Introduction

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book focuses on women's choices, on women as actors, on women's power. A more useful statement is that Byzantium was a male-dominated society, for male dominance is a description, not a value-judgement. Emperors had always been in danger of overthrow, but the swift changes and numerous usurpations of the eleventh century proclaim the low level of respect for the person who occupied the imperial throne. Women's visibility in politics declined after Alexios's reign, although their activity as patrons continued, a public role which conferred more power in Byzantium than modern commentators initially understand. Zonaras states that Alexios arranged the marriages of his children and his brother's children. Alexios never delegated the management of the administration to Eirene in his absence as he had to his mother; Anna Dalassene states that he appointed servants to take control.