1. Biography

George Akropolites was born in 1217 in Constantinople. He was descendant of an aristocratic family and a relative of John III Vatatzes, emperor of Nicaea. He was also related to Michael VIII Palaiologos¹ via his wife and had two sons, Constantine Akropolites, state official and scholar, and Melchisedekek, a monk and a man of great education.

1.2. Studies

Akropolites took the basic stages of education in Constantinople (holy letters and encyclopaedic education). In 1233, in the age of sixteen, his father sent him to Nicaea, to be educated in the imperial court. John III Vatatzes took the young Akropolites under his protection and personally supervised his later studies. In 1234, along with a team of young aristocrats, he sent him to the school of Theodoros Hexapterygos, where he studied rhetoric. After Hexapterygos’ death, around 1235, Akropolites continued his studies with Nikephoros Blemmydes. With Blemmydes he studied natural sciences, in which he showed a great zeal.² Though he completed this circle of studies around 1239, he continued his philosophical studies independently, studying Plato, Proclus, Iamvlichus and Plotinus.

2. Teaching career

After the end of his studies with Blemmydes, George Akropolites entered the imperial court as a dignitary. In 1246 he undertook the teaching of the successor Theodoros II Laskaris, with whom he was already a friend. The program of studies was long, it lasted for nearly five years, interrupted occasionally due to Akropolites’ duties as a dignitary, and was attended by other pupils too apart from Theodoros, probably his secretaries or a small circle of young scholars which was formed in Nicaea. Theodoros had already a noteworthy library which he placed in the disposal of this department. Furthermore Akropolites also had the chance to see various manuscripts from the recaptured areas and thus to enlarge his philosophical quests and knowledge and to try to communicate this to his pupils. He gave great importance to the teaching of rhetoric and mathematics. As seen in the encomium dedicated to him by Theodoros II Laskaris in 1252, Akropolites provoked his pupils’ enthusiasm with his teaching method, his great education, his rhetoric ability and his undisputed superiority amongst his contemporaries.³

After the recapture of Constantinople (1261), George Akropolites settled in the capital. His fame as a teacher was already great. Thus, when Michael VIII Palaiologos decided to reopen the imperial school of higher education, Akropolites became its director. In this school he taught rhetoric using Afthnonius’ Progymnasmata and Ermogenes’ Rhetoric art, which everyone possess, arithmetic using the works of Nicomachus and Gerasenus and geometry using Eykleides’ works. It is characteristic that Akropolites considered the knowledge of arithmetic and geometry vital, so that his students could pass to the higher stage, the study of Aristotelian philosophy. Apparently Akropolites was a very successful teacher⁴ and was one of the founders of the early Palaiologan renaissance of the letters and the arts.⁵ Amongst his pupils in this institution were George Cyprius⁶ (later patriarch Gregorios II) and John Pediasimos. In his scholarly circle some of the leaders of the unionists, such as Constantine Meliteniotes and George Metochites, belonged.

We do not know when exactly Akropolites stopped teaching in the school. This might have happened in 1274, when he went to Lyon to participate in the unionist synod as a representative of Michael VIII.

3. Political career

George Akropolites participated actively in the most important events of his time and he also assumed an important role in the great quarrels which occupied the Empire of Nice, as well as the Byzantine Empire after the reconquest of Constantinople. His political attitude is usually characterized by the evaluation of the events and the needs which occur each time and had to be dealt with immediately.

As a dignitary of the Empire of Nicaea, initially with the rank of the grammaticus, Akropolites followed emperor John III Vatatzes in his European campaigns and wrote the letters in which his victories were announced. Then he undertook the duty of great logariastes and in 1246 he was appointed logothetis.

In 1255, under Theodoros II Laskaris, George Akropolites became grand logothetis, an office which he held until his death. In 1256, authorized by the emperor, he compiled the text of a Byzantine-Bulgarian treaty, after the defeat of the Bulgarians in Ropelio (Rupel). Notwithstanding a disagreement with Theodoros II because of this text,⁷ Akropolites was later appointed praetor of the troops of Nicaea in Macedonia. As a general, he took part in the battle of Prilapos (1257), where, however, he was taken prisoner by the despot of Epirus Michael II Angellos. For two years he remained incarcerated, until he was released by the army of the Palaiologos, who defeated the troops of Epirus in Castoria.

Akropolites was back in Nice in 1260 and entered the court of the new emperor, Michael VIII Palaiologos,⁸ maintaining the office of the grand logothetis. In December of the same year he visited as an imperial emissary the tsar of the Bulgarians Constantine Tich, to persuade him to maintain a neutral stance in the quarrel between the Byzantines and the Latins, something which Akropolites achieved.

In 1261 Akropolites undertook the writing of hymns for God and prayers for the king which the metropolitan of Cyzikus George Kleidas recited from the tower of the Golden Gate, during the triumphal entrance of Michael VIII in Constantinople.

The role of Akropolites in the matter of the quarrel of the arseniats was also active. In 1268, according to the duties he had as a grand logothetis, he had to deal with the problem of the arsenians, after an appeal by the patriarch Josef (1266-1275). Akropolites materialized the state policy, which suggested the dealing of the problem with violence. Thus it is reported that he allowed beatings or public mockeries, whereas the distinguished followers of the ex patriarch Arsenius were condemned in exile or even death.⁹

One of the most important moments in the political career of George Akropolites was his participation as a representative of the emperor Michael VIII in the synod of Lyon for the unification of the churches. Though when he was imprisoned in Epirus Akropolites had published two essays against the Latins, in this time he judged that the effort to unify the churches was essential for political reasons, i.e. to guarantee for Byzantium the help of the Westerners against the enemies in the East. Thus Akropolites was appointed leader of the Byzantine delegation,¹⁰ which left for Lyon in March 1274. In this synod Akropolites accepted on behalf of the Byzantine emperor the decisions for the recognition of the first place of the pope amongst the five patriarchates and of the filioque. After the end of the synod, the Byzantine delegates spent the summer in Italy with the pope and returned in Constantinople in the autumn of the same year.

The last mission Akropolites undertook was as an imperial emissary to the emperor of Trebizond John II Grand Komnenos. His mission was to negotiate a marriage between John and Michael’s daughter Eudokia. After the return from Trebizond, he died in Constantinople during the same year (1282), a few months before emperor Michael VIII.

4. Works

4.1. Chronike Syngraphe (Annales)

The Chronike Syngraphe is George Akropolites’ main work. It is preserved in a shorter variation, under the title Ποίημα Χρονικόν (Historia in brevius redacta).

The Chronike Syngraphe is our main source concerning the period after the fall of Constantinople to the hands of the Latins (1204) until her reconquest by the Byzantine in 1261. It is actually the chronicle of the Empire of Nicaea and is the continuation of the historical work of Niketas Akominatos. Akropolites has an absolute supervision of the events he describes, since most in of them he played an essential role as a state official, whereas for the rest had the ability to look in official sources. As his basic principle, as he notes in the introduction of his work, he sets the passage of Tacitus “sine ira et studio” and explains that he only writes “for the sake of history and against oblivion”.¹¹ His narration is short, clear and calm and is based on facts, although some times, especially when it comes to the facts in which he played a role, becomes partial.

Akropolites puts special emphasis upon the presentation of correlations of forces and important historical persons, which never becomes formulaic. Rather, he tries to keep his distances and to present persons and facts in their realistic dimensions, not hesitating to even use humorous descriptions.

The language of the Chronike syngraphe is simple, without many rhetoric motifs and very comprehensive. Phrases are short and the vocabulary is rich, combining Homeric words with everyday life expressions. Akropolites historical work was the source for the chronicle of Ephraim and the Chronography of Theodoros Skoutariotes.

4.2. Poems, Epitaphs, Essays

From Akropolites’ poetic work the introduction to a publication of the letters of his pupil Theodoros II Laskaris survives, in sixty three triple verses, as well as his epitaph speech which he dedicated to empress Irene. The epitaph he recited for John III Vatatzes is also considered important.

Amongst the works which survived there are some theological essays against the Latins and about the emanation of the Holy Spirit, which he wrote during his imprisonment in Epirus.

Unfortunately, as mentioned above, nothing survives of his philosophical and scientific works, which was burned after his death by his political adversaries, those opposed to the Union of the Churches.