Earthquakes in a.d. 363–368 and the date of libanius, oratio 18

The Classical Quarterly

Volumn 56, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 657-661

  Van Nuffelen, Peter ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF EXETER   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 85008574358     PISSN: 00098388     EISSN: 14716844     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0009838806000784     Document Type: Article

References (24)

1. M. Henry, ‘Le témoignage de Libanius et les phénomènes sismiques du IVe siècle de notre ère: essai d'interprétation’. Phoenix 39 (1985), 36-61, 59. Her conclusions were adopted by E. Guidoboni, Catalogue of Ancient Earthquakes in the Mediterranean Area up to the 10th Century (Rome, 1994), 259-60. Her redating of the earthquakes to A.D. 361-3 constituted an important argument for a redating of Libanius’ eighteenth oration (see the works mentioned in nn. 14 and 23).
2. Henry (n. 1), 45 has argued that Libanius is referring to Nicomedia, and not to Antioch, as used to be thought. Libanius often praised Nicomedia, sometimes without mentioning its name (epistula 1187, oratio 1.52), as in this passage. Moreover, no earthquake hitting Antioch is attested for this period. The last one occurred in 341 (Socrates, Historia Ecclesiastica 2.10).
3. For an extensive list of sources, see Guidoboni (n. 1), 264-7.
4. Cf. Guidoboni (n. 1), 259-60 (Libya), 260 (Sicily).
5. Guidoboni (n. 1), 261-2 (Greece). For the earthquake in Greece, Martine Henry adduced Philostorgius, Historia Ecclesiastica 7.1c ([n. 1], 50-3; cf. Guidoboni [n. 1], 262), but the oracle quoted there only implies that the temple in Delphi had collapsed, not that the event happened recently, nor that it was due to an earthquake. The other sources she mentions (Zosimus 4.18.1-2; Georgius Monachus, chronicon 560 [de Boor]; Cedrenus, chronicon 592 [Bekker]) date their earthquakes in Greece after the reign of Julian, Zosimus in 375, and the two Byzantine chroniclers during Gratian's reign (367-83).
6. Ammianus 22.13.5: reliqua Nicomedia collapsa est terrae motu, itidemque Nicaeae portio non mediocris.
7. For a full list of sources, see F. Jacques and B. Bousquet, ‘Le raz de marée du 21 juillet 365: du cataclysme local à la catastrophe cosmique’, MEFRA 96 (1984), 423-61, 456-61; Guidoboni (n. 1), 267-74.
8. C. Leppeley, ‘L'Afrique du Nord et la prétendu séisme universel de 21 juillet 365’, MEFRA 96 (1984), 463-91, 489-91. Georgius Monachus (chronicon 561.2-3 [de Boor]) includes Africa among the provinces hit by the earthquake, but this late text can hardly be considered secure evidence.
9. Cf. Libanius, Oratio 11.264; Epistula 1359. See Henry (n. 1), 54; K. Zimmermann, Libyen: das Land südlich des Mittelmeers im Weltbild der Griechen (Munich, 1999) 36-76. On the other hand, the plural Libyai could very well refer to the two provinces of Libya.
10. S. C. Stiros, ‘The AD 365 Crete earthquake and possible seismic clustering during the fourth and sixth centuries AD in the eastern Mediterranean: a review of historical and archaeological data’, Journal of Structural Geology 23 (2001), 545-602, 550. I owe this reference to R. Bittlestone.
11. Gregory Nazianzen, Oratio 7.15; Jerome, chronicon a. 368; Consularia Constantinopolitana a. 368; Socrates, Historia Ecclesiastica 4.10.1; Johannes Malalas, chronicon 342-3. Cf. Guidoboni (n. 1), 274-5. See already R. Sievers, Das Leben des Libanius (Berlin, 1868), 253.
12. The same problem affects the reconstruction of Jacques-Bousquet (n. 8), 435-7, who situate the earthquakes in Libya, Sicily and Greece after the one in Palestine of May 363 and before 365, without being able to adduce parallels.
13. Note that in Oratio 18.177 Libanius mentions the earthquake that hit Constantinople in February 362 (Amm. 23.1.7; cf. Guidoboni [n. 1], 263-4), but that he does not treat it as an omen of Julian's death. This can be taken as additional evidence for the fact that the earthquakes listed in Or. 18.292 did not take place during Julian's reign; otherwise the orator would have probably included the earthquake in Constantinople in that list. See G. Downey, ‘Earthquakes at Constantinople and vicinity A.D. 342-1454’, Speculum 30 (1955), 596-600, 596-597.
14. Jacques-Bousquet (n. 7), 428-31.
15. H.-U. Wiemer, Libanios und Julian. Studien zum Verhãltnis von Rhetorik und Politik im vierten Jahrhundert n. Chr. (Munich, 1995), 255.
16. See the following contemporary sources for 365: Amm. 26.10.15-19; Consularia Constantinopolitana a. 365 (see R. W. Burgess, The Chronicle of Hydatius and the Consularia Constantinopolitana: Two Contemporary Accounts of the Final Years of the Roman Empire [Oxford, 1993] Fig. 3); Jerome, chronicon a. 365. For 368: Gregory Nazianzen, Oratio 7.15; Consularia Constantinopolitana a. 368; Jerome, chronicon a. 368.
17. Jacques-Bousquet (n. 7), 428-9. See also Wiemer (n. 15), 265-6. F. Felgentreu, ‘Zur Datierung der 18. Rede des Libanios’, Klio 86 (2004), 206-17 rightly criticises this argument e silentio. However, his own argument for dating the speech before the summer of 366, that Libanius does not mention the acquittal of the philosopher Maximus (18.287), is equally an argument from silence. One can very well imagine that Libanius did not want to say anything about this event in order to be able to give a universally negative image of Valens’ reign in contrast to that of Julian.
18. R. Foerster, Libanii Opera (Leipzig, 1904), 2.224.
19. Jacques-Bousquet (n. 7), 428, n. 20.
20. Wiemer (n. 15), 264-5. See Libanius, Oratio 18.214, 260.
21. Wiemer (n. 15), 267.
22. Libanius, Oratio 1.163.
23. Cf. most recently G. Fatouros, T. Krischer and W. Portmann, Libanios. Kaiserreden (Stuttgart, 2002), 132-3.
24. Cf. Sievers (n. 11) 253; J. Bidez, La vie de l'empereur Julien (Paris, 1965), 336; E. Bliembach, Libanios. Oratio 18 (Epitaphios). Kommentar (Par. 111-308) (Wurzburg, 1976), xliv.