The Social Views of Michael Attaleiates

The historian Michael Attaleiates was a judge and well-connected political agent active in eleventh-century Byzantium. The opinions he expressed in his historical work, but also in the synopsis of Roman law he dedicated to Michael VII and the monastic charter he produced to organize a privately owned pious foundation, become here entry points for the study of his take on the social and political reality around him. This chapter offers a short biographical sketch of our protagonist, who emerges as a patriotic Roman, who casts a sympathetic eye on popular political action. It then studies Attaleiates as a social and economic agent, looking at his active participation Byzantium’s economy only to reveal a confident investor and builder of a personal fortune. Here is also examined the ways in which Attaleiates’ take on foreign mercenaries outlines a readiness to accommodate others in a Roman polity. Finally, a study of his social circles considers how intellectual affinities and friendships developed, while serving the state and the emperor allowed for the development of a fluid and ever-adjustable politics of accommodation. All in all, we have here an updated portrait of an important figure in eleventh-century intellectual circles.