115 CE Trajan Quake

• 29th paragraph
• Translated by G. G. Ramsay
• from Ramsay (1918)
• from tertullian.org

Satire 6

The Ways of Women

... Better, however, that your wife should be musical than that she should be rushing boldly about the entire city, attending men's meetings, talking with unflinching face and hard breasts to Generals in their military cloaks, with her husband looking on! This same woman knows what is going on all over the world: what the Thracians and Chinese are after, what has passed between the stepmother and the stepson; she knows who loves whom, what gallant is the rage; she will tell you who got the widow with child, and in what month; how every woman behaves to her lovers, and what she says to them. She is the first to notice the comet threatening the kings of Armenia and Parthia; she picks up the latest rumours at the city gates, and invents some herself: how the Niphates¹⁷ has burst out upon the nations, and is inundating entire districts; how cities are tottering and lands subsiding, she tells to every one she meets at every street crossing.

• see 29th paragraph starting with Better, however, that your wife should be musical
• from tertullian.org

Ramsay (1918), Juvenal, Satires

• Book 68 – Sections 24 and 25
• from Foster (1905)

24 1 While the emperor [Trajan (r. 98-117 CE)] was tarrying in Antioch a terrible earthquake occurred; many cities suffered injury, but Antioch was the most unfortunate of all. Since Trajan was passing the winter there and many soldiers and many civilians had flocked thither from all sides in connexion with law-suits, embassies, business or sightseeing, there was no nation of people that went unscathed; and thus in Antioch the whole world under Roman sway suffered disaster. There had been many thunderstorms and portentous winds, but no one would ever have expected so many evils to result from them. First there came, on a sudden, a great bellowing roar, and this was followed by a tremendous quaking. The whole earth was upheaved, and buildings leaped into the air; some were carried aloft only to collapse and be broken in pieces, while others were tossed this way and that as if by the surge of the sea, and overturned, and the wreckage spread out over a great extent even of the open country. The crash of grinding and breaking timbers together with tiles and stones was most frightful; and an inconceivable amount of dust arose, so that it was impossible for one to see anything or to speak or hear a word. As for the people, many even who were outside the houses were hurt, being snatched up and tossed violently about and then dashed to the earth as if falling from a cliff; some were maimed and others were killed. Even trees in some cases leaped into the air, roots and all. The number of those who were trapped in the houses and perished was past finding out; for multitudes were killed by the very force of the falling debris, and great numbers were suffocated in the ruins. Those who lay with a part of their body buried under the stones or timbers suffered terribly, being able neither to live any longer nor to find an immediate death.

25 Nevertheless, many even of these were saved, as was to be expected in such a countless multitude; yet not all such escaped unscathed. Many lost legs or arms, some had their heads broken, and still others vomited blood; Pedo the consul was one of these, and he died at once. In a word, there was no kind of violent experience that those people did not undergo at that time. And as Heaven continued the earthquake for several days and nights, the people were in dire straits and helpless, some of them crushed and perishing under the weight of the buildings pressing upon them, and others dying of hunger, whenever it so chanced that they were left alive either in a clear space, the timbers being so inclined as to leave such a space, or in a vaulted colonnade. When at last the evil had subsided, someone who ventured to mount the ruins caught sight of a woman still alive. She was not alone, but had also an infant; and she had survived by feeding both herself and her child with her milk. They dug her out and resuscitated her together with her babe, and after that they searched the other heaps, but were not able to find in them anyone still living save a child sucking at the breast of its mother, who was dead. As they drew forth the corpses they could no longer feel any pleasure even at their own escape. So great were the calamities that had overwhelmed Antioch at this time. Trajan made his way out through a window of the room in which he was staying. Some being, of greater than human stature, had come to him and led him forth, so that he escaped with only a few slight injuries; and as the shocks extended over several days, he lived out of doors in the hippodrome. Even Mt. Casius itself was so shaken that its peaks seemed to lean over and break off and to be falling upon the very city. Other hills also settled, and much water not previously in existence came to light, while many streams disappeared.

Foster, H. B. (2014). Delphi Complete Works of Cassius Dio (Illustrated), Delphi Classics.

• Eusebius Chronicon Book Two, page 278, 223th Olympiad
• from a translation of Jerome's translation
• from tertullian.org

An earthquake at Antioch ruined almost the entire city.

• scroll to 223rd Olympiad
• Eusebius Chronicon Book Two, page 278, 223th Olympiad
• from a translation of Jerome's translation
• from tertullian.org

Delphi Collected Works of Eusebius (Illustrated), Delphi Classics.

• Book 7 Section 12 Paragraph 5
• from Fear (2010:343)

5. Four cities in Asia, Elea, Myrina, Pitane, and Cyme along with two in Greece, those of the Opuntii and Oriti,¹⁵⁴ were destroyed by an earthquake that also ruined three cities in Galatia. At Rome, the Pantheon was struck by lightning and burnt down, while an earthquake in Antioch almost levelled the entire city.¹⁵⁵

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.

Footnotes

83 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

Online English Translation of History Against the Pagans - Book 6

Online English Translation of History Against the Pagans - Book 7

Fear, A. T. (2010). Orosius: Seven Books of History Against the Pagans, Liverpool University Press.

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.

Footnotes

105 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.

• Book 11 Sections 8 and 9
• suffered for the third time refers to the earthquake
• from Jeffries et al (1986:145-146)

During the reign of the same most divine Trajan Antioch the Great, situated near Daphne, suffered for the third time in the month of Apellaeus and December 13, the first day, after cockcrow ,in the Antiochene year 164, and two years after the arrival of Trajan in eastern parts. The Antiochenes who remained behind and survived erected an altar in Daphne, on which they wrote, “The survivors erected this to their saviour Zeus."

On the same night as Antioch the Great suffered, the island city of Rhodes, being a city of the Hexapolis, suffered under the wrath of God for the second time.

But the most pious Trajan, having founded it once already, erected the Median Gatenear the temple of Ares, where the Parmenius flows in winter, close to what is now called Macellus; and above it he inscribed an effigy of the She-Wolf who suckled Romulus and Remus, so that posterity might know that this was a Roman foundation. He sacrificed there a beautiful Antiochene virgin called Calliope as an expiatory and cleansing sacrifice for the city, in whose honour he built the Nymphagoria. And then he re-erected the two great architraves, and built many other things in Antioch, including a public bath, and an aqueduct, drawing the water from the springs of Daphne to the so-called Agriae, giving his own name to the baths and aqueduct. And the Theatre of Antioch, which was not yet finished, he completed, and placed in it, above, four columns; and in the middle of the Proscenium of the Nymphaeum he put a bronze statue of the virgin he had slaughtered, and on the upper side a bronze of the Orontes river was placed, being crowned by the kings Seleucus and Antiochus. The Emperor Trajan himself was in the city when the earthquake happened.

St Ignatius, the bishop of Antioch, was martyred then during Trajan’s visit, for he incurred the emperor’s anger through abusing him.

• See page 275
• from archive.org

• See pages 145-146
• Book 11 Sections 8 and 9
• suffered for the third time refers to the earthquake
• from calameo.com

The source for this earthquake may have been 'City Chronicles' of Antioch.

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).

English Translation of Chronographia by Malalas

Chronographia in the original Greek with a Latin translation

Parise (2002) defines the Era of Antioch a year later than Ambraseys (2009:123, 169) and also has different start and end dates. This way of reckoning would result in a different date for this earthquake - 13 December 116 CE. Since Ambraseys (2009:123), Guidoboni et al (1994), and Downey (1963:283) date the Trajan Quake to 13 December 115 CE apparently based on Malalas' specification of the Antiochene Year of 164, I am going to assume for now that they were correct although it is possible that Ambraseys (2009:123) and Guidoboni et al (1994) relied on Downey (1963:283) and Downey (1963:283) made a mistake. The Antiochene Year has a section in CHRONOS where this calendar is discussed in more detail in the Explanation dropdown.

At the end of this excerpt, Malalas recounts the martyrdom of Saint Ignatius of Antioch . Although Malalas’ text does not seem to specify that Ignatius’ martyrdom occurred coincident with or just prior to the earthquake, Ambraseys (2009) cites sources which say that the earthquake coincided with the date of Ignatius’ martyrdom. Ambraseys (2009) discussion follows

Malalas puts the event on a Sunday at the same time as the martyrdom of Saint Ignatius. For this reason Clinton (1851) rejects Malalas' date completely and dates the event to January or February AD 115; based on a reconstruction of the itinerary of St Ignatius, beginning with his arrest, which he mistakenly places in February AD 115 (cf. Downey, 1961b:292). According to St John Chrysostom, St Ignatius' martyrdom took place on 20 December 116, which was a Saturday: apparently the martyrdom continued till 6 am on Sunday (Ioann Chrys. S. Ignat. 594). Hence it may well be that 13 December 115 for the earthquake is correct, in view of the other corroborated data; Malalas has merely moved the date of St Ignatius's death back (Essig, 1986; Lepper, 1948:54-85; Downey, 1961b:216,218,292).

Malalas mentions simultaneous damage to Rhodes however this may be a forced synchronicity or sloppy chronology; something Malalas is noted for. Ambraseys (2009) noted that in a possible timing inconsistency, Malalas states that the Rhodes earthquake happened at night and the Antioch earthquake occurred in the early morning (after the cockscrow).

Roman Consul Pedo is reported to have died in this earthquake.

• Book 2 Chapter XII
• from Walford (1846)

CHAPTER XII.

EARTHQUAKE AT ANTIOCH.

DURING the second year of the reign of Leo, an extraordinary shock and concussion of the earth took place at Antioch, preceded by certain excesses of the populace, which reached the extreme of frenzy, and surpassed the ferocity of beasts, forming, as it were, a prelude to such a calamity. This grievous visitation occurred in the five hundred and sixth year of the free prerogatives of the city, about the fourth hour of the night, on the fourteenth day of the month Gorpiaeus, which the Romans call September, on the eve of the Lord's day, in the eleventh cycle of the indiction; and was the sixth on record after a lapse of three hundred and forty-seven years, since the earthquake under Trajan; for that occurred when the city was in the hundred and fifty-ninth year of its independence; but this, which happened in the time of Leo, in the five hundred and sixth, according to the most diligent authorities. This earthquake threw down nearly all the houses of the New City, which was very populous, and contained not a single vacant or altogether unoccupied spot, but had been highly embellished by the rival liberality of the emperors. Of the structures composing the palace, the first and second were thrown down: the rest, however, remained standing, together with the adjoining baths, which, having been previously useless, were now rendered serviceable to the necessities of the city, arising from the damage of the others. It also levelled the porticoes in front of the palace and the adjacent Tetrapylum, as well as the towers of the Hippodrome, which flanked the entrances, and some of the porticoes adjoining them. In the Old City, the porticoes and dwellings entirely escaped the overthrow; but it shattered a small portion of the baths of Trajan, Severus, and Hadrian, and also laid in ruins some parts of the quarter of houses named Ostracine, together with the porticoes, and levelled what was called the Nymphaeum. All these circumstances have been minutely detailed by John the rhetorician. He says, that a thousand talents of gold were remitted to the city from the tributes by the emperor; and, besides, to individual citizens, the imposts of the houses destroyed : and that he also took measures for the restoration both of them and of the public buildings.

• see Book II Chapter XII on pages 94-95
• from calameo.com

• see Chapter XII starting with EARTHQUAKE AT ANTIOCH.
• from tertullian.org

Whitby, M. (2000). The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus, Liverpool University Press. - online open access at calameo.com

Walford, E. (1846). Ecclesiastical history. A history of the Church ... from A. D. 431 to A. D. 594, tr. with an account of the author and his writings - online open access at tertullian.org

Walford, E. (1846). Ecclesiastical history. A history of the Church ... from A. D. 431 to A. D. 594, tr. with an account of the author and his writings - online open access at ccel.org

Account of Evagrius Scholasticus and his works written by Roger Pearse

• Parts 1 and 2
• from Harrak (2017:196)

[F34r] The year two thousand [one hundred] and twenty-eight (AD 114): A great earthquake took place in Antioch, overturning the city almost entirely.

Harrak (2017:xvi) lists Pseudo-Dionysius' sources during this time period as Eusebius’s Ecclesiastic History and an unspecified Chronicle of Edessa. Regarding Pseudo-Dionysius' use of Eusebius Harrak (2017:xvii-xix) notes that

Eusebius is mentioned by the Chronicler as his source, but does not specify whether it is his Ecclesiastical History or his Chronici canones, in a Syriac translation. The Chronicler relied heavily on the Canones for the period as early as the Creation (following the biblical account) and as late as the time of Constantine the Great, that is the entire history covered by the Canones. Eusebius’ Chronici Canones is no longer extant but it survived in the Latin translation of Jerome (Hieronymus; abbreviated hereafter as Hier.),²⁶ in an Armenian translation (abbreviated hereafter as Arm.),²⁷ and in Syriac translations,²⁸ including a version used by the Chronicler. In the footnotes of our translation some dates and sometimes pieces of information found in the Chronicle are compared with Hier. and Arm. and the discrepancies resulting from these comparisons tell how risky it is to rely on the dates of Eusebius in all these translations. In a symposium on Chronography organized in 2006 in Ottawa by the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies and the Department of Classics, University of Ottawa, Richard Burgess compared dates for every event given in these versions, using for the Syriac Chabot’s Latin translation of the Chronicle of Zuqnīn. His statistics also highlight the unreliability of these versions in reconstructing the original Chronici canones: 14.3% exact match and 32.4% no agreement!²⁹ In fact in the Chronicle some dates were tampered with, as in the case of the original Abr. 1848, which happens to agrees with both Hier. and Arm., but which was changed to Abr. 1850. None of the editors of the Chronicle paid attention to the different ink used in this emendation and or to the failed erasure of some original digits, and thus the year was always taken for 1850, including in Chabot’s Latin translation of the Chronicle. The fact that someone emended that date to agree with the one in the Latin and Armenian versions is quite interesting. Did he use a Syriac translation of the Chronici canones that is no longer extant, and was he at the monastery of Zuqnīn or at the monastery of the Syrians in Sketes when he changed it?

As for Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, it covers early church history in the Chronicle from the time of Herod (year 5 AD) to Constantine the Great, including calamities befalling the Jews after the Passion of Christ, material borrowed by Eusebius from Josephus. Eusebius’ EH is extant in Syriac, but the version used by the Chronicler differs slightly from the one published by Wright and McLean,³⁰ and in any case he was selective in copying events from this largely quoted source.

Footnotes

26 Rudolph Helm, Eusebius Caesariensis Werke, Band 7: Die Chronik des Hieronymus, Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten Jahrhunderte 47 (Berlin: Academy-Verlag, 1956; repr. De Gruyter, 2012).

27 Josef Karst, Die Chronik: aus dem Armenischen übersetzt mit textkritischem Commentar, Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten Jahrhunderte 20 (Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs’sche Buchhandlung, 1911).

28 The translation of the Canones by Jacob of Edessa survived in a mutilated version; E. W. Brooks, Chronicon Jacobi Edesseni, (in) Chronica Minora III, T. CSCO 5/Syr. 5, pp. 261–330; V. CSCO 6/Syr. 6, pp. 197–258 (Paris, 1905–1907).

29 Richard W. Burgess, “A Chronological Prolegomenon to Reconstructing Eusebius’ Chronici canones: The Evidence of Ps-Dionysius (The Zuqnin Chronicle),” Journal of the CSSS 6 (2006), pp. 29–38. See also on the issue of disagreements Muriel Debié, L’Écriture de l’histoire en syriaque: Transmissions interculturelles et constructions identitaires entre hellénisme et islam (Peeters : Leuven, 2015), pp. 294; id., “L’Historiographie tardo-antique: une littérature en extrais,” in S. Morlet (ed.), Lire en extraits (Paris, PUPS, 2015), pp. 411–12.

30 W. Wright and N. McLean (eds.), The Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius in Syriac Edited from the Manuscripts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 1898).

Annals by Dionysius of Tell-Mahre and Annals by Pseudo-Dionysius of Tell-Mahre are not the same work nor were they composed by the same author. Annals by Dionysius of Tell-Mahre is largely lost. It only exists in fragments. Annals by Pseudo-Dionysius of Tell-Mahre is extant. Annals by Pseudo-Dionysius of Tell-Mahre is also known as the Chronicle of Zuqnin as it is thought to have been composed by a monk at the monastery of Zuqnin before it was falsley attributed to Dionysius of Tell-Mahre - hence the reason why the author is referred to as Pseudo-Dionysius of Tell-Mahre. To complicate matters further, Chabot (1895) published a French translation of Annals by Pseudo-Dionysius of Tell-Mahre which he mistakenly titled Annals by Dionysius of Tell-Mahre. Well, it was actually titled Annals by Denys of Tell-Mahre which is another name for Dionysius of Tell-Mahre.

The sole surviving manuscript at the Vatican (Cod. Vat. 162) - This manuscript is claimed by some to be the autograph - the first draft of the manuscript. No further recension, or copy, is known.

Annals Part II (?) by Pseudo-Dionysius of Tell-Mahre in Syriac at archive.org

Harrak, A. (2017). The Chronicle of Zuqnīn: From the creation to the year 506/7 AD. Parts I and II, Gorgias Press.

Harrak (2017:xvi) notes major sources identified in Parts I and II of the Zugnin Chronicle had been discussed in great detail by Witakowski.

Witakowski, Study, p. 124-135

Witakowski, "The Sources of Pseudo-Dionysius of Tel-Mahre for the Second Part of his Chronicle," in J.O. Rosenqvist (ed.), AEIMΩN Studies Presented to Lennart Ryden on his Sixty-Fifth Birthday (Uppsala, 1996), pp. 181-210

Witakowski, "Sources of Pseudo-Dionysius of Tel-Mahre for the Christian Epoch of the First Part of his Chronicle," in G.J. Reinink and A.C. Klugkist (eds.), After Bardaisan: Studies on Continuity and Change in Syriac Christianity in Honour of Professor Han J.W. Drijvers (Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters en Department Oosterse Studies, 1999), pp. 329-366.

Pseudo-Dionysius of Tell-Mahre at syri.ac

Wikipedia page for the Zunqin Chronicle - many links and references

• from Adler and Tuffin (2002:425)

AM 5600

Year 100 of the divine Incarnation

The remaining years of Trajan, the eleventh ruler of the Romans

When the Jews throughout Libya, Cyrene, Egypt, Alexandria and the Thebaid commenced hostilities against the Greek inhabitants there, they were utterly destroyed.¹

Antioch suffered an earthquake when Trajan was staying there.²

Trajan ordered Lysius Quintus³ to eliminate the insurgents in Mesopotamia. For killing many tens of thousands of Jews, he was thereby appointed governor of Judaea.⁴

After killing the Greeks at Salamis in Cyprus, the Jews razed the city.⁵

The Senate passed a resolution making Trajan a god.⁶

According to Eusebios, Trajan died of an illness in Selinous; but according to others, he died of dysentery in Seleukeia of Isauria.⁷

(7) The seventh Roman bishop was Xystos 9 years⁸
((5) The fifth) bishop of Alexandria was Primus 12 years⁹
(6) The sixth bishop of Jerusalem was Benjamin 2 years
(7) The seventh bishop of Jerusalem was Joannes 2 years
(8) The eighth bishop of Jerusalem was Matthias 2 years¹⁰

Paul Tuffin and William Adler ed. (2002). The Chronography of George Synkellos: A Byzantine Chronicle of Universal History from the Creation, Oxford University Press.

W. Torgerson, J. (2022). The Chronographia of George the Synkellos and Theophanes: The Ends of Time in Ninth-Century Constantinople, Brill.

Chronographia by Georgius Syncellus (in Latin)

Chronographia by Georgius Syncellus (in Latin)

Guidoboni refers to this as Georgius Syncellus 657

• Book 6 Chapter 4
• from Chabot (1899-1910:174)

The temple of the Pantheon, that is to say of all the gods, was destroyed by lightning. At the same time, Antioch was more or less entirely overthrown by a violent earthquake.

• Book 6 Chapter 4
• from Chabot (1899-1910:174)

Le temple du Panthéon, c'est-à-dire de tous les dieux, fut détruit par la foudre. Encore à cette époque, Antioche fut tout entière plus ou moins renversée par un violent tremblement de terre.

• see left column 4th paragraph down on p. 174 starting with Le temple du Panthéon
• Book 6 Chapter 4
• from Chabot (1899-1910:174)
• from archive.org

Unfortunately only one Syriac manuscript has survived.

text from the sole surviving Syriac manuscript

syri.ac website for Michael the Syrian

A French translation by Chabot (1899-1910: Volume 2, Book IX, Chapter XXIX pp. 243-244) can be read here. Other translations of can be found here, here, here (Parts 1,2, and 3), here, and here

Guidoboni et. al. (1994:232) note that this earthquake may have been mentioned in the very incomplete Fragment xxxv in the Fasti Ostienses

English

[---] Vestal virgin [---] there was an [earthqu]ake [---1, of Quintus Asinius Mar[cellus ---].

Latin

[---]rinu[---J / v(irgo) V(estalis) [terrae m]otus fuit [---1 Q(uinti) Asini Mar[celli ---] / [---11-[---?]

Barbieri (1970, pp.263-5, 272-3, 276) has studied this much debated fragment and the substantial earlier bibliography in extreme detail, and suggests completing its five lines as set out below. He thinks the first line refers to a consul from the third and last pair for the year 115, namely Pompeius Macrinus — who is probably also referred to in the Fasti Potentini (from Potenza Picena, near Porto Recanati), though it, too, is a very fragmentary document:

English

[On the Calends of September] M. Pomp[eius Mac]rinu[s, ---1.

Latin

[k. Sept.] M. Pomp[eius Mac]rinu[s, ---].

The second line seems to refer to the death or sentencing of an unidentified Vestal virgin. Barbieri has suggested the Lepida in CIL 6.5477, but there are other possibilities, since the form of the first letter of the name suggests either an I or an N. The earthquake referred to in the third line seems to be the one which struck Antioch in that same year 115, and it is probably recorded in the inscription because it caused the death of a number of people in the retinue of the emperor Trajan. It is unlikely, therefore, to be the hypothetical earthquake in the Ostia area — which is in any case not attested in any other sources — as previously suggested by Burnand (1984, pp.176-7, no.10) and in Catalogo epigrafi (1989, p.144).

The fourth and fifth lines are taken to record the death of the praefectus urbi, Q.Asinius Marcellus, and his replacement by Q.Baebius Macer:

English

Q.Baebius Macer was appointed to replace Q.Asinius Marcellus as praefectus urbi.

Latin

in locu]m Q. Asini Mar[celli praef urb. f(actus) Q. Bae/bins Mace]r.

Barbieri has read the last letter of the fifth line as an R, whereas it had previously been interpreted as an A (CIL 14.4542) or an X.

Ambraseys (2009) notes that the earthquake is recorded by a number of later Syriac chroniclers who add no further information. Ambraseys (2009) and Guidoboni et al (1994) list other sources which mention this earthquake.

• Chr. 724 121/95 - This is the same reference as Chronicon by Eusebius (Ambraseys, 2009)
• Zon. 11.22.18