Michael Spondyles (, ) was a high-ranking

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

courtier who became governor of

Antioch Antioch on the Orontes (; , ) "Antioch on Daphne"; or "Antioch the Great"; ; ; ; ; ; ; . was a Hellenistic Greek city founded by Seleucus I Nicator in 300 BC. One of the most important Greek cities of the Hellenistic period, it served as ...

, and then Apulia and Calabria.

Biography

A court

eunuch A eunuch ( , ) is a male who has been castration, castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2 ...

and favourite of

Constantine VIII Constantine VIII (;Also called Porphyrogenitus (), although the epithet is almost exclusively used for Constantine VII. 960 – 11/12 November 1028) was ''de jure'' Byzantine emperor from 962 until his death. He was the younger son of Empe ...

(r. 1025–28), Spondyles was among the coterie of court officials appointed to senior positions on Constantine's accession as sole emperor. In 1027, as the emir of

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

, Salih ibn Mirdas, raided Byzantine territory. Spondyles, although inexperienced in warfare, marched out to meet him, and was defeated and forced to withdraw to the safety of Antioch. Shortly after (in 1027/28) he was also tricked by the Arab tribal leader Nasr ibn Musharraf al-Rawadifi, who was captured by Michael's deputy, Pothos Argyros. Nasr persuaded Michael to release him and allow him to construct a fortress at al-Maniqa from where he would defend the Byzantine domains. Michael agreed and even sent a 1,000-strong garrison there, but when the fortress was finished, Nasr refused to hand it over, and with assistance from the emir of Tripoli and the local

Fatimid The Fatimid Caliphate (; ), also known as the Fatimid Empire, was a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE under the rule of the Fatimid dynasty, Fatimids, an Isma'ili Shi'a dynasty. Spanning a large area of North Africa ...

commander, killed the garrison. In July 1029, Michael resolved to attack Aleppo, despite having no authorisation from Emperor Romanos III (r. 1028–34) and disregarding the pleas of the Mirdasid brothers

Shibl al-Dawla Nasr Abu Kamil Nasr ibn Salih ibn Mirdas () (died 22 May 1038), also known by his (honorific epithet) of Shibl al-Dawla ('Lion cub of the Dynasty'), was the second Mirdasid dynasty, Mirdasid emir of Aleppo, ruling between May 1029 until his death. He ...

and Mu'izz al-Dawla Thimal to maintain the peace. In the event, he was caught in an ambush at Kaybar and his camp was raided by the Arabs, after which he retreated and concluded a treaty with the Mirdasids. Following these failures, he was dismissed by Romanos III, who resolved to campaign in Syria in person, sending his brother-in-law Constantine Karantenos ahead with some troops to replace Michael Spondyles. In the event, however, the emperor's own campaign would result in a humiliating defeat. Michael (called Sphrondeles by the Latin historians) re-appears in 1038, when he joined George Maniakes in his Sicilian expedition.

Lupus Protospatharius Lupus Protospatharius Barensis was the reputed author of the ''Chronicon rerum in regno Neapolitano gestarum'' (also called ''Annales Lupi Protospatharii''), a concise history of the Mezzogiorno from 805 to 1102. He has only been named as the aut ...

, 58.6-7 He probably replaced Constantinos Opos as catepan before Nikephoros Doukeianos could take over the post the next year (1039).

References

Sources

* G.H. Pertz, ''Lupus protospatharius'', Monumenta Germaniae historica, Scriptores V, Hannover 1844, 52-63 * * I. Kratchkovsky, F. Micheau, G. Troupeau, ''Histoire de Yahya ibn Sa’id d’Antioche'', Patrologia Orientalis 47.4 (no.212), Turnhout 1997 {{DEFAULTSORT:Spondyles, Michael 11th-century catepans of Italy Byzantine eunuchs Byzantine governors of Antioch Byzantine people of the Arab–Byzantine wars Byzantine courtiers 11th-century slaves