Menander Protector

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Menander Protector (Menander the Guardsman, Menander the Byzantian), Byzantine historian, was 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. 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.

He 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 during the reign of Justinian in 558 down 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. He 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 and died the death of a martyr, is preserved in the Greek Anthology (i.101).

References

The fragments can be found in:

C. W. Müller, Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum, 4, 200
JP Migne, Patrologia Graeca, 113
L. Dindorf, Historici Graeci minores, 2

Translation

Roger Blockley: The History of Menander the Guardsman. Liverpool 1985.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press

v t e Byzantine historians

5th century	Malchus Priscus

6th century	Agathias Evagrius Scholasticus Hesychius of Miletus John of Ephesus John of Epiphania Jordanes John Malalas Marcellinus Comes Menander Protector Peter the Patrician Procopius Theophanes of Byzantium Zacharias Rhetor Zosimus

7th century	Trajan the Patrician Theophylact Simocatta John of Antioch

8th century	Hippolytus of Thebes

9th century	Theophanes the Confessor George Syncellus Nikephoros I of Constantinople George Hamartolos

10th century	Joseph Genesius John Kaminiates Leo the Deacon Constantine VII Theophanes Continuatus

11th century	Michael Attaleiates George Kedrenos Michael Psellos John Skylitzes John Xiphilinus Yahya of Antioch

12th century	Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger Niketas Choniates Eustathius of Thessalonica Anna Komnene John Kinnamos Constantine Manasses John Zonaras

13th century	George Akropolites Theodore Metochites

14th century	Nicephorus Gregoras Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos George Pachymeres Michael Panaretos

15th century	Michael Critobulus John Anagnostes Laonikos Chalkokondyles Doukas George Sphrantzes

Persondata
Name	Menander Protector
Alternative names
Short description	Historian
Date of birth
Place of birth	Constantinople
Date of death
Place of death

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