Though he is known to classical scholars as the last possessor of complete versions of Callimachus' Hecale and Aitia,[4] he was a versatile writer, and composed homilies, speeches and poems, which, with his correspondence, throw considerable light upon the condition of Attica and Athens at the time. His memorial to Alexios III Angelos on the abuses of Byzantine administration, the poetical lament over the degeneracy of Athens and the monodies on his brother Nicetas and Eustathius, archbishop of Thessalonica, deserve special mention.
It is believed that his daughter Constantina tutored, in Greek and science, John of Basingstoke, Archdeacon of Leicester known for his fluency in and advocacy of the Greek language.[5] Michael's pupil George Bardanes, who had accompanied him during his exile on Ceos, became a distinguished bishop in subsequent years.[6]
George Finlay, History of Greece, iv. pp. 133–134 (1877).
Thallon, C. A Medieval Humanist: Michael Akominatos (New Haven, 1923) (reprint New York, 1973).
Stadtmüller, G. "Michael Choniates, Metropolit von Athen," Orientalia Christiana, 33,2 (1934), 125–325.
Setton, K. M. "Athens in the Later Twelfth Century," Speculum, XIX (1944), 179–207.
Anthony Kaldellis,『Michael Choniates: a classicist-bishop and his cathedral (1182–1205 AD),』in Idem, The Christian Parthenon: Classicism and Pilgrimage in Byzantine Athens (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2009), 145–162.
Nario Gallina, "La reazione antiromana nell'epistolario di Michele Coniata Metropolita d'Atene" in Gherardo Ortalli, Giorgio Ravegnani, Peter Schreiner, eds. Quarta Crociata (Venice, 2006. ISBN88-88143-74-2) vol. 1 pp. 423–446
Athanasios Angelou, «Rhetoric and History: The case of Nicetas Choniates», στο History as Literature in Byzantium, ed. Ruth Macrides, Farnham, Ashgate 2010, σ. 289–305.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Acominatus, Michael". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 150–151.
