Logoi Historias across Time: Evolution and Interrelationships in the Writing of Speeches and Letters in Byzantine Historical Works

The report of someone’s spoken or written words, mostly in the form of speeches and letters, is a typical and somehow standardized element of Byzantine historical works related to classical models. Throughout the centuries, however, this literary element does not remain totally unchanged, and this “evolution”, together with the presence of historiographical logoi also in other types of history writing (namely chronicles and ecclesiastical histories), may provide some insights into the difficulties posed by the traditional “boundaries” and “oppositions” that still govern the taxonomy of texts in Byzantine literature. In this paper some case-studies will be analysed, with selected authors from the 6th and 7th centuries (Procopius of Caesarea, Agathias of Myrina, Theophylact Simocatta, Evagrius Scholasticus and Chronicon Paschale) and a foray into the 11th and 12th centuries (with the Historia syntomos attributed to Michael Psellos and the Synopsis Chronike by Constantine Manasses).