Hello everyone and welcome to the history of Byzantium. Episode 93, recap and pre-cap.

Following listener suggestions, today I'm going to remind you of where we are in 802 AD

and preview what's coming up for the Byzantines in the 9th century. Rather than simply reiterate

the events of the 700s, I want to reorient you to how people thought and felt in 802 so that

when the story begins next episode we all hit the ground running. I also give you an outline

of future events so that the 9th century can more easily take shape in your mind.

Before we get there though, I've saved a couple of relevant listener questions for today.

Listener G asked about whether I'd come across Byzantine historians commenting on say,

Augustus or Trajan. Do they have any interesting perspectives on the pagan past?

Sadly, so far the answer is no. The Ophanis' chronicle began with the rise of

Diocletian and Procopius just wrote about his times. Certainly there are references to the

classical era empire. Many Byzantine authors had read their tacitus and polyvius, but they hadn't

felt the need to add anything of their own. I doubt I will come across much as most Byzantine

historians only wrote about the recent past while for earlier periods they merely summarise

earlier histories. I will update you when I come across something in that vein, but I would

just like to talk a little more about the Ophanis and our sources going forward. I've been quoting

the Ophanis and Niceferas for a long time now, and that's because they're the only historians

who cover the period from the rise of the Arabs to the fall of Irene. They are our only eyes on

the subject, and they are both using the same lost source to describe large parts of it.

Niceferas' history stopped a while ago, though he will soon appear in the narrative in his own

right, while Theophanes accompanies us up to the year 813. So from the elevation of the emperor

diocletian to the year 813 we have one Chronicle attributed to the monk and iconophile Theophanes,

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