Sirianus was the

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 ...

catapan of Italy The Catepanate of Italy (, ''Katepaníkion Italías'') was a province (''theme'') of the Byzantine Empire, that existed from c. 965 until 1071. It was headed by a governor (''katepano'') with both civil and military powers. At its greatest extent ...

, the second appointed by the Emperor

Constantine X Doukas Constantine X Doukas or Ducas (; – 23 May 1067), was Byzantine emperor from 1059 to 1067. He was the founder of the Doukid dynasty. During his reign, the Normans took over much of the remaining Byzantine territories in Italy, while in the ...

. He arrived in

Bari Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...

, the seat of the catapanate, in 1061 or 1062, replacing Marules, who had been appointed the previous year. Constantine was the last emperor who took an interest in recovering ground in Italy, but Sirianus was on the defensive against the Norman state and recovered no territory.Jules Gay
''L'Italie méridionale et l'empire Byzantin''
(New York: Burt Franklin, 1904), p. 526. According to the annals of

Lupus Protospatharius Lupus Protospatharius Barensis was the reputed author of the ''Chronicon rerum in regno Neapolitano gestarum'' (also called ''Annales Lupi Protospatharii''), a concise history of the Mezzogiorno from 805 to 1102. He has only been named as the aut ...

, the Norman duke

Robert Guiscard Robert Guiscard ( , ; – 17 July 1085), also referred to as Robert de Hauteville, was a Normans, Norman adventurer remembered for his Norman conquest of southern Italy, conquest of southern Italy and Sicily in the 11th century. Robert was born ...

captured Oria and

Brindisi Brindisi ( ; ) is a city in the region of Apulia in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Historically, the city has played an essential role in trade and culture due to its strategic position ...

in the year of his appointment and

Taranto Taranto (; ; previously called Tarent in English) is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Taranto, serving as an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base. Founded by Spartans ...

in the following year.William J. Churchill
''The Annales Barenses and the Annales Lupi Protospatharii: Critical Edition and Commentary''
PhD dissertation (University of Toronto, 1979), pp. 144–145. He was succeeded in 1064 by

Abulchares Abulchares (, ; died 1068) was a Byzantine Empire, Byzantine general of Arabs, Arab origin who served as the Catepanate of Italy, catepan of Italy from 1064 until his death. The chief sources for his catapanate are ''Skylitzes Continuatus'' and ''A ...

Vera von Falkenhausen Vera von Falkenhausen (born 1938) is a German Byzantinist who lives and works in Italy. Life Vera von Falkenhausen pursued Byzantine studies at the University of Munich, where she made her thesis in 1966 under Hans-Georg Beck. She then spent t ...

, ''Untersuchungen über die byzantinische Herrschaft in Süditalien vom 9. bis ins 11. Jahrhundert'' (O. Harrassowitz, 1967), p. 94. The date of Sirianus's arrival in Bari can be placed between 1 September 1061 and 31 August 1062 because the only source, the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

'' Anonymous Chronicle of Bari'', uses the

Byzantine calendar The Byzantine calendar, also called the Roman calendar, the Creation Era of Constantinople or the Era of the World (, also or ; 'Roman year since the creation of the universe', abbreviated as ε.Κ.), was the calendar used by the Eastern Orth ...

Ludovico Antonio Muratori Lodovico Antonio Muratori (21 October 1672 – 23 January 1750), commonly referred to in Latin as Muratorius, was an Italian Catholic priest, notable as historian and a leading scholar of his age, and for his discovery of the Muratorian fragmen ...

(ed.)
''Rerum Italicarum scriptores'', vol. V.
(Milan, 1724), p. 152: ''Mill. LXII. Ind. XV. ... Et Siriano venit Catap. in Bari.''. The name Sirianus is a Latinization of the Italianized form ''Siriano'' found in the chronicle. It is uncertain whether it represents the

Byzantine Greek Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic; Greek: ) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the F ...

name ''Syrianos'' (Συριανός) or ''Syrgiannes'' (Συργιάννης).

References

{{end 11th-century catepans of Italy Year of birth unknown