E05728: John Malalas in his Chronographia reports that the usurper Leontius was crowned at a church of *Peter (the Apostle, S00036) in Tarsus (south-east Asia Minor) in 484. Written in Greek at Antioch (Syria) or Constantinople, in the mid-6th c.

John Malalas, Chronographia, 15.13

(……) καὶ κατῆλθεν ὁ πατρίκιος Ἰλλοῦς, λαβὼν μεθ’ ἑαυτοῦ τὸν πατρίκιον Λεόντιον καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους συγκλητικούς· καὶ κατῆλθεν ἐν Ἀντιοχείᾳ τῇ μεγάλῃ, ποιήσας βʹ ἐνιαυτούς, καὶ κτίσας πλεῖστα, χαρισάμενος αὐτοῖς πολλὰ ἐξῆλθεν ἐπὶ τὴν Ἰσαυρίαν· καὶ καταγαγὼν τὴν δέσποιναν Βηρίναν ἀπὸ τοῦ καστελλίου ἐποίησεν αὐτὴν στέψαι βασιλέα εἰς τὸν ἅγιον Πέτρον ἔξω τῆς πόλεως Ταρσοῦ τῆς Κιλικίας τὸν πατρίκιον Λεόντιον, πείσας αὐτὸν στεφθῆναι, ὄντα ἄνδρα ἐλεύθερον. καὶ ἐποίησεν ἡ αὐτὴ Βηρίνα θείας κελεύσεις κατὰ πόλιν καὶ σάκρας πρὸς τοὺς ἄρχοντας καὶ πρὸς τοὺς στρατιώτας ὥστε δέξασθαι αὐτὸν καὶ μὴ ἐναντιωθῆναί τινα, γράψασα δὲ σάκραν ἔχουσαν πολλὰ κακὰ περὶ Ζήνωνος. καὶ ἐβασίλευσεν ἐν Ἀντιοχείᾳ ὀλίγας ἡμέρας.

‘(…) So the patrician Illus departed, taking with him the patrician Leontius and the other senators. He arrived in Antioch the Great and stayed there for two years, funding several buildings and showing great generously to the locals, before departing for Isauria. He brought the lady Verina from the fortress, and made her crown as emperor the patrician Leontius in Saint Peter's outside the city of Tarsos in Cilicia, having persuaded him to accept the crown, since he was a freeborn man. Verina issued imperial decrees to the cities and sacrae to the governors and soldiers, commanding them to recognise Leontius without resistance. She wrote a sacra containing plenty of slander about Zeno. Leontius ruled in Antioch for a few days.’

Text: Thurn 2000. Translation: E. Rizos.