Nicetas Choniates

"Il saggio traccia una sintesi della civiltà bizantina, dalla fondazione di Costantinopoli alla Quarta Crociata. A tutti gli effetti continuazione dell'impero romano, Bisanzio riuscì ad assimilare positivamente le Völkerwanderungen che determinano il crollo della prima Roma, facendo della multietnicità e del dinamismo verticale delle élites un punto di forza e una costante. Se nell'effimero progetto giustinianeo di riunificazione dell'impero universale prevalevano ancora una gravitazione occidentale e un’ottica vetero-romana, il superamento, a partire da Eraclio, della prospettiva italocentrica segnò il vero inizio dell'età bizantina. A Eraclio vanno ascritti due traguardi fondamentali: la creazione del sistema dei temi e il definitivo soggiogamento dell’impero persiano, nella gran parte dei cui ex-territori subentrerà ben presto, tuttavia, il nuovo interlocutore arabo. Tra il VII e l’VIII secolo, con l'accentuazione dei tratti aneuropei in campo economico, sociale, artistico, culturale, si assiste alla vera e propria nascita della concezione bizantina del potere. L’età dell'iconomachia, a lungo giudicata “buia”, coincide in realtà con una fase di prosperità economica: il compiersi del processo di deurbanizzazione e la trasformazione territoriale favoriscono l’accentuarsi della vocazione statalista e predispongono il grande “risorgimento culturale” del IX-X secolo. La sconfitta dell'iconoclasmo vede anche la sconfitta del platonismo e l'affermarsi dell'aristotelismo come filosofia ufficiale del cristianesimo medievale. Il regno di Basilio I e della dinastia macedone segna la cosiddetta "età d'oro" dell'impero bizantino. Il X e XI secolo conoscono più tormentati rapporti tra stato e chiesa, che culminano nello scisma del 1054 tra chiesa d’oriente e chiesa d’occidente (in definitiva sfida del patriarca Cerulario al basileus) e un incremento politico ed economico della nobiltà militare provinciale, che si affermerà definitivamente con la dinastia dei Comneni. Proprio con il regno comneno, in particolare con la concessione dei privilegi commerciali a Venezia da parte di Alessio I, deve farsi coincidere l’inizio della fase calante dell'economia bizantina, ininterrotta fino al XV secolo, simmetrica e inversa all'ascesa del protocapitalismo occidentale dei traffici, cui l’antica egemonia di Bisanzio sarà progressivamente sottomessa e la sopravvivenza stessa della basileia infine sacrificata. Al riaccendersi della prospettiva di restaurazione dell'impero universale corrisponderà – nelle forme del ripiegamento sociale e dell'indebolimento statale – maggiore vulnerabilità nella politica pratica. Con queste premesse Bisanzio subirà, nel 1204, la forza distruttiva della “deviazione” della Quarta Crociata: una catastrofe inaspettata e forse per questo ancora più traumatica della definitiva caduta del 1453 sotto i turchi osmani.

This essay outlines the history of Byzantine civilisation from the founding of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade.  In every way a continuation of the Roman empire, Byzantium succeeded in assimilating to positive effect the Völkerwanderungen that determined the fall of the first Rome, creating a point of strength and allegiance out of the multi-ethnic, ascendant vertical dynamism of the élites.  If gravitation toward the West and an antiquated Roman perspective still prevailed in Justinian’s ephemeral project to reunify the universal empire, the shift beyond the Italo-centric perspective from Heraclius on marked the true beginning of the Byzantine era.  Two fundamental achievements are ascribed to Heraclius: the creation of the system of themes and the definitive subjugation of the Persian empire, to whose ex-territories, however, the new Arab interlocutor would soon succeed.  Between the 7th and 8th centuries, with the accentuation of non-European traits in economic, social, artistic, and cultural fields, we begin to see the emergence of the authentic Byzantine concept of power.  Long considered “dark,” the age of iconomachy coincided, in reality, with a phase of economic prosperity.  The culmination of the process of de-urbanisation and transformation of the territory favoured the accentuation of a state-centred vocation and set the stage for the great “cultural revival” of the 9th and 10th centuries.  The defeat of iconoclasm also saw the defeat of Platonism and the affirmation of Aristotelianism as the official philosophy of Medieval Christianity.  The reign of Basil I and the Macedonian dynasty marked the so-called “golden age” of the Byzantine empire.  The 10th and 11th centuries saw more tormented relations between church and state, culminating in the Schism of 1054 between the Eastern and Western churches (ultimately the patriarch Cerularius’ challenge to the basileus) and a political and economic increase in the provincial military nobility that would assert itself definitively with the Comnenian dynasty.  The beginning of the decline of the Byzantine economy - uninterrupted until the 15th century, symmetrical in nature and the inverse of the ascent of Western trade proto-capitalism to which the ancient hegemony of Byzantium would be gradually subjugated and the very survival of the basileia ultimately sacrificed - began precisely with the Comnenian dynasty, in particular, with the concession of commercial privileges to Venice by Alexius I.  To the reawakening of the prospect of a restoration of the universal empire would correspond – in the form of social withdrawal and weakening of the state – greater vulnerability in political practice. Under these conditions Byzantium would, in 1204, be subjected to the destructive force of the “detour” of the Fourth Crusade: an unforeseen catastrophe and perhaps for this reason even more traumatic than the definitive fall in 1453 at the hands of the Osmanli Turks. 
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The text is devoted to the analysis of the portrayal of Tărnovo, the new capital of the restored near the end of the twelfth century Bulgarian state, in the historical work and speeches by Niketas Choniates, a Byzantine historian, official and rhetorician from the latter half of the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. As a direct witness of the contemporary Byzantine-Bulgarian relations, a high ranking court dignitary throughout most of the discussed period, and the author of the most important sources shedding light on the restitution of Bulgaria, he left a legacy of extraordinary importance, one which has shaped views of the subsequent generations of Byzantine historians. While examining Tărnovo's role shows it did not occupy a particularly significant place in the historian's narrative, and the remarks concerning it appear as if in passing, he nonetheless was fully conscious of the city's significance not only for the Bulgarians themselves, but also in the context of the prospective expansion of the Empire in the direction of its northern neighbours. It is therefore no accident that in his brief characterisation the city the author focused on the description of the defensive qualities of Tărnovo. Paradoxically, his arguments on this subject may play an important role in the present ongoing discussion among the archaeologists exploring the former capital on the subject of chronology and size of the fortifications surrounding the two most important hills on which the city developed, namely Tsarevets and Trapezitsa.

1 The seminal study of lament in the Greek tradition is of course that of M. Alexiou, The Ritual Lament in the Greek Tradition, 2 nd edition, rev. by D. Yatromanolakis and P. Roilos (Lanham, 2002), 83-101, in which a discussion of laments for fallen or destroyed cities is included. For investigations specifically on Byzantine laments for fallen cities, see: I.

Herodotus enjoyed wide popularity among Byzantine
historians. Within a Christian society, his complicated religious outlook and his moral viewpoint were of interest to the historians while at the same time presenting difficulties for their perception of historical causation. This article traces the responses of three early and middle Byzantine historians to Herodotus’ religious views. I focus in particular on the significance which three concepts central to Herodotus’ religious and historical thought—fate, divine phthonos, and the wheel of fortune—hold in selected passages from Procopius’ Wars, Michael Psellus’ Chronographia and Nicetas Choniates’ History. I argue that these three concepts are not merely employed as literary devices but can help elucidate the theological and historical views of the Byzantine
historians.

Jean II est a priori le seul empereur de la dynastie des Comnènes a recevoir les éloges et la sympathie de l'historien Nicétas Chôniatès. Mais une comparaison des sources contemporaines (latines, arabes, arméniennes) révèle un certain nombre de silences historiographiques qui ne confirment pas cette idée. Au contraire, il est probable que ce portrait d'apparence flatteuse soit de Jean une sévère critique.

Issue d'une Communication donnée dans le cadre des "Byzantines V - 2012" (Paris). Dans cette analyse du "Sur les statues" de Chôniatès, on a cherché à mettre à évidencele caractère fictionnel de certaines statues décrites, qui semblent mettre en abyme l'art de l'auteur.

La pensée peut se transmettre de manière, on le sait, subreptice, par des biais qui la plupart du temps échappent au philologue ; le texte, en revanche, est une preuve plus tangible. Or, pensée et texte aristotéliciens semblent, dans la littérature grecque du XIIe s., faire défaut ; ou plutôt : manque à l’appel l’Aristote critique littéraire, celui de la Poétique et de la Rhétorique. Et pourtant un examen attentif de certains textes dus à l’historien et orateur de cour Nicétas Chôniatès (c. 1155-c. 1217), archétype de cette élite lettrée et constantinopolitaine qui présidait aux destinées de l’Empire, laisse transparaître une certaine connaissance de la pensée et du texte même de la Rhétorique.
Afin de rendre compte de ce paradoxe d’un ouvrage qui est négligé mais pas oublié, nous essaierons dans un premier volet de dresser un état de la connaissance de la Rhétorique d’Aristote à Byzance, en posant la question de sa place dans le cursus scolaire et intellectuel grec médiéval, à travers le nombre des manuscrits et les dates des commentaires qui ont survécu. Ce premier bilan, qui insistera sur la place particulière d’Aristote sous le règne de Jean II Comnène, sera confronté à deux extraits de Nicétas Chôniatès qui semblent trahir, mais sans aveu, la connaissance de l’œuvre critique du Stagirite.

The Byzantine historian Niketas Choniates (c. 1155-c. 1217) wrote in his History a chapter called by marginalia « Thrènos tou poleôs », the Funeral Oration for the City. Niketas laments over the capture and the sack of Constantinople by the soldiers of the Fourth Crusade and their Venetian seafarers. This text contains both aspects of a monody and of a homily: Niketas tries to explain God’s designs behind the horrifying attack at the very heart of the Roman Empire, while building up a theodicy in order to give hope to his readers-listeners. The Funeral Oration for the City is woven with quotations and allusions to the Old Testament, among which the prophets which relay God’s voice hold a particular place. But without any precision about who is speaking, is there any mean for the audience or the reader to recognize the different voices within the text? Was it possible, as it was for the public of the Ancient theatre, to distinguish the various characters through their èthos, even if the èthos was deprived of the costume, the mask, and part of the staging? In this paper we will try to show how prose rhythm builds different èthè, mainly God’s voice which seems, at first sight, to be nowhere.

The current article attempts to present and to estimate the mechanisms and the goals of self-quotation (i.e the fact for an author to quote himself) in the XIIth-century-Byzantine historian and Court orator Niketas Choniates’ works. The starting point of this essay is an ekphrasis of a bronze statue of Helen of Troy, inserted in one of the last Niketas’ opus, the so-called De signis, which relates the destruction of antiques by the new masters of Constantinople and founders of the Latin Empire which occured in 1206. This description is structured by homeric epithets, applied in the epic to goddesses, but applied through the various texts composed by Niketas between 1195 and 1208 (the History; the Discourses) to the foreign empresses who reigned over Byzantium during the XIIth century: Anna of France, Maria of Antioch, Margaret of Hungary. Finding the keys of interpretation of these earlier texts in the Helen of Troy’s ekphrasis, this essay try to highlight the historiographical method and the aesthetics of Niketas Choniates, which seem to be organized around a mirror vision of History where the Fourth crusade plays the role of the expedition waged against Troy and the plunder of Constantinople the role of a new Iliou persis.

The article tells about the worldview of Wolfram von Eschenbach and his ideas related to Canon law and the crusaders. The author explores the historical basis of the history of Gamuret of Anjou and his adventures in the roman of Wolfram von Eschenbach's "Parzival", he finds that Wolfram von Eschenbach was able to take part in the fighting of the reconquest in Spain against the Almohads, and that Wolfram von Eschenbach was acquainted with the intelligence documents of the knights Hospitaller which had been created on the eve of the second crusade. These documents contained information about Prester John, that the twelfth-century sources, in particular the Chronicle of Otto of Freisingen, referred to Elyu Dashi, the Khitan Gurhan who created the Western Liao Empire in the early 1140s. The legend of Prester John echoes in Wolfram von Eschenbach's roman "Parzifal" with the legend of the Grail, traces of which are found in the story of a contemporary of Wolfram von Eschenbach - the Byzantine historian Nikita Choniates about the election of Baldwin of Flanders as Emperor of the Latin Empire by the participants of the fourth crusade.

Qui a ouvert l’édition moderne d’une épopée antique s’est accoutumé à voir le texte découpé sur la page, hiérarchisé par des indentations qui organisent – et conditionnent – la lecture. Cependant cette « structuration » du texte diffère d’une édition à l’autre, tributaire des décisions de l’éditeur. On pourrait définir des unités plus fines par le croisement de trois critères : la fin d’une unité narrative (un discours direct, le début d’un catalogue, ou, selon la terminologie de Greimas, la phase de manipulation, de compétence, d’action ou de sanction) coïncidant à la fois avec une fin de vers et une fin syntaxique (ponctuation forte). Il arrive que ces fins d’unités correspondent à des signes diacritiques présents dans les manuscrits ou papyrus (des paragraphoi), mais ces subdivisions sont encore trop grandes pour suffire à la rythmisation d’un texte. Si l’on resserre le champ de notre recherche aux unités narratives minimales, que l’on désignera ici par la métaphore de l’appartement, on observe que les groupes de vers qui les composent, détachés par la coïncidence entre fin de phrase et fin de vers, peuvent se combiner en blocs soudés par des répétitions lexicales, syntaxiques, phoniques ou thématiques. Ces nouveaux blocs, que l’on pourrait assimiler à des chambres à l’intérieur de l’appartement qu’est l’unité narrative, se caractérisent souvent par la répétition du même nombre de vers. C’est dans cette optique que nous aimerions aborder la question de la rythmisation des textes épiques, d’Hésiode à Eugenianos, en particulier Virgile, Ovide et Lucain, pour obtenir une vision d’ensemble. Appartement, chambre ou maison – « un palais magnifique à quatre appartements », dira Du Bellay de la composition des Regrets (CLVII) – comment le chantre rythme-t-il son poème, et comment, pour nous, se rythme la lecture ?

Umberto Eco’s Baudolino, a novel published in 2000, draws on one of the most important historical accounts to have come down to us from the Byzantine period: Niketas Choniates’ History. Choniates himself features as one of the key characters in the novel. The History and its contents furnish Eco with abundant biographical material to help him establish the background of the hero Choniates and develop his story. The historian’s personality and ideas, as reflected in his History, as well as his musings and practices on the recording of the past are also a source of inspiration for Eco. It is noteworthy that the Italian novelist enthusiastically embraces Choniates’ rhetorical and literary style. He translates almost verbatim or freely paraphrases the Byzantine historian’s text, in addition to enriching his novel with a variety of metaphors and images taken from Choniates’ laments. Eco acknowledges the performative qualities of Choniates’ narrative, essentially inviting modern readers and scholars to pay tribute to Choniates not only as a remarkable historian, but also as a gifted storyteller.

Neighing horses are subject of a divinatory method (chremetismomancy). It was unknown to Ancient and Middle Byzantine ages, but it is still flourishing in late Byzantium. Comnenian and Palaiologan historians such as Anna Comnena, Nicetas Choniates, and Nicephoros Gregoras, chronicle  various accounts about fateful neighs of imperial horses. Eastern influence about Byzantine divination is undeniable. Indeed, chremetismomancy seems to be indebted to Western social models, where horse riders were highly estimeed.  Late Byzantine upper class was very fond of Frenkish chievalry, tournois and horse racing. This could easily explain the predictive meaning assigned to horses, as contemporary divination attests.

Presentazione di un lavoro lessicografico inedito realizzato dal bizantinista russo Alexander Kazhdan sull'opera storiografica di Niceta Coniata.

Presentation of an unpublished lexicographic work created by the Russian Byzantine scholar Alexander Kazhdan on the historiographical work of Niketas Choniata.

Proseguendo il viaggio la nostra attenzione venne subito richiamata da un forte clamore di spade. Il nitrito dei cavalli che tranciati dalle lance si spengono a terra ci segnalò in maniera inequivocabile lo svolgersi di una battaglia; allora Niceta Coniata ci racconta: