Lean Mean Byzantine

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Leonora Neville summarises the Alexiad in The History of the Byzantium Podacst

Context: The Alexiad is a history of 12th century Byzantium focusing on emperor Alexios I Komnenos, written by his daughter, Anna Komnene. To put into perspective just how wild this is, not only is it the first ever history written in Greek by a woman (that we know of), but the next one would be written in the 20th century. This is deep dark patriarchy we’re talking about. So in this interview, Leonora Neville explains the catch-22 Anna Komnene had to deal with: to be a good historian, she had to refrain from taking sides, and to be of “good character” so that she could be trusted. BUT, in order to be of good character she had to be a good daughter, and in order to be a good daughter she was very much supposed to be take sides – her father’s side.

And she balances the two not by lying, or conveniently forgetting to mention embarrassing moments for her dad, but by telling us everything, only presenting it in an over-the-top transparently favourable way. “So he lost the battle and it was a disaster, but he fought real bravely, right? and then he had to split in such a hurry that he left behind this invaluable relic in some bush, but his horse was like Pegasus and his armour gleamed in the sun and everyone took heart… as they were fleeing”. It’s at the same time ridiculous, ingenious (it’s like managing to win a rigged shell game, it shouldn’t be possible), and actually accurate (we literally wouldn’t know about half the blunders of Alexios if it weren’t for her, and she even recorded popular satirical poems against him). @heroineimages

First we need to remember that there were two major Persian invasions of Greece. The one under Darius the Great which was defeated at Marathon and the one under Xerxes I which was defeated at Salamis and Platea. 

At Mount Beishtun we have a large monumental rock inscription from the reign of Darius giving details of his reign including military achievements. The inscriptions describe the Yauna (the Persian word for Greeks, derived from “Ionian”) as a subject people of King Darius but the invasion of Greece is not mentioned. It is highly unlikely that this is because of some kind of ‘embarrassment’ of defeat because the Ionian Revolt is not mentioned either despite being a Persian victory. Rather it seems that only campaigns that Darius personally participated in were considered important to mention on the Beishtun monument. 

  One of the most detailed sources we have which discusses the attacks on Greece from the perspective of Persian history is the historian Ctesias of Cnidus and his work the Persica. Ctesias was a Greek physician who lived in the court of King Artaxerxes II. Though himself a Greek and his works seem to have primarily circulated in the Greek world, Ctesias appears to be more sympathetic towards his Persian hosts and is said to have written the Persica as a kind of counter-history to the Greek-centric description given by Herodotus.