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Umberto Roberto

How are we to explain this interest that differentiates John of Antioch from his
model Malalas? In my opinion, we can explain it if we consider the historiographical
identity of John of Antioch and the interests of the Historic/. Chronike s audience. As
the last fragments in the Excerpta Constantiniana of John of Antioch show (in the
Excerpta de virtutibus and the Excerpta de insidiis), the Historic/ Chronike was written
after the events related to the death of Maurice and the tyranny of Phocas. Phocas
is described as a vicious despot: he is as detestable as Tarquinius Superbus, as blood-
thirsty (αίμοπότης) as Catilina, and as arrogant as Sulla and Julius Caesar. To the
rescue of the collapsing Empire comes at the beginning of October 610 Heraclius
who, when entering Constantinople from the provinces, finds the city already freed by
the people and by the Senate. Their insurrection and reconquest of freedom had been
led by Phocas’son-in-law Priscus. John wrote his Historia Chronike close to the events
of 610, in all probability as an eye-witness both of Phocas’ oppressive regime and of
the civil war that led to his deposition.18 Therefore, in my opinion, the interest in the
Roman Republic and its institutions is completely political. John of Antioch wants to
offer his audience the political examples of good government that granted freedom
and power to the Roman Republic. He lives in fact in an age of reorganization of the
Empire as a political institution. Moreover, as is well known, in proposing himself as a
saviour from the tyranny of Phocas, Heraclius evoked the consulship of ancient Rome
in his coinage. The last fragment in the Excerpta de insidiis shows a brutal scene which
recalls a calcatio colli. But the short dialogue between Heraclius and Phocas reiterates
the central question for John of Antioch and for the audience of the Historia Chro-
nike·. What makes a good ruler? Moreover, how are people to avoid the degeneration
that transforms an Empire into a tyranny? The virtues and the good examples of the
Roman Republic may be quite useful for the reformation of the Empire expected
from Heraclius after his triumph over the tyrant Phocas. In all likelihood, it is for this
reason that John of Antioch and his audience are so interested in the freedom of the
Roman Republic.
Malalas as a source for the origins of Christianism
For his reconstruction of Roman history John of Antioch deploys a variety of sour-
ces. The Breviarium of Eutropius provided him with a chronological and narrative
framework. However, John enriches it with many citations drawn from other sources,
e.g. Cassius Dio, Plutarch, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Herodian. It is with the
early Roman Empire that Malalas resumes his role as an important source for John
of Antioch. In particular, the Excerpta Constantiniana show that Malalas is the main
source for the origins of Christianity. As regards his chronological and historiographi-
cal framework, Malalas’ Chronographia is divided in two main parts by the Incarnation
of Jesus Christ. The first section (Books I-IX) deals with history from Adam to Jesus,

18 For this date see also Chronicon Paschale, pp. 150-59, nn. 421 and 423.