E05666: John Malalas in his Chronographia recounts that the emperor Constantine the Great, after a dream vision, founded the shrine of *Michael (the Archangel, S00181) of Sosthenion on the European side of the Bosphorus, near Constantinople, on the site of a pagan shrine. Written in Greek at Antioch (Syria) or Constantinople, in the mid-6th c.

John Malalas, Chronographia, 4.9

Οἱ δὲ Ἀργοναῦται ἐκ τῆς Ἑλλησπόντου ἐξορμήσαντες κατέπλευσαν ἐπὶ τὰς Πριγκιπίους νήσους· κἀκεῖθεν ἀνῆλθον τὸν Χαλκηδόνος πλοῦν, περᾶσαι βουλόμενοι τὸν ἀνάπλουν τῆς Ποντικῆς θαλάσσης. καὶ ἐπολεμήθησαν πάλιν ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἀμύκου· καὶ φοβηθέντες τοῦ ἀνδρὸς τὴν δύναμιν κατέφυγον ἐν κόλπῳ τινὶ κατάλσῳ, δασυτάτῳ πάνυ καὶ ἀγρίῳ· καὶ ἐθεάσαντο <ὡς> ἐν ὀπτασίᾳ δύναμίν τινα ὡς ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ προσπελάσασαν πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἀνδρὸς φοβεροῦ φέροντος τοῖς ὤμοις πτέρυγας ὡς ἀετοῦ, ὅστις ἐχρημάτισεν αὐτοῖς τὴν κατὰ τοῦ Ἀμύκου νίκην. οἵτινες θαρρήσαντες συνέβαλον τῷ Ἀμύκῳ· καὶ νικήσαντες αὐτὸν ἐφόνευσαν αὐτὸν καὶ εὐχαριστοῦντες ἔκτισαν ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ τόπῳ, ὅπου τὴν δύναμιν ἑωράκασιν, ἱερόν, στήσαντες ἐκεῖ ἐκτύπωμα τῆς παρ’ αὐτῶν θεαθείσης δυνάμεως, καλέσαντες τὸν αὐτὸν τόπον ἤτοι τὸ ἱερὸν αὐτὸ Σωσθένιν, διότι ἐκεῖ φυγόντες ἐσώθησαν· ὅστις τόπος οὕτως κέκληται παρὰ Βυζαντίοις ἕως τῆς νῦν. ὅπερ ἱερὸν μετὰ τὸ βασιλεῦσαι τὸ Βυζάντιον ἐθεάσατο ἀπελθὼν ἀσφαλίσασθαι αὐτὸ Κωνσταντῖνος ὁ μέγας βασιλεύς· ὃς γενόμενος χριστιανός, καὶ τῷ ἐκτυπώματι τῆς στήλης προσεσχηκὼς τῷ ἑστῶτι ἐκεῖ εἶπεν, ὅτι ἀγγέλου σημεῖον σχήματι μοναχοῦ παρὰ τοῦ δόγματος τῶν χριστιανῶν. καὶ ἐκπλαγεὶς ἐπὶ τῷ τόπῳ καὶ τῷ κτίσματι καὶ εὐξάμενος γνῶναι, ποίας ἐστὶ δυνάμεως ἀγγέλου τὸ ἐκτύπωμα παρεκοιμήθη τῷ τόπῳ. καὶ ἀκούσας ἐν ὁράματι τὸ ὄνομα τῆς δυνάμεως εὐθέως ἐγερθεὶς ἐκόσμησε τὸν τόπον, ποιήσας κατὰ ἀνατολὰς εὐχήν. καὶ ἐπωνόμασε τὸ εὐκτήριον, ἤτοι τὸν τόπον, τοῦ ἁγίου ἀρχαγγέλου Μιχαήλ.

‘Then the Argonauts set out from the Hellespont and sailed to the Princes' Islands. From there they followed the route to Chalkedon, wishing to pass through the strait. to the Pontic Sea. They were attacked next by Amykos and, afraid of his forces, fled into a wooded bay which was densely forested and wild. They saw in a vision a being coming towards them as though from heaven, a tremendous man with wings on his shoulders, like those of an eagle, who foretold to them victory over Amykos. So they were encouraged and attacked Amykos. When they had conquered and killed him, in thanksgiving they founded a shrine in the place where they had seen the apparition. They set up there an image of the being which they had seen and called the place, namely the shrine, Sosthenion, since they had fled there and been saved. The place has kept this name to the present day.
After Byzantion became the imperial capital, Constantine the great emperor visited this shrine, intending to close it. He had become a Christian and, observing the form of the statue which was standing there, he said that it represented an angel in the guise of a monk of the Christian faith. He was astounded by the site and the building and, wishing to know to which angelic being the image belonged, he slept in the place. He heard the name of the being in a dream and immediately woke up and adorned the place, offering a prayer towards the East. He named the oratory, and of course the place, as that of the holy Archangel Michael.’

Text: Thurn 2000. Translation: Jeffreys, Jeffreys, and Scott 1986 (numbered as 4.13, according to the Dindorf edition), modified.