Scriptor Incertus

{{italic title}}

Scriptor Incertus de Leone Armenio ("unknown writer on Leo the Armenian") is the conventional Latin designation given to the anonymous author of a 9th-century Byzantine historical work, of which only two fragments survive.

The first fragment, preserved in the 13th-century Vat. gr. 2014 manuscript (interposed into descriptions of the Avaro-Persian siege of Constantinople and the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople, as well as hagiographical texts) in the Vatican Library, deals with the 811 campaign of Emperor Nikephoros I ({{reign|802|811}}) against the Bulgars, which ended in the disastrous Battle of Pliska.{{sfn|Kazhdan|1991|pp=1855–1856}} Discovered and published in 1936 by I. Dujčev, it is also known as the Chronicle of 811, or the Dujčev Fragment.{{sfn|Stephenson|2010}}{{sfn|Neville|2018|p=81}}

The second, which is preserved in the early 11th-century B.N. gr. 1711 manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris along with the chronicle of the so-called "Leo Grammaticus", deals with the reigns of Michael I Rhangabe ({{reign|811|813}}) and Leo V the Armenian ({{reign|813|820}}) that followed after Nikephoros I.{{sfn|Kazhdan|1991|pp=1855–1856}} The date of authorship is disputed, but the vividness of the narrative suggests that it was written by a contemporary of the events described.{{sfn|Kazhdan|1991|pp=1855–1856}}

The two fragments were identified{{sfn|Grégoire|1936|pp=417–420}} as forming part of the same work by Henri Grégoire based on similarities in style. Although generally an unreliable indicator, this hypothesis has since been commonly accepted.{{sfn|Kazhdan|1991|pp=1855–1856}} Both fragments provide information not included in the contemporary histories of Theophanes the Confessor and Theophanes Continuatus, and Grégoire hypothesized, again based on style, that the Scriptor Incertus was a continuation of the work of the 6th-century historian John Malalas.{{sfn|Kazhdan|1991|pp=1855–1856}} The second fragment was known to, and used by, the late 10th-century Pseudo-Symeon Magister, but he does not appear to have used it for the sections of his history before Michael I.{{sfn|Kazhdan|1991|pp=1855–1856}}