| Text (with hotlink) | Original Language | Biographical Info | Religion | Date of Composition | Location Composed | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Epitome of Trogus by Justinus | Latin |
Biography
Justinus was the author of an epitome of Trogus'
Philippic Histories (also written in Latin), a text which has been lost
and is only preserved in excerpts by other authors. Trogus was a Gallo-Roman historian
who lived during the reign of the emperor Augustus and was a near contemporary with Roman historian Livy.
Trogus' father and uncle served as soldiers under Pompey and Julius Caesar. Trogus' uncle was a cavalry commander in the eastern war against Mithridates in the mid 60s
(Yardley, 1994:2).
Yardley (1994:3-4) estimates that Justinus
wrote his Epitome between 144 and 230 CE and that |
Epitome by Justinus - between 144 and 230 CE Philippic Histories by Trogus - early years of the Christian era, perhaps as late as A.D. 20. |
Justinus wrote his epitome in Rome. Trogus - ? |
Reports an earthquakein Syria in which 170,000 people and many of its cities perished. |
|
| Chronographia by Johannes Malalas | Greek |
Biography
Jeffries et al (1986:xxi) reports that
|
Christian (Orthodox Byzantium) | 530s CE | Antioch | In discussing the conquests of Pompey, Malalas says that Pompey laid claim to the Antiochenes and, entering the city of Antioch, he made it subject to the Romans, giving generously to them and rebuilding the bouleuterion, for it had fallen down. The bouleuterion is presumed to have fallen down during the earthquake. |
| Roman History by Dio Cassius | Greek |
Biography
Dio Cassius also known as Cassius Dio was born and raised at Nicaea in
Bithynia. At various points in his life he was a Senator, Governor of
Smyrna, a Suffect Consul,
and later a
proconsul in
Africa Proconsularis and Pannonia.
|
~207-229 CE | Mostly in Capua (Italy). Possibly wrote some material in other locations. | Reports that the greatest earthquake that had ever occurred destroyed many of [Syria's] cities. |
|
| History Against the Pagans by Orosius | Latin |
Biography
Paulus Orosius (c. 380 - c.420) was a Roman Priest who wrote several books but his most famous is
History Against the Pagans which was completed in ~416/417 CE.
Orosius, who may have been born in Spain, spent time in North Africa as a student of
Augustine of Hippo and in Palestine where he collaborated with
Jerome (Fear, 2010:2-4).
History Against the Pagans is a history of the secular world written from a
Christian perspective (Fear, 2010:7).
Fear (2010:7) notes that
|
Christian | completed in ~416-417 CE | Unknown - possibly Palestine, North Africa, Gallaecia (northwest Hispania), and/or places between. | In discussing the death of Mithridates, Orosius states that
while Mithridates was celebrating the rites of Ceres on the Bosphorus, there suddenly occurred such a severe earthquake that it is related to have caused great damage to both cities and the countryside. |
| Text (with hotlink) | Original Language | Biographical Info | Religion | Date of Composition | Location Composed | Notes |
Justinus was the author of an epitome of Trogus'
Philippic Histories (also written in Latin), a text which has been lost
and is only preserved in excerpts by other authors. Trogus was a Gallo-Roman historian
who lived during the reign of the emperor Augustus and was a near contemporary with Roman historian Livy.
Trogus' father and uncle served as soldiers under Pompey and Julius Caesar. Trogus' uncle was a cavalry commander in the eastern war against Mithridates in the mid 60s
(Yardley, 1994:2).
Yardley (1994:3-4) estimates that Justinus
wrote his Epitome between 144 and 230 CE and that the final version [of Philippic Histories by Trogus] dates to the early years of the Christian era,
perhaps as late as A.D. 20
.
1. See Book 39 n. 1. The brothers are Grypos and Cyzicenus (39.iff.); no fewer than six claimants followed their deaths in 96 and 95 until Tigranes (Bickerman 160). Tigranes II was king of Armenia c.95-55, ruler of the Syrian kingdom 83-69; then Lucullus replaced him with Antiochus XIII Asiaticus (MRR 2.133). He experienced varying fortunes until Pompey removed him in 64 (MRR 2.163f.). For Mithridates see above Book 38. The Egyptian monarch was still (until 81) Ptolemy IX Soter II. See Appian Syr. 48f.
Justinus: Epitome of Pompeius Trogus' "Philippic histories" translation by Watson (1853)
Justinus: Epitome of Pompeius Trogus' "Philippic histories" translation by Watson (1853)
Bookmarked to the relevant passage Book 40.2.1
Yardley, J. C. (1994). Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus, Scholars Press.
Jeffries et al (1986:xxi) reports that
everything that is known about Johannes Malalas (~491 – 578 CE)
has to be gleaned from the chronicle itself, except that later writers refer to him as
'John the Rhetor',
'John Malalas' or 'Malelas', and 'John of Antioch'
. Jeffries et al (1986:xxi-xxii) further reports that
as a 'rhetor' or
'scholastikos'
(which is the meaning of the Syriac word 'malal' from which the name Malalas is derived) Malalas
possessed the education designed to equip one for the mainstream of government service, and so he was fairly well
educated by contemporary standards
.
His Book Chronographia was written in Greek and is a valuable and
frequently unique reservoir of information
however Malalas himself
has been dismissed as entirely naive, ignorant and incompetent
(Jeffries et al, 1986:xxii). For example,
Olmstead (1942:22)
states that John Malalas was undoubtedly the world's worst chronicler ... but [the historian] must use him for Malalas has preserved a great amount
of the most important data...
and Vasiliev (1958:184) characterizes his work as
confused in content, mixing fables and facts, important events and minor incidents
which was clearly intended not for educated readers but for the masses
.
Fluent in Syriac, Latin, and Greek, Malalas was presumably educated in Antioch but at some point in his life moved to Constantinople perhaps between 535 and 540 CE
(Jeffries et al, 1986:xxii). He probably continued his bureaucratic career in Constantinople until he died there in
578 CE (Jeffries et al, 1986:xxii).
His chronicle was composed and circulated in two editions. The first edition
was put together in Antioch in the 530s CE and most likely reached the end of Book 17 (AD 527)
(Jeffries et al, 1986:xxiii). It is not so clear where the final edition of the chronicle ended,
although the most likely point is the end of Justinian's reign in 565 CE
(Jeffries et al, 1986:xxiii).
Presumably, everything from Book 18 forward was composed in Constantinople after 535-540 CE. Despite the chronological problems Chronographia is noted for,
Malalas appears to produce accurate chronology for some earthquakes - likely due to the source(s) he accessed for the event.
Jeffreys et al (1986:xxiii) describes Malalas's sources as follows:
As indicated in its preface the chronicle may be divided, in terms of sources of information, into two parts. For the period before the emperor Zeno, Malalas had to rely on written records and therefore cites, largely at second hand, numerous Greek and Latin authors, including some that are otherwise unknown. For the period from Zeno onwards (that is, for his own lifetime), he claims reliance on oral sources of information: The preface makes specific mention of Julius Africanus, Eusebios and others, and their use in the chronicle is well signposted. These were among his major sources, along with the chroniclers Domninos and Nestorianos and the 'City Chronicles' of Antioch and Constantinople. Sources are rarely cited in Books 15-18, covering material derived from oral sources and dealing with events likely to have been within the author's personal experience. Still it is possible to identify the origin of certain portions of this material; for example, Marinos the Syrian is likely to have been the source for the rebellion of Vitalian (Bo 402.3-406.8), Julian for the embassy to the Axoumite court (Bo 456.24-459.3) and Hermogenes for the first Persian war of Justinian (Bo 445-477). In addition Malalas clearly made use of documentary sources such as imperial laws, decrees and letters (Scott, 1981 and 1985).
Dio Cassius also known as Cassius Dio was born and raised at Nicaea in
Bithynia. At various points in his life he was a Senator, Governor of
Smyrna, a Suffect Consul,
and later a
proconsul in
Africa Proconsularis and Pannonia.
He published 80 volumes of the history on ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the subsequent
founding of Rome (753 BCE), the formation of the Republic (509 BCE), and the creation of the Empire (27 BCE), up until 229 CE. Written in Ancient Greek
over 22 years, Dio's work covers approximately 1,000 years of history. Many of his 80 books have survived intact, or as fragments, providing modern
scholars with a detailed perspective on Roman history
(wikipedia).
Dio Cassius was either the grandfather or great-grandfather of Cassius Dio, a consul in 291 CE.
Paulus Orosius (c. 380 - c.420) was a Roman Priest who wrote several books but his most famous is
History Against the Pagans which was completed in ~416/417 CE.
Orosius, who may have been born in Spain, spent time in North Africa as a student of
Augustine of Hippo and in Palestine where he collaborated with
Jerome (Fear, 2010:2-4).
History Against the Pagans is a history of the secular world written from a
Christian perspective (Fear, 2010:7).
Fear (2010:7) notes that
the Histories, though well written, do show signs of misunderstanding of their source material, and while, as will be seen, some of these
‘misunderstandings’ are deliberate, others are not
.
70 The historical material in this chapter is drawn from Livy, 102
71 At his capital Panticapeum, the modern Vospro in the Crimea
72 The modern Taman in Russia
73 Implicit in the text is that pagan worship far from bringing aid to its practitioners, brings positive harm to them
74 This curse is only found in Orosius
Fear (2010:15-16) described Orosius' sources as follows:
The sources Orosius used were probably not great in number, though a specious lustre of wide reading comes from his secondary use of the fragments of authors found in the notes of Jerome’s Chronicle. His main source for Greek history is Justin’s epitome of Pompeius Trogus’s Philippic History.83 Justin composed his epitome in the second or third century AD, while Trogus’s original work dates from the end of the first century BC. Livy, often at second hand via epitomes, the second-century historian Florus, and late fourth-century writer Eutropius form the main base of Orosius’s passages concerning the Roman Republic. In the Imperial period, Eutropius’s work becomes more prominent along with the now lost fourth century ‘History of the Emperors’ or Kaisergeschichte.84 Orosius also shows knowledge of Caesar, Sallust, Tacitus, and Suetonius. His approach to these sources was by no means naive. While at times he takes material verbatim or with very minor alterations, they are more often approached with a careful eye for selectivity. Instances of failed prophecy are seized upon as demonstrations of the folly of pagan religion,85 while pagan prophecies that seemingly come true are suppressed,86 as are accounts of successful pagan divine intervention.87 At times more open manipulation occurs. Leonidas’s speech to the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae is carefully edited to give it a sense quite different to the original found in Justin.88 Similarly, the sack of the Phoceans’ temples is portrayed as evidence of the impotence of the pagan gods, but Orosius’s source, Justin, presents it as divinely inspired punishment for the Phoceans’ earlier blasphemy.89 Later Orosius tells us that the consul Gurges was defeated after the ‘snake of Aesculapius’ was brought to Rome, leaving the reader to infer that there is a causal link between the two events. In Livy, however, who is Orosius’s source, the two events occur in the opposite order.90 Pagan sources are used to discredit the oracle of Ammon, and Mithridates’ final speech is also recruited to the cause of refuting paganism by a careful misinterpretation of its actual sense.91 This studied editing of the pagan past is intended to leave the reader feeling that Christianity’s critics are refuted by the very authors they would claim as their own.Footnotes83 For a discussion of this work see Yardley and Heckel (1997) and Yardley (2003).
84 The existence of the Kaisergeschicte was postulated by Enmann (1883). For modern discussions, see Barnes (1970) and Burgess (1995).
85 e.g. 3.22.3 and 4.13.14.
86 e.g. 4.10.3, where the sacred chickens rightly predict the Roman defeat at the battle of Drepanum.
87 For example, at 2.10, Orosius suppresses Justin’s comments that before Salamis Xerxes had sacked Delphi and hence was waging war on the gods as well as the Greeks, as he has no wish to imply that pagan gods could have been a factor in the Greeks’ victory at Salamis. He also suppresses the Delphic oracle’s comments about the wooden walls of Athens being her salvation.
88 2.9.6.
89 3.12.17; cf. the destruction of the Temple of Vesta at 4.11.9.
90 3.22.5–6; Livy, Per. 11.
91 3.16.13 and 6.14.11–17
Fear (2010:18) described Chronological Systems used by Orosius.
Given his wish to show that secular events prove the truth of Christianity, it is perhaps not surprising that Orosius uses the common chronological systems of his day rather than one centred on the incarnation. Such a system was not in fact available: the universal Christian chronology used today was devised some 100 years after Orosius’s death by Dionysius Exiguus.105 However, it is noticeable that Orosius chooses not to date events from the birth of Abraham, as does Eusebius/Jerome’s Chronicle. Rather, prior to the foundation of Rome, Orosius dates events by Olympiads. He then uses, as was common in Roman historiography, the date of Rome’s foundation as the starting point for his chronology.106 Orosius dates the foundation of Rome to 752 years before the birth of Christ, a year which fell in the sixth Olympiad and 414 years after the fall of Troy.107 The date of the foundation of Rome was subject to some dispute in antiquity. The commonest accepted date was that posited by the late republican scholar Varro – 754/3 BC. However, Orosius’s date has official sanction in that it is that which was used by the Capitoline Fasti, the official list of Roman magistrates erected in the forum at Rome, and it may be for this reason that he chose it, as it would once again link his account of the Roman past with the ‘official’ version of the day.Footnotes105 See Declercq (2002).
106 Normally such dates are styled AUC (Ab Urbe Condita), ‘from the foundation of the City’.
107 2.4.1; 6.22. Eusebius places Rome’s foundation in the fourth year of the sixth Olympiad, 1264 years after the birth of Abraham.
| Location (with hotlink) | Status | Intensity | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tel Sukas | Ali Abou Assaf in Meyers et al (1997)
reports that
Riis et al (1970-1986) attribute destruction at the end of Period E1 (Late Hellenistic II) to an earthquake in 68 CE.
Ambraseys (2009) notes, however, that the
date of 68 BC, which [was] assigned to the event, was taken from historical information rather than from archaeological evidence. |
||
| Tel Ateret aka Vadun Jacob | indeterminate | Ellenblum et. al. (2015) estimate ~1.5 meters of fault slip occurred on the site between its abandonment probably in the middle of the first century BC and when a Crusader fortress was built at the end of the 12th century CE. Due to the sites abandonment and lack of identified new constructions during this time, it is difficult to resolve the ~1.5 meters of slip into individual earthquake events. However, abandonment of the site may have been precipitated by an earthquake. The latest Hellenistic coin excavated from the site dates to 65/64 BCE indicating desertion of the site occurred afterwards. | |
| Location (with hotlink) | Status | Intensity | Notes |
| Location (with hotlink) | Status | Intensity | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hacipasa Trenches | possible | ≥ 7 | The oldest event identified in the Ziyaret Trench dated to before 983 CE. A lower bound on age was not available due to insufficient radiocarbon dates. |
| Jarmaq Trench | possible to unlikely | ≥ 7 | Nemer and Meghraoui (2006) date Event Y to between 2920-2879 BCE and 84-239 CE. They did not suggest a causitive earthquake. |
| Qiryat-Shemona Rockfalls | possible | Kanari, M. (2008) examined rockfalls in Qiryat-Shemona which were attributed to earthquakes. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating was performed on soil samples beneath the fallen rocks. Kanari et al (2019) assigned Sample ID QS-6 to an earthquake in 199 BCE but the wide spread in ages indicate that the Pompey Quake is also a possible candidate. | |
| Tekieh Trenches | possible | ≥ 7 | Gomez et. al. (2003:15) may have seen evidence for an earthquake in the 1st or 2nd century BCE in Event B. Event B is estimated to have created ~ 2 meters of left lateral strike slip displacement which translates to an estimated Magnitude between 7.0 and 7.3 (7.0 and 7.2 according to Gomez et al, 2003:16-17). In terms of dating, an upper bound for Event B is 170 BCE - 20 CE while a lower bound for Events B and and the older Event C is from 1690 - 1400 BCE. |
| Bet Zayda | possible to unlikely | ≥ 7 | Event CH4-E6 (modeled age 392 BCE – 91 CE) from Wechsler at al. (2014) could have been caused by the Pompey Quake. |
| Location (with hotlink) | Status | Intensity | Notes |
The oldest event identified in the Ziyaret Trench dated to before 983 CE. A lower bound on age was not available due to insufficient radiocarbon dates.
Nemer and Meghraoui (2006) date Event Y to between 2920-2879 BCE and 84-239 CE. They did not suggest a causitive earthquake.
Kanari, M. (2008) examined rockfalls in
Qiryat-Shemona which were attributed to earthquakes.
Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating was performed on soil samples beneath the fallen rocks.
Kanari et al (2019) assigned Sample ID QS-6 to an earthquake in 199 BCE
but the wide spread in ages indicate that the Pompey Quake is also a possible candidate.
Gomez et. al. (2003:15)
may have seen evidence for an earthquake in the 1st or 2nd century BCE in Event B.
Event B is estimated to have created ~ 2 meters of left lateral strike slip displacement which translates to
an estimated Magnitude between 7.0 and 7.3 (7.0 and 7.2 according to
Gomez et al, 2003:16-17).
In terms of dating, an upper bound for Event B is 170 BCE - 20 CE while a lower bound for Events B and and the older Event C is from
1690 - 1400 BCE.
Event CH4-E6 (modeled age 392 BCE – 91 CE) from
Wechsler at al. (2014) could have been caused by the Pompey Quake.
69–66 BC Syria
The earliest source for this earthquake in Syria is Justin,
a third-century-AD chronicler. He says that as a result
of the earthquake several Syrian cities, which are not
named, were destroyed and 170 000 people killed. He
adds that this disaster was taken to be a portent of coming changes, implying that the event took place soon after
the evacuation of Syria by Tigranes in 69 BC (Just. xl. 2,
271).
According to Justin the earthquake happened
during Tigranes’ occupation of Syria (83–69 BC), probably near its end, since Pompey, after the Romans had
taken Antioch in 66 BC, rebuilt the senate house, which
had fallen down (Malalas, 211; Downey 1938, 107, 145).
It is probable that this is the same earthquake as that
recorded by Dio Cassius (AD 164–235) during the war
between the Romans and Mithridates, in alliance with
Tigranes. Later authors refer to this when they say that it
was because of the greatest earthquake, which destroyed
many cities, that Mithridates was abandoned by his allies
and his army broke up. The cities destroyed by the earthquake most probably belonged to his eastern allies in
Syria and historical Armenia, who, on hearing the news
of the disaster, hurried home to guard their property
and restore the damage (D.C. 37. 11). Orosius, a later
source (AD 385–420), adds that, when Mithridates was
celebrating the feast of Ceres in the Cimerian Bosphorus
(Crimea), there was an earthquake, which, it is said, was
equally disastrous in urban and rural areas. This passage
does not imply that this event necessarily happened in
the Cimerian Bosphorus. The inclusion of ‘it is said’ can
equally well be interpreted to mean that it was the news
of the earthquake in Syria that reached Mithridates in the
Cimerian Bosphorus (Orosius, 1001).
Another earthquake is mentioned in a curious
legend in the Babylonian Talmud, during the siege of
Jerusalem, in the last days of the Hasmonean rule in 64–
63 BC. It is thought to be coeval with the earthquake in
Syria. Baba Kama relates that when a pig was brought
into Jerusalem an ‘earthquake struck Israel and the land
trembled a hundred miles in all directions . . .’ and from
that time the raising of pigs was forbidden. This story is
mentioned by Arvanitakis (1903b) and followed by other
seismologists, who amplified the legend by adding that
the earthquake was strong enough to damage the temple
in Jerusalem (Amiran et al. 1994), or that the shock was
from the same earthquake as that which destroyed Antioch and was felt in Cyprus, assigning to it a magnitude ML
7.7 and an epicentre on Antioch (Ben-Menahem 1979).
Other seismologists locate this earthquake in the Crimea
(Kondorskaya and Shebalin 1982; Guidoboni 1989). In
fact the earthquake in Salamis in Cyprus occurred much
later in 15 BC, after which Augustus came to the rescue
of the city with gifts of money and renamed it Augusta.
For epigraphic material and dating see Hill (1948, 232,
245).
Archaeological evidence does not help to identify
the location of this earthquake or the area over which
it caused damage or was felt. There is some evidence
that Tell Sukas, a site about 90 km south of Antioch, was
abandoned probably after an earthquake in the first century BC. However, the date 68 BC, which is assigned to
the event, was taken from historical information rather
than from archaeological evidence and hence is of little
use. At any rate, no archaeological finds from the Early
Imperial period have been found at Tell Sukas to testify to the existence of any township, since civic life on
the Tell came to an end sometime during the first century BC. There is also the possibility that the desertion
of Tell Sukas was no isolated phenomenon, but part of a
general trend in which some settlements in the area were
given up in favour of the town centres founded during the
Hellenistic period (Riis 1970; Lund 1986; Assaf 1997).
There are no details in the sources from which one
could assess the location and the extent of the area seriously affected by this earthquake.
The historical evidence for this earthquake consists of four accounts by ancient historians
from the 1st to the 6th century A.D. However, only two of them — Trogus and
Malalas — provide information of any value. The other two — Dio Cassius and
Orosius — offer very scanty data, which prove to be less than clear. In fact, the obscurity
of the passages in Dio and Orosius — they do not even provide an indication of the
geographical area where the earthquake occurred — has given rise to a remarkable
misunderstanding, for what they wrote has been related to an earthquake at Kerch in
the Crimea in 63 B.C. (see entry 062). We have tried to clarify the circumstances of
this event by analysing the historical context.
Reliable evidence of an earthquake in Syria and at Antioch.
In his Epitome of Trogus, Justinus refers to what Pompeus Trogus had to say about a destructive earthquake in
Syria which caused thousands of deaths:
EnglishThis very concise passage refers to the last period of the rule of Tigranes of Armenia, an ally of Mithridates, in Syria. This important king of Armenia (95-c.55 B.c.) is generally known as Tigranes the Great or Tigranes II (though it is not certain that a Tigranes I of Armenia ever existed). Tigranes was defeated by Lucullus in 69 B.c., and had to give up all regions previously under his control, except Armenia. This passage, however, suggests a dating of the earthquake to about 65 B.c., because Trogus twice specifies that Tigranes' rule lasted for eighteen years, whereas the Appian tradition (Syr. 69) suggests fourteen years, hence making the end of Tigranes' rule over Syria coincide with his defeat at the hands of Lucullus (see Rizzo 1963, pp.62ff.). The earthquake is definitely to be related to Malalas' remark that Pompey was generous to Antioch, "and rebuilt the bouleuterion, for it had fallen down".
Although Syria was safe from enemy attack, it was devastated by an earthquake, which killed one hundred and seventy thousand people and destroyed many cities. The haruspices declared that this prodigy foretold a change in things.
Latin
Sed sicut ab hostibus tuta Syria fuit, ita terrae motu vastata est, quo centum septuagenta milia hominum et multae urbes perierunt. Quod prodigium mutationem rerum portendere aruspices responderunt.
Since the Roman forces were steadily increasing their hold and those of Mithridates were becoming steadily weaker, and also partly because one of the greatest earthquakes ever recorded came and destroyed many of their cities, [Mithridates'] allies departed and the army broke up, and there were those who kidnapped some of his sons, and took them to Pompey.The same earthquake seems to be mentioned in a passage in Paulus Orosius, where he records an earthquake in the cities controlled by Mithridates shortly before his death (63 ac.):
EnglishAs we have pointed out in entry (062), a great deal of the literature locates this event in the Crimea. In fact, however, there is insufficient evidence to establish that the earthquake occurred there. Paulus Orosius seems to have been relying on Livy (whose coverage of this period is unfortunately missing), and must have been summarising a much more substantial narrative, for he simply reports, in succinct terms, that the earthquake occurred "while Mithridates was celebrating the feast of Ceres in the Bosphorus". But this is not reliable evidence in itself: for there is no inevitable logical link between the seismic event and the location in the Cimmerian Bosphorus. In other words, the fact that Orosius juxtaposes the one and the other does not imply that he wishes to establish some relationship between them. Nor is there any other evidence to account for such a relationship.
When Mithridates was in. the Bosphorus to celebrate the feast of Ceres, there came a sudden earthquake so violent that it is said to have had disastrous effects in town and country alike.
Latin
In Bosphoro Mithridate Cerealia sacra celebrante terrae motus adeo gravis repente exortus est, ut magna clades ex eo urbium atque agrorum secuta narretur.