Acominatus, Michael

Related Category: Miscellaneous European Literature: Biographies

(əkŏmĭnā´təs), or Michael Choniates(kōnēā´tēz), c.1140–1220, Byzantine writer and metropolitan of Athens. Acominatus' speeches, poems, and letters give much information about medieval Athens, which he, a classicist, found barbarous and degenerate. His brother, Nicetas Choniates, c.1150–c.1213, wrote an important history of the Byzantine Empire covering the period 1180 to 1206.