142

Pia Carolla

3. Further (garbled) traces of Priscus in Malalas:
Hypatia, Antiochus, Cyrus
Also the account of Hypatia’s assassination in 415 AD by “the Alexandrians” in Mala-
las, Chronographia XIV 12 (p. 280, 68-70 Thurn) might, in my opinion, derive ulti-
mately from Priscus:

Malalas, Chronographia XIV12

GREEK TEXT according to the edition of
Thum (p. 280, 68-70)
Κατ ’εκείνον δε τον καιρόν παρρησίαν
λαβόντες ύπό του επισκόπου οί
Αλεξανδρεΐς έκαυσαν φρύγανοις αύ-
θεντήσαντες Ύπατίαν τήν περιβόητον
φιλόσοφον, περί ής μεγάλα έφέρετο·
ήν δε παλαιά γυνή.

TRANSLATION by Ronchey (2017)
(cf. also Jeffreys/Jeffreys/Scott [1986], 195-196)
Having received authorisation from their
bishop, the Alexandrians attacked and burned
on a pyre of brushwood Hypatia, the famous
philosopher, despite the fact that she had an
excellent reputation and was an elderly wom-
an.

- on the one hand, the information about the “license by their bishop” matches with
Socrates Scholasticus’report,20 thus pointing to a non-Alexandrian, possibly Con-
stantinopolitan milieu’,
- on the other hand, some details in Malalas’ text are completely unparalleled else-
where and suggest a well-informed, contemporary source;21
- furthermore, the passage on Hypatia’s death immediately follows a sentence
(p. 280, 67 Thurn, Chronographia XIV 11) highlighting the strict bond of affection
between the emperor Theodosius II and the bishop of Alexandria, Cyril; since
Theodosius’ friend Cyril is soon to be identified as the (hidden) responsible of the
murder, this arrangement of the material, passing from Theodosius to the guilty
Cyril, may en bloc go back to Priscus, who, as it is well known, was a fierce opponent
of this emperor.22
If this supposition is correct, we can further establish a connection with Priscus exc.
22 Carolla, where the riots by the same Alexandrians in 451 AD (against the bishop
Proterius, in favour of the exiled Dioscorus) are narrated by Evagrius on the authority
of Priscus of Panion and using probably his very words at least in one paragraph.23
20 Socrates Scholasticus, Historia Ecdesiastka VII15.
21 E.g. the mention of the burning on a pyre of faggots (φρυγάνοις, p. 280,69 Thurn).
22 For the sources about Hypatia see Ronchey (2010), esp. pp. 57-61,129-132,177-180 and Ronchey (2017),
which is the forthcoming English edition of her monograph, where a well-informed, anonymous
source is supposed for Malalas; see also Canfora (2010), p. 100. For Priscus’hostility towards Theodosius
II see, e.g., fr. 50*, fr. 52*, fr. 54* Carolla (pp. 83-84).
23 Especially relevant is the second paragraph of exc. 22 Carolla (p. 61,4-8: not italicized = fr. 28,1 Blockley,
p. 324,3-7): most of the vocabulary as well as the syntactic features in Evagrius’ text at this point corre-
spond exactly to the Priscan usus scribendi, see e.g. μέγιστος καί άνύποιστος; τφ δήμω προς
διαφόρους κυμαινομένω γνώμας; μάλα γεννικώς άντείχοντο; πολλά καί άνήκεστα.