View source for John Anagnostes

{{No footnotes|date=April 2024}}
'''John''', called '''Anagnostes''' (i.e. ''lector'', ''reader;'' {{langx|el|Ἰωάννης Ἀναγνώστης}}), was a [[Greeks|Greek]] historian of the fifteenth century. He was an eyewitness to the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] [[Siege of Thessalonica (1422–1430)|sack]] of [[Thessaloniki|Thessalonica]] on March 29, 1430; an event he described in detail in his ''Account of the Last Capture of Thessalonica'' ({{lang|grc|Διήγησις περί τῆς τελευταίας άλώσεως τῆς Θεσσαλονίχης}}), which he wrote with an accompanying [[monody]] lamenting the city's fall.

== Background ==

Thessalonica had been captured by the Ottomans in 1387; though they were unable to hold the city in the wake of the [[Battle of Ankara]] in 1402 when it reverted to the [[Byzantine Empire]]. The Byzantines, when they were unable to hold the city, sold it to the [[Republic of Venice]] in 1423; though not in time to mount a defense against [[Siege of Thessalonica (1422–1430)|another Ottoman siege]] that year. The Ottomans were again unable to hold the city permanently, and the Venetians and Ottomans were soon in a full state of war.

== Siege of Thessalonica ==

[[File:Murat II.jpg|thumb|right|Ottoman sultan [[Murad II]]]]
Beginning on March 29, 1430, the Ottoman sultan [[Murad II]] began a three-day siege of Thessalonica, resulting in the conquest of the city by the Ottoman army, and the taking of 7,000 inhabitants as slaves. The Venetians agreed to a peace treaty and withdrew from the region in 1432, leaving the Ottomans with permanent dominion over the region.

== References ==

Greek ed., with Latin translation by [[Leo Allatius|L. Allatius]], published with [[George Sphrantzes|Sphrantzes]] in ''[[Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae]]'', 1838, p.&nbsp;483-534. ([[August Immanuel Bekker|Immanuel Bekker]], ed.) [https://books.google.com/books?id=y2MGAAAAQAAJ View online.]

English ed. in Melville-Jones, John R. ''Venice and Thessalonica 1423-1430: The Greek Accounts''. Archivio del Litorale Adriatico, 8. Padova: Unipress, 2006. {{ISBN|88-8098-228-1}}.

Eugenia Russell, ''St Demetrius of Thessalonica; Cult and Devotion in the Middle Ages'', Peter Lang, Oxford, 2010, pp.&nbsp;133–45. {{ISBN|978-3-0343-0181-7}}

{{Byzantine historians}}
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[[Category:15th-century Byzantine historians]]
[[Category:Byzantine Thessalonian writers]]
[[Category:Ottoman Thessalonica]]

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