"Time in its irresistible and ceaseless flow carries along on its flood all created things, and drowns them in the depths of obscurity, no matter if they be quite unworthy of mention, or most noteworthy and important, and thus, as the tragedian says, 'he brings from the darkness all things to the birth, and all things born envelops in the night'." (1)

"It is high time I should turn to my father's reign and relate how and why he became ruler. ... I should not spare him for being my father if anything he did struck me as not well done; nor shall I gloss over his successes to avoid the under-current of suspicion that it is a daughter writing about her father, for in either case I should be wronging truth." (43)

"Let me do it, for through you God wishes to restore the dignity of our family." (60)

"Alexius saw...