Theophylact Simocatta
Theophylact Simocatta, early Byzantine writer and historian born in Egypt around 580, student of rhetoric in Alexandria. In early 7th century he found himself in Constantinople, where he died, presumably around (after) 630. The view accepted in earlier literature that Th. S. held important official posts at the imperial court, even was prefect of Constantinople, is now rejected.
Th. S. wrote several literary works in Greek: a philosophical opus Questiones physicae, a group of 85 letters (Epistulae) and a history (Historiae). The latter is definitely his best known, but it is also notable that his letters were translated into Latin by Nicolaus Copernicus (published in Cracow in 1509).
Historiae most likely dates to the 620s; it contains no references to Arab invasions, which started in 634, suggesting that the history was completed before that date. Th. S. continued the work of Menander Protector who gave an account of the events in the period 558-582. In his eight books Simocatta described the reign of Emperor Maurice (582-602), first, the wars with Persia, followed by his campaigns against the →Slavs and the →Avars in the Balkans (after 591/592). With Th. S. the historiography of Late Antiquity written in Greek comes to an end and we owe the account of events which came after 602 to much later authors, e.g., Theophanes the Confessor, from the 9th century. Th. S.’s Historiae is the last quite detailed and vivid description of Late Roman/Early Byzantine Balkans. In past research it was assumed that events related by Th. S. were known to him from personal experience but the view at present is that he was not familiar with the region and only drew on reliable sources.
To Th. S. we owe interesting references to Novae on the Lower Danube, to Slav chiefs, such as Ardagast and Musokios, and to the domination of the nomad →Avars over the →Slavs .
In a reference which is highly significant for the history of Central Europe of the →Migration Period Th. S. describes the encounter of Emperor Maurice with three Slav men, which supposedly took place not far from Constantinople around 595 (Historiae VI.2). By their own account, they and their brethren resided on the coast of the western ocean; this is quite universally recognized as the first record on the Slav presence on the Baltic Sea. Warfare was quite alien to them, weapons unknown, instead of which each of them carried a lyre (kithara). This passage gave rise to the belief in the unwarlike and egalitarian nature of early Slav societies, a distant echo of which reverberates also in J. I. Kraszewski’s historical novel on the tribes of pre-Christian Poland - Stara Baśń (An Ancient Tale) - made into a feature film in 2003.
Evidence from more recent archaeological research (e.g., M. Dulinicz, F. Biermann, S. Brather) shows that Slavs only put in appearance in the region on the Elbe in early 8th century; this has led some archaeologists (M. Dulinicz) to reject Th. S.’s account as unreliable.
Th. S. may have borrowed the motif of Slav pacifist lyre players from Diodorus Siculus (1st century BC; cf. Diodorus, Bibliotheca historica, II.47.2-3) with whose works he was familiar. Also important is the context in which the reference to the Slavs appears: Emperor Maurice meets them while leading a military campaign during which a series of mysterious events takes place presaging his tragic death, on the orders of Phocas, in 602. Thus, the account given by Th. S. cannot be trusted and used in the study of the spread of early Slavs.
MW
Literature: Editions: Greek: Theophylacti Simocattae, Historiae, P. Wirth (ed.), Stuttgart 1972; English: The History of Theophylact Simocatta, M. and M. Whitby (ed.), Oxford 1988; German: Theophylaktes Simokates, Geschichte, P. Schreiner (ed.), Stuttgart 1985.
Analyses/Commentaries: T. Olajos, Les sources de Théophylacte Simocatta Historien, Leiden – New York – København-Köln 1988; M. Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and his Historian: Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan Warfare, Oxford 1988; M. Wołoszyn, Mit der Kithara unterwegs zwischen Balkanraum und Ostsee. Theophylaktos Simokates über die Slawen (Historiae VI.2) – zwischen Wirklichkeit und Fiktion (forthcoming).