Malalas and erudite memory in sixth-century Constantinople

221

on missions to Constantinople; in the periods 512-519/520, 522-523, and 527, Malalas
was, according to Treadgold, possibly present in Constantinople-first in the service of
Praetorian Prefect Marinus,9 second in the retinue of the new urban prefect Theodo-
tus,10 and third on an embassy with the comes orientis Zacharias.11
As might be clear, the inferential hypothesis is a makeshift for a want of any direct
biographical data which must be used with caution. Therefore, I would consider it
unwise to go beyond the careful inferences posited by Croke. As these inferences have
been acquiesced to in previous scholarship, I will in this contribution assume these
biographical inferences to be correct. Malalas was thus a historian from Antioch who
between AD 528 and AD 540 relocated to Constantinople and there made a second
redaction of his historical work.
Malalas’ relocation to Constantinople is furthermore plausible as it was not only
triggered by the more or less dramatic changes in the political and administrative
landscape of the sixth-century Roman world, but rather the historian leaving his local
context also conforms to a general pattern within the social dynamics of the later Ro-
man Empire. In Constantinople, there was a constant influx of lawyers and adminis-
trators from the provinces who hoped to attract patronage and an office in the imperial
administration by a display of their literary prowess.12 We can surmise the same was
the case for John Malalas, when he entered Constantinople with the first redaction of
his Chronographia in hand. For the furthering of his historiographical, literary and di-
dactic ambitions, he would have found in Constantinople a very fertile ground indeed.
In fact, sixth-century Constantinople was the theatre of an intense debate on and
remoulding of the erudite memory of Rome and the Roman Empire. One of the
pivotal figures in these debates was the professor of Latin, civil servant and polymath
John the Lydian (ca. AD 490 - ca. AD 565),13 hereafter also called Lydus. Lydus was
born around 490 and left in 511 his hometown of Philadelphia in Lydia to test his luck
in the city of Constantinople. With the help of Zoticus,14 a patron from Lydia, he
secured a posting in the praetorian prefecture of the East - his choice for an adminis-
trative career path can be interpreted as a conscious avoidance of connecting himself

9 PLRE II, s. n. Marinus 7, pp. 726-728.

10 PLRE II, s. n. Theodotus 2, pp. 1104-1105.

ii Zacharias 3, possibly identical with Zacharias 2 (PLRE II, p. 1194).

12 Rapp (2005), pp. 382-392.

13 For a short introduction on the life and works of John the Lydian see Bandy (1983), pp. ix-xxxviii;
Bandy (2013), pp. 1-29, Maas (1992), pp. 28-37), Kelly (2004), PP- n-17), Treadgold (2007), pp. 258-264,
Bjornlie (2013), pp. 113-117, more specifically 114-115.

14 John the Lydian composed a now lost verse panegyric on Zoticus (PLRE II, pp. 1206-1207) to thank
him for his patronage die Magistratibus III 27), cf. Bandy (1983), p. xii, Maas (1992), p. 31, Kelly (2004),
pp. 44, 53, Treadgold (2007), p. 259. Other persons who were part of Lydus’ network are Ammianus
(PLRE II, p. 70), cf. Maas (1992), p. 31, Kelly (2004), p. 45, Treadgold (2007), p. 259, Sergius 7 (PLRE II,
pp. 994-995), cf. Kelly (2004), p. 45, Fl. loannes Theodorus Menas Narses Chnoebammon Horion He-
phaestus (PLRE IIIA, pp. 582-583), Kelly (2004), p. 45 and Phocas 5 (PLRE II, pp. 881-882), cf. Bandy
(1983), pp. xxi, Maas (1992), pp. 33-34, 78-82, Kaldellis (2003), pp. 304-305, Kaldellis (2004), p. 11, Kelly
(2004), pp. 45,53-56.