Marcellinus and Constantinople

Abstract Marcellinus came to Constantinople from his native Illyricum around the turn of the sixth century and spent the rest of his life in the capital and wrote his chronicle originally for the Illyrian community there. Constantinople was the city and the society he knew best. Indeed, he was sufficiently familiar with the imperial capital to write a detailed description of the city (Inst. 1. 25. r). Although his two volumes on Constantinople do not survive there is an abundance of material in his chronicle to bear witness to his observation of, and reaction to, the physical, social, and mental environment of the capital. The world of Marcellinus is essentially that of the Byzantine chronicle tradition as we see it the latter part of the chronicle of his contemporary John Malalas, for example; that is to say, the city and life of Constantinople itself largely circumscribe the focus of the chronicler, who devotes a disproportionate amount of space to the imperial capital. This chapter, like that on Illyricum (Chapter 2), is based on the conviction that Marcellinus’ information on Constantinople (and its role in the story which the chronicle unfolds) can only be properly understood in its broader contemporary context. The general approach is therefore to take a cross-section view of the city in the time of Marcellinus. Unfortunately, most extant accounts describe Constantinople as it was seen at a particular later time. For the fifth and early sixth century no first-hand account of the ‘patriographer’ type survives, except for Hesychius’ description of the foundation of the city.1 Instead, there is only the Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae which reflects the city of the 430s although it was once thought to be the work of Marcellinus him self.