ABSTRACT
This chapter argues slightly to illuminate Anna Komnene's position in a little more detail. It also argues that Anna did not bow to the stereotypes of woman held by powerful sections of her society. The chapter uses the term 'feminist' in a historical rather than a political sense to describe Anna. Anna's attempts at usurpation in Byzantium were not unusual or even infrequent, but the sex of this protagonist and her status as non regent were. The chapter explores the revolt of Anna for what it teaches about the woman herself. Only a woman born at the end of a century of women's participation in politics, as part of a family government where one's modem ideas of private and public spheres were not shared, could conceive of revolt and usurpation as possible responses to a situation not to her liking. The events of the eleventh century have a part to play in the understanding of Anna Komnene.
