Crusades Biographies | Anna Comnena Biography

December 1, 1083
Constantinople

c. 1148

Byzantine princess, historian, and scholar

"I swear by the perils the emperor endured for the well-being of the Roman people, by his sorrows and the travails he suffered on behalf of the Christians, that I am not favoring him when I say or write such things....I regard him as dear, but the truth is dearer still."

—Anna Comnena, The Alexiad of Anna Comnena, book 14, chapter 3.

Anna Comnena was one of the most famous female scholars of the Middle Ages. The daughter of the emperor of the Byzantine Empire (the successor to the Roman Empire) based in Constantinople, she lived in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and was known for her scholarship in medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and music. However, she...