Anna Komnene (c. 1083-1153)
“Time, which flies irresistibly and perpetually, sweeps up and carries away with it everything that has seen the light of day and plunges it into utter darkness, whether deeds of no significance or those that are mighty and worthy of commemoration.”
- From Anna Komnene’s prologue to The Alexiad, translated by E.R.A. Sewter, (Penguin Classics, 2009). Anna Komnene was the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor, Alexios I (ruled 1081-1118). She wrote her Alexiad to serve as a history of her father’s imperial reign.
