Michael Choniates

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Michael Choniates or Acominatus (Greek: Μιχαήλ Χωνιάτης,c. 1140 – 1220), Byzantine writer and ecclesiastic, was born at Chonae (the ancient Colossae). At an early age he studied at Constantinople and was the pupil of Eustathius of Thessalonica. Around 1175 he was appointed archbishop of Athens, a post he held until the capture of the city by the Fourth Crusade in 1205.[1] After the establishment of the Latin Empire (1204), he retired to the island of Ceos, where he died.

Though he is known to classical scholars as the last possessor of complete versions of Callimachus' Hecale and Aetia,[2] he was a versatile writer, and composed homilies, speeches and poems, which, with his correspondence, throw considerable light upon the miserable condition of Attica and Athens at the time. His memorial to Alexios III Angelos on the abuses of Byzantine administration, the poetical lament over the degeneracy of Athens and the monodies on his brother Nicetas and Eustathius, archbishop of Thessalonica, deserve special mention.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ N.G. Wilson, Scholars of Byzantium 1983:204-06.
  2. ^ A.S. Hollis, "A New Fragment on Niobe and the Text of Propertius 2.20.8" The Classical Quarterly, New Series, 47.2 (1997:578-582).

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