Beautiful and ‘Fiery in Spirit’? The Complexity of the Image of Emperor Isaac II Angelos in the <i>History </i>by Niketas Choniates

Cagić, Ana

dc.contributor.author	Cagić, Ana
dc.date.accessioned	2026-04-07T09:18:04Z
dc.date.available	2026-04-07T09:18:04Z
dc.date.issued	2025-12-30
dc.identifier.issn	2084-140X
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/11089/57960
dc.description.abstract	The depiction of Isaac II Angelos in the History of Niketas Choniates, rounded off with the full description of the emperor in the final paragraph of the account on his first reign (1185–1195), is by far the most complex of all imperial portrayals penned by the respectable historian. The outdated, typically negative image of Isaac II in modern historiography is based only on the surface level of Choniates’ intricate historical narrative, which has been analyzed in greater depth only in the more recent studies. As this paper shall hopefully demonstrate, despite of all literary distortion of his personality, Isaac II remains the most realistically represented character in the History, and the most tangible one, embodying the author’s philosophical-anthropological thought on human nature. The aforementioned description represents a set of authentic body features that meet the criteria of the Byzantine (male) beauty ideal, but it possibly connotes additional meaning, thus making the overall portrayal of Isaac II in the History uniquely complete.	en
dc.language.iso	en
dc.publisher	Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego	pl
dc.relation.ispartofseries	Studia Ceranea	en
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
dc.subject	Isaac II Angelos	en
dc.subject	Niketas Choniates	en
dc.subject	Byzantine literature	en
dc.subject	imperial image	en
dc.subject	Byzantine beauty ideal	en
dc.title	Beautiful and ‘Fiery in Spirit’? The Complexity of the Image of Emperor Isaac II Angelos in the <i>History </i>by Niketas Choniates	en
dc.type	Article
dc.page.number	59-77
dc.contributor.authorAffiliation	University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philosophy, Department of History	en
dc.identifier.eissn	2449-8378
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dc.contributor.authorEmail	anacagic@gmail.com
dc.identifier.doi	10.18778/2084-140X.15.19
dc.relation.volume	15

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