Chronos

CHRONOS. - A Greek god, for some pre-Hellenic, or originating from Asia Minor where he would be identified with Baal, but every hypothesis about his origin and nature is uncertain. He has no cults; he is known only in mythology.

Hesiod makes him the son of Gaia and Uranus, whom he mutilated to free his mother. By Rhea he had numerous children whom he devoured for fear that they would take his throne. Zeus forced him to vomit them back up, defeated him and shut him in Tartarus. For others, C. became the king of the islands of the blessed. Already in Hesiod his reign is that of innocent happiness, the golden age. The Romans identified him with Saturn.

CHRONOGRAPHER of the year 354. - This is the title given to an important collection composed of a calendar and other historical-chronological documents gathered together in that year, although several of them betray a notably earlier composition or were later continued and updated. The calendar is of an official character, neither pagan nor Christian, and consists of an astrological part and a civil part.

It is adorned with many figures and comprises: 1) on the first page the dedication Valentine lege feliciter, vivas, gaudae, floreas in deo; Furius Dionysius Filocalus titulavit, which must designate not only the decorator of the booklet but also the compiler or author. The Valentinus for whom it was intended seems to be the tribunus protectorum ex primicerio, who in 349 was dux Illyrici and in 365 was consularis Piceni (v. FILOCALO). 2) A list of the consuls up to the year 354, the most faithful and complete of all, also called Anonymus Norisianus from its first editor Enrico Noris (Florence 1689), which depends on the same source as the Capitoline Fasti. 3) A paschal canon calculated first from 321 to 354 and then extended to 412, with many calculation errors after 359. 4) The list of the prefects of Rome from 254 to 354 with the consular Fasti of the same years. 5) The Depositio episcoporum (v.) and the Depositio martyrum (v.), that is, a list of martyrs and popes venerated at Rome. 6) The list of the popes up to Liberius, commonly called for this reason the Liberian Catalogue (v. CATALOGI DEI PAPI). 7) The Consular Fasti of Rome in a double redaction. The one, which runs from Caesar to 539, is found immediately after the calendar and is lacunose and disordered; the other, on the other hand, contains an index of the kings and then the annals from Caesar to 403 and from 455 to 496. It is called Anonymus Cuspiniani from its first partial editor Giovanni Cuspiniano (Basel 1553) or also Consularia ravennatis from the city where it was at least in part compiled. It is evident that originally it did not form part of the compilation of the C. Mommsen calls them Annales and Fasti Vindobonenses. 8) There follows a universal chronicle under the name of Chronica Horosii, composed in 334, with reference to biblical history. It is the version of a reworking of the chronicle of Hippolytus (v.), which moreover also recurs in the Liber genealogus, in the so-called Fredegarius (v.), in the Chronicon paschale (v.) or Alexandrinum, in the Liber generationis and in the Anonymus or Barbarus Scaligeri (v. SCALIGERI BARBARUS). 9) A chronicle of the kings and dictators of Rome and then of the emperors from Caesar to the death of Licinius. It derives above all from Suetonius. 10) A description of Rome by regions drawn up certainly after 334, which with the Curiosum urbis Romae, which goes back to a similar source, is the principal documentation for knowledge of the ancient topography of Rome.

Antonio Ferrus