Leontios Machairas

Who is Leontios Machairas?

Leontios Machairas or Makhairas was a medieval Cypriot historian.

The main source of information on him is his chronicle, written in the medieval Cypriot dialect. The chronicle documents events from the visit of Saint Helena to Cyprus until the times of the Kingdom of Cyprus. Machairas was Orthodox Christian but wrote with respect for the pope and the Catholic ruling class of Cyprus for whom he was working. He is the only source on "Re Alexis" rebellion of Cypriot serfs, which he condemned. Following usual Byzantine practice, he only used the word "basileus" for the Byzantine emperor at Constantinople, and referred to the king of Cyprus as "regas". Machairas was also present at the Battle of Choirokoitia. The text as we have it became abbreviated after 1432, and historians believe the remainder of the text is a subsequent accretion.

There are manuscripts of the Chronicle at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice, and Ravenna. The Oxford manuscript was copied in Paphos in June 1555, according to an additional paragraph after the end of the chronicle. The chronicle was published by Konstantinos Sathas as part of his Medieval Library in Venice in 1873.