300 Earthquake: Salamis, Cyprus

Reference #9285:

Malalas dates this earthquake to the reign of Constantius Chlorus [293-306]: "In his reign the city of Salamis in Cyprus suffered from the wrath of God, and the greater part of it was plunged into the sea by an earthquake. The remainder was levelled to the ground. Constantius restored it. He gave many extremely generous gifts, undertook rebuilding, and exempted the surviving citizens from taxes for four years. As he promised a variety of buildings for what was previously known as Salamis, it had its name changed from that time to Constantia".

Because of the context in which Malalas made this comment, we concluded, in Guidoboni (1989, p.674), that the earthquake occurred in the time of Constans II [337- 361], and in doing so we were taking up the argument of Soren and Lane (1981), whose source was a remark by Oberhummer (1903, p.440ff.). The confusion was caused by a comparison with Theophanes, who records two similar earthquakes for 332 and 342

Reference #9275:

Great part of Salamis-Cyprus was plunged into the sea by the earthquake

Reference #9116:

[AD 293–306 Salamis, Cyprus ] This is an earthquake that occurred in Cyprus and a seismic sea wave dated by modern writers (Guidoboni et al . 1994, 246), following Malalas, the sole source that mentions this event. Malalas errs in dating the destruction, reconstruction and renaming of Salamis in Cyprus to Constantina to the reign of Constantine Chlorus (AD 293–306). All other chroniclers place this earthquake and associated sea wave in the same year as Constantius II’s triumph, a.M. 5834 (September 341–August 342); this makes more sense, since Constantius was emperor in the East. See this link