Byzantine Historians

Byzantine Historians are divided into: (1) Those whose works refer exclusively to Byzantine history; (2) Those who professedly occupy themselves with universal history; (3) Those who write on Byzantine customs, antiquities, architecture, &c. The Byzantine historians have all the fruits of a period when freedom, originality, and force of intellect and character were repressed by a pedantic despotism. Yet, as they are the only sources of information regarding the vast empire of the East, they are invaluable. The most interesting and instructive among them are those who confine their attention to a limited number of years, and to the events which transpired under their own observation, or in which they took part. The principal Byzantine historians were collected and published at Paris in 36 vols., with Latin translations, under the editorship of P. Philippe Labbé, a Jesuit, and his successors (1654-1711). This magnificent collection was reprinted, with additions, at Venice (1727-33). In 1828 Niebuhr, assisted by Bekker, the Dindorfs, and others, began a Corpus Scriptorum Historiæ Byzantinæ, carried on till 1855 in 48 vols., and continued by the Berlin Academy of Sciences.