Malalas, "Constantius", and a Church-inscription from Antioch

Abstract

AbstractJohn Malalas (Chron. 13.17) does not preserve the dedicatory inscription from the Great Church of Antioch dedicated in 341, despite his claim to this effect, and there is no need to emend his transmitted text in order to force it to fit this interpretation. Instead, it was the praepositus sacri cubiculi Gorgonius who had these verses inscribed, probably on some gift which he made to the martyrium of bishop Babylas, or the church that was transformed into such subsequently, sometime during Gallus Caesar's brief reign 351-54. Malalas has misunderstood his literary source for this inscription.