Constantine Manasses's Synopsis Chronike, commissioned by the sebastokratorissa Eirene, the sister- in- law of Manuel I (1140– 1183), is an elementary introduction to history from Creation to 1081. The text is written in fairly simple fifteen- syllable verse. Manasses focused on those aspects of history that would be entertaining and literarily interesting. Manasses gathered material for his story from Kedrenos and Zonaras, as well as Dionysius of Halicarnassus, George the Monk, John of Antioch, and Theophanes.

Manasses's history was extremely popular, judging from the large number of medieval manuscripts that survive. It was also paraphrased into vernacular Greek in the fourteenth century, translated into Bulgarian, and lavishly illustrated.

Manasses begins with Creation and includes a luxurious ekphrasis (rhetorical description) of the Garden of Eden. He then provides a harmonizing mix of biblical, Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian history. The discussion of David links to the Trojan War, which Manasses explained was contemporary with David's kingdom. The Trojan War is treated in detail (taking 467 lines), and leads directly into Roman history through the stories of Aeneas's settlement in Italy. The succession of Roman rulers then structures Manasses's chronicle from Romulus through the foundation of the Komnenian dynasty in the late eleventh century. The continuous narrative of Trojan and Roman history takes up 5,510 of the 6,620 lines of his chronicle.

Although he revels in the description of the Garden of Eden, Manasses's account of early history owes more to stories from Herodotus than the Septuagint. His history was richly entertaining, focusing on erotic adventure whenever possible. Manasses's history was enjoyed for its writing, and some readers compiled from it lists of gnomic expressions and elegant description that could be used as a sort of thesaurus.

Constantine Manasses was a Constantinopolitan writer working in the third quarter of the twelfth century. He is known for a number of compositions in prose and verse. Manasses does not seem to have held any governmental or ecclesiastical office. He was patronized especially by Sebastokratorissa Eirene, who was the wife of Manuel Komnenos's brother Andronikos, and by the sebastos John Kontostephanos.