IMC 2004: Sessions
Session 1314: The Historian Niketas Choniates
Wednesday 14 July 2004, 16.30-18.00
| Sponsor: | Department of Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies, King's College, University of London |
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| Organiser: | Judith E. Herrin, Department of Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies, King's College London |
| Moderator/Chair: | Anthony A. M. Bryer, Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman & Modern Greek Studies, Department of Classics, Ancient History & Archaeology, University of Birmingham |
| Paper 1314-a | Niketas Choniates, Historian of 1204 (Language: English) Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Crusades, Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Greek |
| Paper 1314-b | Before and after 1204: The Different Versions of Niketas Choniates' Historia (Language: English) Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Greek |
| Paper 1314-c | John V, Anne of Savoy, and an Imperial Training Programme Designed to Preserve a Dynasty (Language: English) Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Greek |
| Abstract | Niketas Choniates is the most outstanding historian of Byzantium. His predecessors, Michael Psellos, Anna Komnene and others, manifest great qualities, but do not equal his originality and brilliance. His Historia, written in classicizing Greek, is the chief account of 1204 written from within Constantinople. The work has been preserved in two versions; the first written before 1204 was subject to a drastic revision, undertaken when Niketas was an impoverished refugee in the 1220s. This work in turn inspired Anna of Savoy to commission a vernacular version in demotic Greek, designed to strengthen the Palaiologan dynasty in the 14th century. |