Anna Komnene, commonly Latinized as Anna Comnena, was a Byzantine Greek princess and historian. She is the author of the Alexiad, an account of the reign of her father, Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Her work constitutes the most important primary source of Byzantine history of the late 11th and early 12th centuries, as well as of the early Crusades. Although she is best known as the author of the Alexiad, Anna played an important part in the politics of the time and attempted to depose her brother, John II Komnenos, as emperor in favour of her husband, Nikephoros.
John II, Anna's brother and Alexios I's successor to the imperial throne.
Anna Komnene's Alexiad (12th century manuscript, Laurentian Library)
The Byzantine Greeks were the Greek-speaking Eastern Romans throughout Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. They were the main inhabitants of the lands of the Byzantine Empire, of Constantinople and Asia Minor, the Greek islands, Cyprus, and portions of the southern Balkans, and formed large minorities, or pluralities, in the coastal urban centres of the Levant and northern Egypt. Throughout their history, the Byzantine Greeks self-identified as Romans, but are referred to as "Byzantine Greeks" in modern historiography. Latin speakers identified them simply as Greeks or with the term Romaei.
Scenes of agricultural life in a Byzantine Gospel of the 11th century.
Joshua portrayed as a soldier wearing the lamellar klivanion cuirass and a straight spathion sword (Hosios Loukas).
A page of 5th or 6th century Iliad like the one a grammarian might possess.
Gold solidus of Justinian II 4.42 grams (0.156 oz), struck after 692.