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Updated 05-13-09
Anna Comnena /Komnene
/Komnena (1083-bef.1156)
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"WHENEVER ONE ASSUMES THE ROLE OF HISTORIAN, FRIENDSHIP
AND ENMITIES HAVE TO BE FORGOTTEN."
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Anna Comnena (Komnene is the Greek for the family name, Komnena its feminine form) was born two years after her father, Alexius, had made himself, not very legitimately, Roman emperor at Constantinople. As Alexius' first-born, she was soon betrothed to the son of an earlier emperor, the "rightful heir to the throne." In 1092 the engagement was broken off, and Anna's younger brother was made heir. But it was only after the death of the "rightful heir" that she was married, in 1097, to Nicephorus Bryennius, the son of a rival of Alexius, with his own claim to the throne. In a will she wrote after her father's death in 1118, Anna said that she had married Bryennius only to please her parents, but she then went on to praise him; at any rate, the couple remained married for forty years and had four children. During this time she wrote some poetry, but only brief fragments are extant.
Anna's husband had written a history of some of the emperors before Alexius, so after Bryennius died in 1137, Anna began to write the history of her father's reign, the Alexiad. She had time to write, because after her father's death, she appears to have been involved in some kind of a plot against her brother John, the new emperor. The difficulty for historians is that the chief source of the story of the plot is a chronicler, Ioannes Zonaras, who wrote in the 1170s in the service of John's son; later writers simply repeated Zonaras' story. Whatever the reason, Anna was at some point sent off by her brother John to live with her mother at a monastery that her mother had founded. John died in 1143, to be succeeded by his son Manuel; Anna remained at her convent. Her history of her father's reign seems to have been completed in 1148, but since the end of the manuscript is mutilated, it is hard to be sure.
A funeral oration on Anna Comnena was given in 1156 (although apparently not immediately after her death) by a classical scholar who had studied with her in her enforced retirement. He and others had worked with Anna at her monastery on the study of Aristotle, Plato, Euclid, and Ptolemy, and of rhetoric and history.
As unbiased history, the biggest problem with the Alexiad is the relationship between its author and its subject. It has sometimes been called hagiography, and it is true that Anna greatly admired her father and her mother, Irene. Anna tries very hard to be objective, but she can find a good (or at least understandable) reason for almost everything her parents do. However, from the perspective given by 900 years, a reader can afford to be tolerant and simply enjoy her unquestioned ability to tell a good story.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from a translation in print.
Information about secondary sources.
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1. A complete translation of the Alexiad, made by Elizabeth A. S. Dawes in 1928. You may link to the complete text or to the 15 individual books; Anna's "Preface" is found with Dawes' "Introduction." Also given is a 2001 bibliography compiled by Paul Halsall, with some annotations. Linking to "Appendix" will show you the members of the "House of Comnenus." (A problem with Dawes' translation, here and in print, is that it has almost no notes to help the reader unfamiliar with the terminology or the complex politics of 1100s Constantinople.)
2. Sites with excerpts from other translators (and sometimes with useful introductions):
(a) From Book 1, chapter 13, on a conflict between Pope Gregory VII and King Henry IV of Germany that would cause trouble for Alexius at the start of his reign. It is followed by a brief section of Bk. 10, ch. 5.
(b) From Bk. 1, ch. 15 and Bk. 4, ch. 6, on Sigelgaita, the warrior wife of one of Alexius' Norman enemies. The translation is by E.R.A. Sewter.
(c) Use your browser's search function to go to "Comnena" for a passage from Bk. 3, ch. 2, which mocks Anna's great-uncle's flowery description of the Empress Maria (not the Empress Eudocia, as the site says); Maria was the mother of the heir to the throne to whom Anna was first betrothed. The translation is Sewter's.
(d) From Bk. 3, ch. 3, Anna's description of her mother, Irene Ducaena, translated by Sewter.
(e) From Bk. 3, ch. 7, on her grandmother, Anna Dalessena, translated by Marcelle Thiebaux; with a link to a brief biography of Comnena. (Throughout the Alexiad, "Roman" refers to the people of the "new Rome" of Constantinople and its empire; those from the west, loyal to the city in Italy are called "Latins.")
(f) About half way down the page of an essay on the days of the week, a brief passage from Bk. 6, ch. 7, translated by Sewter, on the art of divination.
(g) A translation of Bk.10, chs. 5-6, by Paul Brians, on the arrival of the Crusaders.
(h) An older translation of parts of Bk.10, ch.10 (given on three pages), in which the 1833 editors of Walter Scott's novel Count Robert of Paris saw the genesis of Scott's hero: in Scott's novel Count Robert is the unnamed Frank who "had the audacity to seat himself on the throne of the Emperor." And from Scott's novel itself, two passages from Bk. 15, ch. 3, Anna's description of Alexius' way of fighting and a defense of her own impartiality; these are followed, about two-thirds of the way down the page, by the last lines of the Alexiad (the verse "The learned Comnena..." is from an early editor).
(i) Excerpts from Bk. 10, chs. 5-11, and from Bk.11, chs. 2-3, on the Crusaders' first battles; most of the translations are by August C. Krey (for more from Krey, see #3 below).
(j) After an introduction, excerpts from Bks. 10-13, on Bohemond, a Norman Crusader and the son of an old enemy of Alexius, translated by Sewter (for more from Sewter, see below, under "In print").
3. A link to the text of Krey's 1921 The First Crusade; The Accounts of Eyewitnesses and Participants, where you will find not only excerpts from the Alexiad, but also the views of the western writers who had a very different view of Alexius; you can also download the work as a PDF file.
4. At Chapter 48 of this volume of Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1778-88), go to the two uses of "Comnena" (as you will see, Gibbon's view of Anna was not high).
5. Essays, etc.:
(a) The transcript of a lecture by John C. Rouman, "Nicephorus Bryennius and Anna Comnena: The 'Roman' Xenophon and Thucydides of Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Constantinople," which provides a useful history and discusses the Greco-Roman style of Anna and her husband.
(b) A 1996 essay by Paul Magadalino, "The Byzantine Background to the First Crusade," The whole essay is of interest, but go to the uses of "Comnena" for questions raised about the objectivty and accuracy of the Alexiad.
(c) Second in a group, a brief but interesting 2004 conference presentation abstract, Penelope Buckley's "War and Peace in the Alexiad," which sees Comnena's changing the presentation of her father during the course of her narration.
6. Reviews (for more on the books' treatment of Comnena, see "Secondary sources"):
(a) Stavroula Constantinou on Carolyn L. Connor's 2004 study, Women of Byzantium; elsewhere, another review, this by Simone Bonim; and still another, by Dorothy Abrahamse.
(b) Jessalynn Bird on the 2001 essay collection, Gendering the Crusades; and another review, by Christopher Corley.
(c) A.L. McClanan on Lynda Garland's 1999 study, Byzantine Empresses: Women and Power in Byzantium, AD 527-1204; and another review, by Barry Baldwin.
(d) Anthony McRoy on Judith Herrin's 2008 history, Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire; and another review, by Patrick Comerford
7. At the bottom, a mosaic portrait believed by some historians to be Anna Comnena.
8. For historical background:
(a) From the online encyclopedia, De Imperatoribus Romanis, two biographies that illuminate Anna's background and life: Lynda Garland's 2007 entry on Anna's grandmother, Anna Dalassena; and Andrew Stone's 2004 entry on her brother, John II Comnenus.
(b) For a broader view, a link to the text (or a PDF file) of the second volume of A. A. Vasiliev's 1952 History Of The Byzantine Empire 324-1453; the first chapter given here (Ch. 7) provides a detailed description of the period.
(c) Marc Carrier's 2002 "'Perfidious and Effeminate Greeks': The Representation of Byzantine Ceremonial in the Western Chronicles of the Crusades (1096-1204)"; although it covers all of the 1100s, the essay shows the longstanding cultural differences that made conflict inevitable; the Alexiad is among Carrier's sources.
(d) One section of a longer 2003 essay by Chris Ambrose on Byzantine women, "Byzantium: A Medieval Patriarchy, with Exceptions." At the same site, a brief timeline of Byzantine history from 1000 to 1200, and maps of the empire in 1092 and in 1143 (the year in which Anna's brother John died).
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[E.R.A. Sewter's is the standard translation of the Alexiad. The book has a thorough introduction and other useful aids: maps, a glossary, and a much needed chronology of events. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
The Alexiad of Anna Comnena. Translated from the Greek by
E.R.A. Sewter (The Penguin classics). Baltimore, Penguin Books
[1969] (560 p. geneal. table, maps.)
LC#: DF605 .C6 1969; ISBN: 0140442154
Bibliography: p. 524-525.
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"...appealing to the evidence of the actual events and of
eye-witnesses."
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[The opening of the Alexiad:]
The stream of Time, irresistible, ever moving, carries off and bears away all things that come to birth and plunges them into utter darkness, both deeds of no account and deeds which are mighty and worthy of commemoration; as the playwright [Sophocles] says, it "brings to light that which was unseen and shrouds from us that which was manifest."
Nevertheless, the science of History is a great bulwark against this stream of Time; in a way it checks this irresistible flood, it holds in a tight grasp whatever it can seize floating on the surface and will not allow it to slip away into the depths of Oblivion....
....I, having realized the effects wrought by Time, desire now by means of my writings to give an account of my father's deeds...; I wish to recall everything....
Whenever one assumes the role of historian, friendship and enmities have to be forgotten; often one has to bestow on adversaries the highest commendation (where their deeds merit it); often, too, one's nearest relatives, if their pursuits are in error and suggest the desirability of reproach, have to be censured. The historian, therefore, must shirk neither remonstrance with his friends, nor praise of his enemies.
For my part, I hope to satisfy both parties, both those who are offended by us and those who accept us, by appealing to the evidence of the actual events and of eye-witnesses. The fathers and grandfathers of some men living today saw these things. [Preface, pp.17-18]
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"Who then had a better right to be at his side than his
natural advisor?"
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[On her mother's habit of accompanying Alexius on his campaigns. Anna needs to defend this because Greek custom required a woman to stay at home. Later in the book we are told of an anonymous lampoon that attacked Irene for not staying where she belonged (p.397). Here Anna speaks of an 1105 expedition:]
The Augusta [Irene], was compelled to leave with him. Her natural inclination would have been to shun public life altogether.... But since not even gods, as the poet [Simonides] says, fight against necessity, she was forced to accompany the emperor on his frequent expeditions. Her innate modesty kept her inside the palace; on the other hand, her devotion to him and her burning love for him compelled her, however unwillingly, to leave her home.
There were two cogent reasons: first, because the disease which attacked his feet necessitated most careful attention; he suffered excruciating pain from his gout and my mother's touch was what he appreciated most, for she understood him perfectly and by gentle massage relieved him of the anguish to some extent....
The second and most cogent reason why the empress accompanied him was this: a multitude of conspiracies sprang up against him and it called for great vigilance, a power in fact endowed with a hundred eyes, for night was a time for plots, and so was mid-day, and the evening brought to birth some new evil; worst were the intrigues of the morning --- God is my witness.
Was it not right, therefore, that the emperor, assailed by evils so numerous, should also be protected by a thousand eyes...? Who then had a better right to be at his side than his natural advisor? Who rather than the empress would keep stricter watch over him or regard with more suspicion the plotters?... These were the reasons that thrust aside her natural reserve and gave her courage to face the eyes of men.
We, who were loyal to him, shared in this labor with our mistress and mother to protect him, each according to his or her ability, with all our heart and soul, never once relaxing our vigil.
I have written these words for the edification of those who delight in scoffing and raillery, for they bring to judgement the guiltless... and they belittle noble deeds, subjecting the blameless to reproach. [Bk.12, ch.3; pp.374-76]
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"His efforts came to nothing through the stupidity of those
who inherited...."
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[On Alexius' treaty with the Turks, not long before his death in 1118; Comnena takes the opportunity to comment on her brother John, Alexius' successor:]
All the negotiations... were conducted in the light of Roman sovereignty; that was the criterion for all decisions. His [Alexius'] purpose was to ensure that the treaty would last after his death and for a long time. It failed, because when he died affairs took a different course and ended in confusion. However, in the meanwhile the troubles subsided and there was great harmony.
Thereafter we enjoyed peace until the end of his life, but with him all the benefits disappeared and his efforts came to nothing through the stupidity of those who inherited his throne. [Bk.14, ch.3; p.448]
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"No one makes the slightest attempt to over-praise the departed."
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[Nearing the end of her book, Comnena repeats a theme that runs throughout the book: her objectivity and accuracy:]
In the old days, before our time, there was a great buoyancy about the Empire which is lacking today---the burden of government was not so heavy. But in my father's reign, as soon as he ascended to the throne, a veritable flood of dangers poured in on him from everywhere: the Kelt was restless and pointed his spear at him; the Ishmaelite [Turk] bent his bow; all the nomads and the whole Sythian nation [northern tribes migrating south] pressed in on him with their myriad wagons.
But at this stage of my history the reader perhaps will say that I am naturally biased. My answer is this: I swear by the perils the emperor endured for the well-being of the Roman people, by his sorrows and the travails he suffered on behalf of the Christians, that I am not favoring him when I say or write such things. On the contrary, where I perceive that he was wrong I deliberately transgress the law of nature and stick to the truth. I regard him as dear, but truth as dearer still.
And the proof of this is near to hand..... [T]here are men still alive who knew my father and tell me of his deeds.... Most of the time, moreover, we were ourselves present, for we accompanied our father and mother. Our lives by no means revolved round the home; we did not live a sheltered, pampered existence.....
[S]ome of my material is the result of my own observations; some I have gathered in various ways from the emperor's comrades-in-arms, who sent us information about the progress of the wars by people who crossed the straits. Above all, I have often heard the emperor and George Palaelogus [one of Alexius' chief advisors] discussing these matters in my presence.
Most of the evidence I collected myself, especially in the reign of the third emperor after Alexius [Manuel I], at a time when all the flattery and lies had disappeared with his grandfather (all men flatter the current ruler, but no one makes the slightest attempt to over-praise the departed; they tell the bare facts and describe things just as they happened). [Bk.14, ch.7; pp.458-460]
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"As for myself, I did all I could do."
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[The last book of the manuscript has been badly mutilated, so the text is sometimes incoherent; but the report of the dying Alexius' last words to his wife and the line that follows may refer to the alleged later attempt by Anna to stop John's succession:]
Then in a firm, manly voice he gave the empress some advice---his last counsel: "Why," he said, "why do give yourself up so to grief at my death and force us to anticipate the end that rapidly approaches? Instead of surrendering yourself to the flood of woe that has come upon you, why not consider your own position and the dangers that now threaten you?" Such were his words, but they only reopened her wound.
As for myself, I did all I could do; to my friends still living and to men who in the future will read this history I swear by God who knows all things that I was no better than a mad woman, wholly wrapped up in my sorrow. [Bk.15, ch.11; p.511]
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"Let this be the end...."
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[And at what appears to be the very end of the manuscript; Anna has written of the death of Alexius, her mother, and her husband, and of her treatment by "people in the palace":]
Let this be the end of my history, then, lest as I write of these sad events I become even more embittered. [Bk.15, ch.11; p.515]
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[The print version of the Elizabeth A. S. Dawes' 1928 translation that is available online:]
The Alexiad of the Princess Anna Comnena: being the history
of the reign of her father, Alexius I, Emperor of the Romans,
1081-1118 A.D.; translated by Elizabeth A. S. Dawes. New York:
AMS Press, 1978. (viii, 439 p.)
LC#: DF605 .C6; ISBN: 040415414X .
Reprint of the 1928 ed. published by K. Paul, Trench, Trubner,
London. Includes index.
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Secondary sources
[All of the essays in this collection are of interest.
Perhaps of most value to the general reader are Ruth Macrides'
"The Pen and the Sword: Who Wrote the Alexiad?"
which defends Anna's originality; and Jakov Ljubarskij's "Why
Is the Alexiad a Masterpiece of Byzantine Literature?"
which situates Anna's book in the literature of her period. Most
of the essays' authors give their own translations of passages
from the Alexiad. Although the book has no general bibliography,
the detailed notes will lead you to earlier studies. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Anna Komnene and her times / Thalia Gouma-Peterson, editor.
New York; London: Garland Publishing, 2000. (xiv, 193 p.: ill.)
LC#: DF605.3 .A56 2000; ISBN: 0815336454, 0815338511
Includes bibliographical references and index
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[This collection includes three useful essays: (1) Thalia Gouma-Peterson's
"Engendered Category or Recognizable Life: Anna Komnene
and her Alexiad," analyzes Anna's preface to her
book. (2) Barbara Hill's "A Vindication of the Rights of
Women to Power by Anna Komnene," discusses Anna's treatment
of her mother and her grandmother. (3) Another essay by Hill,
"The Ideal Imperial Komnenian Woman," paraphrases much
of George Tornikes' 1156 funeral oration on Anna:]
Byzantinische Forschungen; Bd. 23. Revised papers that were
originally read at the session entitled "Komnenian culture":
papers from the session at the 20th annual Byzantine Studies
Conference, Ann Arbor, Michigan, on 21 September 1994 / edited
by Annemarie Weyl Carr...[et al.]. Amsterdam: A.M. Hakkert, 1996.
(163 p.)
LC#: DF503 .B95 no.23; ISBN: 9025606199, 9025611052
Papers in English and French.
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[One chapter of Carolyn L. Connor's study is "The World of Anna Komnene: Anna's Passionate Voice in the Alexiad," which provides useful historical background and then discusses the influences on and style of Anna's epic. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Connor, Carolyn L. Women of Byzantium. New Haven: Yale University
Press, c2004. (xvii, 396 p., [16] p. of plates: ill. (some col.),
maps; 26 cm)
LC#: HQ1147.B98 C66 2004; ISBN: 0300099576
Includes bibliographical references (p. 375-390) and index
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[Peter Frankopan's essay in this collection, "Perception
and Projection of Prejudice: Anna Comnena, the Alexiad
and the First Crusade," defends Anna against the charge
of bias in her recording of history and uses the Alexiad's
coverage of the First Crusade to evaluate Anna's accuracy
and objectivity. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Gendering the crusades / edited by Susan B. Edgington and Sarah
Lambert. New York: Columbia University Press, c2002. (xvi, 215
p.: ill)
LC#: HQ1143 .G45 2002; ISBN: 0231125984
Originally published: Cardiff : University of Wales Press, 2001.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [191]-210) and index
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[Paul Stephenson's article analyzes Books 10 and 11 of the Alexiad and relates their purpose to Byzantine politics of the 1140s. Stephenson sees Anna's choices of what to include and to omit as reflecting her disapproval of her nephew, Emperor Manuel I, and his handling of the Second Crusade, as well as of those writers who were praising Manuel at the expense of his grandfather Alexius. (See the issue's table of contents online.):]
Stephenson, Paul. Anna Comnena's Alexiad as a source
for the Second Crusade? Journal of Medieval History, 29
(2003), 41-54.
LC#: D111 .J67; ISSN: 0304-4181
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[Lynda Garland's study includes a chapter on "The Empresses of Alexios I Komnenos," which tells what is known of Anna's grandmother and mother --- and what historians have said about Anna herself. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Garland, Lynda. Byzantine empresses: women and power in Byzantium,
AD 527-1204. London; New York: Routledge, 1999. (xix, 343 p.:
ill., geneal. table, map)
LC#: DF572.8.E5 G37 1999; ISBN: 0415146887
Includes bibliographical references and index
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[Robert Browning's study includes, "An Unpublished Funeral Oration on Anna Comnena." The text of George Tornikes' 1156 funeral oration is given in Greek, but Browning's English-language introduction gives valuable information on Comnena's life after 1148:]
Browning, Robert. Studies on Byzantine history, literature
and education. London: Variorum Reprints, 1977.
LC#: PA5103 .B75; ISBN: 0860780031
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[Rae Dalven's 1972 study is a general review of Anna's work and her world; as such, the book is useful for historical background and for its use of contemporary documents:]
Dalven, Rae. Anna Comnena (Twayne's world authors series,
213. Greece). New York, Twayne Publishers [1972]. (186 p.)
LC#: DF605.3 .D35
Includes bibliographical references (p.173-177)
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[This is a reprint of a 1929 "moral and intellectual study"
of Comnena by Georgina Buckler; the author is rather patronizing
toward anything "Byzantine," but she makes some interesting
observations, especially on the succession of Comnena's brother
John to the throne:]
Buckler, Georgina Grenfell. Anna Comnena; a study. London,
Oxford U.P., 1968. (ix, 558 p.)
LC#: DF605.3 .B8 1968
Bibliography: p. 523-528.
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[Judith Herrin's thematically organized history of the Byzantine empire includes a chapter on Comnena, her relations with her family, and the Alexiad, but it also provides a clear and useful description of the society in which she lived. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Herrin, Judith. Byzantium: the surprising life of a medieval
empire. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008 (xxiii, 391
p., [24] p. of plates: ill. (some col.), maps)
LC#: DF552 .H47 2008; ISBN: 9780691131511
Includes bibliographical references (p. 339-353) and index
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Updated 05-13-09