|alt=The title page of Historia Chronica, 1691, from the Austrian National Library|thumb He wrote a
Chronographia () in 18 books, the beginning and the end of which are lost. In its present state it begins with the mythical history of
Egypt and ends with the expedition to
Roman Africa under the tribune
Marcianus, Justinian's nephew, in 563 (his editor Thurn believing it originally to end with Justinian's death); it is focused largely on Antioch and (in the later books)
Constantinople. Except for the history of Justinian and his immediate predecessors, it possesses little historical value; The eighteenth book, dealing with Justinian's reign, is well acquainted with, and colored by, official propaganda. The writer is a supporter of Church and State, an upholder of monarchical principles. However, the theory identifying him with the patriarch
John Scholasticus is almost certainly incorrect. Malalas cites many sources, including the lost or fragmentary works of
Brunichius,
Charax of Pergamum,
Domninus,
Eustathius of Epiphania,
Eutropius,
Eutychianus,
Nestorianus,
Philostratus,
Priscus,
Sisyphus of Kos and
Timotheus. The work is important as the first surviving example of a chronicle written not for the learned but for the instruction of the monks and the common people, It obtained great popularity, and was used by various writers until the ninth century; it was translated into
Old Bulgarian probably in the tenth century, and parts of it were used for the
Primary Chronicle. It is preserved in an abridged form in a single manuscript now at
Oxford ==See also==