ABSTRACT
Anna Komnene was born on 2 December 1083, the eldest child and first daughter of Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina. Most significantly, and a fact the reader of The Alexiad is never allowed to forget, Anna was born in the porphyra chamber of the imperial palace and her birth was associated with a miraculous happening. 1 This self-conception as the eldest born of the Komnenoi-Doukai porphyrogennetoi was an expression of her goal in life: to ascend the imperial throne as empress-regnant. 2 This goal was thwarted by the men in her life: her first fiancé Constantine Doukas (though his failure was one of omission – failing to remain alive – rather than of commission); her husband Nikephoros Bryennios, who declined to join in her plots against her brother; her father Alexios, who ignored her plotting to replace her brother John and to become Alexios’s heir; and of course her detested younger brother, John II Komnenos, who did succeed Alexios in 1118.
