The Influence of Julius Africanus’ Chronographiae 61
the West is concerned, the spread of knowledge proceeded from Egypt. In Africanus,
Egypt’s role is fundamental, especially in connection with Greek and Roman culture.
Indeed, Egypt acts as a bridge, a place where knowledge and ideas are transmitted to
men of culture who brought culture to the West. To confirm this view, Africanus states
explicitly that Athens is an Egyptian colony. Consequently, Athens’ role of cultural
primacy in world history, claimed by Graeco-Roman culture, and in particular by the
Atthidographers, is totally rejected by Africanus.
As is widely acknowledged, Jewish apologists already claimed the superiority of
Moses over Greek philosophers.30 However, as far as the interpretation of universal
history in the Chronographiae is concerned, this is not merely apology. Africanus takes
a stance in a historiographic debate which, continuing at least since Hecataeus of
Miletus, has come through Herodotus and Plato down to the culture of the Severan
age. This view of translatio studii, so characteristic of the Chronographiae, is passed on
directly to Malalas. In his work {Chronographia I 7) he clearly states that knowledge
passed from the descendants of Noah to the peoples of India (Goundobarios) and
Persia (Nebrod/Nimrod). With regard to Egypt’s role in spreading civilisation in the
West, Malalas does not explicitly state that Athens is an Egyptian colony. At his time,
the question was not as important as it had been during the first three decades of the
3rd century, when Africanus had been writing. However, it suffices to consider the role
of Hephaestus and Cecrops to see that Malalas has fully taken over the fundamentals
of the translatio studii according to Africanus’view. Hephaestus became king of Egypt
after Mestraim and Hermes:
Ό δέ αυτός Ήφαιστος νόμον έθηκεν τάς Αιγυπτίων γυναίκας
μονανδρεΐν καί σωφρόνως διάγειν, τάς δέ επί μοιχεία εύρισκομένας
τιμωρεΐσθαι. καί ηύχαρίστησαν αύτω οί Αιγύπτιοι, διότι πρώτον
νόμον σωφροσύνης <τούτον> έδέξαντο. (...) άπεθέωσαν ούν αύτόν ώς
σωφροσύνην νομοθετήσαντα κτλ.
Hephaistos issued a law that Egyptian women were to be monogamous and to
live chastely, while those who were caught in adultery were to be punished. The
Egyptians were grateful to him, since this was the first law on chastity which they
received. (...) They deified him, since he had legislated for chastity etc.31
As noted by Roger Scott, Malalas considers chastity/sophrosyne as “the yardstick for
separating the civilised from the barbarous.”32 The Egyptian civilisation soon spread
to Greece and to the western Mediterranean region. Consequently, chastity and mo-
nogamy were introduced in Athens by Cecrops, an Egyptian, as Malalas reports:
30 See Berthelot (2004), pp. 46-49. For an introduction to the problem see Burgess (2006), pp. 24-28;
Adler (2010).
31 Malalas, Chronographia I 15 (p. 16, 96-8 Thurn); English translation by Jeffreys/Jeffreys/Scott (1986),
p. 10. This law was strictly followed by his son and successor, Helios: Malalas, Chronographia II1. See
Scott (1990), pp. 153-154.
32 Scott (1990), p. 154.