Anna Comnena
 
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Anna Komnene or Comnena (Greek: Άννα Κομνηνή, Anna Komnēnē; December 1, 1083–1153) was a Byzantine princess and scholar, daughter of the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina. She wrote the Alexiad, making her one of the first female historians after those such as Ban Zhao (fl. 45–116).

Contents

Family and early life

Anna was born in the Porphyra Chamber (the purple chamber) of the imperial palace of Constantinople and was thus Porphyrogenita. She was the eldest of nine children. Her younger siblings were (in order of birth) Maria Komnene, John II Komnenos, Andronikos Komnenos, Isaac Komnenos, Eudokia Komnene, Theodora Komnene, Manuel Komnenos and Zoe Komnene.

Although she was carefully trained in the study of history, mathematics, science, and Greek philosophy, Anna’s parents banned her from studying ancient poetry (whose glorifications of lustful gods and unchaste women they deemed inappropriate and even dangerous for a young woman of her class to study). Despite her parents' attempts to restrict her, Anna furtively studied the forbidden poetry with one of the imperial court’s eunuchs. Thus, Anna received an extraordinary education that undoubtedly made her one of the most educated women of her time.

Betrothal and marriage

As was customary of nobility in the medieval times, Anna was betrothed at infancy. She was to marry Constantine Doukas, the son of Emperor Michael VII and Maria of Alania. Because at the time of the engagement Emperor Alexios I had no rightful male heirs to inherit the throne, young Constantine was proclaimed the co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire. However, in 1087 a blood heir, John II, was born, and Constantine had to forfeit his imperial claims. He died shortly thereafter.

In 1097, 14-year-old Anna Comnena married an accomplished young nobleman, the Caesar Nikephoros Bryennios. Nikephoros Bryennios was the son of an aristocratic family that had contested the throne before the accession of Alexios I. Nikephoros was also a renowned statesman, general, and historian. Anna claimed that the marriage was a political union rather than one of love. For the most part, however, it proved to be a successful union for forty years, and produced four children—Alexios Komnenos, John Ducas, Eirene Doukaina, and Maria Bryennaina Komnene.

Claim to the throne

From childhood, Anna supposed that she would someday lead the Empire, a dream shattered by the birth of her brother. Yet, Anna's substantial hunger for power did not permit her to accept John's ascension to the throne. Anna deemed that she and her husband should assume the title of Emperors instead. Thus, the couple conspired with her mother, Irene Doukaina, to disinherit her younger brother John and give the crown to Anna's husband. At this time her father was weak and struggling against his last illness. However, they did not succeed, and in 1118 John II ascended to the throne.

Anna's attempts at usurping the imperial crown persisted, and in 1118 she plotted again to depose her brother and replace him with Nikephoros. However, the plan collapsed when in the last minute Nikephoros refused to collaborate. Enraged and disappointed with her husband's weakness, Anna said that "nature had mistaken their sexes, for he ought to have been the woman." The plot was discovered, and Anna had to forfeit her property and imperial family status and was forced into exile to the convent of Kecharitomene, which her mother had founded. Anna's mother and her sister Eudokia fled with her too. Ironically, Nikephoros remained in the royal palace and became one of Emperor John's closest advisors.

Historian

In the seclusion of the monastery, Anna dedicated her time to studying philosophy and history. She held esteemed intellectual gatherings, including those dedicated to Aristotelian studies. Anna's intellectual genius and breadth of knowledge is evident in her few works. Among other things, she was conversant with philosophy, literature, grammar, theology, astronomy, and medicine. We can assume because of minor errors that she may have quoted Homer and the Bible from memory when writing her most celebrated work, 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."

Being a historian, Nikephoros Bryennios had been working on an essay that he called “Material For History,” which focused on the reign of Alexios I. He died in 1137 before finishing the work. At the age of 55 Anna took it upon herself to finish her husband's work, calling the completed work the Alexiad, the history of her father's life and reign (1081–1118) in Greek. Alexiad is today the main source of Byzantine political history of the end of the 11th century to the beginning of the 12th century.

In the Alexiad, Anna provided insight on political relations and wars between Alexios I and the West. She vividly described weaponry, tactics and battles. It has been noted that she was writing about events that were happening when she was a child, and may not possibly have remembered as her own eye-witness account. Her neutrality is compromised by the fact that she was writing to praise her father and denigrate his successors. Despite her unabashed partiality, her account of the First Crusade is of great value to history because it is the only Hellenic eyewitness account available. She had the opportunity to glean events 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. Her uncle George Palaeologus was present at Pelekanon in June 1097 when Alexius I discussed future strategy with the crusaders. Thus The Alexiad allows us to the see the events of the First Crusade from the Byzantine elite's perspective. It conveys the alarm felt at the scale of the western European forces proceeding through Byzantium, and the dangers they may have posed to the safety of Constantinople.

Especial suspicion was reserved for crusading leader Bohemond of Taranto, a southern Italian Norman who, under the leadership of his father Robert Guiscard, had invaded Byzantine territory in the Balkans in 1081. Though she considers him a barbarian and makes him the villain of her piece for his enmity with her father and his subsequent possession of formerly Byzantine Antioch, there is more than a hint of infatuation for this 'habitual rogue'.

The book also contributes to our understanding of the female mentality, mindset, and perception of the world during the Byzantine times.

Anna Comnena's literary style is fashioned after Thucydides, Polybius, and Xenophon. Consequently, it exhibits struggle for an Atticism characteristic of the period, whereby the resulting language is highly artificial. For the most part, the chronology of events in the Alexiad is sound, except for those that occurred after Anna’s exile to the monastery. Nevertheless, her history meets the standards of her time (Catholic Encyclopedia).

The exact date of Anna Comnena’s death is uncertain. It is inferred from the Alexiad that she was still alive in 1148. Moreover, the Alexiad sheds light on Anna’s emotional turmoil. She wrote that no one could see her, yet many hated her (Lubarsky, pg 3). Thus, she loathed the isolated position in society that the exile has forced upon her.

Anna Comnena was without a doubt an exceptional scholar, providing us with an invaluable source of information about the Byzantine Empire.

Depictions in fiction and other media

A fictional account of Anna Comnena’s life is given in the 1999 novel Anna of Byzantium by Tracy Barrett.

Family

By the kaisar Nikephoros Bryennios, Anna Komnene had several children, including:

  1. Alexios Komnenos, megas doux, c. 1102–c. 1161/1167
  2. John Doukas, c. 1103–after 1173
  3. Eirene Doukaina, c. 1105–?
  4. Maria Bryennaina Komnene, c. 1107–?

References

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

  • K. Varzos, Ē genealogia tōn Komnēnōn, Thessalonikē, 1984.

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