Chronicle

The work is traditionally assumed to have been composed in two stages: a first version, going to 528-532 (with several versions apparently circulating) and showing an Antiochene point of view, was later continued up to the death of Justinian, with a narrower focus on Constantinople. Alternatively, a different author continued the work. Up to the time of Zeno (books 1-14), the author mentions many written sources, whereas from Zeno onwards he claims reliance on oral sources only.

The codex Baroccianus Graecus 182 is the only Greek manuscript containing the full text of the chronicle from Creation down to near the death of Justinian, but it has many lacunas (e.g. book 1 is totally missing) and presents an abridged version of the text (especially in books 17 and 18). An important testimony to the text is the tenth-eleventh-century Slavonic translation and the Greek so-called Tusculan fragments.