The Chronographia of Ephraim is a chronicle in twelve- syllable verse of 9,588 lines covering Roman history from the reign of Gaius Caligula to 1261. It survives in one manuscript and a seventeenth- century copy. The title page and approximately the first seventy- five lines are lost.

The narrative focuses largely on secular imperial history and becomes increasingly detailed as it moves toward the thirteenth century. For early emperors, the discussions are brief and mostly concern aspects of their characters: Caligula, for example, was amoral and bloodthirsty, while Nerva was noble and ruled well, despite being non- Christian. From Diocletian (284– 305) through Nikephoros III Botaneiates (1078– 1081) the text offers a narrative with greater depth. Each emperor is afforded roughly fifty to 200 lines each. From Alexios I Komnenos (1081– 1118) onward, the text expands to include detailed discussions of politics. This pacing reflects that of the main sources, Zonoras, Choniates, and Akropolites.

The manuscript, Vaticanus 1003, contains the two historical works attributed to Ephraim, the Chronographia and the Catalog of the Patriarchs of Constantinople, both written in twelve- syllabus verse. Various catalogs of the Vatican library from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries list the manuscript as the work of Ephraim of Ainos. The Catalog of the Patriarchs of Constantinople is a list of patriarchs that ends with the reign of Isaias (1323– 1334), indicating that the author lived until at least 1323. Lampsidēs suggests that Ephraim was born in the last decades of the thirteenth century and lived at least until the 1440s.

Manuscripts, Editions, and Translations

Manuscripts

The text is known from Vaticanus 1003 of the fourteenth century and Barberinianus 146 of the seventeenth century, which is a direct copy of the former.

Editions

Lampsidēs, Odysseus ed. Ephraim tou Ainiou Chronographia. Athens : Kentron Ekdoseōs Ergōn Hellēnōn Syngrapheōn, 1984.