The central narrative for the Byzantine Empire under Alexios III Angelos: the Bulgarian and Vlach war under Kaloyan, the breakaway of Ivanko in the Rhodopes and his capture by treachery in 1200, Dobromir Chrysos at Prosek and Strumica and the emperor's campaign and settlement with him, the Cuman raids into Thrace, John Komnenos the Fat's one-day revolt at Constantinople on 31 July 1200, the loosening of imperial control in the provinces and the rise of Leo Sgouros, and the court's fiscal abuses. Niketas was a senior official (logothete of the sekreta) and writes with a courtier's inside knowledge, but he is bitterly hostile to Alexios III and shapes the whole as a story of decline. Serbia, Cilicia, the Seljuks of Rum and Georgia appear only in passing.
About this source
- Title
- Chronike diegesis (Historia)
- Author
- Niketas Choniates
- Author's dates
- about 1155 to 1217
- Written
- about 1185 to 1217, in stages, with a final revision in exile at Nicaea after 1204
- Language
- Greek
- Covers
- 1118 to 1207
- Kind
- History
Van Dieten's critical text and Magoulias's English are in copyright and not freely online; the free text is Bekker's Bonn edition with Hieronymus Wolf's Latin. The title Historia is a modern label; the manuscripts call it Chronike diegesis. Copies of the copyrighted editions circulate on the Internet Archive without licence and are not linked here.
Where to read it
Editions
- I. Bekker (ed.), Nicetae Choniatae Historia, Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae (Bonn, 1835), Greek with Wolf's Latin
- J. L. van Dieten (ed.), Nicetae Choniatae Historia, Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae 11, 2 vols (Berlin, 1975), the critical text (not freely online)
Translations
- H. J. Magoulias, O City of Byzantium: Annals of Niketas Choniates (Detroit, 1984), English (not freely online)