Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-31T23:14:54.787Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Michael Choniates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2010

Michael Angold
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Get access

Summary

michael Choniates was a pupil of Eustathius and, as we have seen, held him in the highest regard. His career was rather different from that of his master. For one thing he held no teaching position in Constantinople. He began his career as secretary to the Patriarch Michael Ankhialos' (1170–8). He was then singled out in 1182, still only in his early forties, by the Patriarch Theodosius Boradiotes (1179–83) for promotion to the important see of Athens. There seems not to have been that struggle for preferment which faced Eustathius at the start of his career. The origins of Michael Choniates and of his younger brother, the historian Nicetas, are nonetheless obscure. As their surname betrays they came from Chonai, a town of western Asia Minor close to the Turkish frontier. They had the backing of the saintly metropolitan of Chonai, also called Nicetas, whose reputation counted for something at the imperial court. Their family may have been important locally, but nothing more. It is therefore likely that the brothers owed their success in the first instance to their undoubted ability rather than to family background. But ability could still bring wealth and social prestige. In Michael's case the best evidence is provided by the impressive library that he brought with him from Constantinople to Athens. His brother Nicetas had more tangible signs of wealth in the property he accumulated at Constantinople.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Michael Choniates
  • Michael Angold, University of Edinburgh
  • Book: Church and Society in Byzantium under the Comneni, 1081–1261
  • Online publication: 06 July 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511562341.012
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Michael Choniates
  • Michael Angold, University of Edinburgh
  • Book: Church and Society in Byzantium under the Comneni, 1081–1261
  • Online publication: 06 July 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511562341.012
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Michael Choniates
  • Michael Angold, University of Edinburgh
  • Book: Church and Society in Byzantium under the Comneni, 1081–1261
  • Online publication: 06 July 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511562341.012
Available formats
×