Alexios Charon (, ) was 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 ...

official in

southern Italy Southern Italy (, , or , ; ; ), also known as () or (; ; ; ), is a macroregion of Italy consisting of its southern Regions of Italy, regions. The term "" today mostly refers to the regions that are associated with the people, lands or cultu ...

and the maternal grandfather 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 ...

(reigned 1081–1118), the founder of the Komnenian dynasty.

Biography

Very little is known about his life. The only references to him come from the history of Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger, who married his great-granddaughter

Anna Komnene Anna Komnene (; 1 December 1083 – 1153), commonly Latinized as Anna Comnena, was a Byzantine Greek historian. She is the author of the '' Alexiad'', an account of the reign of her father, Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Her work constit ...

. Bryennios reports that "Charon" was a sobriquet given to him for his bravery, referring to the ferryman of the underworld in

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

, but the name is attested as an actual surname as well. On Alexios' career, Bryennios only reports that he "handled the emperor's affairs" in the Byzantine provinces of southern Italy (the Catepanate of Italy) some time in the first half of the 11th century. The exact office that Alexios held is unknown; it has been suggested that he may have been the governor ( catepan) of Italy, but his name appears in no other source. The historian of Byzantine Italy Vera von Falkenhausen suggested that he might be identical with Alexios Xiphias, who was catepan in 1006/07, but Xiphias died in 1007, and Charon's daughter by his marriage to an unknown daughter of Adrianos Dalassenos — and mother of Emperor

— Anna Dalassene was not born until sometime between 1020 and 1030.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Charon, Alexios 11th-century Byzantine people 11th-century deaths Catepanate of Italy