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Anne-Marie Bernardi, Emmanuele Caire

blishment of a synchronism. On the other hand, he links a brief depiction of the new
emperor, as he often does, to the mention of his advent.
Chapter 2 begins with a notice on the demise of John the Apostle. This is a notice
by Eusebius, with a few changes, though. Malalas gives an indication of date: “until
the second year of the reign”, while Eusebius, quoting Irenaeus,15 only writes “until
the times of Trajan”. In the layout of the Bodleianus manuscript of Jerome, the notice
about John is placed on the line corresponding to the third year of the reign, while in
the Armenian version, it is inserted across the whole page, between year 1 and year 2
of the reign.16 The detail added by Malalas, though he follows here Eusebius, down to
the mention of Irenaeus, could be a simple interpretation of the reading of the notice
in a manuscript adopting a layout resembling that handed down through the Arme-
nian version. The end of Malalas’ notice nevertheless strays from what we know of the
Canones. Malalas does not mention John’s disciples,17 but adds a sentence about the
Apostle’s invisibility18 and a reference to Africanus. Then overlooking every interme-
diate notice, Malalas directly proceeds with the “great persecution of the Christians”,
which Eusebius places in the 10th year of the reign. How are we to account for the
omission of the intermediate notices with their interesting episodes such as conquests,
earthquakes, and the episcopacy of Alexandria? It may be due to the surprising brevity
of Malalas’ text itself in Book XI. However we can also observe that in the Armenian
version, the notice about the persecution of the Christians is the first one, after that
about John, to stretch across the whole page. A selective reading, ignoring the margins,
then directly goes from one to the other.
From Chapter 3, very loosely connected to the chronological structure (“in those
times”), Malalas durably strays from the Canones to develop a long narrative episode,
that of the war against the Persians. Covering several chapters (ch. 3 to 6), with well-
defined parts, the episode is actually totally focused on Antioch, with its capture and
occupation by the Persians, the inhabitants’ revolt against them at the instigation of
Trajan, then upon his arrival in Seleucia, his entrance in Antioch, starting point of his
military raid against the Persians. To the period when Trajan was in Antioch19 Malalas
also links a letter about the Christians addressed to the emperor by one Tiberianus,
structures”, pp. 143-149). But consular dates are omitted for the imperial accessions of Galba, Othon,
Vitellius, Titus and Domitian, and for accessions of the successors of Hadrian until Septimius Severus.
However, it should be noted that consular dates occur for the death of Nero (X 40), and for Titus’
capture of Jerusalem (X 45).
15 Iraneus, Adversns haereses. 3.6.
16 See Appendix 3.
17 Jerome’s translation has names ofPapias of Jerusalem, Polycarp of Smyrna and Ignatius of Antioch. The
Armenian version mentions only the first two names. The expression used by Malalas (ό άγιος
Ιωάννης [...] ήν φαινόμενος καί διδάσκων έν Έφέσω: “St John [...] was seen teaching in Ephe-
sos”) may be extrapolated from such a list of anditores.
18 The sentence about John’s invisibility derives likely from Apocryphal Acts of'John (Schenk-Stauffenberg,
Die Römische Kaisergeschichte, p. 260).
19 Chapter 5 begins as follow: “While the emperor Trajan was spending time in Antioch in Syria (...)” (Ev
τω δέ διατρίβειν τον αυτόν Τραϊανόν βασιλέα έν Αντιόχεια τής Συρίας [...]).