The Paschal Chronicle records that Hypatius, executed after the Nika Riot in 532, was buried at the shrine of *Maura (martyr of Egypt, S01398) in Constantinople. Written in Greek at Constantinople, c. 630.
Evidence ID
E07965
Type of Evidence
Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)
Paschal Chronicle, s.a. 532
Μεθ᾿ ἡμέρας δὲ ἐκέλευσεν τοῖς αὐτοῦ λαβεῖν τὸ λείψανον αὐτοῦ καὶ θάψαι αὐτό. καὶ λαβόντες αὐτὸ οἱ αὐτοῦ ἔθαψαν εἰς τὸ μαρτύριον τῆς ἁγίας Μαύρας [...]
'After some days he [Justinian] ordered the man's kinsmen to take his corpse and bury it. And his kinsmen took it and buried it in the martyrium of St. Maura ...'
Text: Dindorf 1832, 628.
Translation: Whitby and Whitby 1989, 126.
Cult Places
Martyr shrine (martyrion, bet sāhedwātā, etc.)
Non Liturgical ActivityBurial ad sanctos
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesAristocrats
Source
The Chronicon Paschale (paschal or Easter chronicle) is a chronicle compiled at Constantinople in the first half of the 7th century. It covers events from the creation of the world up to the anonymous author's own time. The Chronicle probably concluded with the year 630 (see Whitby and Whitby 1989, xi), though the surviving text breaks off slightly earlier, in the entry for 628. The traditional name for the Chronicle originates from its introductory section, which discusses methods for calculating the date of Easter. The Chronicle survives thanks to a single manuscript, Vatican, Gr. 1941 (10th c.), on which all other surviving manuscripts depend. The only critical edition remains that of Ludwig Dindorf (1832).The chronicler uses multiple chronological systems to date events: Olympiads, consular years, indictions, and years from the Ascension, as well as using Roman, Greek, and sometimes Egyptian dates (see Whitby and Whitby 1989, x). Numerous literary sources are utilised for the period before the author's own time, including well-known historical sources such as Eusebius and John Malalas. We have not included entries for material in the Paschal Chronicle which simply reproduces material in earlier sources already entered in our database.
Discussion
Hypatius (PLRE II, 'Hypatius 6') was the nephew of the emperor Anastasius (r. 491-518). During the Nika Riot at Constantinople in 532 he was proclaimed emperor by the rioters. The Chronicle describes how, after the riot was suppressed, he and his brother Pompeius were executed and their bodies dumped in the sea. When Hypatius' body was subsequently washed up, Justinian first ordered it to be placed with the bodies of other executed criminals, but then relented and allowed Hypatius' burial as described in this passage. The shrine of Maura was located in Sycae (Galata): see Janin 1969, 329-30.There is a problem with the Chronicle's account of the burial of Hypatius, in that two epigrams survive which were seemingly carved on a monument to him, and which state explicitly that his body was never found and that his memorial was a cenotaph (Greek Anthology 7.591-2). For discussion see Cameron 1978, 264-7; Cameron suggests that the Chronicler may have confused Hypatius with his brother Pompeius, and that it was the latter who was buried at the shrine of Maura.
Bibliography
Edition:Dindorf, L., Chronicon Paschale (Bonn, 1832).
Translation:
Whitby, M., and Whitby, M., Chronicon Paschale 284-628 AD (Translated Texts for Historians 7; Liverpool, 1989).
Further reading:
Cameron, Alan, "The House of Anastasius," Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 19:3 (1978), 259-276.
Janin, R., La géographie ecclésiastique de l'empire byzantin. I: Les églises et les monastères de la ville de Constantinople. (2nd ed.; Paris, 1969).
Record Created By
David Lambert
Date of Entry
02/09/2020
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S01398 | Timotheos and Maura, husband and wife, martyrs of Egypt | Μαύρα | Certain |
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