The Prophecy of Martyr Kyrion, the Syriac Eschatology of the Roman-Persian Wars, and Justinian’s ‘Eternal Peace’
Muraviev Alexei V.
The Syriac hagiographic text called ‘Julian Romance’, compiled in the sixth century by an unknown Miaphysite compiler, contains an interesting episode that allows us to better understand the era of the compilation of the ‘Romance’ and the eschatological views of the Syrians of the first half of this century. Appearing before his death to Emperor Julian and his commander Jovian, martyr Mar Kur utters a prophecy about the coming 147 years of peace and the payment of tribute by the Roman Empire to the Persian state, which ‘inversely corresponds’ to the events of the sixth century. An analysis of the text suggests that the author composed the text of the prophecy at the end of the ‘Anastasius’ war’, the last stage of which fell on the reign of Emperor Justin I. At this time, the emperor unleashed a strong persecution against the opponents of the Council of Chalcedon, which the author of the ‘Romance’ compared with the persecution of Julian the Apostate against Christians in the fourth century. The centre of Syrian resistance to the persecution of Justin was the city of Amid (present-day Diyarbakir), which had a large church in the name of the 40 Martyrs of Sebastia. The new emperor Justinian, who came to power, was able to inspire hopes for the conclusion of ‘eternal peace’ and the pacification of the internal political situation. The so-called ‘eternal peace’ between Rome and Persia is presented in the ‘Romance’ as the peace between Jovian and Shapur II after the death of Julian the Apostate, who is as if sacrificed for this peaceful era.
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