Alexios Account Stephanos

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Alexios Kontostephanos ( Middle Greek Ἀλέξιος Κοντοστέφανος ; * around 1131 ?; † after 1200) was a Byzantine usurper against Emperor Alexios III.

Life

Alexios was a member of the aristocratic family Kontostephanos , who had been connected to the ruling family of the Komnenes for several generations . Its exact origin is unclear; possibly he is identical with the Pansebastos sebastos and Chartularios Alexios Kontostephanos, who is recorded as a participant in a synod in September 1191. An identity with the son of the same name of Isaak Kontostephanos and Theodora Komnene , who was married to Maria Dukaina , has also been suspected.

After the fall of Isaac II Angelus on April 8, 1195 by his brother Alexios III. Kontostephanos in the Agora of Constantinople was proclaimed a basileus by an angry crowd who wanted to get rid of the rule of the Comnenes and the Angeloi who were associated with them . Niketas Choniates describes him as an “ astrologer ” who has long sought the throne. Alexios III Wife and regent Euphrosyne had the uprising put down, the pretender arrested and thrown in prison. He seems to have been released after a while, because in the summer of 1200 an account Stephanos was at the head of another large-scale conspiracy against Alexios III, just as he was returning to the capital from a campaign against the Bulgarian leader Ivanko .

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literature

  • Κωνσταντίνος Βαρζός: Η Γενεαλογία των Κομνηνών. Τόμος Β ' (= Βυζαντινά Κείμενα και Μελέται. Τ. 20β , ISSN  1106-6180 ). Κέντρο Βυζαντινών Ερευνών - ΑΠΘ, Θεσσαλονίκη 1984 ( PDF file; 45.5 MB ), pp. 58-60 No. 106.
  • Lynda Garland: Byzantine Empresses. Women and Power in Byzantium, AD 527-1204. Routledge, London / New York NY 1999, ISBN 0-415-14688-7 , p. 219.
  • Alicia Simpson: Niketas Choniates. A Historiographical Study. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-967071-0 , p. 308.
  • Lucien Stiernon: Notes de titulature et de prosopographie byzantines. A propos de trois membres de la famille Rogerios (XIIe siècle). In: Revue des études byzantines 22, 1964, ISSN  0766-5598 , pp. 184-198. ( Digitized version ), here: pp. 196-197.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Alexios Account Stephanos
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ἀλέξιος Κοντοστέφανος (Middle Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Byzantine usurper against Emperor Alexios III.
DATE OF BIRTH uncertain: around 1131
DATE OF DEATH after 1200