The Aaronios () or Aaron () were a

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 ...

noble family of Bulgarian origin, being descended from Emperor

Ivan Vladislav of Bulgaria Ivan Vladislav (; ; died February 1018) served as the emperor (tsar) of the First Bulgarian Empire from approximately August or September 1015 until February 1018. The precise year of his birth remains elusive; he was born at least ten years pri ...

(r. 1015–1018). After Ivan Vladislav's death before the walls of Dyrrhachium in 1018 and the collapse of the Bulgarian state, his widow, empress Maria, sought refuge in the

Byzantine Empire 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 History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

. There Emperor

Basil II Basil II Porphyrogenitus (; 958 – 15 December 1025), nicknamed the Bulgar Slayer (, ), was the senior Byzantine emperor from 976 to 1025. He and his brother Constantine VIII were crowned before their father Romanos II died in 963, but t ...

(r. 976–1025) received her and her offspring and gave them high court titles and offices. The two eldest members of the family, Prousianos and Alousianos were later involved in rebellions. Presianos became implicated in a plot against Emperor

Romanos III Argyros Romanos III Argyros (; Latinized Romanus III Argyrus; 968 – 11 April 1034), or Argyropoulos, was Byzantine Emperor from 1028 until his death in 1034. He was a Byzantine noble and senior official in Constantinople when the dying Constantine ...

() in , and Alousianos was actively involved in the

Uprising of Petar Delyan The Uprising of Petar Delyan (, ), which took place in 1040–1041, was a major Bulgarian rebellion against the Byzantine Empire in the Theme of Bulgaria. It was the largest and best-organised attempt to restore the former Bulgarian Empire until ...

in 1040–1041. His daughter married

Romanos Diogenes Romanos IV Diogenes (; – ) was Byzantine emperor from 1068 to 1071. Determined to halt the decline of the Byzantine military and to stop Turkish incursions into the empire, he is nevertheless best known for his defeat and capture in 1071 at ...

. The third eldest son,

Aaron According to the Old Testament of the Bible, Aaron ( or ) was an Israelite prophet, a high priest, and the elder brother of Moses. Information about Aaron comes exclusively from religious texts, such as the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament ...

, served as a high-ranking general and governor of important provinces on the Empire's eastern frontier in the 1040s and 1050s. Strictly speaking, the Aaronios line descended from him, but the name was extended to all descendants of Ivan Vladislav. His son Theodore was killed fighting in Armenia against the

Seljuk Turks The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; , ''Saljuqian'',) alternatively spelled as Saljuqids or Seljuk Turks, was an Oghuz Turks, Oghuz Turkic, Sunni Muslim dynasty that gradually became Persianate society, Persianate and contributed to Turco-Persi ...

in 1055/6. The daughter of the fourth son, Trajan, Maria, married Andronikos Doukas, with whom she had the '' megas doux'' John Doukas and

Irene Doukaina Irene Doukaina or Ducaena (, ''Eirēnē Doúkaina''; – 19 February 1138) was a Byzantine empress by marriage to the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos. She was the mother of Emperor John II Komnenos and the historian Anna Komnene. She w ...

, wife of Emperor

Alexios I Komnenos Alexios I Komnenos (, – 15 August 1118), Latinization of names, Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus, was Byzantine Emperor, Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. After usurper, usurping the throne, he was faced with a collapsing empire and ...

(). Maria's aunt,

Catherine Katherine (), also spelled Catherine and Catherina, other variations, is a feminine given name. The name and its variants are popular in countries where large Christian populations exist, because of its associations with one of the earliest Ch ...

, married Emperor

Isaac I Komnenos Isaac I Komnenos or Comnenus (; – 1 June 1060) was Byzantine emperor from 1057 to 1059, the first reigning member of the Komnenian dynasty. The son of the general Manuel Erotikos Komnenos, he was orphaned at an early age, and w ...

(). The family became more obscure in the 12th century, but surviving members are still documented until the late 14th century, albeit in lower-ranking posts.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aaronios