Malalas’ Antioch

73

Some errors and foolish falsehoods were already pointed out in the Founders cycles
and the role of fiction in these cycles is obviously very important. The historian of
urban space must of course be very cautious in using these tales as sources. However,
it must be noted that the places mentioned in these stories are sometimes mentioned
by other sources, and seem to be indeed important places in Late Antique Antioch.
That is the case with the theatre65 or of the Olympias fountain.66 Malalas is however a
more reliable source about what was told in the sixth century about these places than
about their objective history.
The question of the origins and elaboration of these cycles and the question of the
modalities of their integration to Malalas’ History are not easy to answer. The theme of
human foundation sacrifice occurs a number of times in Malalas’ text and it has been
shown that the source must be a list of human sacrifices for foundations, whose aim
is to point out the contrast between the pagan foundations of cities and the Christian
foundation - without human sacrifice - of Constantinople by Constantine. This list
cannot have been compiled prior to 330.67 The Wall cycle in Malalas cannot have been
conceived before the fifth century and the extension of the wall by Theodosius II. One
wonders if the Wall cycle incorporated the Antiochean components of the list of hu-
man foundation sacrifices, or was embedded in a large book about the foundations and
re-foundations, used by Malalas, and whose author could be a certain Domninos,68
frequently quoted, or if Malalas himself decided to combine the human sacrifices and
the Wall cycle.
In any case, other cycles may be identified: for instance, there is a “Jerusalem cycle”,
which connects the story of the Temple in Jerusalem and the urban space of Antioch.
Two places, known by other sources and very important in sixth-century Antioch,
are involved in this Jerusalem cycle: the Kerataion Church and the Cherubim, a place
where Christ used to make public appearances in the sixth century.69 The foundation
of the Kerataion Church is connected with the history of the Maccabean war during
the reign of Antiochus IV and a canonical list of the successive destructions of Jeru-

65 The theatre and theatrical life play a very important role at Antioch in the fourth century (cf. Casella,
“Les spectacles ä Antioche d’apres Libanios”, p. 100-104, with primary sources and secondary literature;
regarding the theatre as a building, cf. Libanios, Discours XI, edited, translated, annotated by Casevitz/
Lagacherie/Saliou, forthcoming in the Collection des Universites de France, § 125 and note 4, § 218 and
note 3). In the sixth century, the theatre is mentioned by Severus of Antioch, between 512 and 518 (cf.
Alpi, “Societe et vie profane ä Antioche sous le patriarcat de Severe (512-518)”, p. 533), by Malalas in the
narrative of events happened during Justinian’s reign (XVIII 62; XVIII 67), and by Evagrius Scholasti-
cus in the account of seditious demonstrations in 588 (Historia. ecclesiastica VI 7).
66 Regarding Olympias’fountain, cf. Saliou,“L’Eloge ÜAntioche (Libanios, discours 11 = Antiochikos) et son
apport ä la connaissance du paysage urbain d’Antioche”, pp. 45-46.
67 Cf. supra, fn 64.
68 Regarding Domninos, cf. Jeffreys, “Malalas’ sources”, pp. 178-179.
69 Cf. Saliou, “La Porte des Cherubins ä Antioche sur 1’Oronte et le developpement de la ville”, with
primary sources and secondary literature.