New fragments of Priscus from Panion in John Malalas?

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Priscus was in Egypt following the general Maximinus,24 to conduct negotiations with
the Blemmyes and Nubades tribes; due to the untimely death of Maximinus, which
stopped that mission, Priscus had probably more than one occasion to become well
acquainted with the restlessness of the people of Alexandria.25 If the account in exc. 22
Carolla can be valued as Priscus’direct testimony (αυτοψία) of an Alexandrian event,
it could be that Malalas’ report on Hypatia’s death, another Alexandrian event, also
derives, directly or indirectly, from Priscus’work.26 Of course, the wording is no longer
Priscan, as far as we can compare Malalas’ Chronicle with Priscus’ excerpts. However,
Malalas’ short passage about Hypatia might be counted among Priscus’yragw^/ö du-
bia.
Chapter 13 of Malalas’ ChronographiaYJN might come from Eustathius of Epiph-
ania, for two combined reasons: (a) Evagrius’ parallel account in the Historia Eccle-
siastica 118 very conveniently fits in the lacuna at the beginning of this chapter, and (b)
Evagrius explicitly quotes Eustathius as his source in the following chapter (119); but
it may also be argued that for Historia Ecclesiastica 118 Evagrius depends on the full(er)
version of the Chronicle of Malalas.27
Chapters 15 and 16 of Chronographia XIV have already been included in two edi-
tions of Priscus’fragments, by Blockley and by me. In this case, the Priscan provenance
of the account about Cyrus is confirmed not only by the concordance between Malalas
and Chronicon Pasch ale, but also by Theophanes, with slightly different information. I
am now tempted to extend my fr. 60* up to the end of chapter 16, which I suspected
in the past of not being Priscan because of the ecclesiastical nature of the narrated
anecdote and the informal style:28

24 Probably Maximinus was appointed governor of Thebaid, i. e. comes Aegypti·. see Blockley (1983), p. 392
n. 125. For Maximinus as “ein Militär und Diplomat von nicht allzu hohem Rang” when ambassador to
Attila (448/449 AD) see Wirth (1999), pp. 81-87 and p. 165 n. 194. In 451/452 Maximinus was a general
sent to Damascus, see Priscus Panita, exc. 20 Carolla (p. 59,19-20: this is a passage largely reworked by
the excerptor of Excerpta de Legationibus)·, some time later he reached Egypt where he seems to have
been in charge of very important decisions, see Priscus Panita, exc. 21,1-4 Carolla (pp. 59,22-60,18). See
also PLREII, s.n. Maximinus 11, p. 743.
25 Cf. Priscus Panita, exc. 21 Carolla (pp. 59-60).
26 Evagrius says that Priscus came from Thebaid to Alexandria during the riots following the episcopal
election of Proterius, see Priscus Panita, exc. 22 Carolla (p. 61, 9-10); Priscus may well have inserted a
flashback section about Hypatia’s murder here or elsewhere, although writing several decades after 415.
27 See Allen (1981), pp. 7-8,89 (Eustathius) and pp. 7,88 (unabridged Malalas).
28 See also Blockley (1983), p. 381 n. 18: “All three sources continue with an obviously Christianised story
of how Cyrus, by his wit, won over the people of the place, who had shown a marked propensity for
murdering their bishops. It is possible that a similar anecdote, less obviously Christian, was found in
Priscus”.