Warfare and propaganda: the portrayal of Andronikos II Palaiologos (1282 – 1328) as an incompetent military leader in the Histories of John VI Kantakouzenos (1347-1354)
Warfare and propaganda: the portrayal of Andronikos II Palaiologos (1282 – 1328) as an incompetent military leader in the Histories of John VI Kantakouzenos (1347-1354)
Savvas Kyriakidis (Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Greek and Latin Studies, University of Johannesburg)
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies: Vol. 37 No. 2 (2013) 176–189
Abstract
The Histories of Kantakouzenos is the main source for the civil war between Andronikos II and Andronikos III which was fought intermittently from 1321 until 1328. This article examines how Kantakouzenos remodelled and fabricated events, conversations and deliberations in order to depict Andronikos II as an incompetent military leader. By criticizing Andronikos II’s military abilities and by blaming him for the military failures of the period, Kantakouzenos diverts suspicion of his personal responsibility and Androni- kos III’s mistakes that led to the advance of Byzantium’s enemies and demonstrates that the elder Andronikos was not worthy of being on the throne.
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The Histories of the megas domestikos and later emperor John VI Kantakouzenos, which cover the period 1320–1356 and were compiled in the 1360s, are a detailed narrative of the political and military events of the period and the main source for the civil wars and conflicts between the cliques of the social elite, which dominated the first half of the fourteenth century. The aim of Kantakouzenos was to explain his view of the events which took place from the 1320s until the 1350s and to justify his involvement in the civil wars of 1321–28 and 1341–47 which ruined Byzantium. In 1320, Kantakouzenos appears to have been an associate of Andronikos II’s son and co-emperor, Michael IX (1294–1320), and in command of military forces in Gallipoli.
Savvas Kyriakidis (Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Greek and Latin Studies, University of Johannesburg)
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies: Vol. 37 No. 2 (2013) 176–189
Abstract
The Histories of Kantakouzenos is the main source for the civil war between Andronikos II and Andronikos III which was fought intermittently from 1321 until 1328. This article examines how Kantakouzenos remodelled and fabricated events, conversations and deliberations in order to depict Andronikos II as an incompetent military leader. By criticizing Andronikos II’s military abilities and by blaming him for the military failures of the period, Kantakouzenos diverts suspicion of his personal responsibility and Androni- kos III’s mistakes that led to the advance of Byzantium’s enemies and demonstrates that the elder Andronikos was not worthy of being on the throne.
The Histories of the megas domestikos and later emperor John VI Kantakouzenos, which cover the period 1320–1356 and were compiled in the 1360s, are a detailed narrative of the political and military events of the period and the main source for the civil wars and conflicts between the cliques of the social elite, which dominated the first half of the fourteenth century. The aim of Kantakouzenos was to explain his view of the events which took place from the 1320s until the 1350s and to justify his involvement in the civil wars of 1321–28 and 1341–47 which ruined Byzantium. In 1320, Kantakouzenos appears to have been an associate of Andronikos II’s son and co-emperor, Michael IX (1294–1320), and in command of military forces in Gallipoli.
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