The Date of Eusebius’ Onomasticon Revisited

Abstract

This paper addresses the question of the date of Eusebius’ Onomasticon, an issue that has been debated in scholarship since E. Klostermann’s standard edition of 1904. In particular, it challenges the widely cited argument of T.D. Barnes from 1975, who dated the composition of the Onomasticon to the 290s CE, during the administrative reforms of Emperor Diocletian and the First Tetrarchy. Through a close reexamination of Barnes’s thesis in light of recent advances in the study of the Onomasticon—including the new edition of the Greek text and the Syriac translation—as well as relevant archaeological, primarily epigraphical, evidence concerning Diocletian’s reforms, I argue that Barnes’s early dating is untenable. The revision presented here places the composition of the Onomasticon after the reforms, most plausibly during the decade of the ‘Great Persecution’ (303–313 CE), with its publication likely occurring shortly after 313 CE.