Byzantine Readings of Ancient Historians

Texts in Translation, with Introductions and Notes

Anthony Kaldellis

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317517832
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

The survival of ancient Greek historiography is largely due to its preservation by Byzantine copyists and scholars. This process entailed selection, adaptation, and commentary, which shaped the corpus of Greek historiography in its transmission. By investigating those choices, Kaldellis enables a better understanding of the reception and survival of Greek historical writing.

Byzantine Readings of Ancient Historians includes translations of texts written by Byzantines on specific ancient historians. Each translated text is accompanied by an introduction and notes to highlight the specific context and purpose of its composition. In order to present a rounded picture of the reception of Greek historiography in Byzantium, a wide range of genres have been considered, such as poems and epigrams, essays, personalized scholia, and commentaries. Byzantine Readings of Ancient Historians is therefore an important resource for scholars and students of ancient history.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1 Xenophon in Byzantium and the coded poem for Leon VI
• 2 The Excerpta historica of Konstantinos VII Porphyrogennetos
• 3 The scholia on the Zosimos manuscript
• 4 Ioannes Tzetzes’ verse scholia on Thucydides
• 5 Scholia on Diodoros of Sicily by Niketas Choniates and others
• 6 Theodoros Metochites and the Greek Historians
• 7 Ioannes Kanaboutzes’ Commentary on the Roman Antiquities of Dionysios of Halikarnassos
• Bibliography
• Index