72

Catherine Saliou

Moreover, the human sacrifice made by Tiberius is related to the process of construct-
ing the theatre, which, as we will see, is part of another cycle, the “Theater cycle”. The
last human sacrifice which took place in Antioch was made by Trajan and it is con-
nected to the end of the construction of the theatre.
XI 9. “The most pious Trajan erected buildings in Antioch the Great, beginning
first with the building known as the Middle Gate near the Temple of Ares where
the Parmenios torrent flow down, very close to what it now called the Macellum·,
he had carved above it a statue of a she-wolf suckling Romus et Remus, so that it
should be recognised that the building was Roman. He sacrificed there a beautiful
virgin from Antioch, named Kalliope, as an atonement and for the purification
of the city, holding a bridal procession for here. (...) He completed the theatre of
Antioch, which was unfinished and he placed in it a gilded bronze statue of the girl
whom he had sacrificed.”63
In Malalas’ History, human sacrifices are always foundation sacrifices.64 Thus, the The-
atre cycle is in fact part of the Founders’ cycle. The attentive reader has already noticed
that there is another connection between Trajan and Tiberius. Both put a statue of the
She-Wolf and the Twins somewhere in Antioch: Tiberius at the East Gate, Trajan at
the “Middle Gate”, the latter of which seems to be a monumental access to the civic
centre. Malalas connects explicitly this iconographical motive with the affirmation of
the Roman character of this foundation.
However, we don’t quite come full circle yet: the Theatre cycle involves also (wit-
hout human sacrifice) Julius Caesar who, according to Malalas, began the construction
of the theatre (IX 5), and Agrippa who continued it (IX 14). Moreover, Julius Caesar
is also involved, although marginally, in the wall cycle. Indeed Julius Caesar is said to
have built baths, an aqueduct, and an amphitheatre (monomacheion) “on the Acropolis”
(IX 5). The Acropolis is mentioned for the first time in the tale of the foundation by
Seleucus, and in the tale of the last extension, it is said that the monomacheion were
destroyed in order to furnish material for the construction of Theodosius’ wall (XIII
39, quoted above).
Now we have come full circle, and it is a very coherent assembly of cycles and
subcycles, from Seleucus to Theodosius I, involving Julius Caesar, Agrippa, Tiberius,
and Trajan.
63 (...) ό δέ αυτός ευσεβέστατος Τραϊανός έκτισεν εν Αντιόχεια τή μεγάλη άρξάμενος
πρώτον κτίσμα την Λεγομένην μέσην πύλην πλησίον τού ιερού τού Άρεως, όπου ό
Παρμένιος χείμαρρος κατέρχεται, έγγιστα τού νυνί λεγομένου Μακέλλου, γλύψας άνω
άγαλμα λυκαίνης τρεφούσης τον 'Ρώμον καί τον 'Ρήμον,διά τό γινώσκεσθαι,ότι'Ρωμαϊόν
έστι τό κτίσμα, θυσιάσας έκεϊ παρθένον κόρην εύπρεπή πολίτιδα όνόματι Καλλιόπην
ύπέρ λύτρου καί άποκαθαρισμού τής πόλεως, νυμφαγωγίαν αύτή ποιήσας (...) τό
θέατρον δέ τής αύτής Αντιόχειας άνεπλήρωσεν άτελές όν, στήσας έν αύτω ύπεράνω
τεσσάρων κιόνων έν μέσω τού νυμφαίου τού προσκηνίου τής σφαγιασθείσης ύπ’αύτού
κόρης στήλην χαλκήν κεχρυσωμένην(...) Transl. Jeffreys/Jeffreys/Scott, Chronicle, pp. 145-146·
64 Cf. Garstad, “The Tyche sacrifices in John Malalas: virgin sacrifice and fourth century polemical his-
tory”, pp. 83-135; Saliou, “Statues d’Antioche de Syrie dans la Chronographie de Malalas”, pp. 78-81.