Alexios Komnenos, Byzantine emperor, led his army to meet the Scythian hordes in battle.
拜占庭皇帝，约翰二世·科穆宁，带领他的军队，去迎战斯基泰人。
For good luck, he carried one of the holiest relics in Christendom: the veil that had belonged to the Virgin Mary.
为了得到好运，他带着一件在基督教世界中最神圣的遗物之一：属于圣母玛利亚的面纱。
Unfortunately, it didn't help. Not only was his army defeated, but as they fled, the Emperor was stabbed in the buttocks.
然而这对他并没有帮助，他的军队不仅被击败了，并且当他们逃跑时，皇帝的臀部被刺伤了。
To make matters worse, a strong wind made the relic too heavy to carry, so he stashed it in some bushes as he escaped.
更糟糕的是，强风使得遗物太重而无法携带，所以当他逃跑时，把它藏在了灌木丛中。
But even as he fled, he managed to slay some Scythians and rescue a few comrades.
但是即使他逃跑了，他设法杀死了一些斯基泰人，并且解救了几名队友。
At least, this is how Alexios' daughter Anna recounted the story, writing nearly 60 years later.
至少这是约翰二世的女儿安娜在将近60年后所回忆的故事。
She spent the last decade of her long life creating a 500-page history of her father's reign called The Alexiad.
她花费了她漫长生命中的最后十年，创作了五百页的历史书，这本历史书讲述关于她父亲的统治，书名为《约翰二世》。
Written in Greek, the book was modeled after ancient Greek epics and historical writings.
这本书是用希腊语书写的，仿照了古希腊史诗和历史书的写法。
But Anna had a different, trickier task than the writers in these traditions:
然而与传统的作家相比，安娜有一个不同的且更棘手的任务：
as a princess writing about her own family, she had to balance her loyalty to her kin with her obligation to portray events accurately,
作为一名撰写有关于她自己家庭事迹的公主，她不得不平衡她对家族的忠诚与准确描述事实的义务，
navigating issues like Alexios's embarrassing stab to the buttocks.
例如描述类似刺伤约翰二世的臀部这样尴尬的事情。
A lifetime of study and participation in her father's government prepared Anna for this undertaking.
她在她父亲的政府学习和工作了一生，这使得安娜可以承担这项任务。
Anna was born in 1083, shortly after her father seized control of the Roman Empire following a decade of brutal civil wars and revolts.
安娜出生于1083年，她是在她父亲控制罗马帝国不久以后出生的。接下来的十年是残酷的内战，以及起义。
The empire was deep in decline when he came to power, and threatened from all sides:
在皇帝掌权的时候，帝国快速衰落，并受到各方的威胁：
by the Seljuk Turks in the East, the Normans in the West, and Scythian raiders to the north.
被东方的土耳其人、西方的诺曼人、以及北方的斯基泰人入侵者所威胁。
Over the course of Anna's childhood and adolescence,
在安娜的童年和青春期，
Alexios fought constant military campaigns to secure the frontiers of his empire, even striking up an uneasy alliance with the Crusaders.
约翰二世一直在进行军事行动以保护他的帝国的边境，甚至打破了与十字军之间不稳定的联盟。
Meanwhile in Constantinople, Anna fought her own battle.
与此同时，在君士坦丁堡，安娜为自己而战。
She was expected to study subjects considered proper for a Byzantine princess,
人们期待她去学习那些适合拜占庭公主的课程，
like courtly etiquette and the Bible, but preferred classical myth and philosophy.
比如宫廷礼仪和圣经，但是她自己喜欢古典神话以及哲学。
To access this material, she had to learn to read and speak Ancient Greek, by studying secretly at night.
为了获得这类资料，她不得不晚上偷偷地学习古希腊语的阅读和口语。

Eventually her parents realized how serious she was, and provided her with tutors.
最终她的父母意识到，她是认真的，并为她提供了老师。
Anna expanded her studies to classical literature, rhetoric, history, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine.
安娜将她的学习扩展到了古典文学、修辞学、历史、哲学、数学、天文学和医学。
One scholar even complained that her constant requests for more Aristotle commentaries were wearing out his eyes.
一位学者甚至抱怨她一直在要求更多亚里士多德的评论，并且从未停止过。
At age fifteen, Anna married Nikephoros Bryennios to quell old conflicts between their families and strengthen Alexios's reign.
十五岁的时候，安娜与尼基弗鲁斯·布林尼乌斯结婚，以平息他们家族之间的旧曾经的冲突，并加强约翰二世的统治。
Fortunately, Anna and Nikephoros ended up sharing many intellectual interests, hosting and debating the leading scholars of the day.
幸运的是，安娜和尼基弗鲁斯最终有着许多知识方面的共同兴趣，比如讨论当时的一些主要学者的观点。
Meanwhile, Alexios's military excursions began to pay off, restoring many of the empire's former territories.
与此同时，约翰二世的军事行动开始有了起色，收复了许多帝国曾经的领土。
As her father aged, Anna and her husband helped her parents with their imperial duties.
随着她父亲的老去，安娜和她的丈夫帮助她的父母管理国家。
During this time, Anna reportedly advocated for just treatment of the people in their disputes with the government.
在这期间，安娜主张合理对待人民与政府的纠纷。
After Alexios's death, Anna's brother John ascended to the throne and Anna turned back to philosophy and scholarship.
在约翰二世死后，安娜的兄弟约翰登上了王位，安娜转身投入到哲学的研究中。
Her husband had written a history arguing that his grandfather would have made a better emperor than Alexios, but Anna disagreed.
她的丈夫写了一本历史书评论他的祖父，他说他的祖父与约翰二世相比会成为一个更好的皇帝，但安娜不同意。
She began working on the Alexiad, which made the case for her father's merits as emperor.
她开始撰写《约翰二世》，研究她的父亲作为一名君主的优点。
Spanning the late 11th and early 12th centuries of Byzantine history, the Alexiad recounts the tumultuous events of Alexios's reign,
《约翰二世》叙述了在拜占庭历史拜占庭历史中，11世纪末和12世纪初之际，约翰二世统治时期的动荡事件，
and Anna's own reactions to those events, like bursting into tears at the thought of the deaths of her parents and husband.
以及安娜自己对这些事件的反应，例如一想起她父母和丈夫的死去就流出的泪水。
She may have included these emotional passages in hopes that
她也许在这些情感性充满感情的文章中加入了希望，
they would make her writing more palatable to a society that believed women shouldn't write about battles and empires.
希望社会可以接受女性也可以记录战争和帝国统治。
While her loyalty to her father was evident in her favorable account of his reign, she also included criticism and her opinions of events.
尽管她对她父亲的忠诚在她对他统治的描述中很明显，她同时也加入了她自己的批评和看法。
In the centuries after her death, Anna's Alexiad was copied over and over, and remains an invaluable eyewitness account of Alexios's reign today.
在她去世后的几个世纪中，安娜的著作《约翰二世》被一遍又一遍地重新印刷，并且在当今仍然是有关约翰二世的统治的无价的资料。
And through her epic historical narrative, Anna Komnene secured her own place in history.
通过她对历史的史诗般的描述，安娜·科穆宁得以保证她在历史中独一无二的地位。