Account of the council of Chalcedon

Title(s):
  • Account of the council of Chalcedon
Period covered:
5th c.?
Language:
Greek
State of Preservation:
Fragmentary
Genre:
  • Ecclesiastical history
Remarks:
Menas is quoted in the Life of the 25th patriarch of Alexandria, Dioscorus I, as author of an account on the conflict between Cyril of Alexandria and Nestorius and on the pains Dioscorus went through at the Council of Chalcedon. According to Johnson (1974), Menas is the main source of the Lives 1-24 of the History of the patriarchs of Alexandria, whereas Den Heijer (1989: 119-121), more cautiously, takes into account the possibility that Lives 1-24 are also based on a Coptic translation of Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical history.
The identification with Menas the Historian seems unlikely since he is named among classicizing historians.
Edition - Translation:
Fragments:
  • Mawhūb ibn Manṣūr ibn Mufarrij, History of the patriarchs of Alexandria [Evetts 1907: 444; Evetts 1915: 359]
Sources:
Bibliography:
  • J. Den Heijer (1989) Mawhūb ibn Manṣūr ibn Mufarrij et l'historiographie copto-arabe: Études sur la composition de l'Histoire des patriarches d’Alexandrie (Corpus scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, 513: Subsidia, 83). Leuven: 118-121.
  • B.T.A. Evetts (1907) History of the patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria: Peter I to Benjamin I (Patrologia Orientalis, 1.4). Paris.
  • B.T.A. Evetts (1915) History of the patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria: Mennas I to Joseph (Patrologia Orientalis, 10.5). Paris.
  • D.W. Johnson (1974) Coptic sources of the Arabic History of the patriarchs of Alexandria. Diss. The Catholic University of America, Washington D.C.
  • D.W. Johnson (1977) 'Further remarks on the Arabic History of the patriarchs of Alexandria'. Oriens Christianus 61: 103-116.