Theophylact Simocatta (Greek: Θεοφύλακτος Σιμοκάτ(τ)ης - Theophylaktos Simokat(t)es) was an early seventh-century Byzantine historiographer, arguably ranking as the last historian of Late Antiquity, writing in the time of Heraclius (c630) about the late Emperor Maurice (582-602).[1]
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His history of the reign of emperor Maurice is in eight books. His work is of lesser stature than that of Procopius and his self-consciously classicizing style is pompous, but he is an important source of information concerning the seventh-century Slavs and Persians. He mentions the war of Heraclius against the Persians (610-28), but not that against the Arabs (beginning 634), so it is likely that he was writing around 630. Among his sources he used the history of John of Epiphania.
Nicolaus Copernicus translated Greek verses by Theophylact into Latin prose and had his translation, dedicated to his uncle Lucas Watzenrode, published in Kraków in 1509 by Johann Haller. It was the only book that Copernicus ever brought out on his own account.[2]