This history of the reigns of the first two emperors of the Palaiologos Dynasty by George Pachymeres (1242–1310) was edited by the German scholar Immanuel Bekker (1785–1871) on the basis of the work of the French Jesuit, Pierre Poussines (1609–86), and published in two volumes in 1835. The family of Pachymeres, like the aristocratic Palaiologoi, had fled to the neighbouring empire of Nicaea (Iznik) after the capture of Constantinople by the Franks in 1204. Michael Palaiologos (1223–82) became leader of the armies in Nicaea in 1259; two years later he had driven the Latins from Constantinople and was crowned Emperor Michael VIII, with his two-year-old son Andronikos (1259–1332) as his co-ruler and heir. Pachymeres also wrote on music, rhetoric and philosophy, but is best remembered for this history of his own times. Volume 1 describes the life and reign of Michael Palaiologos.
