O City of Byzantium: Annals of Niketas Choniates

by Nicetas Choniates, Harry J. Magoulias (Translator)

O City of Byzantium is the first English translation of a history which chronicles the period of Byzantine history from 1118 to 1207. The historian Niketas Choniates provides an eye-witness account of the inexorable events that led to the destruction of the longest lived Christian empire in history, and to the ultimate catastrophe of the fall of Constantinople in 1204 to the Fourth Crusade. For the student of the Middles Ages who cannot read Greek, and for the historians and the general public, this volume contains one of the most important historical accounts of the Middle Ages. Recorded in detail are the political, economic, social, and religious causes of alienation between the Latin West and the Greek East that separated the two halves of the Christian world and broke apart the great bulwark of European civilization.

Genres: History, Medieval, Nonfiction

476 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1984

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a challenging review to write, because it is difficult to describe a book of such paramount importance to the study of History in general, as well as myself personally, without sounding grandiose and over the top.

I first read this book as an undergraduate while exploring the Byzantine history stacks in the library. Then as now, I was enamored with Byzantine studies, and voraciously read every book in English I could get my hands on. I had seen references in many other works to Choniates’ Annals, and ofcourse I understood the chronology of the events of the Komnenoi dynasty and the Fourth Crusade; however, I was still taken aback by the power of this work. Re-reading it a decade later it loses none of its impact upon me.

Choniates’ characters, moreso than in other contemporary historians, come to life as fully fleshed out human beings. Even the heroes of the book (John II and Manuel) are checked by Choniates for their flaws; even the villains (Andronikos, Doge Dandolo) are given their due for their more redeeming qualities. Choniates prose is masterful at weaving in Biblical and Classical references so seamlessly that without the footnotes in many cases you would likely fail to know it was a reference at all. Furthermore, and this is also a compliment to the translator, his sense of humor comes through well and many of his phrasings are capable of evoking a laugh. The dashes of humor are an effective counterweight to what would otherwise be -from the second half of Manuel’s reign onward- a series of unending disasters and calamities culminating with the apocalyptic Fourth Crusade.

The most powerful chapters in the book are the sections dealing with the Battle of Myriokephalon and the Fourth Crusade. Myriokephalon has been rightly described by historians as one of the most important battles of history, in terms of deciding the course of future events. Had the Myriokephalon campaign been successful, the Romans successful in conquering Ikonion and with it retaking the interior of Asia Minor, it seems easy to envision a scenario where the 4th Crusade doesn’t occur or is repulsed by a resurgent Empire with a stable Eastern frontier on the Euphrates. Counterfactuals aside, the course of history would have been radically altered in any case. Choniates does a fantastic job of describing the battle and it’s aftermath, he is quick to describe Manuel’s efforts to save face after the campaign, mirroring no doubt the official imperial bulletins. However, it’s the description of a dazed and defeated Manuel sitting under a shade tree after suffering the greatest military disaster in Byzantine history which resonates with the reader centuries later.

The Fourth Crusade is described equally admirably, and is Choniates’ masterpiece. The narrative of the fighting is florid and gripping, but it is the first hand account bearing witness to the sack of Constantinople, what must be considered one of the worst episodes in human history, that staggers the reader. Beyond the human toll, a tragedy in every sack of every city in times of war, the cultural loss to humanity is excruciatingly recounted. Choniates enumerates only the most important works lost, ancient artwork and statuary smashed or melted by the Crusaders. The description of thousand year old statues sculpted by Phidias, gigantic bronzes of Hercules and other massive antique monuments gathered by Emperors over the millennia melted down to make bronze coins, strike the reader with a deep sense of cultural loss. When he describes the Crusaders destroying books, mocking the literate Byzantines for their “effeminate” ability to read and write, the reader is forced to wonder what antique works were lost? How many of Sappho’s poems did we lose that day? How many of the lost books of Plutarch’s Lives would we otherwise still have? Would we have the missing books of Livy’s Roman history? I often wonder how many books managed to survive the destruction of the Library of Alexandria only to be lost to oblivion in the Fourth Crusade? In many ways, the unknown among the precious works lost is just as heartbreaking as the known.

While the subject matter is certainly not happy reading, the book itself is a masterpiece. Both the prose itself and the importance of the content make the work doubly important and doubly powerful. If you are a Byzantine history student or possess a keen interest in the subject, the effort you put into finding a copy of this book (and based on its rarity, it will require effort) will be rewarded.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two and a half centuries before the Ottomans finally dispatched the remains of the Byzantime Empire, Constantinople fell for the first time, to Crusaders who were supposed to conquer Egypt but were steered by the Venetians seeking reparations toward the Bosporus. Byzantium never fully recovered. Niketas Choniates witnessed the succession of dreadful emperors who weakened the empire in the two and a half decades before the Fourth Crusade made Constantinople a Latin kingdom. The culprit is that common defect of monarchies -- the obsession with a male heir left a foolish thirteen year old and his foreign mother in charge, with disastrous results for them and for that part of the world. Choniates is often criticized for being flowery and it is true that one metaphor is never enough, and that sometimes even five aren't. But, unlike the Byzantine historians who precede him, Michael Psellus and Anna Comnena, Choniates loved his city first and foremost. Unlike them, he is not particularly interested in himself or his family, although Choniates' account of fleeing the city as it falls--making the girls walk in the middle of the group with faces disguised by dried mud to keep them safe--is riveting. His long account of the Byzantine and even Hellenic wonders that the Crusaders melted down to make crude bronze coins makes clear how much was lost forever. His account directs withering fire at those responsible for the ruin of the civilization her loved, softened only by a mordant wit.

[Runan Lin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I initially looked into Niketas Choniates’ portrayal of the Fourth Crusade intending to find first-hand narratives that are biased towards the Byzantine side of the story, but his records were surprisingly (still relatively) largely neutral but nonetheless heartbreaking to read at times. Among all the primary sources I looked into for the Fourth Crusade, Niketas is the one I would recommend even to people who aren’t history nerds. Of course, the rest of the book retains the generally neutral style of narration and offers a good peek into the complex history of the Eastern Roman Empire recorded by an actual resident of it.

[Chuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first I didn't like Niketas Choniates for what he says about Anna Komnene. I suppose the idea of a woman writing a valuable work of history was scandalous in a way that could provoke some mean-spirited misogynist gossip, which I'd like to imagine wasn't the author's invention. That Anna write a serious history of her father's rule in an age when something like that was (like just about everything) men's work probably easily lead to the mockery of her as a man-hating shrew. Or she may have been a man-hating shrew. The 11th/12th century sounds like it was a grim, man-hating sort of time. Or she may have been a vampire with a penis captivus kink (SIDE RANT: the world truly needs more Byzantine tie-in-media, maybe minus the oddly specific kink).

As the history goes on, starting in the aftermath of the reign of Alexios I (1118 AD), the accounting of things gets more interesting as it gets closer to the author's own adult life, specifically during the time when he was likely in closer association with people who knew what was going on in the world (probably towards the end of the reign of Manuel I Komnenos, c.1170). I actually found myself enjoying Choniates' narrative more than Anna's. He has more specific anecdotes and individual tales of interest to spice things up. He seems to do a better job at swinging between wide-angle historical narratives and individual personal stories than Anna did. He also has some choice opinions about certain characters which liven things up at times. By the end though, after the tragedy of Constantinople's fall in 1204, I truly felt for the man even though he is mostly absent in his own recounting until then. It started to become clear that after a few hundred pages of all the ups and downs and WTF moments of history that he had written about, that the complete annihilation of his city and way of life was something that he couldn't quite put adequate words to (who could??) The marauding western crusaders of France, Italy and Germany, the traditional "good guys" from the Western Anglo-centric perspective, truly perpetuated one of the greatest crimes in history. As much animosity and rivalry as the Greeks and Turks and Arabs had, what the West did to the Christian empire in the East was unlike anything anyone had seen for generations.

[Mete Oguz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read!! Much better narrative, in my opinion, than Anna Komnene, or Michael Attaleiates due to Choniates' more neutral perspective regarding the imperial polity and military events. Details on the Fourth Crusade are also timelessly well written.

Recommended for purposes of learning about the 12th century.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A historical work of the upmost significance with a relevant and revealing introduction

[Koty Toty]

no thing

[Vaggelis · Rating 5 out of 5]

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