Introduction: Analysing Chronicles

Abstract In the early 520s, before Justinian began his long tenure of the Roman throne, one of his officials was a fellow-Illyrian named Marcellinus. He has become better known as Count Marcellinus or Marcellinus comes. Resident in the imperial capital of Constantinople, Marcellinus wrote a number of works on historical and topographical subjects. All that survives, however, is his chronicle. It was produced as a continuation of the chronicle of Jerome from AD 379 to the death of the emperor Anastasius in 518, was later updated to 534 in the reign of Justinian and was subsequently continued by others. The chronicle has always been considered a significant historical record for the period it covers, especially the late fifth and early sixth centuries. Yet this study is the first extensive treatment of Marcellinus and his chronicle. As such, it aims to set the chronicler and his work in their full contemporary and historiographical context.’ At the same time, this study both offers a model for investigating and evaluating the late antique chronicles in general, and also provides the basis for a more wide-ranging analysis of the nature and function of chronicles as a mode of both interpreting and presenting the past.