10 Wise Anna Komnene Quotes

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Anna Komnene was born to Emperor Alexios and Empress Eirene in 1083, just two years after Alexios wrested the imperial throne from his predecessor, Emperor Nikephoros III Botaneiates, after a typical Roman civil war. As a child, Anna gained a broad, but thorough, education. She was interested in many topics—literature (plus grammar and rhetoric), medicine, philosophy, metaphysics and geography. She continued to be fascinated by intellectual pursuits all her life. She would later gather salons of great thinkers and give them patronage to encourage them to continue writing and making new discoveries. When her brother, Emperor John II, ascended to the imperial throne in 1118, Anna Komnene hoped to usurp power, yet her plot was discovered and she was forced into a convent. There, from 1143-1153, Anna Komnene wrote a history about the reign of her father, which she titled The Alexiad. Most historians recognize Anna Komnene as the first female historian, or at least The Alexiad is the first known history to have been written by a woman. The ten quotes here come from that work, translated by E. R. A. Sewter (Penguin Books, 2009). 

The elegant music in the background is: "Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... 

All images used in the creation of this video were public domain at the time of creation.

Read our biography on Anna Komnene, HERE.

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10 Insightful Thucydides Quotes

Thucydides (c. 460-400 BCE) was an Athenian general and historian who lived through the Peloponnesian War (c. 431-404 BCE) between Athens and Sparta. He was eventually exiled from Athens in 424 BCE after the brilliant Spartan general, Brasidas, bested him during the war. Yet, being exiled allowed Thucydides to gather information from both sides of the war, consequently making his History of the Peloponnesian War a more well-rounded and authoritative text. Here are 10 insightful quotes from Thucydides’ timeless history.

The translation of Thucydides used here is by Rex Warner (Penguin Classics, 1972).

The calm music in the background of the video is:
Pippin the Hunchback by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) 

All images used in the production of this video were public domain at the time of the film's creation.

For more quotes of Thucydides (in a non-video format), click HERE.

For short articles themed on Thucydides and his work, click HERE.