Malalas and erudite memory in sixth-century Constantinople

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Lydus’ emphasis on purple could also be read as an implicit warning to Emperor
Justinian, for Justinian is known to have issued changes in the court ceremonial. He
also liberalised the use of purple outside the imperial court by rescinding the decree
promulgated in 424 AD by Theodosius II.56 The preservation of the Roman imperial
rule is, in the thoroughly bureaucratic opinion of John the Lydian, implicitly tied to
the meticulous cultivation of the purple colour in imperial dress and court ceremony
Justinian’s love for reforms was not the only possible threat to the use of the colour
purple. The claims of other players in the late antique political patchwork concerning
the Roman legacy, and the colour that expressed it, were also a potential challenge to
the Eastern Roman Empire. Cassiodorus’ Variae are an example of such a threat. In
his state letters, Cassiodorus also stresses the use of the colour purple. Yet in the case
of Cassiodorus, the colour is closely associated with Theoderic and the Ostrogothic
dynasty of the Amals, clearly in defiance of the eastern Roman claims to the Roman
legacy.57
Before turning to the case study on the colour purple in John Malalas, which
will ascertain parallels with the works of Lydus, one important implication of such
an analysis needs to be clarified. Did Malalas directly read the works of John Lydus?
Although proving this direct readership goes far beyond the aim of this paper, I am
confident that Malalas indeed had access to the works of John the Lydian. There is a
significant amount of textual parallels with every part of Lydus’ oeuvre, which allows
for the hypothesis of a systematic borrowing.58 Some passages in Malalas dealing with

56 Avery (1940), pp. 79-80. Procopius, for instance, uses Justinian’s changing of the court ceremonial as an
argument against the emperor in his Historia arcana 30,21-23. For Justinian’s rescinding of the restric-
tions on the use of purple see Reinhold (1970), pp. 66-69.

57 Apart from letter I 2, which will be analysed further onward, Cassiodorus has fourteen instances of the
colour purple in his Variae. In letters I 26, VI12, XI 22 and XI31, the colour neutrally refers to the (Os-
trogothic) state. In letter XII 4, the colour is used to describe wine as a royal beverage. In letter XI1 the
colour is used in connection with the Roman empress Placidia and her son Valentinian III. Yet in the
vast majority of instances, the colour is used in connection with the Amal royal dynasty (letters VI 39,
VIII I, VIII5, IX I, IX 23, IX 25, X1). In letters VIII1 and X1 this use of the colour purple as a marker
of the Amal house is especially significant, as the two letters are addressed to the Roman emperor
Justinian and have a conspicuous position, at the beginning of books VIII and X respectively.

58 Namely, Cbronograpbia 11 and de Mensibus II 3, Cbronograpbia I 6 and de Mensibus IV 107, Cbrono-
grapbia I 8 and de Mensibus I 32, Cbronograpbia 114 and de Mensibus IV 67, Cbronograpbia 115 and de
Mensibus III 5, Cbronograpbia II1 and de Mensibus III 5 and IV 86, Cbronograpbia II 2 and de Mensibus
IV 86, Cbronograpbia II 3 and de Mensibus III 1, Cbronograpbia II 8 and de Mensibus I 21 and de Magis-
tratibus I 4,117,1 23,1 32, II 2, II 4, II13 and II 24, Cbronograpbia II17 and de Magistratibus I 46, Cbro-
nograpbia IV 5 and de Mensibus IV 47, Cbronograpbia IV 10 and de Mensibus IV 47, Cbronograpbia IV 11
and de Mensibus 112, Cbronograpbia IV 14 and de Mensibus 112, Cbronograpbia VI18 and de Mensibus
113, Cbronograpbia VI 24 and de Magistratibus II 6 and de Mensibus IV 4, Cbronograpbia VI 29 and de
Magistratibus I 21, Cbronograpbia VII1 and de Mensibus IV 4 and de Magistratibus II 6, Cbronograpbia
VII 3 and de Mensibus IV 33, 34, and 41, Cbronograpbia VII 4 and de Mensibus 112 and IV 30, Cbrono-
grapbia VII 5 and de Mensibus 112 and IV 30, Cbronograpbia VII 6 and de Mensibus IV 29 and de Mag-
istratibus 116,119 and I 21, Cbronograpbia VII 7 and de Mensibus IV 158, Cbronograpbia VII 8 and de
Mensibus IV 47, Cbronograpbia VII 9 and de Mensibus IV 29, and de Magistratibus I 9 and 114, Cbrono-
grapbia VII10 and de Mensibus IV 27 and de Magistratibus I 50, Cbronograpbia VII11 and de Mensibus
IV 27 and de Magistratibus 110, Cbronograpbia VII12 and de Mensibus 114,116,117, III 5, IV 1, IV 25,