John of Epiphaneia

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John of Epiphaneia was a late antique historian who lived in the 6th century.

life and work

John came from Epiphaneia in Syria, was a Christian and a cousin of Euagrios Scholastikos . Johannes had evidently enjoyed a good education, which also included a law degree. In 590 he worked as legal advisor ( consiliarius ) to Gregory, the patriarch of Antiocheia . In this context, John witnessed the flight of the Persian Great King Chosrau II into the Roman Empire and probably even met him. With the support of the Eastern Roman emperor Maurikios, Chosrau regained the throne, and John himself may have visited Persia .

Johannes wrote a historical work that described the Persian War in the time of Justin II and Maurikios, where he based himself on Menander Protektor , but otherwise was also able to interview contemporary witnesses himself. Euagrios knew the work of John and will probably have used it, although Euagrios seems to polemicize against its representation at one point in his church history . John's history has been used extensively by Theophylactus Simokates ; so Theophylactus based himself, among other things, on the portrayal of John, among other things, when describing Chosraus' flight to the Romans. However, we have only received a fragment of John's work, which includes the Proömium and the beginning of the first book. In the style of Thucydides, Johannes tried to use clear language and apparently saw himself in the tradition of the late antique classicist historians.

The histories of John were apparently still read in the 12th century , because Anna Komnena quotes him almost verbatim in her work Alexias .

Editions and translations

Entry in Clavis Historicorum Antiquitatis Posterioris (CHAP) .

  • Geoffrey B. Greatrex , Samuel NC Lieu: The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars. Part II AD 363-630. A narrative sourcebook . Routledge, London and New York 2002, p. 351 (source index , see Joh. Epiph. ).
  • Carl Müller: Fragmenta historicorum graecorum . Vol. 4. Paris 1851, pp. 272-276 ( online ).

literature

  • Dariusz Brodka: Johannes Epiphaneia - Classicism and literary tradition in late antique historiography. In: Classica Cracoviensia 16, 2013, pp. 19-28.
  • Herbert Hunger : The high-level profane literature of the Byzantines . Vol. 1 (of 2). Munich 1978, p. 312f.
  • John Martindale: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire . Vol. 3a, Cambridge 1992, pp. 690f.
  • Warren Treadgold : The early Byzantine Historians . Basingstoke 2007, pp. 308-310.
  • Michael Whitby : The emperor Maurice and his Historian. Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan Warfare . Oxford 1988, p. 378 (index, see John of Epiphania ).

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Joh. Epiph. Fragment 1.
  2. ↑ Euagrios, Church History , 5:24.
  3. ↑ Cf. the allusion in Euagrios, Kirchengeschichte , 6.3.
  4. ↑ Cf. Alexias , Proömium 2, with Joh. Epiph. Fragment 1. See also: Anna Komnene. Alexias . Edited by Diether Roderich Reinsch. de Gruyter, Berlin-New York 2001, p. 20, note 7.
personal data
SURNAME John of Epiphaneia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION late antique historian
DATE OF BIRTH 6th century
DATE OF DEATH after 590