Amongst the written sources1 pertaining to the history of Antioch, there are a few primary documents such as inscriptions, papyri, or archival records. Literary texts are much more numerous. Ancient historians mention Antioch because major events took place there; they show that the city was a place of power, but they tell us nothing about the urban fabric and the life of the inhabitants. More interesting to us are texts pertaining to issues concerning the city itself. Lastly, works written in Antioch or in its surroundings are primary sources on the cultural history of the city, and contain first-hand information about certain episodes, monuments, or traditions and legends. Taken as a whole, these texts are mostly dated to Late Antiquity, from the middle of the fourth century to the beginning of the seventh century CE. However, even the most recent authors may have relied on much older sources, now lost. Moreover, some of them write narratives going back before the foundation of the city. It can be tempting to rely on such sources to write a continuous history of Antioch from its origins. Such was Glanville Downey’s project in his book A History of Ancient Antioch (Reference Downey1961).2 But the authors who relate past events or use ancient texts are likely to reinterpret or reformulate them according to their specific agendas. That is why we will adopt a chronological presentation of the sources here.3 We will include Daphne in this survey, as its history is intertwined with that of Antioch.
From the Foundation of the City to the Third Century CE
No contemporary source relates the foundation of Antioch and only a few texts of the Hellenistic period give some insights on the city. The first written proof of its existence is a relation of Ptolemy II’s expedition at the beginnings of the third Syrian war in 246 BC (BNJ 160): its author mentions a gate and “people of the gymnasium.”4 At least from the beginnings of the second century BCE, as Antioch became the unique capital of the Seleucid kingdom, the city must have been a center of literary production, but this production is lost. A letter of Antiochus III, dated to 189, pertains to the appointment of a chief priest for the sanctuaries of Daphne (IGLS 3, 2, 992). Polybius (30, 25–27) describes a parade organized by Antiochus IV in Daphne in 166. A biography of the philosopher Philonides of Laodiceia (fl. 175–150), courtier of Antiochus IV and Demetrius I, records discussions led in a house near the palace in Antioch (P. Herc. 1044, XXVII, l. 11).5 The first Book of the Maccabees accounts a riot in 145 during which the Antiochean populace besieged the king Demetrius II in his palace (I Maccabes 11. 45–49).6
After the end of the Seleucid monarchy in 63 BCE, Antioch became the capital of the Roman province of Syria. Julius Caesar lists prodigies recorded in the Roman East in 48 BCE, during his war against Pompey. One of them occurred in Antioch. The incident shows that the city was walled (Bellum Civile 3, 105). However, it is not until the Augustan period that the city begins to have some consistence in the literary texts. Livy (41, 20, 9) mentions the temple of Jupiter “Capitolinus” built by Antiochus IV at Antioch. Pompeius Trogus, a Livy’s contemporary whose work is known thanks to a later epitome (Justin Epitome 39, 2, 5), mentions a temple of Jupiter in his account of the reign of Alexander Zabinas (128–123 BCE).7
The first comprehensive description of the city is owed to Strabo (16, 2, 4–5). The chronological position of this description is not easy to define, as Strabo continued to write or revise his Geography during Tiberius’s reign, until 23, but his source may be, for the whole passage, the philosopher Posidonius (ca 135–ca 51 BCE).8 In such case, his testimony is all the more important as Posidonius is a native of Apamea, not far from Antioch. He calls Antioch a tetrapolis (quadruple city), “since it consists of four parts,” each of them being walled by its own wall and by a common wall, founded respectively by Seleucus I, “the multitude of settlers,” Seleucus II, and Antiochus IV (16, 2, 4). Strabo adds that the city is the metropolis of Syria and includes a palace which is the residence of the rulers. According to him, Seleucus’s foundation was a synoecism, as the king gathered the inhabitants of Antigonia, founded by his rival Antigonus and destroyed by himself, and the descendants of the hero Triptolemus, sent from Argos in search of Io (16, 2, 5). He devotes a few lines to Daphne and its sacred grove (16, 2, 6). He is also aware of legends regarding the Orontes (16, 2, 7). Some of the main elements of the urban identity of Antioch throughout centuries are therefore already present in this description.
Flavius Josephus is the most important source of the Flavian period (70–96). A member of the Judean priestly class, he rallied to Vespasian during the Judean War, and he wrote in Rome his historical works, the Bellum Judaicum between 75 and 79, then the Antiquitates Judaicae in 93/94. He relates the riot against Demetrius II and provides details on the urban context of the palace (Josephus, Antiquitates Judaicae 13, 136–139). In his narratives of the period of the civil wars or the reign of Herod, Antioch and Daphne appear several times as places to stay for rulers and men of power (Josephus, Bellum Judaicum 1, 185; 243; 328; Antiquitates Judaicae 17, 23–25). Josephus is the first author to mention the third rank of Antioch among the cities of the empire (Bellum Judaicum 3, 29). He is particularly interested in the Jewish community of Antioch, its rights, and the consequences of the Judean revolt (Bellum Judaicum 7, 43–44; 47–48; 55; 61; 100; 107–111; Antiquitates Judaicae 12, 119–120). In this context he provides information on civic life and urban fabric in the years 66–70: the (unique?) synagogue, the agora, which he describes as “tetragonal,” the buildings that border it, and the theater, used as a meeting place for civic assemblies. He is also the first author to mention the main street. According to him, its length was 4 km when Herod paved and equipped it with a portico (Bellum Judaicum 1, 425; Antiquitates Judaicae 16, 148). At the very beginning of the second century, the orator Dio Chrysostom, promoting his own project of embellishments in his city of Prusa (Bithynia), also mentions this street, to which he attributes a length of over 7 km. He seems to be referring to recent improvements to it (Oration 40, 11; 47, 16). Tacitus, who writes his historical works at the beginning of the second century, describes exhibition on the agora of the body of Germanicus, who died in 19 (Annals 2, 37, 5), and recalls the support given by the Antiocheans to Vespasian in 69 at the beginning of his ascension to imperial power, confirming on this occasion the function of the theater as a place of political assembly (Histories 2, 80, 1).
These sources, albeit allusive, imply a significant growth of the city between approximately 20 BCE and approximately 100 CE and testify to the importance of the relationship engaged between Antioch and Vespasian during the year 69. They are complemented by two groups of inscriptions, dated to the years 73–75, which let us know that during Vespasian’s reign two canals were built from the Orontes: one, “the channel of the fullers,” was dug by the Antiocheans themselves;9 the other, designated as Dipotamia, was excavated by Roman soldiers, and offered by the emperor to the city of Antioch.10 Moreover, the inscriptions concerning the “channel of the fullers” show that the city is organized into small units called plintheia (brick-frame), each bearing a specific name. These plintheia are the city blocks laid out on a grid pattern typical for the Hellenistic foundations and partially visible on the contemporary map of the city. Their names provide hints about the population and about some features of the urban landscape.
On a different line, Antioch is featured in the Acts of the Apostles, written at the end of the first century. It is there that Jesus’s followers would have been named for the first time “Christians” (Acts 11, 26).11 Some of first Christian texts, indeed, are written in Antioch, among them the works of two bishops, Ignatius, martyrized under Trajan, and Theophilus, deceased after 180.12
Greek authors of the second and third centuries are not loquacious about the city. However, Pausanias the Periegete and Arrian are aware of a tradition localizing the transformation of the nymph Daphne pursued by Apollo into a laurel tree at the site of Daphne near Antioch (BNJ 156, f.87; Pausanias, 8, 20, 2; 8, 23, 5), and Pausanias, by naming the Antiocheans “the Syrians of the Orontes” throughout his work, points to the importance of the river in their shared imaginary.13 Moreover, he mentions, albeit in an allusive way, engineering works regarding navigability of the river conducted between approximately 162 and 166 (8, 29, 3–4).14 He credits the sculptor Eutychides with the statue of the Fortune of Antioch (6, 2, 7) and stresses the importance of the city which he equates with Alexandria (8, 33, 3). Lucian points out the taste of the Antiocheans for performing arts, particularly for dance (De Saltatione 76). Cassius Dio, writing his Roman history at the beginning of the third century, describes at length the earthquake of 115, which struck while Trajan was in Antioch. On this occasion, he refers to the hippodrome (68, 24–25). Philostratus was probably a courtier of Empress Julia Domna in Antioch. He seems to be the first author to style Antioch “the Great.” Referring to the relocation of the Daphne myth from Arcadia to Syria, he adds that the local river is named Ladon after the Arcadian river-god, father of Daphne (Philostratus Vita Apollonii 1, 16). An inscription, unfortunately undated, confirms this point.15 Elsewhere he reminds conversations in the precinct of Apollo Daphnaios (Philostratus Vitae Sophistarum, pr.). A slightly later historian, Herodian, frequently mentions the city in his account of the years 180–238. He presents in the most developed way the cliché of Antioch as a large and vibrant city with a mild climate and abundant water, but also as the city of enjoyment par excellence, whose inhabitants are only concerned with festivals and shows, and may be prone to support an usurper (e.g., Herodian 2, 7, 9; 2, 14, 6; 6, 6). A record of a court petition gives more objective information. The request was presented to the governor of Syria on 28 August 245, while he was holding a hearing in Hadrian’s baths (P. Euphrat. 1).16 This is the earliest written evidence of one of the many thermal buildings in the city.
The pre-fourth century sources only provide a few glimpses of urban realities, as well as some insights into the ways Antioch was viewed and the Antiochians themselves regarded their own past. Interest for the Antiochean past is also attested by a certain Pausanias of Antioch, who would have written in the second or third century a book about the founding and history of Antioch. His work is known exclusively by later quotations (BNJ 854).17
From the beginning of the fourth century, Antioch gains a new importance as a Christian city and as a capital. Texts written in or about Antioch become more and more numerous. From this point we can only present a selection of major sources, focusing those related to the urban space or urban life.
From the Fourth to the Sixth Century
In the historical works of Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea (approximately 260–339), the Antiochean Church features from the Apostolic period onward. In addition, Eusebius reports in his Chronica the construction of a public bath by Septimius Severus (p. 212, l. 1–2 Helm);18 and at the date of 281 (which is disputable), the founding of a “New Antioch” (p. 224, l. 7–8 Helm). This “New Antioch” must be identified with the “New (City)” of later sources, that is, the imperial quarter, built on an island in the Orontes.19 In the Ecclesiastical History, Antioch appears in the accounts of the reigns of Diocletian and Maximin as the scene of several martyrdoms and the establishment of a new pagan cult (Eusebius 8, 12, 2–5; 8, 13, 4; 9, 2–3; 9, 11, 5–6). In the Praise of Constantine20 (9, 15) and Life of Constantine21 (3, 50, 2), Eusebius describes the Golden Church built in Antioch thanks to this emperor, which would be dedicated only in 341. Eusebius’s Chronica has been continued at Antioch, for the years 325–350. This Continuatio is known only from quotations by later authors.22
By the end of the reign of Constantius (337–361), sources become numerous. One of the most important authors is Libanius. Born in Antioch in 314, he dedicated himself to the rhetoric in his mid-teens. He pursued his studies in Athens from 336 to 340, and began his sophistic career in Constantinople, then moved to Nicaea, and soon to Nicomedia. In 349 he returned to Constantinople, but in 353 he decided to live in Antioch. From 354 to his death in 393, he taught rhetoric in his native city, first as a private teacher, but soon as the city’s official sophist. In an age of religious changes, he remained a supporter of the polytheistic worship tradition. His surviving works are numerous and multifaced: 64 speeches (logoi), addressed to the Antiocheans, to the members of the civic council, to his own students, to governors, to emperors; 1,544 letters; 51 fictive speeches on imaginary themes (meletai); and numerous preliminary exercises pieces (progymnasmata). Some of the meletai and progymnasmata, however, are spurious. Except one oration (Oration 59), and possibly a few letters, all of Libanius’s logoi and letters were written in Antioch between 354 and 393. They are an invaluable source for the history of Antioch during the fourth century, in all aspects (social, institutional, and political history, cultural history, history of urban space). Libanius was indeed both an actor and a witness to this history.
Libanius pronounced a speech in praise of Antioch (Oration 11) on the circumstance of the Antiochean Olympic festival in 356.23 His aims were to present Antioch as conforming to a model of an ideal city, to depict it as a Greek city, and more precisely as the Athens of the East, and to show the harmony between its prestigious past and its present state. In the first part of his discourse, devoted to the past, after praising the territory, he recounts in detail the first, mythical, settlements on the site of the future Antioch, then the twin foundations of the city and the sanctuary of Daphne by Seleucus (§44–104). This narrative affirms the Greekness of the city and its links with the gods of paganism, but also vindicates Antioch as the equal of Alexandria on the one hand, Byzantium-Constantinople on the other, by selecting, manipulating, and so-to-say, updating multifarious legendary materials of various origins and dates.24 He builds a history of the city under the Seleucids (§105–128), but almost bypasses the Roman period (§129–130). However, some episodes of the recent history, like Eugenius’s attempt of usurpation in 303 (§157–162), take place in the second part of the speech, dedicated to the present. In this part, he describes the cityscape (§196–229), the suburbs, including Daphne (§230–243), and the pleasures of urban life (§244–268). The main street, flanked by porticoes, is featured as the principal component of the urban space. It runs across the “Old city,” on the left bank of the Orontes, whereas the “New City” is located on an island. The imperial palace is erected in the New City. Libanius’s description is poignant, but we must keep in mind that it is a snapshot of Antioch at a given time.
In addition to this city portrait, we have at our disposal, for the years 354–361, letters from Libanius, passages of his Autobiography (Oration 1, 86–118), and Ammianus Marcellinus’s History (14, 1; 14, 7; 8, 8; 15, 13; 19, 12; 21, 6; 21,15). Ammianus Marcellinus, who writes in Rome at the end of the fourth century, is a former officer in the Roman army. Like Libanius, he is a pagan. Although he writes in Latin, he describes himself as a Greek. Indeed, he originates from Syria or Phoenicia. He spent much of his life in Antioch, which he styles “fair crown of the Orient” (22, 9, 14). At the end of Constantius’s reign, the author of a small geographic work points out the role of the city as an imperial residence (Expositio totius mundi and gentium, 23; 32).25 In addition, the Liber Pontificalis26 preserves amongst other archival records a list of properties in Antioch whose revenues are credited to St. Peter’s in Rome, which must have been compiled during the reign of Constantius (Liber Pontificalis 34, Siluester 19).27 It includes names of districts and real estates. Amongst them, the “House of Datianus” must have belonged to a well-known Constantius courtier, a correspondent of Libanius.28
Emperor Julian stayed in Antioch for several months in 362–363. Several conflicts arose between him and the population of Antioch. In addition to the work of Ammianus (22, 9–23, 2), and numerous writings of Libanius (Oration 1, 119–135, Oration 12–18 and 24, and letters), both being close to him, the legislative and literary production of Julian himself is a valuable source. The Misopogon in particular, addressed by the emperor to the Antiochians, reflects his own view of his relationship with the city.
Jovian, who succeeded Julian for a few months, spent a short time in Antioch (Amm. Marc. 25, 10; Libanius Oration 1, 138). A brief document preserved among the works of Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, reporting on the approaches made to Jovian in Antioch by some of opponents to Athanasius, includes the earliest mention of a gate designated as the Porta Romanesia, as well as a mention of the field of military exercises designated as the kampos (Ps.-Athanas. Petitiones Arianorum, Migne, PG 26, 820–824).
Valens (364–378) resided for several years in Antioch. His reign corresponds to a gap in Libanius’s correspondence, and only a few of his speeches date from this period, which was difficult for him (Oration 1, 144–179). Ammianus describes distrust and cruelty of Valens (29, 1–2), and John Chrysostom, born in Antioch around 349 and who was a young man at this time, remembered years after the atmosphere of fear that sometimes prevailed in the city (John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles 38.5, Migne, PG 60, 274). Ammianus also reports a bath built by Valens at Antioch (31, 1). An anonymous adaption in Latin of Josephus’s Bellum Iudaicum, entitled De excidio Hierosolomytano, has quite possibly been written during this period at Antioch or by an author who held some attachment to the city.29 It contains a short but interesting praise of Antioch (3, 5). Another Latin writer, Jerome of Stridon, who stayed in Antioch several times between 372 and 382, makes some allusions to it in subsequent writings: he mentions the church referred to as the Koimeterion (De viris illustribus 16),30 and reports that relics of the Maccabees are exhibited in Antioch (Onomasticon, p. 172*).31
Most of the preserved speeches of Libanius were written during Theodosius’s reign (379–395), until Libanius’s death in 393, and the collection of his letters begins a new start in 388. In his speeches, Libanius deals with a variety of themes, which concern all aspects of Antioch’s social life. Some of these discourses include allusions to the topography of Antioch. For instance, he reports that governor Tisamenes held his assizes in the portico of Dionysus’s sanctuary (Oration 45, 26) and mentions Athena’s sanctuary both in a speech (Oration 30, 51) and in a letter (Epistle 847, 1).32 In 384, he devoted a speech to a sporting edifice known as the Plethron, which was linked by its function to the Antiochian Olympic competition, and to whose enlargement he opposed (Oration 10).33 For another viewpoint, John Chrysostom, as a priest, delivered numerous homilies during the years 386–397. His writings allow us to study various aspects of the city life, but also the manipulation of the perception of space by the language,34 the cult of the saints,35 and the concrete changes of Christian space during that period. He describes the rearrangement of a martyrium built near the Porta Romanesia (In ascensionem, Migne, PG 50, 443),36 and the building of a church to house the remains of the martyrized bishop Babylas (Homily on Babylas 10).37 A religious building excavated on the right bank of the Orontes is adorned with inscribed mosaics, one of them explicitly dated to 387 (IGLS 3, 1, 774–777). Its identification with Babylas’s martyrium is only a hypothesis, but such archeological evidence confirms the building activity of the Christian community during the reign of Theodosius.
The “Riot of the Statues” (387) is an important event, which we know both from homilies of John Chrysostom and speeches of Libanius. During this uprising, imperial statues were destroyed. The city was chastised and then forgiven. In this time of fear, John Chrysostom repeatedly spoke to his flock.38 In his homilies, he took up the themes of the praise Libanius had delivered in 356 to build a counter-model for a Christian Antioch.39 Soon after, however, Libanius penned addresses to the emperor and to the officials who arrived to settle the matter (Orations 19–22).
The end of the fourth century marks the end of a peak in the local literary production, as far as the preserved works are concerned. However, the genre of Church history flourished in the fifth century. Philostorgius, Socrates, Theodoret, and Sozomen continue the seminal work of Eusebius. Their own histories encompass a period starting in 324 and ending, depending on the authors, in 423 (Sozomen), 425 (Philostorgius), 428 (Theodoret), or 439 (Socrates). They offer useful retrospective insights on the history of the city.40 Philostorgius, whose work, for doctrinal reasons, is not preserved except in later quotations, provides an original account of the transfer of Babylas’s relics from Daphne to the Koimeterion during Julian’s reign (Ecclesiastical History 7, 8). Among Socrates, Theodoret, and Sozomen, the most relevant is Theodoret, born in Antioch in 393 from a Christian family. His account of the visits of Julian and Valens to Antioch and of the history of the Christian local community during the fourth century is packed with first-hand material.41 In addition to his Ecclesiastical History, he wrote a series of short biographies of monks, some of whom have lived in Antioch, inside the city wall or in the outskirts (Historia Religiosa 2; 8; 10–13).42 He thus provides a first-hand account of realities poorly known otherwise.
More generally, hagiographic literature is a relevant resource, despite the many difficulties of dating and authenticating the texts, and sometimes their bourgeoning transmission. For instance, the account of the martyrdom of Bonosus and Maximilianus, during Julian’s reign, known only from a late Latin translation, contains some interesting information,43 and the edifying story of Andronicus and Anastasia tells about burial practices in the church of St. Julian and charitable activities of the elites.44 The second half of the fifth century corresponds to the onset of Syriac literary production in Antioch’s territory, with the Life of Symeon the Elder, dated to 473, and later translated in Greek.45
At the beginning of the sixth century, various homilies and other writings of Severus, bishop of Antioch from 512 to 518, form an important source for the history of the city during those years.46 Soon after, however, began a period of dramatical transformations.
From Antioch to Theoupolis (Sixth to Seventh Centuries)
After a succession of tremendous earthquakes in 526 and 528, Emperor Justinian granted to the Antiocheans the right to officially change the name of their city, from Antiocheia to Theoupolis. This grant is recorded in Malalas’s Chronography (18, 29).47
Malalas’s work is one of the most famous sources on the history of Antioch. It is also highly problematic, but fortunately has gained an ever-increasing interest since the 1990s. Comparison of the text transmitted through the main witness (Baroccianus 182) with the rich secondary tradition shows the existence of many variants, and passages from the indirect tradition are often the most detailed. We also know that several editions of the Chronography circulated successively in the sixth century. Rather than assuming that the text we have is a summary, the concept of an open text, which may be adapted for each copy, is more operative and more consistent with intellectual practices in Late Antiquity. Consequently, there is not one text which would have to be restored as the original (Ur-text), but several forms of the text to be considered.48 These reflections do not preclude the presence of an authorial project. Understanding this project is a requisite for a correct exploitation of the text as a source.
The work is a universal history from Adam to Justinian. In his preface, Malalas states that for the period from Adam to the beginning of the reign of emperor Zeno, he abbreviates earlier historiographical and literary works, and makes an original account of the events that took place in his own lifetime. We may distinguish three parts in the Chronography.
I. Books 1–9. From Adam to the Annunciation.
II. Books 10–14. From the birth of Christ (10, 1–5) and the death of Augustus (10, 6) to the death of Leon II. This part takes the form of a series of biographies of emperors.
III. Books 15–18. From Zeno to Justinian. Each book is devoted to a detailed account of the reign of an emperor.
Antioch appears repeatedly throughout the narrative at least until 532. After that date, the city vanishes from the text. It is thus widely agreed that the author lived in Antioch and had access to sources preserved there until 532, perhaps as a member of the staff of the Comes Orientis, and then left the city. In the first part of the Chronography, Antioch is featured as early as Book 2 (Argive settlement), then in Book 5 (tales of Orestes and Perseus). In Book 8, Malalas relates the foundation of the city by Seleucus. He mentions then some events happened during the Seleucid period or involving Pompey, Julius Caesar, Augustus, and Agrippa. In the second part, many events concerning Antioch are mentioned, briefly or at length. Amongst them, numerous are constructions, most frequently attributed to the emperors. In the third part, Malalas accords much less place to Antioch by comparison with the rest of the empire than in the second part, and the most common occasions for him to speak about Antioch are not imperial constructions, but riots or urban disasters like earthquakes or fires. These narratives furnish, incidentally, numerous and reliable data concerning the urban space of Antioch between approximately 475 and approximately 530. The first two parts of the Chronography are more problematic. The author’s aims are to link the past of the city with its contemporary state through explicit references to the present time or to changing names or uses of buildings, but also to build a dynamic picture of the urban space and its evolution, which highlight good relations between Antioch and the imperial power. On the other hand, the story contains obviously fanciful elements, for instance human sacrifices attributed to Seleucus, Tiberius, and Trajan (8, 12; 10, 10; 11, 9). Moreover, as Malalas himself warns us, the text is constructed from various sources. Amongst them, the most often explicitly quoted by Malalas about Antioch are Pausanias of Antioch (see supra) and Domninus.49 However, Malalas may know Pausanias only through Domninus. Moreover, the identification and dating of Domninus himself are problematic, as this author is mentioned only in the Chronography. He is referred to 10 times. The last quotation pertains to Diocletian, but many other passages may have been based on Domninus, who must have written a local history of Antioch during the fourth or fifth century.
Be that at it may, books 2–13 of the Chronography integrate a “grand narrative” of the urban development, from the legendary Argive pre-foundation to the last extension of the city wall. This southward extension took place during the reign of Theodosius II,50 but Malalas attributes it to Theodosius I. It may be a mere error, but it is more probably a deliberate falsification. The sequences making up this grand narrative, spread out in the chronological framework, are organized in hierarchical cycles, dominated by the “founder’s cycle,” which connects several episodes of pre-foundation, foundation, extension, or re-foundation of the city.51 Some of the sequences of this grand narrative also link Antioch to other cities, as is the case, for instance, for the human sacrifices,52 Perseus’s tale (2, 11–13), Orestes’s tale (5, 30–37), and Seleucus’s urban foundations in Northern Syria (8, 11–18). The composition of this grand narrative cannot predate the extension of the city wall. It is tempting to credit it to Domninus, although there is no definitive evidence for this.
Other sequences, however, are independent of this grand narrative. They can be interlinked but are unrelated to the founders cycle. They connect a relatively ancient past with the fifth or sixth century. For instance, a kind of chronicle of the bouleuterion runs from Pompey to empress Eudocia (8, 29; 9, 10; 14, 8), and Trajan and Theodosius II are linked through the mention of the Golden Gate (11, 4; 14, 13). Finally, several episodes remain isolated. The story of Maccabees as related by Malalas is in fact the foundation legend of the Church of the Maccabees, or Kerateion, well-known through other sources (8, 23). The story of the dancer Paris is based on scholarly tradition concerning the Latin poet Juvenal (10, 49). The story of the martyrdom of Juventinus and Maximinus must depend on local liturgical traditions (13, 19).
Different narrative layers are interwoven to form “Malalas’s Antioch” and, to answer the question of the Chronography’s historical value, it is necessary to disentangle them. The chronicle is a fundamental source of the urban landscape of Antioch between approximately 474 and 526. Regarding previous times, we can admit, and sometimes prove, that various places and buildings mentioned by Malalas have existed, but Malalas cannot be taken at face value as a reliable source on imperial construction or urban development. However, his accounts make sense in the context of Late Antique Antioch. In this context it is a fundamental document for the study of storytelling and narrativity relating to urban space in Late Antiquity.
After the earthquakes of 526–528, reconstruction efforts were made. An inscribed mosaic commemorates the renovation and enlargement of a public bath in 537–538 (IGLS 3, 1, 786). But in 540 the Persians raided and burned down the city. Procopius, born in Caesarea Maritima (Palestine), is one of the greatest historians in the sixth century. He is notably the author of a history of Justinian’s wars (De Bellis), as well as a book on Justinian’s buildings (De Aedificiis). He deals with the capture and sack of Antioch in 540 in a detailed narrative, written 10 years after the event (De Bellis 2, 6, 9–2, 10), and shows how emperor Justinian supported the reconstruction of the city and downsized the walled area (De Aedificiis 2, 10).
The authors who write after the mid-sixth century know a city different from Libanius’s or even Malalas’s Antioch: its official name, since 528, is Theoupolis, and its extent and outline are changed.
The city appears occasionally in numerous historical or hagiographic writings composed after the middle of the century, like the Chronicle of Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor (X, 5, a, 412–413).53 The anonymous pilgrim from Placentia passes by Antioch in the years 560–570, and gazes at the Maccabees relics (§ 47, 1).54 Major works are penned at the end of the century and the beginning of the seventh century.
Evagrius Scholasticus was born in approximately 537 in Epiphaneia (present-day Hama, Syria). He served as secretary to the patriarch Gregory of Antioch (570–593) and lived in Antioch for the longest part of his life. After Gregory’s death, Evagrius wrote an Ecclesiastical History in six books, dealing with the period between 431 and 594.55 In his narrative, he repeatedly evokes Antioch, with a concern for relating past actions and traditions to the present. For instance, he alerts the reader to a church built in the fourth century (1, 16), or a statue erected in the fifth century (1, 20) still extant, and he mentions the upheld tradition of the celebration of the monk Thomas (4, 35). He uses a variety of sources: Nestorius (1, 7), Procopius of Caesarea (4, 25), John Malalas (1, 16; 2, 12; 3, 10, 3, 28; 4, 5). He takes the opportunity to list useful sources regarding the ancient past of the city, amongst them Strabo, Arrian, and Libanius, but also some sophists and poets whose work is now lost (1, 20). In addition, he refers to “the memory of extremely old people” (3, 32). He has also witnessed some of the more recent events he tells, not least the 588 earthquake, as the night of this earthquake should have been for Evagrius the night of his wedding, celebrated throughout the city at public expense (6, 8). His History is thus also a kind of self-portrait, as an Antiochean and as an historian. His own implication in his narration is striking. He explains how he has rediscovered the monastery where Nestorius was permitted to retire by Theodosius II (1, 7). He discovered a forgotten book of Nestorius where he found a mention of Nestorius’s monastery, and he was able to identify this monastery, although its name had changed. The location of this monastery has been significant for this research. Regarding the last extension of the city wall, Evagrius argues against other historians, like Malalas, who attributes it to Theodosius I. In his argumentation, material remains are a key to know and understand the past. The historian grounds his authority on his personal experience and knowledge of the site (1, 20). Similarly, in the case of Mammianus’s buildings, Evagrius checks on the ground the information of his source, making a display of autopsy (3, 8). Evagrius stages his relationship to the urban space of Antioch. He indeed provides reliable insights into Antioch’s cityscape in Late antiquity.
Symeon Stylite the Younger56 was born in Antioch in 521. He became a monk as a child and spent the rest of his life in the mountainous area between Antioch and Seleucia. He died in 592. From him survive 30 homilies and at least one letter. During the reign of Phocas (602–610), an anonymous writer, who presents himself as one of the saint’s disciples, compiled a very long biography from various collections of edifying anecdotes and miracles.57 Several stories concern Antioch. They involve the saint during the 526 earthquake (§ 7), the capture of the city by the Persians in 540 (§ 57–64), an attack of plague (§ 126–129), or other events. The text abounds in names of villages and estates and is an important source for the study of the territory of Antioch,58 but it also gives us a final picture of the city itself, with its main street (§ 161–163), beggars (§ 72), notables, and meeting places (§ 224).
Lastly, John Moschus was in Rome when he finished, shortly before 619, under the title Spiritual Meadow, a collection of monastic edifying stories, of which several happen in Antioch and add some touches to our knowledge of the city (e.g., § 88, § 231).59
Conclusion
Persian occupation and subsequent Arab conquest are conventional markers of the end of Antiquity. These events, however, did not put an end to the history of the city, nor to its prestige, and even less to diffusion, copying, and adaptation of texts. Malalas’s Chronography was thus used in later chronicles in various languages, and some hagiographic writings, such as the Life of Pelagia, enjoyed an astonishing success in the Middle Ages.60 Moreover, Byzantine reoccupation of Antioch prompted new works, but also the rewriting of the Life of Symeon Stylite the Younger. The Crusader period was also a time of intense literary and documentary production. An Arabic tradition also developed.61
Let us return to antique and late antique sources. We will stress two points: we depend heavily on Late antique sources to write the history of the city, but we must not overlook the older texts and it is misleading to prefer Malalas over Strabo or Flavius Josephus; moreover, each of the texts we have presented has its own interest and its specific contribution, and features the city in a different manner, but all these texts also dialogue with each other. Antioch’s history is polyphonic.
