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 502 APPENDIX p. 1244 sqq.). For the ecclesiastical historj- of the reign of Michael III., the life of Ignatius by Nicetas David Paphlagon is of great importance (Migne, Gr. Patr. , cv. , 487 sqq.). These and other less important i" biographies, in most instances composed bj- younger contemporaries, have great value in three ways: (1) the}' give us facts passed over by the chroniclers ; (2) many of them were used by the chroniclers, and therefore are to be preferred as furnishing information at first hand ; (3) they give us material for a social jiicture of the period (especially valuable in this respect is the Life of Plato by Theodore Studites ; see above, p. 501). The Life of the Empress Theodora, combined with relations of the deathbed repentance of Theophilus and of his good deeds, is highly important. It was the main source of the chronicler George Monachus for the events concerned. Ed. "VY. Kegel, in Analecta Byzantino-Russica, p. 1 eqq.^^ For Leo the Armenian we have a mysterious fragment of what was clearly a valuable chronicle written by a contemporary, whose name is unknown. The piece which has survived (printed in the vol. of the Bonn series which contains Leo Grammaticus, under the title Scriptor Incertus de Leone Armeuio) is of great value for the Bulgarian siege of Constantinople in a. d. 815. Apart from this fragment, and the contemporary biographies of saints, the meagre chronicle of Geouhk the Monk (sometimes styled George Hamartolus, "the sinner") is the oldest authority for the thirty years after the point when the chronicle of Theophanes ended (a.d. 813-842). George wrote in the reign of Michael III. , and completed his chronicle, which began with the creation, towards the close of that Emperor's reign. It is divided into four Books ; the fourth, beginning with Constantine the Great and ending with the death of Theophilus, is •based mainly on the chronicle of Theophanes. For the last thirty years, the author depends on his own knowledge as a contemporary and on oral information ; but also makes use of the Vita Theodorae (see above) and the Vita Nicephori by Ignatius (see above, p. 500). Throughout the ecclesiastical interest predominates. The chronicle of George became so popular and was re-edited so often with additions and interpolations, that it has become one of the most puzzling prob- lems in literary research to j)enetrate through the accretions to the original form. Until recently the shape and extent of the chronicle and its author's identity were ob.scured by the circumstance that a continuation, reaching down to a.d. 948 (in some Mss. this continuation is continued to still later epochs), was annexed to the original work of George. The original continuation to 948 ^'^ was composed by " the Logothete," who has been supposed to be identical with Symeon " Magister and Logothete '' (for whose chronicle see below). [The only edition of the whole chronicle (with its continuation) is that of Muralt (1859), which is very unsatis- factory. Combefis edited the latter part from 813 to 948, and this has been re- printed in the Bonn series (along with Theophanes Continuatus), 1838. The material for a new critical edition has been collected by Professor C. de Boor. Much has been written on the problems connected with these chronicles ; but I need only refer to F. Hirsch, Byzantinische Studien, 187G, which cleared the way to further investigation ; and to the most recent study of De Boor on the subject, Die Chronik des Logotheten, in Byz. Zeitsch. , vi. , 233 sqq.] The chronicle of Symeon Magister, who is probably the same person as the hagiographer Symeon Metaphrastes, has not 3-etbeen published ; but for practical purposes it is accessible to the historian in the form of two redactions which go itj See Ehrhard, ap. Krumbacher, op. cit., p. 193 sgq. 17 The Diegesis printed by Combefis, Auct. Nov. gr.— lat. patrum bibl., vol. ii., 715 sqq., is a late redaction which completely disfigures the original form and contains little of the Vita Theodorae. 18 The chief source of the compilation is the Continuation of Theophanes.