The Chronicle of Pseudo-Zachariah Rhetor Church and War in Late Antiquity

by Greatrex, Geoffrey; Robert R. Phenix and Cornelia B. Horn

• ISBN13: 9781846314940
• ISBN10: 1846314941
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-03-15
• Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Summary

The Chronicle attributed to Zachariah of Mytilene is one of the most important sources for the history of the church from the Council of Chalcedon in 451 to the early years of the reign of Justinian (527-565). The author who compiled the work in Syriac in A.D. 568/9 drew extensively on the Ecclesiastical History of Zachariah the Rhetor, who later became bishop of Mytilene and ended up giving his name to the whole work. But Zachariah's Ecclesiastical History, which forms books iii to vi of Pseudo-Zachariah's work and covers the period from 451 to 491, is just one of a range of sources cited by this later compiler. For the period that follows, he turned to other well-informed sources, which cover both church and secular affairs. His reporting of the siege of Amida in 502-3 clearly derives from an eye-witness account, while for the reign of the Emperor Justinian he offers not only numerous documents, but also an independent narrative of the Persian war, as well as notices on the Nika riot and events in the West. This translation (of books iii-xii) is the first into a modern language since 1899 and is equipped with a detailed commentary and introduction, along with contributions by two eminent Syriac scholars, Sebastian Brock and Witold Witakowski.

Author Biography

Geoffrey Creatrex. Associate Professor in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa. Canada, has published extensively on late Roman history, concentrating on military and ecclesiastical affairs. He is the author of Rome and Persia at War, 502-532 (Leeds, 1998) and The Roman Eastern Frontier, A.D. 363-630. A Narrative Sourcebook (with Sam Lieu, London, 2002) and is currently a sub-editor responsible for the late antique section of Blackwell's Encyclopedia of the Roman Army. Robert R. Phenix concentrates on the interaction of religion and culture in the Eastern Mediterranean. His publications include Rhetoric and Interpretation in Fifth-Century Syriac Literature: The Sermons on Joseph of Balai of Qenneshrin (Tbingen, 2008). The Lives of Peter the Iberian. Theodosius of Jerusalem, and the Monk Romanos (with Cornelia B. Horn. Atlanta, Leiden, and Boston, 2008). The Rabbula Corpus (with C. B. Horn. Atlanta. Leiden, and Boston, forthcoming), and Children in Late Ancient Christianity (co-edited with C. B. Horn Tbinge, 2009). Cornelia B. Horn. Department of Theological Studies. Saint Louis University. Missouri, publishers on Christian religion, society, and culture in interaction with the Greco-Roman and Jewish world as well as early Islam. In addition to her work with Robert Phenix, her other publications include Asceticism and Christological Controversy in Fifth-Century Palestine: The Career of Peter the Iberian (Oxford, 2006), and Let the Little Children Come to Me: Childhood and Children in Early Christianity (with John W. Martens, Washington DC, 2009).

Table of Contents

Preface	p. viii
Acknowledgements	p. x
Abbreviations	p. xii
Introduction
General overview	p. 1
Zachariah of Mytilene	p. 3
Life and career	p. 3
Works	p. 12
The Life of Isaiah and a Life of Peter the Iberian	p. 13
A Vita Paralii	p. 14
Ammonius or De mundi opificio (disputatio)	p. 14
The Ecclesiastical History [see (3) below]	p. 15
The Life of Severus	p. 15
Capita vii contra Manichaeos	p. 18
The Antirrhesis (Adversus Manichaeos)	p. 19
His Ecclesiastical History	p. 19
Introduction	p. 19
Composition and nature of the work	p. 20
Sources	p. 23
The relation between PZ and Zach.'s HE	p. 25
Conclusion	p. 29
Pseudo-Zachariah of Mytilene	p. 32
Pseudo-Zachariah himself	p. 32
The work of PZ	p. 33
PZ's sources	p. 39
The Ecclesiastical History of Zachariah of Mytilene	p. 39
A chronicle	p. 40
Bishop lists	p. 43
Church historians	p. 45
Written records of church councils	p. 46
Dossiers of correspondence	p. 46
Self-standing accounts	p. 47
An account of the reign of Anastasius	p. 54
A Justinianic source, covering books viii-x	p. 55
An apocalyptic source	p. 56
The transmission of PZ	p. 57
PZ's literary style and interests (R.P., C.H.)	p. 60
The manuscript basis of PZ, editions, translations and research to date (W.W., revised by G.G.)	p. 62
Conclusion	p. 65
Historical introduction	p. 66
Text and translation	p. 73
Analysis and partial translation of books i-ii (S.B., with some additions by G.G.)	p. 75
The Chronicle of Pseudo-Zachariah Rhetor
	p. 95
	p. 130
	p. 172
	p. 210
	p. 227
	p. 279
	p. 313
	p. 397
	p. 425
Appendices
Works circulating in the early sixth century about the council of Chalcedon	p. 456
Emperors and patriarchs, 440-565	p. 459
Glossary	p. 461
Maps
Constantinople and its environs	p. 467
Osrhoene and Mesopotamia	p. 468
The eastern frontier	p. 469
The frontier south of the Tur Abdin	p. 470
The Near East	p. 471
Monasteries of the East (cf. PZ viii.5)	p. 472
Peoples of the Caucasus (Hewsen 2001, map 68)	p. 473
Peoples of the Caucasus (Land 1887)	p. 474
Acknowledgements for the maps	p. 475
Bibliography	p. 476
Indices
Biblical and apocryphal citations	p. 524
References to CPG	p. 529
Persons and places mentioned in xii.4	p. 530
General index	p. 535
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