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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. (edición 1928)
Anna Comnena (1083-1153) wrote The Alexiad as an account of the reign of her father, the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I. It is also an important source of information on the Byzantine war with the Normans, and on the First Crusade in which Alexius participated. While the Byzantines were allied to the Crusaders, they were nonetheless critical of their behaviour and Anna's book offers a startlingly different perspective to that of Western historians. Her character sketches are shrewd and forthright - from the Norman invader Robert Guiscard ('nourished by manifold evil') and his son Bohemond ('like a streaking thunderbolt') to Pope Gregory VII ('unworthy of a high priest'). The Alexiad is a vivid and dramatic narrative, which reveals as much about the character of its intelligent and dynamic author as it does about the fascinating period through which she lived.… (más)
Very engaging narrative of the life of the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Kommenos. Despite protestations to the contrary by Anna, the work is not free from the biases of the author, however, this does not lessen the value of the work. ( )
Anna Comnena's history of the reign of her father, the Emperor Alexius. After a while, the sheer blizzard of invasions, rebellions and betrayals gets to be a trifle overwhelming, and with so many characters changing sides, getting blinded, or whatnot, one can be forgiven, I think, if one is confused. You certainly get an insight into how, well, Byzantine the Byzantine Empire was. Bitter old woman in her dotage. ( )
I have a better opinion of this source than Edward Gibbon, who was just not fond of Byzantine Literary culture. Anna was a child of the emperor Alexius Comnenus who re-organized the empire after the disaster at Manzikert. This is also a basic book for the vision of the Western crusaders, and also as a social history of the later Empire. I believe this is an able translation, and hope more people will read one of the first books about Medieval Europe from an outside stance. ( )
I enjoyed the undercurrent of gleeful malice and all of the lurid eye-gouging, but I didn't understand why everyone seemed to have the same name, why they had all married each other's cousins, and why they all wanted to kill each other. The footnotes assumed I'd need help figuring out who the Gorgon was, and other references to Greek mythology, but provided no assistance with any of the Byzantine names, titles, dates, or battles. Not even a time line. I suppose that if I had known anything whatsoever about Byzantine history, I may have enjoyed the book more. As it was, all I learned was that they were really, really into gouging out eyes. ( )
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
Forty years have passed since Elizabeth Dawes produced the first English translation of the Alexiad in full. At the time her version was highly praised.
Translator's preface (Penguin Classics, 1969).
'The life of the Emperor Alexius has been delineated by a favourite daughter, who was inspired by a tender regard for his person and a laudable zeal to perpetuate his virtues.
Introduction (Penguin Classics, 1969).
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 which are mighty and worthy of commemoration; as the playwright says, it 'brings to light that which was unseen and shrouds from us that which is manifest'.
Preface (Penguin Classics, 1969).
The Emperor Alexius, my father, even before he seized the throne had been of great service to the Roman Empire.
Book One (E. R. A. Sewer translation, 1969).
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Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
Let this be the end of my history, then, lest as I write of these sad events I become more embittered.
Anna Comnena (1083-1153) wrote The Alexiad as an account of the reign of her father, the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I. It is also an important source of information on the Byzantine war with the Normans, and on the First Crusade in which Alexius participated. While the Byzantines were allied to the Crusaders, they were nonetheless critical of their behaviour and Anna's book offers a startlingly different perspective to that of Western historians. Her character sketches are shrewd and forthright - from the Norman invader Robert Guiscard ('nourished by manifold evil') and his son Bohemond ('like a streaking thunderbolt') to Pope Gregory VII ('unworthy of a high priest'). The Alexiad is a vivid and dramatic narrative, which reveals as much about the character of its intelligent and dynamic author as it does about the fascinating period through which she lived.
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