Late Antique Historiography

Short history

Title(s):
  • Short history
  • Ἱστορία σύντομος
    (Historia suntomos, Short history)
  • Breviarium
Author:
Period covered:
602-769 (but no information is given for the period 641-668, i.e. Constans II's reign)
Language:
Greek
State of Preservation:
Full
Genre:
  • Secular history (general)
  • Secular history (breviarium)
Remarks:
The gap in the text between the years 641 and 668 is due, according to Mango (1990), to the total lack of sources for the period, but others, e.g. Speck (1988: 205), have hypothesized the loss of one folio in the archetype, in which case we would not have the complete work. The two manuscripts apparently preserve two different versions of the text. According to Mango (1990), Nicephorus wrote a first draft which ended abruptly in 713 and is preserved in British Library Additional 19390; later on he revised the text from a stylistic point of view and expanded it to 769, producing the version contained in Vaticanus Graecus 977.
Edition - Translation:
  • C. Mango (1990) Nikephoros Patriarch of Constantinople: Short history (Corpus fontium historiae Byzantinae, 13 = Dumbarton Oaks texts, 10). Dumbarton Oaks.
  • N. Tobias, R. Santoro (1995) An eyewitness to history: The Short history of Nikephoros our Holy Father the Patriarch of Constantinople. Brookline (MA).
Fragments:
Users:
Sources:
Bibliography:
  • P.J. Alexander (1958) The patriarch Nicephorus of Constantinople. Oxford.
  • J. Howard-Johnston (2010) Witnesses to a world crisis: Historians and histories of the Middle East in the seventh century. Oxford: 238-267.
  • A. Kazhdan (1999) A history of Byzantine literature (650-850). Athens: 213-215.
  • C. Mango (1986) 'The Breviarium of Patriarch Nicephorus'. In: Byzantium: tribute to Andreas N. Stratos. Volume Two, ed. N.A. Stratos. Athens: 539-552.
  • L. Neville (2018) Guide to Byzantine historical writing. Cambridge.
  • L. Orosz (1948) The London manuscript of Nikephoros' Breviarium. Budapest.
  • P. Speck (1988) Das geteilte Dossier: Beobachtungen zu den Nachrichten über die Regierung des Kaisers Herakleios und die seiner Söhne bei Theophanes und Nikephoros (Poikila Byzantina, 9). Bonn.
  • W.T. Treadgold (2013) The middle Byzantine historians. Basingstoke: 26-31.
  • J.L. Van Dieten (1972) Geschichte der Patriarchen von Sergios I. bis Johannes VI. Amsterdam.