Theophanes of Byzantium

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Theophanes of Byzantium ( Theophanes Byzantios ) was a late antique historian who lived in the late 6th century.

Little is known about his person. After the entry in the library of Photios (cod. 64), Theophanes wrote a classicist historical work that mainly dealt with the Persian War that broke out in 572 under Emperor Justin II . It was written in ancient Greek and described the events from 566 to the tenth year of the war (581/82) in ten books, but apart from the fragment in Photios, it has not survived. Theophanes presumably also wrote a sequel, which Photios does not seem to have seen.

According to the excerpt from Photios, Theophanes reported, among other things, of a delegation of the Turks (which are mentioned here for the first time in a Roman source) to Justin II, who asked the emperor not to receive the Avars . Theophanes also reported on the introduction of silkworms in the Eastern Roman Empire , which Procopius had already described years earlier . Theophanes therefore seems to have written a work about the reign of Justinian , in addition to other writings that have not survived , but this was unable to prevail against the competing representations of Procopius and Agathias . It is possible that Menander Protektor used the work of Theophanes.

literature

Entry in Clavis Historicorum Antiquitatis Posterioris (CHAP) .

personal data
SURNAME Theophanes of Byzantium
BRIEF DESCRIPTION late antique historian
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century or 6th century
DATE OF DEATH 6th century or 7th century