Menander Protector (Menander the Guardsman, Menander the Byzantian; or Προτέκτωρ) was a
Byzantine historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...
, born in
Constantinople in the middle of the 6th century AD. The little that is known of his life is contained in the account of himself quoted in the ''
Suda'' (Mu, 591: Μένανδρος). Menander mentions his father Euphratas, who came from Byzantium, and his brother Herodotus. He at first took up the study of law, but abandoned it for a life of pleasure. When his fortunes were low, the patronage accorded to literature by the Emperor
Maurice, at whose court he was a military officer (hence the epithet ''Protector'', which denotes his military function), encouraged him to try writing history.
Menander took as his model
Agathias, who, like him, had been a jurist, and his history begins at the point where Agathias leaves off. It embraces the period from the arrival of the
Kutrigurs in
Thrace
Thrace (, ; ; ; ) is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe roughly corresponding to the province of Thrace in the Roman Empire. Bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south, and the Black Se ...
during the reign of
Justinian in 558, to the death of the emperor
Tiberius in 582. Considerable fragments of the work are preserved in the ''
Excerpts'' of
Constantine Porphyrogenitus and in the ''Suda''. Although the style is sometimes bombastic, he is considered trustworthy and is one of the most valuable authorities for the history of the 6th century, especially on geographical and ethnographical matters. Menander was an eye-witness of some of the events he describes. Like Agathias, he wrote epigrams, one of which, on a Persian
magus who became a convert to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
and died the death of a martyr, is preserved in the ''
Greek Anthology
The ''Greek Anthology'' () is a collection of poems, mostly epigrams, that span the Classical Greece, Classical and Byzantine periods of Greek literature. Most of the material of the ''Greek Anthology'' comes from two manuscripts, the ''Palatine ...
'' (i.101).
Fragments of his work can be found in:
*
C. W. Müller, ''Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum'', 4, 200
*
J. P. Migne, ''
Patrologia Graeca'', 113
*
L. Dindorf, ''Historici Graeci minores'', 2
Translations:
* Roger Blockley: ''The History of Menander the Guardsman''. Liverpool 1985.
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Menander Protector
6th-century births
Year of death unknown
6th-century Byzantine historians
Writers from Constantinople
Historians of Justinian I
Epigrammatists of the Greek Anthology