[4] Candidus' history, divided into three books, covered the period 457–491, from the start of the reign of Leo I through to the death of Zeno.
It described the great fire of 464, which destroyed the Palace of Lausus; Basiliscus' expedition against the Vandals in 468, including an account of its expenses; and the quarrel of Leo and Aspar, which led Leo to ally with Zeno and the Isaurians and have Aspar and his son Ardabur assassinated.
At this point, Candidus digressed to give an account of the origin of the Isaurians, with a proof of their descent from Esau.
[11] It also related a schism among the Christians of Antioch in the same period, when the monophysite bishop Peter the Fuller was deposed in favour of the Chalcedonian Julian.
His inclusion of ecclesiastical history in an otherwise secular account is unusual, but is probably explained by his need to contextualize Zeno's Chalcedonianism.
[13] Candidus' history can be contrasted with the lost work of his contemporary, Malchus of Philadelphia, which was critical of Leo, Zeno and the Isaurians.
[6] By criticizing his sentence construction and choice of words, he intimates that his literary education was deficient.
[7][15] His sympathetic and detailed account of the rebellion of Illus is hypothesized to have been derived at least in part from Candidus.
[16] Despite the loss of most of his text, Candidus is still "a primary source of foremost importance for the whole story of the Isaurian ascendancy under Leo and Zeno.