Encyclopedia > Michael Acominatus

  Article Content

Michael Acominatus

Michael Acominatus (Akominatos) (c. 1140-1220), Byzantine writer and ecclesiastic, was born at Chonae[?] (the ancient Colossae).

At an early age he studied at Constantinople, and about 1175 was appointed archbishop of Athens. After the capture of Constantinople by the Franks and the establishment of the Latin empire[?] (1204), he retired to the island of Ceos[?], where he died.

He was a versatile writer, and composed homilies, speeches and poems, which, with his correspondence, throw considerable light upon the miserable condition of Attica and Athens at the time. His memorial to Alexis III Angelus on the abuses of Byzantine administration, the poetical lament over the degeneracy of Athens and the monodes on his brother Nicetas and Eustathius, archbishop of Thessalonica, deserve special mention.

Edition of his works by S. Lambros (1879-1880); Migne, Patrologia Graeca, cxl.; see also A. Ellissen, Michael Akominatos (1846), containing several pieces with German translation; F. Gregorovius, Geschichte der Stadt Athen im Mittelalter, i. (1889); G. Finlay, History of Greece, iv. pp. 133-134 (1877).

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
U.S. presidential election, 1804

... (W) 162 Democratic-Republican George Clinton (162) Charles C. Pinckney[?] 14 Federalist Rufus King (14) Other elections: 1792, 1796, 1800, 1804, 1808, ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 42.1 ms