Niketas Choniates
Nicetas Choniates (Greek: Νικήτας Χωνιάτης, c. 1155-1215 or 1216), sometimes called Acominatus, was a Byzantine Greek historian like his brother Michael whom he accompanied from their birthplace Chonae to Constantinople.
He initially took up politics as a career and held several appointments under the Angelus emperors (amongst them that of Grand Logothete or chancellor) and was governor of the theme of Philippopolis at a critical period. After the capture of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204, he fled to Nicaea, where he settled at the court of the Nicaean emperor Theodoras Lascaris, and devoted himself to literature. He died c. 1215-16. His chief work is his History, in 21 books, of the period from 1118 to 1207.
In spite of its florid and bombastic style, it is of considerable value as a record (on the whole impartial) of events of which he was either an eyewitness or had heard of first hand. Its most interesting portion is the description of the capture of Constantinople, which should be read with Villehardouin's and Paolo Rannusio's works on the same subject. The little treatise On the Statues destroyed by the Latins (perhaps, as we have it, altered by a later writer) is of special interest to the archaeologist. His dogmatic work (Thesaurus Orthodoxae Fidei), although it is extant in a complete form in manuscripts, has only been published in part. It is one of the chief authorities for the heresies and heretical writers of the 12th century.
Nicetas in fiction
Umberto Eco's novel Baudolino (Milan: Bompiani, 2000. English translation by William Weaver, New York: Harcourt 2002, ISBN 0-15-100690-3) is set partly at Constantinople during the Crusader conquest. The imaginary hero, Baudolino, is a friend and confidant of Nicetas.
References
- Brand, Charles M. Byzantium Confronts the West, 1968, ISBN 0-7512-0053-0
- Choniates, Nicetas. The Sack of Constantinople
- Choniates, Nicetas. Excerpt from the Historia
- Harris, Jonathan. 'Distortion, divine providence and genre in Nicetas Choniates' account of the collapse of Byzantium 1180-1204', Journal of Medieval History, vol. 16 (2000) 19-31
- Magoulias, Harry J. (transl.). O City of Byzantium, Annals of Niketas Choniates, 1984, ISBN 0-8143-1764-2
- Nicetae Choniatae Historia, ed. Jan Louis van Dieten, Berlin, 1975.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
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