Joannes Kinnamos, or John Cinnamus ( el, or Κίναμος; born shortly after 1143, died after 1185), was a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

. He was imperial secretary (Greek "grammatikos", most likely a post connected with the military administration) to Emperor

Manuel I Manuel I may refer to: *Manuel I Komnenos, Byzantine emperor (1143–1180) *Manuel I of Trebizond, Emperor of Trebizond (1228–1263) *Manuel I of Portugal Manuel I (; 31 May 146913 December 1521), known as the Fortunate ( pt, O Venturoso), was ...

(1143–1180), whom he accompanied on his campaigns in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

. It appears that Kinnamos outlived Andronikos I, who died in 1185. Kinnamos was the author of a history that covered the years 1118–1176, thereby continuing the ''

Alexiad The ''Alexiad'' ( el, Ἀλεξιάς, Alexias) is a medieval historical and biographical text written around the year 1148, by the Byzantine princess Anna Komnene, daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. It was written in a form of artificial ...

'' of

Anna Komnene Anna Komnene ( gr, Ἄννα Κομνηνή, Ánna Komnēnḗ; 1 December 1083 – 1153), commonly Latinized as Anna Comnena, was a Byzantine princess and author of the ''Alexiad'', an account of the reign of her father, the Byzantine emperor, ...

, and covering the reigns of John II and Manuel I, until Manuel's unsuccessful campaign against the Turks, which ended in defeat at the Battle of Myriokephalon. Kinnamos's work breaks off abruptly, though it is highly likely that the original continued to the death of Manuel. There are also indications that the present work is an abridgment of a significantly larger work. The hero of the history is Manuel, and throughout the history Kinnamos attempts to highlight what he sees as the superiority of the Byzantine Empire to the Western and other powers. Similarly, he is a determined opponent of what he perceives as the pretensions of the

papacy The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

. Nevertheless, he writes with the straightforwardness of a soldier, and occasionally admits his ignorance of certain events. The work is well organized, and its style, modeled on

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; grc, Ξενοφῶν ; – probably 355 or 354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian, born in Athens. At the age of 30, Xenophon was elected commander of one of the biggest Greek mercenary armies o ...

, is simple, especially when compared with the florid writing of other Greek authors of the period. William Plate considers him the best of the European historians of this period. Smith, editor. ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', 1867. John Kinnamos is also credited for writing a book on one of the Angeli emperors; however, this book is believed to be lost (perhaps together with the rest of his much larger work).

References

Sources

* John Kinnamos, ''Rerum ab Ioannes et Alexio icComnenis Gestarum'', ed. A. Meineke, Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae (Bonn, 1836) * John Kinnamos, ''The Deeds of John and Manuel Comnenus'', trans. C.M. Brand (New York, 1976). * Jonathan Harris, ''Byzantium and the Crusades'' (Hambledon and London, 2003). * J. Ljubarskij, ‘John Kinnamos as a writer’, in ''Polypleuros Nous: Miscellanea für Peter Schreiner zu seinem 60 Geburtstag'' (Byzantinisches Archiv, 19), ed. C. Scholz and G. Makris (Munich, 2000), pp. 164–73 *

Paul Magdalino Paul Magdalino FBA (born 10 May 1948) is Bishop Wardlaw Professor of Byzantine History in the University of St Andrews, professor of Byzantine history at Koç University, Istanbul; and a Fellow of the British Academy. His research interests inc ...

, 'Aspects of twelfth century Byzantine Kaiserkritik', ''Speculum'' 58 (1983), 326-46 and reprinted in Paul Magdalino, ''Tradition and Transformation in Medieval Byzantium'' (Ashgate publishing, 1991), No. VIII * Paul Stephenson, 'John Cinnamus, John II Comnenus and the Hungarian campaign of 1127–1129', ''Byzantion'' 66 (1996), 177-87 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kinnamos, John 12th-century Byzantine historians Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown Officials of Manuel I Komnenos