Michael Attaleiates, The History PDF
Preview Michael Attaleiates, The History
Introduction THE LIFE OF MICHAEL ATTALEIATES Michael Attaleiates was born in or near Attaleia (on the southern coast of Asia Minor) sometime around rn25. Upon completion of his early education, which he credits to his pious parents, he left his hometown and moved to the cap ital in order to pursue more advanced studies. As the empire was lavishing social and economic advantages upon the members of its civilian administration, Attaleiates sought to join the expanding ranks of functionaries. He studied law in Constantinople's vibrant intellectual scene at a time when the stimulating lectures of Michael Psellos were attracting youths born into families of means. Between his arrival in the city; in the late rn3os, and the closing years of the rn6os, when he assumed a prominent role in Constantinople's public life, Attaleiates completed his studies in law (probably before Konstantinos IX's reor ganization oflegal education in rn47), obtained a post in the legal bureaucracy, and wed his first wife, Sophia, and then, after her death, his second wife, Eirene, who gave him a son, Theodoros. He rose steadily in the system of justice, but not too fast and without much by way of provincial appoint ments.1 In rn63, when a great earthquake struck Thrace, vii INTRODUCTION causing serious damage to property he owned in Raidestos, he was still on the threshold of his career.2 Under Konstantinos X Doukas (r. rn59-rn67), Attaleiates entered the Senate as a ranking member of the Constanti nopolitan law courts. Soon after that emperor's death, he at tained a modicum of notoriety by sitting on the court that tried the conspirator and future emperor Romanos IV Diog enes. 3 In the following months, Romanos moved from the docket to the throne (r. 1067-1071) and Attaleiates entered his close circle, promoted to the previously unattested posi tion of "judge of the army." This was the beginning of four years of intense military activity that the judge personally experienced by accompanying three long campaigns along the eastern frontier. His presence in the field as well as his involvement in the planning and execution of Romanos's ambitious attempt to push back the Turks turned Attaleiates into a supporter of, and eventual apologist for, that em peror. A new phase of his career began after the Byzantine de feat by the Seljuks at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, when Romanos's efforts came to a crushing end, possibly as a re sult of treason orchestrated by members of the Doukas fam ily. It is a testament to Attaleiates' political acumen and his connections that he was able to sail straight back to the cap ital and claim a position at the new imperial court. A timely dedication of a treatise on law, the Ponema Nomikon, to the emperor Michael VII Doukas (r. rn71-1078) and loyal ser vice in the face of personal sacrifice ensured his continued rise in the social and political scene. 4 In this period of impe rial retrenchment and political chaos, Attaleiates kept scour ing the empire's political horizons for the man who would viii
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