Parallels and differences: Malalas, the Easter chronicle and Theophanes

Abstract

Identifying the sources of the Chronicon Paschale is a very difficult task. Some of the resources used are lost. There are many parallels with known historical works (by both earlier and later authors), but these correspondences may be misleading. There are difficulties both in establishing possible dependencies between the works and in assuming the use of one common source. This paper examines the parallels and differences between the Easter Chronicle, the Chronicle of Malalas, and the Chronography of St Theophanes the Confessor within a specific group of sources. Further conclusions are drawn from a contrastive comparison: observations concerning the manuscript tradition of the Chronicon Paschale text can be made, which may lead to further reflection. The extracts scrutinized here provide another example of how the copyists’ involvement may have altered the original text.

Keywords

• chronicon paschale
• john malalas
• theophanes the confessor
• sources
• scribes