Traianos Patrikios

Traianos Patrikios ( Middle Greek Τραϊανός Πατρίκιος ) was a Byzantine historian who lived at the time of Emperor Justinian II .

Traianos, who bore the title Patrikios , is mentioned in the Central Byzantine lexicon Suda . There it is said that he lived in the time of Justinian II and wrote a historical chronicle that is admirable. He is also described as being extremely Christian and Orthodox.

The history of the Traiano has not survived. The research assumes that the work reached from the late 7th century (probably 668) to the year 713 (or according to James Howard-Johnston to about 720). It was probably used by Theophanes , but also by Nikephoros and the author of the so-called Epitome (a work that served as a template for the author of the Logothetenchronik ). The mention of the author in the Suda as well as the fact that Theophanes also used the historical work of Theophilos of Edessa (in Greek translation) indicates that even in the period of the late 7th and 8th centuries, usually understood as the "dark age", In the 19th century, individual historical works were created in the Byzantine East, which can only be deduced from later works.

Carl de Boor , from whom the authoritative Theophanes edition comes from the late 19th century, assumed that two people were mixed up in the Suda and that the emphasis of the Orthodox faith on a general at the time of Emperor Valens, which is also attested in other sources related in the 4th century. He also wrote a historical work that is lost today, which Theophanes quotes at one point (AM 5870). Another traianos was the chronicler mentioned by the Suda in the 8th century.

Warren Treadgold has recently taken a different view from de Boor . Treadgold assumes that the quote in Theophanes comes from the work of Traianos from the 8th century. The emphasis on the orthodox faith in the Suda also relates to him and is due to the religious-political conflicts within the Byzantine Empire at the time. Treadgold also assumes that Traianos mainly relied on his own memories, oral reports and a few written sources and continued the Easter chronicle . For the last decades of the description he had good material at his disposal.

literature

• Traianos, no.8511 . In: Prosopography of the Middle Byzantine Period : First Division (641–867) . After preliminary work by Ralph-Johannes Lilie , Claudia Ludwig, Thomas Pratsch, Ilse Rochow, Beate Zielke. Vol. 5, Berlin 2001, p. 57.
• James Howard-Johnston : Witnesses to a World Crisis. Historians and Histories of the Middle East in the Seventh Century . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2010 (summary p. 306ff.).
• Warren Treadgold: Trajan the Patrician, Nicephorus, and Theophanes. In: D. Bumazhnov u. a. (Ed.): Bible, Byzantium and Christian Orient. Leuven et al. a. 2011, pp. 589-621.
• Warren Treadgold: The Middle Byzantine Historians . Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 2013, pp. 8ff.

Remarks

1. ↑ dew 901
2. ↑ James Howard-Johnston: Witnesses to a World Crisis. Oxford 2010, pp. 306f.
3. ↑ Carl de Boor: The historian Traianus . In: Hermes 17 (1882), pp. 489-492.
4. ^ Warren Treadgold: The Middle Byzantine Historians. Basingstoke 2013, p. 9f.
5. ^ Warren Treadgold: The Middle Byzantine Historians. Basingstoke 2013, p. 16f.
6. ^ Warren Treadgold: The Middle Byzantine Historians. Basingstoke 2013, p. 10.
7. ^ Warren Treadgold: The Middle Byzantine Historians. Basingstoke 2013, p. 17. Howard-Johnston assumes a good source value only for the last 20 years covered, cf. James Howard-Johnston: Witnesses to a World Crisis. Oxford 2010, p. 487.