Stanislava Olegovna Khizhniakova Research Engineer, Institute of History, Saint Petersburg State University (Mendeleevskaya linia, 5, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 199034); student, Higher School of Economics (21/4 Staraia Basmannaia st., Moscow, Russia, 105064)
h.stasya@gmail.com
Khizhniakova S. O. Phoenicia and the Phoenicians in John of Nikiu’s Chronicle, Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2024, vol. 13, pp. 380–399.
doi: 10.24412/2308-0698-2024-13-380-399
Language: Russian
John of Nikiu’s Chronicle, written in the late 7th century, tells not only about the Arab conquest of Egypt, which John of Nikiu witnessed, but also about the preceding events of universal history, starting from the creation of the world. The chapters about ancient history are no less important with regard to studying the contents of the Chronicle. The Chronicle was translated twice and survived only in the late Old Ethiopic edition made in 1601. Thus, the text of the initial part of the Chronicle, filled with mythological and historical plots, as well as ancient proper names, is sometimes absolutely distorted. It is not always obvi ous at what stage of the text’s existence this distortion occurred. Fortunately for researchers, the main source of John of Nikiu, on which the first part of the Chronicle was based, is John Malalas’ Chronicle, the text of which has also sur vived. By comparing similar plots in John of Nikiu’s Chronicle and John Mala las’ Chronicle, John of Nikiou’s innovations could be identified and conclusions about his worldview and principles of working with sources could be drawn. In this article, the author focuses on plots that mention Phoenicia, the names of Phoenician cities, and names associated with this region. Based on the analy sis of Phoenician plots, conclusions are drawn about John of Nikiou’s knowledge in this area. The reception of Phoenician culture in late antique and early medi eval literature is a very unexplored topic worthy of attention.
Key words: John of Nikiu, Phoinician culture, Canaan, John Malalas, early Byzantine historiography, ancient history, mythological plots
URL: https://rcs-almanac.ru/khizhniakova-2024-en/
