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The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity


from its origins to circa AD 700, across the entire Christian world


The so-called Barbarus Scaligeri, a Latin translation of a lost Greek chronography dating from the 6th c., states that the relics of *Andrew (the Apostle, S00288) and *Luke (the Evangelist, S00442) were translated to Constantinople in the year 336.

Evidence ID

E07178

Type of Evidence

Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)

Barbarus Scaligeri 240-41

Nepotiano et Facundo clarissimorum
Hisdem cosulibus translati sunt in Constantinopolim sanctus Andreas apostolus et Lucas evangelista X kl. Iulias.

'[Consulship of] Nepotianus and Facundus
clarissimi [= 336]
Under the same consuls Saint Andrew the Apostle and Luke the Evangelist were translated to Constantinople on the 10th day before the Kalends of July [22 June].'


Text: Mommsen 1892, 293.
Translation: David Lambert.

Festivals

Anniversary of relic invention/translation

Relics

Bodily relic - unspecified
Transfer, translation and deposition of relics
Transfer/presence of relics from distant countries

Source

The Barbarus Scaligeri, also known as the Excerpta latina barbari (literally, 'Scaliger's barbarian' and 'Latin excerpts of a barbarian'), is a Latin translation of a late-antique Greek chronographical compilation. Its modern titles originate from the opinions of its first modern editor, Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540-1609), who was contemptuous of what he regarded as the author's very bad Latin and incompetent translation from Greek. Some contemporary scholars have suggested using a less prejudicial title: thus R.W. Burgess refers to it as the Chronographia Scaligeriana (Burgess 2013, 2-3 and passim). The text survives in a single manuscript: Paris, BnF, Lat. 4884 (digitised: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84790083). This was dated by 19th c. editors such as Mommsen to the 7th or early 8th century, but the most recent assessment is that it was copied in the 770s or 780s at the monastery of Corbie in northern Francia (Burgess 2013, 20-21). The manuscript is probably contemporaneous with the translation (Burgess 2013, 6, and for discussion of the translator's possible background, ibid. 21-27).

The
Barbarus Scaligeri as a whole is a compilation of texts, including biblical genealogies, lists of monarchs, and geographical information. Among its contents is a list of consuls, which occasionally includes notes of historical events, including several relating to saints. Burgess identifies the Greek original of this as dating from about the 530s (Burgess 2013, 18-19, 42). A number of entries are based on a now lost local chronicle from Alexandria in Egypt (Burgess 2013, 3, 14-15); this was either the same text as the Alexandrian chronicle used by Theophanes (see e.g. E08006), or a closely related one. The Greek original used by the translator was illustrated, and the manuscript leaves spaces for illustrations to be added; however, this never happened.


Discussion

The translation of the bodies of Andrew and Luke to Constantinople is here dated to 336, towards the end of the reign of Constantine, rather than the more commonly given date of 357, under his son Constantius II (see e.g. the Paschal Chronicle, E07986). Burgess 2003, 24-34, argues that this is not an error, but records a translation of relics by Constantine, separate from the one in 357.


Bibliography

Edition:
Mommsen, T., in Chronice Minora I (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores antiquissimi 9; Berlin, 1892), 290-298.

Further reading:
Burgess, R.W., "The Passio S. Artemii, Philostorgius, and the dates of the invention and translations of the relics of Sts Andrew and Luke," Analecta Bollandiana 121 (2003), 5-36.

Burgess, R.W., "The Date, Purpose, and Historical Context of the Original Greek and the Latin Translation of the So-Called
Excerpta latina barbari," Traditio 68 (2013), 1-56.


Record Created By

David Lambert

Date of Entry

23/12/2020

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00288Andrew, the ApostleAndreasCertain
S00442Luke, the EvangelistLucasCertain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
David Lambert, Cult of Saints, E07178 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E07178