The Chronography of George Synkellos [Hardcover]

George Synkellos, a monk of Constantinople who once held a position of authority under the patriarch Tarasios, composed (in Greek) a chronicle of universal history in the early ninth century. Beginning with the creation of the universe, the chronicle preserves a rich collection of ancient sources, many of them otherwise unknown. The English translation provided here, together with introduction and notes, promises to make this influential and wide-ranging history more accessible to Byzantinists, students of ancient historiography, and specialists in biblical chronology, early Judaism, Egypt, and the Ancient Near East.

I.IntroductionSynkellos and the Christian Chronographic Tradition
II. Synkellos' Contribution to Chronography
III. Modes of Chronological Argumentation
IV. Structure and Organization in the Christian Universal Chronicle from Eusebios to Synkellos
V. Synkellos' Sources and Originality
VI. Chronological Conventions: Eras and Cycles
VII. Textual History and Greek Editions of Synkellos
VIII. Synkellos' Chronicle in Scholarship since Scaliger
IX. Previous Translations
X. The Present Translation and its Conventions
The Chronography of George Synkellos
Appendix of Biblical Names
Index of Subjects and Names
Index of Textual Citations

Adler and Tuffin have produced a well-designed annotated translation...This volume is a valuable source and contribution to understanding the history of scholarship as well as Late Antique and Byzantine perspectives and the limits of their knowledge of the history of the ancient Near East.

-Journal of Near Eastern Studies