Michael Attaleiates

Michael Attaleiates or Attaliates (Greek: Μιχαήλ Ἀτταλειάτης) (fl. 11th century) was a Greek public servant and historian at Constantinople.

Michael was probably a native of Attalia (now Antalya, in Turkey). He seems to have gone to Constantinople between 1030 and 1040, where he became rich and was advanced by successive emperors to the highest civil offices (patrician and proconsul), becoming a member of the two supreme courts of the Empire, those of the Hippodrome and the velum.

In 1072 he compiled for the Emperor Michael Parapinakes a compendium of law, which supplements the Libri Basilici.

In addition he drew up an Ordinance for the Poor House and Monastery which he founded at Constantinople in 1077. This work is also of value for the history of life and manners at Constantinople in the eleventh century. It includes a catalogue of the library of his monastery.

About 1079 or 1080 Michael published an account of the Eastern Roman Empire from 1034 to 1079, a vivid and reliable presentation of the palace revolutions and female domination that characterize this period of transition from the great Macedonian dynasty to the Comneni.

Bibliography

• The law-manual of Attaliates was first edited by M. Freher (Juris Greco-Romani Tomi Duo, Frankfort, 1596, 11, 1-79).
• The Ordinance, or Diataxis, is found in Miklosich and Müller, Acta et Diplomata Graeca Medii Ævi (1887), V, 293-327.
• The History was edited by I. Bekker, in the "Corpus Script. Byz." (Bonn, 1853); cf. new Greek edition and Spanish translation by I. Pérez Martín, Miguel Ataliates, Historia, (Nueva Roma 15) Madrid 2002.

External links

• Greek Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Graeca with analytical indexes

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.