Mosaics of Time, The Latin Chronicle Traditions from the First Century BC to the Sixth Century AD: Volume I, A Historical Introduction to the Chronicle Genre from its Origins to the High Middle Ages

460 Pages·2012·2.26 MB·English

by  Richard W Burgess

MOSAICS OF TIME
STUDIES IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES
Editorial Board under the auspices of the
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York
Elizabeth M. Tyler, University of York
Julian D. Richards, University of York
Ross Balzaretti, University of Nottingham
Laura Napran (Editorial Assistant)
Previously published volumes in this series are listed at the back of this book
VOLUME 33
MOSAICS OF TIME
The Latin Chronicle Traditions
from the First Century BC to the Sixth Century AD
Volume I:
A Historical Introduction to the Chronicle Genre
from its Origins to the High Middle Ages
by
R. W. Burgess
and Michael Kulikowski
H
F
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Burgess, R. W. (Richard W.)
Mosaics of time : Latin chronicle traditions from the first century BC to the sixth century
AD.
Volume 1, A historical introduction to the chronicle genre from its origins to the High
Middle Ages. – (Studies in the early Middle Ages ; v. 33)
1. Chronology, Historical. 2. Chronology, Roman. 3. Civilization, Ancient – Early works
to 1800. 4. Civilization, Medieval – Early works to 1800. 5. Latin prose literature –
History and criticism. 6. Historiography – History – To 1500.
I. Title II. Series III. Kulikowski, Michael, 1970–
907.2-dc23
ISBN-13: 9782503531403
© 2013, Brepols Publishers n.v., Turnhout, Belgium
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
D/2013/0095/72
ISBN: 978-2-503-53140-3
Printed on acid-free paper
Tum Atticus: ‘[…] sed quid tandem habuit liber iste quod tibi aut nouum aut tanto usui
posset esse?’
‘Ille uero et noua’, inquam, ‘mihi quidem multa et eam utilitatem quam requirebam, ut
explicatis ordinibus temporum uno in conspectu omnia uiderem.’
Then Atticus said, ‘But what did [my chronicle] have that could have been either new or
so useful to you?’
‘It did indeed have both many things that were new to me’, I replied, ‘and the specific
usefulness I was looking for: I could see everything in chronological order at a single glance.’
M. Tullius Cicero, Brutus, 14–15
Cover Image
The objects in this photo seem to be about as different as they can be — mono-
chromatic vs colour, fired clay vs vellum, Babylonian vs Latin, inscribed cuneiform
vs written letters, three-dimensional tablet vs flat page, sixth century BC vs
thirteenth century AD (copied), and seventh century BC vs eleventh century AD
(content) — and yet in spite of the thousands of years that separate their creation
they are both recognizably chronicles and they cover approximately the same
amount of time.
Left image: The Fall of Nineveh Chronicle, a cuneiform tablet with part of the
Babylonian Chronicle covering years ten to eighteen of King Nabopolassar, i.e.
616–609 BC (= Grayson 1975: 90–96, no. 3, and Glassner 2004: 218–25, no. 22;
size: 136.5 mm x 71.4 mm), inscribed between c. 609 and 539 BC.
Right image: A page from the chronicle of Sigebert of Gembloux, covering the years
AD 1088–93 (= MGH SS, 6: 366), written in the late thirteenth century.
CONTENTS
Foreword ix
A Note on the Citation of Ancient and Medieval Editions xiv
Chapter 1. Nomenclature and Genre 1
Chapter 2. Early Chronicles in the Mediterranean World 63
Chapter 3. Apologetic Chronography 99
and the Chronographic Works of Eusebius
Chapter 4. The Early Development of Calendars and Consularia 133
Chapter 5. Consularia and Chronicles in the Later Roman Empire 173
Chapter 6. Chronicles in the Middle Ages 189
Conclusion 269
Appendices 275
1. The Origin of the Term /Chronica 278
2. The Meaning of the Word Annales 288
3. Excerpts from Babylonian Chronicles 297
4. Excerpts from Pre-Christian Greek Chronicles 301
5. Excerpts from Roman Consularia and Chronicles 317
6. The Newly Published Leipzig Chronograph 336
7. Eusebius’s Sources for Secular History 343
and the Identities of Cassius Longinus and Thallus
8. Livy’s Foundation Date 354
Appendices to the Footnotes 357
Editions and Translations of Important Texts 383
Bibliography 389
Index 417
FOREWORD
This series of four volumes has had a long and complicated genesis. Early in
1989, shortly after RWB had completed his Oxford DPhil and as he was
preparing an edition of Hydatius for publication, Margaret Gibson asked
him to translate and provide a short commentary on Hydatius for the then new
Liverpool series, Translated Texts for Historians. Serious work on the TTH vol-
ume was delayed by a full-time teaching job in Ottawa and the edition of Hydatius,
which appeared with a facing-page translation in 1993. By then his plan for the
TTH volume had changed. Because Hydatius continues the chronicle of Jerome
and because that fact of continuation is so vital to understanding both Hydatius
and other chroniclers that to present their work as isolated texts is to funda-
mentally misrepresent them, RWB now planned to begin his TTH volume with
Jerome’s chronicle from AD 284 (the accession of Diocletian and the date from
which the then recent TTH translation of the Chronicon Paschale begins). With
the addition of Prosper, the collection of one first-generation and two second-
generation chronicles would form a primer of the late Roman chronicle, if paired
with extensive introductions and commentaries. This plan for an introduction to
the Latin chronicle tradition soon grew to take in the parallel tradition of Latin
consularia (the Descriptio consulum and the bundle of texts named the Consularia
Italica by Mommsen). Meanwhile two appendices to the commentary on Jerome
evolved into a completely separate book, published in 1999. Continued concen-
trated work on translation and commentaries began during a sabbatical year in
1998, while companion volumes on Greek and Syriac chronicles and an appendix
on the early tradition of epigraphic fasti and consularia were also conceived. By
2002 the project had grown far beyond anything TTH could accommodate within
its rigid format. RWB nevertheless decided to move forward with the larger project
on the Latin tradition from epigraphical consularia to Cassiodorus.
x Foreword
It was at this point that MK first became involved in the project. Because RWB
had done little work on Hydatius for more than a decade, and because MK’s
Toronto PhD thesis on Roman Spain (published in a much expanded form in
2004) was centrally concerned with the period covered by Hydatius, RWB invited
MK to contribute the Hydatius commentary to the larger work. In 2004, after MK
had agreed to the proposal and provided lengthy suggestions on the many hun-
dreds of draft pages accumulated over a decade and a half, he came on board as a
full co-author. By that year, much of the material in Volumes I and II of the series
existed in draft, some very rough, some structurally close to what appears in the
published version (only Chapter 6, the Appendices, and the Conclusion of the
present volume are wholly new work completed since our collaboration began).
MK therefore began the Herculean task of reworking years of accumulated
verbiage (amounting to around three hundred thousand words) and, as he put it,
‘translating it into English’. He was also instrumental in finding and securing our
publisher, Brepols, whose editors suggested that we include Latin editions for each
of the translations.
Finally, in Ireland in 2008, we realized the fundamental importance of putting
our existing research on the ancient world into a context that could be used by
medievalists, while also introducing fundamental continuities in medieval chron-
icle traditions to the specialists in earlier periods whom we had originally envisaged
as our primary audience. To that end, MK composed the sixth and final chapter of
this first volume, which takes the story of chronographic historical literature that
began in the ancient Near East all the way forward to the twelfth century AD. In
order to accommodate the vastly extended time frame of this narrative section, we
also settled on the four-volume series now projected. This, the first volume, is a
historical introduction to the chronicle genre as a whole from its beginnings to the
twelfth century. The second, which is largely complete in a draft state as this vol-
ume goes to press, will treat the early Latin chronicle tradition; the epigraphic
calendars, fasti, and consularia of the early empire; and the Latin consularia tradi-
tion of late antiquity and will include Latin editions, translations, and full his-
torical commentaries on the late antique material in those texts. The third volume
will treat the chronicle of Jerome and its direct continuations in Gaul and Spain.
The fourth and final volume will cover the last chroniclers of late antiquity
through to the very early seventh century and will include addenda, corrigenda,
and an index to all four volumes.
The distribution of labour between the authors will differ across the volumes.
As far as this volume is concerned, in spite of what has been said above about the
development of early drafts, MK has contributed substantially to every chapter that