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BRYENNIUS, NICEPHORUS (1062-1137)

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 700 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BRYENNIUS, NICEPHORUS (1062-1137) , See also:Byzantine soldier, statesman and historian, was See also:born at Orestias (See also:Adrianople). His See also:father, of the same name, had revolted against the feeble See also: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 See also:Anna, with the titles of See also:Caesar (then ranking third) and Panhypersebastos (one of the new dignities introduced by Alexius). Bryennius successfully de-fended the walls of See also:Constantinople against the attacks of See also: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 See also:sultan of See also:Iconium (1116). After the See also:death of Alexius, he refused to enter into the See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 See also:

information derived from older contemporaries (such as his father and father-in-law) Bryennius made use of the See 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. See also: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. See also:Nicolai, Griechische Literaturgeschichte, iii. p.

76 (1878), is too unfavourable.

End of Article: BRYENNIUS, NICEPHORUS (1062-1137)

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