George Hamartolos
Georgios Monachos was a Byzantine chronicler who lived in the late 9th century.
Life and work
About his life little is known. Georgios was a monk and is in several manuscripts referred to as " sinners " (which is why it is sometimes called Georgios Hamartolos ), but is it just a common monastic self-designation. Georgios is the author (or rather compiler ) in a Byzantine extremely popular world chronicle of the "creation" to the beginning of the reign of Emperor Michael III. ( 842 ) is sufficient. The date of composition of the Chronicle is disputed in recent research: Georgios wrote thus either in the late 860 or until the 870er years.
Georgios not laid claim to offer an independent historical narrative. Instead, he gathered his material from existing Chronicles and compiled based on a summary of Christian world chronicle. His sources were almost exclusively Christian writers ( unlike, say, Georgios Synkellos who has also relied heavily on pagan histories ). Main sources were about the Old Testament, Eusebius of Caesarea, Theodoret, John Malalas and Theophanes. In addition, Georgios has hardly sought further information, although he seems to have probably used at least council records for the 7th and 8th centuries. The chronicle of Georgios has thus but virtually no independent source of value, especially since he was apparently not very interested in chronological accuracy and equally unhistorical narratives offered.
Georgios was no attempt to provide a balanced representation, but presents itself as a defender of the Orthodox faith dar. He polemic strong and with some harsh words against the Iconoclasts in Byzantium (see Byzantine iconoclasm ), against Manichaeism and Islam. His rejection of pagan works is also no coincidence, because Georgios rejected the classical historiography from apparently that was but otherwise quite appreciated in Byzantium by Christian authors. Presumably, Georgios profiled here as opposed to the so-called Macedonian Renaissance in Byzantium, which began at this time. The focus of his written for a broad readership description is in the area of church history while political history is treated only very scarce. Numerous quotations from the Bible and individual writings of the Greek Fathers of the Church are woven into the presentation. The pagan history is interpreted in a Christian perspective: While Gaius Julius Caesar is dealt with a few lines, Georgios devoted to detail the time of Augustus, in which the birth of Jesus of Nazareth occurred. The disproportion of representation is also evident in other places: So the time of Vespasian, due to the interest of Georgios for Jewish history unequal covered in more detail than the time of Trajan to Septimius Severus.
The Chronicle found numerous readers mainly due to the simple and easy to understand language. It was translated into Altgeorgische and Church Slavonic later. A continuation of the chronicle (up to 948, with some later additions ) has been handed down as part of the so-called Logothetenchronik as a standalone version.
Expenditure
- Georgius Monachus. Chronicon. Edited by Carl de Boor. 2 vols, Leipzig 1904 ( or corrected ND, Stuttgart 1978).