[1][2] Although he lived and worked in Constantinople, his family hailed from elsewhere, as he records in a letter a visit by his mother by ship to Pylae, on the Asian shore of the Propontis, probably during the early 920s.
In these letters, Romanos I criticized Symeon as rapacious and warlike, while trying to move him to accept a peace bringing an end to the long war between Byzantium and Bulgaria.
[1] Ten more letters to rulers and ecclesiastical leaders in Bulgaria and Armenia, written on behalf of Romanos I in the period 925–933, survive, indicating that Daphnopates probably held the post of head of the imperial chancery (protasekretis).
[1] A number of modern scholars—Ivan Dujčev, R. J. H. Jenkins, and Patricia Karlin-Hayter—have suggested that Daphnopates was the author of the anonymous speech celebrating the conclusion of peace with Bulgaria in 927 (ἐπὶ τῇ τῶν Βουλγάρων συμβάσει) and the concurrent marriage of Tsar Peter, the son and successor of Symeon, with Maria Lekapene, the granddaughter of Romanos I.
At about the same time he also wrote a letter to the emperor himself concerning a eulogy on a recently deceased person, identified by modern scholars with Romanos Lekapenos, who died on 15 June 948.
In accordance to this dream, the emperor intended to reinstate an anonymous leading official, who some modern scholars have identified as Daphnopates' predecessor and eventual successor as Eparch, Sisinnios, or the Patriarch of Constantinople, Polyeuctus.
Daphnopates continued to correspond with high officials, including his successors, Sisinnios and Constantine, keeping up connections or intervening on behalf of former colleagues.
His authorship has been rejected, however, by several scholars, including A. Markopoulos ("Theodore Daphnopatès et la Continuation de Théophane", JÖB 35 (1985), pp.
171–182), the authors of the French edition of Skylitzes' history, Bernard Flusin and Jean-Claude Cheynet, and by the editors of Daphnopates' correspondence, J. Darrouzès and L. G.