter, said: "You have acted wickedly in that you have slain Roman Christian merchants: that which will also turn out to be a detriment to my own kingdom." From that time an enmity arose between them, which finally broke out into mutual war. ^C But the king of the Auxumites, when about to depart for war, made a vow that if he should overcome Dimnus, the king of the Homerites, in war, he would become a Christian (55); for on behalf of the Chris-

Christians, he said, I take up arms against him. The king of the Auxumites at length having achieved victory, slew the Homerite king whom he had taken prisoner in the war, his entire army having been destroyed, and seized his lands and kingdoms. ^A

After this victory was secured, he sent two of his nobles, accompanied by two hundred others, to Alexandria; through them he petitioned the Emperor Justinian that a bishop and clergy be granted to him, by whom he might be instructed in the rudiments and mysteries of the Christian religion, and be baptized in the sacred laver; he further requested that the whole region of the Indians should be under the Roman Empire. The Emperor, having been informed of these things by letters from Licinius, the Augustal Prefect of Alexandria, by his rescript commanded that they should take for themselves whatever bishop they wished. The Indian envoys therefore chose John, the paramonarius of the holy John at Alexandria, a pious man and celibate, about sixty-two years of age. Having taken this bishop and the clergy whom he himself had chosen, they led them away into the Indian country to their king, Andas. ^B

At that same time, it came to pass that differences arose between Diomedes the silentiary, the Duke of Palestine, and the phylarch Arethas. Arethas, fearing for himself, retreated into the inner frontiers toward the Indies. When Alamundarus the Saracen, leader of the Persians, heard of this, he attacked that Roman phylarch and slew him, having taken him captive; for he numbered thirty thousand soldiers in his army. When the Emperor Justinian heard these things, he sent letters to the dukes of Phoenicia, Arabia, and Mesopotamia, and also to the phylarchs of the provinces, commanding them to set out against him and to pursue him and his host. Straightway, Arethas the phylarch, Gnuphas, with Naaman, and Dionysius the Duke of Phoenicia, and John the Duke of Euphratesia, with Sebastian the chiliarch, having joined all their forces together, set out. ^C When Alamundarus the Saracen heard this, he retreated into the Indian regions, together with the Saracen forces he had with him. The Roman dukes and phylarchs, having pursued him with the accompanying auxiliaries and finding him nowhere, marched into the Persian territories, where they plundered the tents of Alamundarus and led away a great crowd of men, women, and children into captivity, as well as camels, dromedaries, and other various beasts of burden. ^D

^A And having taken four Persian forts, and having taken captive the Persians and Saracens who were in them, they returned home with victory.

Furthermore, the emperor completed the public bath ^B which is called after Dagistheus, which had formerly been begun at Constantinople by the emperor Anastasius. He also built the mesaulon of the basilica cistern, wishing to introduce the Hadrianic water into it; and he repaired the aqueduct of the city.

At the same time, certain bishops from various provinces were accused of living wickedly in regard to bodily matters and of being boy-abusers. Among these were Isaiah of Rhodes, the former night-prefect of Constantinople, and likewise a man from Diospolis ^B in Thrace, by name Alexander. These men, upon the divine edict of the emperor, were brought to Constantinople, and after an examination was held, were cast down from their rank by Victor, the prefect of the city, who punished them. Isaiah, indeed, having suffered grave tortures, was sent into exile; but Alexander, having had his member amputated, was placed on a litter and exhibited to the people for a spectacle. Moreover, the emperor subsequently passed a law that any persons found guilty of male lust were to be mutilated in their virile parts. And many men were caught at that time guilty of male lust, who, having been castrated, perished. From this, fear was struck into those suffering from this desire for males.

Around these times, Pompeiopolis, a city of Mysia, suffered under divine wrath. ^C For from tremors, the earth suddenly split open and half of the city ^C was swallowed up along with its inhabitants; and they were under the earth, and the sound of them was carried to those who had been saved. And the same emperor bestowed much ^D expenditure for the excavation of those who were under the earth.

^A just as he did for the survivors and for the renewal of the city. The same emperor renewed the laws decreed by his predecessors, and having made New Laws, he sent them into every city, so that the governor, in whatever place he held office, might not build a house or purchase a field unless it was from one of his own kinsmen; 169 this was so that those who owned property might not be coerced, nor might anyone be forced by the governor's authority to dispose of it to him.

Likewise, he also made rules regarding natural children, so that they might inherit according to the law of the emperor Anastasius.

And concerning the heir, so that it might be permitted to him ^B to renounce the inheritance whenever he wished, and not to be barred by time.

And concerning witnesses, so that private citizens might be compelled even against their will to testify.

The same emperor also granted the Gothic timber-oil, having relieved his tributaries of that burden.

During his reign, two Hunnic leaders, having cast themselves with a multitude 67 into Scythia and Mysia—where the Roman masters of soldiers, Baduarius and Justinus, were—and they having gone out against the Huns, and battle having been joined, Justinus was 170 slain in the war. And in his place, Constantiolus, the son of Florentius, was made master of soldiers of Mysia. ^C And the Huns came plundering as far as Thrace. And the master of soldiers, Constantiolus, went out against them, as did Godilas, and the master of soldiers of Illyricum, Ascum the Hun, whom the emperor Justinian had received in holy baptism. And the Huns having been surrounded in the war, and many of them falling, all the plunder escaped; the Romans became the stronger, having slain both of their leaders.

And as they were returning, they were met by other Huns, and having joined battle, the Roman generals, being exhausted from fatigue ^D and weaker, gave way. And the Huns, having pursued, captured the Roman commanders as they were fleeing. And Godilas, having drawn his own sword, cut the

^A noose and escaped from their hands; but Constantiolus, having been thrown from his horse, and Ascum were taken prisoner: the Roman emperor redeemed the former for ten thousand coins, and he returned to Constantinople; as for Ascum the Hun, having seized him, they departed to their own region along with many other captives; and peace henceforth prevailed in the Thracian territories.

^B At the same time, an accusation was brought against the patrician Probus, a kinsman of the Emperor Anastasius, for having assailed the Emperor Justinian with insults. Therefore, a silent assembly 6 having been held, and everything that was argued on either side in the case having been recorded in writing and read before the emperor, Probus was adjudged guilty by the common vote of the council. But the emperor, taking the decrees into his hands, tore them up, saying, "I, Probus, forgive you what was committed against me; pray then that God also may forgive you." And the same emperor was praised by the senate.

At this same time, a certain Eulalius, a Count of the Domestics, who had become a pauper from being wealthy due to a fire that occurred in his dwelling, from which he himself with his three children had escaped naked; and since he was burdened with much debt, and being about to die, he made the emperor himself his heir, writing in these words: "By this my testament, I will that the most religious Justinian pay each day to my girls fifteen folles; and when they have grown to the age of maturity and are ready for marriage, that each shall receive ten pounds of gold as a dowry. Furthermore, I will that my heir pay all my debts to the creditors." ^C Then Eulalius passed away. The curator brought this testament of his to the emperor; to whom the emperor also ordered to enter upon the inheritance. The curator, therefore, seeking out the house of Eulalius, and having made an inventory of his assets, found him to be in possession of property to the value of five hundred and sixty-four coins. Having returned, therefore, he made the Emperor Justinian aware of the valuation of his assets, as well as those things which Eulalius had bequeathed in his testament. But when the emperor ordered him again to enter upon the inheritance, Macedonius the curator replied that the resources of the deceased were less than the [legacies].

The emperor said to him: "Why do you hinder me from fulfilling this pious duty of an heir? Come now, satisfy all his creditors and pay out all the legacies. I command also that his three daughters be brought to Theodora Augusta, to be kept in the imperial bedchamber, and I wish twenty pounds of gold to be given to each of them by way of dowry, and beyond that, whatever property their father left them at his death."

At the same time, the most pious Theodora, among her other good deeds, performed also this. For the so-called procurers used to go about in every place, looking for poor men who had daughters, and, giving them oaths ^B and a few coins, they would take the girls, as if for support, and publicly prostitute them, even against their will, outfitting them through their misfortune and collecting from them the wretched profit of their bodies, and they would force them to be kept. The empress ordered that all such procurers be seized with all possible force. And when they were brought with the maidens, she ordered each of them to declare upon oath the amount they had paid to the parents for the girls; and they said they had given five [nomismata] each. And when all had provided their testimony under oath, the same most pious empress, having paid the money, freed the girls from the yoke of their wretched slavery, ^C ordering that there should be no procurers hereafter, and bestowing upon the girls themselves clothing for their bodies and one [nomismum] each, she dismissed them.

At the completion of that same indiction, the same Augusta Theodora set out for the place called Pythion with patricians and chamberlains, being accompanied by four thousand men. And having made many donations to the churches in those places, she returned to Constantinople.

At that same time, it was reported to Justinian the emperor that a battle had taken place between the Persians and the Romans, the Persians having invaded Mesopotamia with thirty thousand men, under Xerxes, the son of the king of the Persians, Coades; for Perozes, ^D his eldest son, was at that time warring against Lazica and Persarmenia with a great auxiliary force; for their father Coades did not come at that time

into the Roman territories. But against Meran and Xerxes went forth Cuztis, son of Vitalianus, a most warlike man, from the commanders of Damascus, and Sebastianus with ^A the Isaurian force, and Proclianus the duke of Phoenicia, and Basilius the Count. Belisarius and the phylarch Tapharas were also with them. Tapharas, however, having been thrown as his horse stumbled, was killed, and Proclianus perished in a similar way. Sebastianus and Basilius were taken prisoner by the enemy; Cuztis also, having received a wound, fell into the hands of the enemy; but Belisarius escaped by flight. When Emperor Justinian heard these things, he was moved to great anger. But many of the Persian commanders and their army also fell, and the rest returned to their own country. ^B The same emperor sent certain men from among the senators of Constantinople to guard the cities of the East with their own auxiliary forces: the patrician Plato to Amida, the patrician Theodorus to Edessa, Alexander, son of Hierius, to Beroea, and he assigned the city of the Suri and Constantina to other senators to guard. At that same time, the patrician Pompeius was also sent with a great army of Illyrians, Scythians, Isaurians, and Thracians; but because of the very severe winters that were impending, a truce was made by an agreement entered into between the Romans and the Persians.

It happened at that time that Antioch suffered the sixth visitation of its wrath from the divine fury, shaken by earthquakes for the space of one hour: a terrible roaring followed these, ^C so that the buildings which had been restored after the previous tremors fell down, as did the walls and some churches. The report of these events spread through the cities, and all, trembling, offered litanies. The regions surrounding the city also experienced the divine wrath; in this destruction, five thousand souls perished, for those who survived fled to other cities, and very many also inhabited the mountains. All these things having been reported to the emperor by the patriarch Ephraemius, when those in Byzantium heard of the events, they offered supplications to God for many days.

It happened at the same time that Laodicea also trembled for the first time from earthquakes, ^D half of the city collapsing, along with the synagogues of the Jews. In this disaster, seven thousand and five hundred mortals perished, among whom were very many Hebrews and also some Christians; but the churches of the same city remained undamaged, preserved by the divine will.

^A The same emperor granted to the Laodiceans two centenaria for the clearing of the city from its rubble.

In the same period, Antioch was renamed Theopolis, by the command of the holy Symeon the Wonderworker. For a prophecy had been found in the same Antioch, containing these words: "And you, wretched city, shall not be called by the name of Antiochus." Likewise, it was found in the papers of those who were registering the same city that they shouted, with no one daring to oppose the renaming of the city. These matters were reported to the same Emperor Justinian. He bestowed a divine largesse upon the Antiochenes, the Laodiceans, and the Seleucians, such that their tribute was remitted for three years, and he granted to the same cities two hundred pounds, and bestowed the dignity of illustris upon the leading men of each city. ^B

In the same period, the Manichaean dogma sprouted forth in the Persian regions, and sent down its roots so deep that they even appointed a bishop for themselves, by the name of Indarazar. When the King of the Persians learned of this, he and his archimagi were moved to anger. The King of the Persians, therefore, held a silent gathering, and having seized all of them and the bishop of the Manichaeans, he ordered the armed soldiery standing by to cut them down with swords. All the Manichaeans and their bishop, along with his clergy, were slain ^C before the eyes of the King himself and the bishop of the Christians. Their property was confiscated, and he gave their churches to the Christians, having sent out his divine letters throughout the territory governed by him, so that any Manichaean found would be burned by fire; and he burned all their books. These things were recounted by the Persian Bastagarius, who, after receiving Baptism, was renamed Timothy.

In the same period, the Roman emperor renamed the fort called Anasarthus, making it a city, Theodoriade, in the name of the Augusta, and granting it the rights of a city. He likewise renamed the fort at Susa, Justinianopolis.

In the same period, Alamundarus, the Saracen of the Persians, having arrived with Persian and Saracen aid, plundered Syria Prima as far as...

^A the borders of Antioch, burning also places in that same region. When the Roman commanders heard of these events, they marched out against them; and when the Saracens learned this, having seized all the booty, they escaped through the outer frontier.

In that same period, the aqueduct of Great Alexandria was restored by the Emperor Justinian.

The Emperor himself, having been informed of what had been done by the Saracens, sent no small force of infantry recruited from the region of the Phrygians, called the Lycocranitae, and he dispatched them to the Saracen and Persian regions. At that same time, Hypatius the patrician, master of the soldiers, was removed from his rank, and Belisarius was installed by the Emperor in his place; he was entrusted with the Roman armies, the commanders, ^B and the entire conduct of the Persian war. At this same time, Hermogenes the Scythian, an ex-magister, a very prudent man, was sent into Persis.

In the month of June of the seventh indiction, a pagan riot broke out: for when the Samaritans clashed with the Christians and the Jews, a great many buildings were burned by the Samaritans in Scythopolis. When the Emperor was informed of these events, he was angered against the governor Bassus; he dismissed him from his office and also had his head cut off in that very region.

Meanwhile, the Samaritans, when they realized that the Emperor was hostile toward them, stirred up a rebellion; they crowned a certain Samaritan named Julianus, a brigand chief, and set fire to estates and churches, and murdered many Christians. Having entered Neapolis, Julianus, surrounded by a numerous crowd of Samaritans, ^C was even watching the games in the circus, where a certain Christian charioteer named Niceas took the first prize, having proven himself superior to all the others who were present there, as much to the Samaritan as the Jewish charioteers. And so, when he approached the tyrant to receive the prize of victory from him, the tyrant asked him what religion he professed. And once he learned that he was a Christian, and taking it as an omen of evil against himself that Christians should immediately snatch the first prize from his own people—a thing which indeed came to pass—he sent an executioner and cut off the charioteer’s head in the circus itself; he also treated the bishop of that same city most cruelly.

The governors of Palestine, together with the duke Theodorus Simus, having been informed of these things, ^D immediately reported the impudent audacity of this tyrant to the Emperor Justinian by letter. Theodorus the duke marched out against him with a great army, and he also joined the phylarch of Palestine to himself as an ally. Having heard this, the tyrant Julianus the Samaritan left Neapolis and took flight. The duke pursued him with his own force, and they joined battle; the duke slaughtered a multitude of the Samaritans and captured the Samaritan Julianus himself, with God delivering him into his hands.

^A And having beheaded him, he sent his head together with the diadem to the Emperor Justinian. And when the happenings—the tyranny of the Samaritans and the fate of the wretched Julianus—were made known to the said emperor, the report from the magistrates immediately reached Constantinople, as well as the head of the tyrant. In this war, twenty thousand of the Samaritans fell; [182] some fled to the mountain called Arparizin, while others fled to Trachonitis, to the so-called Iron Mountain. The Saracen phylarch of the Romans also took from them twenty thousand captives of both sexes as spoils; having taken these, he sold them in the Persian and Indian regions.

The emperor himself, upon learning that the Samaritans had burned many estates in Palestine at the beginning of their rebellion, was angered at the Duke of Palestine because, before they could cast themselves—or rather, before they had occupied those estates or the city—or as soon as he heard that they were gathering, he had not set out against them to disperse them. And having removed the same duke from his position in disgrace, ^B he ordered him to be kept under strict guard. In his place, the Duke Irenaeus, an Antiochene, was sent; who, having set out against the remaining Samaritans in the mountains, destroyed many of them, punishing them bitterly.

The King of the Persians, Coades, received the magister Hermogenes [183], who had been sent on a friendly embassy with gifts for the accession of the Emperor Justinian, in the month of July. At that same time, it happened that Amaseia in Pontus and parts of the surrounding region suffered a divine scourge. The same emperor granted many favors to that city.

At this same time, a codification of the ancient laws took place; and having made his own laws, he sent them to all the cities so that those involved in lawsuits should not fall into distress and suffer losses, but have a speedy release; having created this into a single volume, he sent it to Athens and to Berytus.

The same emperor separated from Antioch of the first Syria the city of Laodicea, Gabala, and Paltus, and from Apamea of the second Syria, the city of Balaneas, ^C

into the form of a province; which he also rightly bestowed upon the metropolis, naming it Theodoriada. He nonetheless willed that the Bishop of Laodicea should be subject to the Patriarch of Antioch, as before.

At the same time, the metropolis of Myra in Lycia suffered divine wrath; to restore which, and for the surviving citizens, the Emperor provided many things for buildings.

At this same time, a huge tumult arose in the great theater of Antioch; the Emperor, having been informed of this, was moved to anger, and thereafter forbade theatrical games from being performed in Antioch anymore. ^B

At that same time, men of the Greek religion suffered a severe persecution, the goods of many being confiscated; among whom Macedonius, Asclepiodotus, Phocas son of Craterus, and Thomas the Quaestor, departed this life in the meantime: from which a great fear came upon all. Furthermore, it was provided by imperial edict that those who favored Greek customs should not henceforth hold any public office in the state. The Emperor ordered all followers of the remaining heresies to depart from the borders of the Roman Empire; however, he granted them three months of grace, if any during that time would embrace the orthodox faith. Which indeed was a sacred decree made public in all foreign cities. ^C

At that same time, a certain Priscus, an ex-consul and formerly a notary to this Emperor, who had fallen into the Emperor's anger, had his goods confiscated, was made a deacon, and was relegated to Cyzicus.

At the same time, Hermogenes the Master, having returned from Persia, bringing gifts with him, brought back an answer from Coades, King of the Persians, to the Emperor Justinian, written in these words:

"Coades, King of Kings, Sun of the East, to Flavius Justinian Caesar, Moon of the West. It has been discovered by us in the ancient records of our kingdom that we are brothers, and that if either of us should have need of men or money, they should be supplied by the other. And this faith we have indeed kept intact for you until this present day. However, being attacked at times by enemies, we have been forced to descend into battle with some of them; the others, however, by giving money, we have persuaded to acknowledge our rule. Whence it is plain enough that our treasury has been completely exhausted. Concerning these things, ^D we have written both to the Emperors Anastasius and Justin, and we achieved nothing more; whence we were forced to engage in—

war. And because we approached near to the Roman territories, we destroyed those in the midst who had done no wrong, under the pretext of your breach of faith. But you, O Christians, since you profess sufficient piety, spare rather your own people and give us money. But if not, prepare yourselves for war, having an interval of one whole year, so that we may not be thought to be stealing victory and obtaining the results of war by deceit." »

^A In the same period, the same Emperor Justinian presented his own toga to the people of Antioch, adorned with royal gems; it was spread out in the church called that of Cassianus.

In the consulship of Decius, one Mundus, born of the race of the Gepidae and descended from royal blood, joined himself to the Romans. He had been living in Sirmium after the death of his own father, at the home of his uncle, Thraustila. When the King of Rome, Valeneriacus—who is also Theoderich—learned of this, he sent and encouraged this same Mundus; and being persuaded, Mundus departed to him with his men and spent time with him, fighting on behalf of Valeneriacus, who is also Theoderich. Departing from Rome, Mundus ascended to the Danube river; and having sent envoys to the Emperor Justinian, he asked to be allowed to come under his rule. The Emperor received him with his men, having made him Master of Soldiers of the Illyrian nation, and sent him back to his own command. And when he had occupied the region of Illyricum, he was attacked in war by ^B the Huns, who led a great multitude of varied barbarians. Mundus, however, having attacked these in war, destroyed them all to the last man; moreover, he sent the booty, and one of their petty kings, who had been captured, to Constantinople. From this, peace was restored to Thrace, and a great fear was struck into the barbarian tribes.

In the consulship of the same Decius, the same Emperor sent an edict to Athens, ordering that no one should publicly teach philosophy ^C, nor interpret the laws, nor practice gambling in any of the cities; because certain gamblers, having been found in Byzantium and having involved themselves in dire blasphemies, had their hands cut off and were mounted upon camels and carried through the city as if in a triumph.

In that same time, an annual [allowance was provided] ^D

in the hospice of Antioch by the same pious emperor of four thousand coins. ^A At that same time also, the venerable relics of the holy martyr Marinus (the place of whose sepulcher had very often appeared in a dream to one who traveled about that region) were discovered outside Gindaropolis, a city of Syria Prima. A tomb had been hewn for him in the rock, where he lay stretched out upon a board, fastened with iron nails driven throughout his entire body. These relics of the martyr were then taken up and brought and deposited outside the city of Antioch in the [church of] Saint Julian.

At the same time, under the consulship of Lampadius and Orestes, ambassadors of the Romans, Hermogenes and Rufinus, the master of soldiers, were sent into Persian territory. ^B They therefore arrived at the city of Doras, now called Anastasiopolis, and made their arrival known to Coades, the king of the Persians; however, the king delayed their audience. But meanwhile, while the ambassadors were tarrying at Doras, together with Belisarius the master of soldiers and the other Roman exarchs and the army, which had pitched its camp outside the city, awaiting the replies of the king of the Persians, Meram, the leading prince of the Persians, and the other leaders who were retreating to Nisibis, having learned that the Romans were encamped outside Doras, marched out against them with seventy thousand Persians, divided into three columns.

When this became known to the Roman commanders, they themselves prepared to receive the attack of the Persians, and when the battle was joined and the Roman and Persian armies were mingled together, the Romans utterly routed the Persians, even capturing a Persian standard. ^C But Meram and the king's son, accompanied by very few, consulting only their own safety by flight, escaped to Nisibis. In this battle, a certain Sagus, a Persian exarch, fell; he had been challenged to single combat by Sunica, a Roman duke and exarch, and was struck down. And with cadavers scattered everywhere upon the ground, it was possible to see the triumph of Persian overconfidence.

But the king of the Persians, Coades, being informed of these things, ordered the patrician Rufinus and the count Alexander to fulfill his embassy. At the same time, a certain Italian vagabond became known, who led about with him a tawny dog ^D

^A which, commanded by its master, performed certain wondrous things. For its master, standing in the marketplace with a crowd surrounding them to watch, would secretly take the rings of the bystanders and, placing them on the ground, would cover them with dirt. He would then command the dog to pick them up and return to each person their own; and the dog, searching, would take them in its mouth and return to each person the one recognized as theirs. The same dog would also return the coinage of various emperors, as many as were produced, at the naming of each. And since a crowd of men and women was standing by, when questioned, the dog would point out those who were pregnant, as well as the pimp, the adulterer, the base, and the magnanimous; and it demonstrated all these things with truth. Whence many said that it possessed the spirit of Python.

Under the same reign, a great and terrible star appeared in the western ^B part (95), shooting a white ray upwards; and because it carried before it the emission of a lightning bolt, some called it a burning torch. It remained shining for twenty days, and there followed droughts, and throughout the empire murders among the people, and many other things full of menace for mortals.

At the end of the month of September, the ambassadors of the Romans [194] who had been sent into Persian lands returned, having accomplished everything. And the emperor Justinian, learning that there was peace with the Romans, was filled with joy. For, having received the letters concerning the peace and having read them, he found them containing these words:

• “Those returning to us—our ambassadors whom we sent to your clemency—have reported to us the good disposition of your paternal intent. And for all things we give thanks to the Master God, because a work becoming to His goodness has been accomplished and, with God, peace has progressed for the benefit of the two Commonwealths. ^C That it is a great glory and praise in all the earth before God and men that peace has been made between the two worlds during the time of your clemency and our own, who genuinely love you, is manifest; and the enemies of either Commonwealth shall fall, now that this has come to pass with God. Therefore, our ambassadors will arrive with all speed, duty-bound to supply what is necessary for the security of the peace. We pray, then, that for many years your paternal disposition may be preserved.”

And Rufinus having been sent again by the Romans, a second reply [192] having been sent in the ^D imperial letters into Persian lands, he found the king concerning the peace

having withdrawn from the agreements made between them for the sake of peace. For it was rumored that the Samaritans—incensed by the Emperor Justinian, as has been written above—fled and departed from their own country, Palestine, to Cavades, the king of the Persians, promising to fight on his behalf. Their number was fifty thousand. They promised the Persian king that they would betray their own country, the whole of Palestine, and the holy places—a city possessing gifts from various kings; for there was a great quantity of gold and an infinite amount of precious stones. ^B Having heard these things, the Persian king, persuaded by what they said, hesitated to enact the treaties. But he took as a pretext the gold-bearing lands discovered formerly in the time of the Emperor Anastasius, which were under the Romans—for formerly these same mountains were under the Persian dominion. These gold-bearing mountains exist between the borders of Roman Armenia and Persarmenia, as those who know speak, and these mountains produce much gold. For when rains and storms occur, the earth is brought down from these same mountains, bubbling up flakes of gold. These same mountains were previously leased by some from the Romans and Persians for two hundred pounds of gold; but from the time these mountains were taken by the most divine Anastasius, the Romans alone receive the decreed payments. And because of this, there resulted a disturbance regarding everything.

^C The treachery of the Samaritans became known to the Romans in this way: five of their leading men (who, shortly after having undertaken the journey for the sake of the aforementioned treachery with Cavades the Persian, had become known), upon their return from Persian lands, were seized and brought before the Master of Soldiers in the East. Having demanded an account of the treachery being agitated, he immediately held them as confessed criminals. The proceedings regarding them were sent to be read by the Emperor Justinian.

At that same time, earthquakes occurred everywhere, and men were occupied with litanies in every city.

^D At the same same time, an envoy was sent by the Persian king to the Roman emperor; and having delivered the letters and having been gifted with presents, he was dismissed.

But in the meantime, the emperor, having been informed by the patrician Rufinus of the transgression of Cavades, the king of the Persians, [194] having issued imperial decrees to the king of the Auxumitae regarding these matters—

^A who had joined battle with the king of the Homerite Indians, and having defeated him decisively, seized his kingdoms and all his land, and set up in his place as king of the Homerite Indians one of his own kin, Anganes, because he already held the kingdom of the Homerite Indians subject to himself. And the ambassador of the Romans, having set sail for Alexandria via the river Nile and the Indian Sea, arrived in the Indian regions. Having entered before the king of the Indians, he was entertained by the king of the Indians with great joy, because after many years he had been deemed worthy ^B to establish friendship with the king of the Romans. And as that same ambassador explained, when the king of the Indians received him, he described the appearance of the royal state of the Indians, that he was naked, and from the girdle around his loins linen garments interwoven with gold hung down, and from his abdomen and shoulders hung loose tunics, marked out by pearls and studs arranged in fives, and he wore golden bracelets upon his arms, and on his head was a linen cap interwoven and twisted with gold, letting down little chains on both sides, while his neck was adorned with a golden collar. He sat upon a high chariot, supported by four wheels and drawn by four elephants, which was surrounded by four golden plates (such as the governors of the provinces use, made of silver). ^C Sitting upon this, the king of the Indians carried in his hands a small gilded shield and two small lances, these too being gilded. And all his senate stood alongside him with weapons, while pipes played musical melodies. And the ambassador of the Romans, having been introduced, bent his knee and did obeisance; and the king of the Indians ordered him to rise and be brought near to him. And having received the sacra of the king of the Romans, he kissed the seal. Having also received the gifts sent by the emperor, he was astonished. And having opened and read the letters through an interpreter, he found that they contained a request for him to arm himself against Cavades, ^D the king of the Persians, and to destroy the country belonging to him that was nearby, and henceforth to hold no further trade with him, but rather, through the regions of the Homerite Indians that he had subjugated, and by way of the Nile, to seek Egypt and conduct his trade in Alexandria. And

^A immediately the king of the Indians, Elesboas, in the sight of his own envoy, moved his army against the Persians; having sent ahead the Indian Saracens who were under his command, he invaded the Persian land on behalf of the Romans, having informed the king of the Persians that he should receive the king of the Indians, who was warring against him and devastating all the land ruled by him. And as everything proceeded in this fashion, the king of the Indians, having taken the head of the Roman envoy, and having given him the kiss of peace, dismissed him with great honor; he also sent writings and gifts to the Roman emperor by the Indian envoy. ^B At that same time, a plea for help was sent to the emperor by Hilderich, king of the Africans, complaining of the tyranny of his own cousin against him, and that the Moors, engaging in war against the Africans, had captured many of their cities; among which were Tripoli (as it is called by them), Leptoma, Sabatha, and Byzacium, and they had carried off captives from the regions roundabout for a distance of ten days' journey. Hilderich, therefore, the king of the Africans, attacked them in turn in war, equipped with a numerous army which Gelimer led: he, having engaged in battle with the Moors, completely routed them. But then, having entered into a treaty with them, he joined them to himself as allies in war, and assuming the tyranny, he moved against Hilderich himself; coming to Carthage, he arrested him with his wife and children and imprisoned them, having in the meantime done away with the chief men of the kingdom. ^C Then Gelimer sent gifts to Emperor Justinian by his own envoy; and when these were made known to the emperor of the Romans, he was indignant against them for the sake of the king of the Africans—for he had already learned of the tyranny that had taken place against Hilderich—and he dismissed them with great insult. Furthermore, he sent a *magistrianus* to Rome to King Athalaric, the son of Eumeriacus, to warn him not to receive envoys from Gelimer. ^D [alt-version omitted] [index: entries preserved]

^A Athalaric, having received and read these letters, complied with his wishes and did not deign to receive the envoys of Gelimer the African.

At the same time, the emperor, wishing to do battle against the Persians by land and sea, sent out an army to keep the Roman state undisturbed.

In the same period, a petition was sent to the patriarch Ephraem by those who remained in captivity under the Saracen Alamundarus, as they were bound by bitter punishments. For he had beheaded some of them, fearing lest a betrayal might come from them. Some, falling at his feet, begged him for a grace period of a few days, so that they could send to their fellow Romans to obtain money for their own redemption. ^B Alamundarus, being persuaded—for these things pleased him—granted them a respite of sixty days, with Taizanes, the arch-chief of the Saracens, standing surety for them. Accordingly, the suppliant petition was brought to Antioch, where it was read aloud before the people; all wept, and each, according to their means, cast an offering into the so-called treasuries in every church. ^C The patriarch himself was the first to be moved to compassion, and he, along with the clergy and the magistrates, gave of his own free will. When the petition for the captives was read, the whole populace asked for a public assembly to be held; when the public assembly was held and a carpet was spread out, each person cast into the carpet whatever they could afford. When all had been collected and sent, the captives were redeemed.

At the same time, the master Hermogenes was sent to the Eastern regions because of the Persian war. For the Roman emperor had learned that a general of the Persians named Exarath, along with Persian reinforcements and carrying ^D the royal banner, had set out toward Roman territory. Alamundarus, the petty king of the Saracens, also appeared, with a large force of armed men, having passed through Circesium and reached Callinicum, a city of Osrhoene.

When Belisarius the general learned of this, he went out to support the dukes with eight thousand armed men, among whom was the phylarch Arethas with five thousand men. When the Persians and their own Saracens went forth, they encamped at night near Gab—

^Abulum, which a small river flowed past, and having made a trench there, they scattered iron caltrops far and wide around the edge of the trench, leaving for themselves a single place of exit. In the meantime, the commander Sunicas, coming up from behind them accompanied by four thousand armed men, encountered some of the Persians who were plundering the surrounding villages; and having pursued them and consigned some of them to slaughter, he captured others, and upon questioning them, learned of the Persians' plans.

The Master of Soldiers of the Romans, having arrived at Hierapolis and learned that the Persians had encamped within the borders of the Roman territory, proceeded with four thousand soldiers to the city of Barbasissus ^B to join Belisarius, who had encamped there not far from the Persians with Stephanos and Apscal, the exarchs, and the commander Simmas, with four thousand men. Belisarius had been angry with Sunicas because he had attacked the Persian army without orders, but the Master of Soldiers, upon his arrival, caused them to be reconciled, urging them to attack the Persians. The Persians, having meanwhile intervened with their Saracens at the village called Beselathon and the Batuae, as well as the surrounding cities, and having constructed wooden devices and dug tunnels, overturned the walls of Gabbulum—and entering, they killed as many as they found and took captives. Moreover, they seized other places by means of sudden raids.

Upon hearing these things, the people of Antioch ^C fled to the coast of Syria. Meanwhile, the Roman commanders urged their own men to prepare for battle, as they had understood through messengers sent by the Persians that they too were intending to risk the hazard of a fight. However, the Persians, having carried off all the booty, took to flight in the night. When Belisarius and the Roman exarchs learned of this, they pursued and overtook them. The Persians turned and stood their ground ^D, and having arrayed themselves, they encamped at the *limes* on the far side of the Euphrates, intending to deliberate regarding the war. In like manner, the Roman commanders also, gathering their army, stood opposite the Persians, having stationed the Euphrates at their backs, while Belisarius ordered the boats to be placed along the banks of the river.

^A Arethas, with Dorotheus and Mamas, the commanders of the Isaurians, encamped toward the south, while Sunicas and Simmas led their army toward the north. On the Holy Sabbath of the Paschal season, which fell on the nineteenth of April, the battle lines engaged each other. For as the Persians rushed against Sunicas and Simmas, and the Romans stood their ground, the Persians deceitfully turned their backs and retreated to their own side. When the Persians had united, observing that the Romans had the Euphrates at their backs, they rushed together with the Saracens and engaged in battle again. Many fell on both sides; among the Persians, Andrazes the chiliarch and Naaman, son of Alamundarus, fell, and among the Roman Saracens, the leader named Abrus was captured, and Stephanacius fell from a wound. ^B For as a state of confusion arose, Apscal, having rushed into the midst of the Persians and his horse having tripped over a corpse, was lost in their midst. The Phrygians, seeing their leader fall and his standard taken by the Persians, turned to flight, and the Saracens of the Romans did the same with them. Others, however, remained and fought with Arethas. Some supposed that the flight of the Saracens was due to the treachery of their phylarchs. The Isaurians, who were standing near them and saw the Saracens fleeing, threw themselves into the Euphrates, hoping to cross it. When Belisarius saw what was happening, he took his own standard, boarded a boat, and having crossed the Euphrates, arrived at Callinicum. His army followed him; some rushing into the boats in disorder, and others trying in vain to cross the river with the help of their horses, the Euphrates became filled with corpses. ^C Meanwhile, Sunicas and Simmas, the commanders, did not cease fighting against the Persians; indeed, dismounting from their horses and joining the surviving army, both fought bravely on foot. Having drawn up their lines skillfully, they destroyed many of the Persians and did not permit them to pursue the fleeing Romans any further. Moreover, intercepting three of their commanders, they killed two of them, while the third, a warlike man named Amerdactes, whose right forearm had been severed by Sunicas, they captured alive. The Roman commanders continued fighting with their own army; pursuing the tracks of the Persians for two miles, but finally, as evening drew on, they withdrew to the city of Callinicum. ^D On the next day, at the rising of the sun, they went out from the city of Callinicum, having crossed the Euphrates with their own army and the citizens, and they plundered the corpses of the Persians. And having learned all that happened in the po-

- ^A licy of the magister, he made it known to the emperor of the Romans.

At that same time, Julian, praetorian prefect, was stripped of his dignity, and John the Cappadocian was substituted in his place. ^B

Furthermore, the leaders of the Persians, furnished with Persian and Saracen forces, invaded Osrhoene; and sitting down before the fortress called Abgersatos (which Abgar, toparch of the city of the Osrhoenians, had formerly constructed and surrounded with a brick wall), they drew a trench. Those who were inside the fortress, having shot weapons from above, gave a thousand Persians to death; but when the spears were finally exhausted, they used slings and even in this way destroyed a great many of them. The Persians, therefore, being pressed and having used various machines, having undermined the brick wall of the castle, were already about to enter. But those who were on the wall, learning of the mining done by the Barbarians, descended from the wall and finished off the Persians who were creeping underneath with swords. The Persians, seeing this, having seized the opportunity—while the Roman soldiers were entirely preoccupied with defending against the mining—approached the wall with ladders during the night; and having entered, they captured the fortress ^C and slew everyone, except for a few who escaped and reported what had happened. Then the Persians, withdrawing from that place, returned to their own lands.

Constantiolus, having learned the truth of all these things from the magister and the other leaders, returned to Byzantium and reported it to the emperor. The emperor, being informed by Constantiolus about the matters that had occurred in the previous battle, removed Belisarius from his command and installed Mundus in his place, designating him magister of the soldiers in the East. In the month of June, while the Roman leaders were preparing themselves for the pursuit of the Persian war, Alamundarus, the petty king of the Saracens, requested through letters from them that a certain Sergius, a deacon, should be sent to him, through whom he might announce to the emperor of the Romans all the terms of peace. ^D And so, Sergius having been sent to the emperor of the Romans together with the letters sent by Alamundarus, and the emperor himself having looked into the letters, he did not cease from his plan to campaign against the Persians. Indeed, even Rufinus, whom he had sent as legate into Persis...

wrote to him to cherish friendship, for it is honorable and glorious to ensure that the two commonwealths live in peace; but if he should not do this, he warned that he would himself descend into the Persian territory. ^A At the same time, the deacon Sergius was sent to King Alamundarus with imperial gifts. At that same time, gifts were also sent from the emperor of the Romans to the king of the Persians; likewise, the Augusta also sent gifts to the queen of the Persians, who was his sister. Upon arriving at the city of Edessa, Rufinus and Strategius made their arrival known to Cabades, king of the Persians. But he delayed receiving them, because he had secretly dispatched an army against the Romans.

At that same time, a fire occurred in Antioch; for when someone had lit candles in the theater, and the wax dripped onto the wood, the wood caught fire; but the people running together, the fire was extinguished.

At that same time, Demosthenes was sent into the East, carrying along no small amount of money, so that he might prepare throughout the cities storehouses of grain for the sake of the conflict with the Persians; and making his journey through Antioch, he arrived in Osrhoene.

Imperial edicts were also sent throughout the cities, requiring that those who did not hold communion with the holy Churches should be sent into exile, as they sought a pretext by refusing to name the Council of Chalcedon of the six hundred and thirty bishops. ^C When a riot broke out in Antioch, the populace rushed upon the episcopal residence, throwing stones and shouting abusive words. Those who were staying in the patriarchal residence, along with the *Comes Orientis*, went out, and resisting with missiles and stones, they killed many of the rioters. The events were reported to the emperor, and he ordered that many should be punished.

At that same time, a report was also sent by Hermogenes concerning the collision of the war between the Romans and the Persians. For the generals of the Persians, having descended with a force of six thousand, were pressing forward as if intended to take Martyropolis; for they had pitched camp in the region of Amida, by the river called the Nymphius. ^D The Romans, standing against the Persians, were not able to repel them. But in a second engagement, the Romans, feigning flight, turned their backs; the Persians, rushing forward and thinking them to be in rout, broke their own ranks; but then the Romans, wheeling around...

^A cut down two thousand of the Persians, taking some of their exarchs captive as well, and despoiling them of their standards. As for the rest, who were fleeing across the Nymphias River, they were overwhelmed by the river’s currents as they were pursued and perished; the Romans then returned to Martyropolis. The Roman duke, having gone out with the city’s leading men, stripped the remains of the Persians and committed their exarchs to custody.

At that same time, Dorotheus, the master of soldiers in Armenia, equipped with a Roman military force, attacked the Persians; and having gained the upper hand, he defeated the Persarmenians and the Persians, treating them harshly. He captured many Persian fortresses as well, among which he took one most strongly fortified one, situated on a mountain, having a single approach—a narrow footpath—by which those in the fortress would descend to draw water from the stream flowing past. The Persian merchants, too, whatever they had gained in trade, had stored it all in this fortress, as it was a place of great security. When this was announced to Dorotheus, he surrounded the fortress with a siege, blocking that narrow path with guards. The Persians inside, drained by starvation and persuaded by oaths, surrendered the fortress on the pledge of their safety. Emperor Justinian, being informed by letter from Dorotheus about the treasures found in the fortress, sent Narses the cubicularius to take charge of transporting them; and upon his arrival, everything that was stored in the fortress was handed over to him.

The Persian exarchs reported what had happened to their king; ^C and a large Persian army having been sent out, they came near Martyropolis; for they had received a command from their king not to return to Persia until they had retaken that fortress. Having reached the location, they laid siege to it, fighting and undermining the walls, making ladders and applying them to the wall. At last, they even constructed a high tower out of wood, but all these things were in vain; for there was among the besieged a certain man, proficient also in the mechanical arts, who, opposing the Persians’ schemes with schemes of his own, had constructed a taller tower inside. And while the two sides were attacking each other from their respective towers—the Persians from the outside, the Romans from within—a column was launched by a machine, which utterly demolished the opposing tower, and its collapse crushed a great many of the Persians. When the rest of the Persians saw what had happened, being worn out and having also heard that Zittas, the Roman general, was marching down to help those in the fortress, those Persians withdrew, fearing lest they be surrounded. Hearing this

^A, the Emperor Justinian forbade his envoys to enter Persis until his second notification, but they remained within the Roman borders with the gifts.

The same Emperor, for the benefit of those summoned to court, sent laws throughout all the cities of the empire to prescribe a limit to the expenses incurred in the adjudication of lawsuits, and likewise regarding the payment of fees 25, decreeing [u] that no one should dare to exact more than the amount he had set. In the city of Antioch, this was inscribed in Greek letters on the titles of the tablets. At the same time, the theater of the city was also named.

On the eighth of the month of September, the Persian King Kavadh, having heard of the disasters that had befallen the Persians at the hands of the Romans, and having been suddenly stricken in his right side, ^B called to himself Chosroes, his second-born son, and placing a crown upon his head, proclaimed him king. Five days after the Persian King Kavadh had taken to his bed, he died, being eighty-two years and three months of age; he had reigned for forty-three years and two months.

When Chosroes was proclaimed King of the Persians, he signaled the Roman envoys through a Persian *magistrianus* to enter Persian territory and to settle all matters of peace between the Romans and Persians. But the Roman envoys, not having the authority to enter the Persian lands without imperial command, answered by saying, "We do not dare to reach the lands before you." ^C When the Persian king learned of this, he wrote a letter and sent it to Emperor Justinian, asking that permission be granted for the Roman envoys to enter Persis and complete all tasks. And the Persian king, having written a friendly letter, sent it via Hermogenes the *magister*. Having received this communication, the Roman Emperor wrote back: "We do not permit our envoys to reach you, for we do not recognize you as the King of the Persians."

At that same time, the King of the Persians permitted the Manichaeans living under his dominion to practice their religion as they wished. The Magi 81 of the Persians, ^D vexed by this turn of events, took counsel with the senators and wished to cast him out of the kingdom, and to set up his brother in his place.

When the king of the Persians learned this, he beheaded his brother and put the senators and Magi to death; he then wrote a letter to the Roman Emperor containing a three-month truce for the war. The Roman Emperor wrote back to the master of the soldiers to accept the three-month truce, and to give and take hostages, ordering Strategius and Rufinus, the envoys, to return to Byzantium.

During the same time, the Hunni Sabiri ^B crossed through the Caspian Gates and appeared in the Roman territories, plundering in the direction of the Armenian country; and spreading out, they occupied as far as the Euphratesia, the Second Cilicia, and the Cyrrhestica. Upon hearing this, the Roman Emperor summoned the patrician Rufinus and ordered him to go out to the eastern parts and learn whether they had come against the Romans from the King of the Persians or not. Rufinus set out and, in communicating with the King of the Persians, discovered that these Huns had not come with the consent of the King of the Persians. He wrote to Dorotheus, the master of the soldiers in Armenia, to arm himself against the same Huns; and the Huns, having heard this, took all their booty and returned by the same way through which they had entered. But the master of the soldiers, Dorotheus, pursued them and recovered from them no small amount of booty.

In that same time of the tenth indiction, it happened through some restless ^C demons that the occasion for a disturbance arose in Byzantium, Eudaemon being the prefect of the city and having disorderly persons from both factions in custody; and having subjected many to an examination, he found seven of them guilty of murders. He decreed that four of them should be beheaded, and that three should be hanged on a gallows. After they had been paraded in procession through the whole city and had crossed over, they were handed over to death on the further bank. Of those who were adjudged to hanging, two, having broken their gallows, fell to the ground; of whom one was of the Veneti, and the other of the Prasini ^D faction. Seeing this, the surrounding crowd began at once to wish all good things for the Emperor. The monks, however, who were living near the holy Conon, having heard of these things and having arrived, found two of those who had been destined for the gallows still alive, lying on the ground. The monks brought them down to the sea, placed them in a boat, and transported them to the place of asylum of Saint Laurence. When the prefect of the city learned of this, he sent an armed band to keep guard over them there. On the third day thereafter, the hippodrome was held which is called that of the Ides; and they are called Ides because [alt-version omitted]

the Roman Emperor ^A entertains at banquets in his palace those who have been advanced to the highest rank in his military service, and grants to each the dignity of primicerius. ^A On the thirteenth of January, in the midst of the circus games, both factions besought the Emperor to be merciful. They persisted in crying out until the twenty-second contest was finished, but they were deemed worthy of no reply. However, as the devil put a wicked thought into them, they cried out to each other: "Long live the merciful Greens and Blues!" When the games were finished, the crowds conspired with one another and descended; and with "Nika" (Victory) as the given watchword, so that no soldier or excubitor might mix with them, they ran through the city in this manner.

When ^B it was late in the day, they rushed to the praetorium of the City Prefect, demanding an answer regarding those refugees who were at Saint Lawrence. Receiving no answer from him, they set fire to the same praetorium; and the praetorium, along with the *chalce* of the palace, as far as the Schools, and moreover the Great Church and the public portico, were burned, while the seditious were still throwing everything into an uproar. On the following day, the Emperor ordered circus games to be held; and as the veil was suspended according to custom, the same townsmen set fire to the steps of the hippodrome, and a part of the public portico was reduced to ashes as far as the Zeuxippus. ^C The crowd cried out against John the Cappadocian, Tribonian the quaestor, and Eudaemon the City Prefect. When Mundus, Constantiolus, and Basilides, who had gone out by the Emperor’s command with an armed force to restrain the tumultuous people, heard this, they reported it to the Emperor. Consequently, John, Tribonian, and Eudaemon were immediately deposed from their offices. ^D Belisarius then went out, followed by a Gothic force, and attacked the seditious, with many of them being slaughtered. But the mob, driven to fury, set fires in places and killed some people indiscriminately. On the eighteenth of the same month, the Emperor went up into the hippodrome, carrying the holy Gospel. When the crowds learned this they went up, and he addressed mandata to them with oaths; and many of the populace cried out for him as Emperor, while others were seditious.

and by pledging his faith, he strove to soothe them. ^A A great part of the crowd, therefore, declared him emperor; but others, rioting, demanded Hypatius: whom they even seized and led to the forum of Constantine; and having placed him on high upon the steps, they adorned him with imperial insignia taken from the palace and with a golden torque. But further, having dressed him in the imperial garb, which they had made haste to carry out from the palace, they led him into the circus, intending to install him in the imperial seat. Hypatius, then, who had learned that the emperor had withdrawn, occupied his throne and confidently assumed the empire.

^B Now Mundus, Constantiolus, and Belisarius, and others of the nobles who were standing ready with an armed force, entered the circus secretly and hid behind the imperial seat; meanwhile, Narses, the cubicularius and spatharius, had brought some of the Blue faction over to the emperor’s side by the intervention of money. Thus some of the seditious ones, shouting, demanded that Justinian be restored to the city as emperor. The crowd, therefore, divided and began to attack one another. The masters of the soldiers, meanwhile, entering the circus with their armed retinue, began to cut down the crowds from both entrances, attacking these with swords and those with spears. Belisarius, however, having slipped out secretly, seized Hypatius and Pompeius and brought them to the Emperor Justinian. They fell at the feet of the same emperor, offering their excuses and saying, "Master, we have had great labor in gathering the enemies of your rule into the circus." And the emperor, answering them, said, "You have indeed done well; but if you held them as listeners to your words, why did you not do this before the whole city was consumed by flames?" Then truly, at the emperor’s command, the spatharii seized Hypatius and Pompeius and cast them into prison, where, on the following day, they were put to death, and their bodies were cast into the sea. There fell in the circus at this time about thirty-five thousand men. Furthermore, the emperor made his victory over the seditious and the destruction of the tyrants known throughout the whole empire. Moreover, he began to restore from the ground up the buildings devastated by fire, having even built a granary and water cisterns near the palace, so that he might have these repositories where the situation required it.

^D At the same time, Rufinus, having received imperial instructions, departed for Persian territory for the sake of making peace with the Persians. At the same time also, an envoy of the Indians with gifts was sent to Constantinople; and at that time, John the Cappadocian was made praetorian prefect. And at that time, a great movement of stars appeared from evening until dawn, so that all who saw them were astonished and declared that they had never before seen such a thing.

VARIAE LECTIONES. [index: entries preserved]

^A At that same time, Hermogenes and Rufinus returned from the land of the Persians, bringing with them the complete peace treaty between the two states, that of the Romans and that of the Persians, to be observed for the lifetime of both rulers. It was agreed that the Persians would receive the region of Pharangion [(54)], along with all the captives, while the Romans received their fortresses that had been occupied by the Persians, along with those captured within them. ^B The two kings also, according to ancient custom, named each other brothers in the pacts, and [agreed] that if either of them should require assistance from the other in the form of money or troops, they would provide it willingly and without dispute. When these matters had been arranged, the armies of both states withdrew; the war had lasted for thirty-one years from the time when Cabades, the king of the Persians, had risen up against the Romans, as previously written during the reign of Anastasius, along with the capture of Amida, as previously described, and the restoration of the same city of Amida to the Romans, and the sporadic wars of the Saracen raids.

In this same period, an earthquake occurred in Byzantium in the deep of night, so that the entire city ^C gathered together in the so-called Forum of Constantine, spending the night there in litanies, prayers, and vigils. In those same days, the same Emperor Justinian sent throughout every city divine decrees [(υ)], containing the following: *An edict concerning the orthodox faith and against the impious heretics.* And it was posted in every city in the churches. Not long after, a fearful but harmless earthquake struck Great Antioch.

In this same period, the same emperor also held his third consulship, recalling the patricians Olybrius and Probus from exile and restoring to them all their possessions. ^D In the twelfth indiction, the king of Africa was captured with his wife [(55)] by Belisarius; and they were brought to Constantinople. And when the hippodrome was opened, they were brought in as captives along with the spoils.

^A At the same time, the statue of Julian the Apostate, which stood in the middle of Julian’s harbor, fell to the ground; and in place of this same statue, they set up a cross.

And after the consulate of Belisarius, a synod was held in Constantinople, convened by Agapetus, bishop of Rome; and it deposed Anthemius, the patriarch of Constantinople. And in the same year, the bishop of Rome died in Byzantium; and Menas, who had been the prefect of the hospital of Sampson, became patriarch in Constantinople.

In the consulate of John the Cappadocian, the churches of the Arians were seized.

In the same year, the *chalce* of the palace of Constantinople was completed, having been adorned with various marbles and mosaic work. The clock, which stood near the Augusteum and the basilica, was also moved there. At the same time, the office of the *nycteparch* was abolished; and in his place, a *praetor* was created. In that same year, a *quaestor* was also appointed.

In the same consulate, the dedication of the Great Church was celebrated.

In the month of June, in the third indiction, Antioch the Great was captured by Chosroes, King of the Persians. Against him, Germanus was made *magistratus militum* and was sent with an army, along with his own son Justin; but achieving nothing, he retreated to Antioch, where he sat idle, buying silver from the Antiochenes at the price of two or three coins the pound. The King of the Persians also occupied Apamea and other cities of the East.

At the same time, Belisarius was sent away ^B and, having waged war, he recovered Rome, Sicily, and the surrounding cities, which Vitiges, king of the Goths, had occupied. And having waged war, and having captured the same Vitiges himself, along with his wife and son, Belisarius took them away to Byzantium.

Not long after, Narses the chamberlain, furnished with a huge army, was sent by the Emperor to Rome against the same Goths.

In the month of August, John, surnamed the Cappadocian, who had already twice discharged the office of *praefectus*, was dismissed from service; his goods were confiscated, and he was relegated to Cyzicus, and became a deacon at Artace. Here, in fact, having entered into a conspiracy with some citizens, he killed Eusebius, the bishop of the same city of Cyzicus. ^C But the Emperor, having learned of ^D this...

^A indignation moved him against the same John, and he sent men who examined him there regarding the murder that had been committed. Then, by order of the same Emperor, he was exiled to Antinoöpolis. And after some time he was recalled and died in Byzantium.

In the fifth indiction, a new event of this kind occurred. A certain woman, who lived near what is called the Golden Gate, being seized one night by a sort of prophetic frenzy, began to babble many things, claiming that the sea would surge up the next day and swallow everyone. At that very time, in fact, many cities were indeed submerged by water; and furthermore, a pestilence of men spread widely through Alexandria and the rest of Egypt. The Constantinopolitan mob, having heard these things, ran together crying out, "Lord, have mercy." They dragged the woman from her house and led her to the church of Saint Diomedes, intending to hold litanies there.

^B The Emperor, therefore, sent Narses the cubicularius with dromons and some other men to investigate the rumor and learn what had happened. Certain of Narses’ attendants who were sent for this purpose, upon arriving at the church of Saint Diomedes and having been told by the crowd gathered there what the woman had uttered, returned and reported the events to Narses. They claimed that they themselves had also heard from that prophetess that in three days the sea would come up and overwhelm everyone. The crowd, having heard these things from her, was terrified and began to disperse.

At the same time, Longinus was appointed Eparch of the city; he paved the middle passage of the imperial cistern and magnificently restored the porticos of the same basilica.

^C Seeing that the iniquities of men had multiplied, the Lord God sent a plague upon the earth for its destruction, which prevailed in all the cities and regions to the point of the near annihilation of the human race; it increased to such a degree that the undertakers were not sufficient for the burial of the dead. Some, indeed, carried their own sick out of their houses on wooden litters, hoping to have them placed in tents. But neither so were they able to bury the dead; for many of them lay unburied for several days, and many did not even have their own kinsmen to perform the final rites for them. In Byzantium, however, the divine ^D mercy prevailed for two months.

^A In the month of September, in the seventh indiction, half of the city of Cyzicus collapsed, having been shaken by earthquakes. At the same time, the equestrian statue of the Emperor Justinian (which had formerly belonged to the Emperor Arcadius) was moved from the Tauri Bomiskos and erected in the Augusteum near the palace. At that same time, there was also a shortage of wine.

In the month of November, the emperor, intending to shift the time of the pre-Lenten period, commanded that meat be sold for one additional week. All the butchers therefore slaughtered and offered meat for sale, but no one ate it; nevertheless, the holy solemnity of the Passion of Christ our God was celebrated just as the emperor had ordered.

In the month of February, in the tenth indiction, Vigilius, the bishop of Rome, came to Constantinople; at which time also Rome was captured by the Goths.

In the same year, Menas, the patriarch of Constantinople, was excommunicated by the Pope of Rome for certain canonical reasons.

In the same indiction, while the anniversary of the city of Constantinople was being celebrated at Byzantium, with Thomas ^B serving as prefect of the city, a riot broke out between the two factions. Seeing this, the emperor ordered his guards to charge the crowd; some of them perished by suffocation in their flight, while others were killed by the sword.

In the same indiction, Menas, the archbishop of Constantinople, was restored to his bishopric; he immediately withdrew to the monastery of the Holy Apostles within the wall.

In the same year, while the Count of the PraetorIUM, surnamed Dipundiaristos, was fulfilling his duty, Andreas and John, nicknamed Dandax, were formally examined regarding the murder of the bishop of Cyzicus; being found guilty of the crime after the inquiry, the right hand of each was cut off. At that same time, there were continuous earthquakes. ^{C D}

^A In the month of June, in the same indiction, there were flashes of lightning and thunder, so very terrifying that even people who were sleeping were harmed by the lightning flashes. Amidst these terrors, a portion of the column which stood at the Xerolophos was broken off and fell. On the 28th of the same month, in the tenth indiction, Empress Theodora departed from the living.

In the month of July, a factional conflict occurring between both sides, a fire was set in the house called the House of the Leopard; many buildings were consumed by the fire, and many people were put to the sword.

In the thirteenth indiction, an envoy of the Indians was sent to Constantinople, bringing with him an elephant. At the same time, the name of Menas, the archbishop, was removed from the sacred diptychs, as was the name of Vigilius, the pope of Rome.

In the month of April, a sedition occurred in the Hippodrome among the people, though no horse race was being held, and many died on both sides.

On the 28th of June, in the same indiction, the dedication of the Church of the Holy Apostles took place in Constantinople, along with the entombment of the precious relics of Andrew, Luke, and Timothy; and Bishop Menas escorted the same holy relics, seated in an imperial chariot.

At that same time, Narses the cubicularius was sent to Rome to wage war against the Goths, because after the city had been recovered by Belisarius, it had been occupied again by the Goths.

On the 26th of June, in the same indiction, the Bishop of Rome, Vigilius, was received by the emperor; for he had been provoked and had taken refuge ^C in the Church of Saint Sergius at the place called the Hormisdas, hiding there in the buildings.

In the fourteenth indiction, a great and terrifying earthquake occurred throughout the whole region of Palestine, as well as in Arabia, and in the region of Mesopotamia, Antioch, Phoenicia, both...

Maritima and Libanesia, and reached ^A as far as these. By the horror of this, the cities were affected, namely Tyre, Sidon, Berytus, Tripolis, Byblus, Botrys, and parts of other cities. Multitudes of people were caught within them. In the city of Botrys, a portion of the mountain looming over the sea, called Lithoprosopon ^B, was torn away and brought down into the sea; and it created a harbor capable of receiving very large ships, whereas that city had previously lacked a harbor. The same emperor sent money into the individual provinces and restored most of these cities. During this earthquake, the sea retreated into the deep for a mile, and many ships were lost in consequence; subsequently, by the command of God, the sea returned to its original bed.

486 In the month of September, in the 15th indiction, the temple of Saint Eirene, which is situated on the further shore in the Justinianae, was dedicated. The holy relics were carried out from the Great Church by two patriarchs, namely Menas, Patriarch of Constantinople, and Apollinarius, Pope of Alexandria; both sat in the imperial chariot, holding the precious relics upon their knees. At the same time, the harbor near the palace of the Secundianae was drained of its waters and cleaned out.

In the month of August, in the 15th indiction, Menas, Archbishop of Constantinople, ended his days; his relics were deposited in the holy sanctuary of the Great Church, and Eutychius, the apocrisiarius of Amaseia, was ordained in his place.

In the same month, news of victory arrived from Rome from Narses the cubicularius and exarch of the Romans. For having joined battle with Totila, leader of the Goths, Narses had emerged the victor, killed him, and sent his blood-stained garments to Constantinople.

In the month of March, in the 1st indiction, a disturbance arose among men of the lowest sort on account of the devaluation of the coinage; the matter being reported to the same emperor, he ordered the value of the coinage to be maintained according to ancient custom.

In the month of August, in the 2nd indiction, a horrendous earthquake occurred, ^C so that many houses, public baths, churches, and parts of the walls suffered in Byzantium. By the force of the same, that spear which the statue erected in the Forum of Constantine was holding fell, and was driven into the ground [55] to a depth of three cubits. And in the subsequent...

collapses, many mortals perished. Other cities also felt the same terror; among which a part of Nicomedia likewise fell. Some people were even dug out alive from its debris after several days. This earthquake lasted for forty days.

In the month of July, of the fourth indiction, the Samaritans and the Jews in Caesarea of Palestine conspired together, stirred up a sedition, and, exhibiting a conflict of factions, attacked the Christians of that same city and slaughtered many of them. They also fell upon and plundered their churches. When the governor of the same city went out to the aid of the Christians, those same Samaritans attacked him, slaughtered him in the praetorium, and plundered all his belongings. The wife of that same governor, Stephanus, went up to Constantinople and approached the emperor himself. When the emperor heard what had been done by the Samaritans, he was angered and ordered Amantius, who was then the governor of the East, to investigate what had happened and the murder of that same Stephanus. Amantius, having received the imperial rescripts and having gone to Caesarea and inquired after those who had committed the murders, found them; he impaled some, beheaded others, and cut off the right hands of yet others; he also punished some with the confiscation of their property. Great fear was thus struck into the Caesareans and into the whole of the East.

In the month of December, of the same indiction, a plague spread among men in various cities. ^B

In the month of May, of the same indiction, there was a shortage of bread in Constantinople, and the people were reduced to a small ration. ^C When the emperor was observing the games of the circus, during the celebration of the Nativity, along with the ambassador of the Persians, the people cried out to the same emperor about these matters. The emperor, taking this ill, ordered Musonius, who was then the prefect of the city, to check the murmurings; and some of the prominent men of the Veneti faction were arrested and punished. The same shortage of bread persisted for three months. A few days later, fearful lightning and thunder occurred in various cities, so that many were harmed.

He confiscated their goods; and a great fear occurred in the city. ^D

In the month of November, of the fifth indiction, a fire appeared in the sky, in the shape of a spear, extending from the eastern parts as far as the West.

In the month of April, of the same indiction, a fearful but harmless earthquake occurred.

In the month of December, of the sixth indiction, another earthquake occurred at midnight, very fearful, so that to suffer

^A both walls of Constantinople, both the ancient one built by Constantine and that built by Theodosius, felt it, and parts of the churches fell, especially those beyond the Hebdomon; and the column situated in the Secundianae, together with the statue placed upon it, and a great part of the Regium also fell. Many men were buried in the ruins; some of them, however, were extracted alive several days later. Furthermore, by this same earthquake, buildings in many other remote cities also fell. That dreadful consternation prevailed for ten days; during which time, those whose minds were stung for a while by these events kept vigil with litanies and supplications in the church. The emperor Justinian himself did not wear his diadem for thirty days.

At the same time, the Avars, a certain strange nation of the Huns, came to Constantinople. ^B At this time also, the bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia died at Byzantium; and Theocritus was appointed in his place.

In the month of February, of the sixth indiction, a plague broke out in Constantinople, with men perishing from buboes. While this calamity was raging, all the neighborhoods ran out of biers. This dreadful threat of God prevailed for six months.

At the same time, when the dome of the Great Church, which had been broken in many places by the earlier terrors sent by the mercy of God, was being restored, ^C the eastern part of the arch—while the Isaurians were working on this task—suddenly collapsed, and by its fall crushed the ciborium together with the holy table. But the remaining part of the roof survived.

^A Having demolished everything, Justinian rebuilt it from the foundations up, and made it twenty feet higher.

In the month of March, of the seventh indiction, the Huns and Sclaveni invaded Thrace (67); and making war, they slew many and took some captive; they also took prisoner Sergius the son of Bacchus, master of the soldiers, and Edermas, eldest son of Calopodius, and carried them off as prisoners. They found places of the wall of Constantinople (68) that had fallen down, and entering through these ruined spots, they pressed on as far as the holy Stratonius, ^B [seeking to overturn] the orthodox faith.

In the month of May, Zemarchus, the ex-prefect and curator of the imperial house of Placidia, was removed from office, and Theodorus the Nicomedian was appointed in his place. In the same month, the birthday festival was not held on the customary day, but was celebrated on the thirteenth of the same month. And after the dismissal of the hippodrome, as the Greens were departing and passing through the portico of Moschianus under guard, some of the domestic servants of the house called of Appion suddenly offered insults to them. The Blues immediately attacked the Greens, and a conflict ensued in various places. ^C The Blues, having crossed the gulf from Sycae, began to cast fire and burn the storehouses along the sea, with the intention of burning the same; and if anyone attempted to extinguish [the fire], he was pelted with javelins by the Blues, to whom their own artisans also kept proffering their aid. Moreover, rushing on to the conflict, they burned the house known as that of Andreas, located at the Navale. In the forum also a battle was joined, and they cast flames into the house of Barsurius, who was at that time holding the office of prefect; this, together with the opposite portico, burned as far as the brazen Tetrapylum, and the portico opposite it as well. This conflict raged for two days. And Marinus, the Count of the Excubitors, having come forth with much military support, and Justin, the most glorious Curopalata, with a large retinue of soldiers, were with difficulty able to repress both factions.

^D At the same time, while Gerontius was holding the prefecture of the city, many fires occurred in various parts of Constantinople. And seditious persons having been apprehended from both factions, many of them paid the penalty, and some were even punished by death. This inquiry lasted for seventy days.

^A In the month of June, of the same indiction, certain Greeks were apprehended and led about the city publicly; and their books, and the images and statues of their detestable gods, were burned in the Cynegion. In the same month, the synodical letters of the Roman Pope were brought. In the same month, a factional battle took place in Cyzicus, so that very many fell on both sides; and some buildings were also demolished during that skirmish. ^B In the month of August, of the tenth indiction, the temple of the holy martyr Theodora, situated near the bridge, was dedicated. By order of the emperor himself, the silversmiths opened their shops and displayed their wares, and very many lights were kindled throughout the city. In the month of October, of the eleventh indiction, a disturbance arose among the Veneti in Constantinople: they were divided into factions and clashed with one another in the so-called Pittacia; swords were drawn, and a certain cleric, son of John the Commentariensis, surnamed Gyli, had his hands cut off during the fighting. ^C In the month of November, Constantinople suffered from a great lack of rain, so that there was very frequent fighting at the fountains by those who had come to fetch water. Moreover, north winds blew frequently, but no south winds had blown since the beginning of the month of August; so that even the third fleet could not arrive at the harbor. Therefore, Patriarch Eutychius also ordered litanies to be held at Jerusalem. In the same month, a messenger was brought to Constantinople regarding the victories of Narses the patrician, who had occupied the fortified cities of the Goths, that is to say, Beroea and Brincas; and he sent the keys of those same cities along with the spoils. ^D

^A In the month of November of the eleventh indiction, certain men who were privy to a plot conspired to take away the life of the same Emperor Justinian, while he was sitting in the palace. They were planning the conspiracy in the evening; and those who were involved by name were Ablabius, the son of Miltiades, and Marcellus the silversmith, and Sergius, the nephew of Etherius the curator. Now their method for committing the deed was this: that as he sat in the triclinium in the evening, they would enter and slay the said emperor. For they had also stationed their own men in various places so that, once the conspiracy took place, they might cause a disturbance. The said Ablabius had also received money from Marcellus, about fifty pounds of gold, to participate in the plot. And indeed, God so willing, one of those who had plotted the conspiracy, Ablabius the son of Miltiades, ^B confided the plan to Eusebius, the count of the federates, and to John, the son of Domitiolus, saying, "This very evening, we intend to attack the pious emperor while he sits in the triclinium."

The conspiracy having been revealed, Marcellus the silversmith was found on the same evening on which he had intended to carry out the conspiracy, entering the palace carrying a dagger, and Ablabius, who had revealed the conspiracy, was likewise found with a sword. And as they had been foreknown and were apprehended, Marcellus, ^C seeing that his scheme had failed, drew the dagger he was carrying, inflicted three wounds upon himself, and thus died. Sergius, however, the nephew of Etherius, seeking safety in flight, took refuge in the church of our Lady the Theotokos at Blachernae. But having been driven out from the asylum (as one who was guilty of high treason), and having been subjected to examination, he testified that Isaac the silversmith, who was an associate of Belisarius the patrician, was also privy to this same conspiracy, as were also Vitus the silversmith and Paul, the suboptio of Belisarius. ^D And both of them having been apprehended and handed over to Procopius, the prefect of the city, and having been examined by him with Constantine the quaestor, Julian the antigrapharius, and Zenodorus the asecretis acting as assessors and recording their statements, they accused Belisarius the patrician; and upon this account the emperor became angry with him. Other men, too, among those named, fled. And on the fifth day of the month of December, the same emperor, having proclaimed a silentium, ordered all the magistrates to enter

the palace, along with the patriarch ^A Eutychius and certain men from the schools. Having received them in the triclinium, he ordered their depositions to be read aloud and the details of the plot to be revealed to all—I speak of the plot by Sergius, nephew of Etherius; Eusebius the silversmith; Paul the suboptionis; and Vitus. Their depositions were read, and upon the evidence of these very depositions, the patrician Belisarius fell into disgrace. The emperor himself sent men to remove all of Belisarius’s bodyguards, and that same man offered no resistance. Since Constantine the quaestor and Julian the antigrapheus were suspected—as it is said—of favoring Etherius, and because it was believed that Etherius himself was privy to the plot, six days later those who had devised this same plot were examined again by Marinus, count of the excubitors, and Constantianus the magister militum; and the same Belisarius remained in disgrace. ^B

In the same month, the emperor, having set up an edict in various churches, decreed that it was not permitted after the union to speak of one nature, but that two should be confessed.

In the same indiction, the festival of the Dedication of the most holy Great Church was celebrated for the second time. Thirty feet were added to the dome [trullo] according to the old design, and by this addition two vaults were created, one northern and one southern. When the roof was finally brought to completion, the patriarch Eutychius, holding the holy book of the Gospels in his hands, with the people standing around, chanted: "Lift up your gates, O ye princes, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting gates, and the King of glory shall enter in," and the rest. ^C

In the month of January, in the eleventh indiction, while the horse races were being held, Julianicus the charioteer, having been thrown from his chariot and dragged around the circus, died.

In the same month, certain regions of Africa were occupied by the Mauritanians. For Cutzines, the exarch of that tribe, from the time he had assumed the rule of the Moors, had been accustomed to receive a certain quantity of gold from the Roman prefect of the time. But when John, surnamed Rogathinus, arrived [in Africa] and did not pay him the money according to custom, but on the contrary even treacherously killed him, the Moors rose up in rebellion. ^D

the sons of the same Cutzina, avenging the paternal murder, took up arms. And having risen up against the regions of Africa, they seized certain places, killing and plundering the inhabitants. The Emperor Justinian himself therefore sent his own nephew Marcian. ^B

APPENDIX. It will not be inconvenient to append here a Synopsis of the Chronography of Malalas regarding the life and deeds of Justinian, so that the reader may discern to which year of that reign the matters written on each page pertain. [Table omitted]

THE EPISTLE OF RICHARD BENTLEY

[1] To the most distinguished man, John Mill, Doctor of Sacred Theology, Richard Bentley, greetings.

I remember indeed, most learned Mill, when a few days ago we were walking together and were vigorously discussing our literary matters; there, by chance, mention happened to be made of John of Antioch: and since a desire had seized me to see the book while it was still "must," before it should come into the public light under your care; I obtained this from you on the condition that if anything in such a corrupted writer could receive our amendment, I should send it to you collected on sheets. A hard condition, indeed, and one which for many reasons I would not have wished to accept. For, not to mention that, from that time forth, I have been long separated from the better part of my books and papers, and (which happens more bitterly to me) from your most pleasant company; and that I have only once hurriedly run through this Malalas, nor have I been able in any way, as yet, to bring my mind to apply those second thoughts and considerations—which they say are wiser—to these things, I say, or to pass over other matters; it shames me, by Hercules, to confess the truth, and it irks me to consume good hours, which could have been spent not a little better, in such an ungrateful and ignoble labor. But ^C what am I to do? The pledge has been given: the promises are demanded. I see that what I have concocted for myself must be consumed. Only let it be permitted, if at any time in this "digestion of annals" a weariness should arise in me, to seek from elsewhere that which may restrain the flowing nausea. Permission and leave will therefore be granted to wander off occasionally, and quite a distance; provided that it be not entirely "outside the olive groves" [i.e., off-topic], nor for light reasons. This, however, I would have you know first of all, that it is not my intention to say a single word about this John—who he was, when he lived, or by whom he was praised—since it is a long while since our most friendly and learned Hody undertook that whole controversy. For the purpose of this writing, I say, is something else: which I fear, indeed, might not turn out for me as successfully and as luckily as I wish. So truly does my spirit forebode, and so do I see it on the very threshold, that it might strike terror even into the stoutest heart. For if Malalas narrates correctly on page 90, Orpheus had, of course, proclaimed and commanded that no mortal should openly reveal the *Erikepaios*. "Whose name," says he, "the same Orpheus, having heard from the oracle, uttered, saying that no one should speak the *Erikepaios*, which is interpreted in the common tongue as Counsel, Light, Life-giv- ^D