Writing about Byzantium

Niketas Choniates lived in Constantinople during its sack by the soldiers of the Fourth Crusade, and his chronicle of the period has long been the chief guide for anyone studying the Comnene dynasty and the Byzantine Empire of the twelfth century. The text is notoriously hard to read. The historian declares at the outset that he hoped artisans and women would benefit from his account, but his prose is dense, ornate and frequently obscure, and scholars have given it relatively little attention given how much depends on it.

This study offers an introduction to Niketas and to his explanation of why the period brought such disaster upon the Byzantines. It examines his ideas about writing history, his treatment of the emperors and particularly the Comnene rulers, his view of God's involvement in human affairs, and his attitudes toward the women of the imperial family.