Michael Psellos and Emperor Michael VII Ducas This is the second of three posts on Michael Psellos and his impact on medieval Byzantium. Michael Psellos – Turncoat Michael Psellos, the quintessential Byzantine bureaucrat, began his career in the imperial justice system, working in Anatolia in the 1030’s. Eventually, he became a secretary in the Great …
Above: The royal wedding of Alexios I Comnenus and Irene Ducaena. Irene Ducaena was the wife and empress of Alexios I Comnenus, marrying him shortly after he seized the throne on April 1, 1081. Her daughter, the erudite Anna Comnena, wrote glowingly of her mother in her history, The Alexiad – extolling her beauty, wisdom, …
Romanos IV Diogenes – submitting to Alp Aslan after defeat at the Battle of Manzikert Romanos’s Father, Constantine The Diogenes family first came to prominence during the reign of Basil II early in the 11th century. Constantine Diogenes rose through the ranks of the taghmata – the central armies under the control of the emperor- …
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