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all the versions can be shown to derive from a single lost archetype—the origi-
nal translation—made around 1350.103
The Wa r relies for its tale overwhelmingly on its French source.104 As with
all the other vernacular texts associated with the Peloponnese, and even
though it deals with a quintessentially Greek tale that was very important
to the Byzantines, the Wa r displays minimal knowledge of Greek literature.
The writer/translator was almost certainly aware of the Troy story as given in
Konstantinos Manasses’ Historical Synopsis, as he includes details from it that
are not in the French tale; nevertheless, the flavour of the tale overwhelmingly
reflects the original French work, with the ancient heroes presented as wholly
medieval western knights. Like the author of the Greek Chronicle, the writer
of the Wa r employs a mixed language with both contemporary and archaic
forms; he similarly employs the fifteen-syllable political verse, and his style is
highly formulaic—like the Chronicle, the formula rate is broadly comparable
to that in the French chansons de geste.105
The Trojan War was important to both the Franks and the Byzantine Greeks
because of the theory of translatio imperii. Both cultures, under the influence
of Virgil’s Aeneid, agreed that Troy was the fount of political authority, and
there was general agreement that after the destruction of Troy at the hands
of the Greeks this authority had passed through Aeneas to Rome. From there,
for the Byzantines, the line of authority was clear, passing from the Old to
the New Rome of Constantinople. This line of authority, fundamental to the
Byzantine Empire’s sense of its own past, seems to have taken on renewed
importance under the Komnenoi, as witness the “Homeric obsession” of the
12th century.106 In the medieval West, however, the desire to legitimise their
newer kingdoms led to the “discovery” of other specific Trojan progenitors—
in Britain it was Brutus, the son of Aeneas, in France it was Francus, the son
of Hector, and so on. This identification with ancient Troy within the western
identity also became especially marked in the 12th century, as witnessed by
Benoit de Sainte-Maure’s Roman de Troie, which is thoroughly on the side of
the Trojans. It is possible that it was the “close encounter” of the crusades that
103 The War of Troy (O Polemos tes Troados), ed. with a detailed commentary, Manoles
Papathomopoulos and Elizabeth M. Jeffreys (Athens, 1996).
104 Jeffreys, “Place of Composition,” pp. 311–12.
105 Papathomopoulos and Jeffreys, Polemos, pp. lxxxi–vi.
106 Anthony Kaldellis, Hellenism in Byzantium (Cambridge, 2007), p. 243.