Niketas [or Nicetas] Choniates, sometimes called
Acominatus, was an
historian like his brother
Michael whom he accompanied from their birthplace,
Chonae, to
Constantinople.
He initially took up politics as a career and held several appointments under The Angelus Emperors* (amongst them that of Grand Logothete or chancellor) and was governor of the theme of Philippopolis at a critical period.
After the capture of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204, he fled to Nicaea, where he settled at the court of the Nicaean emperor Theodoras Lascaris, and devoted himself to literature. He died between 1210 and 1220. His chief work is his History, in 21 books, of the period from 1180 to 1206.
In spite of its florid and bombastic style, it is of considerable value as a record (on the whole impartial) of events of which he was either an eyewitness or had heard of firsthand. Its most interesting portion is the description of the capture of Constantinople, which should be read with Villehardouin's and Paolo Rannusio's works on the same subject. The little treatise On the Statues Destroyed by the Latins (perhaps altered by a later writer), is of special interest to the archaeologist. His dogmatic work (Thesaurus Orthodoxae Fidei), although it is extant in a complete form in manuscripts, has only been published in part. It is one of the chief authorities for the heresies and heretical writers of the 12th century.
* The Angelus Emperors are so-called because their family name is Angelus. They are three Byzantine emperors ruling from 1185 to 1204. Specifically, the Angelus Emperors were Isaac II, Alexius III; and Alexius IV.
Text above (except the asterisked note) is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicetas_Choniates, appearing here under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. The Wikipedia article, in turn, derives some of its text from the 1911 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, now in the Public Domain.
Source for the asterisked footnote (*), is: http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/people/A0804026.html