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George Akropolites: The History
Author(s): Ruth Macrides (Translator)
- Publisher: Oxford University Press
- Publication Date: May 31, 2007
- Edition: 1st
- Language: English
- Print length: 464 pages
- ISBN-10: 0199210675
- ISBN-13: 9780199210671
Book Description
This is the first English translation and study of George Akropolites’ History, the main Greek source for the history of Byzantium between 1204 and 1261. Akropolites relates what happened to Byzantium after the Latin conquest of its capital, Constantinople, by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. He narrates the fragmentation of the Byzantine world, describing how the newly established ’empire’ in Anatolia prevailed over its foreign and Byzantine enemies to recapture the capital in 1261. Akropolites was an eyewitness to most of the events he relates and a man close to the emperors he served, and his account has therefore influenced modern perceptions of this period. It has been an essential source for all those studying the eastern Mediterranean in the thirteenth century. However, until now historians have made use of his History without knowing anything about its author. Ruth Macrides remedies this deficiency by providing a detailed guide to Akropolites’ work and an analysis of its composition, which places it in the context of medieval Greek historical writing.
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
The first English translation of this unique source for thirteenth-century Byzantine history
About the Author
Ruth Macrides is Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman, and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham.
