Conscious as they were of their classical and biblical past, the Byzantines wrote much history. Until the early 7th century a series of historians recounted the events of their own time in classicizing style, with fictitious speeches and set descriptive pieces, in a genre that owed much to the classical Greek historians Thucydides and Polybius. Procopius, Agathias, Peter the Patrician, Menander Protector, and Theophylactus Simocattes each took up where a predecessor left off. Thereafter this vein virtually ran dry for 250 years. The revival of cultural confidence and political power in the late 9th century saw a revival of classicizing history, with an interest in human character—Plutarch was often the model—and the causes of events. Joseph Genesius in the 10th century and the group of historical writers known collectively as the Continuators of Theophanes recorded, not without partiality, the origin and early days of the Macedonian dynasty. From then until the later 14th century there was never a generation without its historian. The most noteworthy historians were Symeon the Logothete and Leo the Deacon in the 10th century; Michael Psellus, Michael Attaleiates, and John Scylitzes in the 11th century; Anna Comnena, John Cinnamus, and Nicetas Choniates in the 12th century; George Acropolites and George Pachymeres in the 13th century; and Nicephorus Gregoras and the emperor John Cantacuzenus in the 14th century. The last days of the Byzantine Empire were recounted from very different points of view by George Sphrantzes, the writer known simply as Ducas (who was a member of the former Byzantine imperial house of that name), Laonicus Chalcocondyles, and Michael Critobulus in the second half of the 15th century.

Another kind of interest in the past was satisfied by world chronicles, beginning with the creation or some early biblical event. Often naively theological in their explanation of causes, black-and-white in their depiction of character, and popular in language, they helped the ordinary Byzantine to locate himself in a scheme of world history that was also a history of salvation. The Chronographia of John Malalas in the 6th century and the Paschal Chronicle (Chronicon Paschale) in the 7th century were succeeded by those of Patriarch Nicephorus at the end of the 8th century, Theophanes the Confessor in the early 9th century, and George the Monk in the late 9th century. Such chronicles continued to be written in later centuries, sometimes with critical and literary pretensions, as in the case of John Zonaras, or in vaguely romanticized form in verse, as in the case of Constantine Manasses.

The importance that Byzantine rulers attached to history is attested by the vast historical encyclopaedia compiled on the orders of Constantine VII (913–959) in 53 volumes, of which only meagre fragments remain.

Rhetoric

Though there was no opportunity for political or forensic oratory in the Byzantine world, the taste for rhetoric and the appreciation of well-structured language, choice figures of speech and thought, and skillful delivery remained undiminished in Byzantine society. From the 10th century onward survives a vast body of encomiums, funeral orations, memorial speeches, inaugural lectures, addresses of welcome, celebrations of victory, and miscellaneous panegyrics. This outpouring of polished rhetoric played an important role in the formation and control of public opinion in the limited circles where opinions mattered and occasionally served as a vehicle of genuine political controversy. To this same domain belong the myriad Byzantine letters, often collected and edited by their author or a friend. These letters were not intended to be either private or informative—real information was conveyed orally by the bearer—but they were important in maintaining networks of contact among the elite as well as in providing refined aesthetic pleasure.

Old Athenian School

The Greek state established as a result of the Greek War of Independence (1821–29) consisted only of a small section of the present-day Greek mainland and a few islands. Athens, which became the capital of Greece in 1834, soon came to be the chief cultural centre, gathering together writers from various areas, particularly Constantinople. The Soútsos brothers, Aléxandros and Panayótis, introduced the novel into Greece, but they are best known for their Romantic poetry, which as time went by moved gradually away from the Demotic (“popular”), or commonly spoken, language toward the Katharevusa (“purist”) form institutionalized by Koraïs. The work of these writers, which relied greatly on French models, looks back to the War of Independence and the glorious ancient past. Their melancholy sentimentality was not shared by Aléxandros Rízos Rangavís, a verbose but versatile and not inconsiderable craftsman of Katharevusa in lyric and narrative poetry, drama, and the novel. By the 1860s and ’70s, however, Athenian poetry was generally of poor quality and was dominated by a sense of despair and longing for death. In the period 1830–80, prose was dominated by two opposing trends: the historical novel attempted to present a glorious picture of the Greek past while novels set in the present tended to be satirical or picaresque in nature. Emmanuel Roídis’ novel I Pápissa Ioánna (1866; Pope Joan) is a hilarious satire on medieval and modern religious practices as well as a pastiche of the historical novel. Pávlos Kalligás, in Thános Vlékas (1855), treated contemporary problems such as brigandage. In Loukís Láras (1879; Eng. trans., Loukis Laras) Dimítrios Vikélas presented a less heroic view of the War of Independence.