George Syncellus, Chronographic Selection 594.5-595.14

https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/351

Context

George Syncellus (“cellmate”), whose career spanned the late 8th to very early 9th centuries, was a Palestinian monk before his appointment as the assistant to Tarasius, Patriarch of Contantinople. Apparently facing hostility from the emperor Nicephorus I, he retired to monastic solitude in ca. 808, where he devoted himself to writing his Chronographic Selection (Ἐκλογὴ Χρονογραφίας). This work was a universal history in the form of a synchronic tabulation by year, following the chronographic models of the Late Antique Near East and Egypt that were rooted in the works of Sextus Julius Africanus and Eusebius of Caesarea. In his long entry concerning the early reign of Augustus, George summarized the career of Herod the Great, including his refounding cities.

Text

Τὰ ὑπόλοιπα τοῦ ἩρώδουὙρκανὸν ἐκ Παρθικῆς ἐπανελθόντα γηραιὸν φόβῳ τῆς εὐγενείας Ἡρώδης ἀνεῖλεν, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ Ἀριστόβουλον υἱὸν αὐτοῦ ἀρχιερέα.Ὁ αὐτὸς καὶ Μαριάμνην ἰδίαν γαμετὴν θυγατέρα Ὑρκανοῦ σὺν δυσὶν παισὶν αὐτοῦ ἐξ αὐτῆς ἀνδρωθεῖσιν ἤδη φονεύει καὶ τὴν Μαριάμνης μητέρα, οἰκείαν δὲ πενθερὰν ὁ μιαιφόνος.Κατὰ τὴν Ἰουδαίαν μέγας ἐγένετο σεισμός.Ἡρώδης πολλὰ καὶ μεγάλα ἔκτισεν ἐν Ἱερουσαλήμ.Ἡρώδης τὴν πάλαι Σαμάρειαν ἔρημον οὖσαν ἐκ θεμελίων ἤγειρε, Σεβαστὴν εἰς τιμὴν τοῦ Καίσαρος ὀνομάσας.Ὁ αὐτὸς τὸ Πάνιον εἰδωλεῖον κατεσκεύασεν ἐν Παναιάδι τῷ Πανί. Λιμὸς μέγας κατὰ τὴν Ἰουδαίαν καὶ ὅλην Συρίαν ἐγένετο.Ἡρώδης τὸν Ἱεροσολύμων ναὸν διπλοῦν ἀνῳκοδόμησεν.Ἡρώδης τὸν πάλαι Στράτωνος πύργον Καισάρειαν εἰς τιμὴν τοῦ Καίσαρος ἐπικτίσας ὠνόμασεν.Ὁ αὐτὸς Ἀνθηδόνα ἐπέκτισεν Ἀγριππίναν μετονομάσας, ἔτι τε Παρσανάβαν εἰς τιμὴν Ἀντιπάτρου τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ Ἀντιπατρίδα ὠνόμασε, καὶ ἄλλην εἰς οἰκεῖον ἐκάλεσεν ὄνομα πόλιν ἐγείρας Ἡρώδιον.Ὁ αὐτὸς τὴν ἐν τῇ Γαλιλαίᾳ Γαβὰλ καὶ κατὰ πάσας πόλεις Συρίας καὶ Παλαιστίνης ἐπέκτισεν.Ὁ αὐτὸς πρὸς ταῖς πολλαῖς μιαιφονίαις τὸν ἄνδρα Σαλώμης οἰκείας ἀδελφῆς ἀνεῖλε καὶ πάλιν ἕτερον αὐτῇ ἄνδρα δεύτερον ἔδωκεν.Ὁ αὐτὸς τοὺς Ἰουδαίων νομομαθεῖς καὶ τῶν πατρίων ζηλωτὰς ἀπέκτεινεν.Ὁ αὐτὸς τὰς ἀναγράπτους Ἰουδαίων γενεαλογίας ἐνέπρησεν, ἀμάρτυρον ὡς ἑαυτῷ κἀκείνοις πραγματευόμενος τὴν εὐγένειαν.1

Textual Note

Ed. Dindorf 1829

Textual Note

Minor corr. J. L. Rife with ref. to Mosshammer 1984

Translation

The remaining events in the life of Herod.When Hyrcanus returned an old man from Parthia, Herod, out of fear of his noble lineage, killed him as well as Hyrcanus’ son, the high priest Aristobulus.He then also murdered Mariamne, his own wife and Hyrcanus’ daughter, along with the two sons that he had from her, already grown into men; this bloodthirsty man also killed the mother of Mariamne, his own mother-in-law.In Judaea there was a great eathquake.Herod built many great buildings in Jerusalem.Herod restored from its foundations the ancient city of Samaria, which was in ruins; he named it Sebaste in honor of Caesar.He also established the Panion, a temple with a cult-statue, in Panaias for the god Pan.There was a great famine in Judaea and all Syria.Herod reconstructed the Jerusalem Temple to twice its former size.Herod rebuilt the ancient city of Straton’s Tower, and called it Caesarea in honor of Caesar.He rebuilt Anthedon and renamed it Agrippina, and furthermore Parsanabas he named Antipatris in honor of his father Antipater. And another city he built he named Herodion after himself.He rebuilt Gabal in the Galilee, and made restorations throughout all the cities of Syria and Palestine.To add to his many other acts of bloodshed, he killed the husband of his own sister Salome, and in turn gave her someone else as a second husband.Her executed all Jews who were scribes and strict observers of the ancestral laws.He burned the genealogical records of the Jews, ensuring that documentation of noble lineage did not exist both for them and for himself.2

Translation Note

Adapted from Adler and Tuffin 2002 with ref. to Dindorf 1829

Works Cited

1 George Syncellus, Georgius Syncellus et Nicephorus Cp. I, ed. Wilhelm Dindorfius, vol. 1, 2 vols., Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae (Bonn: Weber, 1829), p: 594.5-595.14.
2 George Syncellus, The Chronography of George Synkellos: A Byzantine Chronicle of Universal History from the Creation, trans. William Adler and Paul Tuffin (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), p: 453.

Additional Bibliography

Origen, Der Brief des Origenes an Gregorios Thaumaturgos [Letter to Gregory the Miracle-Worker], in Des Gregorios Thaumaturgos Dankrede an Origenes, ed. Paul Koetschau, Sammlung ausgewählter kirchen- und dogmengeschichtlicher Quellenschriften 9 (Freiburg & Leipzig: Mohr, 1894), 40–44, p: 379.16-380.14.

How to Cite This Entry

Joseph L. Rife, “George Syncellus, Chronographic Selection 594.5-595.14,” in Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia, entry published June 30, 2023, https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/351.

Bibliography:

Joseph L. Rife, “George Syncellus, Chronographic Selection 594.5-595.14.” In Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia, edited by Joseph L. Rife., edited by Joseph L. Rife. Caesarea City and Port Exploration Project, 2023. Entry published June 30, 2023. https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/351.

About this Entry

Entry Title: George Syncellus, Chronographic Selection 594.5-595.14

Authorial and Editorial Responsibility:

Joseph L. Rife, general editor, Vanderbilt University
Joseph L. Rife, editor, Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia
David A. Michelson, Daniel L. Schwartz, and William L. Potter, technical editor, “George Syncellus, Chronographic Selection 594.5-595.14”
Joseph L. Rife, entry contributor, “George Syncellus, Chronographic Selection 594.5-595.14”

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TEI encoding by Joseph L. Rife
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Electronic text added by Joseph L. Rife
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