Gregory Pakourianos Գրիգոր Պակուրյան | |
|---|---|
 Fresco of Gregory Pakourianos at Bachkovo. | |
| Died | 1086 |
| Allegiance | Byzantine Empire |
| Rank | Strategos of Theme of Iberia |
| Wars | Byzantine–Seljuq Wars in the East and Battle of Dyrrachium |
Gregory Pakourianos [lower-alpha 1] (died 1086) was a Byzantine politician and military commander. He was the founder of the Monastery of the Mother of God Petritzonitissa in Bachkovo [1] and author of its typikon . The monks of this Orthodox monastery were Iberians. [2] [3] [4]
Gregory's origins are a matter for scholarly dispute. [5] [6] He is believed to have hailed from the region of Tao or Tayk, which had been ruled by Georgian Bagratids of kouropalatate of Iberia, later annexed by the Byzantines to the theme of Iberia in 1001. According to Anna Comnena Gregory was "descended from a noble Armenian family." [7] According to N. Aleksidze, the only source that indicates his Armenian origin is Anna Comnena who was only three years old when Gregory died. [8] The 12-century Armenian chronicler Matthew of Edessa, wrote that he was of vrats, or "Georgian," origin, though here he was likely referring to Pakourianos' being part of the Georgian Orthodox Church rather than necessarily being an ethnic Georgian. [9] Gregory himself proclaimed that he belonged to "the glorious people of the Iberians" and insisted his monks to know the Georgian language. [10] Under Byzantine suzerainty, the population of Upper Tao identified itself as 'Georgian'. The élite of Tao (Basil Bagratisdze, P'eris Jojikisdze, Abas and Grigol Bakurianisdze) regarded Georgia as 'our country' and strove for its spiritual, cultural and political prosperity. Thus, he, like other representatives of the elite from the Tao region, considered Georgia his homeland and strove for its spiritual, cultural and political prosperity. [11]
Taking into account all the evidence available on Pakourianos, the scholar Nina G. Garsoïan proposed that "the most likely explanation is that [the Pakourian family] belonged to the mixed Armeno-Iberian Chalcedonian aristocracy, which dwelt in the border district of Tayk/Tao." [12]
Anna Comnena described Pakourianos as having a tiny frame but being a mighty warrior. [13]
Since 1060 Gregory served in Byzantine army. In 1064 he had achieved a significant position among the Byzantine military aristocracy, but failed at defending Ani against the Seljuk leader Alp Arslan, [12] King Bagrat IV of Georgia and Albanian King Goridzhan in the same year. [14] Since 1071 he was appointed as a Strategos (governor) of the theme of Iberia. As the Seljuk advance forced the Byzantines to evacuate the eastern Anatolian fortresses and the theme of Iberia, Gregory ceded control over Kars and Tao to King George II of Georgia in 1074. This did not help, however, to stem the Turkish advance and the area became a battleground of the Georgian-Seljuk wars. [15]
Afterwards he served under Michael VII Doukas (c.1071–78) and Nikephoros III Botaneiates (c.1078–81) in various responsible positions on both the eastern and the western frontiers of the empire. Later Gregory was involved in a coup that removed Nikephoros III. The new Emperor, Alexios I Komnenos, appointed him " megas domestikos of All the West" and gave him many more properties in the Balkans. He possessed numerous estates in various parts of the Byzantine Empire and was afforded a variety of privileges by the emperor, including exemption from certain taxes. In 1081, he commanded the left flank against the Normans at the Battle of Dyrrachium. A year later he evicted the Normans from Moglena. He died in 1086 fighting the Pechenegs at the battle of Beliatoba, charging so vigorously he crashed into a tree.
Gregory was also known as a noted patron and promoter of Christian culture. He together with his brother Abas (Apasios) made, in 1074, a significant donation to the Eastern Orthodox Holy Monastery of Iviron on Mount Athos and commissioned the regulations (typikon) for this foundation. He signed the Greek version of the Typikon in Armenian. [16] [17] [18] He also signed his name in Georgian and Armenian characters rather than Greek. [19] It is assumed that Pakourianos did not know Greek. [20]
Gregory Pakourianos and his brother Abas were buried in a bone-vault house near the Bachkovo Monastery. The portraits of the two brothers are painted on the north wall of the bone-vault house.
Gregory the Illuminator was the founder and first official head of the Armenian Apostolic Church. He converted Armenia from Zoroastrianism to Christianity in the early fourth century, making Armenia the first state to adopt Christianity as its official religion. He is venerated as a saint in the Armenian Apostolic Church and in some other churches.
Anna Komnene, commonly Latinized as Anna Comnena, was a Byzantine Greek princess and historian. She is the author of the Alexiad, an account of the reign of her father, Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Her work constitutes the most important primary source of Byzantine history of the late 11th and early 12th centuries, as well as of the early Crusades. Although she is best known as the author of the Alexiad, Anna played an important part in the politics of the time and attempted to depose her brother, John II Komnenos, as emperor in favour of her husband, Nikephoros.
The Kingdom of the Iberians was a medieval Georgian monarchy under the Bagrationi dynasty which emerged circa 888 AD, succeeding the Principality of Iberia, in historical region of Tao-Klarjeti, or upper Iberia in north-eastern Turkey as well parts of modern southwestern Georgia, that stretched from the Iberian gates in the south and to the Lesser Caucasus in the north.
The Battle of Dyrrhachium took place on October 18, 1081 between the Byzantine Empire, led by the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, and the Normans of southern Italy under Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia and Calabria. The battle was fought outside the city of Dyrrhachium, the major Byzantine stronghold in the western Balkans, and ended in a Norman victory.
The Alexiad is a medieval historical and biographical text written around the year 1148, by the Byzantine princess Anna Komnene, daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. It was written in a form of artificial Attic Greek. Anna described the political and military history of the Byzantine Empire during the reign of her father, thus providing a significant account on the Byzantium of the High Middle Ages. Among other topics, the Alexiad documents the Byzantine Empire's interaction with the Crusades and highlights the conflicting perceptions of the East and West in the early 12th century. It does not mention the schism of 1054 – a topic which is very common in contemporary writing. It documents firsthand the decline of Byzantine cultural influence in eastern and western Europe, particularly in the West's increasing involvement in its geographic sphere. The Alexiad was paraphrased in vernacular medieval Greek in mid-14th century to increase its readability, which testifies to the lasting interest in the work.
The Bachkovo Monastery of the Dormition of the Theotokos, archaically the Petritsoni Monastery or Monastery of the Mother of God Petritzonitissa is a major Eastern Orthodox monastery in Southern Bulgaria. It is located on the right bank of the Chepelare River, 189 km from Sofia and 10 km south of Asenovgrad, and is directly subordinate to the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The monastery is known and appreciated for the unique combination of Byzantine, Georgian and Bulgarian culture, united by the common faith.
Smbat I was the second king of the medieval Kingdom of Armenia of the Bagratuni dynasty, and son of Ashot I. He is the father of Ashot II and Abas I.
For articles related to Georgia, see Category:Georgia (country)
David I was a Georgian Bagratid Prince and curopalates of Iberia/Kartli from 876 to 881. He was murdered by Nasra of Tao-Klarjeti, who self-proclaimed as his successor. David's death led to an inter-dynastic feud under David's only son Adarnase, who eventually, in 888, avenged the killing of his father.
Tao is a historical Georgian district and part of historic Tao-Klarjeti region, today part of the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. Its name derives from the ancient proto-Georgian inhabitants of this area, known as Taochi.
The theme of Iberia was an administrative and military unit (theme) within the Byzantine Empire carved by the Byzantine Emperors out of several Georgian lands in the 11th century. It was formed as a result of Emperor Basil II’s annexation of a portion of the Bagrationi dynasty domains (1000–1021) and later aggrandized at the expense of several Armenian kingdoms acquired by the Byzantines in a piecemeal fashion in the course of the 11th century. The population of the theme—at its largest extent—was multiethnic with a possible Georgian majority, including a sizable Armenian community of Chalcedonic rite to which Byzantines sometimes expanded, as a denominational name, the ethnonym "Iberian", a Graeco-Roman designation of Georgians. The theme ceased to exist in 1074 as a result of the Seljuk invasions.
Bagratid Armenia was an independent Armenian state established by Ashot I Bagratuni of the Bagratuni dynasty in the early 880s following nearly two centuries of foreign domination of Greater Armenia under Arab Umayyad and Abbasid rule. With each of the two contemporary powers in the region—the Abbasids and Byzantines—too preoccupied to concentrate their forces on subjugating the region, and with the dissipation of several of the Armenian nakharar noble families, Ashot succeeded in asserting himself as the leading figure of a movement to dislodge the Arabs from Armenia.
Adrianos Komnenos was a Byzantine aristocrat and general, and a younger brother of the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos.
Nikephoros Euphorbenos Katakalon was a Byzantine aristocrat and son-in-law of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos.
The Battle of Larissa was a military engagement between the armies of the Byzantine Empire and the Italo-Norman County of Apulia and Calabria. On 3 November 1082, the Normans besieged the city of Larissa. In July of the following year, Byzantine reinforcements attacked the blockading force, harassing it with mounted archers and spreading discord among its ranks through diplomatic techniques. The demoralized Normans were forced to break off the siege.
Andronikos Komnenos was a Byzantine prince and military commander. The second-born son of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, he was named sebastokrator and participated in the Battle of Philomelion against the Seljuk Turks. He opposed the succession of his older brother John II Komnenos to the throne in 1118, but was allowed to remain at court, and served in at least two of John II's campaigns in the Balkans. He died of an illness in 1130/31. His wife and offspring are relatively obscure, and may have died early.
Nikephoros Komnenos was a Byzantine aristocrat and high official. The youngest brother of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, he was appointed second-in-command of the Byzantine navy, but his life is otherwise obscure.
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