Laonikos Chalkokondyles, Latinized as Laonicus Chalcocondyles ( el, Λαόνικος Χαλκοκονδύλης, from λαός "people", νικᾶν "to be victorious", an
anagram of
Nikolaos
Nikolaos ( el, Νικόλαος, ') is a common Greek given name which means "Victor of People", a compound of νίκη '' nikē'' 'victory' and λαός laos' 'people'. The connotation is "people's champion" or "conqueror of people". The English ...
which bears the same meaning; c. 1430 – c. 1470; The family name 'Chalcokondyles' is from χαλκος "brass",and κονδυλος "knuckle".) was a
Byzantine Greek
Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the Ottoman co ...
historian from
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
. He is known for his ''
Demonstrations of Histories'' in ten books, which record the last 150 years of the
Byzantine Empire
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 ...
.
Life
The Chalkokondyles were one of the oldest native families in
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
and had gained great prominence. At the time of Laonikos it was ruled by the
Florentine Acciaioli family. His father
George
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd Presid ...
was a kinsman of
Maria Melissene, the wife of Duke
Antonio I Acciaioli. When Antonio died in 1435, Maria attempted to secure control of the
Duchy of Athens
The Duchy of Athens (Greek: Δουκᾶτον Ἀθηνῶν, ''Doukaton Athinon''; Catalan: ''Ducat d'Atenes'') was one of the Crusader states set up in Greece after the conquest of the Byzantine Empire during the Fourth Crusade as part of th ...
and sent George on a mission to the Ottoman Sultan
Murad II
Murad II ( ota, مراد ثانى, Murād-ı sānī, tr, II. Murad, 16 June 1404 – 3 February 1451) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1421 to 1444 and again from 1446 to 1451.
Murad II's reign was a period of important economic deve ...
, asking that the government of Athens might be entrusted to herself and George Chalkokondyles. However, during his absence, the Duchess was enticed out of the
Acropolis
An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens, ...
and a young scion of the Acciaiuoli family,
Nerio II, was proclaimed Duke of Athens. Meanwhile, George Chalkokondyles had his proposal rejected, despite offering the Sultan 30,000 gold pieces, and was cast into prison. George Chalkokondyles managed to escape to
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
, according to
William Miller "leaving his retinue, tents and beasts of burden behind him", but after leaving Constantinople by ship, he was captured by an Athenian ship and taken back to the Sultan, who pardoned him.
[Miller]
"The Last Athenian Historian: Laonikos Chalkokondyles"
''Journal of Hellenic Studies'', 42 (1922), p. 37
George with Laonikos and the rest of the family relocated to the
Peloponnese
The Peloponnese (), Peloponnesus (; el, Πελοπόννησος, Pelopónnēsos,(), or Morea is a peninsula and geographic regions of Greece, geographic region in southern Greece. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmu ...
, which was under
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 ...
rule as the
Despotate of the Morea
The Despotate of the Morea ( el, Δεσποτᾶτον τοῦ Μορέως) or Despotate of Mystras ( el, Δεσποτᾶτον τοῦ Μυστρᾶ) was a province of the Byzantine Empire which existed between the mid-14th and mid-15th centu ...
. In 1446
Constantine Palaiologos
Constantine XI Dragases Palaiologos or Dragaš Palaeologus ( el, Κωνσταντῖνος Δραγάσης Παλαιολόγος, ''Kōnstantînos Dragásēs Palaiológos''; 8 February 1405 – 29 May 1453) was the last Roman (Byzantine) e ...
, then
Despot of the Morea, sent George on a diplomatic mission to Murad II to obtain the independence of the Greek states south of
Thermopylae
Thermopylae (; Ancient Greek and Katharevousa: (''Thermopylai'') , Demotic Greek (Greek): , (''Thermopyles'') ; "hot gates") is a place in Greece where a narrow coastal passage existed in antiquity. It derives its name from its hot sulphur ...
; enraged at the offered terms, the Sultan put George Chalkokondyles into prison, then marched on Constantine's forces holding the
Hexamilion wall
The Hexamilion wall ( el, Εξαμίλιον τείχος, "six-mile wall") was a defensive wall constructed across the Isthmus of Corinth, guarding the only land route onto the Peloponnese peninsula from mainland Greece.
History
Early fortif ...
on the
Isthmus of Corinth and after bombarding it for three days, destroyed the fortifications, massacred the defenders, then pillaged the countryside, ending all hopes of independence. According to Miller, Laonikos was "evidently" an eye-witness to this battle, although the historian
Theodore Spandounes Theodore Spandounes ( el, Θεόδωρος Σπανδούνης, it, Teodoro Spandugino) was an early 16th-century Greek historian of noble Byzantine extraction, the son of exiles fleeing the Ottoman conquest of Byzantium who had settled in Venice ...
claims Laonikos was the secretary of Murad II and present at the
Battle of Varna
The Battle of Varna took place on 10 November 1444 near Varna in eastern Bulgaria. The Ottoman Army under Sultan Murad II (who did not actually rule the sultanate at the time) defeated the Hungarian– Polish and Wallachian armies commanded ...
in 1444.
[
The one glimpse we have of Laonikos himself is in the summer of 1447, when ]Cyriacus of Ancona
Cyriacus of Ancona or Ciriaco de' Pizzicolli (31 July 1391 – 1453/55) was a restlessly itinerant Italian humanist and antiquarian who came from a prominent family of merchants in Ancona, a maritime republic on the Adriatic. He has been called ...
met him in the summer of 1447 at the court of Constantine Palaiologos at Mistra
Mystras or Mistras ( el, Μυστρᾶς/Μιστρᾶς), also known in the ''Chronicle of the Morea'' as Myzithras (Μυζηθρᾶς), is a fortified town and a former municipality in Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece. Situated on Mt. Taygetus, n ...
. Cyriacus describes him as a youth ' ("surprisingly learned in Latin and Greek literature"). It was at Mistra where Laonikos was taught by George Gemistos Plethon
Georgios Gemistos Plethon ( el, Γεώργιος Γεμιστός Πλήθων; la, Georgius Gemistus Pletho /1360 – 1452/1454), commonly known as Gemistos Plethon, was a Greek scholar and one of the most renowned philosophers of the late Byza ...
, and who gave Laonikos his personal copy of the ''Histories'' of Herodotus
Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known f ...
: Laur. Plut. 70.6, written in 1318, with corrections by Plethon, and later used by Bessarion
Bessarion ( el, Βησσαρίων; 2 January 1403 – 18 November 1472) was a Byzantine Greek Renaissance humanist, theologian, Catholic cardinal and one of the famed Greek scholars who contributed to the so-called great revival of letters ...
in 1436 to make another copy, contains a subscription written by Laonikos.
Laonikos' movements and actions after 1447 are not known with certainty. His account of the circumcision of Sultan Mehmed II
Mehmed II ( ota, محمد ثانى, translit=Meḥmed-i s̱ānī; tr, II. Mehmed, ; 30 March 14323 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror ( ota, ابو الفتح, Ebū'l-fetḥ, lit=the Father of Conquest, links=no; tr, Fâtih Su ...
's sons in 1457 suggest he was an eye-witness to the event, and his account of Ottoman finances indicate he interviewed the Sultan's accountants. Internal evidence has led Byzantinist Anthony Kaldellis
Anthony Kaldellis ( gr, Αντώνιος Καλδέλλης; born 29 November 1971) is a Greek historian who is Professor and a faculty member of the Department of Classics at the University of Chicago. He is a specialist in Greek historiograph ...
to put the date Laonikos stopped writing his ''Histories'' as 1464. While Laonikos Chalkokondyles greatly relied on Ottoman sources for the sections on the Ottomans, his narrative on the rule of Mehmed II is generally antagonistic. Thus, it has been argued that Laonikos Chalkokondyles was writing for the contemporary western audience in the Turcica genre rather than for the post-Byzantine intellectuals associated with the Ottoman court. Other speculations about Laonikos Chalkokondyles' life are not as widely accepted.
Portrayals in fiction
In the 1954 Albanian–Soviet movie ''The Great Warrior Skanderbeg
''The Great Warrior Skanderbeg'' ( al, Luftëtari i madh i Shqipërisë Skënderbeu; russian: Великий воин Албании Скандербег, Velikiy voin Albanii Skanderbeg) is a 1953 Soviet-Albanian biopic directed by Sergei Yutk ...
'', Laonikos Chalkokondyles is portrayed as an official historian at the Ottoman Court with opportunistic views on politics who tries to discourage Skanderbeg
, reign = 28 November 1443 – 17 January 1468
, predecessor = Gjon Kastrioti
, successor = Gjon Kastrioti II
, spouse = Donika Arianiti
, issue = Gjon Kastrioti II
, royal house = Kastrioti
, father ...
from an anti-Ottoman insurrection. After Skanderbeg leaves the Ottoman army and becomes leader of Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...
on his own right, Chalkokondyles is brought as a hostage to his court to witness the First Siege of Krujë
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
.
''The Histories'' of Chalkokondyles
After the Fall of Constantinople
The Fall of Constantinople, also known as the Conquest of Constantinople, was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Empire. The city fell on 29 May 1453 as part of the culmination of a 53-day siege which had begun o ...
, Chalkokondyles wrote his most important historical work, ''Proofs of Histories'' (Ἀποδείξεις Ἱστοριῶν). This historical work comprises one of the most important sources for the students of the final 150 years of Byzantine history, despite being defective in its chronology. It covers the period from 1298 to 1463, describing the fall of the Byzantine empire and the rise of the Ottoman Turks, which forms the centre of the narrative, down to the conquest of the Venetians and Mathias, king of Hungary, by Mehmed II
Mehmed II ( ota, محمد ثانى, translit=Meḥmed-i s̱ānī; tr, II. Mehmed, ; 30 March 14323 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror ( ota, ابو الفتح, Ebū'l-fetḥ, lit=the Father of Conquest, links=no; tr, Fâtih Su ...
. The capture of Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
he rightly regarded as an historical event of far-reaching importance and compared it to the fall of Troy
Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in prese ...
. The work also sketches other manners and civilization of England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
and Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, whose assistance the Greeks sought to obtain against the Turks. For his account of earlier events he was able to obtain information from his father.
His model is Thucydides
Thucydides (; grc, , }; BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientifi ...
(according to Bekker, Herodotus
Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known f ...
), his language is tolerably pure and correct, and his style is simple and clear. The text, however, is in a very corrupt state. The archaic language he used made his texts hard to read in many parts, while the antiquarian names, with which he named people of his time, created confusion ( Γέται, Δάκες, Λίγυρες, Μυσοί, Παίονες, Ἕλληνες). The extended use of the name "Hellenes
The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, other ...
" (Ἕλληνες), which Laonikos used to describe the Byzantines contributed to the connection made between the ancient Greek civilization and the modern one.
Chalkokondyles' ''History'' was first published in a Latin translation by Conrad Clauser at Basel in 155
although the translation itself bears the date of November 1544. A French translation was published by Blaise de Vigenère
Blaise de Vigenère (5 April 1523 – 19 February 1596) () was a French diplomat, cryptographer, translator and alchemist.
Biography
Vigenère was born into a respectable family in the village of Saint-Pourçain. His mother, Jean, arrang ...
in 1577 with a later edition by Artus Thomas, with valuable illustrations on Turkish matters. The '' editio princeps'' of the Greek text had to wait until 1615 for J. B. Baumbach's printing.
The two best editions are: ''Historiarum Libri Decem'', ed. I. Bekker
August Immanuel Bekker (21 May 17857 June 1871) was a German philologist and critic.
Biography
Born in Berlin, Bekker completed his classical education at the University of Halle under Friedrich August Wolf, who considered him as his most promis ...
, Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae (Bonn 1843) and ''Historiae Demonstrationes'', 2 vols., ed. E. Darko, (Budapest 1922–7). The text can also be found in J.-P. Migne, ''Patrologia Graeca
The ''Patrologia Graeca'' (or ''Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Graeca'') is an edited collection of writings by the Christian Church Fathers and various secular writers, in the Greek language. It consists of 161 volumes produced in 1857– ...
'', volume 159.
A complete English translation (by Anthony Kaldellis) of ''The Histories'' was published in two volumes in 2014 by Harvard University Press, as volumes 33 and 34 of The Dumbarton Oaks
Dumbarton Oaks, formally the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, is a historic estate in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It was the residence and garden of wealthy U.S. diplomat Robert Woods Bliss and his wife, M ...
Medieval Library. Partial translations include one of Books I-III in ''Laonikos Chalkokondyles. A Translation and Commentary of the Demonstrations of Histories'', trans. Nikolaos Nikoloudis (Athens 1996) and another of Book VIII in J. R. Melville Jones, ''The Siege of Constantinople: Seven Contemporary Accounts'' (Amsterdam 1972), pp. 42–55.
See also
* Chalkokondyles family
*Greek scholars in the Renaissance
The migration waves of Byzantine Greek scholars and émigrés in the period following the end of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 is considered by many scholars key to the revival of Greek studies that led to the development of the Renaissance ...
References
*E. Darko, 'Zum Leben Laonikos Chalkondyles', ''Byzantinische Zeitschrift
Byzantinische Zeitschrift (abbr. BZ and ByzZ) is a Byzantine studies journal established in 1892 by Karl Krumbacher.
After Krumbacher's death it was edited by Paul Marc (1909–1927) and August Heisenberg (1910–1930), followed by Franz Dölge ...
'' 24 (1923-4) 29–39.
*Anthony Kaldellis, ''A New Herodotos: Laonikos Chalkokondyles on the Ottoman Empire, the Fall of Byzantium, and the Emergence of the West'', Harvard University Press, 2014.
*
Further reading
*There is a biographical sketch of Laonicus and his brother, Demetrius Chalcondyles
Demetrios Chalkokondyles ( el, Δημήτριος Χαλκοκονδύλης ), Latinized as Demetrius Chalcocondyles and found variously as Demetricocondyles, Chalcocondylas or Chalcondyles (14239 January 1511) was one of the most eminent Gree ...
in Greek by Antonius Calosynas, a physician of Toledo, who lived in the latter part of the sixteenth century: see C. Hopf, ''Chroniques Gréco-romanes'' (Paris 1873), pp. 243–5.
*Hans Ditten, Der Russland-Exkurs des Laonikos Chalkokondyles : interpretiert und mit Erläuterungen versehen (Berlin 1968).
*Jonathan Harris, "Laonikos Chalkokondyles and the rise of the Ottoman Empire", ''Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies
''Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies'' or BMGS is a peer reviewed British journal which contains articles that pertain to both Byzantine Studies and Modern Greek studies, i.e. the language, literature, history and archaeology of the post-classica ...
'' 27 (2003), 153–70.
*Nikolaos Nikoloudis, "Laonikos Chalkokondyles on the Council of Florence", ''Ekklesiastikos Pharos'' 3 (1992) 132–4.
*Speros Vryonis
Speros Vryonis Jr. ( el, Σπυρίδων "Σπύρος" Βρυώνης, July 18, 1928 – March 12, 2019) was an American historian of Greek descent and a specialist in Byzantine, Balkan, and Greek history.
He was the author of a number of wor ...
"Laonikos Chalkokondyles and the Ottoman budget"
''International Journal of Middle East Studies'', 7 (1976), 423–32, and reprinted in Vryonis, ''Studies on Byzantium, Seljuks and Ottomans'', No. XII.
* Aslıhan Akışık, "Self and Other in the Renaissance: Laonikos Chalkokondyles and Late Byzantine Intellectuals
Ph.D. dissertation, 2013.
*Aslıhan Akışık-Karakullukçu, "A question of audience: Laonikos Chalkokondyles' Hellenism", Byzantinische Zeitschrift
Byzantinische Zeitschrift (abbr. BZ and ByzZ) is a Byzantine studies journal established in 1892 by Karl Krumbacher.
After Krumbacher's death it was edited by Paul Marc (1909–1927) and August Heisenberg (1910–1930), followed by Franz Dölge ...
112.1 (2019), 1-30.
External links
Opera Omnia by Migne Patristica Graeca with analytical indexes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chalkokondyles, Laonikos
1430s births
1470 deaths
Writers from Athens
15th-century Byzantine historians
Greek Renaissance humanists
Byzantine Athenians
15th-century Greek people
Laonikos
People of the Duchy of Athens
People of the Despotate of the Morea
15th-century Greek writers
15th-century Greek educators