The Alexiad (Penguin Classics)

Anna Komnene (1083 - 1153) wrote The Alexiadas an account of the reign of her father, the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I. It is also an important source of information on the Byzantine war with the Normans, and on the First Crusade in which Alexios participated, offering a startlingly different perspective to that of Western historians. Anna's 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 Alexiadis 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.