Theophanes the Confessor

Theophanes the Confessor (c. b. 760 Constantinople – d. March 12, 818, Samothrace), Byzantine chronicler and monk. The Church canonized him as a saint. His “Chronography” was written around 810–814 and covers the events of 284–813 (Theophanes the Confessor uses the system of reckoning according to which the era began on September 1, 5493 BC). It contains quite a lot of information about Georgia, some of which (the Christianization of Kartli, the apostasy of the Laz king Tsate from the Iranians and his re-Christianization, the battle of the Byzantines and Iranians for St. Petra, the 562 treaty between Byzantium and Iran, the Iranian campaign in Svaneti) is compiled on the basis of other sources and does not contain any significant news. His information was of particular importance for clarifying the position of Kartli and Lazica during the wars of the Byzantine emperor Heraclius with Iran, as well as for the history of Arab campaigns in the South Caucasus. There is also other information about the political situation in Georgia in the 7^th–8^th centuries.

 

Source: გეორგიკა. ბიზანტიელი მწერლების ცნობები საქართველოს შესახებ, ს. ყაუხჩიშვილის გამოც., ტ. 4, ნაკვ. 1, თბ., 1941.