New fragments of Priscus from Panion in John Malalas?

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can - although they don’t need to - preserve Priscus’ own words. This is the case of
many passages from John of Antioch where lexical and syntactic features are close to the
Priscan usus and suggest this author as the model.6 In other words, Malalas (or/and his
intermediary) reworked and rephrased the text, however Priscan in its origin; this is not
surprising, since this is how Malalas usually deals with his sources. Directly or indirectly,
Malalas could have borrowed from Priscus much of what nowadays is book XIV of the
Chronicle in Thurn’s edition, i. e. the reign oflheodosius II (408-450 AD).7 But is there
in that book anything else which calls to mind the Priscan usus scribendi and may thus
possibly be a fully genuine (z. e. not to be italicized) Priscan fragment? In my opinion,
this possibility can be quickly dismissed: single words matching Priscus’ lexical prefer-
ence, like πλήθος (“crowd”),8 or expressions like τό δέ Κοτυαέιον πόλις έστί τής
Φρυγίας επαρχίας Σαλουταρίας (“Cotyaeum is a town in the province of Phrygia
Salutaris”9), are so common that they can be found in every Late Antique historian.

2. Looking for new Priscus’ fragments in Malalas’ Chronicle
We may ask the same question again, taking a new, Malalas-focused perspective: is there
anything else in Malalas’book XIV which, however rephrased, can be ultimately Priscan?
The possibility of Priscus being a source for Malalas was discussed, among others,
by Jeep,10 Bourier,11 Bornmann,12 Blockley,13 Elizabeth Jeffreys14 and Brodka,15 compar-
ing Evagrius’ Historia Ecclesiastica, the Chronicon Paschale, Theophanes’ Chronographia
and also the late Byzantine ecclesiastical historian Nicephorus Callistus Xanthopulus
(14th century). The conclusions of these scholars are different because of their different
approaches and research premises:
- Jeep and Bourier were more interested in stressing the intermediation of Eu-
stathius of Epiphania; in this, they were followed by Bornmann;
- Blockley went a step further, taking into consideration not only the notice on
Cyrus (Malalas, Chronographia XIV 16), but also the disgrace of the chamberlain
Antiochus (Malalas, Chronographia XIV15) because of the parallels in Theophanes
and the Suda·,

6 See, e.g., Priscus Panita, fr. 50*, fr. 51*, fr. 52* Carolla (pp. 83-84) = loannes Antiochenus, Historia cronica
fr. 285, fr. 286, fr. 288 Roberto = fr. 217, fr. 218, fr. 220 Mariev = FHG fr. 191, fr. 192, fr. 194.
7 For example the Eudocia story: see Roger Scott’s contribution in this volume.
8 Malalas, Chronographia XIV10 (p. 279,47) πλήθος έχων μυριάδων πολλών; see Chronicon Paschale
p. 587,9-10 Dindorf έχων πλήθος μυριάδων πολλών, referring to Attila as the subject.
9 Malalas, ChronographuiXPJ 16 (p. 282, 29 Thurn).
10 Jeep (1882).
11 Bourier (1900), pp. 52-53.
12 Bornmann (1979), p. XXXIV.
13 Blockley (1981), pp. 116-117.
14 Jeffreys (1990), esp. pp. 191,199.
15 Brodka (2012), esp. p. 209. See also Dariusz Brodka’s contribution in this volume.