Marcellinus Comes

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Marcellinus Comes († after 534 ) was a late antique Eastern Roman historian.

Like the emperors Justin I and Justinian I, Marcellinus came from the Illyricum and thus from a region of the Eastern Roman Empire in which Latin was not the lingua franca of Greek . After a military career, he finally served the two rulers mentioned as a high court official (hence the title comes ) and wrote a first version of his chronicle in Constantinople around 520 (according to some researchers not until after 523) , based on the works of Eusebius and Hieronymus and described the events of the years 379 (accession of Theodosius I ) to 518 (beginning of Justin's reign) in Latin . The work has been completely preserved and is an important and abundant source for the history of Ostrom. In addition to the political history, the history of the church is also mentioned in passing. In addition, the chronicle, which was clearly intended for an Eastern Roman audience, can be regarded as an example of the fact that Latin still played an important role in Eastern Rome under Justinian - Marcellinus was probably one of the important Latin-speaking minority in Constantinople. He himself wrote a continuation of the chronicle up to the year 534. The occasion was the conquest of the Vandal Empire by Justinian in that year; a stranger ( auct. chron. II ) then continued the report at least until 548.

It is also noteworthy that in the chronicle the view can be grasped for the first time that the year 476, in which Romulus Augustulus , the last emperor in Italy, was deposed, marked the end of the Western Roman Empire:

Orestem Odoacer illico trucidavit; Augustulum filium Orestis Odoacer in Lucullano Campaniae castello exsilii poena damnavit. Hesperium Romanae gentis imperium, quod septingentesimo nono Urbis conditae anno primus Augustorum Octavianus Augustus tenere coepit, cum hoc Augustulo periit, anno decessorum regni imperatorum DXXII, Gothorum dehinc regibus Romam tenentibus.

“Odoacer massacred Orestes at once; He condemned the son of Orestes, Augustulus , and exiled him as punishment to the Lucullanum estate in Campania. The western empire of the Roman people, which in the 709th year since the founding of Rome [probably 44 BC. Meant] Octavianus Augustus, who first began to take possession of him, went under with this Augustulus - successive rulers in the 522nd year - and from then on the kings of the Goths made Rome their own. "

- Marcellinus Comes : Chronicon

This interpretation of the events was to prevail in the period that followed and then be recognized as the date not only for the "end" of Western Rome , but also generally for the " end of antiquity " into the 20th century . Only more recent research has been able to break away from the fixation on the alleged epoch year 476. In older research, it was also assumed for a long time that this passage was based on a source representing the western-senatorial point of view, such as the lost Historia Romana by Quintus Aurelius Memmius Symmachus . According to Brian Croke's research, this view can be considered refuted. The view of Marcellinus probably reflects the official Eastern Roman position of the time around 520: Since there is no longer an empire in the West, he is now directly subordinate to the ruler in Constantinople. Justinian should try to enforce these claims a little later with some (but only short-term) success.

That Marcellinus represented the quasi-official standpoint of the imperial court is also clear from his entry on the Nika uprising of 532; here he deviates radically from the reading of most of the sources and presents the events as an attempt at usurpation by Flavius ​​Hypatius . Marcellinus, who apparently wrote at least one other lost work and probably finally became a clergyman, must have died sometime between 534 and 548.

Editions and translations

  • Theodor Mommsen : Chronica minora saec. IV. V. VI. VII. Volume 2 (= Monumenta Germaniae Historica . Auctores antiquissimi. Volume 11). Weidmann, Berlin 1894, pp. 37-108 (still authoritative edition of the Latin text).
  • Brian Croke: The chronicle of Marcellinus (= Byzantina Australiensia. Volume 7). Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, Sydney 1995, ISBN 0-9593626-6-5 (Latin text based on Mommsen's edition with an English translation and commentary).

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Marcellinus Comes  - Sources and full texts

Remarks

  1. ↑ http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/marcellinus2.html
personal data
SURNAME Marcellinus Comes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION late antique historian
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century or 6th century
DATE OF DEATH after 534