Whether Anna was graciously given or energetically demanded, the arrival of the Byzantine princess to Kyiv was a momentous event in many ways. First, and despite the very few mentions we have of her in Kyivan sources, she is always referred to as tsaritsa ('empress'), unlike her own husband, Volodimir, who is given systematically the title of kniaz ('prince'). Second, the only clear information about Anna's matrimony from those very same Kyivan sources, regardless of the explanation one is ready to accept for it, is that Volodimir's marriage to Anna implied the Christianization of the new East Slavic polity. However, the conversion to Christianity of the ruling prince and his subjects could have taken place without this marriage to a princess beyond her prime, imperial as she might be.
Born in the purpure
Anna's name, Porphyrogenita, clearly defines her status before marriage. Sister of two emperors,
