Nicephorus Bryennius and Anna Comnena

Abstract

The momentous reign of Alexius I Comnenus (1081–1118) was a promising subject for a dramatic narrative. Alexius left the empire larger, richer, and stronger than it had been at his accession, even if smaller, poorer, and weaker than it had been ten years before his accession. At the worst of the military emergency, early in Alexius’ reign, Byzantium had been in real danger of complete disintegration; but Alexius recovered almost everything that the empire had lost in the Balkans, as well as the most fertile and populous part of Anatolia. He also restored the stability of the Byzantine coinage, though not its full purity, and under him the Byzantine economy recovered from the disruptions caused by the Seljuk and Norman invasions. Since the mid-eleventh century, when the empire had enjoyed clear dominance over the eastern Mediterranean, it had acquired some troublesome new neighbors—the Seljuk sultanate in Anatolia, the Crusader states in Syria and Palestine, and the Norman state in Sicily and southern Italy—but none of these was as strong as Alexius’ Byzantium. Better still, the empire remained stable, strong, and prosperous during the long reigns of Alexius’ son and grandson. While Alexius might have done more—especially by increasing the size of the army and retaking the rest of Anatolia—he achieved a great deal.