Malalas’ Antioch

67

topographical point of reference (XVII14). The theatre and the hippodrome appear as
places of sedition (XVI 2; XVI 6), which is not surprising. Some baths are incidentally
mentioned,35 as some name of streets or sectors of urban space,36 two synagogues,37 at
least one hospice (XVI 8, ed. Thurn, p. 351,1. 52), cisterns (XVI 8, ed. Thurn, p. 351,1. 52),
and some specific places, such as Olympias’ fountain (XVII16, ed. Thurn, p. 346,1. 16,
according to a Slavonic version) and the Antiforos, which is a public place where a
bronze statue called “Kolonisios” was located (XVI 6, ed. Thurn, p. 325,11.19-20).
Even if the Antiochean matter is quantitatively relatively less important in this
third part than in the others two, this part offers a rich number of very useful and
reliable indications about the urban space of Antioch. However, the conditions of
transmission of the passages relating to Antioch in this third part must be taken into
consideration. These passages have been sometimes heavily abbreviated and it is nec-
essary to resort to the indirect tradition. It is the case with the account of building
operations by Ulus and with the account of a pogrom during Zeno’s reign (XV 13 and
15, cf. El, ed. de Boor, p. 163,1. 21-p. 167,1. 20).38 Such instances could be multiplied.39
In his Chronicle, Theophanes the Confessor uses for his account of the fire of 525 what
we could call one version of Malalas’ Chronography, or at least a common source.40
Theophanes’ account, however, includes the mention of five-storey buildings which
is lacking in the Bodleian manuscript.41 The church called Kerataion doesn’t appear
in the abbreviated version of the account of the earthquake of 526 (XVII 16), as we
read it in the Bodleian manuscript, but appears both in a Slavonic version42 and in the
Chronicle of John of Nikiu.43 Unfortunately, in these two texts the mentions of the
Kerataion don’t occur exactly at the same point in the narrative, and don’t have exactly
the same function. According to the Slavonic version, the earthquake began just when
the bells of the church were ringing, whereas according to John of Nikiu, the survivors
35 Baths of Urbicius and Eupatios (or Olympics ?): Malalas XV15, ed. Thurn, p. 316,1. *62-63= A/, ed. de
Boor, p. i66,l. 36, complemented according to a Slavonic version (see also transl. Jeffreys/Jeffreys/Scott,
Chronicle, p. 218). In his account of the fire of 526 (cf. Malalas XVII14), John of Nikiu mentions “the
baths of Tainadonhus” and “the baths of the Syrian Nation” (transl. Jeffreys/Jeffreys/Scott, Chronicle,
p. 236 ; ed. Thurn, p. 344, apparatus criticus', John of Nikiu XC 24, transl. Charles, The Chronicle of John,
bishop of Nikiu, p. 135; regarding John of Nikiu, cf. Vest, “Les sources medievales dites orientales’ (syri-
aques, arabes, armeniennes et autres), concernant 1’histoire de la ville d’Antioche et sa topographic”,
p. 197. For the baths of the quarter of Olbia, see above, fn 34.
36 Street of the Thalassioi, see above, fn 34; distadioi dromoi·. Malalas XV 15, ed. Thurn, p. 317,1. *84= El,
ed. de Boor, p. 166,1.14-15, completed according to the Slavonic version, cf. also transl. Jeffreys/Jeffreys/
Scott, Chronicle, p. 219; Anatolies’basilica: Malalas XVI 8, ed. Thurn, p. 351,1. 55.
37 Asabinus’ synagogue: Malalas XV 15, ed. Thurn, p. 316,1. *73 (El, ed. de Boor, p. 167,1. 7, completed ac-
cording to a Slavonic version, cf. transl. Jeffreys/Jeffreys/Scott, Chronicle, p. 218) ; synagogue near the
city wall (?): Malalas XV15, ed. Thurn, p. 317, l.*8i = El, ed. de Boor, p. 167,1.14).
38 Cf. Flusin, “Les Excerpta constantiniens et la Chronographie de Malalas”, p. 131.
39 See also above, fn 31 and 35-37.
40 Theophanes, ed. C. de Boor, Leipzig, 1883, p. 172,11. i-n, cf. Malalas XVII14.
41 Theophanes, ed. de Boor, p. 172,1. 9, cf. Malalas XVII14, ed. Thurn, p. 344,1. 59 (see the apparatus criti-
cus), and transl. Jeffreys/Jeffreys/Scott, Chronicle, p. 236.
42 Malalas XVII16, ed. Thurn, p. 347,1. 42, cf. transl. Jeffreys/Jeffreys/Scott, Chronicle, p. 239.
43 John of Nikiu XC 30, transl. Charles, Chronicle, p. 136.