Niketas Choniates' History is the single most important source for a crucial period in Byzantine history, the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. In this first book-length study, Simpson uncovers the complex manuscript tradition and transmission of the text, and examines the substantial differences in style, content, and purpose between the two main versions in which it has been preserved. Investigating issues related to historical narrative and
imperial biography, the volume also explores the sources from which the historian Niketas Choniates compiled his account and the literary models and historical concepts which guided him. It emphasizes his literary
mimesis of earlier writers, his creative and often innovative use of rhetorical forms and techniques, and his historical methodology and outlook.