John Malalas, in his Chronographia (11.10), mentions the martyrdom of *Ignatios (bishop of Antioch, S00649), *Five Female Martyrs (of Antioch, S02138), and *Drosis (virgin and martyr of Antioch, S01189) under Trajan (r. 98-117). Written in Greek at Antioch (Syria) or Constantinople, in the mid-6th c.
E05669
Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)
John Malalas
John Malalas, Chronographia, 11.10
Ἐμαρτύρησε δὲ ἐπὶ αὐτοῦ τότε ὁ ἅγιος Ἰγνάτιος ὁ ἐπίσκοπος τῆς πόλεως Ἀντιοχείας· ἠγανάκτησε γὰρ κατ’ αὐτοῦ, ὅτι ἐλοιδόρει αὐτόν. συνέσχεν δὲ τότε καὶ πέντε ὀνόματα χριστιανῶν γυναικῶν Ἀντιοχισσῶν καὶ ἐξέτασεν αὐτὰς λέγων· ‘τίς ἐστιν ἡ ἐλπὶς ὑμῶν, ὅτι οὕτως ἐκδίδοτε ἑαυτὰς εἰς θάνατον;’ αἱ δὲ ἀπεκρίθησαν λέγουσαι, ὅτι· ‘φονευομένας ἡμᾶς παρ’ ὑμῶν ἀνίστασθαι ἡμᾶς πάλιν ὡς ἔχομεν σώματι εἰς αἰωνίαν ζωήν.’ καὶ ἐκέλευσεν αὐτὰς πυρικαύστους γενέσθαι καὶ τὸν χοῦν τῶν ὀστέων αὐτῶν συνέμιξε χαλκῷ καὶ ἐποίησε τὸν χαλκὸν εἰς ὃ ἐποίησε δημόσιον χαλκία τοῦ θερμοῦ. καὶ ὅτε ἤρξατο παρέχειν τὸ δημόσιον, εἴ τις ἐὰν ἐλούετο εἰς αὐτὸ τὸ δημόσιον, ἐσκοτοῦτο καὶ ἔπιπτεν καὶ ἐξήρχετο βασταγμῷ. καὶ μαθὼν ὁ βασιλεὺς Τραϊανὸς τοῦτο, ἤλλαξε τὰ αὐτὰ χαλκία καὶ ἐποίησεν ἄλλα ἀπὸ καθαροῦ χαλκοῦ, λέγων ὅτι· ‘οὐ καλῶς ἐποίησα χοῦν σωμάτων συμμίξας αὐτοῖς καὶ κοινώσας τὰ θερμὰ ὕδατα.’ ταῦτα δὲ ἔλεγεν, ἐπειδὴ οἱ χριστιανοὶ ὑπώξιζον τοῖς Ἕλλησι καυχώμενοι. τὰ δὲ πρῶτα χαλκία ἀναχωνεύσας ἐποίησε στήλας χαλκᾶς πέντε ταῖς αὐταῖς γυναιξί, λέγων ὅτι· ‘ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ αὐτὰς ἀνέστησα καθὼς εἶπον καὶ οὐχὶ ὁ θεὸς αὐτῶν.’ αἵτινες στῆλαι εἰς αὐτὸ τὸ δημόσιον λουτρὸν ἵστανται ἕως ἄρτι. ἐποίησε δὲ καὶ κάμινον πυρός, καὶ ἐκέλευσε τοὺς βουλομένους χριστιανοὺς βάλλειν ἑαυτοὺς ἐν προθέσει. καὶ πολλοὶ ἔβαλλον ἑαυτοὺς καὶ ἐμαρτύρησαν. ἐμαρτύρησε δὲ τότε ἡ ἁγία Δροσινὴ καὶ ἄλλαι παρθένοι πολλαί.
’11. 10. Saint Ignatios, the bishop of the city of Antioch, was martyred then during Trajan's visit, for he incurred the emperor's anger through abusing him.
At that time Trajan also arrested five persons, Christian women of Antioch, and interrogated them, saying, "What is your hope, that you give yourselves up to death like this?" In reply they said, "When we are killed by you, we shall rise again in the body, as we are, to eternal life". He ordered them to be burned and he mixed the ashes from their bones with bronze, and from this metal he made hot water vessels in the public bath that he had constructed. When the bath came into use, anyone who went to bathe in the bath became dizzy and fell down and had to be carried out. When the emperor Trajan learned this he replaced those bronze vessels and made others of pure bronze, saying, "It was not right of me to mix in the ashes from their bodies and to pollute the hot water". He said this since the Christians had become strident in boasting against the Hellenes. He melted down the original bronze vessels and made five bronze statues of the women, saying, "Look, it is I who have resurrected them as they said, and not their god". These statues are standing at that public bath to the present. He also made a fiery furnace and ordered any Christian who wished to throw himself into it deliberately. Many threw themselves in and became martyrs. It was at this time that Saint Drosine and many other virgins were martyred.’
Text: Thurn 2000.
Translation Jeffreys, Jeffreys, and Scott 1986.
Place of martyrdom of a saint
Other (mountain, wood, tree, pillar)
Use of ImagesDescriptions of images of saints
Public display of an image
Non Liturgical ActivityComposing and translating saint-related texts
Oral transmission of saint-related stories
Transmission, copying and reading saint-related texts
Appropriation of older cult sites
MiraclesMiracle after death
Miraculous behaviour of relics/images
Punishing miracle
RelicsBodily relic - corporeal ashes/dust
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Monarchs and their family
Ecclesiastics - bishops
Source
The Chronographia of John Malalas (c. 490–c. 570) is a Christian chronicle of universal history, from Adam to the death of Justinian I (565). It appears to have been composed in two parts, the earlier of which focuses on the history of Antioch and the East, ending in c. 528 or 532. The second part focuses on the urban history of Constantinople up to the death of Justinian. Malalas is likely to have pursued a career in the imperial administration at both Antioch and Constantinople, writing the two parts of his chronicle while living in these two cities.Malalas was widely used as a source by Byzantine chroniclers and historians, including John of Ephesus, John of Antioch, Evagrius Scholasticus, the Paschal Chronicle, John of Nikiu, John of Damascus, Theophanes, George the Monk, pseudo-Symeon, Kedrenos, Zonaras, Theodore Skoutariotes, and Nikephoros Kallistou Xanthopoulos.
The text of the chronicle is preserved in a very fragmentary form, based on quotations in other sources (notably the Paschal Chronicle and Theophanes), and on a Slavonic translation which follows a more extensive version of the original text. It is believed that we now have about 90% of the text.
On the composition and manuscript tradition of the text, see Thurn 2000, and:
http://pinakes.irht.cnrs.fr/notices/oeuvre/1298/
Discussion
Malalas places the account of the martyrs Ignatios and Drosine under Trajan, immediately after an account of the emperor’s buildings in Antioch, thus integrating their stories into the civic memory and topography of his native city. The story of the five virgins seems to be a legend offering a Christian interpretation for an urban monument consisting of five bronze statues adorning the baths of the city. It is unknown whether these stories rendered this bath house a site of special Christian veneration.Bibliography
Text:Dindorf, L., Ioannis Malalae Chronographia (Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae; Bonn, 1831).
Thurn, J., Ioannis Malalae Chronographia (Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae 35; Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2000).
Translation:
Jeffreys, E., Jeffreys, M., and Scott, R., The Chronicle of John Malalas: A Translation (Sydney, 1986).
On Malalas:
Carrara, L., Meier, M., and Radtki-Jansen, C. (eds.), Die Weltchronik des Johannes Malalas. Quellenfragen (Malalas-Studien 2; Göttingen: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2017).
Jeffreys, E., Croke, B., and Scott, R. (eds.), Studies in John Malalas (Sydney, 1990).
Meier, M., Radtki-Jansen, C., and Schulz, F. (eds.), Die Weltchronik des Johannes Malalas: Autor, Werk, Überlieferung (Malalas-Studien 1; Göttingen: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2016).
Treadgold, W.T. The Early Byzantine Historians (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 235-256.
Efthymios Rizos
18/06/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00649 | Ignatios, bishop of Antioch and martyr of Rome | Ἰγνάτιος | Certain | S01189 | Drosis, virgin and martyr of Antioch | Δροσινὴ | Certain | S02138 | Five Female Martyrs of Antioch, ob. 98/117 | Certain |
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