Anna Komnene (1083-1153)
“Often one has to bestow on adversaries the highest commendation, where their deeds merit it; often, too, one’s nearest relatives have to be censured, as and when their behavior deserves it. The historian, therefore, must shirk neither from remonstrating with their friends, nor from praising their enemies.”
- This passage is from Anna Komnene’s The Alexiad (translated by E.R.A. Sewter, Penguin Classics, 2009). The Alexiad was a history written by Anna Komnene about her father, Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, of the Byzantine Empire.
