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* '''Book 14''' : ''Turks, Franks, Cumans and Manicheans (1108-1115)'' (Roman successes against the Turks - Problems with the Franks - Naval and land operations - Emperor's health problems - Operations against the Turks - Anna speaks for her methods in writing history - Prevention of a Cuman raid - Alexius fights [[manichaeism]] by persuasion or persecution)
* '''Book 14''' : ''Turks, Franks, Cumans and Manicheans (1108-1115)'' (Roman successes against the Turks - Problems with the Franks - Naval and land operations - Emperor's health problems - Operations against the Turks - Anna speaks for her methods in writing history - Prevention of a Cuman raid - Alexius fights [[manichaeism]] by persuasion or persecution)
* '''Book 15''' : ''Last expeditions, the [[Bogomils]], death of Alexius (1116-1118)'' (War against the Turks and the new battle tactics - Victorious battle - Peace with the Turks - Sultan is murdered by his brother - Alexius builds the Orphanage - Suppression of Bogomils, burning of their leader [[Basil the Physician|Basil]] - last illness and death of Alexius)
* '''Book 15''' : ''Last expeditions, the [[Bogomils]], death of Alexius (1116-1118)'' (War against the Turks and the new battle tactics - Victorious battle - Peace with the Turks - Sultan is murdered by his brother - Alexius builds the Orphanage - Suppression of Bogomils, burning of their leader [[Basil the Physician|Basil]] - last illness and death of Alexius)

==Gender and Authorship==

===Questions of Authorship===

There has been much debate as to whether the ''Alexiad'' was in fact written by Anna Komnene herself. For one scholar, the text gives very few comments that would suggest the author's gender or any other aspect of their background aside from a few explicit mentions. <ref>Peter Frankopan, "Perception and Projections of Prejudice: Anna Comnena, the ''Alexiad'' and the First Crusade," in ''Gendering the Crusades'', ed. Susan B. Edgington and Sarah Lambert (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002), 68.</ref> This has led some scholars to argue that the ''Alexiad'' was not written by a woman at all, but by some other male author.<ref>Frankopan, 69. For examples, see Howard-Johnston, 'Anna Komnene', 260-302.</ref> This belief, put forward by Howard-Johnston, focuses mainly on the military sections of the ''Alexiad'', and suggests that Anna was merely working from her husbands field notes, thus Howard-Johnston renames it "Nicephoros's Alexiad."<ref>J. Howard-Johnston, "Anna Komnene and the ''Alexiad''," in ''Alexios I Komnenos. Papers of the Second Belfast Byzantine International Colloquium, 14-16 April 1989'' (Belfast, 1996), 289, 302.</ref>

Largely, however, is is agreed that Anna Komnene was the author. Explicit mentions in the text of her engagement, her role as a wife, and the rolling commentary on her female modesty that influences her writing make Anna's authorship of the ''Alexiad'' "unmistakable."<ref>Diether R. Reinsch, "Women's Literature in Byzantium? – The Case of Anna Komnene," trans. Thomas Dunlap in ''Anna Komnene and Her Times,'' ed. Thalia Gouma-Peterson (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 2000), 96.</ref> She certainly could have written about military affairs, since she was able to accompany her father, the king, on military campaign.<ref>Reinsch, 98.</ref> The great detail of her father's home life and military style, combined with her own personal experiences and mentions of femininity, provide a strong case for her authorship of the ''Alexiad''.

===Representations of Gender===

In her ''Alexiad'', Anna portrays gender and gender stereotypes in a unique way. Like her male counterparts, she characterizes women along the typical stereotypes, such as being "liable to tears and as cowardly in the face of danger."<ref>Barbara Hill, "A Vindication of the Rights of Women to Power by Anna Komnene," in Band 23 of ''Byzantinische Forschungen'' (Amsterdam: Verlag Adolf M. Hakkert, 1996), 45.</ref> Yet, despite this, women in the ''Alexiad'' never cry, with the exception of Alexios' funeral, in which grief is the appropriate cultural response.<ref>Hill, 45-6.</ref> Likewise, none of the female characters act in a cowardly way.<ref>Hill, 46.</ref> She nods to her own gender in a similar way when mentioning her own tears while writing certain events. Immediately, however, she informs the reader that she will stop crying in order to properly return to her duty of history, which she does twice in the narrative.<ref>Komnene ''Alexiad'' 4.8.1 and Prol. 4.2.</ref> By so doing, she shows a desire to control aspects that are, for her culture, feminine.<ref>Leonora Neville, "Lamentation, History, and Female Authorship in Anna Komnene's ''Alexiad''," ''Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies'' 53 (2013): 213.</ref> Overall, however, Anna concerns herself primarily with intellect, which she attributes to both men and women, and allows for women to actively break out of societal gender roles in the ''Alexiad''.<ref>Carolyn L. Connor, ''Women of Byzantium'', (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), 257.</ref> Her personal attitudes, along with the lack of comparable sources from female authors in that era, make the ''Alexiad'' a poor source to use when gauging how average women in Byzantium felt about the First Crusade.<ref>Frankopan, 68.</ref>

===Gender and Style===

Anna Komnene's somewhat unique historical style has been attributed to her gender. Her style is noteworthy in that it includes both a history of her father's actions durring the First Crusade, but also narrative reactions to some of these events. Her opinions and commentary on particular events in an otherwise historical text has been assigned to her gender both positively and negatively.<ref>Frankopan, 69.</ref> This interpretation of her histories is known as a "gendered history,"<ref>Gouma-Peterson, 32.</ref> meaning it is both the history of Alexos and of Anna Komnene herself through her particular style, which is not seen in male authors. While the Roman historian Edward Gibbon saw this "gendered" narrative to betray "in every page the vanity of a female author,"<ref>Edward Gibbon, ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' (London, 1776-88, repr. 3 vols, London, 1994), 3: 69.</ref> and others agreed with him,<ref>R. Brown, ''The Normans'', (London, 1984), 90 ; Shlosser, ''The Alexiad of Anna Comnena'', 397-8.</ref> other scholars claim that this style might be indicative of Anna's mentor [[Michael Psellos]].<ref>Connor, 253.</ref> Some take this even further to suggest that Anna used Psellos' ''Chronographia'' as a model for her personal narration in history and took it even further, suggesting it was not her gender but her influences that led to her writing style.<ref>Frankopan, 69-70.</ref>

Anna is unique for her time in the intensity by which she integrates her own narrative and emotion.<ref>Reinsch, 95.</ref> Yet in the entire narrative she does not give one mention of her physical beauty or the fact that she had four children.<ref>Rinsch, 97.</ref> This odd combination of style and lack of information is reconciled by her lack of 21st century feminist ideals, without which she was not interested in questioning her societal place in her own narrative even though her depictions of women do not fit in with male authors of the time.<ref>Hill, 51.</ref> Instead, her style can be understood from her belief system that intelligence and nobility cancel out gender in terms of importance, and so Anna does not view her history as overstepping any necessary gender roles.<ref>Connor, 257.</ref>



== Complete manuscripts and summaries==
== Complete manuscripts and summaries==
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{{wikisource}}
{{wikisource}}
* [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/AnnaComnena-Alexiad.html Medieval Sourcebook: Alexiad - complete text, translated Elizabeth A. Dawes]
* [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/AnnaComnena-Alexiad.html Medieval Sourcebook: Alexiad - complete text, translated Elizabeth A. Dawes]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}


[[Category:1140s books]]
[[Category:1140s books]]

Revision as of 00:26, 22 April 2013

The Alexiad (original Greek title: Ἀλεξιάς) is a medieval biographical text written around the year 1148 by the Byzantine historian and princess Anna Komnene, daughter of Emperor Alexius I.

Within the Alexiad, she describes the political and military history of the Byzantine Empire during the reign of her father (1081-1118), making it one of the most important sources of information on the Byzantium of the High Middle Ages. As well as this, within the Alexiad, the First Crusade's interaction with the Byzantine Empire is documented (despite being written nearly fifty years after the crusade), which highlights the conflicting perceptions of the East and West in the early 12th century.

The text was written in a form of artificial Attic Greek, and is one of only a few examples of a woman writing about the political and military history of her own country during the Middle Ages, and also a valuable source as to ascertain the Byzantine perception of the Crusaders.

Content

Due to the relationship between Anna and Alexius Ι, strong bias problems exist, despite Anna's frequent attempts to establish her objectiveness. Nevertheless, she manages to leave disguised traces of criticism of a father she deeply admires. She cannot hide her aversion to the Latins (Normans and "Franks") whom she considers barbarians, the "barbarians" in general and the Armenians. She also fails to hide a deep hatred felt for her brother John II Komnenos. However, all this does not prevent her from expressing admiration for the virtues, abilities or even charm of several enemies of the Empire (including lethal ones like Robert Guiscard and his son Bohemund). From a modern reader's point of view, the description of military events and the Empire's misfortunes may seem exaggerated and stereotypical (partially due to Homeric influences). There is also much confusion regarding the names and ranks of foreigners (particularly of Seljuk Turks) and a few geographical and dating errors.

The elaborate, if archaic, language she used and the abundance of references to Homer's Iliad (in addition to those to Sophocles, Euripides and Demosthenes) clearly show the high level of classical education of the author. In spite of this, the work does contain vivid fast-paced narration and digressions are relatively limited in length. Her use of military terms and the astonishing number of details in the description of the turbulent reign of Alexius suggests that, despite Anna's internment in a monastery, she had access to official archives and maybe interviewed eye-witnesses. They also suggest a very broad education. Successful character profiling is another positive side of her work as well as the sense of originality emanating from the dramatic lamentations about her ill fate.

Structure of the work

The work is divided into the prologue and 15 books (book summaries below are, of course, modern interpretations).

  • Prologue The difficulties of writing history, reasons to write this work, mourning for her husband
  • Book 1 : Alexius becomes general and Domestikos ton Scholon' (Alexius youth — Urselius' revolt - Nicephorus Bryennios revolt — Normans prepare invasion)
  • Book 2 : The Komnenian revolt (Envy against the family — Causes of uprising — The escape — Rebels proclaim Alexius as emperor - Melissenos revolts — Komnenians seize Constantinople - Emperor Nikephoros III Votaneiates abdicates)
  • Book 3 : Alexius as Emperor (1081) and the internal problems with Doukas family (Maria of Alania and her son Constantine - Dismissal of her rumoured relationship with Alexius — About Alexius and his wife Irene - Alexius invents new ranks — Alexius publicly regrets for his soldiers crimes - Anna Dalassena (Alexius mother) is given imperial authority — About Anna Dalassena — Alexius' military preparations and alliances — Turks spread in Asia Minor - Normans cross Adriatic Sea).
  • Book 4 : War against Normans (1081-1082) (Robert Guiscard besieges Dyrrhachium - Venetian allies defeat Normans — Alexius arrives with his army — Normans win the Battle of Dyrrhachium, Alexius barely escapes)
  • Book 5 : War against Normans (1082-1083) and first clash with the heretics (Financial collapse — Seizure of church property — Bohemund against Alexius — Alexius finally wins with a strategem — Prosecution of John Italus)
  • Book 6 : End of war against Normans (1085), death of Robert Guiscard, the Turks (Alexius recaptures Kastoria - Persecution of Manicheans (Paulicians)- Alexius in front of the Church Court — Conspiracy and revolt — The alliance with Venice - Death of Guiscard — Persecution of wizards and astrologers — Births of porphyrogenitoi - Alexius against the Turks - The Scythian threat (Pechenegs))
  • Book 7 : War against the Scythians (1087-1090) (Beginning of hostilities - Crushing defeat of the imperial army - Cumans defeat Scythians, truce - Scythians violate truce - Activity of Turkish pirate Tzachas in western Anatolia - Expedition against Scythians)
  • Book 8 : End of Scythian war (1091), plots against the Emperor (Hostilities continuing - Crushing of Scythians at Levunium - Final success — Conspiracies and revolts)
  • Book 9 : Operations against Tzachas and Dalmatians (1092-1094), conspiracy of Nicephorus Diogenes (1094) (Operations against Tzachas — Operation in Crete and Cyprus — Elimination of Tzachas — Conspiracy of Nicephorus Diogenes — Capitulation of Dalmatians — Complementary to Diogenes)
  • Book 10 : One more heresy, war against Cumans, Beginning of 1st Crusade (1094-1097) (Neilos and Vlahernites — War against Cumans - Operations against Turks - Arrival of the first Crusaders - Crushing of Crusaders under Koukoupetros (Peter the Hermit) - Hugh of France - Sea surveillance by the Romans - Godfrey of Bouillon - Count Raul - Crusade leaders make homage to the Emperor - Bohemund)
  • Book 11 : 1st Crusade (1097-1104) (Crusaders besiege Nicaea - Liberation of Nicaea - Crusaders' successful operations - siege of Antioch - Successful Roman operations in Asia Minor - Capture of Antioch and Jerusalem - Operations in Asia - Massacre of Normans (Lombards) Crusaders by the Turks - Bohemund refuses to return Antioch to the Empire - Operations in Cilicia - Pisan fleet invades islands - Naval war with Genoans - Operations against Bohemund - Bohemund pretends to be dead)
  • Book 12 : Domestic conflicts, Norman preparations for the 2nd invasion (1105-1107) (Bohemond prepares landing to Illyrian coast - Operations of Tancred in Cilicia against the Empire - Queen Irene - Alexius organizes defense in the west - Conspiracy of Anemades — Georgios Taronites revolts in Trapezous — Isaacius Kontostefanos fails to guard the coast against Norman fleet — Beginning of Norman invasion)
  • Book 13 : Aaron's conspiracy, second Norman invasion (1107-1108) (Aaron's conspiracy — Siege of Dyrrhachium — Alexius tricks — Operations in mainland — Naval operations - Bohemund asks for peace — Peace negotiations - Bohemund's profile - Negotiations between Alexius and Bohemund - The Treaty of Devol)
  • Book 14 : Turks, Franks, Cumans and Manicheans (1108-1115) (Roman successes against the Turks - Problems with the Franks - Naval and land operations - Emperor's health problems - Operations against the Turks - Anna speaks for her methods in writing history - Prevention of a Cuman raid - Alexius fights manichaeism by persuasion or persecution)
  • Book 15 : Last expeditions, the Bogomils, death of Alexius (1116-1118) (War against the Turks and the new battle tactics - Victorious battle - Peace with the Turks - Sultan is murdered by his brother - Alexius builds the Orphanage - Suppression of Bogomils, burning of their leader Basil - last illness and death of Alexius)

Gender and Authorship

Questions of Authorship

There has been much debate as to whether the Alexiad was in fact written by Anna Komnene herself. For one scholar, the text gives very few comments that would suggest the author's gender or any other aspect of their background aside from a few explicit mentions. [1] This has led some scholars to argue that the Alexiad was not written by a woman at all, but by some other male author.[2] This belief, put forward by Howard-Johnston, focuses mainly on the military sections of the Alexiad, and suggests that Anna was merely working from her husbands field notes, thus Howard-Johnston renames it "Nicephoros's Alexiad."[3]

Largely, however, is is agreed that Anna Komnene was the author. Explicit mentions in the text of her engagement, her role as a wife, and the rolling commentary on her female modesty that influences her writing make Anna's authorship of the Alexiad "unmistakable."[4] She certainly could have written about military affairs, since she was able to accompany her father, the king, on military campaign.[5] The great detail of her father's home life and military style, combined with her own personal experiences and mentions of femininity, provide a strong case for her authorship of the Alexiad.

Representations of Gender

In her Alexiad, Anna portrays gender and gender stereotypes in a unique way. Like her male counterparts, she characterizes women along the typical stereotypes, such as being "liable to tears and as cowardly in the face of danger."[6] Yet, despite this, women in the Alexiad never cry, with the exception of Alexios' funeral, in which grief is the appropriate cultural response.[7] Likewise, none of the female characters act in a cowardly way.[8] She nods to her own gender in a similar way when mentioning her own tears while writing certain events. Immediately, however, she informs the reader that she will stop crying in order to properly return to her duty of history, which she does twice in the narrative.[9] By so doing, she shows a desire to control aspects that are, for her culture, feminine.[10] Overall, however, Anna concerns herself primarily with intellect, which she attributes to both men and women, and allows for women to actively break out of societal gender roles in the Alexiad.[11] Her personal attitudes, along with the lack of comparable sources from female authors in that era, make the Alexiad a poor source to use when gauging how average women in Byzantium felt about the First Crusade.[12]

Gender and Style

Anna Komnene's somewhat unique historical style has been attributed to her gender. Her style is noteworthy in that it includes both a history of her father's actions durring the First Crusade, but also narrative reactions to some of these events. Her opinions and commentary on particular events in an otherwise historical text has been assigned to her gender both positively and negatively.[13] This interpretation of her histories is known as a "gendered history,"[14] meaning it is both the history of Alexos and of Anna Komnene herself through her particular style, which is not seen in male authors. While the Roman historian Edward Gibbon saw this "gendered" narrative to betray "in every page the vanity of a female author,"[15] and others agreed with him,[16] other scholars claim that this style might be indicative of Anna's mentor Michael Psellos.[17] Some take this even further to suggest that Anna used Psellos' Chronographia as a model for her personal narration in history and took it even further, suggesting it was not her gender but her influences that led to her writing style.[18]

Anna is unique for her time in the intensity by which she integrates her own narrative and emotion.[19] Yet in the entire narrative she does not give one mention of her physical beauty or the fact that she had four children.[20] This odd combination of style and lack of information is reconciled by her lack of 21st century feminist ideals, without which she was not interested in questioning her societal place in her own narrative even though her depictions of women do not fit in with male authors of the time.[21] Instead, her style can be understood from her belief system that intelligence and nobility cancel out gender in terms of importance, and so Anna does not view her history as overstepping any necessary gender roles.[22]


Complete manuscripts and summaries

Codex Coislinianus 311, in Fonds Coislin (Paris)
Codex Florentinus 70,2
Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1438
Codex Barberinianus 235 & 236
Codex Ottobonianus Graecus 131 & 137
Codex Apographum Gronovii
Codex Vaticanus Graecus 981 (prologue and summary)
Codex Monacensis Graecus 355 (prologue and summary)
Codex Parisinus Graecus 400 (prologue and summary)

Published editions

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Notes

  1. ^ Peter Frankopan, "Perception and Projections of Prejudice: Anna Comnena, the Alexiad and the First Crusade," in Gendering the Crusades, ed. Susan B. Edgington and Sarah Lambert (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002), 68.
  2. ^ Frankopan, 69. For examples, see Howard-Johnston, 'Anna Komnene', 260-302.
  3. ^ J. Howard-Johnston, "Anna Komnene and the Alexiad," in Alexios I Komnenos. Papers of the Second Belfast Byzantine International Colloquium, 14-16 April 1989 (Belfast, 1996), 289, 302.
  4. ^ Diether R. Reinsch, "Women's Literature in Byzantium? – The Case of Anna Komnene," trans. Thomas Dunlap in Anna Komnene and Her Times, ed. Thalia Gouma-Peterson (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 2000), 96.
  5. ^ Reinsch, 98.
  6. ^ Barbara Hill, "A Vindication of the Rights of Women to Power by Anna Komnene," in Band 23 of Byzantinische Forschungen (Amsterdam: Verlag Adolf M. Hakkert, 1996), 45.
  7. ^ Hill, 45-6.
  8. ^ Hill, 46.
  9. ^ Komnene Alexiad 4.8.1 and Prol. 4.2.
  10. ^ Leonora Neville, "Lamentation, History, and Female Authorship in Anna Komnene's Alexiad," Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 53 (2013): 213.
  11. ^ Carolyn L. Connor, Women of Byzantium, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), 257.
  12. ^ Frankopan, 68.
  13. ^ Frankopan, 69.
  14. ^ Gouma-Peterson, 32.
  15. ^ Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (London, 1776-88, repr. 3 vols, London, 1994), 3: 69.
  16. ^ R. Brown, The Normans, (London, 1984), 90 ; Shlosser, The Alexiad of Anna Comnena, 397-8.
  17. ^ Connor, 253.
  18. ^ Frankopan, 69-70.
  19. ^ Reinsch, 95.
  20. ^ Rinsch, 97.
  21. ^ Hill, 51.
  22. ^ Connor, 257.
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