In viaggio verso il sobborgo costantinopolitano di Psamathea: un’indagine prosopografica a partire dal Dialogo di Palladio

Travelling to the Constantinopolitan suburb of Psamathea : a prosopographical investigation from Palladius’ Dialogue · In the year 406 ce, an embassy with three Italian and four Eastern bishops, two priests and a deacon, was sent towards Constantinople by Emperor Honorius and Pope Innocentius I, in order to meet Arcadius, Emperor’s brother, asking for a review of Iohannes Chrysostomus’ condemnation. Chrysostomus, Archbishop of Constantinople in 398 ce, developed struggles against Arians and was really strict against of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and political leaders ; so Theophilus, the Patriarch of Alexandria, and Eudoxia, wife of Emperor Arcadius, were able to condemn him to exile in Armenia and then on the bank to Pontus Euxeinos. Palladius, a monk, disciple and hagiographer of Iohannes Chrysostomus, wrote a dialogue about the life of his spiritual teacher, where he described different stages of the travel of western and eastern religious men. They were stopped by army officers before Thessalonica, not long after they were allowed to sail along the Aegean Sea. Nevertheless they were not able to reach Constantinople without having sustained imprisonments in specific places (Pallad. dial. iv 14-28), in particular, one of them suggests a supplementary analysis compared to previous studies : ‘τα Βικτορος προαστεια’, the suburb of Victor. This paper examines Victor’s identity again, considering his possible relationship with John Chrysostom. Ambassadors failed their aim and they had to come back to Italy, Chrysostomus was exiled, however he kept alive the correspondence with the Western Church.