John of Antioch Sources
Mariev (2008:32*) writes that
John of Antioch’s work was for the most part a compilation
where
in most
cases, the fragments [of Historia Chronike] preserve the wording of the sources John of Antioch used and thus make them clearly identifiable
.
Mariev (2008:33*) goes on to state that
the source to which John of Antioch owes the greatest debt is the
[Latin text] Breviarium ab urbe condita [Summary from the Founding of Rome] of
Eutropius
which was written around 370 CE.
Mariev (2008:34*-41*) notes that other sources likely used in Historia Chronike include the following in decreasing order of importance:
Triantafyllou et al. (2022:3) suggest that
sources used by John of Antioch included, among others,
Sextus Julius Africanus,
Eusebius,
Ammianus Marcellinus,
Malalas,
and Flavius Eutropius
however caution is advised as
Triantafyllou et al. (2022) is written by
scientists rather than literary scholars and/or historians. Despite citing historical scholarship by
Van Nuffelen (2012), they appear to have glossed over
the scholarly debate and uncertainty over what would constitute a critical edition. For example,
Triantafyllou et al. (2022)
fail to mention that there is a scholarly debate over whether
John of Antioch used the Chronographia of
Johannes Malalas (c. 491-578 CE) as a source and
Triantafyllou et al. (2022) consider
an older edition of Historia Chronike by
John of Antioch (
Lampros, 1904) as
authentic
. In fact, a complete extant manuscript of Historia Chronike by
John of Antioch is not known to exist and a scholarly debate exists over what would constitute a critical edition -
that is if it were even possible to produce a critical edition.
Van Nuffelen (2012:438) suggests
that the original John may be beyond reconstruction
and
Mariev (2008:30*) notes that
an absolutely “correct” text of John of Antioch may never have existed.