Χρονογραφία (
Chronographia)
According to Labbe (
De Byzantinae Historiae Scriptoribus
Protrepticon; Catalogus Scriptorum, 100.28; and
Delineatio
Apparatus, Pars II., all prefixed to the Paris edition of the Byzantine
historians), the name of Leontius has been given, but with very doubtful correctness, to the
otherwise anonymous continuator of the
Chronographia of
Theophanes. This writer, whatever his name may have been, lived in the reign of Constantine
Porphyrogenitus [
CONSTANTINUS VII.], with whom he was intimate,
and who desired him to undertake the work, and supplied him with the materials. The
continuation, in its present form, comes down to the second year of Romanus, son and
successor of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, and probably reached, or was designed to reach, to
a later period, for it is imperfect, and breaks off abruptly. But the latter part of the
history is an addition by a later hand.
In fact the work which is entitled
Χρονογραφία,
Chronographia, is composed of three parts, by three distinct
writers:
1. The History of the Emperors Leo V. the Armenian, Michael II. of Amorium, Theophilus the
son of Michael, and Michael III. and Theodora, the son and widow of Theophilus, by the
so-called Leontius,from the materials supplied by Constantine Porphyrogenitus.
2. The Life of Basil the Macedonian, by Constantine Porphyrogenitus himself (though Labbe
and Cave would assign this also to Leontius).
3. The Lives of Leo VI. and Alexander, the sons of Basil, and of Constantine
Porphyrogenitus and the commencement of the reign of Romanus II., by an unknown later hand.
This third part is more succinct than the former parts, and is in a great degree borrowed,
with little variation, from known and existing sources.
Editions
The first edition of the Chronographia was in the Paris edition of
the Byzantine historians. It was prepared for publication by Combéfis, and a Latin
version was made by him; but the work was not actually published till 1685, some years
after the editor's death. It forms part of the volume entitled
Οἱ μετὰ Θεοφάνην,
Scriptores post
Theophanem, and is in folio.
It was again published in the Venetian reprint
of that series, fol. A. D. 1729, and
again under
the editorial care of Bekker, 8vo. Bonn, 1838, with the Latin version of
Combéfis.The life of Basil, by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, was printed separately as early
as 1653, in the Συμμικτὰ of Allatius, 8vo.
Cologn. [CONSTANTINUS VII.]