Michael Psellus

[Horu]

In my recent studies I have had to spend a lot of time focusing on some of the works Psellus wrote. I was just wondering what some of the other people here thought of him.

 

After my initial readings, and digging deeper and reading a bit of Attaleiates it just seems to me Psellus was full of himself. I do realize he was a leading scholar of the day, but the self importance this man possesses and what he must expect us to believe is a little far fetched. I do realize also that his dealing hurt the empire significantly, which means he did control quite a bit of influence. But if we were to believe his importance in the capitol he had connections with every, and if they only listened to him they had a fairly good chance of becoming the Emperor.

 

Those are just my inital impressions of him, and honestly I do not like the man much. The horrible things he wrote about Romanus IV Diogenes alone probably warrent that from most people.

 

On an unrealated note, would any of you perhaps know how to cite him as a source? I ment to grab and Oxford dictionary and I didn't, now i'm stuck. I need to cite his Chronographia book 7 more specificly and I dont know the correct abbreviations for his name, or that work.

[Andrew Dalby]

In my recent studies I have had to spend a lot of time focusing on some of the works Psellus wrote. I was just wondering what some of the other people here thought of him.

 

After my initial readings, and digging deeper and reading a bit of Attaleiates it just seems to me Psellus was full of himself. I do realize he was a leading scholar of the day, but the self importance this man possesses and what he must expect us to believe is a little far fetched. I do realize also that his dealing hurt the empire significantly, which means he did control quite a bit of influence. But if we were to believe his importance in the capitol he had connections with every, and if they only listened to him they had a fairly good chance of becoming the Emperor.

 

Those are just my inital impressions of him, and honestly I do not like the man much. The horrible things he wrote about Romanus IV Diogenes alone probably warrent that from most people.

 

On an unrealated note, would any of you perhaps know how to cite him as a source? I ment to grab and Oxford dictionary and I didn't, now i'm stuck. I need to cite his Chronographia book 7 more specificly and I dont know the correct abbreviations for his name, or that work.

 

I like Psellus, and maybe for some of the same reasons I like Suetonius. He gives a personal view, and a close insight into what at least one person felt, living through a period of history, and close to the centre of power.

 

OK, he's self-important, which Suetonius isn't. But he was there, and I'm glad he said what he thought about these people! You have to take his book as a diary rather than a chronicle. Because that's the kind of book it is, we know things about those thirteen rulers that we don't know about many other Byzantine emperors. For example, we have the picture of Zoe (was it Zoe?) getting her servants to work boiling up spices and making aromatics and stinking out the palace.

 

I would call it Psellus, Chronog. As a former librarian, I don't like abbreviations, because they make it difficult for students to find things in catalogues; but I know most classicists love them.

[Philhellene]

I would call it Psellus, Chronog. As a former librarian, I don't like abbreviations, because they make it difficult for students to find things in catalogues; but I know most classicists love them.

 

Maybe: Psellus, Chron., VII ? Like Malalas.

[Julian]

In my recent studies I have had to spend a lot of time focusing on some of the works Psellus wrote. I was just wondering what some of the other people here thought of him.

 

 

Yes, Psellus was very arrogant. Did he write honestly? I believe so. I think he was tremendous and certainly the most important historian after Ammianus. I learned so much from him. I've not read him in years though. I must get back to him, now that I think about it.