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In 1039 Byzantium was the most powerful empire in Europe and the Near East, controlling the Balkans south of the Danube and all of Asia Minor into Armenia and Syria. By 1079 it had become a politically unstable state half the size, menaced by powerful enemies on all sides. The History of Michael Attaleiates is our main source for this astonishing reversal, and offers a gripping narrative of the foreign and civil wars of those years. Attaleiates was a highly placed legal and military official of the empire with first-hand knowledge of the events he describes. He knew many of the emperors and includes an eyewitness account of the battle of Mantzikert (1071), where the Seljuk Turks crushed the Byzantine armies and opened the door for the permanent Turkish conquest of Asia Minor. He also provides vivid narratives of civil unrest and decries the corruption and economic exploitation of his society, looking to the heroes of the Roman Republic for models of nobility.
Michael Attaleiates’ History has never before been translated into English. The present translation, based on the most recent critical edition, makes the text accessible through its notes, maps, and glossary of Byzantine terms.
- Sales Rank: #831699 in Books
- Published on: 2012-11-19
- Original language: Ancient Greek
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.00" h x 1.50" w x 5.50" l, 1.67 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 656 pages
Review
This history is the most useful account of Byzantium's critical fall from a major empire to a state struggling for survival. The English translation follows the original Greek as faithfully as 11th-century Greek could allow. The translators have taken some minor liberties in order to make the reading easier to follow. (T. Natsoulas Choice 2013-05-01)
About the Author
Anthony Kaldellis is Professor of Classics at The Ohio State University.
Dimitris Krallis is Assistant Professor of Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University.
Most helpful customer reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
Fine DOML text and translation
By Kirialax
This shall be a brief review given that this is an excellent edition and a much needed translation of an important Byzantine historical text. As per usual in the review of a primary source, I am only reviewing the edition and not Attaleiates' work or his skill as an historian. Michael Attaleites was a legal official in the mid-late eleventh century in Byzantium, and was sufficiently placed in high positions to witness or have access to the materials needed to produce a good history. What we have here begins around 1034 and ends around 1079/80. The text presents Nikephoros III Botaneiates as a true saviour of the Roman Empire, and even has some good things to say about his loyal general Alexios Komnenos. Evidently, then the text was not reworked after 1081 when that supposedly loyal general usurped the throne from Botaneiates. The chronological scope of the text is similar to that of Psellos' The Chronographia, although the focus is refreshingly different. While Psellos wrote about himself and palace politics in Constantinople, Attaleiates gives most of his attention to military matters, and thus the two texts complement each other nicely, and the ending books of Attaleiates also provide a slightly different version of events described in the begging of Anna Komnene's Alexiad. This text certainly raises some important questions about both Psellos and Anna: where is Nikephoritzes in Psellos, and moreover, where is Psellos in Attaleiates? In the 'Chronographia' Psellos writes himself in as one of the most important characters of the mid-late eleventh century, but evidently Attaleiates did not share that view.
The edition and translation themselves are of a high quality. Physically, the volume is a robust hardback complete with a bookmark string and in an attractive shade of purple. As a series these Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Texts seem to be the long-awaited Byzantine and medieval equivalent to the Loeb Classical Library, and the similarities are clear: affordable hardbacks with the original text and facing translation. While I did not read much of the Greek, I found myself constantly glancing over to the text to see just what the translators were working with, and I agree with their assessment that Attaleiates is a verbose and often imprecise writer, and their translation reflects that nicely. Two minor problems stand out, and this is where this edition loses the single star. First, the Greek text sections are very long. As the translators note, this is not their text. They are using the text of Perez Martin from about a decade ago, and Attaleiates is to blame as well for not dividing up his work. Whereas a Loeb text will frequently have four or five sections per page of Greek, this often has one or less, and sections frequently run well over a page. I understand the translators' reticence to change the formatting of Martin's Greek text, but a suitable means of ameliorating this problem would have been to add line numbers on each page and note in the introduction that they do not belong to Martin's text. Loebs are regularly used as teaching and standard reference texts because they are so easy to use. I cannot count the number of times that I've gone in a circle in a Greek reading course with each person taking a section. Unfortunately, that is not possible with this text because instead of a sentence or two these sections are a page or two.
My other complaint is with the notes. They are sparse, and they were never expected to be complete. This is a text and translation and not a commentary. It's their position that is the problem. As the translators note in the introduction, Attaleiates is often imprecise and simply refers to individuals as "him" when it is not clear from the context who he is referring to. The notes are very good at clarifying this, but the end notes constantly send you flipping to the back. At 359 end notes, that's a lot of flipping to the back of the book! Since most are only a few words, I see no reason they could not have been footnotes. This is not to criticize Krallis and Kaldellis, but rather the publishers, who are probably still sorting out this new and important series. I've drawn the comparison to the Loeb Classical Library before, and those texts use footnotes which do not impinge upon the reading of the text. Similarly for the Greek, there is no critical apparatus. The apparatus in the Loebs tends to be quite basic and only notes fairly important problems, but unfortunately one has no idea just what sort of textual problems might exist here without consulting Martin's edition.
As a whole, this is an excellent text and translation of an important Byzantine source. The problems I've noted are minor and belong to the press and not the translators. For the price, this attractive and useful volume is indispensable for anyone who studies 11th c. Byzantium, the arrival of the Turks in the Near East, or medieval warfare.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
Prime Resource
By A Reader
This is a beautiful edition of the translation of the history written by Michael Attaleiates over 900 years ago. I have appreciated getting a different perspective on events occuring in the author's lifetime, aside from those of Anna Comnena and Michael Psellus. Attaleiates, a lawyer and judge of the time, has a clear voice and describes well the times he lived in, providing some details tha the other two don't. The translation breaks the work into coherent sections, rather than just one long work, and that is a huge help to the reader.
Attaleiates voice comes through as intelligent and competant, as an esteemed attorney would be. It is different from Anna Comnena's more lyrical writing, or Michael Psellus' gossipy, self-congratulatory tone. It is more like John Skylitzes' history, although not as detailed.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Essential
By Nikephoros
Attaleiates’ history of the period c. 1039-1079 is here translated into English for the first time, with Greek facing text, in a superb hardcover edition. Attaleiates paints a horrid picture of the situation in east as Turk invasions swept through those parts, the ‘Huns’ pillaging and massacring at will. Almost as horrid is the picture painted of the state of the Byzantine army. Eventually, at the accession of Romanos IV Diogenes (1068) a phase of concerted Byzantine counter-attack was put into action. The end result of all this was the famous Byzantine defeat at Manzikert (1071). The reign of the defeated and captured emperor -- whom Attaleiates knew personally, accompanying him on campaign in a non-combat role -- is portrayed in a heroic light (though he offers some criticism) and his description of Romanos’ later blinding and death is moving. This and so much more are to be found in this history.
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