benefiting from Nikephoross patronage. Much of Attaleiatess work is shaped by his personal opinion of contemporary events, such as his bias against Nikephoross predecessor, Emperor Michael VII Doukas. The Battle of Manzikert in 1071 is mentioned only in a single paragraph by Psellos, who chiefly comments that Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes should have studied strategy better; however, Attaleiates devotes an entire chapter to the details of the decisive battle, including the events before and after the battle, while also giving his own commentary and anecdotes of the actions and mistakes which were made. Attaleiates is invaluable in providing an understanding of what the populace of the Byzantine Empire, outside of the nobles of Constantinople, thought of the Turkish invasion of Anatolia. These opinions explain why Attaleiates condemns Michael VII and praises Nikephoros to such a degree: in the view of the average Byzantine, Michael was primarily at fault for the loss of Byzantine Anatolia, Attaleiatess homeland, whereas Nikephoros, a fellow Anatolian, actively worked to prevent the further collapse of the Byzantine Empire. Psellos's Chronographia is largely useless in understanding the life of Nikephoros; while he provides a contemporary source from the view of the Byzantine nobles, he is far from objective in his review of events, although his retelling of Michael's letter to Nikephoros is useful as it shares both Michael's and Pselloss opinion of the events. While Attaleiates generally provides a favorable account of Nikephoros, he does mention some of his failings, such as his defeat by the Oghuz Turks in 1063, whereas Psellos intentionally fails to mention several failings of Michael VII in his panegyrical chapter on him, including his loss of Anatolia to the Seljuk Turks and the debasement of currency which took place under him. The other main source for Nikephoross reign is Anna Komnene's Alexiad, although she was born after the events, and the first sections of her account are generally derived from the writings of her husband Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger. She is also biased as a result of being the daughter of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, who seized the throne from Nikephoros, causing the account to be from the view of Alexios's rise. While her narrative primarily focuses on the actions of Alexios, it does provide information on Nikephoross last years in power and his subsequent exile to a monastery. Nikephoros is briefly mentioned by John Skylitzes in his Synopsis of Histories,