John of Antioch

Who is John of Antioch?

John of Antioch was a 7th-century chronicler, who wrote in Greek. He was a monk, apparently contemporary with Emperor Heraclius. Gelzer identifies the author with the Monophysite Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch John of the Sedre, who ruled from 630 to 648.

John of Antioch's chronicle, Historia chronike, is a universal history stretching from Adam to the death of Phocas; it is one of the many adaptations and imitations of the better known chronicle of John Malalas. His sources include Sextus Julius Africanus, Eusebius, and Ammianus Marcellinus. Only fragments remain.

The fragments of the chronicle are contained in two collections, the Codex Parisinus 1763, which was published in an edition by Claudius Salmasius, and the encyclopedia of history made by order of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, in fifty-three chapters. Of the Constantinian collection only parts remain. Two titles: "Of Virtue and Vice" and "Of Conspiracies against Emperors" contain the literary remains of John of Antioch. A difficulty arises from the fact that a great part of the extracts differs considerably from the corresponding quotations in the Salmasian collection.