Symeon the Logothete and Pseudo-Symeon

Abstract

Although Constantine VII’s historians were commissioned to write their works by an emperor with an interest in history, their works seem also to have encouraged historians who wrote under Constantine’s less bookish successors. None of these writers is known to have had a commission from an emperor, though some may have had, and they all must have hoped to advance their careers by writing their works. More than that, they seem to have concluded from the histories commissioned by Constantine that historians still had important work to do by incorporating earlier accounts into more comprehensive histories. By the accession of Romanus II, in 959, much had happened since the death of Basil I, in 886. Through most of this period the empire had suffered from wars with the Bulgarians and Arabs and disputes over Leo VI’s fourth marriage and the imperial succession; but such mishaps became less uncomfortable to recall with the passage of time and the improvement of Byzantine fortunes. Now that earlier ages had become more familiar to educated men through advances in scholarship, including Constantine’s Historical Excerpts, writers wanted to assign current affairs their proper place in world history. As usual, authors with opinions on recent events wanted to praise what was good and condemn what was bad in their own times, or at any rate to praise their friends and condemn their enemies.