The Chronicle, specifically the version from the Iberikon monastery, narrates the events that depict the Avaro-Slavic conquest and colonization of mainland Greece, covering a period from 587 to 805 AD.
[2] The first manuscript of the Chronicle was published in 1749 by Joseph Pasinus (or Giuseppe Passini) and his colleagues, Rivautella and Berta, at the Royal Library of Turin.
[6] However, Koder's argument was rejected by I. Dujčev based on the Chronicle's allusion to Emperor Nikephoros II (r. 963–969), who lived after Arethas.
[8] S. Kougeas dates the composition of the text to after the reign of Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas (r. 963–969)[9] whereas Michael Whitby states that the Chronicle was first composed in the Peloponnese in circa 1000 AD.
[12] The city of Monemvasia, specifically, was built at the time on the coast in an inaccessible region of the Peloponnese by groups that would later be known collectively as Tzakones.
[12] Due to the more rugged terrain of the eastern Peloponnese, the areas from Corinth to Cape Malea remained under Roman (Byzantine Greek) control.
[11] Most of the narrative in the Chronicle is derived from works by Evagrius Scholasticus, Theophanes the Confessor, Menander Protector, and Theophylactus Simocatta.
[20] Another example entails the Corinthians' migration to the island of Aegina in the Saronic Gulf, which is contradicted by a correspondence (February 591 AD) between Pope Gregory the Great and Archbishop Anastasius of Corinth.
[21] Other sources that contradict the Chronicle include canons from the Sixth Ecumenical Synod (691–692) held in the Trullian Hall of the Great Palace of Constantinople, as well as the Taktika composed by Emperor Leo III the Isaurian (r. 717–741) between 733–746; both sources mention a continued presence of Greeks and church administrative institutions throughout mainland Greece with no indication of long-term Slavic demographic/political overlordship.
[24] The island of Kythera, on the other hand, was abandoned along with other coastal sites due to attacks conducted by one or more Slavic fleets.