A.D. 1081.

were comparatively neglected; and the fame acquired by Alexius from his shrewd diplomacy and prudent administration, is somewhat dashed by the imputation of habitual hypocrisy and religious intolerance.

Independently of the productions of Psellus, whose reputation has in some degree acquired a fictitious brilliancy from the dark foil of ignorance by which it is surrounded, the annals of this century can boast but few monuments of genius. This distinguished scholar, who has been honoured by his admirers with the title of "the Prince of Literature," was born of a patrician family at Constantinople, about A. D. 1020, and after a long life devoted to letters and study, during which he had enjoyed the patronage of numerous emperors, he was finally disgraced by Alexius Comnenus, and died in obscurity. His prolific pen was employed on a multiplicity of subjects, the sciences, philosophy, theology, history, oratory, medicine; and from the infinite variety of his pursuits, he has been denominated by his contemporaries Polygraphes. His writings, of which a portion only has been printed, evince a profundity of attainment, a clearness of intellect, and an elegance of diction, that entitle him to rank, not only above all the literati of

1081.

his age, but even amongst those of a more en- A.D. lightened era.*

About the close of the century, the Chronicle of Theophanes† was continued by John Scylitza, who had previously filled a number of the lofty-sounding offices under the Byzantine court, and who afterwards produced an historical epitome, of some repute as a compilation, of the affairs of the kingdom, from the reign of Michael I. to the accession of the Comneni. Of this latter work, a monk of the same age, George Cedrenus,§ has made liberal use in his Chronicle from the origin of the world to the same period,-a composition abounding with fables, which could only have been promulgated in an age as deficient in judgment as vitiated

in taste.

To the last hours of his existence, Alexius had been importuned by his wife Irene to alter

Berington, app. i. p. 576.

Schoell, 1. vi. c. lxxiv. c. lxxxvi. c. xciv. c. xcviii. Gibbon, c. xlviii. Harles, sec. v. p. 557. Fabricius, 1. v. c. 28. Harris, p. iii. c. iv.

P. 290.

+ See p. 119. Harles, sec. v. p. 556.

↑ Schoell, 1. vi. c. lxxxv. Berington, app. i. p. 580.

Boeclerus, sec. P. C. xi. p. 91. Berington, app. i. p. 580. Schoell, 1. vi. c. lxxxv. Harles, sec. v. p. 555. Fabricius, l. v. c. iv. 40.

A.D. the succession in favour of her youngest daugh

1118.

ter Anna; but his stubbornness or probity was proof against every entreaty, and in A. D. 1118 he bequeathed the throne to John, the eldest of his surviving sons, the best and greatest of the Comneni. Foiled in her intrigues, the Princess and her husband Nicephorus Bryennius conspired against her brother; but the plot having failed through the scruples or weakness of her colleague, she owed her life to the magnanimity of the Emperor.* Stung with indignation rather than remorse, she accepted of his pardon, but in terms which bespoke the boldness of her character; she exclaimed that nature, in the formation of herself and her husband, had mistaken the sexes, and endowed Bryennius with the soul of a woman. She continued to reside at the court till the death of Nicephorus, in a. D. 1137, when, having lost her best protector, and wearied with the world, she retired to a convent, and devoted the residue of her days to the composition of a memoir of her father.

This monument of filial tenderness, entitled the Alexiad, was the continuation of a history of the house of the Comneni, undertaken by her husband at the request of Irene, and continued * Gibbon, c. xlviii.

1118.

till the accession of his father-in-law. Of her A.D. qualifications for the task, Anna speaks with confidence in her preface." I," says she, "the child of an emperor, born and educated in the purple, no stranger to literature, but on the contrary, having sought with ardour to attain perfection in the graces of my native language, and having cultivated rhetoric, philosophy, and the sciences which strengthen the mind, (for thus may I, without an imputation of vanity, speak of those attainments for which I am indebted to heaven, to my own perseverance, and the aid of circumstances,) have undertaken to commemorate the deeds of my father, which merit not forgetfulness, nor to be swept by the tide of time into the ocean of oblivion." With this conception of her acquirements, Anna commenced and completed the life of her parent; a work whose analysis well displays the several traits which distinguished the mind of its author,-vanity, ambition, affection, and feebleness. Her style, though often graceful and polished, is flowery and poetic to excess, evincing the importance which she attached to having, as she herself observes, attuned her tongue to tones of Attic elegance; and her work, though interesting and valuable on the whole, must be read with caution, and a due

A.D. allowance for the foibles and feelings of its

1118.

royal compiler.*

The reign of John Comnenus, or, as he was ironically termed in allusion to his personal ugliness, Calo John, is the most distinguished in the Byzantine annals; under his conduct the prowess of the Greeks seemed to have acquired a new and healthy vigour, and, perhaps, the greatest frailty of his character was an undue partiality for arms and military renown. Throughout his dominions he abolished the punishment of death, and seemed desirous to establish his authority not by terror but by kindness. During an administration of fiveand-twenty years, his tranquillity was unbroken by conspiracies or rebellion, and his virtues and honourable qualities have obtained for him the title of the Marcus Aurelius of Byzantium.

Zonaras, an officer of the imperial guard, whom domestic sorrows had driven for solace to

* Harles, sec. v. p. 560. Schoell, l. vi. c. 86. Fabricius, 1. v. c. v. 9.

Another royal author of this age was Isaac, brother to Anna, who, besides some unpublished Homeric Scholia, has left a work entitled, "Characters of the Greeks and Trojans who shared in the War of Troy," in which he describes, not the mental peculiarities of his heroes, but the complexion, constitution, figures, and powers of each. He was likewise author of a treatise on the omissions (Tapaλplevta) of Homer.-Schoell, 1. vi. c. 79.