Kekaumenos () is the family name of the otherwise unidentified
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 ...
author of the ''
Strategikon'', a
manual on military and household affairs composed c. 1078. He was apparently of Georgian-Armenian origin and the grandson of the ''
doux'' of
Hellas. Despite relevant suppositions, there exists no concrete evidence that he is the famous 11th century general
Katakalon Kekaumenos, or his son.
His father-in-law was
Nikulitzas Delphinas, a lord of
Larissa
Larissa (; , , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 148,562 in the city proper, according to the 2021 census. It is also the capital of the Larissa ...
who took part in the revolt of
Vlachs (
Aromanians
The Aromanians () are an Ethnic groups in Europe, ethnic group native to the southern Balkans who speak Aromanian language, Aromanian, an Eastern Romance language. They traditionally live in central and southern Albania, south-western Bulgari ...
) in
Thessaly
Thessaly ( ; ; ancient Aeolic Greek#Thessalian, Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic regions of Greece, geographic and modern administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient Thessaly, a ...
in 1066. The 11th-century scholar Kekaumenos wrote of a Vlach homeland situated "near the Danube and
..nbsp;the Sava, where the Serbians lived more recently". He associated the Vlachs with the Dacians and the
Bessi. Kekaumenos referred to the Vlachs as an "unfaithful and undisciplined race". He did this in the archaic style of the time, where he pointed to the Balkan area "
Dacia Aureliana" and to
Macedonia
Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to:
* North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia
* Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity
* Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...
where the
Bessi lived.
References
Sources
"Byzantine Siege Warfare in Theory and Practice"by Eric McGeer from ''The Medieval City under Siege''
''Logos Nouthetetikos, or Oration of Admonition to an Emperor''by William North
Year of birth unknown
Year of death unknown
Byzantine writers
Medieval Greek military writers
11th-century Byzantine writers
Anti-Aromanian sentiment
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