Theophanes the Confessor

Born circa 752 in Constantinople; died 818 on the island of Samothrace. Byzantine chronicler.

Theophanes’ Chronographia, a series of annals covering the period between A.D. 284 and 813, was written between 810 and 814; it is largely based on sources now lost. The work is the only continuous history of Byzantium and surrounding countries for the years 769 to 813. Theophanes, an adherent of orthodox monasticism and a vehement opponent of Iconoclasm, held up the emperor Constantine I as an ideal.