John Malalas: from computation to narration

Abstract : The choice of a linear narrative structure is one of the most remarkable features of John Malalas’Chronicle. It embraces neither the pattern of successive lists of rulers, upon which synchronisms and computations are usually based, nor that of a yearly account of events, nor even a combination of the two.This raises two questions already addressed: how the chronicle is composed and how Malalas was able to combine materials from different origins. The purpose of this paper is to argue that by addressing the two questions together, we can formulate some hypotheses about the method used by Malalas to construct his narrative: the chronicler follows a specific chronographic structure to which he adds, according to his own interests, narrative episodes from other sources.