ABSTRACT
In order to understand the position and power of women in the Komnenian scheme of government it is necessary to examine the system which Alexios Komnenos set up to govern the empire. This system was created with a specific aim in view, the aggrandisem ent of the family, and by a deceptively simple means, the establishment of a whole new hierarchy of titles. Since these regulated life and rank at court, as tides always had done, a grasp of who was who is essential.
