Fourteen Byzantine Rulers: The Chronographia of Michael Psellus

For the following half-century of extraordinary decline our main source is Michael Psellus (1018-96), one of the greatest courtiers and men of letters of the age. His vivid and forceful chronicle, full of psychological insight and deep understanding of power politics, is a historical and literary document of the first importance. Recent scholars have shattered for ever Gibbon's view that the Byzantine Age was just a shabby and disreputable appendage to the Roman Empire; Psellus, a man of striking refnement and humanity, both portrays and exemplifies at its best the Byzantine way of life.