History

John of Lydia only mentions a request to him by Justinian to write a history.

For the date there are two options. A first option is that the history was written shortly after 530, on the occasion of the battle of Dara in 530 during the Iberian war (526-532) (Bandy 1983: 315; Debuisson-Schamp 2006.i.1: xxxviii-xli). A second option is that the history was written on the occasion of the breaking of the Persian siege of Dara in 542 during the Lazic war (541-562); see Corippus, Iohanneis 1.68-98 (Greatrex-Lieu 2002: 111-112). In this case, it may have been written either shortly after 545 (Debuisson-Schamp 2006.i.1: xli-xliii), or from around 543 onward (Kelly 2004: 85). A date in 542-545 seems the most plausible, as John of Lydia states that after the war was fought, the Persians did not return to Dara (John of Lydia, On the magistracies 3.28).

The history was most possibly written in prose; the word συγγράψαι (On the magistracies 3.28; Debuisson-Schamp 2006.ii: 78) refers to prose historiography. There may be a fragment of the history in the Séguier Lexicon (Wünsch 1898: lxxvii): s.v. παρευδοκιμῶ· ἀντὶ τοῦ περιφρονῶ. Ἰωάννου τοῦ Λυδοῦ· καὶ παρευδοκίμουν οἱ Πέρσαι Ῥωμαίους, Οὐεσπασιανοῦ καὶ τοῦ παιδὸς αὐτοῦ Τίτου ταῖς Ἰουδαϊκαῖς μάχαις ἐνησχολημένων.