О такозваној "хроници српских владара" из списа De Administrando Imperio цара Константина VII Порфирогенита
On the so Called “Chronicle of the Serbian Rulers” of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus’ De Administrando Imperio

Author(s): Tibor Živković
Subject(s): Diplomatic history, Political history, 6th to 12th Centuries
Published by: Vizantološki institut SANU
Summary/Abstract: The analysis of sources Constantine Porphyrogenitus used for his text De Administrando Imperio has shown, on the example of chapters 43–46, and 50, that the emperor used first-rate documents: orders to Byzantine district commanders and officials, and their reports from the field, instructions to diplomatic missions in foreign countries, diplomatic letters sent to the rulers of foreign nations and their replies, the payroll of imperial officials, last wills, chrysobulls, orders on promotions to the high ranks of patrician, proconsul, protospatarios and various reports of the “ministries” for foreign affairs and for finance. The abundance of archive material which the emperor used and the consistent methodology which he implemented throughout the writing, lead to the conclusion that he could not have deviated much from this methodology even in chapter 32, dedicated to the Serbs. And while the first part of the presentation about the Serbs was written on the basis of a source that covered the history of the Serbs from the time of their settlement in Dalmatia to around 856 AD, for the period from 890 to 933 AD, Constantine Porphyrogenitus used the same type of sources he used for chapters 43–46, and 50 — primarily diplomatic letters exchanged between the emperors in Constantinople and the Serbian archontes. The relative chronology that appears in chapter 32 was most probably established on the basis of an indiction which these letters were dated by — because diplomatic letters in Byzantium were dated solely by indictions until the 13th century, without absolute chronology. This excludes the possibility that, for this part of the presentation about the Serbs, Constantine Porphyrogenitus used the so-called Chronicle of Serbian Rulers, as it has been believed in historiography so far.

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