Discovering the rich history of the Byzantine Empire: The Alexiad

Ever heard of the Byzantine Empire? No? What about Constantinople? And what about the Roman Empire? That‘s right: it‘s (technically) the same thing. While the “classical“ Roman Empire is largely covered within the history we see at school, its successor is largely forgotten. Well, today, I want to give you a glimpse of the rich life and culture of that Empire. Hopefully, it will incite you to dig deeper on your own!

Our guide today will be Anna Komnene. Anna was the eldest child of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. With her husband Nikephoros Bryennios, it is said that she ployed to take the throne from her little brother John II Komnenos. Yeah, that didn't work. She ended up exiled in a convent for the rest of her life. Unluckily for her, but luckily for us. Why? Because Anna would end up writing our preeminent source on Constantinople's high society - the Alexiad. It is probably one of the most important and impactful medieval texts we have.

Two things I simply have to clarify. 1: Yes, "Byzantines" were the Western Roman Empire. Since the East Roman Empire fell in the fifth century, they simply called themselves "Romans" (they were). 2: At that point in the Empire, Latin wasn't in use anymore. Rather, byzantine went back to Greek. The Alexiad is therefore written in Greek, which might surprise you.

Without further ado, let‘s dive in. 

The text starts with Anna's pedigree: she was bred in the purple, practiced rhetoric, read Aristotle and Plato and knew the tetrakus of science. Ok: we have a lot to digest in that single sentence.

1. What does bred in the purple mean? You might correctly guess that this means she was the daughter of an Emperor, but that statement means politically a lot more than that. To be “bred in the purple", being born from the empirical line isn't enough: you have to be born from an emperor DURING his reign. That distinction was important as it was the most powerful claim to the throne. The Byzantine Empire saw more than a few struggles for the throne between two children of emperors only for the one "being bred in the purple" to win the hearts of the people - and the throne - in the end. Why did they call it "bred in the purple" exactly? Well, before modern times, purple was a very difficult colour to obtain and was therefore limited to the richest of the rich... including, of course, emperors. The Byzantine emperor's stronghold had a nursery reserved inclusively for the birth of the emperor's children. That room was entirely covered in purple cloths.
2. The mention of "Aristotle and Plato" might, again, seem mundane but this is a great importunity to mention a crucial aspect of the Middle Ages. Those authors were entirely lost in the remnants of the Western Roman Empire (aka "Europe") since the sixth century. But, in Constantinople, this rich Greek and Roman tradition was thriving. We often recognize the role of the Islamic Empires in rediscovering Greek philosophy and science (as we should), but the Byzantine Empire also played a critical part in this.
3. Byzantines were not only important preservers of Western tradition but also innovators. This comes in Anna's mention of the "tetrakus of science". The tetrakus were the 4 sciences: arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. The influence of Pythagoras is clear to me. Yet, Byzantine science was largely famous for its military applications. You know some of their innovations. Ever heard of trebuchets? Grenades? What about the infamous Greek Fire? Heck, they even had proto-flamethrowers (called Cheirosiphōn). All Byzantine.
4. Lastly, Anna dedicates and praises God for her knowledge. Indeed, remember that they were Christians. If I remember correctly, they were not yet split from Rome and Western Christianity.

Anyway, going back to Anna. She then says that she will write about the reign of her father. She can't resist mentioning her (now dead) husband and it is clear that she still loved him. Almost every time, she mentions her husband, she has to add how incredible he was... and how superior he was to his contemporaries. I also sense some bitterness in her tone. Maybe, even after all these years, she still didn't take her exile. Maybe, her political ambitions were not extinguished. Not yet anyway.

In any case, most of the Alexiad retells the life of Emperor Alexios I Komnenios. I won‘t dabble in such details. Let‘s focus on some general highlights. I should first point out the main takeaway you should take from this book: Constantinople's life was highly political. You don't know how much. Game of Thrones looks like a children's play-a-long in comparison. Murders, plots, betrayals, double (and triple) agents. They are everywhere. The Byzantine Empire was famous for its political life in the Middle Ages, and I understand now. Interestingly, almost every citizen played an important part in political intrigues. The Hippodrome was where it was at.

Further in the book, Anna recounts clashes between Constantinople and European strangers. Most often, those would have been Venetians, but also Normans. In any case, Anna often just calls them "strangers" or "barbarians". To be fair, that is probably what they would look like to a sophisticated and learned daughter of an emperor of Constantinople.

Anna also retails many MANY invasions of her Empire. Bulgars were a hassle for centuries only to be replaced by Turks afterwards. But keep in mind that Europeans too joined in “the fun“. Most of the time, they acted as mercenaries for would-be emperors of Byzantin. Keep in mind that the final death of Constantinople can be arguably attributed to Europeans and the infamous Fourth Crusade in the thirteenth century. After the ensuing pillage, the city would remain a ghost of itself until its final conquest by the Turks. Even then, it took a few centuries for the Turks to conquer that ghost. Just shows how formidable Constantinople was. But that story is still long after Anna's time. 

For its part, the first crusade WAS during Anna's lifetime. That's another fascinating part of European history. Coming from a plea from the emperor Alexios and on a whim of Pope Urban II, waves of "barbarians" from all over Europe would flood the city of Constantinople to wage Holy War in Asia Minor. Originally, Alexios asked every crusader to take a pledge to give to the Byzantine Empire all land conquered, but few big shots of the crusade actually took that oath. Instead, we would see the birth of bizarre "crusader states" - an oddity. Some of these would even survive more than a century!

Anyway, I see I am already running long. I have not even mentioned half of what I wanted to cover. Just shows how deep, rich and utterly interesting Constantinople‘s history can be. Feel free to explore further on your own!

For my part, I will see you next time!

References

The Alexiad, tr. Edgar Robert Ashton Sewter, revised by Peter Frankopan (London: Penguin, 2009) ISBN 9780140455274.