''Chronicon Paschale'' (the ''Paschal'' or ''Easter Chronicle''), also called ''Chronicum Alexandrinum'', ''Constantinopolitanum'' or ''Fasti Siculi'', is the conventional name of a 7th-century Greek Christian

chronicle A chronicle (, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events ...

of the world. Its name comes from its system of chronology based on the

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

paschal cycle The Paschal cycle, in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is the cycle of the moveable feasts built around Pascha (Easter). The cycle consists of approximately ten weeks before and seven weeks after Pascha. The ten weeks before Pascha are known as ...

; its Greek author named it ''Epitome of the ages from

Adam Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam). According to Christianity, Adam ...

the first man to the 17th year of the reign of the most August

Heraclius Heraclius (; 11 February 641) was Byzantine emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the Exarch of Africa, led a revolt against the unpopular emperor Phocas. Heraclius's reign was ...

''.

Structure

The

Eastern Roman Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

inherited the concept of chronicles (''Annales'') and histories (''Historia'') as distinct genres, with different writing styles and public appeal; this distinction can already be found in the works of Sempronius Asellio in the 1st century BC. As with other examples of its genre, the ''Chronicon Paschale'' is a popular account which relates anecdotes, physical descriptions of the chief personages (which at times are careful portraits), and extraordinary events such as earthquakes and the appearance of comets. It links Church history with a supposed Biblical chronology. For the years 600 to 627 the author writes as a contemporary historian—that is, through the last years of emperor Maurice, the reign of

Phocas Phocas (; ; 5475 October 610) was Eastern Roman emperor from 602 to 610. Initially a middle-ranking officer in the East Roman army, Roman army, Phocas rose to prominence as a spokesman for dissatisfied soldiers in their disputes with the cour ...

, and the first seventeen years of the reign of Heraclius. The ''Chronicon Paschale'' is a huge compilation, attempting a chronological list of events from the creation of Adam. The principal manuscript, the 10th-century ''Codex Vaticanus graecus 1941'', is damaged at the beginning and end and stops short at 627. The Chronicle proper is preceded by an introduction containing reflections on Christian chronology and on the calculation of the Paschal (Easter) cycle. The so-called 'Byzantine' or 'Roman' era (which continued in use in Greek Orthodox Christianity until the end of Turkish rule as the 'Julian calendar') was adopted in the ''Chronicon'' as the foundation of chronology; accordingly the date of the creation is given as 21 March 5507 BC.

Authorship

The author identifies himself as a contemporary of the Emperor

(610–641), and was possibly a cleric attached to the suite of the Ecumenical Patriarch Sergius. The work was probably written during the last ten years of the reign of Heraclius. The chief authorities used were: Sextus Julius Africanus; the '' Fasti consulares''; the ''Chronicle'' and ''Church History'' of

Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius, was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima. ...

;

John Malalas John Malalas (; ; – 578) was a Byzantine chronicler from Antioch in Asia Minor. Life Of Syrian descent, Malalas was a native speaker of Syriac who learned how to write in Greek later in his life. The name ''Malalas'' probably derive ...

; the '' Acta Martyrum''; the treatise of Epiphanius, bishop of Constantia (the old Salamis) in Cyprus (fl. 4th century), on ''Weights and Measures''.

Editions

* Matthaeus Raderus ( Munich, 1615): ''Chronicon Alexandrinum idemque astronomicum et ecclesiasticum'' (''

editio princeps In Textual scholarship, textual and classical scholarship, the ''editio princeps'' (plural: ''editiones principes'') of a work is the first printed edition of the work, that previously had existed only in manuscripts. These had to be copied by han ...

'', Greek text with Latin translation) * L. Dindorf (1832) in ''

Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae The (CSHB; ), also referred to as the Bonn Corpus, is a monumental fifty-volume series of primary sources for the study of Byzantine history (–1453), published in the German city of Bonn between 1828 and 1897. Each volume contains a critica ...

'', with du Cange's preface and commentary * J. P. Migne, ''Patrologia graeca'', vol. 92.

Partial English translation

*''Chronicon Paschale 284–628 AD'', translated by Michael Whitby and Mary Whitby (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1989)

References

Sources

* *

External links

The 1615 editio princeps by Raderus at Google Books
*1832 Dindorf edition at Google Books
Vol.1Vol. 2
{{Authority control Chronicles containing universal histories in Greek 7th-century history books Byzantine literature Medieval Greek chronicles about the Byzantine Empire