Comnenus,

Comnenus, the name of a family, originally Italian, of which many members occupied the throne of the Byzantine empire from 1057 to 1204, and that of Trebizond from 1204 to 1461. See BYZANTINE EMPIRE, TREBIZOND, ALEXIUS, ISAAC.—ANNA COMNENA (q.v.), who lived in the first half of the 12th century, was a high literary as well as historical celebrity.—DAVID COMNENUS, the last representative of the imperial race in Trebizond, was executed at Adrianople in 1462, with all his family, by command of Mohammed II. The attempt to trace the descent of the Bonaparte family from a branch of the Comneni settled in Corsica is not supported by valid evidence.