Joshua Stylites

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Joshua Stylites is traditionally considered to be the author of a chronicle of about 507 about the events in late ancient Syria.

Research has long questioned that Joshua “the stylite” (pillar saint) is actually the author of the said work. However, it cannot be proven with certainty that the author's name is fake. The chronicle, written in Syriac , is a first-rate source for the relations between Eastern Rome and the Sassanid Empire , as the author, who probably lived in the northern Mesopotamian city of Edessa (i.e. in the Roman Empire ), reports as an unusually well-informed contemporary. As can be seen from the work, the author was a clergyman who acquired his information partly from his own experience, partly through discussions with Roman diplomats and soldiers, but also probably from written sources.

“Joshua” did not write a world chronicle, but apparently only dealt with the events that he had experienced himself. The value of the work, which covers the time between the Persian great king Peroz I and 506, is all the greater than that of the Roman-Persian war from 502 to 506 (including the second siege of Amida ) and the Mazdakite unrest in the Sassanid Empire is reported by later authors. Nevertheless, this extremely important source has only received the attention it deserves from ancient historians for a few years .

Translations

  • Frank R. Trombley, John W. Watt: The Chronicle of Pseudo-Joshua the Stylite (= Translated Texts for Historians . Vol. 32). Liverpool University Press, Liverpool 2000, ISBN 0-85323-585-6 (annotated English translation).
  • Andreas Luther : The Syrian Chronicle of Josua Stylites (= studies on ancient literature and history. Vol. 49). de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 1997, ISBN 3-11-015470-6 (translation and extensive historical commentary).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Joshua Stylites
BRIEF DESCRIPTION late antique historian
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century
DATE OF DEATH 6th century