(Re)writing History in Byzantium A Critical Study of Collections of Historical Excerpts

Scholars have recently begun to study collections of Byzantine historical excerpts as autonomous pieces of literature. This book focuses on a series of minor collections that have received little or no scholarly attention, including the Epitome of the Seventh Century, the Excerpta Anonymi (tenth century), the Excerpta Salmasiana (eighth to eleventh centuries), and the Excerpta Planudea (thirteenth century). Three aspects of these texts are analysed in detail: their method of redaction, their literary structure, and their cultural and political function. Combining codicological, literary, and political analyses, this study contributes to a better understanding of the intertwining of knowledge and power, and suggests that these collections of historical excerpts should be seen as a Byzantine way of rewriting history. The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429351020, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Introduction Chapter 1. Greek Compilation Literature from Byzantium Chapter 2. Excerpta Anonymi Chapter 3. Excerpta Salamasiana Chapter 4. The Epitome of the 7th century Chapter 5. Excerpta Planudea Chapter 6. Collections of historical excerpts as a specific locus for (re)writing history Appendix I: Texts Appendix II: Tables Bibliography

Panagiotis Manafis is a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Birmingham, UK. His research interests include middle Byzantine literature, with a particular focus on the manuscript transmission of texts.