''Scriptor Incertus de Leone Armenio'' ("unknown writer on Leo the Armenian") is the conventional

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

designation given to the anonymous author of a 9th-century

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantin ...

historical work, of which only two fragments survive. The first fragment, preserved in the 13th-century ''Vat. gr. 2014'' manuscript (interposed into descriptions of the Avaro-Persian siege of Constantinople and the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople, as well as hagiographical texts) in the Vatican Library, deals with the 811 campaign of Emperor

Nikephoros I Nikephoros I or Nicephorus I ( gr, Νικηφόρος; 750 – 26 July 811) was Byzantine emperor from 802 to 811. Having served Empress Irene as '' genikos logothetēs'', he subsequently ousted her from power and took the throne himself. In r ...

() against the

Bulgars The Bulgars (also Bulghars, Bulgari, Bolgars, Bolghars, Bolgari, Proto-Bulgarians) were Turkic semi-nomadic warrior tribes that flourished in the Pontic–Caspian steppe and the Volga region during the 7th century. They became known as nomad ...

, which ended in the disastrous Battle of Pliska. Discovered and published in 1936 by I. Dujčev, it is also known as the ''Chronicle of 811'', or the Dujčev Fragment. The second, which is preserved in the early 11th-century ''B.N. gr. 1711'' manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris along with the chronicle of the so-called " Leo Grammaticus", deals with the reigns of Michael I Rhangabe () and Leo V the Armenian () that followed after Nikephoros I. The date of authorship is disputed, but the vividness of the narrative suggests that it was written by a contemporary of the events described. The two fragments were identified as forming part of the same work by Henri Grégoire based on similarities in style. Although generally an unreliable indicator, this hypothesis has since been commonly accepted. Both fragments provide information not included in the contemporary histories of

Theophanes the Confessor Theophanes the Confessor ( el, Θεοφάνης Ὁμολογητής; c. 758/760 – 12 March 817/818) was a member of the Byzantine aristocracy who became a monk and chronicler. He served in the court of Emperor Leo IV the Khazar before takin ...

and Theophanes Continuatus, and Grégoire hypothesized, again based on style, that the ''Scriptor Incertus'' was a continuation of the work of the 6th-century historian

John Malalas John Malalas ( el, , ''Iōánnēs Malálas''; – 578) was a Byzantine chronicler from Antioch (now Antakya, Turkey). Life Malalas was of Syrian descent, and he was a native speaker of Syriac who learned how to write in Greek later ...

. The second fragment was known to, and used by, the late 10th-century

Pseudo-Symeon Magister Pseudo-Simeon (or Pseudo-Symeon Magistros) is the conventional name given to the anonymous author of a late 10th-century Byzantine Greek chronicle which survives in a single codex, Parisinus Graecus 1712, copied in the 12th or 13th century. It is a ...

, but he does not appear to have used it for the sections of his history before Michael I.

Editions

* 1st fragment, critical edition with French translation, I. Dujčev, "La chronique byzantine de l'an 811", in: ''Travaux et Mémoires'' 1, 1965, pp. 205–254. English translation in * 2nd fragment included in the Bonn series edition of "Leo Grammaticus", Bonn, 1842, pp. 335–362
archive.org link
; corrections and commentary on the Bonn edition by Robert Browning. * Critical edition of both fragments with Italian translation, Francesca Iadevaia, ''Scriptor incertus: testo critico, traduzione e note.'', Messina, 1st ed. 1987, 2nd ed. 1997, pp. 149 Additional literature is given by Paul Stephenson.

References

Sources

* * * * * {{Byzantine historians 9th-century Byzantine historians Pseudonymous writers