Peter the Patrician (9th century)

Last updated

Peter was a senior Byzantine military commander at the turn of the 9th century, who later became a monk and was canonized by the Church. He is venerated on July 1.

Byzantine Empire Roman Empire during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages

The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, is the common name given to the surviving Roman Empire in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople. It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. "Byzantine Empire" is a term created after the end of the realm; its citizens continued to refer to their empire simply as the Roman Empire, or Romania (Ῥωμανία), and to themselves as "Romans". In medieval Western Europe it was sometimes labelled the Imperium Graecorum since the Holy Roman Empire, created in 800 AD by Charlemagne and Pope Leo III, was believed to represent the legitimate Roman Empire.

July 1 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) day in the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar

June 30 - Eastern Orthodox Church calendar - July 2

Contents

Life

Peter is known only from menologies. [1] He was the son of the patrikios Constantine, who according to the Synaxarium Constantinopolitanum held the position of strategos . [2] Peter was born during the joint reign of Irene of Athens and her son Constantine VI (780–796). [3]

<i>Strategos</i> Greek military leader

Strategos or Strategus, plural strategoi, is used in Greek to mean military general. In the Hellenistic world and the Byzantine Empire the term was also used to describe a military governor. In the modern Hellenic Army it is the highest officer rank.

Irene of Athens Empress of Byzantine Empire

Irene of Athens, also known as Irene Sarantapechaina, was Byzantine empress consort by marriage to Leo IV from 775 to 780, Byzantine regent during the minority of her son Constantine VI from 780 until 790, and finally sole empress regnant of the Byzantine Empire from 797 to 802. A member of the politically prominent Sarantapechos family, she was selected as Leo IV's bride for unknown reasons in 768. Even though her husband was an iconoclast, she harbored iconophile sympathies. During her rule as regent, she called the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, which condemned iconoclasm as heretical and brought an end to the first iconoclast period (730–787).

Constantine VI Byzantine Emperor

Constantine VI was Byzantine Emperor from 780 to 797. The only child of Emperor Leo IV, Constantine was named co-emperor with him at the age of five in 776 and succeeded him as sole Emperor in 780, aged nine. His mother Irene exercised control over him as regent until 790, assisted by her chief minister Staurakios.

Peter also held the rank of patrikios, and served as commander of the elite Scholai regiment during the sole reign of Irene of Athens (r. 797–802) and as commander of the Hikanatoi regiment under her successor, Nikephoros I (r. 802–811). [3] [4] He fought in the disastrous Battle of Pliska in 811, and was taken prisoner along with 50 other officers by the Bulgars. Peter managed to escape "miraculously" through the aid of John the Theologian, became a monk on the Bithynian Olympus, along with Joannicius the Great, with whom he lived together as his disciple for 34 years. [3] [4] After Joannicius' death in 846, Peter returned to Constantinople, where he built a church in the ta Evandrou quarter. He lived in a hut nearby and died eight years later, on 1 July 854. [3] [4] The veracity of his life after 811 has been questioned by John Wortley, who considers his monastic life a legend. [3]

<i>Scholae Palatinae</i>

The Scholae Palatinae were an elite military guard unit, usually ascribed to the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great as a replacement for the equites singulares Augusti, the cavalry arm of the Praetorian Guard. The Scholae survived in Roman and later Byzantine service until they disappeared in the late 11th century, during the reign of Alexios I Komnenos.

The Hikanatoi, sometimes Latinized as Hicanati, were one of the Byzantine tagmata, the elite guard units based near the imperial capital of Constantinople. Founded in the early 9th century, it survived until the late 11th century.

Nikephoros I Roman emperor

Nikephoros I, or Nicephorus I, was Byzantine Emperor from 802 to 811, when he was killed in the Battle of Pliska. Prior to his accession, he had served as genikos logothetēs, whence he is sometimes surnamed "the Logothete" and "Genikos" or "Genicus".

Rodolphe Guilland suggested an identity with a patrikios of the same name, mentioned in the history of Theophanes the Confessor, who participated in the overthrow of Irene in 802, and who in 809 calmed an army mutiny against Nikephoros. However, this person is stated by Theophanes to have been killed at Pliska. [1] [5]

Rodolphe Joseph Guilland was a French Byzantinist.

Saint Theophanes the Confessor was a member of the Byzantine aristocracy who became a monk and chronicler. He served in the court of Emperor Leo IV the Khazar before taking up the religious life. Theophanes attended the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 and resisted the iconoclasm of Leo V the Armenian, for which he was imprisoned. He died shortly after his release.

Related Research Articles

Saint Michael Maleinos was a Byzantine monk who commanded great respect among Christians of Asia Minor. He was the brother of general Constantine Maleinos and uncle of Nikephoros Phokas, who was greatly influenced by Michael and became Byzantine emperor several years after Michael's death. His feast day is July 12.

The Excubitors were founded in c. 460 as the imperial guards of the early Byzantine emperors. Their commanders soon acquired great influence and provided a series of emperors in the 6th century. The Excubitors fade from the record in the late 7th century, but in the mid-8th century, they were reformed into one of the elite tagmatic units, the professional core of the middle Byzantine army. The Excubitors are last attested in the Battle of Dyrrhachium in 1081.

Prōtostratōr was a Byzantine court office, originating as the imperial stable master. Its proximity to the imperial person led to a highly visible role in imperial ceremonies, and served as a springboard for several capable individuals, like Manuel the Armenian or the future emperors Michael II and Basil I the Macedonian, to reach the highest offices. From the mid-11th century, the post rose in importance, becoming more an honorific dignity for senior members of the court, than an actual office. From the 13th century on, the post could be held by several persons, and ranked eighth in the overall hierarchy of the court. Throughout its history, it was a title often borne by senior military commanders. The female form of the title, given to the wives of the prōtostratores, was prōtostratorissa (πρωτοστρατόρισσα).

The 42 Martyrs of Amorium were a group of Byzantine senior officials taken prisoner by the Abbasid Caliphate in the Sack of Amorium in 838 and executed in 845, after refusing to convert to Islam. They are commemorated by the Eastern Orthodox Church on March 6.

Constantine (son of Leo V) Byzantine emperor

Symbatios, variously also Sabbatios (Σαββάτιος) or Sambates (Σαμβάτης) in some sources, was the eldest son of the Byzantine emperor Leo V the Armenian. Soon after the coronation of his father, he was crowned co-emperor and renamed Constantine (Κωνσταντῖνος). He reigned nominally along with his father until the latter's deposition in 820, after which he was exiled to Prote, one of the Princes Islands, as a monk.

Theophilos Erotikos was a 10th-century Byzantine jurist and official.

The Droungarios of the Watch, sometimes anglicized as "Drungary of the Watch", was originally a senior Byzantine military post. Attested since the late 8th century, the droungarios commanded the Vigla or "Watch", one of the elite professional cavalry regiments (tagmata) of the middle Byzantine period, and was in charge of the Byzantine emperor's personal security. From c. 1030, the office was disassociated from its military origin and was transformed into a senior judicial position, thereafter usually referred to as the Grand Droungarios of the Watch. The office continued to exist as a mostly honorific court dignity in the Palaiologan era, until the very end of the Byzantine Empire in the mid-15th century.

Sisinnios Triphyllios was one of the senior dignitaries of the Roman Empire during the reign of Empress Irene of Athens (797–802) and her successor Emperor Nikephoros I (802–811).

Elpidius or Elpidios was a Byzantine aristocrat and governor of Sicily, who was accused of conspiring against Empress Irene of Athens. This forced him to rebel, and after being defeated he defected to the Abbasid Caliphate and was recognized there as Byzantine emperor.

Theophylact (son of Michael I) 9th-century Byzantine co-emperor

Theophylact or Theophylaktos was the eldest son of the Byzantine emperor Michael I Rhangabe and grandson, on his mother's side, of Nikephoros I. He was junior co-emperor alongside his father for the duration of the latter's reign, and was tonsured, castrated, and exiled to Plate Island after his overthrow, under the monastic name Eustratius.

Eustathios Argyros was a Byzantine aristocrat and one of the most prominent generals under Emperor Leo VI the Wise. The first member of the Argyros family to rise to high posts, he fought with distinction against the Arabs in the east, before being disgraced ca. 907, possibly in connection with the flight of Andronikos Doukas to the Arabs. Rehabilitated soon after, he was appointed as strategos of Charsianon, from which post he oversaw the settlement of Armenian lords as march-wardens along the Empire's eastern frontier. Promoted to commander of the imperial bodyguard in late 908, he again fell into disgrace shortly after and died of poison on his way to his estates.

Eustathios [Argyros] was a Byzantine admiral under Emperor Leo VI the Wise.

Theoktistos was a senior Byzantine official who played an important role under the Nikephorian dynasty (802–813).

Theoktiste

Theoktiste, also known as Phlorina (Φλώρινα), was the mother of the 9th-century Byzantine empress Theodora, the wife of Emperor Theophilos.

Adralestos was the Domestic of the Schools in the early years of Romanos I Lekapenos' reign.

The rhaiktōr was a high-ranking court position of the middle Byzantine Empire.

Chase, the son of Ioube, originally Hasan ibn Ayyub, was a senior Byzantine official of Arab origin.

Damian was a senior Byzantine eunuch official during the reign of Emperor Michael III, serving as the head chamberlain (parakoimomenos) to the emperor.

Saint Antony the Younger was a Byzantine military officer who became a monk and saint. He is commemorated by the Eastern Orthodox Church on 1 December.

References

  1. 1 2 Guilland 1970, pp. 333, 338.
  2. ↑ PmbZ, Konstantinos (#3877); Petros (#6046).
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Dumbarton Oaks Hagiography Database , "Peter the Patrikios", pp. 84–85.
  4. 1 2 3 PmbZ, Petros (#6046).
  5. ↑ PmbZ, Petros (#6046); Petros (#6065).

Sources

Alexander Kazhdan Soviet historian and Byzantine Empire specialist

Alexander Petrovich Kazhdan was a Soviet-American Byzantinist.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.