Sabas or Sabbas Asidenos ( el, , '' fl.'' 1204–1216) was a powerful local magnate of the region of Sampson (ancient

Priene Priene ( grc, Πριήνη, Priēnē; tr, Prien) was an ancient Greek city of Ionia (and member of the Ionian League) located at the base of an escarpment of Mycale, about north of what was then the course of the Maeander River (now called th ...

in Ionia) in the early 13th century. Following the Fourth Crusade, he established himself as an independent ruler before submitting to the Empire of Nicaea. Older historians, such as

George Finlay George Finlay (21 December 1799 – 26 January 1875) was a Scottish historian. Biography Finlay was born in Faversham, Kent, where his Scottish father, Captain John Finlay FRS, an officer in the Royal Engineers, was inspector of government powd ...

and William Miller had identified his city with Amisos or Samsun on the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

coast, and thought Sabas had his base there; however in a 1935 article, G. de Jerphanion proved that his center of power was Sampson on the coast of the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans ...

.A. A. Vasiliev
"The Foundation of the Empire of Trebizond (1204-1222)"
''Speculum'', 11 (1936), p. 24

Biography

The origin of Asidenos is unknown. In 1204, like other powerful magnates (e.g.

Theodore Mangaphas Theodore Mangaphas or Mankaphas ( gr, Θεόδωρος Μαγκαφᾶς, fl. c. 1188–1205) was a Greek nobleman from Philadelphia, who assumed the title of Byzantine emperor twice, first during the reign of Isaac II Angelos (r. 1185–1195 and ...

Leo Sgouros Leo Sgouros ( el, Λέων Σγουρός), Latinized as Leo Sgurus, was a Greek independent lord in the northeastern Peloponnese in the early 13th century. The scion of the magnate Sgouros family, he succeeded his father as hereditary lord in th ...

), he used the power vacuum created by the

fall Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southe ...

of the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

imperial capital of

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...

to the Fourth Crusade, to seize control of Sampson and the lower valley of the Maeander River... In late 1205 or early 1206, however, he was forced to recognize the sovereignty of the major

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...

n Byzantine successor realm, the Empire of Nicaea headed by

Theodore I Laskaris Theodore I Laskaris or Lascaris ( gr, Θεόδωρος Κομνηνὸς Λάσκαρις, Theodōros Komnēnos Laskaris; 1175November 1221) was the first emperor of Nicaea—a successor state of the Byzantine Empire—from 1205 to his d ...

(r. 1204–1222). Asidenos submitted peacefully and maintained his local influence, possibly acting as the region's governor. His relations with the Nicaean ruler became close, and Asidenos apparently married into the Laskarid dynasty, for in 1214 he is addressed by Theodore I as ''sympetheros'' ("relative-in-law"), and he is recorded as holding the title of ''

sebastokrator ''Sebastokrator'' ( grc-byz, Σεβαστοκράτωρ, Sevastokrátor, August Ruler, ; bg, севастократор, sevastokrator; sh, sebastokrator), was a senior court title in the late Byzantine Empire. It was also used by other rulers wh ...

'', at the time usually restricted to the

Byzantine emperor This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire, to Fall of Constantinople, its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. On ...

's brothers. Asidenos is mentioned again in 1216, in a document from a

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whi ...

Mount Latmos Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, ...

. Nothing is known of him thereafter.

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Asidenos, Sabas 12th-century births 13th-century deaths 13th-century Byzantine people Byzantine governors Byzantine Anatolians Laskarid dynasty People of the Empire of Nicaea Sebastokrators