A large number of manuscripts contain versions and portions of a chronicle from Creation to 948, and to 963 in some cases. Some manuscripts name Symeon magistros and logothete as the author, and that name has become associated with the entire corpus. Medieval users of the text seem to have made less of the distinction between author and copyist than has often been assumed by scholars in the past several centuries. The freedom with which medieval writers modified and adapted the chronicle as they copied it has led to a situation where one “might be tempted to dispense with a critical edition in favor of editing each manuscript separately.” Yet there are enough commonalities among versions to recongnize two main versions: Redaction A and Redaction B.

Contents

Redaction A begins with Creation and ends in 948. It is favorable to Romanos I Lakapenos. The early sections draw on large amounts of information from George the Monk and Theophanes. It is often understood to have three parts: a summary of history from Creation to Justinian II, a continuation of this chronicle up to 843, and a section from 843– 948 that most likely represents the work newly written (rather than edited) by the author. The questions of who put this version of history up to 843 together, from what sources, and when, remain unanswered.

Kazhdan has argued that the 843– 948 section should be divided into a further three sections: 842– 886 (Michael III and Basil I), 886– 913 (Leo VI and Alexander), and 913– 948. The section covering 886– 913, he suggests, was based on a text providing information about events in Constantinople, the “annals of Constantinople,” while the section covering 913– 948 was based on the author's personal memory and research. Wahlgren considers this interpretation to be highly speculative.

The narrative is organized around the reigns of rulers, beginning with Adam, who Wahlgren considers to have been “treated as a kind of proto- Byzantine emperor.” Each ruler's reign is discussed in a separate chapter, from Adam to Romanos Lakapenos. After biblical patriarchs, Assyrian, Persian, and Ptolemaic rulers carry the chain forward to the foundation of the Roman Empire.