The history of Theophanes of Byzantium is lost. What survives is the summary that Photios made of its ten books in his Bibliotheca.[1] According to Photios, the first book began with the Persian war that followed the breaking of the treaty between Justinian and Khosrow. Khosrow and Justin II broke it at the end of Justin’s second year. The narrative ran to the tenth year of the war.[2] Theophanes also mentions that he had written of Justinian’s reign. He evidently added further books to the ten Photios read.[2]
The ten books covered the reigns of Justin II and Tiberius, from 566 to 581, and dwelt above all on the wars with Persia.[3] Theophanes wrote after 581.[4] His editor placed the writing in the last years of the emperor Maurice.[3]
The Göktürks in the fragments
The first passage on the Göktürks names them. East of the Tanais, it says, dwell “the Turks, who were called Massagetae of old, and whom the Persians in their own language call Kermichiones”.[2] At that time they sent envoys with gifts to Justin II, asking him not to receive the Avars. The emperor accepted the gifts, treated the envoys kindly and sent them home. Later the Avars came and asked to settle in Pannonia and for peace. He refused them, because of the word he had given to the Göktürks and the agreements he had made.[2]
The second passage begins with silk. Under Justinian, a Persian who had come from the land of the Seres brought the eggs of the silkworm to Byzantium hidden in a hollow cane. He showed the Romans how the worms were raised. Later Justin II showed the Göktürks how silk was bred and worked. They were astonished, for the Göktürks then controlled the markets and ports of the Seres.[5] The Persians had controlled them before. Then Ephthalanus, the king of the Hephthalites, from whom the whole people took its name, defeated Peroz and the Persians. The Hephthalites became masters. A little later the Göktürks defeated the Hephthalites in battle and took these places from them in their turn.[5] Justin sent Zemarchus as envoy to the Göktürks. Zemarchus feasted them and was received with every courtesy, and he returned to Byzantium. For this reason, the fragment continues, Khosrow marched against the Homerites, who were friends of the Romans.[5]
Interpretations
Modern accounts have used the first passage to show that the Kermichiones or Hermichiones of the Byzantine writers were the Göktürks themselves. On that basis, the envoys whom Theophanes the Confessor reports from Askel, king of the Hermichiones, in 563 have been taken for Göktürks.[6] Others hold that the passage says only that the Massagetae, the Göktürks and the Kermichiones occupied the same country one after another. They identify the Kermichiones with the people who came to Europe as the Avars.[7]
Relation to the other sources
Theophanes is one of five writers of the late sixth century who tell of Zemarchus’s embassy, beside John of Ephesus, Menander, John of Epiphania and Theophylact Simocatta.[4] The Greek accounts survive only in fragments, so it is not settled who borrowed from whom.[4] The edition sets the fragments beside Menander’s account of the Göktürk victory over the Hephthalites and of Zemarchus’s embassy.[8]
Reliability
Theophanes wrote in the generation of the events. The summary keeps the Persian name of the Göktürks, their request that Justin refuse the Avars, and a link between the Göktürk conquest of the Hephthalites and the trade of the Seres. What survives, however, is Photios’ abridgement, not Theophanes’ text.
The passage
τὰ πρὸς εὖρον ἄνεμον τοῦ Τανάϊδος Τοῦρκοι νέμονται οἱ πάλαι Μασσαγέται καλούμενοι, οὓς Πέρσαι οἰκείᾳ γλώσσῃ Κερμιχίωνάς φασι.
Καὶ αὐτοὶ δὲ ἐν τῷ τότε δῶρα καὶ πρέσβεις πρὸς βασιλέα Ἰουστῖνον ἔστειλαν, δεόμενοι μὴ ὑποδέξασθαι αὐτὸν τοὺς Ἀβάρους.
Ὁ δὲ τὰ δῶρα λαβὼν καὶ ἀντιφιλοφρονησάμενος, ἀπέλυσεν εἰς τὰ οἰκεῖα.
Τοῖς δὲ Ἀβάροις ὕστερον ἐλθοῦσι καὶ Παννονίαν οἰκῆσαι καὶ εἰρήνης τυχεῖν δεομένοις, διὰ τὸν πρὸς τοὺς Τούρκους λόγον καὶ τὰς συνθήκας οὐκ ἐσπείσατο.
Towards the east wind from the Tanais live the Turks, who were called Massagetae of old and whom the Persians in their own language call Kermichiones.
They too sent gifts and envoys at that time to the emperor Justin, asking him not to receive the Avars.
He took the gifts, returned the kindness and sent them back to their own country.
When the Avars came later and asked to live in Pannonia and to obtain peace, he made no treaty with them, because of his word to the Turks and the agreements.
[9] Theophanes of Byzantium; Müller 1851, p. 270
τὴν τῶν σκωλήκων γένεσιν ἀνὴρ Πέρσης, βασιλεύοντος Ἰουστινιανοῦ, ἐν Βυζαντίῳ ὑπέδειξεν, οὔπω πρότερον ἐγνωσμένην Ῥωμαίοις.
Οὗτος δὲ ἐκ Σηρῶν ὁρμηθεὶς ὁ Πέρσης, τὸ σπέρμα τῶν σκωλήκων ἐν νάρθηκι λαβὼν μέχρι Βυζαντίου διεσώσατο, καὶ τοῦ ἔαρος ἀρξαμένου ἐπὶ τὴν τροφὴν τῶν συκαμίνων φύλλων ἐπαφῆκε τὰ σπέρματα·
τὰ δὲ τραφέντα τοῖς φύλλοις ἐπτεροφύησέ τε καὶ τἄλλα εἰργάσατο.
Ὧν τήν τε γένεσιν καὶ τὴν ἐργασίαν ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἰουστῖνος ὕστερον τοῖς Τούρκοις ὑποδείξας ἐθάμβησεν.
Οἱ γὰρ Τοῦρκοι τότε τά τε Σηρῶν ἐμπόρια καὶ τοὺς λιμένας κατεῖχον·
ταῦτα δὲ πρὶν μὲν Πέρσαι κατεῖχον·
Ἐφθαλάνου δὲ τοῦ Ἐφθαλιτῶν βασιλέως, ἐξ οὗ καὶ τὸ γένος ἔσχε τὴν κλῆσιν, Περόζην καὶ Πέρσας νικήσαντος, ἀφηρέθησαν μὲν τούτων οἱ Πέρσαι, δεσπόται δὲ κατέστησαν Ἐφθαλῖται.
Οὓς μικρῷ ὕστερον μάχῃ νικήσαντες Τοῦρκοι ἀφεῖλον ἐξ αὐτῶν καὶ ταῦτα.
Ἰουστῖνος δὲ Ζήμαρχον ἐς τοὺς Τούρκους πρέσβιν ἀπέστειλεν, ὃς καὶ λαμπρῶς ἑστιάσας τε τοὺς Τούρκους, καὶ ἐς τὰ μάλιστα φιλοφρονηθείς, ἐς τὸ Βυζάντιον ἐπανήει.
A Persian man, in the reign of Justinian, showed in Byzantium how the silkworms are born, a thing not yet known to the Romans before.
This Persian had set out from the land of the Seres. He took the seed of the worms in a hollow cane and kept it safe as far as Byzantium, and when spring began he put the seeds on the leaves of the mulberry trees for food.
The worms, fed on the leaves, grew wings and did the rest of their work.
The emperor Justin later showed the Turks how these were born and how they worked, and astonished them.
For at that time the Turks held the markets and the harbours of the Seres.
The Persians had held these before.
But when Ephthalanos, the king of the Ephthalites, from whom the people also took its name, defeated Peroz and the Persians, the Persians were deprived of these places and the Ephthalites became their masters.
A little later the Turks defeated them in battle and took these places from them in turn.
Justin sent Zemarchos as envoy to the Turks. He feasted the Turks splendidly and was shown the greatest kindness, and returned to Byzantium.
[10] Theophanes of Byzantium; Müller 1851, p. 270–271
References
- ^ Dickens 2021, p. 538
- ^ a b c d Theophanes of Byzantium
- ^ a b Müller 1851, p. 270
- ^ a b c Dickens 2021, p. 539
- ^ a b c Theophanes of Byzantium
- ^ Scott 1997, p. 352
- ^ Chavannes 1903, p. 231–232
- ^ Müller 1851, p. 270–271
- ^ Theophanes of Byzantium; Müller 1851, p. 270
- ^ Theophanes of Byzantium; Müller 1851, p. 270–271
Sources
Literature
- Karl Müller (ed.), Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, Bd. IV (darin: Menandri Protectoris fragmenta, griechisch mit lateinischer Übersetzung) (1851)
- Mark Dickens (Turkish trans.), Zemarkhos'un elçiliği hakkında Efesli Yuhanon (John of Ephesus on the Embassy of Zemarchus) (2021)
- Édouard Chavannes, Documents sur les Tou-Kiue (Turcs) occidentaux (1903)
- Cyril Mango, Roger Scott (trans.), The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor: Byzantine and Near Eastern History AD 284–813 (1997)
Articles resting on this source 8
Askel · Istemi · Katulph · Maniakh's embassy to Constantinople, 568 · Subjugation of the Alans and Onogurs (before 576) · The embassy of Zemarchos, 569 · Valentinos · Zemarchos
What links here3
- Sources
- John of Ephesus
Cite this article
Yavuz, Emre-E. “Theophanes of Byzantium.” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/sources/theophanes-of-byzantium/
Last revised: 8 November 2026
