RT Article
T1 Maximian of Ravenna, "Chronica"
JF Sacris erudiri
VO 55
SP 259
OP 276
A1 Hoof, Lieve van ca. 20./21. Jh.
LA English
PB Brepols
YR 2016
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1639581235
AB This article studies the two extant fragments of the chronica of Maximian of Ravenna (c. 498-557). Only attested in the liber pontificalis of Agnellus of Ravenna (first half of the ninth century), it was either a narrative history or a narrative chronicle. If it was the former, it may have covered the fifth and early sixth century; if the latter, it is likely that it started with Creation. In either case, it represents a rare type of historiography in the late antique Latin West : narrative histories have not survived in the West between Orosius and Gregory of Tours, whilst the narrative chronicle is attested in Latin only in the Chronica of Sulpicius Severus, but was becoming very popular in the Greek East in the sixth century. The work also stands out by its focus on secular events and the fact that it relied on information gathered by Maximian during his travels in the East. There is no evidence to substantiate the idea that Maximian composed the chronicle to support the rise of Ravenna to a supermetropolitan status : in fact, it seems likely that it was composed in the 520s, long before Maximian became bishop of Ravenna in 546.
DO 10.1484/J.SE.5.112603