LEO THE DEACON. - Byzantine chronicler, b. at Kaloe near Mount Tmolus in 950; Skylitzes, in the preface to his History, calls him by the name of

L. the Asian, while Cedrenus calls him L. of Caria. As a young man he was in Constantinople; having been made a deacon, he followed the emperor Basil II the Bulgar-Slayer in the war against the Bulgarians (986); he fell prisoner of the enemy in the siege of Triaditza, the ancient Sardica (Sofia).

He wrote Historiae libri X covering the years 959 to 975 (ed. B. Hase, Paris 1819; PG 117, 655-926), divided into three periods: the Romans against the Arab corsairs of Crete; the war in Asia; the war against the Bulgarians and the Russians. L.'s style links back to that of the Byzantine chroniclers of his time such as Agathias and Theophylact. His information is supplied to him by witnesses present at the events. The descriptions concerning the Arabs and the Bulgarians are interesting; the portrayals of the reigns of Nicephorus Phocas are good. The history, unfinished, was probably written in 992.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: G. Schlumberger, Nicéphore Phocas, Paris 1890; Krumbacher, p. 266 ff., Romualdo Paolucci

@incollection{ec7_leone_diacono, author = {Paolucci, Romualdo}, title = {Leone Diacono}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {1136}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/leone-diacono} }

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Leo the Deacon

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