Late Antique Historiography

Excerpts on Amida

Title(s):
  • Excerpts on Amida
  • Narrationes variae
    (Various histories )
  • ܫܪܒܐ ܥܠ ܐܡܝܕ ܡܕܝܢܬܐ ܘܓܘܢܚܐ ܘܪܘܓܙܐ ܕܗܘܐ ܒܗ̇ ܡܢ ܥܠܬ ܚܛ̈ܗܐ
    (šarbā ‘al ’amīd mdīntā w-gūnḥā w-rūgzā d-hwā bāh men ‘elat ḥṭāhē, Account on the city of Amida, the terrible event and the punishment that happened there because of (its) sins.)
  • ܥܠ ܚܘܪ̈ܒܗ̇ ܘܫܒܝܗ̇ ܕܐܡܝܕ ܙܒܢܬܐ ܐܚܪܬܐ
    (‘al ḥūrbāh w-šebyāh d-’amīd zabntā ’aḥrtā, On the devastation and the taking of Amida for the second time)
  • Anonymous ecclesiastical history of Amida
Author:
Period covered:
501/2-559/560
Language:
Syriac
State of Preservation:
Partial
Genre:
  • Ecclesiastical history
Remarks:
The traditional title Narrationes variae is an editor's addition to introduce both fragments. The first one is said to be taken from an unknown ecclesiastical history: it narrates the first Persian siege of Amida (501-502) and the outbreak of madness in the city after the acceptation of duophysism (560). The second one is the narration of the siege of 505-506.
Debié suggests that at least the second fragment was a source for Pseudo-Zachariah (Debié 2003: 618). Likely, the fragments drew on John of Ephesus' Ecclesiastical history (Debié 2003: 618; Witakowski 1991: 266).
Edition - Translation:
Fragments:
Users:
Sources:
Bibliography:
  • M. Debié (2003) 'La transmission du récit de la prise d'Amid'. Byzantinische Zeitschrift 96.2: esp. 616-618.
  • M. Debié (2015) L'écriture de l'histoire en syriaque: Transmissions interculturelles et constructions identitaires entre hellénisme et Islam (Late antique history and religion, 12). Leuven - Paris - Bristol: 521-527.
  • G. Greatrex (2011) (ed.) The Chronicle of Pseudo-Zachariah Rhetor: Church and war in Late Antiquity. Liverpool: esp. 35-36.
  • W. Witakowski (1991) 'Sources of Pseudo-Dionysius for the third part of his Chronicle'. Orientalia Suecana 40: esp. 266.