John Malalas as a source for John of Antioch’s Historia Chronike 271
Excerpta Constantiniana composed by the “real John of Antioch” indicates that John of
Antioch’s life and activity took place around 520-530, in the age of Justin I, or perhaps
at the very beginning of Justinian reign.7
As regards the theme of the present study, the dating that he proposed means that
Soutiroudis does not believe that John of Antioch could have used John Malalas as a
source. According to Soutiroudis, John of Antioch wrote his Historia Chronike before
John Malalas’ Chronographia. Consequently, all traces of John Malalas both in the
Excerpta Constantiniana attributed to John of Antioch and in every other tradition
that goes under his name are to be considered spurious fragments, and therefore to
be removed from the list of those assigned to the “real” John of Antioch. As a result,
Sotiroudis has to exclude from his projected critical edition the following Excerpta
Constantiniana, despite the fact that they are transmitted under the name of John of
Antioch:
a) Excerptum de Virtutibus 1; 2; 7; and Excerptum de Insidiis 3, about Heracles; the be-
ginning of the Trojan War; and the story of Orestes. These are some excerpts which
belong to the archaiologia and on the section of the Fall of Troy of the Historia
Chronike.
b) Excerptum de Insidiis 32,33; Excerptum de Virtutibus 26: about Jesus Christ and the
beginning of Christianity.
As is evident from my edition, I do not agree with Sotiroudis’decision to exclude these
Excerpta Constantiniana from the text of the so-called “real John of Antioch”. I explai-
ned my criticism of his thesis in the introduction to my critical edition of 2005. Here
I wish to restate my position succinctly. There is no doubt that the excerpts in the last
section of Excerpta Constantiniana - Maurice to Phocas - are markedly different in
language and style from the excerpts in the second section (Samson to Anastasius I).
But I do not think that the excerptores were wrong in considering them to be text from
the historiographical work of John of Antioch. My suggestion is that the manuscript
(or manuscripts) available to the excerptores Constantiniani was (or were) likely already
heterogeneous in quality. In my opinion, the excerptores Constantiniani consulted a
good manuscript of the Historia Chronike, which contained a narrative extending from
the archaiologia to Anastasius I. For the period from the age of Maurice to the death of
Phocas, they integrated this manuscript with an epitome. The author of this epitome
derived his texts directly from the last section of the Historia Chronike despite his
lower style and language.8
I am persuaded that the death of the tyrant Phocas on 5 October 610 is the last
event in the narrative sequence of the Historia Chronike. John of Antioch wrote his
universal chronicle at the beginning of Heraclius’ reign. As we shall see, this event
probably induced John of Antioch to write his universal history in form of a chronicle.

7 Sotiroudis, Untersuchungen, pp. 148-53.
8 On the other hand, another excerpt where style and language depart drastically from the usual level of
John of Antioch is fr. 277 Roberto = fr. 209 Mariev (= El 77).