Theophylact Simocatta

Unlike contemporary chroniclers like Agathias and Menander, Theophylact did not include a preface with personal information in his History. As such, little is known about his life, besides what he occasionally remarks in passing throughout his writings. He was likely born towards the end of the 580s. He mentions that he was born in Egypt, and that his relative Peter was the prefect of Egypt in 602, from which it can be inferred that he was from a high-ranking Egyptian family. He may have studied at the University of Alexandria, then headed by the philosopher Stephen, whom Theophylact seems to allude to in the introductory Dialogue of his History. At around the age of twenty, shortly after the overthrow of Phocas by Heraclius in 610, Theophylact moved to Constantinople, where he pursued a highly successful legal and administrative career, eventually attaining the ranks of ex-praefectus and magister scrinii. He is mentioned in a 641 inscription from Aphrodisias in Caria, indicating that he was still alive at the time.

• Illustration — Byzantine Emperor Heraclius receiving the submission of the Sassanid king Khosrau II – during Simocatta's times (plaque from a cross. Champlevé enamel over gilt copper, 1160–1170, Meuse Valley). Housed at the Louvre. Simocatta is best known as the author of History, a work split into eight books, about the reign of the emperor Maurice (582–602), for which period he is the best and oldest authority. Though his work is of lesser stature than that of Procopius and his self-consciously classicizing style is pompous, he is an important source of information concerning the seventh-century Slavs, the Avars and the Persians, and the emperor's tragic end. He mentions the war of Heraclius against the Persians (610–628), but not that against the Arabs (beginning 629), so it is likely that he was writing around 630. Among his sources he used the history of John of Epiphania. Edward Gibbon wrote of Theophylact "His want of judgement renders him diffuse in trifles and concise in the most interesting facts". This notwithstanding, Simocatta's general trustworthiness is admitted. The history contains an introduction in the form of a dialogue between History and Philosophy. It alludes to Patriarch Sergius I of Constantinople as the man who encouraged the composition of the History, and possibly commissioned Theophylact to complete it. 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. Simocatta was also the author of Physical Problems, a work on natural history, and of a collection of 85 essays in epistolary form. In regards to the Far East, Simocatta wrote a generally accurate depiction of the reunification of China by Emperor Wen (r. 581–604 AD) of the Sui dynasty, with the conquest of the rival Chen dynasty in southern China, correctly placing these events within the reign period of Byzantine ruler Maurice. Simocatta also provided cursory information about the geography of China along with its customs and culture, deeming its people "idolatrous" but wise in governance. He also related how the ruler was named Taisson, the meaning of which was "Son of God", possibly derived from Chinese Tianzi (Son of Heaven, a title of the emperor of China) or even the name of the contemporaneous ruler Emperor Taizong of Tang.

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The Emperor Maurice and his historian: Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan warfare / Michael Whitby. Recorded as historian, writer and poet.

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