The ''archontopouloi'' () were an elite military formation of the

Byzantine army The Byzantine army was the primary military body of the Byzantine Empire, Byzantine armed forces, serving alongside the Byzantine navy. A direct continuation of the East Roman army, Eastern Roman army, shaping and developing itself on the legac ...

during the

Komnenian era The Byzantine Empire was ruled by emperors of the Komnenos dynasty for a period of 104 years, from 1081 to about 1185. The ''Komnenian'' (also spelled ''Comnenian'') period comprises the reigns of five emperors, Alexios I, John II, Manuel I, ...

, in the 11th-12th centuries. They were founded by 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 ...

() as part of his military reforms and were recruited among the

orphan An orphan is a child whose parents have died, are unknown, or have permanently abandoned them. It can also refer to a child who has lost only one parent, as the Hebrew language, Hebrew translation, for example, is "fatherless". In some languages ...

s of Byzantine officers who were killed in battle.

History

During the Seljuq invasion of Byzantine

Asia Minor Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

after the

Battle of Manzikert The Battle of Manzikert or Malazgirt was fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Empire on 26 August 1071 near Manzikert, Iberia (theme), Iberia (modern Malazgirt in Muş Province, Turkey). The decisive defeat of the Byzantine army ...

(1071), there were increased numbers of orphaned children; this led Emperor

() to initiate rescue efforts. In , while involved in a war against the

Pechenegs The Pechenegs () or Patzinaks, , Middle Turkic languages, Middle Turkic: , , , , , , ka, პაჭანიკი, , , ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, Pečenezi, separator=/, Печенези, also known as Pecheneg Turks were a semi-nomadic Turkic peopl ...

, Alexios recruited some of these orphans, drawn from the children of the Byzantine officers who had died in battle, and armed and trained to form an elite 2,000-strong cavalry unit, known as the ''archontopouloi'', the "sons of the

archon ''Archon'' (, plural: , ''árchontes'') is a Greek word that means "ruler", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem , meaning "to be first, to rule", derived from the same ...

s (leaders)". The ''archontopouloi'' are considered to be the only Byzantine orphan care institution directly influenced by

ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

policies. Although Alexios's daughter and biographer,

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 ...

, compared her father's ''archontopouloi'' to a

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

n institution, the better documented

Athenian Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

tradition to aid the children of deceased warriors was the probable inspiration for Alexios. The Byzantinist John Birkenmeier sees the ''archontopouloi'' as being primarily a 'palace officer-training corps', and their deployment as a field regiment by Alexios I as an isolated expedient. The regiment suffered 300 casualties during a battle at

Chariopolis Hayrabolu is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Tekirdağ Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,009 km2, and its population is 30,521 (2022). As of 2023 the mayor is Osman İnan of the Justice and Development Party (Turkey), AKP. H ...

against the Pechenegs. The ''archontopouloi'' regiment disappears from Byzantine sources after the death of Alexios in 1118. However, people termed ''archontopouloi'' continue to be recorded later in Byzantine history. The later ''archontopouloi'' appear to have belonged to two perhaps related groups. The first group consists of young

aristocrats Aristocracy (; ) is a form of government that places power in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. Across Europe, the aristocracy exercised immense economic, political, and social influence. In Western Christian co ...

attached to the Byzantine imperial court who may have had a military function, and the second group consists of a type of provincial "

pronoia The ''pronoia'' (plural ''pronoiai''; Greek: πρόνοια, meaning "care", "forethought" or "providence," from πρό, "before," and νόος, "mind") was a system of granting dedicated streams of state income to individuals and institutions i ...

r", an elite soldier who held an imperial land-grant in return for military service. The latter group were possibly recruited from the former, following their training at the imperial court.

References

Sources

* * * *{{cite book, last=Miller, first=Timothy S., title=The Orphans of Byzantium: Child Welfare in the Christian Empire, year=2003, location=Washington, DC, publisher=Catholic University of America, isbn=0-8132-1313-4, url=https://archive.org/details/orphansofbyzanti0000mill, url-access=registration Military units and formations established in the 11th century Alexios I Komnenos Military units and formations of the Byzantine Empire Cavalry units and formations Adoption, fostering, orphan care and displacement Archons

History

See also

References

Sources