Abstract

One of the main trends of research on the Vita Basilii has been focused on the connections between this text and the rest of the historical work into which it was subsumed, the so-called Continuation of Theophanes. This research has significant implications for the chronology and the sources of the Vita, and for its function and meaning as well. Even if the circumstances of composition of both texts are far from being clear, and the same can be said of its authorship and most of its sources, a close examination of a set of key passages allows to throw some light on the chronology and the sources of the Vita. This passages can be found in the regnum Michaelis of the Continuation and in the Vita and refer to episodes with particular importance, as they constitute the core of the psógos of Michael III. This approach will show that the Vita Basilii can by no means be considered prior to the books I–IV of the Continuation and, therefore, will justify a reformulation of the current chronological hypothesis. In connection with the function and meaning of the Vita, it allows to interpret it as a stylistic reworking which pursued to be the last word of the emperor on the deeds of his dubious grandfather and, in fact, on the historical mission of the Macedonian dynasty.