Choricius of Gaza, Speeches 3.43
created: This entry is taken from Speeches 3.43 written by Choricius of Gaza in 534-535 C
edition published: 2023-01-20-06:00
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/434

Καισαρέων

, and

Caesarea

are directly attested at Choricius of Gaza, Speeches 3.43. This passage was written ca. 534-535 CE possibly in Caesarea. Following his teacher Procopius, Choricius was the leading figure of the rhetorical flowering at Late Antique Gaza. Although we know nothing of his career, his evident professional success, references within his writings, and his reputation for stylistic sophistication among Byzantine scholars all point to the status and influence of Choricius among classicizing intellectuals of the Near East during roughly the second quarter of the 6th century. He apparently had personal experience with Alexandria and Caesarea, but his teaching and lecturing was chiefly based in Gaza. Among his surviving works are declamations, laudatory and apologetic speeches, funeral oratory, and treatises. This passage comes from his encomium to Aratius, dux of Palaestina Prima, and Stephanus, ἄρχων, possibly delivered at Caesarea on the occasion of Stephanus’s accession to the proconsulship in 534/5 C.E. Choricius here praises Stephanus's response to a famine at Caesarea, referring to the city's abundance of wheat, perhaps due to its role in the Imperial annona.

Ἔχει σου καὶ τρίτην λέγειν φιλανθρωπίαν ὁ δῆμος ὁ Καισαρέων. σιτοδείας γὰρ ἔναγχος ἐκείνοις ἀπειλουμένης καὶ τοσούτου δέους ἐπικρεμασθέντος ὡς ἐν μεγάλῃ πόλει καὶ ἀρχὴν ἐχούσῃ καὶ ζῆν ἐν εὐπαθείαις εἰθισμένῃ σίτῳ πλουσίαν ἔδειξας τὴν μητρόπολιν, καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἐναντίαν δόξαν περιέστησαν οἱ καιροί, ὥστε τοὺς πάλαι τῆς εὐπαθείας ἐνδείας γενέσθαι δοκεῖν παραβαλλομένους τοῦ σίτου τῇ περιουσίᾳ.

[Ed. Foerster and Richsteig 1929]

The people of Caesarea can tell of a third act of your (sc. Stephanos’s) philanthropy. When a famine was recently threatening them, a great fear hung over them because the city was so big, it held the government, and it was accustomed to prosperous living. You proved that the capital city was wealthy in wheat, and the conditions came round to an opposite estimation, so that the formerly prosperous appeared to become poor in comparison to the abundance of wheat.

[Rev. Litsas 1980]

Works Cited

[...] 3.43 60.14-60.21
[...] 166

Additional Bibliography

[...]

[none]

[none]

[Homer

Stephanos, proconsul]

[Byzantine History

Food and Diet

Government and Law

Natural Environment]