Anna Komnene writes the Alexiad
Around 1148 Anna Komnene, daughter of Alexios I, who after her husband's death lived in the convent of Kecharitomene in Constantinople, wrote a history of her father's reign in fifteen books. Composed in a classicizing Attic Greek, the Alexiad is the chief Byzantine account of the Norman wars, the Pecheneg invasions and the First Crusade — and no comparable work by a woman survives from Byzantium.
- Date
- c. 1148year known, approximate
- Place
- Constantinopletoday: Istanbul, Turkey · Balkans and Anatolia
- Participants
- Anna Komnene, Byzantine Empire
- Threads
- Balkans and Anatolia (11th–12th c.)
- Also known as
- Alexiad; Алексиада; Anna Comnena; Анна Комнина
Anna was born on 1 December 1083 to Alexios I and Irene Doukaina and was educated in Greek literature and history, philosophy, theology, mathematics and medicine. Around 1097 she was married to the caesar Nikephoros Bryennios. After her father's death in 1118 she and her mother are commonly believed to have tried to seize power from her brother John II. Her husband died around 1137, leaving unfinished his own history, and Anna entered the convent of Kecharitomene, founded by her mother.
The Alexiad has a prologue and fifteen books and is devoted to the reign of Alexios (1081–1118), with some earlier background: the wars against Robert Guiscard's Normans, the Pecheneg incursions, the First Crusade and Bohemond's attacks, and at the end the Bogomils and the emperor's death. Anna drew on accounts from veterans of her father's campaigns, as well as from her father and her uncle George Palaiologos. Her oblique comments on the politics of the Second Crusade show that she was still writing after the mid-1140s. She calls the Latins barbarians, and Peter Frankopan compares her portrait of her father to the conventions of saints' lives.
Edward Gibbon mocked the book as betraying "in every page the vanity of a female author"; James Howard-Johnston argued, controversially, that it was largely Nikephoros Bryennios's work, but most scholars accept Anna's authorship, and Frankopan points out that no comparable work by a woman survives from the Byzantine period. First edited by Possinus in 1651, the Alexiad has been translated into English by Elizabeth Dawes (1928) and E. R. A. Sewter (1969) and into Russian by Yakov Lyubarsky (1965).
Connections
Related events
- Battle of Levounion29 April 1091 · Balkans and Anatoliathe battle is described in detail by Anna in Book VIII
- First Crusade1096 – 12 August 1099 · Western and Central EuropeAnna's account of the crusaders at Constantinople is the chief Byzantine source for the First Crusade
- Reign of Alexios I Komnenos: the Komnenian restoration begins4 April 1081 – 15 August 1118 · Balkans and Anatoliathe Alexiad is the main source for Alexios I's reign
Same participants
- Second Crusade31 March 1146 – 1149 · Western and Central Europevia Byzantine Empire
- Reign of Manuel I Komnenos8 April 1143 – 24 September 1180 · Balkans and Anatoliavia Byzantine Empire
Same place
- Founding of Constantinople11 May 330 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Theodosian Walls of Constantinoplebetween 404 and 408 – 413 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Imperial school in the Capitol of Constantinople27 February 425 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Reign of Theodosius II1 May 408 – 28 July 450 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Theodosian Code15 February 438 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Council of Chalcedon8 October – 1 November 451 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Nika riots13–18 January 532 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Corpus Juris Civilis7 April 529 – 16 November 534 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Construction of Hagia Sophia23 February 532 – 27 December 537 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Plague of Justinian541–549 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Reign of Justinian I1 August 527 – 14 November 565 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Jordanes and Procopius describe the Sclaveni and the Antesbetween 550 and 554 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Silkworm eggs are smuggled to Constantinoplebetween 552 and 554 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Phocas overthrows Maurice23 November 602 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Reign of Heraclius5 October 610 – 11 February 641 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Avar–Persian siege of Constantinople29 June – 7 August 626 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Invention of Greek firec. 672 · Balkans and Anatolia
- First Arab siege of Constantinople674–678 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Third Council of Constantinople7 November 680 – 16 September 681 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Second Arab siege of Constantinoplebetween 15 July and 15 August 717 – 15 August 718 · Balkans and Anatolia
- The Ecloga: law code of Leo III and Constantine Vbetween 726 and 741 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Plague in Constantinople, 746–747746 – between 747 and 748 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Byzantine Iconoclasmbetween 726 and 730 – 11 March 843 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Irene becomes sole ruler of the Byzantine Empirebetween 15 August and 19 August 797 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Leo the Mathematician heads the school of the Magnaurabetween 843 and 866 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Rus’ attack on Constantinople18 June – 4 August 860 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Oleg’s campaign against Constantinople907 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 9112 September 911 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Igor’s campaigns against Byzantium11 June 941 – 944 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 944between 944 and 945 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Olga’s visit to Constantinople and her baptism9 September – 18 October 957 · Balkans and Anatolia
- East–West Schism: the excommunications of 105416 July 1054 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Michael Psellos writes the Chronographiac. 1059 – c. 1078 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Alexios I's chrysobull for VeniceMay 1082 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Massacre of the Latinsbetween April and May 1182 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Sack of Constantinople12–13 April 1204 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Reconquest of Constantinople25 July 1261 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Fall of Constantinople29 May 1453 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Accession of Suleiman the Magnificent30 September 1520 · Balkans and Anatolia
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Second Crusade31 March 1146 – 1149
- Toledo School of Translators: Arabic learning in Latin1130s – 1187
Eastern Europe
- First mention of Moscow4 April 1147
Middle East and Egypt
- Nur ad-Din unites Muslim SyriaSeptember 1146 – 15 May 1174
Africa
- The Norman ‘Kingdom of Africa’1146 – between 21 January and 22 January 1160
- The Almohads: from Ibn Tumart's revolt to the conquest of Marrakesh1121–1147
- K2 (Bambandyanalo) and the rise of Mapungubwec. 1000 – c. 1220
- The Almoravids: from a desert reform movement to an empirebetween 1039 and 1046 – 1147
- Igbo-Ukwu: bronze casting in the West African forest800–899 – 1100–1199
Central and Northern Asia
- The Ghurids sack Ghaznibetween 1150 and 1151
South Asia
- Kalhana writes the Rajataranginibetween 1148 and 1150
- Bhaskara II completes the Siddhanta Shiromanibetween 1150 and 1151
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Suryavarman II builds Angkor Watbetween 1113 and 1122 – c. 1150
North America
- Drought and the end of the Chaco worldc. 1130 – c. 1180
- Classic Mimbres: the painted bowls of the Mogollonc. 1000 – between 1130 and 1150
- Pueblo II: stone pueblos and the Chaco worldc. 900 – c. 1150
Latin America
- Fall of Tulabetween 1140 and 1200
- Chimor: the Chimú kingdom and its capital Chan Chanc. 900 – c. 1470
- Collapse of Tiwanakuc. 1000 – c. 1150
- Tula and the Toltecs: the leading city of central Mexicoc. 900 – c. 1150
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Alexiad
- Wikipedia (English): Anna Komnene
- Wikipedia (Russian): Алексиада
- Wikipedia (Russian): Анна Комнина
- Anna Komnene. The Alexiad / tr. E. R. A. Sewter, rev. P. Frankopan. — London: Penguin, 2009.
- Анна Комнина. Алексиада / вступ. ст., пер., коммент. Я. Н. Любарского. — М.: Наука, 1965.
- Neville L. Anna Komnene: The Life and Work of a Medieval Historian. — New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
- Wikidata: Q177359