(1083-ca. 1154) historian
Anna Comnena was born in Constantinople, the eldest daughter of an aristocratic general who later, as Alexius I, became one of the greatest emperors of Byzantium (the Eastern Roman Empire). Nevertheless, Comnena spent the latter half of her life in exile, where she wrote a remarkable history book, perhaps the first written by a woman.
Anna was betrothed at age five to Constantine, son of then-emperor Michael VII. Her royal ambitions were thwarted, however, due to her husband’s early death and the birth of a son and heir to her parents, who had since become the imperial couple.
Anna enjoyed major influence in affairs of state via her mother, the empress Irene. They conspired together to obtain the succession to the throne for Anna’s husband—in effect for Anna herself. After the death in 1118 of her father, Alexius I, Anna plotted with her second husband to overthrow her brother, the new emperor John II. When the plot was discovered, Anna’s properties were confiscated, and she was banished from the capital for life. She retired to the convent of Kecharitomene, built by her mother, where she spent her remaining 35 years as a patron of scholarships and the arts as well as the center of a literary and political faction opposed to Emperor Manuel I. She died in exile, becoming a nun on her deathbed.
Before her death, Anna composed a long history of her father’s glorious career, the Alexiad, covering the years from 1169 through his death. Later translated into spoken Greek, her book gained wide popularity. It is still celebrated for its forceful, vivid writing; its thoughtful if biased analysis; and its wealth of information on contemporary literature, society, religion, internal politics, and international affairs.
In her writing, Comnena tried to emulate the language and spirit of classical Greece, whose pedigree was as ancient and authentic as the Christian scriptures. The title Alexiad was a deliberate tribute to homer’s Iliad. Not that Anna had any tolerance for rationalistic heresies. Her conservative outlook found expression in her distaste for frivolity, astrology, and gambling, and in the heroic language and conventions she used for her protagonists.
The Alexiad is in some ways a traditional imperial enconium, in which the emperor emerges as wise, brave, and tirelessly devoted, the very model of mesotes (the middle way). But Anna added depth to her portrayals, even of her father, whom she described as frequently depressed by temporary setbacks or guilt. She gives even the villains motives and recognizes their strong qualities.
Anna was a master of emotionally powerful descriptions, both of people and events. Describing
John Italos, a leading philosopher denounced for heresy, she wrote in the Alexiad: “His writings wore a frown and in general reeked of bitterness, full of dialectic aggression, and his tongue was loaded with arguments. . . . The man was no more in control of his hands than his tongue.”
Anna’s career shows that the social status of women improved in Byzantium in her era, at least among the elite. The characters she describes in her writing provide further evidence. For example, according to the Alexiad, her father appointed his own mother, Anna Dalassena, as coruler. Anna writes: “One might say that he was indeed the instrument of her power—he was not emperor, for all the decisions and ordinances of his mother satisfied him, not merely as an obedient son, but as an attentive listener to her instruction in the art of ruling.”
Anna’s importance was twofold: Her book was the first great product of a Greek renaissance that lasted until the last days of the Byzantine Empire, three centuries later, and it is the primary original source of information for the era of the First Crusade.
An English Version of a Work by Anna Comnena
The Alexiad of Anna Comnena. Translated by E. R. A. Sewter. Baltimore: Penguin, 1969.
Works about Anna Comnena
Dalven, Rae. Anna Comnena. New York: Twayne, 1972.
Kazhdan, A. P. and Ann Wharton Epstein. Change in Byzantine Culture in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.
