Anna Comnena (1083–1153)
Author of The Alexiad of Anna Comnena
About the Author
Works by Anna Comnena
La alexiada : una historia del Imperio Bizantino durante la Primera Cruzada (2016) 7 copies, 1 review
Alexiad - Malazgirt'in Sonrasi;Anadolu'da Ve Balkan Yarimadasi'nda İmparator Alexios Komnenos Döneminin Tarihi (2021) 2 copies
Aleksjada, Tom II 1 copy
Aleksias 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Κομνηνή, Ἄννα
Komnene, Anna - Birthdate
- 1083-12-01
- Date of death
- 1153
- Gender
- female
- Occupations
- princess
historian
physician - Short biography
- Anna was a medieval princess, eldest daughter of the Emperor Alexius I Comnenus of Byzantium and Empress Irene Doukaina. She was extremely well educated by the standards of the time, and wrote the Alexiad, a multi-volume biography of her father and one of the most important primary sources on the Byzantine empire. In 1097, Anna married Nikephorus Bryennius the Younger, son of a former pretender to the imperial throne, and in 1118 joined in a conspiracy to make her husband emperor. When the plot failed, she and her mother retired to a monastery, where Anna wrote her books.
- Nationality
- Byzantium
Byzantine Empire
Eastern Roman Empire - Birthplace
- Constantinople, Byzantium
- Places of residence
- Constantinople, Byzantium
- Place of death
- Monastery of Kecharitomene, Constantinople, Byzantine Empire
- Map Location
- Turkey
Members
Reviews
Very engaging narrative of the life of the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Kommenos. Despite protestations to the contrary by Anna, the work is not free from the biases of the author, however, this does not lessen the value of the work.
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1730453.html
it is a history of the reign of the Byzantine emperor Alexius I by his daughter Anna. Gibbon is (as so often) unfairly scathing about this book, saying that "an elaborate affectation of rhetoric and science betrays on every page the vanity of a female author". It's not that bad, but it's not that great either; if you're not especially interested in the events of the late eleventh century and early twelfth century at that end of the Mediterranean, you show more can skip it in good conscience.
I did take several things away from it. First off, the importance of the Norman invasion of Sicily and Calabria: Anna is completely obsessed with Robert Guiscard and especially his son Bohemond, who starts off as a thorn in the side of the Byzantine empire, conquering chunks of Albania, Macedonia and northern Greece, and ends up ruling Antioch after the success of the First Crusade. Bohemond is an rather impressive figure (see especially Anna's description in 13.10) who seems to be somewhat forgotten by posterity.
Second, as a lapsed historian of science, I was interested in Anna's account of these things. She has quite a long rant (6.7) about how wrong astrology is, but also writes on the one hand of her father tricking the Scythians into submission because he knew that an eclipse was about to take place, and on the other hand (twice) of important strategic decisions being made by writing the alternatives on two pieces of paper, praying over them all night, and then implementing whichever option is selected by the priest (one at 10.2, can't find the other). So she actually favours both astronomical knowledge and superstitious grounds for decision-making, and it's a bit surprising to me that she doesn't buy the combination.
Third, towards the end she starts reflecting on the fact that she is writing the history because she is effectively locked away from the rest of the world in a convent and has nothing else to do, and also on how she reconstructed the sequence of events from first-person accounts of her own relatives and of former soldiers who had become monks. It's a rather welcome glimpse of how the history book was actually written, and also makes one feel sorry for this talented woman who fell out with her younger brother and so was banished from public life. show less
it is a history of the reign of the Byzantine emperor Alexius I by his daughter Anna. Gibbon is (as so often) unfairly scathing about this book, saying that "an elaborate affectation of rhetoric and science betrays on every page the vanity of a female author". It's not that bad, but it's not that great either; if you're not especially interested in the events of the late eleventh century and early twelfth century at that end of the Mediterranean, you show more can skip it in good conscience.
I did take several things away from it. First off, the importance of the Norman invasion of Sicily and Calabria: Anna is completely obsessed with Robert Guiscard and especially his son Bohemond, who starts off as a thorn in the side of the Byzantine empire, conquering chunks of Albania, Macedonia and northern Greece, and ends up ruling Antioch after the success of the First Crusade. Bohemond is an rather impressive figure (see especially Anna's description in 13.10) who seems to be somewhat forgotten by posterity.
Second, as a lapsed historian of science, I was interested in Anna's account of these things. She has quite a long rant (6.7) about how wrong astrology is, but also writes on the one hand of her father tricking the Scythians into submission because he knew that an eclipse was about to take place, and on the other hand (twice) of important strategic decisions being made by writing the alternatives on two pieces of paper, praying over them all night, and then implementing whichever option is selected by the priest (one at 10.2, can't find the other). So she actually favours both astronomical knowledge and superstitious grounds for decision-making, and it's a bit surprising to me that she doesn't buy the combination.
Third, towards the end she starts reflecting on the fact that she is writing the history because she is effectively locked away from the rest of the world in a convent and has nothing else to do, and also on how she reconstructed the sequence of events from first-person accounts of her own relatives and of former soldiers who had become monks. It's a rather welcome glimpse of how the history book was actually written, and also makes one feel sorry for this talented woman who fell out with her younger brother and so was banished from public life. show less
Un de los textos clásicos de la literatura bizantina, muy bien escrito y traducido (aunque, evidentemente puede resultar un tanto arcaico para el lector actual) No solo tiene valores literarios, si no que, además, es una importante referencia sobre la vida del emperador Alejo I (Aunque tiene claras omisiones interesadas, no en vano, Anna jugó muy fuerte en la política imperial en su momento y perdió)
Wow. Where to begin with this book? After reading numerous pieces on the Crusades, I noticed that one was invariably reading quotes from the same chronicles over and over again. I took it upon myself to try and read as many of these chronicles as I could. Pieces such as [The Itinerarium Perigrinorum Et Gesta Regis Ricardi], [The Chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres], and Joinville were always there, along with this little piece. Written by the daughter of Emperor Alexius (1081-1118), it tries show more ever so hard to be taken as a serious historical record to the life and reign of of this Byzantine leader. And it many ways it succeeds. But in as many ways, it too, falls short.
Anna tries very hard indeed to nullify the reader's knowledge of her closeness with her father by attempting to frame the work as a purely un-biased histography. She fails rather hard on this attempt. It nearly approaches humor, the amount of praise that she heaps upon Alexius and his wife, her mother. It gets rather tiresome to hear repeatedly just how God-like this man was.
All in all, this is an interesting book. Very little of it deals with the 1st Crusade which was a bit of shock to me. It is very informative for the details that are given about Alexius life (the intrigue and military actions) and those role-players that surrounded him. As a military history piece I would actually give it 4 stars, but overall I can only muster 3. show less
Anna tries very hard indeed to nullify the reader's knowledge of her closeness with her father by attempting to frame the work as a purely un-biased histography. She fails rather hard on this attempt. It nearly approaches humor, the amount of praise that she heaps upon Alexius and his wife, her mother. It gets rather tiresome to hear repeatedly just how God-like this man was.
All in all, this is an interesting book. Very little of it deals with the 1st Crusade which was a bit of shock to me. It is very informative for the details that are given about Alexius life (the intrigue and military actions) and those role-players that surrounded him. As a military history piece I would actually give it 4 stars, but overall I can only muster 3. show less
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- Works
- 11
- Also by
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- Rating
- 3.8
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