Dukas der Erzähler versus Dukas den Historiker

Since Karl Krumbacher's Geschichte der Byzantinischen Litteratur (18972) the predominant view among Byzantinists and historians is that Dukas's outstanding qualities are love of truth and accuracy. Analyzing several passages of the text, this paper demonstrates that truth and accuracy concerning real persons and real time are in fact not his primary objectives. His objective is a dramatic story, and as an unconstrained narrator he claims the right to manipulate characters, dates and circumstances. He even conflates diverse persons and facts he knew from the oral tradition into a new narrative that is consistent and convincing in and of itself. [Publisher's text]