Alexiad

Timeline

1. 1138–1147Constantinople · ConstantinopleAfter losing out in struggles for power, Anna retired to a monastery and, drawing on court archives, personal experience, and the unfinished historical manuscript of Nikephoros Bryennios, began writing a biography of her father Emperor Alexios I. The narrative runs from his seizure of power in 1081 to his death in 1118, and extensively covers the Crusades and the Norman wars.
2. c. 1148Constantinople · ConstantinopleAround 1148, the Alexiad was completed in fifteen Greek volumes. The work used classical rhetoric to write about contemporary politics, both defending the line of Empress Irene and providing an officially colored memory of the Komnenian restoration, becoming a core text for later study of the First Crusade and 11th–12th-century Byzantium.
3. 1201Constantinople · ConstantinopleFrom the late Middle Ages to the early modern period, the work circulated in manuscript form in the Greek-speaking world; after critical editions in the 19th–20th centuries, it became a standard source for Byzantine studies. Its Greek perspective on the Crusades complements the one-sided narrative of Latin chronicles.