ANNA Comnena, daughter of the emperor Alexius Comnenus I. was not less distinguished by her elevated rank than by her mental qualifications. Her superiority of mind began early to display itself. Depriving and neglecting the effeminacy and voluptuousness of the court in which she was educated, she directed her attention to literary pursuits. Indulging her favorite studies, she solicited the acquaintance of the more eminent philosophers of that period.

But the pursuits of literature did not induce her entirely to abandon society; she gave her hand to Nicephorus Bryennius, a young nobleman of a respectable family. This accomplished woman was, however, actuated with unjustifiable ambition; and, during the last illness of her father, she united with the empress Irene, in attempting to prevail upon that monarch to disinherit his own son, and give the crown to her husband. The affection and virtue of the father prevailed over female address and intrigue. But the ambition of Cornelia was not diminished; for she entered into a conspiracy to depose her brother; and when her husband displayed a timidity and hesitation in this unjust enterprise, she exclaimed, that "Nature had mistaken their sexes, for he ought to have been the woman."

Either through the vigilance of her brother, or the timidity of her husband, the treasonable plot was discovered, and Anna punished with the confiscation of all her property. But generosity has an opportunity of displaying its real nature when an enemy is vanquished; thus was the generosity of her brother displayed on the present occasion, by returning all her property. Afflicted, however, of her safe conduct, she retired from court, and never more possessed any influence there. Disappointed ambition took shelter among the walks of literature, and she employed herself in her solitude in writing the history of her father's reign. This production of her pen is still extant, and composes a part of the collection of the Byzantine historians. The flores of rhetoric are rankled to embellish this work, and every effort made to enrich it with science; but the general complexion of it is rather like an apology, than an impartial narrative. It must, however, be acknowledged, that she is not more partial than many other Latin historians, and that her history contains many valuable facts and observations. (Gen. Biog.)