Chronicon Paschale
Neville (2018:52) describes the anonymous 7th century CE
Chronicon Paschale (aka Chronicum Alexandrinum, Constantinopolitanum, or Fasti Siculi) as follows:
This text is found in the tenth-century Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1941. The early leaves of the manuscript, where one would normally find the author’s name and title, have been lost. The modern title, “Paschal Chronicle” (from the Latin, “Chronicon Paschale”), derives from the author’s interest in the correct dating of Easter. We know nothing about the author. Some scholars have speculated that the author was a member of the clergy,1 while others suggest that he was a layman working in imperial administration.2Neville (2018:53) adds that
The Paschal Chronicle is both a universal history from the Creation until 628, as well as an extended argument about the proper calculation of the dates of liturgical feasts. The author is concerned with demonstrating that the liturgical cycle used in Constantinople employs the correct dates for both the moveable feasts, such as Easter, and the fixed feasts, such as Annunciation on March 15 or the Presentation in the Temple on February 2. The determination of the passage of time, as reckoned by both history and the movements of the stars, served to establish definitively the proper dates of liturgical celebrations. The enumeration of years plays a role in the author’s efforts to establish a definitive chronology of human history. Each year is listed separately. Some key events of secular history are briefly described under the headings of the years so that the text also serves as a universal chronicle.
the author of the Pascal Chronicle argued that the Incarnation took place in anno mundi 5509, based on his calculation of the Easter cycle [Whitby and Whitby, Chronicon Paschale , xv.]. Some have speculated that the author was a cleric attached to the suite of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Sergius I.