Theodorus Lector

An artist's view of Constantinople in Byzantine times
Theodorus likely witnessed the destruction of the Hagia Sophia during the Nika riots in 532. He had previously been a reader at the basilica. Shown here are the remains of sculpture work adorning the old church as Theodorus knew it.

Theodorus Lector (Greek: Θεόδωρος Ἀναγνώστης, Theodoros Anagnostes) was a lector, or reader, at the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople during the early sixth century.[note 1] He wrote two works of history; one is a collection of sources which relates events beginning in 313, during Constantine's early reign, down to 439, during the reign of Theodosius II. The other is Theodorus' own work, retelling events from the death of Theodosius II in 450 to the beginning of Justin I's reign in 518. The former work is important to scholars editing the authors quoted by Theodorus; the latter exists only in fragment and owes its importance more to the "scantiness of our information concerning the period it treats rather than its merits."[1]


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