Changing Geographies: West Syrian Ecclesiastical Historiographies, 700-850 (original) (raw)
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reference-global.com (Millennium, vol.6), 2009
This article explores in detail the downfalls of the patriarchs of Constantinople Euphemius (in 496) and Macedonius (in 511). It argues that the Emperor Anastasius (491-518) was obliged to outmanoeuvre both patriarchs in order to re-establish control in a predominantly pro-Chalcedonian city. In a detailed investigation of the events surrounding Macedonius’ downfall in July 511 it brings to bear hitherto neglected Coptic translations of letters by Severus to bishop Soterichus of Caesarea, offering a new edition of one and a new translation of both. It concludes with some observations about the relationship between the emperor and the patriarch in the imperial capital in late antiquity generally, stressing the steadily rising influence of the latter.
The Patriarchate of Constantinople in Context and Comparison
Mit Beschluss der philosophisch-historischen Klasse in der Sitzung vom 23. März 2006 wurde die Reihe Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Byzantinistik in Veröffentlichungen zur Byzanzforschung umbenannt; die bisherige Zählung wird dabei fortgeführt.
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Review of Making Christian History: Eusebius of Caesarea and His Readers, by Michael J. Hollerich
Church History, 2022
's Making Christian History examines the influence of the first Ecclesiastical History and the reception of its author, Eusebius of Caesarea (d. 339). Building on previous scholarship, Hollerich asserts that Eusebius invented a new historical genre, though not without earlier influences and antecedents. He notes that the Ecclesiastical History was written in the mold of national histories, conceiving of Christians as a new nation or people, but differed from classical histories in eschewing invented speeches in favor of long quotations from documents, and in introducing a chronology based around imperial reigns and episcopal tenures (32-40). For Eusebius, the Church's orthodoxy did not change but remained consistent from the beginning. As a result, rather than focusing on military and political affairs as most ancient histories do, Eusebius's history finds its primary drama in the struggle against doctrinal error introduced by heretics. Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History "dominated interpretations of early Christianity in both Eastern and Western Christianity" (47) and was much imitated, thanks to its rapid translation from the original Greek into Latin, Syriac, Armenian, and possibly Coptic. Despite his focus on the Ecclesiastical History, Hollerich inevitably gives almost as much attention to Eusebius's Chronicle. In his Chronicle, Eusebius organized historical data upon which he would draw for his Ecclesiastical History, and the two projects together constitute what Hollerich calls Eusebius's "historical diptych" (22). "The first universal synchronism of world history ever written," Eusebius's Chronicle provided a timeline of world history from the life of Abraham divided among "long tables or 'canons' of national dynasties set in parallel columns" (23). Hollerich argues that Eusebius's Chronicle established a distinctly Christian way of looking at world history: Eusebius organized his chronology around nations/ empires, and the Chronicle culminated in the triumph of Christianity within the Roman Empire. It was translated into Syriac (now lost) and is preserved in Latin and Armenian translations. As Hollerich shows, its reception was bound up with the Ecclesiastical History-many later imitators merged universal chronicles and church histories in inventive ways. After introducing Eusebius and his corpus in chapter 1, Hollerich documents how Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History and Chronicle shaped how later generations thought and wrote about church history. Chapter 2 addresses the Ecclesiastical History's manuscript tradition, its Latin translator and continuator Rufinus, and its late antique Greek continuators (Socrates, Sozomen, etc.). Chapter 3 follows Eusebius's works among Syriac, Armenian, and Coptic authors, who had to confront new realities: the rise of Islam challenged Eusebius's triumphalist narrative, and Eusebius's historical model had to be adapted to an eastern church that had fragmented along doctrinal and linguistic lines. Growing divisions also affected the medieval Latin West, the topic of chapter 4, where smaller, national churches became the focus of church historians; Hollerich explores several examples, starting with Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Chapter 5 focuses on Byzantium, where Eusebius's Chronicle remained influential, but church history as a genre went into abeyance until the fourteenth century. Chapter 6 follows the rediscovery of the Greek original of Eusebius's Ecclesiastical 646 Book Reviews and Notes