Manuel Anemas


Manuel Anemas was an aristocrat and military commander in the Byzantine Empire during the reigns of John II Komnenos and Manuel I Komnenos.

Background and life

Manuel Anemas was a member of the Anemas family. Four Anemas brothers were involved in a serious conspiracy against Alexios I Komnenos in 1105. It is remarkable that in the next generation a member of the same family, Manuel, married the porphyrogenita princess Theodora Komnene, daughter of John II and his empress, Eirene of Hungary. By this marriage John II may have been seeking to politically neutralise the threat of a potentially dangerous family. He was certainly pursuing a policy of bringing 'new blood' into the imperial family and governing circles.
Manuel was celebrated by the Byzantine court poet Theodore Prodromos, who described him as a wise general and the "great tower of the Rhomaioi", Rhomaioi being the Romans, as the Byzantines referred to themselves. Though Anemas appears to have been a prominent soldier little information on his exploits has survived.
Manuel Anemas died in 1148; a funerary lament dated to Holy Week of that year by Prodromos, for "'Kyrios Manuel Anemas, the most fortunate son-in-law of the late basileus and autokrator of the Romans John the Purple-born", is extant.

Family

Manuel Anemas and Theodora Komnene had a number of children: