The Chronographia of Michael Psellos (AD 1018-ca.1078) and the History of Michael Attaleiates (ca. 1025ca. 1080) are two nearly contemporary –and thus frequently compared– eleventh-century Byzantine historical narratives. Recent analyses concerning their respective style, as well as their literary and ideological framework, have increasingly highlighted a sharp internal division within each of the two works. Such a division concerned their composite moments, literary genres (history opposed to enkomion) and even the works’ argumentative lines developed in each section. This article reconsiders the implications of the internal division in Psellos’ work, while flatly discarding the existence of a comparable internal break in Attaleiates’ History.