The chronicle that bears the name of Theophanes the Confessor is a Greek history of the Roman empire and its neighbours from the accession of Diocletian in 284 to 813.[1] It continues the chronicle of George Synkellos, which ran from the creation of the world to Diocletian.[2] Theophanes died in 818.[2] He was a contemporary of the patriarch Nikephoros.[3]

Authorship and date

In his preface Theophanes claims no more than to have carried out and continued George’s work. George, he says, left him the materials to complete it.[4] How much of the chronicle is George’s file of extracts and how much Theophanes’ own hand cannot be settled. The whole rests on some twenty sources.[4] Theophanes was gravely ill from 809 or 810. Modern accounts call the composition of the chronicle between 810 and 814 something of a miracle.[5] The chronicle was probably not in circulation before 842. Its text was not yet stable in the ninth century.[6]

The chronicle is arranged by years of the world, each headed by the regnal years of the emperor, the Persian king and the bishops.[7] Its dates for Heraclius’s offensive against Persia run a year early.[8]

The Göktürks in the chronicle

Under the year 570/1 Theophanes names another matter that disturbed the Persian king Khosrow. “The Huns, whom we are accustomed to call Turks”, had sent an embassy to Justin II through the land of the Alans.[9] The passage is taken from Theophylact Simocatta. The name “Huns” is added from another place in Theophylact. Theophanes has made little sense of his model. According to Theophylact, the Persians meant to have the Göktürk envoy killed on his way through the Alans.[10]

Under 587/8 he tells how the Persian king Hormizd IV made Baram his general. Hormizd sent him with a large army to Souania, where “the Turks were thoroughly defeated by the Persians” in an unexpected attack.[11] This so strengthened Hormizd that he could exact from the Göktürks a tribute of forty thousand gold coins, where before he had paid them the same sum.[11] The entry is drawn from Theophylact.[12]

Under 588/9 Theophanes relates that after Baram’s defeat all the Göktürks taken in the battle were sent to the emperor Maurice.[13] They had the sign of the cross tattooed in black on their foreheads. Asked by the emperor, they said that many years before a plague had struck their country. Some Christians among them had advised the sign, and the country had been safe ever since.[13] This entry, too, is Theophylact’s.[14]

Heraclius and Ziebel

Under the year 624/5 Theophanes tells how Heraclius, campaigning in Lazica, invited “the eastern Turks, who are called Chazars” to become his allies.[7] The Chazars broke through the Caspian Gates and invaded Persia under their commander Ziebel, “who was second in rank after the Chagan”. They took captives and burned towns and villages.[15]

Heraclius set out from Lazica and joined them. When Ziebel saw him, he rushed to meet him. He kissed the emperor’s neck and did obeisance to him, while the Persians looked on from the town of Tiflis. “The entire army of the Turks fell flat on the ground” before the emperor. Their commanders climbed on rocks and did the same.[15] Ziebel also presented his adolescent son to the emperor. Then he picked forty thousand brave men and gave them to Heraclius as allies. He returned to his own land.[15] The chronicle adds under the following year that “the Turks” were worn down by winter and by Persian attacks. They slipped away from the emperor’s army little by little until all had gone home.[16]

By the Armenian record, Ziebel’s title was jabgu khagan, and he had with him a son styled shad.[17] Some scholars regard Ziebel itself as the Greek form of the title yabgu rather than a personal name.[18] Who bore it is disputed. It was either Tong Yabgu himself or, as Mikhail Artamonov proposed, his younger brother Bagha Shad.[18] The meeting before Tiflis is dated to 626 if Theophanes can be trusted there.[19] Nikephoros tells the same meeting in a more romantic version.[17]

Sources and dependence

For the Persian war of Justin II and for the reigns of Tiberius and Maurice, Theophanes’ main source was the history of Theophylact Simocatta.[20] For the reign of Justin II he has a few items curiously close to the Syriac history of John of Ephesus, perhaps through a later Syriac writer.[21] For Heraclius’s Persian campaigns he drew on the poems of George of Pisidia and on a further source now lost.[22] For the operations of 624 to 626 his account corresponds closely with Sebeos, and the two may rest on a common source.[23] That source may have been an officially sponsored history of the campaigns, based on the emperor’s dispatches.[24]

Reliability

For the Göktürks of the sixth century Theophanes is a summary of Theophylact. Where the two agree, they are one witness. For the alliance at Tiflis, he and Nikephoros are the Greek witnesses. Of the two, he alone gives the Göktürk commander a name, Ziebel, and a rank. He calls the allies “Chazars” and “Turks” in the same passage. The Armenian and Chinese sources are needed to say which Göktürk ruler stood behind them.

The passage

Theophanes, A. M. 6062: the Turks send an embassy to Justin II

ἐγένετο δὲ καὶ ἄλλη αἰτία ταράξασα τὸν Χοσρόην.

Οὖννοι γὰρ κατ᾽ ἐκεῖνο καιροῦ, οὓς Τούρκους λέγειν εἰώθαμεν, πρεσβεύουσι πρὸς Ἰουστῖνον διὰ τῆς τῶν Ἀλανῶν χώρας ἀποστείλαντες.

τοῦτο φοβηθεὶς Χοσρόης προεφασίσατο τὴν τῶν Ἀρμενίων πρὸς αὐτὸν ἀνταρσίαν καὶ πρὸς Ἰουστῖνον προσχώρησιν καὶ ἠτεῖτο τοὺς πρόσφυγας.

There was also another cause that disturbed Khosrow.

For at that time the Huns, whom we are accustomed to call Turks, sent an embassy to Justin by way of the land of the Alans.

Fearing this, Khosrow alleged that the Armenians had risen against him and gone over to Justin, and he demanded the refugees.

[25] Theophanes the Confessor; Scott 1997, p. 362

Theophanes, A. M. 6079: Baram defeats the Turks in Souania

ὁ δὲ Ὁρμίσδας στρατηγὸν χειροτονήσας τὸν Βαρὰμ ἅμα δυνάμεσι πολλαῖς κατὰ Σουανίας ἐκπέμπει.

ἀδοκήτως δὲ ταύτῃ ἐπιστάς, καταπολεμηθέντων τῶν Τούρκων ὑπὸ τῶν Περσῶν,

τοσοῦτον Ὁρμίσδας ηὐξήθη, ὡς καὶ φόρους μʹ χιλιάδας χρυσοῦ παρὰ τῶν Τούρκων λαβεῖν,

πρότερον τούτου τὰ ἴσα τοῖς Τούρκοις τελοῦντος.

Hormizd appointed Baram general and sent him with a large force against Souania.

Baram came upon the place unexpectedly, and the Turks were beaten down by the Persians,

and Hormizd grew so strong that he even took from the Turks a tribute of forty thousand pieces of gold,

whereas before this he had paid the same to the Turks.

[26] Theophanes the Confessor; Scott 1997, p. 385

Theophanes, A. M. 6081: the Turks with the cross on their foreheads

ὅσοι δὲ Τοῦρκοι ἐτύγχανον, τούτους τῷ αὐτοκράτορι εἰς Βυζάντιον ἔπεμψεν.

τῶν δὲ Τούρκων ἐν τοῖς μετώποις τὸν τύπον τοῦ σταυροῦ διὰ μέλανος κεντητοῦ ἐχόντων,

ἐρωτωμένων ὑπὸ τοῦ αὐτοκράτορος, ποίῳ τρόπῳ τοῦτο τὸ σημεῖον ἐπιφέρονται;

οἱ Τοῦρκοι ἔφασκον πρὸ πολλῶν χρόνων λοιμὸν ἐν Τουρκίᾳ γενέσθαι,

τινὰς δὲ τῶν ἐν αὐτοῖς Χριστιανῶν ὑποθέσθαι τοῦτο ποιῆσαι, ὡς ἐντεῦθεν σωτηρία κατὰ τὴν χώραν ἐγένετο.

As for those who were Turks, he sent them to the emperor in Byzantium.

The Turks had on their foreheads the sign of the cross, pricked in with black,

and when the emperor asked them in what way they bore this sign,

the Turks said that many years before a plague had broken out in Turkia,

and that some of the Christians among them had advised doing this, and from then on there had been safety in the land.

[27] Theophanes the Confessor; Scott 1997, p. 389

Theophanes, A. M. 6117: Heraclius calls the Turks, whom they name Chazars, to an alliance

τὸ δὲ τρίτον μέρος αὐτὸς λαβὼν ἐπὶ Λαζικὴν ἐχώρει,

καὶ ἐν ταύτῃ διατρίβων τοὺς Τούρκους ἐκ τῆς ἑῴας, οὓς Χάζαρεις ὀνομάζουσιν,

εἰς συμμαχίαν προσεκαλέσατο.

He took the third part himself and marched to Lazike,

and while staying there he summoned the Turks from the east, whom they name Chazars,

to an alliance.

[28] Theophanes the Confessor; Scott 1997, p. 446

Theophanes, A. M. 6117: Ziebel meets Heraclius before Tiflis

οἱ δὲ Χάζαρεις διαρρήξαντες τὰς Κασπίας πύλας ἐν Περσίδι εἰσβάλλουσιν εἰς τὴν χώραν τοῦ Ἀδραϊγάν

σὺν τῷ ἑαυτῶν στρατηγῷ Ζιέβηλ, δευτέρῳ ὄντι τοῦ Χαγάνου τῇ ἀξίᾳ·

καὶ ἐν οἷς ἂν τόποις διέβαινον, τούς τε Πέρσας ἠγμαλώτευον καὶ τὰς πόλεις καὶ κώμας τῷ πυρὶ παρεδίδουν.

ἀπάρας δὲ καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς ἀπὸ Λαζικῆς τούτοις συνήντησεν.

ὁ δὲ Ζιέβηλ τοῦτον ἰδὼν καὶ προσδραμὼν κατασπάζεται αὐτοῦ τὸν τράχηλον καὶ προσεκύνησεν αὐτόν, ὁρώντων τῶν Περσῶν ἐκ τῆς πόλεως τοῦ Τιφίλιος.

πᾶς δὲ ὁ λαὸς τῶν Τούρκων εἰς γῆν πεσόντες πρηνεῖς, ἐκταθέντες ἐπὶ στόμα τὸν βασιλέα ἐτίμων τιμὴν τὴν παρ᾽ ἔθνεσι ξένην.

ὁμοίως καὶ οἱ ἄρχοντες αὐτῶν ἐπὶ πετρῶν ἀναβάντες τῷ αὐτῷ σχήματι ἔπεσον.

προσήνεγκε δὲ ὁ Ζιέβηλ καὶ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ υἱὸν ἀρχιγένειον τῷ βασιλεῖ, ἠδυνόμενος τοῖς τούτου λόγοις καὶ ἐκπληττόμενος τὴν τε θέαν καὶ τὴν φρόνησιν αὐτοῦ.

ἐπιλεξάμενος δὲ ὁ Ζιέβηλ χιλιάδας μʹ ἀνδρῶν γενναίων ἔδωκε τῷ βασιλεῖ πρὸς συμμαχίαν καὶ αὐτὸς ὑπέστρεψεν εἰς τὴν ἰδίαν χώραν.

The Chazars broke through the Caspian Gates and invaded Persia, the land of Adraigan,

with their commander Ziebel, who was second to the Chagan in rank.

In every place they crossed, they took the Persians captive and gave the cities and villages to the fire.

The emperor also set out from Lazike and met them.

When Ziebel saw him, he ran up to him, kissed his neck and did obeisance to him, while the Persians looked on from the city of Tiphilios.

The whole host of the Turks fell flat on the ground, stretched out on their faces, and honoured the emperor with an honour strange among nations.

In the same way their commanders climbed on rocks and fell down in the same posture.

Ziebel also brought his own son, a youth with his first beard, before the emperor, delighted by the emperor's words and struck by his appearance and his wisdom.

Ziebel chose forty thousand brave men and gave them to the emperor as allies, and he himself returned to his own land.

[29] Theophanes the Confessor; Scott 1997, p. 447

References

  1. ^ Scott 1997
  2. ^ a b Scott 1997, xliii
  3. ^ Golden 1992, p. 102
  4. ^ a b Scott 1997, lv
  5. ^ Scott 1997, lxi–lxii
  6. ^ Scott 1997, lxii
  7. ^ a b Theophanes the Confessor
  8. ^ Scott 1997, p. 446
  9. ^ Theophanes the Confessor
  10. ^ Scott 1997, p. 363
  11. ^ a b Theophanes the Confessor
  12. ^ Scott 1997, p. 387
  13. ^ a b Theophanes the Confessor
  14. ^ Scott 1997, p. 389
  15. ^ a b c Theophanes the Confessor
  16. ^ Theophanes the Confessor
  17. ^ a b Scott 1997, p. 448
  18. ^ a b Aslan 2025, p. 687
  19. ^ Mango 1990, p. 181
  20. ^ Scott 1997, lxxxi
  21. ^ Scott 1997, lxxxvii
  22. ^ Scott 1997, lxxxi–lxxxii
  23. ^ Howard-Johnston 1999, lxxv
  24. ^ Howard-Johnston 1999, lxviii
  25. ^ Theophanes the Confessor; Scott 1997, p. 362
  26. ^ Theophanes the Confessor; Scott 1997, p. 385
  27. ^ Theophanes the Confessor; Scott 1997, p. 389
  28. ^ Theophanes the Confessor; Scott 1997, p. 446
  29. ^ Theophanes the Confessor; Scott 1997, p. 447

Literature

  • Cyril Mango, Roger Scott (trans.), The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor: Byzantine and Near Eastern History AD 284–813 (1997)
  • Carl de Boor (ed.), Theophanis Chronographia, vol. I (1883)
  • R. W. Thomson (trans.), James Howard-Johnston (commentary), The Armenian History attributed to Sebeos (1999)
  • Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)
  • Cyril Mango (ed., trans.), Nikephoros, Patriarch of Constantinople: Short History (1990)
  • İlhan Aslan, Herakleios Dönemi Bizans-Sasani Savaşında Müttefik Bir Güç: Batı Türk Kağanlığı (2025)

Articles resting on this source 29

al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah · Askel · Barjik · Busir Glavan · Captives and the Unfree · Cherson · Danube Bulgaria · Derbent · Diplomacy of the Steppe Empires · Flight of the Avars (557) · Göktürk Expansion along the Silk Road · Göktürk prisoners with the cross (591) · Göktürk–Persian war, 588–589 · Heraclius · Kartlis Tskhovreba · Maniakh's embassy to Constantinople, 568 · Meeting of Heraclius and Ziebel (627) · Nikephoros · Siege of Tiflis (627–629) · Skull Cup · Tamatarkha · The Caucasus campaign, 627–629 · Theodora of Khazaria · Theophylact Simocatta · Tiflis · Tong Yabgu · Tzitzak · Volga · Women among the Turkic Peoples

Related

What links here12

Persons
Askel · Bagha Shad
Conflicts
Göktürk–Persian war, 588–589 · The Caucasus campaign, 627–629
Places
Cherson · Tamatarkha · Volga
Institutions and Titles
Skull Cup
Sources
John of Ephesus · Kartlis Tskhovreba · Nikephoros · Theophylact Simocatta

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Theophanes the Confessor.” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/sources/theophanes-confessor/

Last revised: 8 November 2026