ll Cassiano greco di Panayiotis Tzamalikos

This   note   seeks   to   analyse   P.   Tzamalikos   arguments,   contained   in   two   recently   published   books,   on   Cassian   the   Sabaite   –   supposedly   an   early   Christian  author  whose  figure  was  later  eclipsed  by  that  of  John  Cassian  of   Marseilles.  Tzamalikos  argues  John  Cassian  is  a  medieval  forgery  and  likely   never  existed,  and  that  this  is  evinced  by  a  ninth  century  Greek  manuscript   containing  a  portion  of  the  Conlationes  patrum.  A  careful  reading  of  his  ar-­ guments  suggests  it  is  however  still  too  difficult  to  prove  the  existence  of  the   new  Cassian  and,  above  all,  to  dismiss  the  known  Cassian  of  Marseille.  Tza-­ malikos  has  preferred  not  to  make  a  close  study  of  the  two  versions  of  Cas-­ sian’s  texts  (Greek  and  Latin),  but  has  only  dismantled  indirect  and  external   evidence  of  what  he  supposes  was  a  large  forgery  project.  Furthermore,  what   Tzamalikos  argues  for  is  far  from  being  definitely  proven.  A  further  critique   of   his   thesis   recognizes   three   main   issues   with   his   argument:   1.   The   Greek   manuscript   was   published   for   the   first   time   in   1913;;   2.   The   entry   entitled   Cassianus  natione  Schyta  in  Gennadius’s  catalogue  cannot  be  considered  a   later   interpolation;;   3.   The   Contra   collatorem   by   Prosper   of   Aquitaine   fur-­ thermore   provides   strong   evidence   that   Cassian’s   texts   has   been   written   in   Latin  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century.