Constantine Manasses ( el, Κωνσταντῖνος Μανασσῆς; c. 1130 - c. 1187) 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 ...

chronicler A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and lo ...

who flourished in the 12th century during the reign of

Manuel I Komnenos Manuel I Komnenos ( el, Μανουήλ Κομνηνός, translit=Manouíl Komnenos, translit-std=ISO; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180), Romanization of Greek, Latinized Comnenus, also called Porphyrogennetos (; "born in the purple"), w ...

(1143-1180). He was the author of a chronicle or historical synopsis of events from the creation of the world to the end of the reign of

Nikephoros Botaneiates Nikephoros III Botaneiates, Latinized as Nicephorus III Botaniates ( el, Νικηφόρος Βοτανειάτης, 1002–1081), was Byzantine emperor from 7 January 1078 to 1 April 1081. He was born in 1002, and became a general du ...

(1081), sponsored by Irene Komnene, the emperor's sister-in-law. It consists of about 7000 lines in

political verse Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

. It obtained great popularity and appeared in a free prose translation; it was also translated into

Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...

in the 14th century.Chronicle edition: Bekker, Bonn 1837; the Bulgarian translation, ''Cronica lui Constantin Manasses'', by Ioan Bogdan and I. Bianu, Bucharest, 1922. In 1969 Bulgaria issued two sets of stamps depicting important scenes of the chronicle, to celebrate it. Manasses also wrote the poetical romance ''Loves of Aristander and Callithea'', also in political verse. It is only known from the fragments preserved in the rose-garden of

Macarius Chrysocephalus Macarius is a Latinized form of the old Greek Old Greek is the Greek language as spoken from Late Antiquity (c. AD 400) to around AD 1500. Greek spoken during this period is usually split into: *Late Greek (c. 400 – c. 800 AD) *Medieval Greek (c ...

(14th century). Manasses also wrote a short biography of

Oppian Oppian ( grc, Ὀππιανός, ; la, Oppianus), also known as Oppian of Anazarbus, of Corycus, or of Cilicia, was a 2nd-century Greco-Roman poet during the reign of the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, who composed the ''Halieutica'', a fi ...

, and some descriptive pieces (all except one unpublished) on artistic and other subjects.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manasses, Constantine 12th-century births 1180s deaths Byzantine chroniclers 12th-century Byzantine historians 12th-century Greek painters Writers from Constantinople