Pardos (catepan)

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Pardos was the catepan of Italy briefly in 1042 following the short term of George Maniakes.

George Maniakes Byzantine general and Catepan of Italy

George Maniakes was a prominent Eastern Roman general during the 11th century, he was the catepan of Italy in 1042. He is known as Gyrgir in Scandinavian sagas. He is popularly said to have been extremely tall and well built, almost a giant.

In July 1042, Maniakes was disgraced and recalled by Constantine IX Monomachos at the behest of Romanus Sclerus, brother of the emperor's mistress. According to Johannes Skylitzes, Romanus had even raped Maniakes' wife. In September 1042, [1] Pardo arrived with an army at Otranto to take over command from Maniakes. According to Lupus Protospatharius, he brought a chrysobull, but the meaning of this is uncertain. [2] Pardos was accompanied by Nicholas, Archbishop of Bari, who, though under the jurisdiction of the Roman see, was apparently a Byzantine loyal, and by Tubaki, a protospatharius . It is probable that the archbishop had joined the catepan in a prior landing, during which the Greeks had negotiated with the Lombard rebel leader Argyrus. Subsequently, Argyrus abandoned the Lombard cause for the Greek. Pardos and Tubaki were arrested at Otranto, however, and executed by Maniakes, who was acclaimed emperor by his troops.

Constantine IX Monomachos Byzantine emperor

Constantine IX Monomachos, Latinized as Constantine IX Monomachus, reigned as Byzantine emperor from 11 June 1042 to 11 January 1055. He had been chosen by the Empress Zoë as a husband and co-emperor in 1042, although he had been exiled for conspiring against her previous husband, Emperor Michael IV the Paphlagonian. They ruled together until Zoë died in 1050.

Otranto Comune in Apulia, Italy

Otranto is a town and comune in the province of Lecce, in a fertile region once famous for its breed of horses.

Lupus Protospatharius Italian chronicler

Lupus Protospatharius Barensis was the reputed author of the Chronicon rerum in regno Neapolitano gestarum, a concise history of the Mezzogiorno from 805 to 1102. He has only been named as the author since the seventeenth century. Lupus, along with two other Bariot chronicles, the Annales barenses and the Anonymi Barensis Chronicon, used some lost ancient annals of Bari up to 1051. William of Apulia appears to have used these same annals. Lupus also used the lost annals of Matera. Perhaps most unusual to Lupus is his dating method. He began his years in September and so places events of the latter half of a given year in the next year.

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Argyrus was a Lombard nobleman and Byzantine general, son of the Lombard hero Melus. He was born in Bari.

Arduin the Lombard was a Greek-speaking Lombard nobleman who fought originally for the Byzantines on Sicily and later against them as the leader of a band of Norman mercenaries.

Michael Dokeianos, erroneously called Doukeianos by some modern writers, was a Byzantine nobleman and military leader, who married into the Komnenos family. He was active in Sicily under George Maniakes before going to Southern Italy as Catepan of Italy in 1040–41. He was recalled after being twice defeated in battle during the Lombard-Norman revolt of 1041, a decisive moment in the eventual Norman conquest of southern Italy. He is next recorded in 1050, fighting against a Pecheneg raid in Thrace. He was captured during battle but managed to maim the Pecheneg leader, after which he was put to death and mutilated.

Peter I, also known as Petronius, was the first Norman count of Trani. He was one of the most prominent of the twelve leaders of the Norman mercenaries serving Guaimar IV of Salerno. Though it had not yet been conquered from the Byzantine Empire, Peter received Trani in the Normans' division of Apulia made at Melfi in 1042. In that same division his brother Walter received Civitate.

Atenulf was the son of Prince Landulf V of Benevento and brother of Prince Pandulf III. In 1040, Benevento still had the prestige of being the first of the independent Lombard principalities of the Mezzogiorno. So, when the Lombard Arduin, topoterites of Melfi, and his Norman mercenaries rebelled against Byzantine authority, they elected the son of Pandulf as their leader, calling him "prince of Benevento."

Basil Mesardonites was the Catapan of Italy, representing the Byzantine Emperor there, from 1010 to 1016 or 1017. He succeeded the catapan John Kourkouas, who died fighting the Lombards, then in rebellion under Melus, early in 1010. In March, Basil disembarked with reinforcements from Constantinople and Leo Tornikios Kontoleon, the strategos of Cephalonia. Basil immediately besieged the rebels in Bari. The Greek citizens of the city negotiated with Basil and forced the Lombard leaders, Melus and Dattus, to flee. Basil entered the city on June 11, 1011 and reestablished Byzantine authority. He did not follow his victory up with any severe reactions. He simply sent the family of Melus, including his son Argyrus, to Constantinople. Basil's next move was to ally to the Greek Empire as many Lombard principalities as possible. He visited Salerno in October, where Prince Guaimar III was nominally a Byzantine vassal. He then moved on to Monte Cassino, which monastery was sheltering Dattus on its lands. Basil nevertheless confirmed all the privileges of the monastery over its property in Greek territory. The abbot, Atenulf, was a brother of the prince of Capua, Pandulf IV. The monastery then promptly expelled Dattus and he fled to papal territory. Basil held the Greek catapanate in peace until his death in 1016, or, according to Lupus Protospatharius, 1017. He was replaced by the aforementioned strategos of Cephalonia, Leo.

Exaugustus Boiοannes, son of the famous Basil Boioannes, was also a catepan of Italy, from 1041 to 1042. He replaced Michael Dokeianos after the latter's disgrace in defeat at Montemaggiore on May 4. Boioannes did not have the levies and reinforcements that Doukeianos had had at his command. He arrived only with a Varangian contingent. Boioannes decided on trying to isolate the Lombard rebels in Melfi by camping near Montepeloso.

John Kourkouas was the Byzantine catepan of Italy from 1008 to his death. Belonging to the Kourkouas family, he was of Armenian descent.

Synodianos was very briefly the catepan of Italy in 1042. He was appointed by Michael V after the death of the Emperor Michael IV. He immediately demanded the surrender of all the formerly Greek cities of Apulia and began assembling an army to retake them when he was recalled in April 1042 by the Empress Zoe after the death of Michael V.

Eustathios Palatinos was the catepan of Italy from the autumn of 1045 to September 1046. The primary source for his term of office is the chronicle of Lupus, a fellow protospatharius.

Christopher or Christophoros Burgaris was the short-tenured successor of the famous Basil Boiannes as catepan of Italy.

Pothos Argyros (11th century) Byzantine catepan of Italy

Pothos Argyros or Argyrus was a Byzantine commander, who served as the catepan of Italy during the eventful years of 1029 to 1031.

Michael Spondyles was a high-ranking Byzantine courtier who became governor of Antioch, and then Apulia and Calabria.

Basil III Theodorokanos or Theodorocanus was the Byzantine Catepan of Italy from February to the Spring of 1043. He was a patrician and a former companion in arms of George Maniakes when he was appointed to go to Apulia and Calabria and put down the revolts of Maniakes and of Argyrus in 1042. In February 1043, he landed at Bari. Argyrus and his Normans tried to surround Otranto, but the catepan's fleet blocked them. Maniakes, however, debarked for Dyrrhachium with his army. Argyrus eventually made peace with the Greeks and Theodorokanos was replaced by Eustathios Palatinos. Subsequently, he commanded the Byzantine fleet against the Rus' raid in July 1043.

Abulchares was a Byzantine general of Arab origin who served as the catepan of Italy from 1064 until his death. The chief sources for his catapanate are Skylitzes Continuatus and Anonymi Barensis Chronicon. Skylitzes Continuatus records that Abulchares was also duke (doux) of Dyrrhachium across the Adriatic, but this is chronologically impossible, since Perenos is recorded as duke at this time.

References

  1. The year is given as 1043 by Lupus Protospatharius, but he begins his year in September.
  2. Chalandon, p. 103 (n8).

Sources

Ferdinand Chalandon French byzantinist

Ferdinand Chalandon was a French medievalist and Byzantinist.

Paris Capital city of France

Paris is the capital and most populous city of France, with an area of 105 square kilometres and an official estimated population of 2,140,526 residents as of 1 January 2019. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of Europe's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, science, as well as the arts. The City of Paris is the centre and seat of government of the Île-de-France, or Paris Region, which has an estimated official 2019 population of 12,213,364, or about 18 percent of the population of France. The Paris Region had a GDP of €709 billion in 2017. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit Worldwide Cost of Living Survey in 2018, Paris was the second most expensive city in the world, after Singapore, and ahead of Zurich, Hong Kong, Oslo and Geneva. Another source ranked Paris as most expensive, on a par with Singapore and Hong Kong, in 2018. The city is a major railway, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports: Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the city's subway system, the Paris Métro, serves 5.23 million passengers daily, and is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro. Gare du Nord is the 24th busiest railway station in the world, but the first located outside Japan, with 262 million passengers in 2015.

Preceded by
George Maniaces
Catepan of Italy
1042
Succeeded by
Basil Theodorocanus