|
Kontostephanos
Kontostephanos ( el, Κοντοστέφανος), feminine form Kontostephanina (Κοντοστεφανίνα), was the name of an aristocratic Byzantine Greek family active in the 10th–15th centuries, which enjoyed great prominence in the 12th century through its intermarriage with the Komnenian dynasty. History The progenitor of the family was Stephen, who served under Basil II (r. 976–1025) as Domestic of the Schools of the West, and was nicknamed "Kontostephanos" ("short Stephen") due to his height. Responsible to a large degree for Basil's humiliating defeat in the Battle of the Gates of Trajan against the Bulgarians, he was later involved in intrigues and beaten by the emperor. Apogee under the Komnenoi The family then disappears until 1080, when Isaac Kontostephanos was captured by the Seljuk Turks. The '' pansebastos sebastos'' Isaac Kontostephanos went on to serve through most of the reign of Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118), until his unsuccessful appointment ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isaac Kontostephanos
Isaac Kontostephanos ( el, ) was a Byzantine admiral during the reign of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118), marked by his incompetence in the wars against the Normans. Biography Isaac Kontostephanos first appears in 1080, during the imperial campaign against the rebel Nikephoros Melissenos. During this expedition, he fell off his horse and was nearly captured by Melissenos's Turkish allies, but was saved by George Palaiologos. He is next attested, holding the rank of '' protonobelissimos'', at the 1094 synod of Blachernae. By 1105, Kontostephanos had become a senior admiral ('' doux'') in the Byzantine fleet. With the anticipated Norman invasion of Bohemond drawing near, Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118) named Kontostephanos '' megas doux'' (commander-in-chief of the imperial fleet) in succession to Landulf, and sent him to Dyrrhachium to intercept the Normans. On his own initiative, however, Kontostephanos resolved to attack the city of Otranto in Ita ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Kontostephanos (son Of Isaac)
John Komnenos Kontostephanos ( el, Ἰωάννης Κομνηνός Κοντοστέφανος; ca. 1128 – 1176/82) was a Byzantine aristocrat who served as provincial governor and military commander under his uncle, Emperor Manuel I Komnenos. Family Born ca. 1128, John Kontostephanos was the eldest son of Stephen Kontostephanos, who held the title '' panhypersebastos'' and the rank of '' megas doux'', and the "purple-born" princess Anna Komnene, daughter of Emperor John II Komnenos (r. 1118–43) and his empress Irene of Hungary; he was thus the nephew of Emperor Manuel I Komnenos (r. 1143–80). John had two younger brothers, Alexios and Andronikos, both prominent military commanders, and a sister, Irene. The Kontostephanoi were an aristocratic Byzantine family that rose to occupy a prominent place at the heart of Byzantine politics and power through their intermarrying with the imperial house of the Komnenoi. Andronikos himself married in ca. 1145/6 an unnamed member of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Kontostephanos
Stephen Kontostephanos ( el, Στέφανος Κοντοστέφανος, – 1149) was a Byzantine aristocrat and military commander. Stephen was born in , the son of the ''sebastos'' Isaac Kontostephanos, a military commander for most of the reign of Alexios I Komnenos (), culminating in his unsuccessful service as admiral (''thalassokrator'') against the Italo-Normans in 1107/8. He was the third member of the family to bear the name "Stephen" after the family's progenitor and a rather obscure paternal uncle. In , he married Anna, the second-born daughter of Emperor John II Komnenos () and Irene of Hungary, and received the title ''panhypersebastos''. The couple had four children: the sons John, Alexios, and Andronikos, as well as a daughter, Irene, who married Nikephoros Bryennios. Stephen's career under John II is unknown, but he enjoyed the favour of John's youngest son and eventual successor, Manuel I Komnenos () and is likely to have been among those who supported Manuel' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andronikos Kontostephanos (son Of Isaac)
Andronikos Kontostephanos ( el, Ἀνδρόνικος Κοντοστέφανος, ) was a Byzantine aristocrat and military commander. Andronikos was the son of the '' pansebastos sebastos'' Isaac Kontostephanos, who served for most of the reign of Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118), culminating in his unsuccessful service as admiral (''thalassokrator'') against the Normans in 1107/8. In ca. 1125, he married Theodora, a daughter of Adrianos Komnenos (archbishop of Bulgaria between 1139/43 - 1157 under the name John IV), who was son of ''sebastokrator'' Isaac Komnenos and Irene of Alania. The couple had several children: the ''pansebastos sebastos'' John, attested in the synods of 1157 and 1166, Alexios, and at least two more anonymous children, of which one a daughter. Amdronikos began his service as a military officer under Alexios I's son and successor, John II Komnenos (r. 1118–43). Although details are not known, he was sufficiently distinguished to earn the emperor's favour ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Domestic Of The Schools
The office of the Domestic of the Schools ( gr, δομέστικος τῶν σχολῶν, domestikos tōn scholōn) was a senior military post of the Byzantine Empire, extant from the 8th century until at least the early 14th century. Originally simply the commander of the ''Scholai'', the senior of the elite '' tagmata'' regiments, the Domestic quickly rose in prominence: by the mid-9th century, its holders essentially occupied the position of commander-in-chief of the Byzantine army, next to the Emperor. The office was eclipsed in the 12th century by that of the Grand Domestic, and in the Palaiologan period (13th–15th centuries), it was reduced to a purely honorary, mid-level court dignity. History The first holder of the office of Domestic of the Schools first appears in the sources (the chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor) for the year 767, shortly after the creation of the . These were elite cavalry regiments stationed in or around the capital Constantinople, commande ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexios III Angelos
Alexios III Angelos ( gkm, Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός Ἄγγελος, Alexios Komnēnos Angelos; 1211), Latinized as Alexius III Angelus, was Byzantine Emperor from March 1195 to 17/18 July 1203. He reigned under the name Alexios Komnenos ( gkm, Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός, Alexios Komnēnos), associating himself with the Komnenos dynasty (from which he was descended matrilineally). A member of the extended imperial family, Alexios came to the throne after deposing, blinding and imprisoning his younger brother Isaac II Angelos. The most significant event of his reign was the attack of the Fourth Crusade on Constantinople in 1203, on behalf of Alexios IV Angelos. Alexios III took over the defence of the city, which he mismanaged, and then fled the city at night with one of his three daughters. From Adrianople, and then Mosynopolis, he attempted unsuccessfully to rally his supporters, only to end up a captive of Marquis Boniface of Montferrat. He was ransomed and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of The Gates Of Trajan
The Battle of the Gates of Trajan ( bg, Битка край Траянови врати, grc-x-byzant, Μάχη στις Πύλες του Τραϊανού) was a battle between Byzantine and Bulgarian forces in the year 986. It took place in the pass of the same name, modern Trayanovi Vrata, in Sofia Province, Bulgaria. It was the largest defeat of the Byzantines under Emperor Basil II. After the unsuccessful siege of Sofia he retreated to Thrace, but was surrounded by the Bulgarian army under the command of Samuil in the Sredna Gora mountains. The Byzantine army was annihilated and Basil himself barely escaped. Fifteen years after the fall and re-capture of the Bulgarian capital of Preslav, the victory at the Gates of Trajan extended the Bulgarian successes achieved since 976. Later on Tsar Samuil moved the capital from Preslav in the northeast to Ohrid in the southwest. The memory of the great victory over Basil II was preserved thirty years later in the Bitola inscrip ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dyrrhachium (theme)
The Theme of Dyrrhachium or Dyrrhachion ( el, θέμα Δυρραχίου) was a Byzantine military-civilian province (theme), covering the Adriatic coast of modern Albania, and some coastal regions of modern Montenegro. It was established in the early 9th century and named after its capital, Dyrrhachium (modern Durrës). History The exact date of the theme's establishment is unclear; a ''strategos'' of Dyrrhachium is attested in the ''Taktikon Uspensky'' of , but several seals of ''strategoi'' dating from the previous decades survive. J.B. Bury proposed its creation alongside the themes of the Peloponnese and Cephallenia in the early 9th century, with the historian Jadran Ferluga putting the date of its establishment in the reign of Emperor Nikephoros I ()... Its boundaries are not very clear. To the north, it abutted the Theme of Dalmatia and the Serbian principality of Duklja, and the Theme of Nicopolis to the south. The theme covered the coast in between, but how far inland ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Komnenian Dynasty
Komnenos ( gr, Κομνηνός; Latinized Comnenus; plural Komnenoi or Comneni (Κομνηνοί, )) was a Byzantine Greek noble family who ruled the Byzantine Empire from 1081 to 1185, and later, as the Grand Komnenoi (Μεγαλοκομνηνοί, ''Megalokomnenoi'') founded and ruled the Empire of Trebizond (1204–1461). Through intermarriages with other noble families, notably the Doukai, Angeloi, and Palaiologoi, the Komnenos name appears among most of the major noble houses of the late Byzantine world. Origins The 11th-century Byzantine historian Michael Psellos reported that the Komnenos family originated from the village of Komne in Thrace—usually identified with the "Fields of Komnene" () mentioned in the 14th century by John Kantakouzenos—a view commonly accepted by modern scholarship. The first known member of the family, Manuel Erotikos Komnenos, acquired extensive estates at Kastamon in Paphlagonia, which became the stronghold of the family in the 11th centur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John II Komnenos
John II Komnenos or Comnenus ( gr, Ἱωάννης ὁ Κομνηνός, Iōannēs ho Komnēnos; 13 September 1087 – 8 April 1143) was Byzantine emperor from 1118 to 1143. Also known as "John the Beautiful" or "John the Good" (), he was the eldest son of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina and the second emperor to rule during the Komnenian restoration of the Byzantine Empire. As he was born to a reigning emperor, he had the status of a . John was a pious and dedicated monarch who was determined to undo the damage his empire had suffered following the Battle of Manzikert, half a century earlier. John has been assessed as the greatest of the Komnenian emperors. In the course of the quarter-century of his reign, John made alliances with the Holy Roman Empire in the west, decisively defeated the Pechenegs, Hungarians and Serbs in the Balkans, and personally led numerous campaigns against the Turks in Asia Minor. John's campaigns fundamentally changed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
