ABSTRACT
In general Theophanes seems aware that the language of these writers needs some simplification for his readers, sometimes substituting familiar phrases from the Psalms for Theophylakt's complex syntax. There are, however, some technical terms he simply does not understand, such as 'parasang' for which he substitutes 'miles' in varying quantities, which underlines his lack of understanding. Theophanes was similarly competent in his abridgement of a story from Prokopios' Persian War on Belisarios theatrical display to get the better of Chosroes at AM 6033, which also enables Theophanes to divert his readers' attention from the disasters of the Persian invasion. For Justinian, Malalas is Theophanes' main source and most of his Justinian is taken verbatim from Malalas. By the early ninth century of Theophanes, when Christianity faced a significant competitor in Islam and the Roman empire was under serious threat from the Arab world, the way of dealing with these external threats was to worry about correct belief internally.
