CHRONICON PASCHALE. – An anonymous Byzantine chronicle of the 7th century, with a predominant interest in chronology. It was commonly called paschal because of the author’s concern to relate chronological data to the dates of Easter; however, it is also found under the name of C. Alexandrinum, or Constantinopolitanum, and that of Fasti Siculi. The author’s name is unknown, but from the content it may be inferred, in all likelihood, that he was a cleric from Constantinople, who lived in the milieu of Patriarch Sergius (610–38). This date is indicated both by the references to that patriarch and by the title the author prefixed to the work: Chronological Summary from Adam to the Twentieth Year of the Reign of Heraclius (629).
The c. p. belongs to the genre of those universal histories that enjoyed such wide diffusion in the Middle Ages. According to this chronicle, the era of the world began 5500 years before the birth of Christ, and the first Easter was celebrated on 13 April in the year 1272 B.C. The birth of the Redeemer took place on a Wednesday, 25 December, and his death would have fallen on 23 March, thirty-three years later. The dates of Easter are calculated according to a cycle of 19 lunar years and one of 28 solar years. Thus, every 532 Julian years, they recur in the same sequence.
The foundation of this history of the world, whose pillars are established according to a distinctly religious vision, naturally consists of the biblical texts, although the chronological systems of the ancient peoples, from the Babylonians to the Romans, are not ignored. In accordance with the practice of the period, the author does not adhere strictly to his subject, but the historical narrative affords him an occasion for digressions of various kinds. At a certain point the tone of the chronicle changes; after the bare schematism of the years 532–600, a narrative rich in facts and events follows for the final thirty years, to which the author was evidently contemporary or close. This section constitutes our entire interest in the chronicle, since for the remainder it is a very ordinary, and not even diligent, compilation. In addition to the Bible, its ancient Giulio Africano (v.), then on Eusebius (History and Chronicle), on Malalas,
and on the so-called Idacian fasti. It therefore follows a path very different from that of the Chronographer of 354 and the other chronicles that derive from the Hippolytean compilation.
This work, of little historical or literary merit, enjoyed wide popularity in the Middle Ages and exerted great influence on later Byzantine chronicles. For the common people, together with Malalas (v. GIOVANNI MALALA), it was what Eusebius, Syncellus, and Zonaras were for the educated classes.