SOURCE: In Anna Comnena. Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1972, 186 p.

In the following excerpt, Dalven discusses Anna's intellectual pursuits and education, the factions in her father's court, and evaluates her importance as an historian.

Her Early Life at Court

For from childhood, from eight years upwards, I was brought up with the Queen, and as she conceived a warm affection for me she confided all her secrets to me. (Alexiad, III, 1, p. 72)

The queen referred to in the above quotation is Maria of Alania, mother of Constantine Ducas, Anna's seven-yearold royal cousin, to whom she was officially betrothed soon after her birth. As was the custom of the time, the princess was immediately placed in the care of her fiancé's mother, the twice-married exotically lovely Queen Maria, daughter of Iranian nomads, who was still living in the "Upper" palace, also called Boucoleon, with her son. After Alexios's succession to...