John Malalas, Chronicle 9.17
created: This entry is taken from Chronicle 9.17 written by John Malalas in 530-532 C.E..
edition published: 2023-06-30-05:00
language: grc; grc
availability: Except for materials quoted from other sources, this entry is copyright 2023 by the contributors (Joseph L. Rife, et al.) and the Caesarea City and Port Exploration Project. It is licensed under the Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. Some texts quoted in this entry may be in the public domain in the United States. No copyright is asserted for these quotations. Some texts quoted in this entry may have copyright restrictions and are reused under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)

https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/133

Καισάρειαν Παλαιστίνης,

,

Στράτωνος Πύργον

,

Caesarea Palestinae

, and

Strato’s Tower

are directly attested at John Malalas, Chronicle 9.17. This passage was written ca. 530-532 C.E. possibly in Antioch on the Orontes. John Malalas, a moniker probably derived from Aramaic malolo meaning “orator”, was an educated Syrian who moved from Antioch to Constantinople early in the reign of Justinian I. His only known work is a historical chronicle in 18 books, apparently composed in two editions, spanning from early times probably to the death of Justinian, with a distinct focus on events in the eastern Mediterranean. In his long passage on the activities of Augustus in the East, John cites the renaming of Straton’s Tower as Caesarea.

ὁ μὲν Ἡρώδης βασιλεὺς τῆς Ἰουδαίας πρὸς τιμὴν αὐτοῦ ἐποίησε καὶ τὴν ὁδοστρωσίαν τὴν ἔξω τῆς πόλεως Ἀντιοχείας τῆς μεγάλης, ἦν γὰρ δύσβατος, στρώσας αὐτὴν λευκαῖς πλάκαις. ἐκάλεσαν δὲ ἐμφότεροι τοπάρχαι τὰς μητροπόλεις αὐτῶν πρὸς τὴν αὐτοῦ εἰς ὄνομα τοῦ Καίσαρος· ὁ μὲν Ἡρώδης βασιλεὺς καὶ τοπάρχης ἐκάλεσε Καισάρειαν Παλαιστίνης, τὴν πρῴην λεγομένην Στράτωνος Πύργον, ὁ δὲ Ἀρχέλαος βασιλεὺς καὶ τοπάρχης ἐκάλεσε Καισάρειαν Καππαδοκίας τὴν πρῴην λεγομένην Μάζακαν.

[Ed. Thurn 2000][^1]

[^1: Von Stauffenberg (1931) added ἰδίοις ἀναλώμασιν (“at his own expense”) after λευκαῖς πλάκαις. J. L. Rife has omitted it here as an unnecessary interpolation from the Slavonic translation (10th/11th century) and John of Nikiu 66.2.]

Ηerod the king of Judaea made the paved highway outside the city of Antioch the Great in (Augustus’s) honor, for it used to be a rough passage, paving it with white slabs. Both local rulers named their metropoleis after Caesar (Augustus) to honor him. Herod, king and local ruler, named Caesarea Palestinae the city formerly called Strato’s Tower, while Archaelaos, king and local ruler, named Caesarea in Cappadocia the city formerly called Mazaca. [Adapted from Jeffreys et al. 2017]

Works Cited

[...] 9 17

Additional Bibliography

[...] 118
[...] 8-9

[John of Nikiu 66.2]

[Antioch on the Orontes

Caesarea Mazaca

Cappadocia

Palestine]

[Archelaos

Augustus, emperor

Herod I, king]

[Geography

Government and Law

Hellenistic History

Roman History]