Johannes Zonaras

TWELFTH CENTURY. Byzantine historian and canonist. At first the commander of the bodyguard of Alexius Comnenus, the emperor, Zonaras later became secretary of the chancery and then left Constantinople to become a monk on Hagia Glykeria. His most important work, a chronicle that extended to 1118, relied heavily on Dio Cassius's study. Other writings included a lexicon, several sermons, a commentary on Eastern synodal canons, and one of the canons of third- and fourth-century fathers.