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NICEPHORUS See also: Byzantine soldier, statesman and historian, was See also: born at Orestias (Adrianople)
.
His See also: father, of the same name, had revolted against the feeble Michael VII., but had been defeated and deprived of his eyesight
.
The son, who was distinguished for his learning, See also: personal beauty and engaging qualities, gained the favour of Alexius I
.
(See also: Comnenus) and the See also: hand of his daughter Anna, with the titles of Caesar (then ranking third) and Panhypersebastos (one of the new dignities introduced by Alexius)
.
See also: Bryennius successfully de-fended the walls of Constantinople against the attacks of Godfrey of See also: Bouillon (1097); conducted the See also: peace negotiations between Alexius and See also: Bohemund, See also: prince of See also: Antioch (11o8); and played an important See also: part in the defeat of Malik-Shah, the Seljuk sultan of See also: Iconium (1116)
.
After the See also: death of Alexius, he refused to enter into the conspiracy set on See also: foot by his See also: mother-in-See also: law and wife to depose See also: John, the son of Alexius, and raise himself to the
See also: throne
.
His wife attributed his refusal to cowardice, but it seems from certain passages in his own See also: work that he really regarded it as a See also: crime to revolt against the rightful heir; the only reproach that can be brought against him is that he did not nip the conspiracy in the bud
.
He was on very friendly terms with the new emperor John, whom he accompanied on his Syrian See also: campaign (1137), but was forced by illness to return to See also: Byzantium, where he died in the same See also: year
.
At the See also: suggestion of his mother-in-law he wrote a See also: history (called by him "TX 'Icrroptas, materials for a history) of the See also: period from 1057 to 1o81, from the victory of Isaac I
.
(Comnenus) over Michael VI. to the dethronement of Nicephorus Botaneiates by Alexius
.
The work has been described as rather a See also: family See also: chronicle than a history, the See also: object of which was the glorification of the See also: house of Comnenus
.
Part of the introduction is probably a later addition
.
In addition to information derived from older contemporaries (such as his father and father-in-law) Bryennius made use of theSee also: works of Michael See also: Psellus, John Scylitza and Michael Attaliota
.
As might be expected, his views are biased by personal considerations and his intimacy with the royal family, which at the same See also: time, however, afforded him unusual facilities for obtaining material
.
His See also: model was See also: Xenophon, whom he has imitated with
a tolerable measure of success; he abstains from an excessive use of simile and See also: metaphor, and his See also: style is concise and See also: simple
.
Editio princeps, P
.
Possinus, 1661; in See also: Bonn Corpus Scriptorum Hist
.
Byz., by E
.
Meineke (1836), with du Cange's valuable commentary; See also: Migne, Patrologia Graeca, cxxvii.; see also J
.
Seger, Byzantinische Historiker See also: des so. and zi
.
Jahrhunderts (1888), and C
.
See also: Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur (1897)
.
The estimate of his work in R
.
Nicolai, Griechische Literaturgeschichte, iii. p
.
76 (1878), is too unfavourable . |
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