History-Makers: Anna Komnena 

I feel the B's coming whenever I decide to use the "I"

Well she was 14 when she met him

@tk2887 Even prodigal geniuses like Anna Komnena were not immune to the wiles of adolescent hormones. And considering that Bohemond had once fought against her own father, it would have been a "Liking What Daddy Hates" situation.

Michael Scott oooooooof

Built in conformity with the canon of Polycleitus is an interesting compliment.

Damn is that realy?

Manzikert was truly the biggest screw up.

Or the Iconoclasm that led to the second Christian Schism

Prins van Oranje Manzikert wasnt even that bad. The civil wars after that battle were the biggest screw up

@@osaft2go830 I mean they survived because they had an amazing Emperor and took back some of Anatolia during the First Crusade. But then some idiots took over the Empire and the Venetians sacked Constantinople. Then finally the weak Turks grew which were there since Manzikert killed the Empire. Probably actually the Fourth Crusade which killed Byzantium, from the piece of land which no one was able to take for hundreds of years, to a few weak Greek states.

O-Saft to go The Civil War Manzikert started is the worst event in Byzantine History. Nothing compared to losing Anatolia the heartland of the Empire it’s entire existence. Once the Turks settled in it was impossible to push them out. That and Manuel Komnenos was a dumbass

This seems to be a pattern in historians.

Technically, she did it before they did.

​@@galwitprifor001 Not relevant.

@@DanteTorn you're not relevant

I read this comment the exact moment he said it

Anna Komnena: shut up and take my money!

Ancient Literature: * Exists * Anna Komnena: "INJECT IT INTO MY VEINS!"

S T O N K S

Is that a motherfucking Jontron reference?

@@ariavachier-lagravech.6910 which video of his??? I don't remember this IS THERE A JONTRON VIDEO I HAVENT WATCHED????

Or a few thousand dollars

Spending £50-or-so on a book I haven't even read in full

@@finnianquail8881 Do they not have secondhand book shoppes where you live? ;o)

@@gnarthdarkanen7464 they swap a few chapters around and call it a new edition and tell all the schools/colleges they need the newest one so they tell the students the same. They've also been going online more, you usually get a code and MAYBE a book. The code logs you into some site to read the new book for 1 semester to 1 year so you can't really sell afterwards. It's really gross.

I dont understand how I got 500+ likes in 7hrs but I dont care nor do I give a f

Yes

That was Frankly not Germane to these Pontiffications.

I guess so, they did like your comment

I thought that that was what he said in the first place lol

Historical puns are tight!

Should have read more about Rome.

@@HeroLanding Where do you think the Byzantines got it from?

That's the mindset that kept the empire in near perpetual civil wars.

True

CK2?

Not A Smith and then there’s CK2 fans like me who manage to create Han Taoist France with the horse phenotype The chaos gods must be pleased

@@jarodmartin1413 A videogame where you control the members of a medieval dinasty through the centuries, conquering, plotting, marrying, betraying, etc.

@@MaylocBrittinorum Name of the game please

Could have, but unfortunately people tend to forget about Anna

I mean that's kinda already a thing via Theodora but okay.

Maybe we should be glad she didn’t get the “terrible femme fatale, undone by her own emotions and passion scrambling her brain, because women amirite?” Treatment that Cleopatra got?

@@phastinemoon From what Blue says about Gibbons' treatment of her, I'd argue that she got just that, though admittedly seven hundred years after she was dead rather than before her corpse had quite finished cooling.

Writing the Alexiad was a better accomplishment than becoming a forgettable empress.

Need some water for that...oh, wait...

Seriously, I think he just started the fire that Prometheus gave to humanity with that.... yikes.

@@pyrosianheir At least... "we didn't start the fire..." ??? ;o)

That would be an interesting original story from them...

As a Greek I would LOVE for disney to make a byzantine princess since Megara from Hercules is not consider a disney princess😭

Except it would stop before the attempted coup, the exile, and her forced imprisonment in a nunnery...

The great irony of Anna's story is that she is a far more important figure than her Emperor brother who disposed her and who's name I already forgot

@@JamesR1986 If you're basing that entirely off this video then you're going off bias tbh. He isn't the focus of the video, so he doesn't get much said about him. Not saying you're necessarily wrong, just that this seems like confirmation bias.

Monarchs tend to find the company of regicides uncomfortable, even when the murder was to clear their path to the throne.

@@mjbull5156 makes sense, cause...whats to stop them from murdering YOU later if they casually murdered the people that were supposed to be hard to murder, although you think they would sweet talk that person so they are on your side, but, why let a little murder get in the way of a good crusade XD

@@mjbull5156 then they are COWARDS who want the results without any of the work. Do you know how complicated it is to plan an assassination? Smh

My question is how to do it?

Kilthan2050 Schliemann, is who you mean, I think?

@@Kilthan2050 To play devil's advocate, it's not a bad assumption to think a city referenced in a clearly fictional account that you have no real evidence for doesn't exist. It's the same reason we say Atlantis isn't real but if we hypothetically and definitively found and proved its existence, historians would be happy to be proven wrong.

Every (modern) historian acknowledges that all sources are bias, what are you talking about? I go to university for history and it’s literally the first thing we’re trained in

Like the Vatican claiming that Emperor Justinian was a monster with two heads.

James Tang it is good to play devil’s advocate! But I am afraid I must argue this one. I don’t think they are quite the same. Homer was THE defining literature of the Greek civilization and was even then a written form of epic poem that had been told and retold for many generations. The Greeks believed it to reflect their history and that was held to be true by the other civilizations, including Rome, etc. almost every western culture at some point tried to trace their own ancestry back to Troy (include the English and Irish, even, in the Middle Ages). I am sure at different times different people may have viewed it like Americans might the tales of Johnny Appleseed - known to be originally true, but nobody believed all the “tall tale” parts. While during other times people were more credulous and believed in the Gods, etc. At any rate, the influence of homer and the belief it was based on fact was incredibly wide-spread, influential, and pervasive. Whereas Atlantis is based on a brief passage in Plato and has little supporting evidence and was not important to most everyone. Over the centuries, though, it became a convenient myth to hang many people’s desire for something like Atlantis to be true, to latch on to. It’s much more like the Bermuda Triangle than the existence of Troy. The deep skepticism among academics and scholars that ancient literature could have a basis in reality was a development of the Enlightenment and beyond. All that being said, your point is still a good one and would certainly apply many times. Ivan just picking on the one example ;-).

*old

@@jamiee7367 you know what? Let's make it new. Quirky girls, start using that in your Tinder bios!

...new?

Byzantine*

Typical would be like Irene who blinded here son to rule longer 0_0

Julie S 2017 my first thought was “huh, that’s a new way to spell Anna Karenina”

I first heard her name in Western historiography class at almost the final class as one of alternative historian and has been classified as the same group as feminist historian from later date.

I went to school in freaking Greece and found out about her in an article about byzantine trivia! Well I guess teaching us the prayer they sang in Agia Sophia during the siege by the Arabs was more important

@@spiritusIRATUS Anna Komnena is quoted in the greek schoolbook and used as a primary source. Although most teachers don't focus on the primary sources which you have to read by yourself. I think the focus on byzantine religiosity is completely expected since the church is heavily involved in our educational system.

I wish strong Feminist scholars were talked about more. I never heard about Anna Komnene or Hypatia until I went to college and learned about them in my philosophy class.

Oh shoot ty for reminding me that it’s running again, I been missing out on our British Byzantine historian for a minute now

They're covering Alexios' reign right now (with Anna's work as their primary source, of course) so this is very timely.

Matthew Hearn I’m listening rn as this notification popped up :D

Why am I just hearing about this podcast for the first time? Where can I find it? And where do people discuss it?

Freedom for None - Uroboro Djinn wherever you listen to podcasts - iTunes, Spotify, etc. And I’m not sure exactly where the main discussion posts are.

Their whole story is actually remarkably wholesome. She, her husband, John and his Turkish commander fared really well.

Wow, that’s a plot twist I didn’t see coming.

Most likely the story ends badly as taking out jonh was so many negative repercussions on the Byzantine empire

as long as there is a prince the princess wont be queen. - Proably not augustus

@@El-Silver How so? His son continued to rule as John ruled, and was even more successful.

I was half expecting that she dropped out voluntary, more improtant work to do, more books to read.

@@Sarellion Ooooh no. If you want to know where the 'hysterical woman' stuff brought up in the video comes form... well. Like Blue said, Anna was *very* biased in a lot of ways and one of those ways was herself. She thought John would be a terrible Emperor and that he wouldn't be suited to the job and that she was, to put it mildly, THE BEST. So a lot of historians look back on that and, considering how Good John turned out, take a dim view of it. It's probably one of the most striking examples of Anna being so into her own hype that she lets it dictate how she views not only her work but also the world at large.

@@NACBEAST Because she was pissed at her brother when she lost the succession to him and thought she would do a better job than him? Did anyone ever campaign on a"I am worse that my opponent/the other king" platform? I just wondered why I didn't heard of her as an empress until Blue said her brother got the job.

@@Sarellion The point wasn't that she campaigned that way at all, you're right that most people tend to go around like that. The point is that given how her brother ended up ruling it was clear that Anna's judgement was beyond compromised by her own hubris. She doesn't just think she's better than her brother, she thought that he was a moron who'd doom the Empire and so, therefore, she was the only one who should've succeeded Alexios. Which, again, couldn't have been more wrong. It shows her bias as a historian and how she could allow her own hype to blind her to a lot of realities (one example of a good handful).

@@Sarellion She was never really first in the line of succession anyways. Remember the whole “son before daughter” thing? The moment her brother was born she was out of the running.

For anyone curious, this is how she described Boheond: "Now the man was such as, to put it briefly, had never before been seen in the land of the Romans, be he either of the barbarians or of the Greeks (for he was a marvel for the eyes to behold, and his reputation was terrifying). Let me describe the barbarian's appearance more particularly - he was so tall in stature that he overtopped the tallest by nearly one cubit, narrow in the waist and loins, with broad shoulders and a deep chest and powerful arms. And in the whole build of the body he was neither too slender nor overweighted with flesh, but perfectly proportioned and, one might say, built in conformity with the canon of Polycleitus... His skin all over his body was very white, and in his face the white was tempered with red. His hair was yellowish, but did not hang down to his waist like that of the other barbarians; for the man was not inordinately vain of his hair, but had it cut short to the ears. Whether his beard was reddish, or any other colour I cannot say, for the razor had passed over it very closely and left a surface smoother than chalk... His blue eyes indicated both a high spirit and dignity; and his nose and nostrils breathed in the air freely; his chest corresponded to his nostrils and by his nostrils...the breadth of his chest. For by his nostrils nature had given free passage for the high spirit which bubbled up from his heart. A certain charm hung about this man but was partly marred by a general air of the horrible... He was so made in mind and body that both courage and passion reared their crests within him and both inclined to war. His wit was manifold and crafty and able to find a way of escape in every emergency. In conversation he was well informed, and the answers he gave were quite irrefutable. This man who was of such a size and such a character was inferior to the Emperor alone in fortune and eloquence and in other gifts of nature"

@@magnusengesath, no, no we are not. She totally had a crush on that dude, which is ironic, considering how Bohemond tried to overthrow Alexios when Anna was just a toddler.

@@magnusengesathI haven’t gotten to this part in the history yet. Damn, I thought she had the hots for her husband!

Blibla Blubb v. Blue. I can't decide if that sounds awesome or terrible.

Pablo Repetto: Sounds like a boss fight in a pokemon copy with historical figures instead. Imagine the battlecry: "Enheduana, I choose you!!!"

@@bliblablubb9590 Ohhhh :3 I wish I was qualified to make up move names for that, but I'm coming up flat blank.

Sei Shonagon gave us a contemporary glimpse into Heian court life. But, she's not exactly a historian. She's more like an Ancient Japanese shitposter.

I adore my girl, Enheduana, but I don't think a brief account of one event is a history. BUT, Enheduana does get the more awesome achievement of being the first named writer ever.

Tell me about it

Cosmo the blue peashooter not me :(

It always cracks me up when that happens. But what happens the most to me is that I'll be scrolling through videos and I'll see one and think I'll come back to it later and then I get a notification for it.

Outstanding move, RU-vid 👀

I get mine an hour after having watched the video sometimes. Well done

I've seen the video to.

I was introduced to her via Medieval II. I had always thought that she was a typical marriagable princess in the game, but after watching this video, this puts a new light to this. Interesting.

Me too

She had a crush on a guy from "hot-ville?" Are we sure that's his real name?

@@KillaAhmadilla That's just french for "high village" as in, a village built atop a hill. Perfectly normal, even generic, name considering how many villages are built up high for defensive purposes.

@@jaceladag yeah figures it would be pretty boring in my reality. Just a funny coincidence.

@VampiressOnDaProwlq it was a hilarious description though...

Yeah, it's too bad they didn't get along. John's reign has way too little contemporary record given how much he accomplished.

It’s unfortunate that she got snubbed. From a 21st century perspective it feels wrong for her to have been passed over, since there was an obvious gender bias, but John was probably one of the best emperors in the history of his dynasty and in the empire as a whole. I can understand why Anna was so convinced he’d be terrible- familial bias can cloud judgement after all.

Yep, the Norman Bohemond.

Beaumont: *exists* Anna: are all you Norman’s such himbo’s?

She still considered most of them a little dumb.

She had the hots for a few of them... And that was literally the only good thing she had to say about any of them.

@@MogofWar "they're dumb but at least they're hot"?

Dryer than burnt waffles

That about sums up my AP Euro textbook in high school pretty well

Dryer than an army of crusaders who got lost after burning all the wells down.

Dyer than the Atacama desert?

I had ads.

@@chloemajeske6189 how the hell maybe i dont know how youtube alghoritm works either

Like Irulan

Ok irrelevant but I love that you still do XD. No one does that still but its waaay better than 😂

Like Jasnah Kholin from Stormlight Archive

@@joeyuzwa891 My thoughts the whole way through were how similar Anna was to Irulan. And I would bet that Herbert did that deliberately.

Yes. “The sight of him inspired admiration […] his stature was such that he towered almost a full cubit over the tallest men. He was slender of waist and flanks, with broad shoulders and chest […] he was neither taper of form nor heavily built and fleshy, but perfectly proportioned - one might say that he conformed to the Polyclitean ideal. […] The skin all over his body was very white, except for his face which was both white and red. His hair was lightish-brown […] Whether his beard was red or of any other colour I cannot say, for the razor had attacked it, leaving his chin smoother than any marble. However, it appeared to be red. His eyes were light-blue and gave some hint of the man’s spirit and dignity.” Anna Komnene, Alexiad, tr. E.R.A. Sewter, The Alexiad of Anna Comnena

@@Xtravesty Wow. Anna's writing style is amazing! She goes into as much detail as Tolkien, but somehow, Tolkien's style is still so much more drier!

@@Xtravesty Specifically the passage is about Bohemond de Hauteville, Prince of Taranto and later Prince of Antioch. The interesting thing is that, before the First Crusade, Bohemond had repeatedly clashed with the Byzantines in battle, and at one point even helped his father, Robert Guiscard, to crush Alexios I in battle (with Bohemond leading the left flank against the Varangian Guard)

Yep, everyone had the hots for bohemond de hautville, and if they didn't, they feared him

@@Xtravesty Even I felt a bit gay after reading that

Ajehy same

Same 😅

It's fascinating that classical written Arabic maintained like this

That's just madly amazing!

awesome, but what does it say?

@@josie5440 the handwriting is a bit difficult to read, but i can make out "aristotle isn't wise, i attended (something something) skandinavia" but thats a rough translation ^^

Vixerel This is Pakistani Arabic it’s not like the current arabic

That's easily top 5 best ways to start a book

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Mind if I make this a group chat?

Except she's not a hoe

Best group chat

@@gamingthisera6339 Neither of them were! Do you even watch this channel?

@@dylanchouinard6141 a historian, a queen and a poet, great trio

Do you have any books to recommend? And if by any chance your thesis is published somewhere, I'd love to read it.

@@ttq3661 Basically any book by William Urban. His focus is on the Baltic Crusades. Also "The Crusades Through Arab Eyes" it's a compilation of translated Arabic primary sources.

@@willkuehler8918 Thanks, I hope the arabs were more honest than latin sources at that time. How about Steve Runciman?

@@ttq3661 The Arab sources are also biased but so is every source ever. I did read his "History of the Crusades" trilogy. I used the third book the most since my thesis was mostly about how the crusading orders (Templars, Hospitallers, Teutonic Knights, etc.) lost their influence.

@@willkuehler8918 Urban wrote a lot about Poland-Lithuania too, but it seems this topic is at the very fringe of popular attention. I wonder if it's worth digging into after I'm finished with the Byzantines and the Crusades...

Because John II was a really chill dude. Not often does one hear about a ruler named 'the beautiful' despite being phisically ugly

Yea apparently her brother was among the best rulers in all of history not just byzantine history He was great

“An unusually lenient punishment by Byzantine standards.”

​@@thedemonhater7748Very lenient for Byzantine standards

True. But also, imagine being in her shoes. We most likely won’t stoop to murder but imagine being snubbed just because you happen to get the wrong set of chromosomes 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

Oh, the memories...

Gabriel Russell shut up! It’s good enough and still coincide with their upload schedule

We have a lot of catching up to do!

It's a video about history, so it'll be in the past when the month starts

Considering Women's History Month was 10 months and 28 days ago, I'd say he's pretty late! He has some serious catching up to do!

And then we wonder why Catholic Europeans thought that the Byzantines were pompous pedantic pricks.

Knoloaify Some like Basil II could back that shit up though

Thank you, I was wondering if it was all hyperbole. Now I know.

Reads like the summary to my EU4 campaign.

I presume his business card used very small font?

Stan?

SidheKnight it means you look up to them and enjoy what they do, i.e. their content, accomplishments, ext. Basically, I just think woman historians are really cool!

It's a portmanteau of stalker and fan.

It is??? Well looks like it’s another one for the « words with horrible origins » list

john 2 was better

To be a successor state to the Roman Empire means that the State ceased to exist and this never happened.The eastern part of the Empire survived without interruption until the end.

@@user-nz1eu8cz1d the 4th crusade perhaps? But they considered themselves roman so what matters

@@arandurion so you agree that until 1204 A.D. and for at least 900 years after the transfer ofthe Capital to Constantinople, the Roman Empire didn't cease to exist.And even if we agree that 1204 was a crucial point for the State,as before they decided to just move the capital to another city as it was the case of Ravenna or Nicaea. And it really doesn't matter what the Romans thought how they should be called.If the Arabs and the Turks called them Rum or even the Bulgarians used the same name for the citizens of the State,the opinion of someone living in the 21st century has no real value.

Gandalf Not Alexander the PlotArmor?

Alexander the Shonen Protagonist

The question is who to start first: Digenes or Armouris?

gonzo's impact

For my failure, I shall self-yeet from the top of Hagia Sophia -B

I didn’t. I just wanted to make a good comment that is not ‘first’.

You really are everywhere. Nuxtaku, here, I think Jimmy Snow...?