ABSTRACT
To the modern reader the view of world-history that Malalas provides may seem quaint, but this same representation of the past, or something closely akin to it, continued to be read throughout the Byzantine state whether in Malalas or in chronicles adapted from Malalas. In effect Malalas' presentation of real Greek history is restricted to the Macedonian kings Philip and Alexander together with a few lists of great names. In contrast to this dehellenized view of the past, Roman history is much more important to Malalas, but his treatment of it is similar. Prokopios' classicising Wars belongs, of course, to a different genre from Malalas' world chronicle. Prokopios' attitudes and interests seem to cut across any supposed differences in social status or intellectual level between him and Malalas. Malalas' neglect of classical Greece is mild in comparison with the pugnacious derision of the Akathistos and Romanos.
