[Footnote 57: We must now, for some ages, take our leave of
contemporary historians, and descend, if it be a descent,
from the affectation of rhetoric to the rude simplicity of
chronicles and abridgments. Those of Theophanes
(Chronograph. p. 244 - 279) and Nicephorus (p. 3 - 16)
supply a regular, but imperfect, series of the Persian war;
and for any additional facts I quote my special authorities.
Theophanes, a courtier who became a monk, was born A.D. 748;
Nicephorus patriarch of Constantinople, who died A.D. 829,
was somewhat younger: they both suffered in the cause of
images Hankius, de Scriptoribus Byzantinis, p. 200 - 246.]