Note from Gloria Nova Romae Byzantina: Our blog inaugurates a tribute to medieval chronographers. Today we present the Armenian Matthew of Edessa. We gathered information from English Wikipedia and some excerpts from his Chronicle. These excerpts are very useful in order to understand the 11th and part of the 12th centuries in Byzantium. Matthew of Edessa ( Armenian : Մատթեոս Ուռհայեցի , Matteos Uṛhayetsi; born in the second half of the 11th century – 1144) was an Armenian historian in the 12th century from the city of Edessa ( Armenian : Ուռհա , Uṛha). Matthew was the superior abbot of Karmir Vank' (Red Convent), near the town of Kessoun, east of Marash (Germanicia), the former seat of Baldwin of Boulogne . He relates much about the Bagratuni Kingdom of Armenia , the early Crusades , and the battles between Byzantines and Arabs for the possession of parts of northern Syria and eastern Asia Minor . [1] Byzantine authors such as John Zonaras and
“καί ἐπί τῆς αὐτοῦ βασιλείας ἐνεκαινίσθη τό τότε Βυζάντιον ἐπί τῆς ὑπατείας Γαλλιανοῦ καί Συμμάχου, Τοῦ αὐτοῦ δέ βασιλέως Κωνσταντίνου ποιήσαντος πρόκεσσον ἐπί πολύν χρόνον, ἀπό Ρώμης ἐλθόντος ἐν τῷ Βυζαντίῳ ὅστις καί τό πρώην τεῖχος τῆς αὐτῆς πόλεως, ἐκέλευσεν αὐτήν Κωνσταντινούπολιν λέγεσθαι, ἀναπληρώσας καί τό Ἱππικόν καί κοσμήσας αὐτό χαλκουργήμασι καί πάσῃ ἀρετῄ, κτίσας ἐν αὐτῷ καί κάθισμα θεωρίου βασιλικοῦ καθʹ ὁμοιότητα τοῦ ἐν Ρώμῃ ὅντος.” (Ἰωάννης Μαλάλας: "Χρονογραφία")