Thomas Banchich

A quite complicated book. To begin with it seems to have been written by a Komnenian literary Gentleman, writing after 1120CE,and this is a relatively small component of the whole work. This translation covers the period from the reign of the emperor Alexander Severus (222CE) to the death of the emperor Theodosius I (395CE). This is not an extensive account of the period, and is embodied in Book XII, chapters 15-35, and Book XIII, chapters 1-19. The total work has eighteen books starting with the creation myth in Josephus' Antiquities, and ends with the reign of Alexis Komnenus in 1118CE. The manner has a great deal in common with a modern middle school textbook of world history. The value of the work is the number of holes in the received account of the period that are sketched in this selection. The notes often employ parallel column comparisons of other works to be compared to suggest further lines of enquiry by the student. The editor and translator have given us a useful tool for the training of other scholars in researching the period. The main text is entertaining, and does impart some idea of the scope of the rest of the Epitome. For the scholar the treasury is in the notes.… (meer)