The history of Nikita Choniates, now offered in Russian translation, covers the period of time from 1118 to 1206 and serves as a continuation of the history of Anna Comnena. Beginning his narrative about the events in the Byzantine Empire with the death of Alexei Komnenos, Nikita brings it to the beginning of the reign of Henry, Balduinov’s brother, and, as he himself says in the preface, he tells either what he himself was an obvious witness to, or what he heard from eyewitnesses . Even this circumstance, considered in connection with Nikita’s social position, speaks very much in favor of his story; but it should be valued all the more highly because in the writer one can always see a person with a bright and educated mind, with a free and incorruptible judgment, with a strong and independent character. Wolf and Lipe call Nikita a truthful historian, and it seems to us that this verdict is quite fair. If Roman Catholic writers sometimes speak unfavorably about Nikitas, the reason for this is very clear: Nikitas passed on to posterity the sad story of the rampages of the Latins in Thessalonica, and especially in Constantinople.