Il 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 arguments 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. Tzamalikos has preferred not to make a close study of the two versions of Cassian’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 furthermore provides strong evidence that Cassian’s texts has been written in Latin at the beginning of the fifth century.