mountainman

The Cambridge companion to the Age of Constantine, available via Google Books shows that the Halkin Vita was awaiting publication in 2006.

Can anyone advise whether this publication has happened, or whether there are English translations, or selections, available anywhere else.

An old note reads ...

The 'Halkin' (or Patmos) -Vita = BHG 365n, edited by Halkin (1959) from Cod. Patmos (12th/13th century ....

"Some geographical howlers such as Britain and Gaul being separated by the Danube......."


"The trials of the young Constantine at the court of Galerius, for instance, were graphically depicted as the labors of a new Hercules or Jason. Instead of facing the normal opposition of a bear and a lion withut claws or thirty men armed with dry sponges, Galerius sent him against a normal bear and lion as well as thirty men armed with rocks.

Thanks.

Roger Pearse

A little more about these saints lives is here.

The Halkin "life" was published in Analecta Bollandiana 77 (1959), p.63-107, under the title: "Une nouvelle vie de Constantin dans un legendier de Patmos". I suspect a French translation might be found there, and of course Google Translate handles French quite well.

I found another snippet: "The third text of major importance is the Patmos-legend (BHG 365n) preserved in a single manuscript of the twelfth or thirteenth centuries.15 As it mentions the death of the patriarch Germanos it cannot be earlier than the 730s..."

Roger Pearse

An translation does exist, made by Mark Vermes, or so a footnote in the Lieu volume says. It does not seem to have been published. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find an address for Dr V., but I have emailed Dr Lieu and asked him for one.

Roger Pearse

Dr Lieu has a copy of the translation, but for various complicated reasons it isn't acccessible to him until early next year. There is the hope to publish it in one of the volumes of Studia Antiqua Australiensia some time in the future.

So ... dead end here, I think.

mountainman

Thanks very much Roger.

Roger Pearse

May I ask why you're interested in this obscure item? What was it that you hoped to access?

stephan huller

Do you really want to know Roger? It should be fairly obvious as mm's motivation is as dependable and predictable as a robot on an assembly line.

mountainman

Certainly. The item was either listed as part of the INDEX of SOURCES in the book From Constantine to Julian: A Source History (or via: amazon.co.uk) By Samuel N. C. Lieu, Dominic Montserrat, or was listed in someone else's comments on this book. Here is a review

More information about what I see as one of the critical time periods in the saga of Christian origins, between 312 (Constantine takes Rome) and 367 CE (canonization of the books of the new testament). We may even agree that the business of doing ancient history is a bit like putting together (and taking apart) a PROBABILISTIC four dimensional jigsaw puzzle of the ancient evidence. Admitted this bit of evidence is quite late, and remote from the time period I am searching, but because it was listed I just thought I'd try and see what it actually said.

To put it another way, its a bit like turning over rocks to see what's on the other side. One never knows until one looks. This sentiment should make it plain that I cannot have a fixed opinion as most people think I have about the saga of Christian origins. The whole thing is an exercise in probability as I see it, and there is no certainty in any position, merely degrees of probability. In this fundament sense, all researchers indepedent of their own preconceived hypotheses, as long as they are prepared to review their hypotheses and theories with the analysis of the items of evidence, are equal.

mountainman

motivation in writing


Dont mistake being dependable and predictable with being consistent, which are attributes and characteristics of the motivation and how it manifests, not the nature of the motivation itself.

If you ever happen to travel through rural australia stephan, even with your son and soccer ball and family and professional commitments, know that you would be more than welcome to call by for refreshments on your journey. It is difficult to distiguish an author's motivation for writing if one does not really know that author, or unless one spends a good deal of time analysing the nature of the author's position.

My motivation is to seek the ancient historical truth by following the evidence wheresoever it may lead. I may not find it, and I may not even be on the right track --- if indeed there is a "right track". The topography of the theory space dealing with ancient history and christian origins is a landscape inhabited by many theorists. The landscape is being explored. Let's be professional about this. We dont exactly have forever.

I like yourself, must admit that my motivation is not "purely historical" and there will be incursions into the other three motivations listed above by Orwell. On the political front I more curious about the gnostic heretics and underdogs than I am about the victorious heresiologists of the "Early Church". I see a buried history and an untold truth waiting to be turned over. Who were the Gnostic authors? WHEN did they write? Why did they write? Who was Leucius Charinus? Who was Lithargoel?

Roger Pearse

Well I do, actually. I'd never heard of this text, and I thought that I would like to know what the signpost is that points to a very obscure and untranslated hagiographical text. There might be others who will follow that same signpost, you see. What, I wondered, is interesting about this text? Is it worth me getting the French translation and running it into English, to make it available? And that sort of thing.

All the best,

Roger Pearse