Polemic as history and Julian as Alexander in the Chronicle of John Malalas

ABSTRACT:John Malalas’ account of the career of Alexander of Macedon is marked by numerous deviations from the standard historical record. One such error, Alexander crossing over to Asia at the Bosporus rather than the Hellespont, however, seems to point to Dio Cassius’ story of a δαίμων in the guise of Alexander crossing from Byzantium to Chalcedon. The association of references to Alexander and the activity of demons, in turn, draws into the ambit of Malalas’ allusions an array of Christian rhetorical assaults on the Emperor Julian. Julian is revealed as the real subject, or target, of Malalas’ account of Alexander and its apparent errors are shown to be references to matters that recur in the Christian critique of Julian.