Saint Michael Choniates, brother of the historian Niketas Choniates, was the last Archbishop of Eastern Roman Athens in the last decades of the 12th century AD. He was born in 1138 AD at Chonae in Anatolia, and educated by Saint Eustathius in Constantinople, in the ancient texts of Homer, Pindar, Demosthenes, Thucydides and others, having in his possession the last known complete copies of the works of Callimachus ‘Hecale’ and ‘Aitia’. Since he became Archbishop of Athens in 1175, he tried, as can be seen in his numerous letters to the Roman Emperor and the military commanders of the Theme of Hellas, to divert attention to Athens’ situation, and help fund the city, which was in disrepair. He also heavily promoted Christian values and the Christian way of life, and fought to remove corruption within the clergy.
**The Rebellion of Leo Sgouros**
Leo Sgouros, member of the Sgouros family, succeeded his father and became governor of the areas of Nauplion and the Argolid. Seeing the rebellions by other military officers in Thessaly and Macedonia, aswell as the revolts in the Peloponnese during the last years of the Angelid Dynasty, he cast the die, rebelled aswell, and quickly captured the citadels of Argos and Corinth. He was characterized as a violent and brutal man, especially towards the clergy. He imprisoned the bishop of Nauplion and threw the bishop of Corinth from the Acrocorinth Rock to his death, after blinding him first.
The Eastern Roman administration sent the Megasdoux Michael Stryphnos to put an end to his brutality, but he was unable to stop him in time before the 4th Crusade had begun and started posing a threat to Constantinople itself, leaving the Megasdoux preoccupied. Sgouros immediately took advantage of the 4th Crusade and launched naval attacks in Athens.
**The Siege of the Acropolis of Athens**
Michael Choniates desperately tried to appeal for aid from the capital, but in vain. In 1203, Sgouros built siege towers and with them besieged and captured most of Athens, except for the Acropolis, where Michael had evacuated most of the population to, and built defenses and weapons of war. Sgouros, put the Acropolis under blockade and burned the rest of the city, before marching to Boeotia and capturing Thebes.
Before reaching Larissa, the unexpected happened. He encountered the previous Roman Emperor, Alexios III Angelos, who informed him that Constantinople had fallen to the Crusaders and Venetians, and was ransacked by them. He asked Sgouros for protection, in exchange for his daughter’s hand in marriage, and the title of ‘Despot’. And so was formed the alliance between the deposed Roman Emperor and the Morean Rebel, but it wasn’t meant to last.
**The Crusaders Arrive**
In 1204, for the first time, Sgouros met a force much more brutal and violent than himself, in form of the Crusaders, under Boniface of Montferrat, who, after sacking Constantinople, now marched to Thessaly and threatened his new Despotate. Originally Sgouros planned to make a stand in Thermopylae like king Leonidas of legends old, but after his own men started deserting him, he was forced to retreat back to the Isthmus of Corinth, abandoning Thebes and Athens to the Crusaders. Boniface tried to break the defenses of the Isthmus twice, being repulsed at first, but succeeding the 2nd time in 1205. Sgouros and his men would fortify themselves in the citadel of the Acrocorinth Rock, resisting attacks from the Latins, until Sgouros fell into despair, and in 1208 committed suicide, ironically enough in a similar way as the one he had killed the Bishop of Corinth, by jumping to his death from the Acrocorinth Rock while on top of his own horse. The citadel lasted for two more years under a man named Theodore, until its fall in 1210.
As for Michael Choniates, he surrendered the Acropolis to Boniface in 1205, who proceeded to raid and loot what remained of Athens and its residents, including pillaging churches and the home of Michael himself. After this, Michael was forced to leave the city, since the new Archbishop would be enforced by the Crusaders as a Catholic one. He took the bare necessities and left. He first went to Thessaloniki, then to Chalkida, before finally settling in a monastery in the island of Kea. There he continued his church duties, up until the Latins under the Crusaders arrived to preach Catholicism, and forced him to stop.
**Painful Final Years**
In the following years, he learned of his brother’s and other family member’s deaths, while his health continued to worsen by the day. The Roman Emperor in exile, Theodore Laskaris, invited him to Nicea, and the Ecumenical Patriarch wanted to make him Metropolitan Bishop of Naxos, but he declined both offers, because he couldn’t even leave his monastic cell due to his worsening health problems. In the end, he managed to move to the monastery of Saint John the Baptist, close to Thermopylae, where he died in 1222 AD.
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**Saint Michael Choniates**
Saint Michael Choniates, brother of the historian Niketas Choniates, was the last Archbishop of Eastern Roman Athens in the last decades of the 12th century AD. He was born in 1138 AD at Chonae in Anatolia, and educated by Saint Eustathius in Constantinople, in the ancient texts of Homer, Pindar, Demosthenes, Thucydides and others, having in his possession the last known complete copies of the works of Callimachus ‘Hecale’ and ‘Aitia’. Since he became Archbishop of Athens in 1175, he tried, as can be seen in his numerous letters to the Roman Emperor and the military commanders of the Theme of Hellas, to divert attention to Athens’ situation, and help fund the city, which was in disrepair. He also heavily promoted Christian values and the Christian way of life, and fought to remove corruption within the clergy.
**The Rebellion of Leo Sgouros**
Leo Sgouros, member of the Sgouros family, succeeded his father and became governor of the areas of Nauplion and the Argolid. Seeing the rebellions by other military officers in Thessaly and Macedonia, aswell as the revolts in the Peloponnese during the last years of the Angelid Dynasty, he cast the die, rebelled aswell, and quickly captured the citadels of Argos and Corinth. He was characterized as a violent and brutal man, especially towards the clergy. He imprisoned the bishop of Nauplion and threw the bishop of Corinth from the Acrocorinth Rock to his death, after blinding him first.
The Eastern Roman administration sent the Megasdoux Michael Stryphnos to put an end to his brutality, but he was unable to stop him in time before the 4th Crusade had begun and started posing a threat to Constantinople itself, leaving the Megasdoux preoccupied. Sgouros immediately took advantage of the 4th Crusade and launched naval attacks in Athens.
**The Siege of the Acropolis of Athens**
Michael Choniates desperately tried to appeal for aid from the capital, but in vain. In 1203, Sgouros built siege towers and with them besieged and captured most of Athens, except for the Acropolis, where Michael had evacuated most of the population to, and built defenses and weapons of war. Sgouros, put the Acropolis under blockade and burned the rest of the city, before marching to Boeotia and capturing Thebes.
Before reaching Larissa, the unexpected happened. He encountered the previous Roman Emperor, Alexios III Angelos, who informed him that Constantinople had fallen to the Crusaders and Venetians, and was ransacked by them. He asked Sgouros for protection, in exchange for his daughter’s hand in marriage, and the title of ‘Despot’. And so was formed the alliance between the deposed Roman Emperor and the Morean Rebel, but it wasn’t meant to last.
**The Crusaders Arrive**
In 1204, for the first time, Sgouros met a force much more brutal and violent than himself, in form of the Crusaders, under Boniface of Montferrat, who, after sacking Constantinople, now marched to Thessaly and threatened his new Despotate. Originally Sgouros planned to make a stand in Thermopylae like king Leonidas of legends old, but after his own men started deserting him, he was forced to retreat back to the Isthmus of Corinth, abandoning Thebes and Athens to the Crusaders. Boniface tried to break the defenses of the Isthmus twice, being repulsed at first, but succeeding the 2nd time in 1205. Sgouros and his men would fortify themselves in the citadel of the Acrocorinth Rock, resisting attacks from the Latins, until Sgouros fell into despair, and in 1208 committed suicide, ironically enough in a similar way as the one he had killed the Bishop of Corinth, by jumping to his death from the Acrocorinth Rock while on top of his own horse. The citadel lasted for two more years under a man named Theodore, until its fall in 1210.
As for Michael Choniates, he surrendered the Acropolis to Boniface in 1205, who proceeded to raid and loot what remained of Athens and its residents, including pillaging churches and the home of Michael himself. After this, Michael was forced to leave the city, since the new Archbishop would be enforced by the Crusaders as a Catholic one. He took the bare necessities and left. He first went to Thessaloniki, then to Chalkida, before finally settling in a monastery in the island of Kea. There he continued his church duties, up until the Latins under the Crusaders arrived to preach Catholicism, and forced him to stop.
**Painful Final Years**
In the following years, he learned of his brother’s and other family member’s deaths, while his health continued to worsen by the day. The Roman Emperor in exile, Theodore Laskaris, invited him to Nicea, and the Ecumenical Patriarch wanted to make him Metropolitan Bishop of Naxos, but he declined both offers, because he couldn’t even leave his monastic cell due to his worsening health problems. In the end, he managed to move to the monastery of Saint John the Baptist, close to Thermopylae, where he died in 1222 AD.
More information:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Choniates
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Sgouros
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankokratia