John Kinnamos

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Joannes Kinnamos or John Cinnamus (Greek: Ἰωάννης Κίνναμος or Κίναμος or Σίνναμος) (12th century) was a Byzantine historian. He was imperial secretary (Greek "grammatikos," most likely a post connected with the military administration) to Emperor Manuel I Comnenus (1143-1180), whom he accompanied on his campaigns in Europe and Asia Minor and appears to have outlived Andronicus I Comnenus, who died in 1185.

Cinnamus was the author of a history ^[1] that covered the 1118-1176, thereby continuing the Alexiad of Anna Comnena, and covering the reigns of John II Comnenus and Manuel I, up until Manuel's unsuccessful campaign against the Turks, which ended with the disastrous Battle of Myriokephalon and the rout of the Byzantine army. He was probably an eye-witness to the events of the last ten years that he describes.

Cinnamus'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 much larger work. The hero of the history is Manuel, and throughout the history Comnenus attempts to highlight what he sees as the superiority of the Eastern Empire to the West. Similarly, he is a determined opponent of what he perceives as the pretensions of the papacy. Nevertheless, he writes with the straightforwardness of a soldier, and occasionally admits his ignorance of certain events. The work is well organized arranged, and its style, modeled on Xenophon, is simple, especially when compared with the florid writing of other Byzantine authors. William Plate considers him the best of the European historians of this period.^[2]

[edit] References

^ Ἐπιτομὴ τῶν κατορθωμάτων τῷ μακαρίτῃ βασιλεῖ καὶ πορφυρογεννήτῳ κυρίῳ Ἰωάννῃ τῷ Κομνηνῷ, καὶ ἀφήγησις τῶν πραχθέντων τῷ ἀοιδίμᾳ υἱῷ αὐτοῦ τῷ βασιλεῖ καὶ πορφυρογεννήτῳ κυρίῳ Μανουὴλ τῷ Κομνηνῷ ποιηθεῖσα Ἰωάννῃ βασιλικῷ γραμματικῷ Κιννάμῳ, or Summary of the successes of the great emperor and purple-born lord John Comnenus and narration of the deeds of his celebrated son the emperor and purple-born lord Manuel Comnenus done by John Cinnamus his imperial secretary
^ Smith, editor. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1867.