Anna Komnene (c. 1083-1153)
“Such is the way of Fortune: when she wishes to smile on a man she exalts him on high, crowns him with a royal diadem, and gives him sandals of purple; but when she frowns, instead of the purple and the crown, she clothes him in ragged garments of black.”
- From The Alexiad (Book III, chapter 1) by Anna Komnene, translated by E.R.A. Sewter, (Penguin Classics, 2009).
