Candidus Isaurus
Κάνδιδος Ἴσαυρος
(Κάνδιδος Ἴσαυρος), a Byzantine historian, a native of Isauria, whence his surname Isaurus. He lived in the reign of the emperor Anastasius, and held a high public office in his native country. He is called a man of great influence and an orthodox Christian, which is inferred from his advocating the decrees of the council of Chalcedon.
Works
History of the Byzantine Empire
His history of the Byzantine empire, in three books, which is now lost, began with the election of the emperor Leo the Thracian, and came down to the death of Zeno the Isaurian. It therefore embraced the period from A. D. 457 to 491.
A summary of its contents is preserved in Photius (cod. 79), to whom we are also indebted for the few facts concerning the life of Candidus which we have mentioned, and who censures the style of the historian for its affectation of poetical beauties.
A small fragment of the work is preserved by Suidas (s. v. Χειρίζω).
Editions
The extant fragments of Candidus are printed in the appendix to "Eclogae Historicorum de Reb. Byz.," ed. Labbe, which forms an appendix to " Excerpta de Legationibus, &c." ed. D. Hoeschelius, published by C. A. Fabrotus, Paris, 1648. They are also contained in the edition of Dexippus, Eunapius, &c. published in the Bonn collection of Byzantine writers.
Further Information
Comp. Hanke, Byz. Rer. Script. 2.3, p. 672, &c.; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vii. p. 543.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.