Michael Choniates

Michael Choniates (born c. 1140, Chonae, Byzantine Empire [now in Turkey]—died c. 1220, Boudonitza, Byzantine Empire [near modern Thermopylai, Greece]) was a Byzantine humanist scholar and archbishop of Athens whose extensive Classical literary works provide the principal documentary witness to the political turbulence of 13th-century Greece after its occupation by the Western Crusaders. Having studied at Constantinople (Istanbul) under the Classicist Eustathius of Thessalonica, Michael Choniates became metropolitan (senior archbishop) of Athens about 1175 and...