The Chronicle of Hydatius and the Consularia Constantinopolitana: Two Contemporary Accounts of the Final Years of the Roman Empire

92 Pages·111.261 MB·English

by  R. W. Burgess

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CONTENT§
O
xll
Lkt of lllustotions
Abha:iations xl11
PARr oNE Hydatii Linici ChronicaSubdin
INTRODUCTION
I. Hydatius and his Chronicle 3
z. Manuscripts and Editions II
3. Chronology 27
4. Lacunae, Fragments, and Interpolations +7
5. Presentation of the Text 59
6. Previous Editions of Hydatius from MS B 65
67
Sigla
TEXT AND TRANSLATION 6s
APPENDICES
r. Notes to the APParatus Criticus r25
r34
z. Chronological Tables
r43
3. Orthography
4. Texts of F, H, Alc, M, G, and IP r54
pARrrlvo
The ConsulariaConstantinopoli'tana
INTRODUCTION
r. Prolegomena 175
z. Analysis of the Pre-389 Material r87
3. Hydatius and the Consularia Iq9
4. Analysis of the Post-388 Material 203
5. Presentation of the Text 2to
2rt
6. Previous Editions of the Consularia
Sigla 213
TEXT 215
2+7
Bibliography
Index oerborum ad Hydatii Chronica 253
ABBREVIATION§
LIST OF ILLU§TRATIONS
a
a
AQ0u Acta Concilioram Occummicorum, ed. E. Schwartz
PT.ATES Blockley R. C. Blockley, The Fragwennry Classicising Historians of the
I. Folios r56u and r57" of MS B (Chronicle) 6o Later Roman EmPire, ii $983)
II. Folios rTgu and r8o" of MS B (Consularia) zo8 dc Boor Carolus de Boor, Theophanis Chronographia $883)
ÇGL C orpus glo s sariorum Lat*in orunt
FIGURES Chvn, nin.l-lll Chronicaminoral-Ill MGH: AA ix (1892), xi (1894), and xiii
r. Stemma Codicum t4 (1898) [see also Bibliography, under Mommsen]
cru C orpus In scrip tionum Latina.rum
z. Origins of the Consular List inthe Consula,ria r88 CLRE Consuls of the Later Roman Empire, Roger S. Bagnall et al. $987)
3. The Recensions oî the Consularia I95 Codoffer Merino Carmen Codofrer Merino (ed.), El'De uiris illustribus' dt Isidnro
dc Seoitla: Estüio it ediciôn ritica (-lheses et studia philologica
Salmanticensia, XII; 1964)
CSËL Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum
DCB D i c tionary of Christi an B iograp h1, ed. William Smith and Henry
Wace (1877-87)
von Dobschütz Ernst von Dobschüz, 'Das Decretum Gelasianum de libris
recipiendis et non recipiendis', TU 38. 4. $grz)
du Cange Charles du Fresne, seigneur du Cange, Glossarium med,iae et
(û$-7)
inf imoc L atin i t at i s
Fotheringham John Knight Fotheringham (ed.), Eusebii Pamphili Chronici
Canones, latine uertit, adauxh, al. sua tempora produxit S. Ëusebius
Hieronjtmus $94)
Die griæhischm christlichen Schriftsteller der erstm Jahrhunderte
Rudolf Helm (ed.), Die Chronik fus Hieronryus (GCS: Eusebius
Werlæ, Band ù; yd edn. rg84 [1956] [all references to the
Chronici canones are to this edition]
MGH M onum ent a C* rm ani ae Hi s to ri c a
AA Auc t o r e s Anti.q ui s simi
poetac poetac latini aeui Carolini
SRM S criptore s rerum Merouingi c arurn
ss Scriptores
PG Patrohgia Grccca, ed. J.-P. Migne
PL Patrologia Latina, ed. l.-P. Migne
PLRE The Prosopograpfu of the Later Rotnan Empire, i, ed. A. H. M'
Jones,J. R. Martindale, andJ. Morris (tg7r), and ii, ed.J. R.
Martindale (r98o)
Real-Encycloptid.ie der classischen AltertumsPissenschaft, ed'
Pauly-Wissowa-Kroll
ilv ârfltvtATloN!
Rlchrrdron E, C, Rlchrrdton, 'Hloronymur: Llbcr de ulr{l l[u:trlbut. PART ONE
Gennrdlu* Llbcr dc ulrh llluatrlbua' IU 14, r (1896).
Thiel Andreas Thlcl, Ipr'sltt lat Romanontm pontificumgcniinæ Ag6g) Hydatii Limici
TLL Thesaurus Lingae Latinae
TU Texte und. Untersuchungen zur C*schichte fur altchristlichen Litera- Chronica Subdita
tur
Vollmann Benedikt Vollman, Studien zum Priszillianisrnus $965)
fl:
INlRODUCTION
Hydatius and his Chronicler
a
Hydatius was born c.4oo in what he calls the Lemica ciuitas (pref. r), a town
Which is otherwise known from two inscriptions as the ciuilas Limicorum,
lOCated near the modern Nocelo da Pena, about Io km east of Xinzo de
Limia, iust inside the borders of southern Galicia in Spain.z Thus
Hydatius would have referred to himself as'Hydatius Limicus', using the
ngme of the tribe as his own name, as did other natives of his home town
ln the many inscriptions they erected all over Spain.3 We know nothing
rbout his parents except that they were probably Christian and of the
middle classes of Spanish society: well off but not of the great aristocratic
Or land-owning classes. It is often assumed that he was related to the great
enti-Priscillianist Hydatius, the late-fourth-century bishop of Emerita in
Lusitania, but there is no evidence to support this apart from an identity
Of names. If they were related, it does seem odd that Hydatius does not
mention his famous forebear in the entries on Priscillian (r3, 16). The
name is extremely rare and it cannot be any coincidence that in the
generation following Hydatius of Emerita's well-known anti-Priscillianist
ictivities there are two bishops named Hydatius, one in Gallaecia and the
other in Gaul, the two maior centres of Priscillianist activity.a It is perhaps
, I This section is a condensation of the first two chapters of my thesis'Hydatius: A Late Roman
Chronicler in Post-Roman Spain'(Burgess [r989a]). Interested readers are referred üere for
detailed discussion of the points raised here. There are a great number of minor biographies of
flydatius extant, often of no value and usually deriving from the same sources. The most important
'rnd interesting te DCB iii. zo6-7; Macias (19o6), S-t6 (: Macias (r9zr), 7-r8 - Macias (ryzg), fu-
79); §eeck (r9r4); Kappelmacher (r9r4); Torres Rodriguez $956); Carreras Ares (1957), 178-84;
franoy (1974), i.9-r7; Thompson (1982), 139-5r; and especially Muhlberger (r99), r93-zoo. Others
oon be found listed in Tores Rodriguez Ç956),758-9 and 763; Molé (1974), z8o n. z1 and Ferreiro
(tq88), SS3-S, nos. 7r17-56.
' z The date ofHydatius'birth is based on his stated age in 4o7, 'infantulus' (pref. 4, §33)' which
lneanshecouldhardlyhavebeenolderthanseven(cf. TLL'tii.z.r35z-3).Ifhewassimplyexaggerat-
lng about his youth, then we have no idea how old he was. For the eiuitas Limicorum, see CIL ii.25fi-7
'bnd Macias (r9o4), esp. zzlo (: Macias $g2,9), r-6o, esp. 17-27); c|. also Ptolemy z. 6. 44.
3 e.g,CILii.44,8z7,zo4gbis,z477,24û,3034,3û2,4215,4$3,5353.Forothers,seeTranoy(r98r),
7' t.
a For the Gallic Hydatius, see Leo, Ep. gg (of 45t; PL 5a. $6 and 969) and Hilarus Ep. rc (of 464;
Thiel, r48).
THE CHNONIEL§ OF HYDJTTIUI }ITDATIU' ANtr HIg EHRONIGLE
better to see these hilo as named after the femous anti-Prlrellllcnlot by md wrote to Pope Leo eelrlng for papeleaalatênse Bnd recommending his
admiring and orthodox parents than to âssume some family connection. two compâtrlotc for the tob.ô But of the nro only Hydatius anewered his
The years 406-7 were spent on a peregrinatio to the Holy Land where erll and a number of 'lVlaniehees' were soon discovered in Asturica and
the young Hydatius saw John of Jerusalem, Eulogius of Caesarea, denounced to Antoninus, bishop of Emerita $zz), Leo eventually
Theophilus of Alexandria, andJerome, presbyter of Bethlehem (lr-S). Fsponded to Thoribius' letter in 447 and asked Thoribius, Hydatius, and
The memory of having met these holy fathers, especiallyJerome, \üas to eacponius to establish a general synod in Spain, or, if that proved too
have a profound impact on the boy's later life. By this point, though, he diflïcult, then at least one in Gallaecia, to repress Priscillianism and
may have lost his father or perhaps both his parents, for he describes tGstore general orthodoxy. Nothing ever came of this request, apart from a
himself as a 'pupillus' fu3), which meâns 'orphan'. If he was an orphan, he general circulation of Leo's letter in Gallaecia for subscription (rz7), and
was probably taken on his pilgrimage by a close relative, such as a grand- the peaceful co-existence between orthodox and Priscillianist would seem
father or uncle. However, Isidorus, a Spaniard like Hydatius but writing to have been restored in Gallaecia after the witch-hunts stirred up by the
r5o years-later, says in his Etymologiac (rr. r. 37 and z. n) that in his day tQalous Thoribius.
'pupillus' simply meant a small boy, and a Greco-Latin glossary which is In 46o Hydatius was singled out yet again, though this time he was not
probably earlier than the seventh century çGL ii. zz7. ) equates quite so proud of the fact. Prompted by three apparently Roman delatores,
'pupillus' with 'impubes'. As a result, 'et infantulus et pupillus' may Frumarius, a minor Suevic warlord with his eye on the throne, captured
simply be nothing more than a tautologous way of saying 'a very young Hydatius on z6July and proceeded to ravage the territory around Flaviae
boy'. It is difficult to know which meaning Hydatius intended. Whatever with impunity (196). In November, after over three months of captivity,
his state, he had most likely returned to Gallaecia before the invasion of Hydatius was released, probably as a result of the 'pacis quedam umbra'
Spain by the Alans, Vandals, and Sueves in October 4og b4). struck between the Gallaecians and the Sueves Qgg, zoz). Hydatius states
In 4r r the Vandals and Sueves settled in Gallaecia and from that point tlrat it was the delalores, not Frumarius or the Sueves, who wanted him out
on Hydatius lived within an isolated Roman community constantly of the way, but he does not say why and though a number of possibilities
threatened by the barbarian presence. How he and his compatriots coped 0Ên be suggested, there is no \ilay of knowing for certain.
with the Vandals and Sueves is not known and only a hint can be gained Hydatius does not mention himself again in the chronicle and his final
from Hydatius'later narrative in the chronicle. act in history appears to have been the writing of the chronicle, which was
ln 428 he was elected bishop, probably of the city of Aquae Flaviae, ^probably finished in early 469 when he was about seventy years old. He
modern Chaves, in northern Portugal (pref. r, pref. 6, tg6, zoz).s That he gives no indication ofwhen he started to write the chronicle, though in his
\Mas at the time hardly thirty years old suggests that he was an individual of preface (5-6) he dates the beginning of his personal knowledge of the
some standing and repute-in the area. it ir ir confirmed by the fact that Gvents he describes to the year he became bishop (i.e.428). His account of
barely three years after his ordination he was chosen to go on a delegation Aëtius' campaigns in Gaul in 43o-z is certainly the result of research
to Gaul to seek the assistance of the magistermilituz Aëtius in quelling the undertaken while he was in Gaul himself (probably Arles) over the winter
constant Suevic hostilities against the Gallaecians. He returned the next ,.oî 43v2. Whether it was his intention at this point to include these
year with an imperial legate and in 433may have also been involved in the notices in a chronicle is unknown. His two maior impetuses for writing
conclusion ofpeace (86, 88,9r). were the discovery of a Spanish copy of Jerome's translation and con-
Ir 445 Hydatius was again singled out, this time by Thoribius, the new tinuation of Eusebius' Chronici canynes and the Gothic invasion of
bishop of Asturica (modern Astorga), who had just returned from Gallaecia and Lusitania in 456-7, which forms the climax and centre-
religious instruction abroad to discover that Priscillianism was openly jliece of the chronicle. Thus although he appears to have been taking his-
practised and tolerated in Gallaecia. Thoribius sought the help of torical notes from a very early date and may have been intending to write a
Hydatius and Caeponius (otherwise unknown) against the Priscillianists chronicle for some time, he could only have begun to write the document
thes SItp aisn uisshu aelplyit osmtaete d(s ethea St eHcytidoant iu4,s bteolookw ,o rpd.e 5rzs) .in 416, but this is based solely on an interpolation in 54,6 6 F7o7-r9T2h oorr ibVioulslm'leatntenr, ,srezze-E3p8.. ad.Id.etCep.(PL54.6y-ÿ,andforLeo'slettertoThoribius,seePl
0 THE 0J{iAJVJ6I,§ OF UrU^-r*, .,,'" i HtBATIUS AND HIB €HRONIELE
7
we now possess after 457 or 458, since it owes itc entlre Ëtfu€tufe *nd pur- lo sB to form e rlngle monôllthlc eompendlum, Ae tho ldea of 'Chrlstian'
pose to the Gothic invasion and its immediate aftermath, hletoriography cpreed and more Christian histories and chronologies
rffe
have no idea when Hydatius died; it is usually assumed that it was were \ryritten, continuêtors continued continuetors and originally separâte
while finishing the chronicle or shortly afterwards. Given that he made no chronicles, lists, and tables were collected together into single historical
continuation of the chronicle, something he would not have failed to do compendia. More often than not these continuations and compilations
had he lived much beyond its original composition, this is a likely conclu- t€re anonymous, yet another prâctice unthinkable in the Classical world.
sion. The biography of Pseudo-Isidorus srates that he died in the reign of Hydatius was in many respects one of the pioneers of the chronicle
Leo (i.e. pre-474) but the author had no information other than the gcnre in Latin. As will be seen in Part Two below, the fasti or consularia
chronicle itself and so \ryas only surmising, as we are, from the date of the gpnre, that is, historically annotated consular lists, gained a new impetus
end of the chronicle.T ln the early fourth century after what would seem to have been a long
To present Hydatius'chronicle as I have done in this volume is in fact a period of neglect, though it was not until the end of the fourth century that
serious misrepresentation of Hydatius' intentions. It cannot be helped, of It really became a popular mode ofhistorical writing. The sole impetus for
course, but one should not make the same mistake when studying it. the popularity of Latin chronicles in the fifth century was the appearance
Hydatius wrote his chronicle as an integral continuation of Jerome's ofJerome's translation and continuation of Eusebius' Chronici canones in
translation and continuation of Eusebius' Chronici canynes; it was never 382.e Both chronicles and consularia thus made their first big impact at
published as a separate work on its own and it was only ever intended to lbout the same time in the West, at the end of the fourth century. The
be read in the context of Eusebius andJerome, just asJerome's continua- early history of one tradition of consularia is discussed in Part Two; there
tion of Eusebius was never intended to be treated separately from were others, however, most notably those published together by
Eusebius. The text of the canonr.s which precedes his chronicle in our only Mommsen under the title 'Consularia Italica' in Chronica minora i, the
complete manuscript in fact descends directly from Hydatius' personal telated fragmentary RaaennaAnnals,ro and the now-lost fasti of Ausonius,
copy and the seven introductory lines of the text (which I call the intro- which \4/ent down to 37g in the first edition and 382 in the second. The
duction) actually appear within the body of the chronici canones itself, chronicle tradition afterJerome probably first saw light in the West with
between the last entry and the final suppatatio, that is, Jerome's final the chronicle of Ausonius sometime in the 38os. This work would seem to
chronological reckoning of the total number ofyears since Adam, divided have survived only in the lost Veronensis manuscript of Ausonius'works
into nine sections.8 The preface begins immediately, without a space, "and is now known only from a list of contents of that manuscript copied in
after the supputath.I have tried to emphasize this fact in my edition by c,r32o by Giovanni Mansionario (de Matociis) in the margin of a copy of
including the final two pages ofJerome's chronicle as they appear in our his own Historia imperialis.tr The earliest surviving chronicle is that of
maior manuscript. The three works of Eusebius, Jerome, and Hydatius Prosper, first written in 433. Prosper began with Adam, but for the period
therefore formed in sequence a single, unified history of mankind from between the birth of Abraham and no 378 he simply epitomized the
the birth ofAbraham to Chronici canones and added his continuation to the epitome. He continued
468/g.
This conception of history and history-writing was a new one to the his own continuation twice, in 445 and 455.12 Internal evidence from the
ancient world. Certainly Classical historians had composed continuation
histories of earlier historians, as Xenophon, Theopompus, and the e For a brief, general account ofLàte Roman historiography, see Croke and Emmett (1983) and
'Oxyrhyncus historian' continued Thucydides, Polybius continued wthiethir ebxibtrleiomgera cpahuyt;i ofno)r; Lfoart inth ech droevneiclolepsm, esneet Mofuthhleb eorgriegrin a(rl9ly9 oG),r e8e-4k7 g QenLreR oEf c4h7r-o5n7i cslheosu ladn bde c threroanteod-
Timaeus, Posidonius Polybius, and Ammianus Tacitus, but no Classical graphy, see Mosshammer (ry7g),84-uz, rz8'68; and Croke (r983a).
historian would have appended his work to the end of an earlier historian 1rr0 TPhueb liesnhterdy rine aBdiss'cItheomf facnrodn iKcaomeh laebr i§n9it3io9 ),m ou7n-d9i .usque ad tempus suum'and directly follows the
7 l)e uiris illustribus g (PL 83. ro88-9). This paragraph was not \ryritten by Isidorus but by an anony- nuontuicme ', oaft hdees fcarsipti ti(o'Inte wmh iacdh Hceesrptaeinriluym s efeilmiusm t oc osnucgogredsiet thliabtr it hfeays towreurme acnunmo tlaibterids) . coFnosru tlahrisib ucsa talilbogruume,
mous seventh-century interpolator who added a preface and thirteen chapters to the beginning of contained in Vat. MS Chig. I. vii. 259, fo. r r9", see lVeiss (r97r) and S. Prete's rg78 Teubner edition of
IsiId orus'text; on this, see Codofrer Merino (1964), zo-4r. Ausonius, p. xxvi.
See below, p.7o, and Helm,249-5o. 12 Thereisnogoodevidence,inmyview,foranedition of 45t,pace Muhlberger(I99o), rr5-zr.
.TH
ÇITipNIQL§ oF HÏDiTIIJ' HUÉATIU3 ANp t{tg CHnONICLE g
chronlcles_ of Hydetlue and Prosper suggests that there onee cxlrted a üon, eontlngent cplaod€c, snd explenrtlon wcrc csehcwed for a simple
now-lost Gallic chronicle which extended from a4ro to d,43g. This was a rceounting of 'the lhctc'. '['his view of history chiefly grew out of theo-
completely different compilation from the surviving Chiînica Gailica ad, logical conccrn§, but rlso out of practicelity: if one set out to record all
annutn cC cCuI,or Gallic Chronicle of 45z,which wàs put rogether in 452 human history in one codex, there was just no room for detail or exposi-
by an unknown writer in southern Gaul. In 5rr anothei Gallic chronici-er tlon. As Eusebius says, in Jerome's translation, he compiled his work 'ut
put together a document based mainly on Hydatius and an earlier source frcilis praebeatur inuentio, cuius Graeci aetate uel barbari prophetae et
of the Gallic chronicle o1452;this chroniclé survives only in an epitome tÈges et sacerdotes fuerint Hebraeorum, item qui diuersarum gentium
in a single manuscript. In the sixth century there were mâny othei Latin frlso crediti dii, qui heroes, quae quando urbs condita, qui de inlustribus
chronicles written in both East and west which survive in whole or in ulris philosophi poetae principes scriptoresque uariorum operum
part: Marcellinus comes (Eusebius-Jerome, then 379-5rg, then to 534), the Gxtiterint, et si qua alia digna memoria putauit antiquitas; quae uniuersa
anonymous continuator of Marcellinus (the manuscript breaks offâi ln suis locis cum summa breuitate ponemus' (Helm, r8-rg). Hydatius,
54g),
cassiodorus (chlefly an epitome of prosper, then 45b-5r9, all in however, is easily the most detailed and verbose of all Late Antique
sularia format), victor Tonnennensis (Prosper, then +++js6ù,Ioha^n "nàe"s- chroniclers, especially in the second half of the chronicle when he luas no
Biclarensis (victor, then 567-9o), a no\ry losichronicte'*ritien in caesar- longer following written sources; the ninety years of his chronicle take up
lugusta (r9p aa5o to c.568), and Marius Aventicensis (Eusebius-Jerome, more space than the final ninety years of any chronicle in Mommsen's
chron. Gall. 452, Prosper 4fi-4, then 455-58r). There were of course Chronicaminora volumes. It would seem that Hydatius was trying to write
hundreds if not thousands of other unknôwn and nowJost chronicles e more traditional historical narrative within the structural restrictions of
written by all types ofindividuals in all parts ofthe Empire throughout the the new chronicle genre. While we as historians may be grateful for the
late-fourth to sixth centuries. And after these auspicious beginnings, detail of the text, this may very well explain why the chronicle as a whole
chronicles went on to become the most popular formïf historicil witüg barely escaped oblivion: it was just too long and the Latin too compressed
in the Middle Ages. and complicated for the average reader.ra And the fact that the chronicle
In making his continuation of Jerome Hydatius retained the maior chiefly involved aî area of the world that few people were interested in or
chronological system which he found in the text, the regnal years. The two knew anything about cannot have helped either.
Gallic chroniclers did the same, but other early chroniàlers, influenced by The final question which I wish to address here is Hydatius'reasons for
the growing popularity of consularia and théir apparent exactness and undertaking the extremely difficult task of composing a chronicle in the
ease of use, adopted consular dates. After the endôf the regular consul- first place. He was not well placed geographically for the enterprise and
ship in 54r chroniclers were forced to use post-consulrr ryit.-r, regnal there must have been times when his inability to discover what he wanted
years of baibarian kings, and, eventually, dates anno doàini. Hyda-tius to know caused him great consternation. The first and most fundamental
followed Eusebius andJerome in their usè of regnal years, years from the driving force behind Hydatius' urge to produce an up-to-date historical
birth ofAbraham, and olympiads. He found spànish aerasin his text and âccount comes from his belief in the impending end of the world. I do not
continued to use those as well, and added his own chronolory involving have the space here to explain his eschatological views in any detail (they
Jubilees from the Ascension. All of these systems will be disclssed below would require an entire chapter),rs but it is suflicient for my purposes
in Section 3. He also retained exactly the structure ofJerome,s textr3 and here to state that Hydatius had read and believed an apocryphal
even copied much ofJerome's wording. apocalypse, purporting to be a letter from Christ to Thomas, which
. 9r. thing that Hydatius did not imitate from his model, however, was revealed that the world would end.45o years from Christ's Ascension, i.e.
its brevity. one of the fundamental aspects of the chronicle genre was its ort 27 }i4lay 482. The chronicle was thus intended as an eye-witness
brevity and conciseness. Each chronicle was a record of falt and deed
described in the simplest and most straightforward way. Analysis, causa- ra A good example of what must have been a typical reaction to the length of the chronicle is
provided by the Spanish epitomator (see Section z below), who copied far more from the beginning
than the end.
13 On this, see below, pp. rz and 59. 15 See Burgess (r989a), r55-93.
r rlÉ glr{gNlçiL§ cr HïtrÀTJLIIlr:::r,i":.1?r'
ôeeount of the leet yerrr of GallaeelE rnd the Roman Emplrc, wlth the 2
barbarians as the agents of the Antichrist, rag{ng agrinet thàïorld emidst
portents of growing evil and the fulfilment orgibllcal prophecy. Manuscripts and Editions
That these beliefs prompted him to write history'ratirer tihan (or in
a
addition to) sermons of preparation and repentânce, suggests that he was
already familiar with the genre and its impàrtan.. io, iËristian eschato_
logy. _Indeed, Hydatius' admiration for ]erome and his chronicle has r. TheManusripts
already been mentioned above. He feli that he could best fulfil his
purpose_on earth by finishing Eusebius and Jerome,s account of human Unfortunately no complete text of Hydatius' chronicle exists, only one
history. whether he thought it would escape ihe end of the world or lead dmost complete manuscript, a much later copy of this manuscript, and
whisr-i trienagd ehriss ctoh rroenpeicnleta nhcee f,e \lrty et hcaatn hneo t wkanso wgl,o briufyt ionnge Gcaond baen dce hrtisa incr ethaatito bny, munaincuy se, pkitnoomwens atondda eyx caesrp Bts,. iTsh eP hcoildliepxposp tirm8uzs9,o or fr aththee rD ine uthtsisc hcea sSe,t acaodtse-x
and increasing the chances for his o*, fruor.aùe reception on Judge- bibliothek in Berlin, a volume of rgz z6-line folios, 287 mm X z6z mm,r
ment Day.
containing the texts ofJerome's translation and continuation of Eusebius'
unHdeydrsattaiunsd iwngas o nfo hdisiletottrayn-twe riotirn hgo paenreds sit sa mmaetetuhro: dhre. pHosi,s epsrseefda cae g] refoart eCoh-rcoanlilcei dc oC,nonnnessu l(aforias .C ro'-nrs5ta3n)t,in tnhpeo lictahnroa n(irc7le3 '-orf8 H4y),d aatniuds th(re5 3Li'b-re7r 2g"e),n ethrae-
instance, is almost completely an historiographical introduciion, with its tionis j8{-rg2\.2 At some point the exemplar of B would seem to have
concern for sources and whether or not Jerome had written any further contained a copy of a Latin version of Theophilus' paschal laterculus.3 B
than 378. Hydatius demonstrates an awareness and understanding of itself was copied at Trier some time around 83o.4 That it was copied in
historic-al method, and a willingness to discuss such matters, matcheà by Trier is demonstrated by a unique laudatory interpolation of the first
none of his- contemporaries. His use of the Greek words ,éhronografid hand within an entry concerning Maximinus of Trier in the Chronici
and 'singrafus' (pref, z and 3;: Xpovoypo.$ia, ouyypafeüs) also demon_ ca,nunes. This also suggests that the codex may have been copied at the
strates some experience with Greek, since both words are hapax legomena monastery of St Maximinus in Trier.s Three short poems taken from the
i1.Lat]n,1f_but he probably owes this to his connections witÉ the "port of Gesta Treuirorumî in three different hands dating from the eleventh or
Hispalis (seville) and the still steady stream of Greek merchants ri,rere,l7
rather than to any exposure to Greek historiography. Thus it would seem I Though originally larger, since the pages have been trimmed and rebound at least once in the
that the writing of history was for Hydatius a- nàtural reaction to the recent past.
growing chacis which he saw around him. His historiographical back- on2 r gTzh'ae aonudte rr 9rzig"bh ti se bdlgaen ok.f tIhne g leanste rfaoll ioth eis qlousat,l itayl oonfgthweit hp amrcohsmt eonf t fotso.w ragrzd'bs athned e rnydz "oaf.tThhee m Laibneurs cernipdst
ground, whatever it was, prepared him well for the task wÀicÀ he set him- is greatly inferior to that at the beginning.
self that of recording the events leading up to the end of the world. 3 This is made explicit by a marginal note in the first hand in the Consularia at 38o. r; 'Ttreofilus
thgugh it is to a cerrain exrent faint praisè, there is little doubt that Astlaetexsa,n d'draies einpfirsaco dçiiuess esr uvboine cdtuemrs ellabteenr cHulaunmd ,i ndfirea ddeen pTaescxht eg eosbcsherriueabteionn eh acttoen, sncarcibhitt.r'â gRloicshe (arm89 R3:a2n7d8e)
Hydatius is the best Latin historian io survive between Ammianus wiedeiholten Anmerkung bezieht sich nicht auf die vorliegende Hs, sondern auf ihre Vorlage.' Cf.
Marcellinus and Gregory of rours, and probably the best in his genre in Malioqmuamnsdeon in$ 8ipgszo) ,c zoodric ne . lia,t e'arcduslcurmip siint dmea uniudse taunr ticqoulalig, is peods nsoe.n' eius qui librum scripsit . .. adfuisse
all of Late Antiquiry. a On this manuscript, see Rose (r8g3),277-8o1 Mommsen (1892),78, and (1894),7-8; Fotheringham,
pp. xiv-xv; and Helm, pp. xiv-xv. It is variously dated as eighth or ninth century; the date supplied
here is my own and was kindly confirmed for me by Dr Bruce Barker-Benfield of the Bodleian Library
16 ThoughJerome does use xpovoypaôia in his de uiris illustribus 5z (Richardson, 3r). Also note (lsecond quarter ofthe ninth century'). The following section should be read in consultation with the
L{.Ol!:,*:: :1 l:-,îb"h' 1: 1iu"Bàifi ins z3z. These us:ges sugsesr that he may have picked up a stemma codicum (Figure r below). This manuscript is called M in the editions of the Chronici canones,
iüiiÏlflIsilii3,ili.iË,j.ffi',:î:trJïîÏ:ea{ers: 'méàbora'apparentrv do"i not -e"" C in Mommsen's edition oî the Consularia (Chron. min. i. zo5-4), and B in Mommsen's edition of the
Libergenerationis (Chron. min. i. 89-138).
17 § r7o and Burgess (rg88). s ThisinterpolationcanbeseenintheâpparatuscriticusofFotheringham'sedition,3r8.Onthese
points, see Rose (1893), 277.
6 MGII:S^l viii: r3r, r33 (adapted), and 136.
12 THE CHRONICLE OF HYDATIUS MANUSCRIPTS AND EDITIONS r3
twelfth centuries written on an empty part of fo. 8' after Jerome's intro- original text, as 'versions' of or 'witnesses' to it. Even so, B too has
duction show that it remained in Trier for at least three hundred years suffered corruption and is seriously lacunose in a number of places, most
after it was written. especiâlly in the first six pages of the chronicle after the preface.tz There
At some point after the composition of the chronicle in 469 and before are also many examples of material ranging in size from a single word to
613, probably in the late fifth or early sixth century, the Eusebius- an entire entry dropping out of the text unnoticed and a great variety of
Jerome-Hydatius book of chronicles which Hydatius had left fell into the scribal corruptions and later emendations. Nevertheless, in spite of its
hands of a Spanish compiler who added the Consularia, the Liber genera- obvious deficiencies, B is the only starting point for any reconstruction of
tionis,and Theophilus to it (this text I call ô).7 The Spanish identity ofthis the chronicle.
individual is proved by a number of factors. When ô was copied out, One question which must be addressed at this point is whether any of
someone added Spanish aeras to the text of the Consularia and used the the great number of corrections made by later readers of B (which for
characteristically Spanish spelling 'octuber' in entry 386. z, and to the convenience I classifr together under the name of B', or'a second hand')
Liber generationis he added an interpolation concerning the Balearic were made from another manuscript or not. Most corrections are simply
islands (§z16), things no one outside Spain would have done.8 ô, or of a grammatical and orthographic nature: changes of singular and plural,
perhaps rather a copy of it, which I shall call ô', must have passed into agreement, or case in nouns and adjectives; active and passive, and
Gaul at some date before the year 613 since the texts of Eusebius- singular and plural in verbs; adding or deleting letters; emphasizing
Jerome-Hydatius and the Liber generationis in the F tradition, i.e. the text correct word division; and adding punctuation. These hands were also
of 'Fredegarius' which was originally compiled in r.613 (see below), responsible for the bizarue double-correction of the Olympiads, the
derives from the same hyparchetype as B.e This manuscript, ô', became addition of the missing years of Abraham in the margins, and the cor-
badly damaged before it was copied at Trier in the early ninth century, rection and alteration of a number of regnal years.l3 These changes, not
though, for by then it had lost Theophilus' laterculus and chapters 332 to all of which are by any means correct, were probably accomplished
398 at the end of the Liber generationis, the latter of which at least lilere still through nothing more than a careful (or sloppy) reading ofthe text in front
extant in 613.10 Other damage to the chronicle of Hydatius will be dis- of the corrector. Some emendations are clever, such as 'Gaisericus
cussed below, in Section 4. enauigauit' for'flacuna] sena uigauit' (8o) and 'urbis'for'ubi' (97). But the
B is the only manuscript we possess which preserves the major body of detectable errors in the alterations of a number of regnal years and in
the text along with the page format (z6lines per page) and at least some of certain textual emendationsla along with the numerous uncorrected
the marginal chronolory as it must have appeared in the original (that is, errors of B' prove that the second hands had no other codex from which to
following the format of Eusebius-Jerome).r1 All other surviving texts work and that all emendations were based on their own readings of the
(with the exception of C; see below) are epitomes or excerpts, rewritten text. These emendations therefore are of no more value than those of a
and/or condensed to some extent, generally containing interpolations modern editor.
and suffering from a fair degree of corruption. Some remain very close to There also exists a late sixteenth- or perhaps early seventeenth-century
the original, others do not. They are not so much 'manuscripts' of the copy of B, MS rygz of the Bibliothèque Inguimbertine, Carpentras
7 The Spanish compiler will be discussed below in Part Two. The Consularia and the Liber were not i (llrance), hereafter C. There is unfortunately no way of knowing for
written in a single, wide column across the whole page as is the case with Hydatius and the last halfof ccrtain whether this copy was made before or after the discovery of B by
Jerome (see below, n. rr), but in dual columns on each page, which would seem to have been the
format in which the Spanish compiler found them (see below, pp. zo8-9).
8e OOnn tthhies , Csoeen sMuloamriam,sseeen P( aûrgt zT)w,7o8, -gbe alonwd ;K ornu stchhe L(1ib88e8r,) , s4e ae nCdh 6ro. nT. hmisi nr.e il.a tt ioron.ship is obvious from Irr' O( )nrr ttlhrciss,c s, cscc ch chlcolwow, S, cScetciotinon 4 .
the content and the many coniunctive variants in the two lexts. r'r'l'hcseinclude,c.g.,'ydatius'to.r1'.ignarus'(intro),theadditionoftheincorrect'feriasecunda'(26),
prort0rb aOCbnîl.y tMhacpG prHerra:ig reSindna iMln z (ôi»i'..li:noc( §fir,rSnr)ir-t: :o l( t*h cC Ohrhonn». rimtitiunr.u in.n ,r jzs-tt'r) , Il§c§lr:l:,z;-r9y8. )x xf 'oirrr totl txhrcvr iim; Matoosrsiahrl tmwnhricchr k r'ipghrrlsoiiotrlrirs rr'l(t 7i. tg2' )rl ,ol rr'r \r'Xplio'Vlti rrlrr'i ' tt'll it(r'.pr1.'1Xr)r, Xt'lsilrll'nl(icZot.r tor)c ,p ri't c'nttr lugitslri'ic rliirrtrr'' t l'lsiir't(rnr'cc6ttsulit)sl, i'tcl't(ll 9up7sri) 'ml,i rutrhs'Kc' (rt5rlcol.)l'c,( rl'litloxl4ntâ) ,on'ltl) 'iloc)pctyc rr(irsiai lilpissO'i u(ssrp'3 if7no)ri,o 'd'nEeexp'tfraoenr-t
(rylù, +r) unrl 7.:,;rnrl on lht'lirlrnrrt in licrrcrll, his:l (r lrrrl {r7 7.1; lirthcrittghrrttr (rrpq),7 r.1; antl 'l)iltyrrio Spiniorrr'(rry'r),'orrrrrt's lirris'lirr''r'orrrcs ('t cirris'(:r:), iurtl'ortlinitlirm cl tlhulrrum'li)r
bclow, p. qr1. 'ulrlrt,tl,r rtrlt,rlrrrl,tr rrrn' (,, l,')
I L
r+ THE CHRONICLE OF HYDATIUS MANUSCRIPTS AND EDITIONS 15
AUTOGRAPH Kel to Stemma Cod,icurn
ft rackets indicate lost manuscript)
a
damaged apograph, source of B and ,(; pre-srr (may be autograph)
P apograph, common source of y and ô (may be o)
r
/\ source of Chroni.caGalli.caadan.DXl(mutilated?)
/\/\ l G Chronica Gallica ad, an. DXl (surviving only in Hm as an epitome)
y
Spanish apograph; pre-57os
{\ ^ (H)
autograph of the Spanish epitome; early
57os
IP
Isidorus' Historia Gothorurn Wand.alorum Suearrurn (formac prolixior et
breuior);626
(A) Alcobaciensis; 8th-9th century
ÿac
,4'' \ Hm Madrid, Biblioteca de la Universidad Complutense, r34; r3th century
(o) Osmensis; perhaps r3th century (represented in apparatus by siglum Ho)
Hb apograph made byJuan de Mariana; London, British Library, Egerton
û73; c.t5go
(Ha) apograph made byJuanPaez, r6th century
(H) IP à (Hc) apograph last owned by Ambrosio de Morales; r6th century
A /\l,/ \ --------- [It apograph made byJ. B.Pérez; Toledo, fuchivio y Biblioteca
// \ ,/\p Capitulares, 27. z6; end of r6th century
Hn apograph made byJ. B. Pérez; Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, 1376; end of
B(F)M
,I, r6th century
/\ (Hs) apograph made byJ. B.Pérez, Segorbiensis; end of r6th century
«Jr
\ Spanish compiler, 5th-6th century
,A''. /\ 'ü /\ apograph of ô or ô itself, enters Gaul pre-6r3
J'' cl)Fé Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Phillipps ûzg; c.83o
Carpentlas, Bibliothèque Inguimbertine, ryg2; late r6th century
/ l\«u.l ,A'. source for Hydatius in T (may be B)
Hb (Ha) \ unknown and undated partial common source for S and T
Theodorus' Chronicon ibbatiae Polidrnsis, Oxford, Bodleian Library,
,4\r, Fz cF Laud. Misc. 6331, rûz
Sigebert's Chronographia; rr rr
(Fredegarius';
Ht autograph of original text of c.6r3
Hn
Paris, Bibliothèque National, Lat. rogro; 7r5
Frc. r. Stemma Codicum hyparchetype ofFz and cF: pre-8th to gth century
London, British Library, Harley 5z54late gth century
codices Fredegarii; groups z,3,4i8th-9th to r5th centuries
Bource of M (early Gallic copy of ô ' or compilation based on ô ' or
eorlier tradition)
Chronieon Lurooienv, Montpellier, Bibliothèque Interuniversitaire H r 5 r ;
IÔ39