Chronicle

The identification of Symeon the Logothete with Symeon Metaphrastes proposed by Ševčenko (1969-1970: 210-218), Oikonomidès (1973), Treadgold (1979: 160) and, more recently, Sotiroudis (1989), has been refuted by Kazhdan (1999: 231-247) and Whalgren (2006: 3-4), on a chronological and stylistic basis.

The Chronicle survives in two editions, the first covering the period from the Creation to the death of Romanus I (948), and the second presenting an expanded and reworked version of the section from 842 on, up to 963. There do not seem to be reasons to ascribe them to different authors, although a tentative attribution of the second edition to Basil Lecapenus has been proposed by Featherstone (2011: 122). The first edition has been edited by Whalgren (2006), whereas only portions of the second have been published, from different manuscripts (Bekker 1838; Istrin 1922; Featherstone 1998; Markopoulos 1979).

Notwithstanding the numerous parallel passages between the chronicle of Symeon and earlier texts, the identification of the sources is problematic, because, as pointed out by Whalgren (2006: 118-120), it is almost impossible to ascertain whether the chronicler made a direct use of those texts or found the passages in intermediary sources, epitomes or collections of excerpts. Furthermore, it is at times difficult to distinguish between parallels that prove a direct or indirect textual dependence, and parallels that just attest thematic similarities.