Joannes Kinnamos or John Cinnamus ( or Κίναμος or Σίνναμος; fl. 12th century) was a Greek historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

. He was imperial secretary (Greek "grammatikos", most likely a post connected with the military administration) to Emperor Manuel I

Manuel I Komnenos

Manuel I Komnenos was a Byzantine Emperor of the 12th century who reigned over a crucial turning point in the history of Byzantium and the Mediterranean....

 (1143–1180), whom he accompanied on his campaigns in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and Asia Minor

Asia Minor

Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...

. It appears that Kinnamos outlived Andronikos I

Andronikos I Komnenos

Andronikos I Komnenos was Byzantine Emperor from 1183 to 1185). He was the son of Isaac Komnenos and grandson of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos.-Early years:...

, who died in 1185.

Kinnamos was the author of a history that covered the years 1118-1176, thereby continuing the Alexiad

Alexiad

The Alexiad is a medieval biographical text written around the year 1148 by the Byzantine historian Anna Comnena, daughter of Emperor Alexius I....

of Anna Komnene

Anna Komnene

Anna Komnene, Latinized as Comnena was a Greek princess and scholar and the daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos of Byzantium and Irene Doukaina...

, and covering the reigns of John II

John II Komnenos

John II Komnenos was Byzantine Emperor from 1118 to 1143. Also known as Kaloïōannēs , he was the eldest son of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina...

 and Manuel I, up until Manuel's unsuccessful campaign against the Turks

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

, which ended with the disastrous Battle of Myriokephalon

Battle of Myriokephalon

The Battle of Myriokephalon, also known as the ', or in Turkish, was a battle between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Turks in Phrygia on September 17, 1176. The battle was a strategic reverse for the Byzantine forces, who were ambushed when moving through a mountain pass...

 and the rout of the Imperial army. He was probably an eye-witness to the events of the last ten years that he describes.

Kinnamos's work breaks off abruptly, though it is highly likely that the original continued to the death of Manuel. There are also indications that the present work is an abridgment of a much larger work. The hero of the history is Manuel, and throughout the history Kinnamos attempts to highlight what he sees as the superiority of the Eastern Empire to the West. Similarly, he is a determined opponent of what he perceives as the pretensions of the papacy

Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...

. Nevertheless, he writes with the straightforwardness of a soldier, and occasionally admits his ignorance of certain events. The work is well organized arranged, and its style, modeled on Xenophon

Xenophon

Xenophon , son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens, was a Greek historian, soldier, mercenary, philosopher and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates...

, is simple, especially when compared with the florid writing of other Greek authors of the period. William Plate considers him the best of the European historians of this period.

John Kinnamos is also credited for writing a book on one of the Angeli emperors, however this book is believed to be lost (perhaps together with the rest of his much larger work).

The first reference of his writings can be found in the catalogue known as Vaticanus graecus, it is described as :"Historie cuis(us)dam Manasse vulgari versu.|Item choniati i(n) satis bono stilo a t(em)po(r)ib(us) Io. Comnei"

Sources

• John Kinnamos, Rerum ab Ioannes et Alexio [sic] Comnenis Gestarum, ed. A. Meineke, Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae (Bonn, 1836)
• John Kinnamos, The Deeds of John and Manuel Comnenus, trans. C.M. Brand (New York, 1976). ISBN 0231 040806

• Jonathan Harris, Byzantium and the Crusades (Hambledon and London, 2003). ISBN 1 85285 298 4
• J. Ljubarskij, ‘John Kinnamos as a writer’, in Polypleuros Nous: Miscellanea für Peter Schreiner zu seinem 60 Geburtstag (Byzantinisches Archiv, 19), ed. C. Scholz and G. Makris (Munich, 2000), pp. 164–73
• Paul Magdalino, 'Aspects of twelfth century Byzantine Kaiserkritik', Speculum 58 (1983), 326-46 and reprinted in Paul Magdalino, Tradition and Transformation in Medieval Byzantium (Ashgate publishing, 1991), No. VIII
• Paul Stephenson, 'John Cinnamus, John II Comnenus and the Hungarian campaign of 1127-1129', Byzantion 66 (1996), 177-87