The author of Theophanes Continuatus I-IV and the Historical Excerpts of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (original) (raw)
Related papers
In a nutshell: 1. I believe that Ekloge Chronographias of George Syncellus and Chronographia of Theophanes the Confessor should be treated as a single project, undertaken in turn by two authors; 2. There are important stylistic differences between the two parts, noticeable in the fragments, in which the authors deliver some editorial remarks or disclose their personal opinions; from a wider selection of such phrases, references to the past or future such as ‘as I have mentioned / as I said / as have been said / as we demonstrated above, etc.’, being diverse and individual, are especially helpful. 3. This observation is of great use not only for the texts analysed here, it may be used to confirm authorship of many other texts. 4. As for George and Theophanes, the TLG search of such structures in all extant classical Greek and Byzantine output confirms the statement nr 1, with clauses like ὡς προέφην / καθὼς καὶ προέφην / ὡς προέφημεν / καθὼς προέφημεν both rare in the whole preserved corpus, and relatively often used by the author of Chronographia. The style of the proemium of Chronographia fits the rest of the work and differs from Ekloge Chronographias. 5. Precise analysis of a wider group of similar clauses shows that Ekloge Chronographias and Chronographia were written by two different authors; Chronographia was created by one author, distinctive and independent, no matter how reproductive at the same time he was. I see no convincing arguments not to call this author Theophanes. Some later and partial editiorial interventions to Chronographia, conceivable (rubrics?) and in some instances even certain, do not challenge this view. 6. Only a few entries from the initial parts of Chronographia fit more the George’s work; their style and content bear much more similarities with Ekloge (in AM 5796, 5814, 5818, 5827, 5828). These paragraphs, George’s aphormai, probably in form of loose notes, were inserted to Chronographia by its author the same way as he used his sources for the subsequent parts; they did not reach beyond the times of Constantine I. 7. I do not dismiss the message of the proemium to the Chronographia as it is much more credible than the discussion, sometimes hypercritical, on the vitae and the scraps of the Confessor’s biography. I see no reason not to believe that the idea established and developed by George was then taken over by his friend; the differences result from the independent work of the former and then of the latter, presumably with only rudimentary guidance at the beginning. 8. The ‘genuine friendship’, the crucial relation between the two authors is still the most useful key to understand the history of the tripartita – therefore, I analyse it in the final part of the paper.
2018
This comprehensive volume offers new insights into a seminal period of medieval Eastern Roman imperial history: the rule of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (913/945–959). Its fifteen chapters are organized around the concepts of center, province and periphery and take the reader from the splendor of Constantinople to the fringes of the empire. They examine life in the imperial city in the age of Constantine VII, the cultural revivals in Byzantium and the Carolingian West, as well as the emperor’s historiographical projects, including his historical excerpts and the famous Book of Ceremonies. Entering the sphere of the provinces, the authors explore visual messages on the coinage of Romanos I Lekapenos and Constantine Porphyrogennetos and its circulation through the provinces, provincial legal culture in the tenth-century empire, and offer a new analysis of Constantine VII’s two military harangues. Spotlights on the empire’s periphery include chapters on borderland trade with the Muslim world, a compelling new theory of the untimely deaths of the children of King Hugh of Italy, and the origins of medieval Croatia in relation to information gained from Constantine VII’s De administrando imperio. The final chapter offers intriguing insights into Constantine VII’s legacy and reception, from later middle Byzantine historiography via the Renaissance editions of the emperor’s treatises to Bavarian King Louis II’s Constantinople-inspired building projects. The volume combines leading scholars and new voices and contains survey chapters with detailed case studies.
Mélanges Bernard Flusin, éd. par A. Binggeli & V. Déroche avec la collaboration de M. Stavrou (= Travaux et mémoires 23/1), Paris, 2019
Οὔτοι ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητοῦντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον Ce n'est pas dès le début que les dieux ont tout révélé aux mortels, mais ceux-ci à force de longtemps chercher découvrent ce qui est mieux xénophane 18, Greek elegy and iambus. 1 (loeb), p. 202 Depuis son Miracle et histoire dans l'oeuvre de Cyrille de Scythopolis de 1983, Bernard flusin est devenu paisiblement un auteur incontournable dans le petit monde de l'hagiographie et de l'histoire religieuse de Byzance, et bien au-delà, en contribuant au renouvellement de la discipline dont H. Delehaye avait posé les fondements voici un siècle. ce n'est pas en un jour qu'on en arrive là, et plus d'une centaine de publications sur des sujets éminemment variés sur presque quarante ans l'expliquent à l'envi. approche littéraire, étude des manuscrits, étude des transmissions textuelles, histoire des objets comme les reliques et les icônes autant que des thèmes littéraires et des convictions religieuses, c'est en effet toute la chaîne des possibilités d'études des sources que B. flusin a su exploiter, et son début de carrière à l'Institut de recherche et d'histoire des textes a achevé de le convertir à une approche des textes par les détails de leur transmission dans les manuscrits et de leur circulation dans les traditions de l'Orient chrétien, en particulier géorgienne et syriaque, toujours riche de sens pour qui sait les scruter. Progressivement, le focus initial sur le monachisme et l'hagiographie de la Palestine tardo-antique s'est élargi vers l'époque mésobyzantine et à tout l'empire, avec même une incursion jusqu'en 1453 avec Doukas, couvrant ainsi tout le millénaire byzantin ; peu à peu, c'est une perspective proprement impériale et constantinopolitaine qui se dégage, embrassant le Synaxaire et le Typikon de la Grande église. elle trouve son aboutissement logique dans l'imminente publication du De cerimoniis, qu'il lui revenait de mener à son terme, tâche géante qui avait jusqu'ici découragé les byzantinistes au point de s'en remettre pour l'essentiel à l'édition reiske du xviii e siècle et aux commentaires de Bury au début du xx e .
Association des Amis du Centre d’Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance ACHCByz, Filippo Ronconi, Salvatore Cosentino, Andy Hilkens, Geoffrey Greatrex, Lee Mordechai, Warren Treadgold, Irina Tamarkina, Anna Kotłowska, Bernard POUDERON, Muriel Debié, Marek Jankowiak, Andrzej Kompa, Jesse W. Torgerson, Constantin Zuckerman, Łukasz Różycki
TM XIX, 2015
This book presents the proceedings of the conference “The Chronicle of Theophanes: sources, composition, transmission,” organized by the editors in Paris in September 2012. The first section of the volume is devoted to the question of the authorship of the Chronicle, raised by C. Mango almost forty years ago. The second section is devoted to issues of transmission, both direct (manuscript tradition) and indirect (readership, translations). The third section concerns Theophanes’ sources for early Byzantine history. A separate section hosts papers by some of the major actors in the current debate on Theophanes’ Eastern source. The last section of the book deals with the later part of the Chronicle and with its sources. ISBN 978-2-916716-58-9
Parekbolai , 2020
As is widely known, during the tenth century, the "official history" of the ruling house of the Macedonians, conventionally called Theophanes Continuatus (henceforth ThCont), was composed at the court of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (945-959), most probably at the behest of the emperor himself. This historical work-being certainly a great innovation in Byzantine historiography, as it employs the biographical form-covers the years 813-886, encompassing the reigns of five emperors, i.e. Leo V (813-820), Michael II (820-829), Theophilos (829-842), Michael III (842-867) (included in books I-IV respectively), and Basil I (867-886), the founder of the Macedonian dynasty, to whom is dedicated book V, the famous Vita Basilii (henceforth VB); the narrative of this last book acquires a clearly laudatory character.1 1 For the relevant bibliography, the reader can refer to the following works: Vita Basilii, ed. I. Ševčenko, Chronographiae quae Theophanis Continuati nomine fertur liber quo Vita Basilii Imperatoris amplectitur (CFHB, 42). Berlin/Boston 2011, 36*-55*; ThCont (I-IV), ed. M. Featherstone-J. Signes Codoñer, Chronographiae quae Theophanis Continuati nomine fertur libri I-IV (CFHB, 53). Boston/Berlin 2015, 33*-36*; Ch. Sideri, Νεωτερικές τάσεις στην ιστοριογραφία των Μακεδόνων: η περίπτωση της Συνέχειας Θεοφάνη (βιβλία α´-δ´), Athens University 2017, 397-439 (unpublished doctoral thesis). See also more recently J. Signes Codoñer, The author of Theophanes Continuatus I-IV and the Historical Excerpts of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, in: L. HorvÁth-E. JuhÁsz (eds.), Investigatio Fontium II. Griechische und lateinische Quellen mit Erläuterungen (Antiquitas-Byzantium-Renacentia, 30). Budapest 2017, 17-41; C. Zuckerman, Emperor Theophilos and Theophobos in Three Tenth-Century Chronicles. Discovering the "Common Source", RÉB 75 (2017) 101-150; N. Gaul et al. (eds.), Center, Province and Periphery in the Age of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos. From De Cerimoniis to De Administrando Imperio (Mainzer Veröffentlichungen zur Byzantinistik, 15). Wiesbaden 2018, passim; Ch. Messis, Une lecture subversive de la Vie de Basile est-elle possible? Stratégies narratives et objectifs politiques à la cour de Constantin VII Porphyrogénète, in: Ch. Messis et al. (eds.), Storytelling in Byzantium. Narratological approaches to Byzantine texts and images.