The Historians' History of the World 06

Malchus Philadelphus, born in Syria, and a rhetorician of Constantinople, wrote a history which was used in the Excerpta de Legationibus, a compilation undertaken by order of Constantine VII, Porphyrogenitus. The portion of his work of which we have knowledge comprehends only the period from 473 to 480 A.D., this part having been preserved by Photius.

Manasses, Constantinus, Σύνοψις ἱστορική, Latin version by Leunclavius, Basel, 1573; edited by J. Meursius, Leyden, 1616; translated into Slavonic by V. Jagíc, in the Archiv für slavische Philologie, Berlin, 1877; and by J. Bogdan, in his Vechile cronice Moldovenesci pana la Urechia, Bukarest, 1891.

Constantinus Manasses lived under the emperor Manuel Comnenus in the middle of the twelfth century, and composed several works in both rhyme and prose. His history, curiously written in a kind of rhythmical prose (“political verse”), is a chronicle from the Creation to the accession of Alexis I in 1081. The edition of Meurius was dedicated to Gustavus Adolphus.

Menander Protector, Ἱστορία, edited by Angelo Mai, in his Scriptorum Veterum nova collectio, vol. II, Rome, 1825-1838, 10 vols.; edited by C. Müller, in his Fragmenta Historicum Græcorum, vol. IV, Paris, 1841-1870, 5 vols., new edition 1883; by L. Dindorf, in his Historici Græci Minores, Leipsic, 1870-1871, 2 vols.

Menander Protector was born at Byzantium in the middle of the sixth century. As a historian, he wrote a continuation of Agathias, from 558 to 582, and in his turn he was continued by Theophylactus Simocatta. Menander is often quoted by Suidas and is one of the best sources for the history of the sixth century.

Michael Panaretus, Περὶ τῶν τῆς Τραπεζοῦντος βασιλέων, τῶν Μεγάλων Κομνῃνῶν, ὅπως καὶ πότς καὶ πόσον ἕκαστος ἐβασιλευσεν, edited by L. F. Tafel, in his Eustathii Metropolitæ Thessalonicensis opuscula etc., Frankfort, 1832; and by Ph. Fallmerayer, in the Abhandlungen of the Academy of Bavaria, 1844.

Michael Panaretus lived in the first half of the fifteenth century and gives a chronicle of the empire of Trebizond from 1204 to 1426. He was an eye-witness of many of the events described, and is particularly valuable on this account.

Neophytus, Νεοφύτου πρεσβυτέρου μοναχοῦ καὶ ἐγκλειστοῦ περὶ τῶν κατὰ τὴν χώραν Κύπρον σκαιῶν (Neophyti Presbyteri Monachi et Inclusi, De Calamitatibus Cypri), edited by J. B. Cotelier, in his Ecclesiæ Græcæ Monumenta, Paris, 1677-1686, 3 vols.

Neophytus was born in 1134 and lived as priest and monk in his native Cyprus. His epistle, as named above, gives an account of the usurpation of Cyprus by Isaac Comnenus and of the imprisonment of Isaac by Richard Cœur-de-Lion.

Nicephorus Callistus Xantoupulus, Historia Ecclesiastica, Latin version, edited by Joh. Lang, Basel, 1553; reprinted with scholia, 1560 (61); Antwerp, 1560; Paris, 1562, 1566, 1573; Frankfort, 1588; Greek text, with Lang’s translation, Paris, 1630, 2 vols.

Nicephorus Callistus Xantoupulus died about 1350, and the date of his birth has been inferred as about 1290. There are now extant eighteen of the twenty-three books of his ecclesiastical history, which was compiled from Eusebius, Evagrius, and other writers, and covers the period from the time of Christ to the death of Phocas in 610. The work is characterised by its elegant style, which is far above that of his contemporaries. The author’s credulity and lack of judgment, however, cause the book to abound in fables.

Nicephorus, Patriarcha, Κωνσταντινουπόλεως Ἱστορία σύντομος (Breviarum Historicum), edited, with Latin version, by D. Patavius, Paris, 1616; translated into French by Monterole, Paris, 1618, and by F. Morel, Paris, 1634; Χρονογραφικὸν σύντομον, edited by Jos. Scaliger, in his Thesaurus Temporum, Leyden, 1606; by J. Camerarius, in a Latin version, Basel, 1561.

Nicephorus, patriarch of Constantinople from 806 to 815, when he was deposed by Leo Armenus, was born in 758, and held the office of notary to the emperor Constantine VI. His Breviarum begins with the murder of Maurice in 602 and is continued to the marriage of Leo IV in 770. The Chronology begins with Adam and is brought down to the death-year of the author, 828. Nicephorus is sometimes styled “Confessor” on account of his firm opposition to the iconoclasts.

Nicetas Acominatus, Ἱστορία, edited by H. Wolf, with a Latin version, Basel, 1457, and by Simon Goulartius, Geneva, 1593.