S4.03 Greg Olear

Empress

by Greg Olear

In 2016, construction workers in Istanbul made a remarkable discovery. Sealed in a lead pot twelve feet underground was a lost manuscript by the Byzantine princess and historian Anna Komnene—an intimate account of the royals who held sway in Constantinople in the High Middle Ages. This is the first English translation of the Anekdota, or Secret History, of Anna Komnene (1083-1153). Not since the Dead Sea Scrolls were unearthed at Quran has an archeological find threatened to upend everything we know about a heretofore-fuzzy historical period.

Greg Olear

Greg Olear is an American novelist, journalist, and author whose work often touches on political subjects. His novels are noted for their dark humor and frequent references to pop culture. He is the LA Times best-selling author of the novels Totally Killer (2009), Fathermucker (2011), and Empress: The Secret History of Anna K (2022), as well as 2018’s non-fiction; Dirty Rubles: An Introduction to Trump/Russia, which Salon called “required reading for all Americans.” The first two of his novels have been translated into other languages and have also been optioned for screen.

PREVAIL

Launched on 1 November 2019, PREVAIL is a regular column about politics, history, national security, foreign affairs, organized crime, dirty money, global corruption, the fight for democracy—and, on Sundays, poetry and literature. It’s also a weekly podcast that drops every Friday, part of the MSW Media network.

Columns run on PREVAIL every Tuesday and Friday, with Friday’s column being a supplement to the podcast. On the weekend, “Sunday Pages” is a departure from the ugly world of fighting the fascists. I share poems, novel excerpts, and more.

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The Five 8

Greg Olear's and Stephanie Koff's weekly podcast on youtube.

We take FIVE of the week's most notable & newsworthy topics and spend 8 minutes covering each one. Five 8-minute segments. Three minutes of evolving animation by CHUNK. Two revved-up hosts. One comic interlude. One special guest (and sometimes more). Countless curse words. And as many cocktails as we require.

Anna Komnene

In 1087, Anna's brother, John II, was born. Several years after his birth, in 1092, John was designated emperor. According to Choniates, Emperor Alexios "favoured" John and declared him emperor while the Empress Irene "threw her full influence on [Anna's] side" and "continually attempted" to persuade the emperor to designate Nikephoros Bryennios, Anna's husband, in John's place. Around 1112, Alexios fell sick with rheumatism and could not move. He therefore turned the civil government over to his wife, Irene; she in turn directed the administration to Bryennios. Choniates states that, as Emperor Alexios lay dying in his imperial bedchamber, John arrived and "secretly" took the emperor's ring from his father during an embrace "as though in mourning." Anna also worked in her husband's favour during her father's illness. In 1118, Alexios I Komnenos died. A cleric acclaimed John emperor in Hagia Sophia.

Alexios I Komnenos

Alexios was the son of John Komnenos and Anna Dalassene, and the nephew of Isaac I Komnenos (emperor 1057–1059). Alexios' father declined the throne on the abdication of Isaac, who was thus succeeded by Constantine X Doukas (r. 1059–1067) and died as a monk in 1067. Alexios and his elder brother, Manuel Komnenos served under Romanos IV Diogenes (r. 1068–1071) with distinction against the Seljuk Turks. Under Michael VII Doukas Parapinakes (1071–1078) and Nikephoros III Botaneiates (1078–1081), he was militarily employed, along with his elder brother Isaac, against rebels in Asia Minor, Thrace, and in Epirus.