The history of Leo the Deacon is a classicizing history covering the period 959– 986. The text survives only in Parisinus Graecus 1712. It was written in the late tenth century; either after 989 or after 995, and most likely before 1000. It is organized into ten books. It begins in the reign of Romanos II, focusing on Nikephoros II Phokas's conquest of Crete and following Nikephoros's military career in detail. The murder of Nikephoros by John I Tzimiskes is narrated in affecting style at the end of book five. The second half of the history focuses on John's military career and ends with John's death by poison in 976.

In the prologue, the author describes himself as Leo, the son of Basil, born in the village of Kalo ë in western Anatolia. Elsewhere in the text he mentions that he pursued higher education in Constantinople and was ordained a deacon. He appears to have participated in the Bulgarian campaign of 986 and witnessed the Byzantine defeat in the battle of Trajan's Gate. There are no suggestions in the history that Leo lived beyond 1000. Leo also wrote an encomium to Emperor Basil.

Leo's history is noted for its revival of classical forms of history writing. He includes ostensibly verbatim speeches, digressions on natural phenomena, and occasionally marks time with references to the seasons. His level of detail in descriptions of military engagements is also reminiscent of some classical histories. In using the lives of the emperors Nikephoros II and John I as the primary structure, the history participates in the middle- Byzantine trend toward organizing history around imperial biographies.

Because Nikephoros II Phokas is the hero of the first half of the book and John I Tzimiskes is the hero of the second half, scholars have postulated that Leo used sources written from different viewpoints. Kazhdan has argued that Leo used a pro- Phokas source along with another source opposed to Constantine VII and Nikephoros II.

This detailed history covers 1118 to the early thirteenth century in a highly elusive and complex classicizing style. The History is the only surviving historical narrative from a Byzantine author for the last decades of the twelfth century, and is generally considered an indispensable source for the twelfth century and the history of the Third and Fourth Crusades. Several scholars, including Alexander Kazhdan and Alicia Simpson, view Choniates's text as stylistically distinct from previous historical writing in the empire, especially in terms of its tragic mood and the subtlety of its characterizations. At the same time, as Jonathan Harris has argued, Choniates remained deeply rooted in the Greek historiographical tradition. Choniates's writing is extraordinarily complex and he frequently plays with the multiple meanings of words as well as with readers’ expectations.

Choniates's text is a political and military history, covering the deeds of the Komnenian emperors and their successors beginning in 1118 through the sack of Constantinople in 1204 in the Fourth Crusade – an event to which the author was an eyewitness. The reign of John (1118– 1143) is treated relatively briefly, and the story increases in detail for the reigns of Manuel (1143– 1180) and his successors. The manuscript tradition preserves two versions of the history. Although it narrates events through spring 1205, first version of the History was mostly written before the conquest of the city, while Choniates was working for the imperial government. This first version of the History is shorter and less critical toward the emperors it depicts, especially Alexios III (1195– 1203). The second, revised version, which Choniates revised in exile after 1204, is longer, more moralizing and cynical, and is much more critical of emperors and common citizens. It covers the years 1118 through 1206. The less accusatory first version was probably written in the court of Alexios III, where a negative portrait of the reigning emperor would have been impolitic. The second version offers criticism as a means of explaining the disaster of 1204.

The text known as the Chronicle of 811 is sometimes called the Duj č ev F ragment, named for its first editor. It is a brief text of several thousand words describing the invasion of Bulgaria led by Emperor Nikephoros I (803– 811). The text is anonymous, although there has been a debate among scholars regarding whether the Chronicle of 811 and the text known as the Scriptor Incertus de Leone Armenio are both fragments of the same, now lost, chronicle. The current prevailing view is that the texts were separate and not written by the same person.

The date of the text's composition is a matter of speculation and debate. A reference to the baptism of the Bulgarians in the final paragraph of the text leads some scholars to believe that it must have been written after 865, but this is dismissed as a later addition by others. For details on the debate see the bibliography below.

The text describes the invasion of Bulgaria by Nikephoros I. In this campaign, an initially successful Nikephoros sacked the capital of the Bulgarian Khan Krum at Pliska. According to the text, Nikephoros's overconfidence led him to allow lax discipline among his soldiers and wantonly destructive pillaging. Krum counterattacked the Byzantine camp when Nikephoros's soldiers were still asleep. Nikephoros was killed in this attack, his son Staurakios was mortally wounded, and the majority of his army was slaughtered. The author makes this episode a morality tale with strong religious overtones during which Nikephoros is judged harshly for his lack of prudence and moderation. The story is distinctly elegiac and ends with a lamentation for the dead, especially the young military elite of the empire.

Manuscripts, Editions, and Translations

Manuscript

This text is known from one thirteenth- century manuscript, Vaticanus Graecus 2014. In the manuscript it appears after two histories of the sieges of Constantinople in 626 and 717 and is followed by brief accounts of the lives of the empresses Irene and Theodora, and the emperor Theophilos.

The History by George Pachymeres is a long and detailed history covering 1260– 1307 in thirteen books. This text picks up where George Akropolites's history ended. Pachymeres composed the History at the end of the thirteenth century or the beginning of the fourteenth century. At 1355 printed pages for forty- seven years, this is one of our most exhaustive histories. It includes numerous speeches and fine- grained descriptions of theological and political controversies.

The first six books cover the reign of Michael VIII Palaiologos (1259– 1282), while the next seven are devoted to his successor, Andronikos II Palaiologos (1282– 1328). Pachymeres presents a relatively critical assessment of these two emperors, whom he considered to be unequal to the task of remedying the empire's increasingly precarious position. Pachymeres describes the empire as facing dire confrontations with the Latin West and the Turks in the East. He seems particularly concerned by the Turks, whose movement into Asia Minor he describes in detail. A host of other problems, including financial troubles, a refugee crisis sparked by the Turkish advance, and ecclesiastical controversies that further weakened the empire's position, are prominent themes in the History. Pachymeres also gives considerable attention to the topic of imperial marriages, and, drawing from his experiences as a church official, ecclesiastical developments such as the Arsenite controversy and the dispute over union with the Catholic Church. The individual chapters have titles, which can provide some guidance to the contents of the whole.

As he states in his History, George Pachymeres was born in 1242 in Nicaea. He arrived in the Constantinople to begin his higher education in 1261, right after the city was conquered by Michael Palaeologos. A member of the clergy – perhaps serving as a deacon – Pachymeres was appointed to several ecclesiastical offices within the Patriarchate, including that of protekdikos, and attained the lay office of dikaiophylax. Pachymeres was also a teacher, as one of his students, Manuel Philes, attested in an autobiographical poem. Philes also mentions that Pachymeres was an expert in law, rhetoric, and philosophy.

The text we call Theophanes Continuatus is a ninth- century anthology of three separate texts. The opening of the text explains that it is intended to be a continuation of the Chronicle of Theophanes, although it is not much like that text in structure, format, or style. It is known from a single early eleventh- century manuscript: Vaticanus Graecus 167.

The first part is called “Books I– IV” in older editions and “Text I” in the modern edition. It is a narrative history describing the rules of Leo V (813– 820), Michael II (820– 829), Theophilos (829– 842), and Michael III (842– 867). The reign of each emperor is described in a separate book, so that history from 813 until 867 is described in four books.

The second part is called either Book V, or Text II, or the Vita Basilii, or the Life of Basil. It narrates the life of the Emperor Basil I (867– 886), the founder of the Macedonian dynasty, in a highly favorable light, justifying his accession after the murder of Michael III.

The third part is called either Book VI, or Text III. It covers history from 886 until it breaks off suddenly during the reign of Romanos II while describing the re- conquest of Crete in 961. Although this text covers the reigns of multiple emperors, it is not divided into one book for each emperor.

Texts I and II appear to have been created under the patronage of Constantine Porphyrogenitos (945– 959). Both of these texts are more classicizing in their Greek and make more use of rhetorical strategies, especially for praise and blame, than Theophanes and other ninth- century historical texts. These texts are the first surviving histories since Theophylakt Simokatta to use the classical model of history as a high- style, biographical narrative of great deeds.

This text is an ecclesiastical history, beginning with the time of Christ, that survives in one manuscript. The original, complete text continued through to 911 in twenty- three books; however, the last five books have since been lost. The surviving eighteen books take the story of church history up to 610. Xanthopoulos's project was unusual in that no historians had written in the genre of ecclesiastical history since late antiquity, and his efforts seem to have failed to revive the genre.

Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos claims authorship of the work in its preface. Most of our knowledge of his biography comes from the opening of his ecclesiastical history. The preface says that he began work on his history at age thirty- six. He corresponded with Theodore Metochites (1270– 1332). Nikephoros was a priest at Hagia Sophia; he may also have become a monk prior to his death, but this is uncertain. He seems to have survived beyond 1326– 1327. Xanthopoulos also wrote a variety of works including hagiography, poetry, and commentaries on John Klimax and Gregory Nazianzos.

Xanthopoulos began the project around 1310 and completed it sometime after 1317. Karpozilos dates it to sometime after 1321 on the grounds that Xanthopoulos mentions repairs made by the emperor to certain buildings at that time. The text is dedicated to Andronikos II Palaiologos (1282– 1328) and while some scholars have understood this dedication as a way to support Andronikos's efforts to repudiate the Union of Lyon, the contents of the dedication do not specifically refer to that debate.

Xanthopoulos created his narrative using the histories of Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomenos, Theodoret of Cyrus, and Evagrios, as well as hagiography, chronicles, and letters. He also relied heavily on a collection of church histories in the Baroccianus Graecus 142, which contains the histories of Sozomen, Evagrios, and a variety of other excerpts on church history, as well as notes and prayers in Xanthopoulos's own hand.