Chronicon Paschale


Chronicon Paschale, also called Chronicum Alexandrinum, Constantinopolitanum or Fasti Siculi, is the conventional name of a 7th-century Greek Christian chronicle of the world. Its name comes from its system of chronology based on the Christian paschal cycle; its Greek author named it Epitome of the ages from Adam the first man to the 20th year of the reign of the most August Heraclius.

Structure

The Chronicon Paschale follows earlier chronicles. For the years 600 to 627 the author writes as a contemporary historian—that is, through the last years of emperor Maurice, the reign of Phocas, and the first seventeen years of the reign of Heraclius.
Like many chroniclers, the author of this popular account relates anecdotes, physical descriptions of the chief personages, extraordinary events such as earthquakes and the appearance of comets, and links Church history with a supposed Biblical chronology. Sempronius Asellio points out the difference in the public appeal and style of composition which distinguished the chroniclers from the historians of the Eastern Roman Empire.
The "Chronicon Paschale" is a huge compilation, attempting a chronological list of events from the creation of Adam. The principal manuscript, the 10th-century Codex Vaticanus græcus 1941, is damaged at the beginning and end and stops short at 627. The Chronicle proper is preceded by an introduction containing reflections on Christian chronology and on the calculation of the Paschal cycle. The so-called 'Byzantine' or 'Roman' era was adopted in the Chronicum as the foundation of chronology; in accordance with which the date of the creation is given as 21 March 5507bc.

Authorship

The author identifies himself as a contemporary of the Emperor Heraclius, and was possibly a cleric attached to the suite of the œcumenical Patriarch Sergius. The work was probably written during the last ten years of the reign of Heraclius.
The chief authorities used were: Sextus Julius Africanus; the Fasti consulares; the Chronicle and Church History of Eusebius; John Malalas; the Acta Martyrum; the treatise of Epiphanius, bishop of Constantia in Cyprus, on Weights and Measures.

Editions