CAPUT IX.

Edessene Chronicle.

I. The author of the Edessene Chronicle, an Orthodox writer, appears to have flourished around the year of Christ 550.

A woodcut depicts a seated figure in a landscape, perhaps a scholar or a biblical figure, set within a square frame. Who the author of the Edessene Chronicle was and in what age he flourished has remained unknown to us until now. However, it is sufficiently certain that he followed the Catholic faith, both because he declares that he admits the four holy Synods The four ecumenical councils: Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon. up to the year of the Greeks 838, and also because he explicitly rejects the opponents of the Council of Ephesus or of Chalcedon, warmly commending Orthodox men. This was a most certain sign of the Catholics of that time in which he himself lived. He appears to have lived around the year of Christ 550, since he brought his history down to the year 540, as will soon be clear. That he indeed transcribed it from the archives of the Church of Edessa is shown by the beginning, the progression, and the end of the same. For at the beginning of this history, he describes the flood that overwhelmed Edessa under the Emperor Severus and King Abgar, according to the records once taken by notaries and preserved in the public archive, which we have placed in their proper location. Then, the author is almost entirely occupied with reviewing the series of Edessene bishops and describing their deeds. He finally ends his writing where the Jacobite pastors began to invade that church.

II. He uses the era of the Greeks, which precedes the common Christian era by three hundred and eleven years according to his calculation.

The era he uses is that of the Greeks, which they also call that of the Seleucids or Syro-Macedonians. He affirms, according to the common opinion of the Edessenes, that this era is three hundred and nine years prior to the Christian era. But

if we examine the indictions that he sometimes indicates, and the days of the month and of the week, which he frequently designates, it becomes plain that while the aforementioned years are indeed called three hundred and nine, they are actually three hundred and eleven. Thus, according to his calculation, the birth of Christ actually fell in the three hundred and eleventh year of the Greeks, not the three hundred and ninth. This appears clearly from what he writes about the earthquake at Antioch and the death of St. Simeon Stylites: for he asserts that the latter was taken up into heaven in the year of the Greeks 771, on the 2nd of September, a Wednesday, which corresponds to the common year of Christ 460, not 462. He reports that the earthquake at Antioch occurred in the year of the Greeks 837, on the 29th of May, a Friday, which is certainly the year of Christ 526, in which the twenty-ninth day of May falls on a Friday, not the year 528, in which that day cannot fall on a Friday. Finally, he binds the second indiction to the year of the Greeks 850, which, however, corresponds to the year of Christ 539, not 541. Therefore, according to his calculation, the common Christian era must be three hundred and eleven years later than the era of the Greeks, not three hundred and nine.

III. The beginning of the Chronicle is from the year of the Greeks 180, and the end is in the year 851.

He leads the beginning from the establishment of the Edessene Kingdom, which he assigns to the year of the Greeks 180. He concludes, however, in the year of Christ 540, when the Persian war flared up between Justinian and Chosroes Original: "Chofroëm".; although he sometimes neglects or confuses the order of time, which I believe should be attributed to the copyist rather than the author. Therefore, in publishing it, I will first restore the deeds to their proper place and order. I will also add some annotations in the margin that seem to bring light to him or other historians.