Anna Komnene and her Sources for Military Affairs in the Alexiad

Authors

  • Kyle Sinclair University of Birmingham

Keywords:

Anna Komnene, Alexiad, Alexios I Komnenos, Nikephoros Bryennios, Military Dispatches, Military Memoirs, Eyewitness Accounts, Byzantine Warfare

Abstract

With the intensive focus on military affairs in the Alexiad provoking contentious theories and much debate, this article investigates more closely the sources of information available to Anna Komnene for her coverage of war during the reign of Alexios Komnenos. Though Anna discloses more about her sources than most Byzantine historians, it is argued that some of these claims, particularly those regarding her own capacity to witness events and converse with veteran participants, are somewhat disingenuous, intended to illustrate her adherence to traditional modes of inquiry and thus gain credence for her history. Without discounting the contribution of oral traditions of storytelling to the Alexiad, the study favours the growing consensus that Anna was more reliant on written material, especially campaign dispatches and military memoirs.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Downloads

Published

2023-02-09

How to Cite

Sinclair, K. (2023). Anna Komnene and her Sources for Military Affairs in the Alexiad. Estudios Bizantinos, 2, 143–185. Retrieved from https://erevistas.publicaciones.uah.es/ojs/index.php/ebizantinos/article/view/1748

Issue

Vol. 2 (2014)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Kyle Sinclair

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

You are free to:

  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material

    Under the following terms:

    • Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

    • NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.

    • ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.