Niketas Choniates: a Historiographical Study

This book is a historiographical study of the History written by the Byzantine statesman Niketas Choniates (c.1160–c.1217). This significant text covers the period in Byzantine history that begins with the death of the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos in 1118 and culminates with the capture of Constantinople by the armies of the Fourth Crusade in 1204. It is also one of the most accomplished works in Byzantine literature. The book examines issues such as the complicated textual tradition and transmission of the text, as well as its potential audience, the structure and content of the imperial biographies which lay at the heart of the History, the sources utilized by the historian, and the models which guided him. It also investigates the author’s biography and his other works, namely the theological treatise Dogmatike Panoplia and his orations and letters.