The Byzantines Wrote Chronicles: a Reply to Richard Burgess

What is it about?

The Byzantines across their millennium produced a number of universal chronicles that extended from Creation to the author’s lifetime. In several publications Richard Burgess and Michael Kulikowski have, however, denied there is any such thing as a Byzantine chronicle with only two Byzantine works qualifying as chronicles of any kind (but not Byzantine). They distribute the rest across seven other genres with little or no relationship to one another and also claim the Byzantines themselves had no awareness of there being any such genre. My paper shows that the Byzantines were well aware of this distinct genre of chronicles throughout their history and had clear terminology for it.

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Photo by Youssef Mohamed on Unsplash

Photo by Youssef Mohamed on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The genre of chronicles was particularly important for Byzantines since it alone enabled them to reconcile sacred history with secular history and view their own past as both a continuation of the Roman Empire with its background going back to the Trojan War, and also as a continuation of Old Testament history, going back to Genesis, along with their own role in history as being equally Orthodox Christian and Roman. Much future research on Byzantine literature and society will involve examining the interdependence of these works within a recognised genre as a significant aspect of Byzantine literature. So this is not a squabble about terminology but vital for recognizing and understanding the value of the genre in revealing both their understanding of the past and changes in society across time.