Anna Komnene
Although she is best known as the author of the Alexiad, Anna played an important part in the politics of the time and attempted to depose her brother, John II Komnenos, as emperor in favour of her husband, Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger.
[13] She was the eldest of seven children; her younger siblings were (in order) Maria, John II, Andronikos, Isaac, Eudokia, and Theodora.
[17] At birth, Anna was betrothed to Constantine Doukas,[3] the son of Emperor Michael VII and Maria of Alania.
[19] Various scholars point out that the betrothal was probably a political match intended to establish the legitimacy of Anna's father, who had usurped the previous emperor.
[23] For example, Thalia Gouma-Peterson argues that Irene Doukaina's "maternal ability to deal with the speculative and the intellectual enables the daughter to become the highly accomplished scholar she proudly claims to be in the opening pages of the Alexiad.
"[24] Anna wrote at the beginning of the Alexiad about her education, highlighting her experience with literature, Greek language, rhetoric, and sciences.
[16] Tutors trained her in subjects that included astronomy, medicine, history, military affairs, geography, and mathematics.
Tornikes went on to say that Anna "braced the weakness of her soul" and studied the poetry "taking care not to be detected by her parents.
"[38] Anna's "main aim" in the depiction of events in the Alexiad, according to Vlada Stankovíc, was to "stress her own right" to the throne and "precedence over her brother, John.
"[39] In view of this belief, Susan C. Jarratt et al. record that Anna was "almost certainly" involved in the murder plot against John at Alexios's funeral.
"[40] However, according to Hill, Bryennios refused to overthrow John, making Anna unable to continue with her plans.
[10] Hill, however, points out that Choniates, whom the above sources draw upon, wrote after 1204, and accordingly was "rather far removed" from "actual" events and that his "agenda" was to "look for the causes" of the toppling of Constantinople in 1204.
[43] According to the account by Choniates (written after the Fourth Crusade), plots were discovered and Anna forfeited her estates.
It can be assumed because of minor errors that she may have quoted Homer and the Bible from memory when writing her most celebrated work, the Alexiad.
Her contemporaries, like the metropolitan Bishop of Ephesus, Georgios Tornikes, regarded Anna as a person who had reached "the highest summit of wisdom, both secular and divine."
[46] Before his death in 1137, her husband, Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger, was working on a history, which was supposed to record the events before and during the reign of Alexios I.
[46] His death left the history unfinished after recording the events of the reign of Emperor Nikephoros Botaneiates.
[48] Beyond just eyewitness accounts from veterans or her male family members, scholars have also noted that Anna used the imperial archives, which allowed her access to official documents.
She had the opportunity to gather information from key figures in the Byzantine elite; her husband, Nikephorus Bryennios, had fought in the clash with crusade leader Godfrey of Bouillon outside Constantinople on Maundy Thursday 1097; and her uncle, George Palaeologos, was present at Pelekanon in June 1097 when Alexios I discussed future strategy with the crusaders.
It conveys the alarm felt at the scale of the western European forces proceeding through the Empire, and the dangers they might have posed to the safety of Constantinople.
[50] The Alexiad was written in Attic Greek,[51] and the literary style is fashioned after Thucydides, Polybius, and Xenophon.
[55] Moreover, the Alexiad sheds light on Anna's emotional turmoil, including her grief over the deaths of her father, mother, and husband, among other things.
