For the disease (epichusis or platukoria) see Sophronius’s words at Prologue to the Miracles 9 and Miracles 70.1–7.
11. See Sophronius, Miracles 70.8–2. At ibid. 70.8 [Marcos 396] Saint Cyrus appears to Sophronius “in the divine habit of a monk and in the same form as John [Moschus], the patient’s spiritual father and teacher, who was with him at the martyrs’ tomb and praying for his disciple and child.” Moschus appears again at Sophronius, Miracles 70.13. For this particular miracle, which includes Sophronius’s renunciation of Homer, see now Agosti (2011).
12. For the text as a memorial see Sophronius, Prologue to the Miracles 1. For the text as the payment of a debt owed to the saints see ibid. 8 and Miracles 70.2.
13. Sophronius tells us that the text was composed during the patriarchate of John the Almsgiver (610–20); see Miracles 8.2, 11.6. It was written while Sophronius was still in the city (see, e.g., Miracles 32.2, which refers to Alexandria as “here”), and so the date of the text depends on the date of his withdrawal; see below p. 101. Because of the absence of references to the Persian sack of Jerusalem—esp. ibid. 65.5—it is tempting to place it in the earlier half of the decade. For the Greek text I have used the critical edition of Marcos (1975), with the majority of the textual corrections suggested by Duffy (1984b) and (1987), and by the excellent commentary of Gascou (2006), with French translation. For the Prologue attached to Sophronius’s Miracles I have used the text of Bringel (2008).
14. Sophronius, Prologue to the Miracles 6 [Bringel 7]. On the opposition between an “intense” (suntonos) and “relaxed” (aneimenos) style here see Milazzo (1992).
15. For Sophronius’s explanation of this division see Prologue to the Miracles 6 and the moments of transition at Miracles 1.1, 35.13, 36.1, 50.7, 51.1. For the biblical and mystical significance of the numbers 7, 10, and 70 see Sophronius, Prologue to the Miracles 4–5.
16. For detailed typologies of the various diseases and remedies within the text see Marcos (1975) 87–146.
17. For the archaeology of the site (wrongly identified as Canopus) see Goddio (2007) 29–68, with the correction of Stolz (2008). For the early Byzantine jewelry and coins from the site see Goddio and Clauss (2006) 259ff. (with discussion by Stolz) and Petrina [née Stolz] (2012). As Stolz (2008) 204 points out, the description of the site given in Goddio (2007) 29–31 is strikingly consistent with that in Sophronius, Prologue to the Miracles 29. For a description of the shrine as based on Sophronius, Miracles cf. Marcos (1975) 42–49; Montserrat (1998) 268–70.
18. Sophronius, Prologue to the Miracles 18. For the relation of the anonymous Lives to Sophronius’s Prologue to the Miracles see Gascou (2007) 246–51.
19. Sophronius, Prologue to the Miracles 23–29. In antiquity Menuthis was famed for a cult of Isis, although Sophronius calls the resident pagan goddess “Menuthis”; see ibid. 24 [Bringel 26].
20. See PG 77, 1100–1105.
21. See esp. Duchesne (1910); Wipszycka (1988). On the relation of the Cyrillian orations and the Life of Severus see also Sansterre (1991) 71–74; Alan Cameron (2007) 23–28.
22. Gascou (2007); Alan Cameron (2007) 23. Cf. Montserrat (1998) 261–66, who attempts to reconcile the two traditions by arguing that the cult was disused under Cyril’s successor and rival Dioscurus and later revived in opposition to a resurgent paganism at Menuthis.
23. Gascou (2007) 276ff.
24. Ibid. 266–68, 273–75. For these rival centers see also Leontius of Neapolis, Life of John the Almsgiver 23 [Festugière 374]. Variant traditions concerning a saint’s (or saints’) origins are not uncommon; see Esbroeck, (1981) on Cosmas and Damian; Davis (2001) 41–47 on Thecla.
25. See also Montserrat (1998) 276–78.
26. Pace Maraval (1981) 394 n. 8.
27. The main sources for the invasion to this point are Ps.-Sebēos, History 31–33; Theophanes, Chronicle A.M. 6096–98; Agapius, Universal History [Vasiliev 448f.]; Michael the Syrian, Chronicle 10.25; Anonymous Chronicle to 1234 86–87; Anonymous Chronicle to 724 [Brooks 145f.]; Chronicle of Seert 79; Khuzistan Chronicle [Guidi 20f.]; Jacob of Edessa, Chronicle [Brooks 324f.]. For discussion of the sources and chronology of the initial Persian advances, beginning from 603, see Flusin (1992b) vol. 2, 67–83; Howard-Johnston (1999b) 197–202; less critical is Stratos (1968–78) vol. 1, 58–66.
28. Sophronius, Anacreontics 21 (full title “On the Grandfather Menas, Steward of the Ennaton at Alexandria, Wrongly Accused under Phocas of Having Received Theodosius the Son of Maurice” [Gigante 128]) appears to place him in Alexandria during the reign of Phocas, for in addition to its subject it also contains a rare positive description of the emperor at ll. 99–103 [Gigante 132]. Cf. also the fleeting reference to the pro-Phocan Alexandrian patriarch Theodore at Sophronius, Miracles 8.2.
29. See the apparently widespread but no doubt apocryphal tale that whoever of the pair made it first to the capital would be crowned emperor: e.g., in Theophanes, Chronicle A.M. 6101; Agapius, Universal History [Vasiliev 449f.]; Michel the Syrian, Chronicle 10.25; Anonymous Chronicle to 1234 90; Nicephorus, Short History 1; Anonymous Chronicle to 741 6; Anonymous Chronicle to 754 1.
30. See John of Nikiu, Chronicle 107–9. For Bonosus and the events surrounding the coup in more detail, see Booth (2011b).
31. So Paschal Chronicle [Dindorf 699]: “And in this year Africa and Alexandria revolted. And the patriarch of Alexandria was killed by enemies.” John of Nikiu, Chronicle 107 records that Theodore, whose patriarchate Theophanes places 606/7–608/9, was an imperial appointment. For a parallel situation in Jerusalem see Paschal Chronicle [Dindorf 699]; Strategius, On the Fall 4.
32. Anonymous Life of John the Almsgiver 4 [Delehaye 20f.].
33. Leontius of Neapolis, Life of John the Almsgiver 1 [Festugière 347], repeating in the same chapter that John “was enthroned by divine command” [Festugière 348]. For comment see Borkowski (1981) 54f.; Déroche (1995) 137f.
34. For Heraclius’s route via the islands see John of Nikiu, Chronicle 109. During the Heraclian revolt coinage bearing the Heraclii was issued on Cyprus; see Grierson (1950). For a suggested sojourn on Cyprus see Olster (1993b) 127; Borkowski (1981) 37f.; but cf. Kaegi (2003) 48. Borkowski (1981) 40 and Rapp (2004) 130 suggest that the aristocrat John may have offered financial support to Heraclius during his rebellion. For Heraclius’s connection to Cyprus see also the famous inscription dated to 631 in Sodini (1998).
35. Anonymous Life of John the Almsgiver 4 [Delehaye 20f.]; Epitome of the Life of John the Almsgiver [Lappa-Zizicas 274], with Rapp (2004) 127–29.
36. See Leontius of Neapolis, Life of John the Almsgiver 10 [Festugière 357], with further indications of codependence in Rapp (2004) 128 with nn. 31, 32.
37. Rapp (2004) 132f. For Heraclius Constantine’s baptism, with the explicit presence of Nicetas, see Nicephorus, Short History [Mango 64].
38. Anonymous Life of John the Almsgiver 5 [Delehaye 21]; the version at Epitome of the Life of John the Almsgiver 5 [Lappa-Zizicas 275] has minor differences, including “six or seven” rather than simply “seven.”
39. See Déroche (1995) 138. As Déroche points out, that same uncritical acceptance of the theopaschite Trisagion would earn John’s Chalcedonian contemporary Arcadius of Cyprus the rebuke of Sophronius; see below p. 221.
40. Anonymous Life of John the Almsgiver 5 [Delehaye
