Paul Stephenson

Translations from Byzantine Sources: The Imperial Centuries, c. 700-1204

The following introductions and translated excerpts have been produced for students taking my classes in Byzantine and Medieval European History. To that effect, I have also provided links to other sites where important texts which we use are mounted or are available for sale. I claim neither credit nor responsibility for those, but  I welcome comments on and criticisms of my own translations. I am an historian, not a Byzantine philologist, so there are sure to be mistakes. This remains a work in progress. Please don't write to me asking for fuller translations, and be sure to look at linked bibliographies rather than write to me asking for references.

Parastaseis Syntomai Chronikai, brief historical expositions on Constantinople in the eighth century (published by Brill Academic Publishers; reproduced in full at King's College London)

Iconoclasm I , sources from the first period of Byzantine political iconoclasm

Iconoclasm II, sources from the second period of Byzantine political iconoclasm

Life of Ignatios the Patriarch, attributed to Nicetas David Paphlago

The Rule of the Stoudios Monastery (at Dumbarton Oaks)

Nikephoros, Short History (available from Dumbarton Oaks)

Theophanes the Confessor, Chronicle (available from Oxford University Press)

Chronicle of 811, Scriptor Incertus, two fragments on the ninth century

Pope Nicholas I, responses to Khan Boris of the Bulgarians (at Fordham University)

Lives of Sts Cyril and Methodios,excerpts from the Slavic lives of the Apostles to the Slavs

Book of the Eparch, tenth-century guild regulations for Constantinople

Theodore Daphnopates, imperial secretary to Romanos I Lekapenos, excerpts from orations and letters

De Administrando Imperio, excerpts from  the text compiled for Constantine Pophyrogenitus

De Cerimoniis, coronation rites and diplomatic protocols, excerpted from the text compiled for Constantine Pophyrogenitus

Theophanes Continuatus, introduction and excerpts

Symeon Logothete, introduction and excerpts

A Satirical Song of the late tenth century

Leo the Deacon, excerpts concerning Nikephoros Phokas

Military texts of the mid-tenth century, excerpts with commentary

Life of Athanasios of Athos, excerpts from vita B

Documents from Mount Athos (translated by Leonora Neville)

Epitaph of Basil II

John Skylitzes, excerpts from the Synopsis Historion

Michael Psellos, Chronographia (at Fordham University)

Anna Comnena, Alexiad (at Fordham University)

John Kinnamos, Niketas Choniates, two accounts of John II's encounters with the Hungarians, 1127-29

Ljetopis Popa Dukljanina, excerpts from the so-called Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja

Nicholas Mesarites, Ekphrasis on the Church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople