John of Antioch (historian)

== ''Historia chronike'' ==

== ''Historia chronike'' ==

John of Antioch's chronicle, ''Historia chronike'', is a universal history stretching from [[Adam]] to the death of [[Phocas]]; it is one of the many adaptations and imitations of the better known chronicle of [[John Malalas]]. His sources include [[Eutropius (historian)|Eutropius]] (whose organization he followed) and [[Plutarch]],{{cite journal |year=1965 |journal=Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte |first=Francis R. |last=Walton |title=A Neglected Historical Text |volume=14 |issue=2 |jstor=4434879 |quote=Logos IV demonstrates clearly the method followed by John of Antioch in compiling this part of his work. The framework is provided by Eutropius, for whom he used a translation more faithful than that of Paeanius, perhaps the lost translation of Capito. Logos IV corresponds to Book V of the Breviarium, which it translates entire, and Logos V starts at precisely the same point as Book VI, in 78 B.C. John of Antioch, however, adds to his translation a good deal of additional material, ranging in extent from a few words to entire paragraphs or more. Much of the additional material is taken from Plutarch's Sulla, and it is significant that in the non-Eutropian passages Plutarch is seven times cited by name. One citation of Plutarch, as we shall see, corresponds to nothing in the known works of that author, but the others are identifiable and reasonably accurate. There is no reason whatever to doubt that John of Antioch was personally familiar with the Sulla, and that he used it with some discretion to amplify the meagre narrative of Eutropius. To what extent he drew directly from other classical authors is uncertain. The references to Sulla's Memoirs come from Plutarch. His quotation of Sallust's epigrammatic comment on Sulla hardly constitutes proof that he had read the Catilina. For the two citations of Diodorus and one of Livy we have no control, since the episodes would have appeared in the lost portions of their works, but as we shall see the passage sealed with their joint names might equally well have been ascribed to Plutarch, who gives the same information in nearly identical language.}} as well as [[Sextus Julius Africanus]], [[Eusebius]], and [[Ammianus Marcellinus]]. It was divided into 14 books, of which the first 5 (the "Ancient History") covered the period from Creation up to the reign of [[Philip II of Macedon]], the next 5 (the "Books of the Consuls", {{langx|grc|λόγοι ὑπάτων}}Walton (1965).) covered the Roman Republic up to 30 BC, and the last 4 (the "Books of the Emperors") covered the Roman Empire through the reign of Phocas.{{cite encyclopedia |title=The Encyclopedia of Ancient History |date=2012-10-26 |chapter=John of Antioch |first=Conor |last=Whately |publisher=Wiley |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah03129 }} A manuscript found in 1899 in the [[Monastery of Iviron]] on [[Mount Athos]] preserves the entire 4th Book of the Consuls, plus the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 5th;Walton (1965): "The first article published by Spyridon Lambros in his remarkable one-man periodical, Νέος Ἑλληνομνήμων, was an extensive passage from the lost Chronicle of John of Antioch, preserved in a fourteenth-century manuscript in the monastery of Iviron (Codex Athous 4932 = Iviron 812). ... The first public announcement of it was made in 1899 at the Congress of Orientalists held in Rome... The Athos text belongs to the part of the work devoted to Republican Rome. This section, it now appears, was divided into chapters or books entitled {{lang|grc|λόγοι ὑπάτων}}. What is here preserved is the entire text of {{lang|grc|λόγος ὑπάτων δ'}}, plus the end of the third "Account" and the beginning of the fifth. of the rest of the book only fragments remain.

John of Antioch's chronicle, ''Historia chronike'', is a universal history stretching from [[Adam]] to the death of [[Phocas]]; it is one of the many adaptations and imitations of the better known chronicle of [[John Malalas]]. His sources include [[Sextus Julius Africanus]], [[Eusebius]], and [[Ammianus Marcellinus]]. Only fragments remain.

The fragments of the chronicle are contained in two collections, the Codex Parisinus 1763, which was published in an edition by [[Claudius Salmasius]], and the encyclopedia of history in fifty-three chapters made by order of [[Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus]] (912–59), the so-called ''[[Excerpta Constantiniana]]''. Of the Constantinian collection only parts remain.Krumbacher, ''Byzantinische Litteraturgebchichte'', 258–60. Two titles: "Of Virtue and Vice" and "Of Conspiracies against Emperors" contain the literary remains of John of Antioch. A difficulty arises from the fact that a great part of the extracts (from the Roman Commonwealth of Justin I) differs considerably from the corresponding quotations in the Salmasian collection. The Constantinian passages are of the nature the old Hellenic writing of history, the Salmasian ones are rather [[Byzantine]] and [[Christians|Christian]]. The Salmasian compilation is older, and so appears to be the original text; the other is no doubt a re-arrangement made under the influence of the Hellenic Renaissance started by patriarch [[Photios I of Constantinople|Photius]]. But some authorities see in them two different originals and speak of a "Constantinian" and a "Salmasian" John of Antioch.

The fragments of the chronicle are contained in two collections, the Codex Parisinus 1763, which was published in an edition by [[Claudius Salmasius]], and the encyclopedia of history in fifty-three chapters made by order of [[Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus]] (912–59), the so-called ''[[Excerpta Constantiniana]]''. Of the Constantinian collection only parts remain.Krumbacher, ''Byzantinische Litteraturgebchichte'', 258–60. Two titles: "Of Virtue and Vice" and "Of Conspiracies against Emperors" contain the literary remains of John of Antioch. A difficulty arises from the fact that a great part of the extracts (from the Roman Commonwealth of Justin I) differs considerably from the corresponding quotations in the Salmasian collection. The Constantinian passages are of the nature the old Hellenic writing of history, the Salmasian ones are rather [[Byzantine]] and [[Christians|Christian]]. The Salmasian compilation is older, and so appears to be the original text; the other is no doubt a re-arrangement made under the influence of the Hellenic Renaissance started by patriarch [[Photios I of Constantinople|Photius]]. But some authorities see in them two different originals and speak of a "Constantinian" and a "Salmasian" John of Antioch.