Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/525

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APPENDIX 503 under the name of Leo Grammaticus and Theodosius of Melitene.i^ Beginning with the creation it came down to a.d. 948. Leo Grammaticus (according to a note in Cod. Par. 1711) "completed" the Chronography (i.e., the original Chronicle of Symeon) in the }fear 1013 ; but otherwise he is only a name like Theodosius of Melitene. [Leo is included in the Bonn series, 1842 ; Theodosius was published by Tafel, 1859. J This chronicle is different in tone from that of George jNIouachus ; the work of a logothete, not of a monk, it exhibits interest in the court as well as in the church. Another chronicle, which may be conveniently called the Pseudo-Symeon, comes down to the year 963. The last part of the work, a.d. 813-963, was pub- lished by Combefis (1685) and reprinted by Bekker (Bonn, 1838) imder the name of Symeon Magister. The mistake was due to a misleading title on the cover of the Paris Ms. which contains the chronicle. (On the sources of the unknown author, see F. Hirsch, B3zantinische Studien.) In respect to these extremely confusing chronicles with their numerous re- dactions, Krumbacher makes a good remark : ' ' In Byzantium works of this kind were never regarded as completed monuments of literary importance, but as prac- tical handbooks which every possessor and copyist excerpted, augmented, and revised just as he chose " (p. 362). Joseph Genesius (son of Constantine who held the office of logothete under Michael III.) wrote (between a.d. 945 and 9.59) at the suggestion of the Emperor Constantine VII. an Imperial History in four Books, embracing the reigns of Leo v., Michael II., Theophilus, and Michael III. : thus a continuation of Theo- phanes, who left off at the accession of Leo. V. In Bk. iv. Genesius, clearlj- de- parting from the original plan, added a bi;ief account of the reign of Basil I., so that his work reaches from a.d. 813 to 886. Besides oral information and tradition, from which, as he says himself, he derived material, he used the work of George Monachus, and the Life of Ignatius by Nicetas (see above, p. 502). His history is marked by (1) superstition, (2) bigotry (especially against the icono- clasts), (3) partiality to his patron's grandfather Basil. [Ed. Lachmann in Bonn series, 1834. For the sources, &c. , see Hirsch, Byzantinische Studien ; cp. also ^aschke in Philologus, 37, p. 255 sqq., 1878.] A Sicilian Chronicle, relating briefly the Saracen conquest of the island, from a.d. 827 to 965 is preserved in Greek and in an Arabic translation. It must have been composed soon after 965. There are three editions : P. Batiffol, 1890 (in Comptes reudus de I'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres) ; Cozza-Luzi and Lagumina, with the Arabic text, 1890, in Documeuti p. s. alia storia di Sicilia, 4ta serie, ii. ; A. "Wirth, Chronographische Spane, 1894. It is unfortunate that the historical monograph which the grammarian Theo- GNOSTos, a contemporary of Leo V. and Michael II. , dedicated to the revolt of Euphemius and the first successes of the Saracens in Sicily (a.d. 827), is lost. The work is used by the compilers of Theophanes Continuatus (see p. 82, ed. Bonn). We have a disappointing account of the siege and capture of Syracuse b}' the Saracens in 1880, from the pen of Theodosius, a monk, who endured the siege and was carried prisoner to Palermo, whence he wrote a letter describing his ex- periences to a friend. (Published in the Paris ed. of Leo Diaconus, p. 177 sqq. ) Besides stimulating Joseph Genesius to write his work, the Emperor Constan- tine VII. organized another continuation of Theophanes, written by several com- pilers who are known as the Scriptores post Theophanem, the Emperor himself being one of the colkiborateurs. It seems probable that the original intention 19 There is another redaction known as the Pseudo-Polydeukes (because it was passed off as a work of JuHus Polydeukes by a Greek copyist named Darmarios), but it breaks off in the reign of Valens, and therefore does not concern us here. See further Krumbacher, op, cit., p. 363, as to another unedited Chronicle of the same kin.