Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/528

 506 APPENDIX tropheion).2<' His abilities were recognized by Constantine Ducas and Nice- phorus Botaneiates, from whom he received honorary titles (Patrician, Magister, Proedros), and held posts of no political importance. He accompanied Romanus Diogenes on his campaigns as a "military judge". The history embraces the period 1034-1079, and was completed c. 1080 ; it is dedicated to Nicephorus III. [First published in the Bonn series, 1873.] Just as Attaleiates overlaps Psellus and furnishes important material for cor- recting and completing his narrative, so the work of the prince Nicephorus Bryennius, sou-in-law of Alexius Comneniis, overlaps and supplements the work of Attaleiates. Nicephorus had good opportunities for obtaining authentic infor- mation on the history of the times. His father had aspired to the throne and overthrown Michael VII. (see above, p. 224), but had been immediately overthrown by Alexius Comnenus and blinded. But, when Alexius came himself to the throne, Bryennius found favour at court ; and his brilliant son was chosen by the Emperor as the husband of Anna and created Caesar. He played a prominent part on several occasions during the reign of Alexius, conducting, for instance, the defence of the capital against Godfrey of Bouillon in lO'J'. After his father-in-law's death he refused (cp. above, p. 228) to take part in a conspiracy -^ which his wife organized against her brother John, under whose rule he continued to serve the state until his death in 1037- In his last years, at the suggestion of his mother-in-law Irene, he undertook the composition of a history of Alexius Comnenus, but death hin- dered him. from completing it, and the work covers only nine years, a.d. 107 O-R He describes it himself as "historical material" ; it is, as .Seger observes, "less a history of the time than a family chronicle, which, owing to the political position of the families, assumes the value of ' a historical source ' ". It has the common defects of the memoirs of an exalted personage, whose interests have been con- nected intimately with the events he describes and with the people he portrays. Bryennius makes considerable use of the Chronography of PseUus, and also draws on Attaleiates and Scylitzes. [Included in the Bonn series, 1836. Mono- graph : J. Seger, Nikephoros Bryennios, 1888.]^ The incomplete work of Bryennius was supplemented and continued by his wife, the literary princess Anna Comnena, whose Alexiad, beginning with the year 1069, was successfully carried down to 1118, the year of her father's death. Anna (born 1083) retired after the unsuccessful conspiracy against her brother (see above, p. 228) to the monastery of Kecharitomene, which had been founded by her mother Irene, who now accompanied her into retreat. The work which has gained her immortal fame was completed in 1148. Anna received the best literary education that the age could afford ; she was familiar with the great Greek classics from Homer to Polybius, and she had studied philosophy. She was im- pregnated with the spirit of the renaissance which had been initiated by Psellus ; she affects, though she does not achieve, Attic purism in her artificial and pedan- tic style. She had fallen far more completely under the spell of the literary ideals of Psellus than her husband, though he too had felt the influence. The book is a glorification of her father ; and naturally her account of the crusades is highly unfavourable to the crusaders. But she was conscientious in seeking for information, oral and documentary. -^ [Ed. Bonn, vol. i., ed. Schopen, 1839; vol. ii. , ed. Reiff erscheid, 1878 ; complete ed. by Reifferscheid (Teubner), 1884. E. 20 The diataxis, or testamentary disposition, respecting these foundations, with inventories of the furniture, library, &c., is extant {ed. Sathas, Bibl. Gr. med. aevi, vol. i.). It is a very interesting document. Cp. W. Nissen, Die Diataxis des Michael Attal. von 1077 (1894). -1 He was thinking doubtless of his own case when he wrote (p. 20, ed. Bonn) of the refusal of Isaac's brother, John, to take the crown which Isaac pressed upon him. This is well remarked by Seger, Nikeph. Bryennios, p. 22. 22 The Introduction to the work is, at all events partly, spurious. 23 In chronology she is loose and inaccurate.