Chronicon by Eusebius
Background and Biography Excerpts Chronology
Year Reference Corrections Notes 1 July 129 CE to 30 June 130 CE first year of the 227th Olympiad none Calculated with CHRONOS Seismic Effects
- Nicopolis and Caesarea were ruined in an earthquake
Locations
- Nicopolis
- Caesarea
Discussion
Ambraseys (2009) suggests that Eusebius was not referring to Nicopolis and Caesarea in Palestine but to two similarly named cities - Nicopolis and NeoCaesarea - in the Anatolian province of Pontus. Ambraseys (2009) also suggests that Eusebius' date is approximately correct. As Nicopolis and Caesarea were popular city names at that time, Ambraseys (2009) was able to name two other pairs of like named cities in other parts of the Roman Empire but he preferred the northeastern Anatolian pair because they were larger, better known, and close to the active North Anatolian Fault.
Russell (1985) suggests that rather than being geographically incorrect, Eusebius may have been chronologically wrong. Eusebius, a long term resident and possibly a native son of Caesarea as well as perhaps the most famous "historian" of his time, could very well have been aware of earthquakes that struck the area in the distant past. Using an unknown source(s) and writing 200 + years after the event, he may have merely got his date wrong. Chronology is, after all, often the first victim of textual and oral transmission. Although Russell (1985) does not propose a reason why Eusebius’ sources may have gotten the date wrong, one possibility is that his source(s) may have reported an earthquake that occurred during Hadrian's rule when in fact the earthquake occurred during the rule of Trajan - Hadrian's predecessor. If one changes Eusebius' date for the earthquake from Hadrian's 13th – 14th year (130/131 CE) to Trajan's 13th – 14th year (111/112 CE), one arrives at a date which is within the 4 year time span (110 – 114 CE) Russell (1985) proposed for the date of the early 2nd century CE Incense Road Earthquake. Prior to Eusebius innovation of creating an annalistic and tabular Chronicon, dates in historical texts were typically counted in regnal years (Roger Pearse's Preface to online edition of Chronicon at tertullian.org).
However, upon closer inspection, Russell (1985)'s proposed date for the alleged early 2nd century CE (110 – 114 CE) Earthquake rests on shaky ground. The 110 CE date comes from excavations at Masada where Netzer (1991:655), in one of the final excavation reports, states that agreat earthquake [] destroyed most of the walls on Masada sometime during the 2nd to 4th centuries CE. This time span is not nearly as precise as 110 CE. The 114 CE date comes from Petra where a monumental commemorative arch was dedicated to Trajan late in 114 CE (Kirkbride 1960: 120). While Russell (1985) attributes this dedication to appreciation of post earthquake rebuilding in Petra financed at least in part by Imperial funds, the original excavator Kirkbride attributed the dedication to completion of some part of the Via Traiana Nova Road - a road whose building began soon after the Romans annexed Arabia Petraea in 106 CE.
Thus, it is entirely possibly that Eusebius got the locations and approximate date correct.
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