Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/522

 500 APPENDIX the Emperor Constantine V. These treatises are printed by Mai, Nova Patrum Bibl. , i. 1 sqq., ii. 1 sqq., iii. 1 fqq. [For other works see Pitra, Spicilegiiun Soles- mense, i. p. 302 sqq., iv. p. 233 sqq. Cp. Ehrhard, apiid Krumbacher, Gesch. der byz. Litt. p. 72.] The historical works are two : (1) the Xpoyoypa(piKhv avvroixov — " Concise list of dates," — a collection of tables of kings, emperors, patriarchs, &c., from Adam to the year of the author's death ; (2) the 'Icnopla ffvyro/nos — "concise History," — beginning with the death of Maurice and ending with a.d. 769.1" It i(5 a very poor composition ; the author selects what is likely to interest an illiterate public and disregards the relative importance of events. The value of the work is entirely due to the jjaucity of other materials for the period which it covers. Yet Niccphorus seems to have bestowed some pains on the composition of the work. A Ms. in the British Museum contains a text which seems to re- present the author's first compilation of his material before he threw it into the form in which it was " published". See A. Burckhardt, Byz. Zeitsch. v. p. 465 sqq., 1896. [Excellent edition of the historical works by C. "de Boor, 1880. This edition includes the life of Nicephorus by the deacon Ignatius ^vritten soon after his death.] George, the s3-ncellus or private secretary of the Patriarch Tarasius, had written a chronicle from the creation of the world, which he intended to bring down to his own time. But when death approached (a.d. 810-11) he had only reached the accession of Diocletian, and he begged his friend Thkophane.s to complete the work. Theophanes belonged to a good and wealthy family. ^ He was of ascetic disposition and founded a monastery (rj fxov^ tov fxcydAov 'Aypov) called " Great Farm " near Sigriaue not far from C3'zicus.i- Theophanes imdertook the charge of his dying friend and wrote his Chronof/raphij between a.d. 811and815. When Leo V. came to the throne, he took a strong position against the Emperor's icono- clastic policy and was imprisoned in the island of Samothrace, where he died (817). The Chronogi-aphj- (from a.d. 284 to 813) is arranged strictlj^ in the form of annals. The events are arranged under the successive Years of the World, which are equated with the Years of the Incarnation ; and the regnal years of the Roman Emperors and of the Persian Kings (in later part, the Saracen caliphs), and the years of the bishops of the five great Sees, are also added in tabular form. Moreover many single events are dated by Indictions, although the indictions do not appear in the table at the head of each year. The awkwardness of dating events on three systems is clear. Theophanes adopted the Alexandrian era of Anianus (March 25, b.c. 5493; see above, vol. ii. Appendix 3), and thiis his Annus Mundi runs from March 25 to March 24. As the Indiction runs from Sept. 1 to Aug. 31, the only part of the year which is common to the a.m. and the Indiction is March 25 to Aug. 31. It is obvious that, without very careful precautions, the practice of referring to an Indiction under an a.m. which only partly corresponds to it is certain to lead to confusion. And, as it turns out, Theophanes loses a year in the reign of Phocas, whose overthrow he placed in the right Indictiori (14th = a.d. 610-11), but in the wrong a.m. (6102 = a.d. 609-10). The mistake has set his dates (a.m.) throughout the seventh century a year wrong ; we have always to add a year to the a.m. to get the right date (cp. the discrepancies with the Indiction under a.m. 6150 and 6171 ^'^). The true chronology is recovered at the year 6193, and the indiction is found once more in correspondence under a. m. 6207. A new discrepancy arises some years later, for which see below, p. 524. In the earlier part of the work Theophanes used (besides Socrates, &c.) a compilation of excerpts from Theodoras Lector (see above, vol. iv. Appendix 1, p. 512). For the sixth century 10 Generally referred to as Breviarium Nicephori. 11 The Emperor Constantine Porphyrogennetos states that Theophanes was his /iijTpofleio?, an uncle of his mother. De. Adm. Imp. iii. p. io6, ed. Bonn. 12 Ruins of the cloister still exist. See T. E. Evangelides, jj joLOj-rj -nis 2iypi.ai'7)s, 1895. 13 Read ii/5tKTiwf os jj (for d) in De Boor's ed. p. 356.