John of Antioch (historian)

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John of Antioch was a late antique historian who wrote in the 6th or 7th century AD.

life and work

Very little is known about John's life. He probably came from the Syrian metropolis of Antioch on the Orontes , one of the most important cities of the Eastern Roman Empire , was educated and perhaps worked in the imperial administration. At the latest at the beginning of the 7th century (see the explanations below) he wrote a world chronicle , probably in Constantinople , for which he consulted several good sources. This apparently described the events from creation to the accession of Emperor Herakleios in the year 610. Unlike in many other late antique chronicles, the history of the church is hardly considered with John. Rather, he was interested in political topics; his linguistically quite demanding work also contains important information, some of which come from works that have been lost today (see also Leoquelle ).

However, many points are controversial in research. Since the Chronicle of John has only survived in fragments, i.e. through quotations from later authors, the question of whether certain fragments can be assigned to John at all poses considerable problems for research. In 2005 Umberto Roberto presented a new, for the first time complete edition (and thus replaced the old edition by Karl Müller from 1851 or 1870), in which some opinions of older research are modified or disputed. Roberto is of the opinion that John (who is said to have written under Herakleios) was by no means a Miaphysite and could not be equated with the Antiochene patriarch John.

However, several of Roberto's conclusions have not remained unchallenged, as has his text edition (specifically: the assignment of certain fragments to John) in some cases. In 2008, Sergei Mariev presented another edition (including an English translation) in which he came to different conclusions regarding the fragments and their assignment. Mariev believes, like some other researchers before (above all Panagiotis Sotiroudis), that John lived as early as the 6th century and used a sophisticated style. His work only lasted until the death of Emperor Anastasius in 518; those fragments that report later events were either ascribed to a less gifted continuer of John or were simply wrongly assigned by modern research. The outcome of the debate is still open at the moment.

The American historian Warren Treadgold has also put forward the thesis that John of Antioch himself largely followed a single main source, which was the now lost historical work of Eustathios of Epiphaneia , which is also very controversial. Michael Whitby took the position as early as 1990 that Johannes was just a compiler and that his style therefore varied depending on the source used.

expenditure

Entry in Clavis Historicorum Antiquitatis Posterioris (CHAP) .

literature

  • Sergei Mariev : News on the "Johannine question"? In: Byzantine Journal . 99, 2006, pp. 535-549.
  • Peter Van Nuffelen : John of Antioch, Inflated and Deflated. Or: How (Not) to Collect Fragments of Early Byzantine Historians. In: Byzantion. Vol. 82, 2012, pp. 437-450, doi : 10.2143 / BYZ.82.0.2174098 .
  • Panagiotis Sotiroudis: Investigations on the history of John of Antiochia (= Επετηρίδα της Θιλοσοφικής Σχολής. 67, ZDB -ID 283069-3 ). Θιλοσοφική Σχολή, Θεσσαλονίκη 1989, (Hamburg, University, dissertation 1986).

Remarks

  1. ^ Warren Treadgold: The early Byzantine Historians. Basingstoke 2007, p. 311ff.
  2. ↑ Michael Whitby: John of Antioch . In: Classical Review ns 40 (1990), p. 255 f.
personal data
SURNAME John of Antioch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES John Antiochenus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION late antique historian
DATE OF BIRTH 6th century
DATE OF DEATH 6th century or 7th century