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The History of Joannes Zonaras (or John Zonaras), originally titled Epitome of Histories (Greek: Ἐπιτομὴ Ἱστοριῶν), is a 12th-century Byzantine chronicle of world history, written by the historian and court official Joannes Zonaras.

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Summary and structure
Epitome of Histories is a chronicle of world history, with a particular focus on the Roman and then Byzantine Empire. The work covers an immense historical timespan, extending from the creation of the universe to the death of the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos in 1118. Though the work is most often divided into a set of eighteen books by modern historians, Zonaras himself appears to have conceived it as two books. In this two-book division, the second book covered the history of the Roman Empire, whereas the first book dealt with Jewish (the creation of the universe to the AD 70 destruction of the Second Temple) and pre-imperial Roman history (from Aeneas to the falls of Corinth and Carthage). The portion dealing with Jewish history is sometimes referred to as the Hebreica by modern scholars.

Zonaras's first book appears to have been intended as an "archaeologia", forming an account of the chosen people of God (in this work both the Jews and the Romans) whereas the second book covers imperial history, from Pompey and Caesar to Alexios I. There are strong "Christianizing" elements throughout the work, not only in the early parts that deal with the creation of the world. Throughout the narrative of Roman imperial history, information on the reigns of the Roman emperors is intertwined with church history. Typically, an abbreviated account of an emperor's reign is given, followed by key contemporary church events.

Division
The first book of Zonaras comprises books 1–9 in the modern eighteen-book division. Books 1–6 covers Jewish history and books 7–9 covers Roman history.

Historical background
Zonaras began working on the Epitome at some point after the death of Alexios I Komnenos, after he had retired to the monastery of St. Glyceria. Why and exactly when Zonaras retired is not known, but his retirement may in fact have been self-imposed exile driven by political expediency. Though Zonaras believed himself to be a competent historian, paying close attention to substance and style, he also claims in the work that it was written somewhat reluctantly, only undertaking the great project after being pressured to do so by his friends.

Zonaras used a wide assortment of sources for the composition of the Epitome. The extensive timespan of historical events summarized in Zonaras's first book (or the modern books 1–9) was based on, among others, the writings of Herodotus, Xenophon (most prominently the Cyropaedia), Plutarch (prominently Life of Artaxerxes and Life of Alexander) and Theodoret. Though Zonaras was heavily influenced by the Christian historiographic traditions of his time, he was thus also willing to introduce elements from a wide assortment of classical scholars. For early church history, up until the time of Constantine the Great, the main source used was the writings of Eusebius.9

Reception and later history
Zonaras's work was positively received almost immediately and became influential in Byzantine historiography. The work was used and cited already by Zonaras's younger contemporaries, such as the poet Constantine Manasses and the historian Michael Glykas (both around 1150), who used it as a source in their own historical writings.

The Epitome is often considered to be the perhaps most sophisticated Byzantine world history. It survives today in several ancient manuscripts and later translations. By the middle of the 16th century, copies of the Epitome had spread to Northern Europe, where the historian Hieronymus Wolf came into the possession of a copy. In 1557, Wolf produced a first edition of a translation and by 1560, Wolf's edition of the work had been translated into French and German. To Wolf, the Epitome (mostly the narrative from Constantine the Great onwards) formed the cornerstone of his project to construct a continuous narrative history of the Byzantine Empire, from its beginnings to the Fall of Constantinople. The work is not only of interest to Byzantinists, but also to scholars of ancient Rome, given that it effectively summarizes earlier historical works that are now lost, such as the early books of Cassius Dio, and that it provides an account of the third and fourth centuries AD, otherwise a period with few literary sources.