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Raf Praet

etymologies are furthermore unintelligible without the intertext of Lydus.59 This direct
readership is not precluded by the most conservative estimates of Malalas’ where-
abouts as sketched above, and as taken for granted by the academic community; it is
possible that in the period between his arrival in Constantinople and his rewriting of
the Chronographia Malalas did come into contact with Lydus’works. Indeed, Malalas
working on his chronicle at intervals between his first and last redaction is far more
logical than the prevailing but unsatisfying hypothesis of a man taking up his histo-
riographical work after an interval of more than thirty years (late 520’s/early 530’s to
after AD 565).60 The dependency of Malalas on Lydus will be treated in depth in my
PhD dissertation.
For the case study on the origin of the colour purple, we start with the account of
John Malalas, in Chron. II 8.61 The story is divided in two parts. The first part treats the
discovery of the colour purple: the philosopher Heracles of Tyre saw how a dog ate a
murex shellfish and how a shepherd wiped the dog’s snout with a piece of wool. Her-
acles noticed the colour of the cloth and brought it to king Phoenix of Tyre. The king
consequently used the colour for his own clothing and forbade his subjects to use the
colour, so that it became a distinctive sign of kingship. This distinctive practice was im-
itated by subsequent rulers. Malalas mentions how later kings and emperors “devised
for themselves robes, or else golden brooches and mantles, which they dyed purple or
red with dye from certain plants; and they wore these so they could be recognised by
their own people, as the most learned Palaiphatos has written.”62
IV 30, IV 31, IV 32, IV 33, IV 49, IV102 and IV152, Chronographia VII13 and de Mensibus III 5, III 6,
IV 102. IV105, IV in, and de Ostentis 25, Chronographia IX 1 and de Mensibus IV102 and IV 105, Chro-
nographia IX 3 and de Mensibus III 5 and III 6, Chronographia IX 18 and de Mensibus Inc. Sed. 3, Chro-
nographia XI17 and de Mensibus 118, Chronographia XII 20 and de Mensibus 112 and de Magistratibus
III 70, Chronographia XIII 8 and de Mensibus IV 138, Chronographia XVII 4 and de Mensibus IV 116 and
de Ostentis ioa and 15, Chronographia XVIII 52 and de Mensibus IV 116 and de Ostentis ioa and 14, Chro-
nographia XVIII122 and de Mensibus IV 116 and de Ostentis ioa and 13.
59 One example will suffice here. In Chronographia I 8, Malalas provides the reader with an etymology
which seems at first glance incomprehensible, by stating that Belus, ΒήΛος, was called thus because he
was very swift, όξύτατος. This etymology becomes sensible only through the extra step of the Latin
language; Belus, phonetically “Vilos” resembles the Latin word velox, which indeed means swift. We
could wonder where Malalas, who otherwise does not know Latin, acquired the knowledge to generate
this etymology. In Lydus, de Mensibus I 32, we happen to have an explanation of the term velox, which
used the same word as Malalas used in his etymology: “ Velox means swift, which is also called even now
veredaricus.”, ΒήΛωξ, οξύς, ος καί βεραιδαρικός έτι καί νυν Λέγεται. (Wünsch 1898, p. 15, trans.
Bandy 2013, p. 304)·
6ο Croke (199°), PP- ζ7—25-
61 Jeffreys (1990a), p. 60, Moffatt (1990), p. 98. Caire (2006), p. 42: “Mais, du règne de Phoenix, Malalas ne
retient que la découverte de la pourpre par Héraclès tyrien, ce qui le conduit à une digression sur l’usage
de la pourpre dans l’habit impérial. Cette digression mêle la conquête de la Phénicie par les Romains,
l’introduction de la pourpre à Rome à l’époque de Numa Pompilius et l’histoire du vêtement consulaire
jusqu’à son propre temps.”
62 Malalas, Chronographia II 8 (Thurn 2000, p. 24): Λοιπόν ούν οί κατά τόπον βασιλείς, ήτοι ρήγες
καί τοπάρχαι, άκηκοότες τούτο, οί μεν περιβόΛαια, οί δε φίβΛας χρυσάς καί μανδύας
έπενόησαν έαυτοϊς, πορφύρεα ή ρούσεα βάπτοντες αύτά από βότανών τινων, καί