Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/526

 504 APPENDIX was not to go bej'oud the death of Basil or perhaps of Leo VI. , but the work was extended after the death of Constantine, and comes down to a.d. 961. It falls into six Books : Bk. 1, Leo V. ; Bk. 2, Michael II. ; Bk. 3, Theophilus ; Bk 4, Michael III. ; Bk. 5, Basil I. (this Book was the composition of the Emperor Constantine). So far the work conforms to a uniform plan ; but Bk. 6, instead of containing only Leo VI., contains also Alexander, Constantine VII., Romanus I., Romanus II. It has been conjectured that the author of part of this supple- ment was Theodore Daphnopatk.s, la literary man of the tenth century, known (among other things) by some official letters which he composed for Romanus I. The Continuation of Theophaues shows, up to the death of Basil, its semi-official origin by the marked tendency to glorify the Basilian dynasty by obscuring its Amorian predecessors. The main source of Bks. 1 to 5 is Genesius. Bk. 6 falls into two parts which are markedly distinct : A, Leo VI., Alexander, Constantine, Romanus I., Constantine, caps. 1 — 7 ; B, Constantine, 8 — end, Romanus II. A is based upon the work of the Logothete (probably Symeon Magister) which has come down to us as a continuation of George Monachus (see above). Now the Logothete was an admirer of Romanus I. and not devoted to the family of Con- stantine VII. ; and the sympathies of the Logothete are preserved bj- the com- piler of A, notwithstanding their inconsistency with the tendencies of Bks. 1-5. The Logothete's work appeared in the reign of Nicephorus Phocas, and must have been utilised almost immediately after its appearance by the compiler of A. It is probable that B was composed earlj- in the same reign bj- a different author ; it seems not to depend on another work, but to have been written from a con- teinporar3''s knowledge. [Scriptorespost Theophanem, ed. Combefis, 1685 ; Theo- phanes Continuatus, ed. Bekker, 1838 (Bonn). Analysis of sources, &c., in Hirsch, Byzantinische Studien.] The circumstances of the capture of Thessalonica by the Cretan pirates in a.d. 904 are vividl}- portrayed for us in the well-written narrative of John Cameniates, a narrow-minded priest, ignorant of the world, but one who had lived through the exciting and terrifying scenes which he records and had the faculty of obser- vation and the power of expressing his impressions. The work is printed in the Paris (1685) and in the Bonn (1838) series along with the Scriptores post Theo- phanem. For the ecclesiastical history of the reign of Leo VI. we have a work of great importance in the anonymous Vita Euthymii published by C. de Boor (1888) ; cp. above, p. 207, note 43. The work was composed soon after the ex-Patriarch's death (a.d. 917). With the history of Leo Diaconus (Leo Asiaticus) we enter upon a new period of historiography. After an interval of more than three hundred years, he seems to re-open the series which closed with Theophylactus Simocatta. His history in ten Books embracing the reigns of Romanus II., Nicephorus Phocas, and John Tzimisces (959-975) is — although written after 992 — a contemporary work in a good sense ; depending on personal knowledge and information derived from living peoples, not on previous writers. As Leo was born in 950 he is not a con- temporary in quite the same sense for the earlier as for the later part of his work. He afterwards took part in the Bulgarian War of Basil II. [Included in the Paris and the Bonn series.] [For the poem of Theodosius on the reconquest of Crete by Nicephorus, see below, vol. vi., c. lii.] The work of Leo Diaconus was continued by the most prominent and influen- tial literary figure of the eleventh century, Constantine Psellus (born a.d. 1018, probably at Nicomedia). He adopted the legal profession ; was a judge in Phila- delphia under Michael IV. ; an imperial secretary under Michael V. He enjoyed the favour of Constantine IX., who founded a university at Constantinople and appointed Psellus Professor of Philosophy. But his services were required in political life ; he became chief secretary (proto-asecretis) of the Emperor and one