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Balkans and Anatolia (11th–12th c.)Culture and art

Michael Psellos writes the Chronographia

Courtier, philosopher and adviser to a succession of emperors, Michael Psellos wrote a history of the century from Basil II's accession in 976 to the reign of his own pupil Michael VII Doukas. Built around vivid portraits of fourteen emperors and empresses and full of his own memories, the Chronographia is the principal source for 11th-century Byzantium and one of the masterpieces of Byzantine prose.

Date
c. 1059 – c. 1078year known, approximate · duration: ≈ 19 years
Place
Constantinopletoday: Istanbul, Turkey · Balkans and Anatolia
Participants
Michael Psellos, Byzantine Empire
Threads
Balkans and Anatolia (11th–12th c.)
Also known as
Chronographia; Хронография; Fourteen Byzantine Rulers

Psellos, born Constantine in 1017 or 1018 and known by his monastic name Michael, rose from the imperial chancery to become a confidant of Constantine IX Monomachos and the leading teacher of philosophy in Constantinople, with the title "chief of the philosophers"; he championed the study of Plato and was once forced to make a public profession of his orthodoxy. He played a part in the changes of ruler in 1057, 1059 and 1071, was to have been the chief accuser of Patriarch Michael Cerularius at a synod that never met because the patriarch died in 1059, and later delivered his funeral oration.

The Chronographia begins where the History of Leo the Deacon ends, with the death of John Tzimiskes, and covers the reigns of fourteen rulers. It was written in two stages: the first part, ending with the abdication of Isaac I Komnenos in 1059 and probably written soon afterwards, is the more detached; the second, written under Michael VII, is largely a eulogy of Psellos's patrons, the Doukas family. Instead of a year-by-year chronicle Psellos offered character studies and political memoir; he gives few dates, sometimes confuses the order of events and says little about foreign affairs, so historians read him alongside Michael Attaleiates and John Skylitzes. Scholars debate whether his praise is sincere or, as Anthony Kaldellis argues, conceals an ironic and critical view of the emperors he served.

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11th century

Sources

  1. Wikipedia (English): Michael Psellos
  2. Wikipedia (English): Isaac I Komnenos
  3. Wikipedia (Russian): Михаил Пселл
  4. Wikipedia (Russian): Хронография (Михаил Пселл)
  5. Michael Psellus. Fourteen Byzantine Rulers: The Chronographia / tr. E. R. A. Sewter. — Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1966.
  6. Kaldellis A. The Argument of Psellos' Chronographia. — Leiden: Brill, 1999.
  7. Wikidata: Q20552009