Historiography

Byzantine historiography, which is heavily indebted to the classical tradition stretching back to Herodotos and Thucydides in the fifth century BCE, continued to evolve over more than a millennium, demonstrating the vitality of the genre and the stimulus provided by its roots. Historiography was a branch of rhetoric in the classical world, with its texts displaying events of the past to an audience in an attractive manner. Wars, with their associated diplomacy, had always been a dominant subject of historiography. Two important Greek world chronicles survive from Late Antiquity, both extending from Adam to the present: one produced by John Malalas in Antioch and the other by John of Antioch in the early seventh century. Eusebios of Caesarea created a separate genre of ecclesiastical history, which was continued in the East by Gelasios. The classicizing historians of Byzantium produced some of the most distinguished Byzantine literature.