Marcellinus Comes Sources

Croke (1995:xxii-xxiv) describes Marcellinus Comes' sources of information as follows:

In writing his chronicle Marcellinus was consciously continuing the chronicle of Jerome, who had previously translated the chronicle of Eusebius of Caesarea and continued it to 378. There was an established style and format for chronicles to follow, on the model of Jerome, as well as a tradition in the type of sources utilised and how they might be employed. The basic framework of the chronicle was the list of successive indiction numbers. The indictional year ran from 1 September to 30 August and each such year was given a number in the fifteen-year cycle of indictions. Alongside the indictions Marcellinus used a consular list, recording in annual succession the names of the two chief magistrates for the year which ran from 1 January to 31 December. Marcellinus' very reliable consular list reflects the viewpoint of the eastern court in that it records the eastern consul first and normally ignores western consuls not recognised in the east.⁷ Many apparent dating errors in the chronicle are to be explained by the problems caused by these two overlapping dating systems used by the chronicler, that is, Marcellinus' date is the correct indiction but the wrong consulship (e.g. 429.2,430.3, 454.1,465.1, 469). For detailed information Marcellinus, like most chroniclers, relied on a strictly limited number of sources, using them to supplement information here and there:

1. Orosius
2. Gennadius
3. Papal List
4. Constantinopolitan chronicle source

   Perhaps the source most frequently used by Marcellinus (and by the Chronicon Paschale which Mommsen reproduced for the years 395—469 in his edition of Marcellinus to illustrate their close textual similarities) was a previous chronicle which contained predominantly Constantinopolitan events. Moreover, it is likely that this chronicle was itself based on the so-called 'City Chronicle' of Constantinople (CP), or else Marcellinus used similar material himself.¹⁰ Reflecting this source, Marcellinus devotes considerable space to eastern events of a public ceremonial nature:
   
   

   • Adventus (imperial and relic arrivals)¹¹
   • Victories¹³
   • Imperial Accessions¹³
   • Deaths¹⁴
   • Births¹⁵
   • Imperial Marriages¹⁶
   • Anniversaries¹⁷
   • Portents (earthquakes, eclipses etc)¹⁸
   • Building¹⁹
   • Ecclesiastical matters (popes, councils, theological writers etc)²⁰
   • Civil strife (faction and other riots)²¹
   • Deaths of usurpers and high officials²²
   • Wars in the east (Isauria and Persia)²³
   • Raids in the Balkans²⁴
   • Miscellaneous²⁵

   
   Most importantly, his local CP

Footnotes

1 In general: Mommsen, 1894. 42; Holder-Egger. 1877, 49—56; SchanzjHosiuslKruger, 1920. 112; Moricca, 1943, 1363; PLRE 2: 711 s.v. Marcellinus 9'.

2 lnst. I. 17. 2. as interpreted in Croke, 1982c.

3 Croke, 1984, 77—88.

10 Holder-Egger, 1877, 73—88; Mommsen, 1894, 44—46; Croke, 1990, passiin; and thecritical treatment by Burgess, 1993, 182—6.

11 381.2, 382.1, 384.1, 386.2, 387.2, 389.1, 391.1, 394.1, 395.2. 401.1, 414.1, 428.2, 431.3, 436, 438.2, 438.3, 439.2, 443.2, 448.1, 448.3, 485, 496.2. 507.2, 520, 525.

12 379.2, 382.2, 385, 386.1, 388.1, 388.2, 394.2. 394.4, 394.5, 398.4, 400, 405, 412.2, 413. 418.1, 421.4, 422.2, 422.3, 422.4, 425.1, 438.1, 4393, 440.2, 441.1, 441.3, 445.1, 452, 469, 477, 488.1, 498.2, 530, 533, 534.

13 379.1, 383.2, 391.3, 393, 395.3, 402.2, 411.2, 424.1, 424.2, 450.2, 455.2, 457.2, 457.1, 461.2, 467.1, 472.2, 474.1, 475.1, 475.2, 491.1, 519.1, 527.

14 391.2, 395.1, 404.2, 408.1, 408.3, 411.3, 412.1, 424.3, 429.2, 431.1, 444.2, 444.4, 449.1, 450.1, 457.1, 461.2, 465.2, 472.2, 474.2, 474.1, 474.2, 476.1, 476.2, 480.2, 491.1, 515.6, 5183, 527.

15 384.2, 397, 399.2, 4013, 403.1, 419.1, 422.1. 16 421.1, 424.2, 437.

17 387.1, 406.1, 411.1, 422.2, 430, 439.1, 444.1.

18 389.2, 389.3, 390.1, 394.3, 396.3, 401.2, 402.3, 404, 408.2, 417.2, 418.2, 418.3, 419.2, 433, 442.2, 443.1, 444.3, 446.1, 447.1, 452.2, 456.1, 465.1, 460, 467, 472.1, 4723, 480.1, 494.2, 497.1, 499, 512.1, 512.10, 518.1, 526.

19 390.3, 394.4, 403.2, 415.1, 421.2, 421.3, 427.2, 435.1, 443.2, 447.3, 448.2, 453.5, 506, 509.2, 510.11, 528.

20 3801 381.1, 382.3, 383.1, 392.2, 398.1, 398.2, 398.3, 402.1, 403.3, 415.2, 416.1, 416.2, 417.3, 419.3, 420.1, 420.3, 423.1, 426, 428.1, 430, 432.1, 440.2, 449.2, 451, 453.1—4, 456.2, 459, 461.1, 463, 466, 470, 476.2, 478, 482, 494.1, 494.3, 495, 498.1, 500.1, 5103, 511, 512.8, 512.9, 513, 515.1, 516.2, 516.3.

21 3993, 409, 431.2, 445.2, 473.2, 491.2, 493.1, 501.1—3, 507.1, 509.1, 512.2—7, 523, 524, 532.

22 396.2, 399.1, 420.2, 430.2, 432.2—3, 440.1, 449.3, 450.3, 454.2, 481.2, 490, 493.2, 497.3, 520.

23 475.1, 484.1, 492, 497.2, 502.2, 503, 504, 515.5, 529.

24 427.1, 434, 454.1, 464, 468, 479.1, 479.2, 481.1, 482.2, 483, 488.2, 489.1, 499.1, 502.1, 505, 512.11, 517, 530.

25 389.4 (Temple destroyed), 390.2 (empress expelled), 392 (usurpation), 396 (exiles), 410 (sack of Rome), 414.2 (Placidia restored), 455 (Geiseric at Rome), 462 (Jacob the Doctor), 484.2 (Vandal refugees), 496.1 (donative), 498.3 (coinage reform), 500.2 (donative), 508(Tarentum attacked), 510.2 (exile), 514 (rebellion), 515.2 (rebel defeated), 516 (Vitalianreplaced), 519.2 (conspiracy), 531 (Code of Justinian).