Chronicon (Eusebius)

The Chronicon or Chronicle (Greek, Pantodape historia, "Universal History") was a work in two books by Eusebius of Caesarea. It seems to have been compiled in the early 4th century. It contained a world chronicle from Abraham until the vicennalia of Constantine I in 325 AD. Book 1 contained sets of extracts from earlier writers; book 2 contained a technically innovative list of dates and events in tabular format.

The original Greek text is lost, although substantial quotations exist in later chronographers. Both books are mostly preserved in an Armenian translation. Book 2 is entirely preserved in the Latin translation by Jerome. Portions also exist in quotation in later Syriac writers such as the fragments by James of Edessa and, following him, Michael the Syrian.

Contents

^{[clarification needed]} The work was composed in divided into two parts. The first part (Greek, Chronographia, "Annals") gives a summary of universal history from the sources, arranged according to nations. The second part (Greek, Chronikoi kanones, "Chronological Canons") furnishes a synchronism of the historical material in parallel columns, the equivalent of a parallel timeline, where each line is a year. It is the longest preserved list of Olympic victors, containing however mainly the stadion (running race) winners from 776 BC to 217 AD.

The work as a whole has been lost in the original, but it may be reconstructed from later chronographists of the Byzantine school who made excerpts from the work with untiring diligence, especially George Syncellus.

The tables of the second part have been completely preserved in a Latin translation by Jerome, and both parts are still extant in an Armenian translation. The loss of the Greek originals has given an Armenian translation a special importance; thus, the second part of Eusebius' "Chronicle", of which only a few fragments exist in the Greek, has been preserved entirely in Armenian. Fragments also exist in Syriac, notably in the "Chronicle" of Michael the Syrian.

The "Chronicle" as preserved extends to the year 325. It was written before the "Church History."

See also

• Chronicon (Jerome)
• Mesopotamia in Classical literature
• Universal chronicle

External links

• Eusebii ... Chronicon bipartitum, ex Arm. textu in Lat. conversum, adnotationibus auctum, Gr. fragmentis exornatum, opera J.B. Aucher - Only edition of the Armenian, with Latin translation.
• English translation of book 1 - from the Armenian text of Aucher, by Robert Bedrosian.
• English translation of book 1 - from the modern Latin translation of the ancient Armenian version.
• English translation of Jerome's Chronicon - book 2 of Eusebius with Jerome's additions.
• Catholic Encyclopedia article