FAMILY AS FUNDAMENT
The network of family relations in the Alexiad of Anna Komnene
Anna Komnene (1083 - 1153) was a Byzantine princess in the eleventh and twelfth century, but her life was not a fairytale at all. Married to the son of an enemy of her father, complotting a murder on her brother and being banished to a monastery far away from the court. It all happened to Anna Komnene, but she was not discouraged by it at all. She wanted to make a name for herself, a name which would be remembered by all people in the world, and she accomplished it. As the writer of the Alexiad she is probably more famous nowadays then in her own time. The Alexiad has been studied in many ways, for example as a source for political or military information about Byzantium or what it says about women in Byzantium. However it has never been studied what the Alexiad as a source can tell us about family relations at court in the eleventh and twelve century, researched with network theory … until now!
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Image of Anna Komnene |
' I, having realized the effects wrought by Time, desire now by means of my writings to give account of my father's deeds, which do not deserve to be consigned to Forgetfulness nor to be swept away on the flood of Time into an ocean of Non-Remembrance.'
Background of Anna Komnene and the Alexiad
Anna Komnene was a Byzantine princes and the daughter of emperor Alexios I and empress Irene. As the firstborn Anna thought for a long time that she would be the empress after the death of her father. Instead, she got a little brother, Johannes, who ruined it all for her. He became the emperor after the death of their father. Anna could not accept this and decided to pledge a coup with her husband, Nikephorus Bryennios II. However, Bryennios backed out, because he got scared. Anna Komnene was very disappointed in her husband and if we must believe sources Anna would have respond with the words that she wished she was the one with the balls instead of Bryennios. Her little brother, Johannes, was very merciful and decided not to kill her. Het banished her instead to a monastery of the Komnene family far away from the court of Byzantium. Meanwhile Bryennios started to write a biography about the life of Alexios I. Empress Irene put him up to this. However Bryennios died around 1136 and Anna took over this job, what became the Alexiad. She did this because she wanted that everyone knew the story about her father, as she says in the Alexiad. The Alexiad consist of fifteen books. It can be seen as a biography of the life of emperor Alexios I, but it can also be seen as a military or political summary of the policy of Byzantium. Nowadays there are many copies of the Alexiad. It has been translated for instance in English, French and Dutch and is it obtainable for a lot of people.
In the pas the Alexiad is used a lot as a side source for information about the First Crusade or about the military, foreign police of Byzantium. The first study about the Alexiad itself dates from 1929 by Georgina Buckler. In the last few years there are more and more studies which have as a subject the source Alexiad itself. There are some studies about family relations in the Alexiad, but none of these studies have been made with the help of network theory.
One of the tanslations into English of the Alexiad by E.R.A. Sewter
The Byzantine society in the eleventh and twelve century
Why is it interesting to research family relations in the Alexiad? That is because family was a very important concept in the Byzantium society in the eleventh and twelfth century. Family relations played for example a big role in the transmission of capital, material and immaterial property. Marriage was a very easy and strategic way for (aristocratic) families to gain as a family a better status or more capital and to connect families with each other. Alexios I was married to Irene Doukas. The Doukas were also a very important, aristocratic family and with their marriage two, big aristocratic families were connected. Alexios gave much of his administration power to his male relatives, for example to his brother. But also to the husbands of his sisters, nieces and daughters, like Bryennios, the husband of Anna. |
The main city of the Byzantine Empire was Constantinople, nowadays the main city of Turkey, Istanbul. |
Network theory and the Kite network from David Krackhardt
Network theory is making its entrance in the historical research. The past few years we can see a trend that historians make more and more use of network theory. Network theory has a couple of standard terms that are used in describing the networks. A ‘node’ is a individual in a network who is connected with at least one other node. Then are the ‘ties’, the things that connects the nodes to each other. And at last the ‘flow’, that is what moves through the ties between the nodes and it can be material or immaterial.
David Krackhardt has a model developed to locate individuals in a network and conclude from the location something about the network as a whole. He called it the Kite network. In the Kite network there are three ways to approach the location of an individual: degree centrality, betweenness centrality and closeness centrality.
- Degree centrality is to count how many ties a node has. This is a quantity approach.
- Bewteenness centrality is not to look how many ties a node has, but also to look at te location. This is a quality approach.
- Closeness centrality is to look at the place of a node in a network and in how many steps he can bring the flow to everybody in the network.
The network of family relations in the Alexiad
With the help of the standard terms of network theory and the Kite network of Krackhardt it is possible to construct a network of family relations in the Alexiad. As we can see in the image of the network of family relations, Alexios plays a crucial role in this network. He does not only have the most connections of everyone, he has also the best location of every node in the network. Without him as a node a lot of nodes would not be connected with each other. As a node Alexios has therefore a high level of degree centrality and betweenness centrality, and is called a hub. Alexios as a node has also a high level of closeness centrality. Because Alexios has a tie with every other node in the network, through him flows information the fastest. From the research of family relations in the Alexiad it appears that Alexios did not rule alone. In the first period of his emperorship, he leaned largely on his mother. She was actually the one who reigned the empire and Alexios was more emperor in name. He gave much of his power away to family members and later on his emperorship his wive, Irene Doukas, played a big role as a advisor of her husband. His family relations were the fundament of his emperorship, on which he built his imperial power.
With the help of the standard terms of network theory and the Kite network of Krackhardt it is possible to construct a network of family relations in the Alexiad. As we can see in the image of the network of family relations, Alexios plays a crucial role in this network. He does not only have the most connections of everyone, he has also the best location of every node in the network. Without him as a node a lot of nodes would not be connected with each other. As a node Alexios has therefore a high level of degree centrality and betweenness centrality, and is called a hub. Alexios as a node has also a high level of closeness centrality. Because Alexios has a tie with every other node in the network, through him flows information the fastest. From the research of family relations in the Alexiad it appears that Alexios did not rule alone. In the first period of his emperorship, he leaned largely on his mother. She was actually the one who reigned the empire and Alexios was more emperor in name. He gave much of his power away to family members and later on his emperorship his wive, Irene Doukas, played a big role as a advisor of her husband. His family relations were the fundament of his emperorship, on which he built his imperial power.
Image of the network of family relations in the Alexiad
From this historical research with the help of network theory, it can be state that combining two disciplines can lead to clarify and confirm different theories about the past, like in this research. It would therefore be very helpful to re-examine more historical subjects with the help of network theory.
W. E. S.
W. E. S.
Sources on webpage from top to bottom
- "Image of Anna Komnene," http://www.controappuntoblog.org/2015/12/07/benedette-guerre-crociate-e-jihad-by-barbero-alessandro-lalessiade-di%E1%BC%80%CE%BD%CE%BD%CE%B1 %CE%BA%CE%BF%CE%BC%CE%BD%CE%B7%CE%BD%CE%AE-internet-archive
- Quote, E.R.A Sewter, trans, The Alexiad of Anna Comnena (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1982) 17.
- "Image of one of the translations," https://www.flickr.com/photos/cdrummbks/4819138168
Further reading
For the Alexiad:
- Buckley, Penelope. The Alexiad of Anna Komnene: Artistic Strategy in the Making of a Myth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
- Gouma-Peterson, Thalia. “Gender and Power: Passages to the maternal in Anna Konnene’s Alexiad.” Anna Komnene and her times. Editor: Thalia Gouma – Peterson. New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 2000, 107 – 124.
- Sewter, E.R.A. trans. The Alexiad of Anna Comnena. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1982.
For the Byzantine society:
- Angold, Michael. Church and society in Byzantium under the Comneni 1081 – 1261. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
- Gregory, Timothy E. A history of Byzantium. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2005.
- Laiou, Angeliki E. “Family structure and the transmission of property.” A social history of Byzantium. Editor: John Haldon. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2009, 51 – 75.
- Magdalino, Paul. “Court society and aristocracy.” A social history of Byzantium. Editor: John Haldon. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2009, 212 – 232.
For network theory:
- Krebs, Valdis. “Social Network Analysis: An Introduction,” http://www.orgnet.com/sna.html
- Malkin, I. A small Greek world. Networks in the Ancient Mediterranean. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.