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Catherine Saliou

met in this church after the catastrophe in order to celebrate the feast of Ascension.
The choice made by H. Thurn to merge the extant versions into one and the same re-
constructed « Urtext » obliterates this kind of difficulty. The correct use of the indirect
tradition will necessitate some more thought.
In any event, despite the difficulties occasioned by the complex history of elabo-
ration and transmission of Malalas’ text, Books XV-XVIII offer a rich and valuable
amount of objective data in order to have a picture of Antiochean urban space between
ca 475 and ca 530.
III. From Io to Leo: Books II-XIV
The first and second part of Malalas’ text have often been considered as “a funda-
mental and generally reliable source”44 for the history of the construction of Antioch
and in some cases it can be shown that the information given by Malalas is true. For
instance, Malalas says that Hadrian built public baths (XI14) and “Hadrian’s Thermae
(Άδριαναί θερμαί) are indeed mentioned in an official document from the third cen-
tury.45 On the other hand, the inconsistencies and errors of Malalas are striking. For
instance, it is impossible that Seleucus, Tiberius or Trajan sacrificed a virgin;46 Rufinus’
basilica, already mentioned (above) must have been built by Rufinus, the praetorian
prefect of Theodosius, therefore its construction cannot be assigned to the reign of
Constantine as Malalas claims;47 as Evagrius Scholasticus already pointed out, the
attribution of the extension of the walls of the city to Theodosius I is erroneous.48 Such
examples could be multiplied. The mere etiological function of some of the indications
given by Malalas is also obvious: it is the case, for instance, with the story according to
which the relics of the Maccabean martyrs were deposited in the Kerataion because of
the presence of a synagogue. However, the very existence of a church named Kerataion
at Antioch in Late Antiquity is unquestionable.49 Similarly, it is a matter of fact that
there was in Antioch, in the sixth century, a place named Cherubim.50 Malalas sug-
gests that this place was so named after the Cherubim of the Temple of Jerusalem had
been put there after the siege in 70 AD,51 but this is an etiological fiction.
44 Croke, “Malalas, the man and his work”, p. 7. For a more cautious approach, cf. Agusta-Boularot, “Les
livres I ä XII de la Chronique de Jean Malalas et leur apport ä la connaissance du paysage urbain
d’Antioche”, p. 145 : “on erre dans TAntioche de Malalas comme dans un labyrinthe spatio-temporal”.
45 P. Euphrat i, 11.1-2, FeisseVGascou, “Documents d’archives remains inedits du Moyen Euphrate (IIIe s.
ap.J.-C.)”, pp. 71-72, p. 78.
46 Malalas VIII14; X 10; XI 9 (quoted and commented below).
47 Malalas XIII 3; cf. Downey, A History of Antioch in Syria, p. 651-653.
48 Malalas XIII39, cf. Evagrius Scholasticus, Historia ecclesiastica I 20. See Downey, “The wall of Theodo-
sius at Antioch”, pp. 207-213.
49 Malalas VIII 23. Cf. Saliou,“ä propos de quelques eglises d’Antioche”, pp. 650-651.
50 Cf. Saliou, “La Porte des Cherubins ä Antioche sur 1’Oronte et le developpement de la ville”, pp. 127-
129 (with references to primary sources and secondary literature).
51 Malalas X 45.