The Paschal Chronicle records that when the emperor Phocas was deposed in 610, he was seized in an oratory of *Michael (the Archangel, S00181) within the palace in Constantinople. Written in Greek at Constantinople, c. 630.
Evidence ID
E07969
Type of Evidence
Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)
Paschal Chronicle, s.a. 610
Καὶ τῇ ς' τοῦ αὐτοῦ μηνός, διαφαούσης ἡμέρας β', Φῶτις ὁ κουράτωρ τῶν Πλακιδίας καὶ Πρόβος ὁ πατρίκιος ἐπῆραν Φωκᾶν ἐκ τοῦ Ἀρχαγγέλου τοῦ παλατίου ὁλόγυμνον, καὶ ἀπήγαγον διὰ τοῦ λιμένος ὥς ἐπὶ τὸν οἶκον τῶν Σοφίας [...]
'And on the 6th of the same month [October], as Monday was dawning, Photius, the curator of the palace of Placidia, and Probus the patrician seized Phocas stark naked from the Archangel in the Palace, and led him off through the harbour in the direction of the mansion of Sophia ...'
Text: Dindorf 1832, 700.
Translation: Whitby and Whitby 1989, 151.
Cult Places
Cult building - oratory
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesMonarchs and their family
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
This reference to the oratory of the Archangel Michael inside the palace at Constantinople occurs in the Chronicle's account of the downfall of the emperor Phocas in October 610, following the arrival at Constantinople of the fleet of the rebel Heraclius and Phocas' desertion by most of his supporters. For the oratory, see Janin 1969, 344.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:
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 | S00181 | Michael, the Archangel | ὁ Ἀρχαγγέλος | Certain |
|---|
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David Lambert, Cult of Saints, E07969 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E07969