New traces of Trajan the Patrician?
Two well known mentions of Trajans, a historian and a general, in the chronicle of Theophanes Confessor are analyzed in connection with three episodes from the original version of George the Monk (cod. Coisl. 305 + Slavonic L ě tovnik ), which betray one or more ancient, but otherwise unidentifiable traditions on events of the 2nd half of the 4th c. All of these episodes fit into a narrow chronological frame (364-379) and share at least three of the following features: they 1) describe or are attached to an emperor's death or accession; 2) display the author's education, particularly in medicine; 3) show strong Orthodox (Nicaean) convictions; 3) involve in some way barbarian peoples, particularly Goths. The proposed hypothesis is that there existed a very early (late 4th c.) work connected with or focused on the general Trajan (d. 378), which under Justinian II (685-711) was included into a short chronicle with a title like Χρονικὸν σύντομον κατὰ Τραϊανὸν τὸν πατρίκιον, which was later interpreted by Suda (IV. 582) as the author's name. Theophanes and George the Monk possibly borrowed pieces from that chronicle through a common historiographic dossier.