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which Malalas’ attitude to the emperor is contrasted with that of a number of other
sixth-century authors.
The Historic/. Ecclesiastica of Zachariah, rhetor and later anti-Chalcedonian bishop
of Mitylene on the island of Lesbos, served Evagrius as a text to refute. Unfortunately
the relationship between Zachariah’s original work and the work as we have it from
the pen of a continuator is hard to assess, although it had been elucidated to some
extent recently.51 Zachariah’s original Historia Ecclesiastica appears to have been pub-
lished in the 490s and was dedicated to the cubicularius Eupraxius.52 Ps-Zachariah was
apparently a Syrian monk working in 568/569, who continued the Historia Ecclesiastica,
not without changes and additions.53 Since Books III to VI of Zachariah’s Historia
Ecclesiastica, treating the period from the Council of Chalcedon to the accession of
Emperor Anastasius, were taken over by Ps-Zachariah, for information after that time
we are reliant on the continuator and his sources. According to Ps-Zachariah, Anasta-
sius was a believer;54 Dara was named Anastasioupolis after the just emperor;55 he was
orthodox,56 and kept the truth in holiness.57 With regard to Justin I, Ps-Zachariah says
that he was of the same faith as the inhabitants of Rome and illiterate;58 Ps-Zachari-
ah’s treatment of Justinian’s reign does not include the emperor’s ecclesiastical policies.
The Chronicle of Ps-Joshua the Stylite, the earliest surviving work of history in
Syriac, details the various problems that beset Edessa, Amida, and Mesopotamia from
494 to 506. The anonymous author is favourable to Emperor Anastasius, Bishop Fla-
vian of Antioch, and Philoxenus. Trombley and Watt note:
Our author makes no mention of christological disputes or the parties to them,
and from his favourable attitude to Anastasius and Flavian, we may assume that
he too was content with the tolerant regime established through the acceptance of
the Henoticon .59
This is not dissimilar to Malalas’ approach: His attitude to Emperor Zeno, whose He-
noticon left considerable flexibility with regard to the Council of Chalcedon, is neutral
or at least ambivalent. Zeno’s generosity to the people after his return from exile is
mentioned; in addition his assistance to cities after natural disasters is noted.60 With
51 By Blaudeau (2006b), pp. 581-617, and Greatrex et al. (2011), esp. pp. 1-72 (Introduction). For the text see
Brook’s edition of Ps.-Zacharia Rhetor, Historia Ecclesiastica.
52 See Greatrex et al. (2011), p. 9 with n. 22 on the date of publication. See Greatrex et al. (2011), pp. 25-28
on the relationship between Zachariah and Ps-Zachariah.
53 See Greatrex et al. (2011), p. 32.
54 Ps.-Zacharia Rhetor, Historia Ecclesiastica VII1; English translation in Greatrex et al. (2011), p. 228.
55 Ps.-Zacharia Rhetor, Historia Ecclesiastica VII 6; English translation in Greatrex et al. (2011), p. 250.
56 Ps.-Zacharia Rhetor, Historia Ecclesiastica VII 8; English translation in Greatrex et al. (2011), p. 259.
57 Ps.-Zacharia Rhetor, Historia Ecclesiastica VII13; English translation in Greatrex et al. (2011), p. 275.
58 Ps.-Zacharia Rhetor, Historia Ecclesiastica VII14; English translation in Greatrex et al. (2011), p. 277.
59 Trombley/Watt (2000), pp. xxvii-xxviii.
60 Malalas, Chronographia XV 6 (p. 304, 71-89 Thurn), translation in Jeffreys/Jeffreys/Scott (1986), p. 211;
Malalas, Chronographia XV 11 (pp. 308, 63-309, 69 Thurn), translation in Jeffreys/Jeffreys/Scott (1986),
p. 213.