The Chronicle’s Afterlife

Abstract How quickly after 518, and then after 534, the chronicle of Marcellinus gained popularity and in what circles cannot be determined. It may have attracted the attention of the chronicler and former Ostrogothic courtier Cassiodorus in the 530s although he may only have come across it for the first time in the late 54os/early 550s when he was himself in Constantinople, seeking safety from the continuing war in his native Italy. It was at precisely this time that the chronicle was also being used by Jordanes in his brief history of the world, and especially of the Roman empire, to his own day.Jordanes wrote his Romana, together with a history of the Goths based on that of Cassiodorus, at Constantinople in 550-r.1 It is possible that Jordanes was in Constantinople as early as the 530s when Marcellinus was still alive, and he may even have met him. Certainly their works have some essential features in common. In the Romana]ordanes made considerable use of the chronicle of Marcellinus although he never cites it by name.’ A few years later another writer took Marcellinus’ chronicle as his starting point Gust as Marcellinus had taken Jerome) and continued it to the early 550s. Jordanes may have known this Continuator of Marcellinus too. At any rate, he appears to have used one of the Continuator’s main sources of information. As we have seen (Chapter 7), the work of the Continuator only survives in an incomplete form so it is not possible to tell precisely where it ended. Cassiodorus may also have known this Continuator, although he gives the impression that there were many such chronicles being compiled at the time without identifying any particular one (Inst. r. 17).