64

Umberto Roberto

δικτάτωρ, ö έστι μονάρχης, μετά ταύτα των πάντων έκράτησεν εν
ύπερηφανεία καί τυραννίδί επί έτη ιη'. όστις καί τό βίσεξτον εφηύρε
καί νόμους Ρωμαίοις έδωκεν, καί μήνας έπωνόμασε Ρωμαίοις καί
ύπάτους δε αυτός προεβάλλετο καθ’ έκαστον έτος ούς ήβούΛετο.
This Caesar was the first to win sole control over the Romans amid great fear, and
he laid claim to all authority. (...) After this, Julius Caesar the dictator, that is,
monarch, controlled everything arrogantly and as a usurper for 18 years. He devised
the intercalary day and laid down laws for the Romans and he named months for
them. He appointed those whom he wanted each year as consuls.39
The world hegemony was achieved with Octavian Augustus. Although Malalas is not
unaware of some of the negative traits of the character of Octavian Augustus, his
personality is highly exalted by the historical mission assigned to him by Providence.
From this point of view, Malalas once more appears to follow the footsteps of Afri-
canus. Indeed, like Africanus, Malalas too emphasises that world hegemony passed to
Rome only after the end of the Ptolemies, the last heirs of Alexander. This hegemony,
however, is given to Augustus, the first basileus, by the plan of divine Providence. Au-
gustus achieves world hegemony and peace in perfect synchronism with the Epiphany
of Christ. Malalas fully shares the historiographic utilisation of Augustus’ religious
mission in a Christian version, the so-called Augustustheologie, already found in Afri-
canus. Indeed, as compared to Africanus, he amplifies it in an original and significant
manner.40
After having described the circumstances of Augustus’ death, Malalas gives a re-
markable assessment of his person and his historical role:
Ό δέ αυτός ΚαίσαρΌκταουϊανόςνόσω βληθείς έντή Ρώμη έτελεύτησεν,
γέρων ών έτών οε', άπαις καί σωφρονήσας άπό σωματικής άμαρτίας.
ήν γάρ μυστικός άρχιερεύς καί βασιλεύς.
Caesar Octavian was stricken by an illness and died in Rome as an old man aged
75; he was childless and had lived chastely, free from sins of the flesh. He was a high
priest with mystic knowledge, and emperor.41
Here the so-called Augustustheologie is developed to one of its highest points. For
Malalas, who thus inaugurates a celebratory model to be consolidated later to a certain
extent in subsequent Byzantine historiography and chronicles, Augustus becomes a
symbol of the Christian Emperor: basileus and mystikos archiereus at once; his position
39 Malalas, Chronographia IX 2-3 (p. 162, 25-37 Thurn); English translation by Jeffreys/Jeffreys/Scott
(1986), pp. 113-114. Malalas on Julius Caesar: see also Chronographia IX 5; Mecella (2013), pp. 355-356;
Conca (2012), pp. 93-94
40 In general on the Augustustheologie see Klein (2000). On the providential synchronism between the
Incarnation of Christ and the foundation of the Roman Empire by Augustus see lulius Africanus,
Chronographiae F15 Wallraff/Roberto and Roberto (2011), pp. 120-123; on the synchronism in Malalas
see Scott (1990), pp. 159-161.
41 Malalas, Chronographia X 6; English translation by Jeffreys/Jeffreys/Scott (1986), p. 123. On Augustus’
sophrosyne·. Scott (1990), pp. 159-160; Roberto (2014), pp. 132-138.