Editing Niketas Choniates

{{More footnotes|date=July 2023}}
{{Short description|Historian and government official (c. 1155–1217)}}
{{Infobox person
| image              = Niketas Choniates.jpg
| caption            = Choniates in an ancient manuscript
| native_name        = Νικήτας Χωνιάτης
| birth_date         = {{Circa|1155}}
| birth_place        = [[Colossae]]
| death_date         = {{Death year and age|1217|1155}}
| occupation         = {{hlist|Historian|politician}}
| family             = [[Michael Choniates]] (brother)
}}

'''Niketas''' or '''Nicetas Choniates''' ({{langx|grc-x-medieval|Νικήτας Χωνιάτης}}; {{Circa|1155}} – 1217), whose actual surname was '''Akominatos''' ({{lang|grc-x-byzant|Ἀκομινάτος}}), was a [[Byzantine Greeks|Byzantine Greek]] historian and politician. He accompanied his brother [[Michael Choniates|Michael Akominatos]] to [[Constantinople]] from their birthplace [[Chonae]] (from which came his nickname, "Choniates" meaning "person from Chonae"). Nicetas wrote a history of the Eastern Roman Empire from 1118 to 1207.

==Life==

Nicetas Akominatos was born to wealthy parents around 1150 in [[Phrygia]] in the city of [[Chonae]] (near the modern Honaz in Turkey). Bishop [[Nicetas of Chonae]] baptized and named the infant; later he was called "Choniates" after his birthplace. When he was nine, his father dispatched him with his brother [[Michael Choniates|Michael]] to [[Constantinople]] to receive an education. Niketas' older brother greatly influenced him during the early stages of his life.

He initially secured a post in the civil service, and held important appointments under the [[Angelos]] emperors (among them that of [[Megas Logothetes|Grand Logothete]] or Chancellor) and was governor of the [[Theme (Byzantine district)|theme]] of [[Plovdiv, Bulgaria|Philippopolis]] at a critical period. After the [[sack of Constantinople]] during the [[Fourth Crusade]] in 1204, he fled to [[İznik|Nicaea]], where he settled at the court of the [[Empire of Nicaea|Nicaean emperor]] [[Theodore I Lascaris]], and devoted himself to literature. He died in 1217.

His theological work, ''Thesaurus Orthodoxae Fidei'', although extant in a complete form in manuscripts, has been published only in part. It is one of the chief authorities for the [[heresy|heresies]] and heretical writers of the 12th century.

==Choniates in fiction==
[[Umberto Eco]]'s novel ''[[Baudolino]]''<ref>Milan: Bompiani, 2000. English translation by William Weaver, New York: Harcourt 2002, {{ISBN|0-15-100690-3}}</ref> is set partly at Constantinople during the Crusader conquest. The imaginary hero, Baudolino, saves Niketas during the sacking of Constantinople, and then proceeds to confide his life story to him.

Niketas is a major character in [[Alan Gordon (author)|Alan Gordon]]'s murder mystery ''A Death in the Venetian Quarter'' (New York: St. Martin's Minotaru, 2002).

==Editions and translations==
* ''Imperii Graeci Historia'', ed. [[Hieronymus Wolf]], 1557, in Greek with parallel Latin translation. ([https://books.google.com/books?id=7UM8AAAAcAAJ PDF of 1593 reprint])
* ''Nicetæ Choniatæ Historia'', ed. J.P. Migne ([[Patrologia Graeca]] vol. 140) reproduces Wolf's text (in more modern type) and translation (in standardized spelling). ([http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/30_20_1150-1217-_Nicetas_Acominatus_%28Choniatis%29.html PDF])
* ''Nicetae Choniatae Historia'', ed. [[Immanuel Bekker]], Bonn ([[Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae|CSHB]]), 1835, with Wolf's translation at the bottom of the page. ([https://archive.org/details/nicetaechoniata02chongoog at the Internet Archive])
* ''Nicetae Choniatae Historia'', ed. Jan Louis van Dieten, Berlin ([[Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae|CFHB]] #11), 1975 ({{ISBN|3110045281}}).
* ''O City of Byzantium: Annals of Niketas Choniates'', trans. Harry J. Magoulias, 1984 ({{ISBN|0814317642}}). ([https://www.pallasweb.com/p/O_City_of_Byzantium_Annals_of_Niketas_C.pdf PDF])

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{Byzantium Confronts the West}}
* Harris, Jonathan, ''Byzantium and the Crusades'', Bloomsbury, 2nd ed., 2014. {{ISBN|978-1-78093-767-0}}
* Harris, Jonathan. 'Distortion, divine providence and genre in Nicetas Choniates' account of the collapse of Byzantium 1180–1204', ''[[Journal of Medieval History]]'', vol. 26 (2000) 19–31.
* Simpson & Efthymiadis (edd.). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=PgVXVNfU_swC Niketas Choniates: A Historian and a Writer]'', 2009, {{ISBN|978-954-8446-05-1}}
* {{cite journal | last = Vasilikopoulou | first = Agni | title = Ἀνδρόνικος ὁ Κομνηνὸς καὶ Ὀδυσσεύς | journal = Ἐπετηρίς Ἐταιρείας Βυζαντινῶν Σπουδῶν | volume = 37 | year = 1969 | pages = 251–259 | language = el }} A seminal work on Choniates' use of [[Homer]].

==External links==
* [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/choniates1.html Excerpt in English] on the [[Sack of Constantinople]] in 1204.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20041214090645/http://www.kcl.ac.uk/kis/schools/hums/byzmodgreek/Z304/NicetasSignis.htm A longer excerpt] on the same.
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Acominatus, Michael}}

{{Byzantine historians}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Niketas Choniates}}

[[Category:1150s births]]
[[Category:1210s deaths]]
[[Category:12th-century Byzantine historians]]
[[Category:13th-century Byzantine historians]]
[[Category:13th-century Byzantine government officials]]
[[Category:Christian anti-Gnosticism]]
[[Category:People from Colossae]]
[[Category:People from the Empire of Nicaea]]