The Alexiad combines insider knowledge with loyalty to Alexios I

Anna Komnene studied letters, rhetoric, and philosophy, patronized scholars, and enjoyed learned debate. Late in life she wrote the Alexiad in Greek about her father's reign from 1081 to 1118. It defended and excused Alexios while preserving court knowledge, political intrigue, accounts of battles, and portraits of allies and enemies. Her praise for both parents makes the family loyalty explicit. Despite that bias, the history exposes the pressures behind Alexios's decision in 1095 to seek help from western Christian rulers, which opened the way for crusading armies.