Chronicon Blog

July 4, 2009

Hippolytus, Strabo, and Ptolemy

Filed under: Hippolytus, Translation — admin @ 7:18 am

I decided to take the plunge and try to link some of the city’s mentioned in the Hippolytus with those mentioned by Strabo and Ptolemy.  The online text for Strabo, both Greek and English, can be found at archive.org the missing volumes can be found at the Perseus Project, and at Bill Thayer’s very useful website which has a digital transcription of most of Strabo. Ptolemy is another matter, his Geographia has only been translated into English once and it was done very poorly.  The manuscripts also seem to be quite confused so the Greek editions that I have seen may be fairly useless (someone please correct me if I am wrong).  So I think I am just going to stick with Strabo.  I have found a good (latin) work of scholarship that discusses and translates the part of Hippolytus where he counts the stades around the Mediterranean.  Hippolytus apparantly took this section from a nautical dictionary, part of which has been discovered.  It can be found on page 427 of the pdf.

I have been at this for the better part of a year now and I am about ready to quit, hopefully I will finish soon.

June 14, 2009

Update

Filed under: Hippolytus, Translation — admin @ 2:10 pm

Progress on Hippolytus’ Chronicon has been very good the past two weeks.  I am about 650 lines in and have completed the last section in Greek and have now begun the final section, which only survives in an ancient Latin and Armenian translation.  I am using the Latin and comparing it with a German translation of the Armenian.  My German is pretty terrible, but the Latin and Armenian seem quite similar.  My hope is to complete the rough draft of the translation before the end of june and then have a final copy ready by the end of summer.  I have not done any serious latin work for a couple years so I’ve been shaking off the rust as I go, but the Latin is fairly easy, so it is not difficult.  As I have mentioned before the hardest part is figuring out the proper names of individuals, in this case, or the names of people groups and countries in the case of the portion of the Chronicon which is in Greek.

June 1, 2009

Chronicon Update

Filed under: Hippolytus, Translation — admin @ 3:32 pm

The translation has been coming along well, I am about 360 ”verses” into it which is well over half way.  Once I am done I need to revise and correct it.  I have made the decision to only transliterate the names of the hundreds of cities and towns mentioned by Hippolytus in the second section of the “Chronicon” in which he enumerates the distances between various locations.  I did this for several reasons:

  1. It would take an enormous amount of time to look up all the place names.
  2. Many of the place names are either unique, and I would have to transliterate them anyway or only mentioned in one or two other ancient authors, meaning that by “looking them up” I would actually be looking at various translations of Strabo, Ptolemy, etc.  and not in a lexicon.
  3. The different English editions of the ancient authors would likely have different ways of spelling the same place which would render “looking them up” fairly pointless, at least as far as finding an agreed upon spelling goes.
  4. Transliterating the place names will give the reader a window into the Greek spelling, which may reduce the need to obtain a Greek text.

I hope to continue translating at a quicker pace this summer.  Once I am done I will post the final translation for you all to see.

March 30, 2009

Update on the Chronicon of Hippolytus

Filed under: Hippolytus, Translation — admin @ 6:07 pm

I have slowly been translating the first 150 lines of Hippolytus’ Chronicon. Work is hard going, mostly because there are hundreds of proper names of people groups in the ancient world. These names are not listed in the principle Greek lexicons. So I have been using William Smith’s two volume epic “Dictionary of Greek And Roman Geography” which was published more than 150 years ago. It took me a bit, but I found a digital copy of the dictionary online and have  assembled it in Microsoft Word and am using Word’s Find function to look for the names of the people groups in the original Greek. According to Microsoft Word the dictionary contains 2.7 million words and over 5000 pages! As of now I have essentially finished Hippolytus’ discussion on the division of the earth to the first two sons of Noah and am about to begin the section on the third son, Shem. After that begins the second section, a rather long list of the distances between cities in the mediteranean. And then there is the third and last section which is a chronology of world history.

So far Hippolytus does not seem to be following Josephus’ account of the division of the earth.  For example, Josephus says that biblical Magog (Genesis 10) begot the Scythians, Hippolytus says Magog begot the Celts and the Galatians.  I have not yet compared Hippolytus’ account to that found in Jubilees.

I have noticed that section 15 of the “Chronography of 354 AD“  (Liber Generationis 1) seems to be a complete Latin translation of the first and third parts of Hippolytus’ Chronicon. Much thanks is due to Roger Pearse for placing the “Chronography of 354″ online.  It was actually quite a frustrating thing to see a Latin translation of this Greek work.  As a former Latin teacher I find it much easier to read the Latin translation than the original Greek!

I am really questioning whether or not it is wise for me to translate the second part of the Chronicon.  How many people are interested in how many stades separate an ancient city?  I am also worried that many of the ancient cities will not be listed anywhere and I will simply transliterate the name.  But I suppose that the translation does need to be done at some point.  I’m sure it would be an invaluable resource to someone out there(like an archaeologist).  Anyone have advice or thoughts on the matter?

March 22, 2009

More on Quirinius

Filed under: Josephus, Strabo — Tags: , — admin @ 11:43 am

Strabo also mentions Quirinius (in this translation his name is spelled “Cyrinius”).

Geography 12.6.5

Now Cremna is occupied by Roman colonists and Sagalassus is subject to the same Roman governor to whom the whole kingdom of Amyntas was subject. It is a day’s journey distant from Apameia, having a descent of about thirty stadia from the fortress. It is also called Selgessus; this city was also captured by Alexander. Now Amyntas captured Cremna, and, passing into the country of the Homonadeis, who were considered too strong to capture, and having now established himself as master of most of the places, having even slain their tyrant, was caught by treachery through the artifice of the tyrant’s wife. And he was put to death by those people, but Cyrinius overthrew the inhabitants by starving them, and captured alive four thousand men and settled them in the neighboring cities, leaving the country destitute of all its men who were in the prime of life

Lastly, Josephus also mentions Quirinius (Cyrenius) on five occasions, and talks about his census.

War 2.17.8

In the mean time, one Manahem, the son of Judas, that was called the Galilean, (who was a very cunning sophister, and had formerly reproached the Jews under Cyrenius, that after God they were subject to the Romans,) took some of the men of note with him, and retired to Masada, where he broke open king Herod’s armory, and gave arms not only to his own people, but to other robbers also.

War 7.8.1

When Bassus was dead in Judea, Flavius Silva succeeded him as procurator there; who, when he saw that all the rest of the country was subdued in this war, and that there was but one only strong hold that was still in rebellion, he got all his army together that lay in different places, and made an expedition against it. This fortress was called Masada. It was one Eleazar, a potent man, and the commander of these Sicarii, that had seized upon it. He was a descendant from that Judas who had persuaded abundance of the Jews, as we have formerly related, not to submit to the taxation when Cyrenius was sent into Judea to make one.

Antiquities 17.13.5

So Archelaus’s country was laid to the province of Syria; and Cyrenius, one that had been consul, was sent by Caesar to take account of people’s effects in Syria, and to sell the house of Archelaus.

Antiquites 18.1.1

Now Cyrenius, a Roman senator, and one who had gone through other magistracies, and had passed through them till he had been consul, and one who, on other accounts, was of great dignity, came at this time into Syria, with a few others, being sent by Caesar to he a judge of that nation, and to take an account of their substance. Coponius also, a man of the equestrian order, was sent together with him, to have the supreme power over the Jews. Moreover, Cyrenius came himself into Judea, which was now added to the province of Syria, to take an account of their substance, and to dispose of Archelaus’s money; but the Jews, although at the beginning they took the report of a taxation heinously, yet did they leave off any further opposition to it, by the persuasion of Joazar, who was the son of Beethus, and high priest; so they, being over-pesuaded by Joazar’s words, gave an account of their estates, without any dispute about it.

Antiquities 18.2.1-2

When Cyrenius had now disposed of Archelaus’s money, and when the taxings were come to a conclusion, which were made in the thirty-seventh year of Caesar’s victory over Antony at Actium, he deprived Joazar of the high priesthood, which dignity had been conferred on him by the multitude, and he appointed Ananus, the son of Seth, to be high priest; while Herod and Philip had each of them received their own tetrarchy, and settled the affairs thereof. Herod also built a wall about Sepphoris, (which is the security of all Galilee,) and made it the metropolis of the country. He also built a wall round Betharamphtha, which was itself a city also, and called it Julias, from the name of the emperor’s wife. When Philip also had built Paneas, a city at the fountains of Jordan, he named it Cesarea. He also advanced the village Bethsaids, situate at the lake of Gennesareth, unto the dignity of a city, both by the number of inhabitants it contained, and its other grandeur, and called it by the name of Julias, the same name with Caesar’s daughter.

As Coponius, who we told you was sent along with Cyrenius, was exercising his office of procurator, and governing Judea, the following accidents happened…

Antiquities 20.5.2

Then came Tiberius Alexander as successor to Fadus; he was the son of Alexander the alabarch of Alexandria, which Alexander was a principal person among all his contemporaries, both for his family and wealth: he was also more eminent for his piety than this his son Alexander, for he did not continue in the religion of his country. Under these procurators that great famine happened in Judea, in which queen Helena bought corn in Egypt at a great expense, and distributed it to those that were in want, as I have related already. And besides this, the sons of Judas of Galilee were now slain; I mean of that Judas who caused the people to revolt, when Cyrenius came to take an account of the estates of the Jews, as we have showed in a foregoing book.

Josephus and the Gospel of Luke appear to contradict each other about the date of the census.  The four basic options we have to resolve this are:  (1) The Gospel of Luke is incorrect, (2) Jospehus is incorrect, (3) the Gospel of Luke is awkwardly phrased and has therefore been mistranslated or misunderstood, and finally  (4) Quirinius had more than one govenorship of Syria.

March 15, 2009

Suetonius (and Tacitus) and the New Testament #3 Quirinius

Filed under: Suetonius, Tacitus — Tags: , — admin @ 1:06 pm

Quirinius is mentioned once in the New Testament in the Gospel of Luke 2:1-3:

And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria.  So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.

Suetonius mentions Quirinius in his discussion of Emperor Tiberius.

Tiberius 49:

In the course of a very short time, he [Tiberius] turned his mind to sheer robbery. It is certain that Cneius Lentulus, the augur, a man of vast estate, was so terrified and worried by his threats and importunities, that he was obliged to make him his heir; and that Lepida, a lady of a very noble family, was condemned by him, in order to gratify Quirinus, a man of consular rank, extremely rich, and childless, who had divorced her twenty years before, and now charged her with an old design to poison him.

In my reading of Tacitus I missed references to Quirinius.  Here they are:

Annals 2.30

As an ancient statute of the Senate forbade such inquiry in a case affecting a master’s life, Tiberius, with his cleverness in devising new law, ordered Libo’s slaves to be sold singly to the State-agent, so that, forsooth, without an infringement of the Senate’s decree, Libo might be tried on their evidence. As a consequence, the defendant asked an adjournment till next day, and having gone home he charged his kinsman, Publius Quirinus, with his last prayer to the emperor.

Annals 3.22-23

At Rome meanwhile Lepida, who beside the glory of being one of the Æmilii was the great-granddaughter of Lucius Sulla and Cneius Pompeius, was accused of pretending to be a mother by Publius Quirinus, a rich and childless man. Then, too, there were charges of adulteries, of poisonings, and of inquiries made through astrologers concerning the imperial house. The accused was defended by her brother Manius Lepidus. Quirinus by his relentless enmity even after his divorce, had procured for her some sympathy, infamous and guilty as she was. One could not easily perceive the emperor’s feelings at her trial; so effectually did he interchange and blend the outward signs of resentment and compassion. He first begged the Senate not to deal with the charges of treason, and subsequently induced Marcus Servilius, an ex-consul, to divulge what he had seemingly wished to suppress. He also handed over to the consuls Lepida’s slaves, who were in military custody, but would not allow them to be examined by torture on matters referring to his own family. Drusus too, the consul-elect, he released from the necessity of having to speak first to the question. Some thought this a gracious act, done to save the rest of the Senators from a compulsory assent, while others ascribed it to malignity, on the ground that he would have yielded only where there was a necessity of condemning.

On the days of the games which interrupted the trial, Lepida went into the theatre with some ladies of rank, and as she appealed with piteous wailings to her ancestors and to that very Pompey, the public buildings and statues of whom stood there before their eyes, she roused such sympathy that people burst into tears and shouted, without ceasing, savage curses on Quirinus, “to whose childless old-age and miserably obscure family, one once destined to be the wife of Lucius Cæsar and the daughter-in-law of the Divine Augustus was being sacrificed.” Then, by the torture of the slaves, her infamies were brought to light, and a motion of Rubellius Blandus was carried which outlawed her. Drusus supported him, though others had proposed a milder sentence. Subsequently, Scaurus, who had had a daughter by her, obtained as a concession that her property should not be confiscated. Then at last Tiberius declared that he had himself too ascertained from the slaves of Publius Quirinus that Lepida had attempted their master’s life by poison.

Annals 3.48

About the same time he requested the Senate to let the death of Sulpicius Quirinus be celebrated with a public funeral. With the old patrician family of the Sulpicii this Quirinus, who was born in the town of Lanuvium, was quite unconnected. An indefatigable soldier, he had by his zealous services won the consulship under the Divine Augustus, and subsequently the honours of a triumph for having stormed some fortresses of the Homonadenses in Cilicia. He was also appointed adviser to Caius Cæsar in the government of Armenia, and had likewise paid court to Tiberius, who was then at Rhodes. The emperor now made all this known to the Senate, and extolled the good offices of Quirinus to himself, while he censured Marcus Lollius, whom he charged with encouraging Caius Cæsar in his perverse and quarrelsome behaviour. But people generally had no pleasure in the memory of Quirinus, because of the perils he had brought, as I have related, on Lepida, and the meanness and dangerous power of his last years.

Next week I will post Josephus’ references to Quirinius as well as Strabo’s.

March 1, 2009

The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus

Filed under: Digitization, Hippolytus — admin @ 11:43 am

After some delay, I have finally finished the digitization of The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus, which can be found here.  It is a fascinating liturgical and ecclesiastical piece written at a time when the church still felt fierce persecution and the spiritual gifts were believed to still be active.  It seems to have been, roughly, assembled into the form we have today around 200-230 AD by someone or a body of people associated with the Roman Church.  It is disupuated about whether Hippolytus himself had a hand in creating it, but I believe he did.  Much credit is due to Roger Pease whose own method of presenting digitization projects I have copied.

I learned some lessons through this project:

  • Never digitize a document with old optical character recognition software
  • Digitizing other languages is hard
  • Digitizing other languages that are written in non-latin characters is even harder
  • Digitizing footnotes is hard
  • Digitizing sidenotes is even harder

Here is one of the many passages in The Apostolic Tradition that made me pause:

If a catechumen should be arrested for the name of the Lord, let him not hesitate about bearing his testi­mony; for if it should happen that they treat him shame­fully and kill him, he will be justified, for he has been baptized in his own blood. -The Apostolic Tradition 19

February 19, 2009

Suetonius and the New Testament #2 Expulsion of Jews

Filed under: Suetonius — Tags: — admin @ 12:58 pm

My previous entry was the last of the series involving Tacitus, but the first of a shorter series about Suetonius and the New Testament.  In the book of Acts 18:1-3 it is recorded that the Jews were expelled during the reign of Claudius.

After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them.

A similar event is noted by Suetonius when he is listing a series of actions taken by Claudius at various points in his reign.

Claudius 25:

He banished from Rome all the Jews, who were continually making disturbances at the instigation of one Chrestus.

Whom this Chrestus is has been debated back and forth for a long time.  Obviously some identify him as Christ, others say it is some unknown person.  In either case Suetonius was aware of Christians as he mentions them when he talks about Nero.

Nero 16:

He likewise inflicted punishments on the Christians, a sort of people who held a new and impious superstition.

February 12, 2009

Tacitus and the New Testament Part 7

Filed under: Josephus, Tacitus — Tags: , , — admin @ 2:48 pm

In the Book of Acts it is recorded that there was a large famine over the whole world (which in ancient times normally constituted the Roman Empire). Acts states that this occurred during the reign of Claudius.

Acts 11:27-30

And in these days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch. Then one of them, named Agabus, stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea. This they also did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.

Josephus mentions a famine in Judea during the reign of Claudius which Queen Helena helped to ease.

Antiquities 20.2.5

Now her coming was of very great advantage to the people of Jerusalem; for whereas a famine did oppress them at that time, and many people died for want of what was necessary to procure food withal, queen Helena sent some of her servants to Alexandria with money to buy a great quantity of corn, and others of them to Cyprus, to bring a cargo of dried figs. And as soon as they were come back, and had brought those provisions, which was done very quickly, she distributed food to those that were in want of it, and left a most excellent memorial behind her of this benefaction, which she bestowed on our whole nation. And when her son Izates was informed of this famine, he sent great sums of money to the principal men in Jerusalem. However, what favors this queen and king conferred upon our city Jerusalem shall be further related hereafter.

Josephus goes on to give a more precise date of the famine.

Antiquities 20.5.2

Then came Tiberius Alexander as successor to Fadus; he was the son of Alexander the alabarch of Alexandria, which Alexander was a principal person among all his contemporaries, both for his family and wealth: he was also more eminent for his piety than this his son Alexander, for he did not continue in the religion of his country. Under these procurators that great famine happened in Judea, in which queen Helena bought corn in Egypt at a great expense, and distributed it to those that were in want, as I have related already.

Fadus governed Judæa from 44 to 46 and Tiberius Alexander from 46 to 48, so the famine likely lasted a number of years.

According to Tacitus a famine occurred in the year 51.

The Annals 12.43

Several prodigies occurred in that year. Birds of evil omen perched on the Capitol; houses were thrown down by frequent shocks of earthquake, and as the panic spread, all the weak were trodden down in the hurry and confusion of the crowd. Scanty crops too, and consequent famine were regarded as a token of calamity. Nor were there merely whispered complaints; while Claudius was administering justice, the populace crowded round him with a boisterous clamour and drove him to a corner of the forum, where they violently pressed on him till he broke through the furious mob with a body of soldiers. It was ascertained that Rome had provisions for no more than fifteen days, and it was through the signal bounty of heaven and the mildness of the winter that its desperate plight was relieved. And yet in past days Italy used to send supplies for the legions into distant provinces, and even now it is not a barren soil which causes distress. But we prefer to cultivate Africa and Egypt, and trust the life of the Roman people to ships and all their risks.

Note here are Tacitus claims that the famine was due to a lack of precipitation. He goes on to say that Rome imported most of its grain from Africa and Egypt, which would indicate that those locations had suffered from the lack of precipitation.

Suetonius also mentions a famine that covered several years.

The Twelve Caesars: Claudius 19 (My edition of this work has this passage in 18, but the online edition has it at 19)

During a scarcity of provisions, occasioned by bad crops for several successive years, he was stopped in the middle of the forum by the mob, who so abused him, at the same time pelting him with fragments of bread, that he had some difficulty in escaping into the palace by a back door. He therefore used all possible means to bring provisions to the city, even in winter. He proposed to the merchants a sure profit, by indemnifying them against any loss that might befall them by storms at sea; and granted great privileges to those who built ships for that traffic.

Put all this together it appears that a lack of precipitation (rain and snow) and bad luck with shipping combined to create famine like conditions for at least Italy, Africa, and Judea for several years (perhaps anywhere between three and seven years) during the reign of Claudius. Given that Africa was the Empire’s breadbasket and the fact that grain was persistently in short supply in Rome itself, it seems reasonable to conclude that it would also be in short supply throughout much if not all of the Empire.

February 5, 2009

Tacitus and the New Testament Part 6

Filed under: Josephus, Tacitus — Tags: , — admin @ 5:02 pm

Herod the Great reigned in Judæa for 37 years from 41 BC to 4 BC. According to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus was born during his reign (Matthew 2:1; Luke 1:5). According to the Gospel of Matthew, Herod ordered the young children in Bethlehem to be slaughtered when he found out about the birth of Jesus (Matthew 2:16). Josephus summarizes his reign in Antiquities 17.8.1:

When he had done these things, he died, the fifth day after he had caused Antipater to be slain; having reigned, since he had procured Antigonus to be slain, thirty-four years; but since he had been declared king by the Romans, thirty-seven. A man he was of great barbarity towards all men equally, and a slave to his passion; but above the consideration of what was right; yet was he favored by fortune as much as any man ever was, for from a private man he became a king; and though he were encompassed with ten thousand dangers, he got clear of them all, and continued his life till a very old age. But then, as to the affairs of his family and children, in which indeed, according to his own opinion, he was also very fortunate, because he was able to conquer his enemies, yet, in my opinion, he was herein very unfortunate.

Tacitus’ mentions Herod in one section of his work:

The Histories 5.9:

The royal power, which had been bestowed by Antony on Herod, was augmented by the victorious Augustus. On Herod’s death, one Simon, without waiting for the approbation of the Emperor, usurped the title of king. He was punished by Quintilius Varus then governor of Syria, and the nation, with its liberties curtailed, was divided into three provinces under the sons of Herod.

Herod the Great willed his kingdom to three of his sons, Herod Archelaus, [Herod] Philip, and Herod Antipas as Josephus relates (Antiquities 17.8.1 :) :

And now Herod altered his testament upon the alteration of his mind; for he appointed Antipas, to whom he had before left the kingdom, to be tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, and granted the kingdom to Archclaus. He also gave Gaulonitis, and Trachonitis, and Paneas to Philip, who was his son, but own brother to Archclaus by the name of a tetrarchy; and bequeathed Jarnnia, and Ashdod, and Phasaelis to Salome his sister, with five hundred thousand [drachmae] of silver that was coined.

Herod Archelaus is only mentioned once in the New Testament in Matthew 2:22 where he is identified as the ruler of Judæa:

But when he [Joseph] heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea instead of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned by God in a dream, he turned aside into the region of Galilee.

According to Josephus, Joseph was right to fear Archelaus because soon after the death of Herod Archelaus had 3,000 people killed (Antiquities 17.9.3). Josephus also says the Archelaus was the ruler of Judea (Antiquities 17.11.4)

[Herod] Philip is mentioned once or four times in the Gospels (Luke 3:1 and possibly Matthew 14:3; Mark 6:17;  and Luke 3:19). The issue about who is being referred to in the latter three references surrounds who “Philip” is.  If it is Philip the Tetrarch (the Philip that Tacitus refers to) then either Mark and Matthew are incorrect in claiming that Herodias was formerly married to him or Josephus is incorrect in claiming that Herodias was formerly married to Herod II, the son of Herod the Great.  Another option is that Herod II was really called “Herod Philip.” And that Josephus is correct in calling him “Herod” and the Gospel writers are correct in calling him “Philip.”  Herod the Great’s family tree is very confusing, with people being called the same names numerous times, so it seems plausible that any of the above possibilities could be correct.

Herod Antipas is mentioned dozens of times in the Gospels. It was he who beheaded John the Baptist for criticizing his marriage with Herodias (Matthew 14; Mark 6; Luke 9), and according to Luke mocked Jesus before sending him back to Pontius Pilate (Luke 23). He is also mentioned once in Acts 4:27.

These three sons are mentioned by Tacitus, but not by name, in the previous quote:

The Histories 5.9

He was punished by Quintilius Varus then governor of Syria, and the nation, with its liberties curtailed, was divided into three provinces under the sons of Herod.

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