ABSTRACT
Discussing the end of Nikephoros Botaneiates’ rebellion in the spring of 1078 the judge, courtier, and historian Michael Attaleiates notes: ‘Everything was accomplished without bloodshed or destruction, without even so much as a nosebleed, which is a definitive and fitting sign of his faith in God and of his appointment by Him.’ In a passage that echoes the blood, gore and heroism on display in Theodosios the Deacon’s tenth-century narration of Nikephoros Phokas’ Cretan expedition, Michael filled that entire battlefield with the bodies of the slain, as no one struck by his hand was able to avert death. Like his father, Nikephoros was the ideal urbane gentleman, generous, gentle and conversationally skilled. The top-down reading of the empire’s history is therefore turned on its head as the empire’s civilians and their civilian institutions become the yardsticks for the assessment of the urbane Botaneiates.
