Description:
Theodore Syncellus's sermons provide contemporary evidence for devotion to the Virgin Mary in Constantinople in the 620s, first the veneration of her miraculous Robe at her church in Blachernae, and second the central role she was believed to have played in saving the city in the Avar siege of 626.
Brief description: Michael Whitby is Emeritus Professor at the University of Birmingham. His many publications include The Cambridge Ancient History XIV, Late Antiquity, Empire and Successors A.D. 425-600 (Cambridge University Press 2000) co-edited with Averil Cameron and Bryan Ward-Perkins; Theodore Syncellus: The Homilies 'On the Robe and 'On the Siege' (TTH 86, Liverpool Unuversity Press 2024); and (with Richard Price), Theodore of Sykeon: The Life by George and the Encomium by Nicephorus the Treasurer (TTH 87, Liverpool University Press 2024) and with Jeff Childers and Claudia Rapp, Mark the Deacon: The Life of Porphyry of Gaza (Translated Texts for Historians 89, LUP 2025).
Review Quotes:
'Michael Whitby has done a great service to scholars in providing these excellent translations, commentaries, and introductions to two important homilies by the early seventh-century syncellus and preacher, Theodore. The translations are fluent and accurate while the notes provide useful background for every aspect of each text [...] Scholars, students and general readers will benefit from this book, which reflects Whitby's wide-ranging historical and literary background in the field of early Byzantine history.'
Mary B. Cunningham, Plekos