Alexander Medieval Legend Last Roman Emperor
Alexander Medieval Legend Last Roman Emperor
Alexander Medieval Legend Last Roman Emperor
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Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes
By Paul J. Alexander
From this it is clear that the author was aware that Christ's Cross had not
been standing on Golgotha continuously since the day of the Crucifixion. But
it is uncertain whether Pseudo-Methodius expected the Cross to be restored
only in the age of the Last Emperor, i.e. at the end of time (as seems more
natural) or at some earlier date for the Emperor to find on the day of his
surrender and death.
The Legend of the Finding of the Cross is associated with the Emperor
Constantine's mother, Helen, and the building of the Constantinian complex
on the site of the Holy Sepulchre. It is possible that the relic stood again on
Golgotha in the 340s; at any rate, it is shown as part of the complex in the
apse mosaic of S. Pudenziana in Rome, completed in or after 391.31 Thus
chre in Jerusalem', Speculum, xxxi, 1956, pp.
28 Bousset, Antichrist, pp. 16, 77-79 (where
the passages from Tertullian and Lactantius 1-48 (on Calvary and its Cross, pp. 5-7; the
are cited). article includes reconstructions where the
29 Many examples in Marjorie Reeves, The Cross is clearly visible, see plates viii, x and
Influence of Prophecy in the Later Middle Ages. A xi); Ch. Coliasnon, The Church of the Holy
Study in Joachimism, Oxford 1969, esp. parts Sepulchre in Jerusalem, The Schweich Lectures
iii and iv. of the British Academy 1972, London 1974,
30 Cod. Vat. Syr. 58, fol. 135r. esp. p. 50; Richard Krautheimer, Early
31 Eusebius, Vita Constantini, iii, pp. 26ff. Christian and Byzantine Architecture, Penguin
On the buildings surrounding the Holy Books, rev. edn. (paperback), 1975, PP-
Sepulchre at Jerusalem, see particularly: 62-65, 77f. For S. Pudenziana, see W.
Kenneth J. Conant and Glanville Downey, Oakeshott, The Mosaics of Rome from the 3rd
'The Original Buildings at the Holy Sepul- to the i4th Centuries, London 1967.
Biblicaof
37 J. B. Segal, 'The Jews xix,Northern
Leiden 1971. Meso-
potamia before the Rise of40 Neusner,
Islam',Aphrahat and Judaism,
Studies in thegives a
Bible presented to Professor
full EnglishM.
translation
H. Segal
of Demonstration
etc., xix,
Jerusalem 1964, PP- 32*"-63*, pp. 84-96. I cite section
esp. 8 35*.(p. 90): 'Hear
38 Syriac version ed.then, J.my beloved, I shallAnalecta
Corluy, show you that
Bollandiana, v, 1886, Israel pp.was 5-52.
saved (etpereq)
Arab two times,
(Kar- once
from Egypt,ibid.,
shuni) version ed. P. Peeters, the secondxliv,time from Baby-
1926,
pp. 270-341. Peeters showed lonia..... Now that
if they were the destined
Syriac to be
original is lost and that the
gathered Arab
together version
and redeemed (wenetparqin),is
closer to the originalwhy than the
did Isaiah (xi:II)published
say that the Lord
Syriac text. Date: Peeters, would stretchp. out his hand a second
289. The time and
two
passages cited in the text, acquire the remnant
ibid., p. 294 of his
:fipeople that re-
bilddi
madinati singar and ra's mained? If there is still [to
wamuqqadam. Seebe] salvation
also
Segal (n. 37 above), pp. (pdrqand)55*-57*.
for them, Isaiah Whether
should have said,
it reflects conditions "God will stretch Singara
around out his hand a third
intime the
late 4th or late 8th centuries or some
to possess the remnant period
of his people," and not
between is unclear, yetsay "a second
'the regiontime".' I have
of checked
the city J.
of Singara' was probably Parisot'sthe
edition precise
of the Syriac textarea in
(Aphraatis
which Pseudo-Methodius wrote. Sapientis Persae Demonstrationes, Patrologia
39On Aphrahates see Labourt, Chris- Syriaca, vol. i, pt. I, Paris 1894, pp. 868f.) and
found, as indicated in the parentheses, that
tianisme dans l'empire perse, pp. 31-39; Urbina,
even where Neusner translates 'saved' and
Patrologia Syriaca, pp. 46-5I; Jacob Neusner,
'salvation', Aphrahates used forms derived
Aphrahat and Judaism. The Christian-Jewish
from the root prq, 'to redeem'.
Argument in Fourth Century Iran, Studia Post-
APPENDIX
(see p. 2, n. 3 above)
There is one prophecy of a Last Roman Emperor that may ant
(Syriac) version of Pseudo-Methodius : the description of his reign in
the Tiburtine Sibyl. The extant Greek version of this work does not k
the Last Emperor (see my Oracle of Baalbek. The Tiburtine Sibyl in G
barton Oaks Studies io, 1967, p. i i6). The Latin text, however, interp
piece on a 'king of the Romans and Greeks' that concludes with h
royal garb and diadem at Jerusalem and handing over the regnum Chr
the Father and Jesus Christ (Sackur, Sibyllinische Texte, pp. I85f
similarities to Pseudo-Methodius: apart from the Last Emper
Jerusalem and the general prosperity of his reign, a reference to
31 (32) (p. 185, 13 Sackur, see however Sackur's caveat on the differen
of the psalmist's words in the two texts, pp. 70of.) and the fusion of
prophecy of the invasion of Gog and Magog with the Alexander
ferences, however, are marked. In particular, while the principal fun
Roman Emperor in the Latin Sibyl is the conversion of pagans an
partially by warlike actions, the Pseudo-Methodian Emperor fights s