Katepan

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Katepan (Greek: κ κατεπάνω, "the one placed above") was a higher military rank and title in the Byzantine Empire . The term was latinized as catepanus . Due to the paronomasia it seems to have been confused with the Latin term capitaneus , which comes from the Latin word caput for "head" and is based on the German word " Kapitän " and its equivalents in other languages ​​("Captain", "Capitan", " Kapitan "," El Capitan "," Il Capitano "," Kapudan Pasha "etc.). The domain of the Katepan is called Katepanat .

history

The term is used for the first time in the 9th century to mean "commander" for two different offices: for the commander of the basilikoi anthrōpoi ("imperial men"), low-ranking court dignitaries, and for the commander of the Mardaite command of the Byzantine navy on the subject of the Kibyrrhaoten in southern Asia Minor.

However, in the wake of the great eastern conquests of the 960s, the title takes on a more specific meaning. The newly acquired border regions were divided into smaller topics and combined in larger regional command units, which were either led by a doux ("prince") or a katepan. These were the principalities or katepanates of Antioch, which comprised the south-eastern border in northern Syria, Mesopotamia in the east around the Euphrates, and Chaldia in the north-east [4]. Under the reign of Basil II (976-1025), the eastern border was expanded even further and the Katepanat of Iberia was built in 1022.

In the west of the empire was the most famous Katepanat today, Italy . After the successful conclusion of the Byzantine-Bulgarian wars, a Katepan from Bulgaria is also documented. And finally a Serbian Katepan is documented under the name "Katepan von Ras".

With the massive territorial losses of the 11th century, the office disappears in the sense of a military commander endowed with far-reaching powers. On a more local level remains, however, receive a so conceptually related administrative unit: During the reign of Komnenen and Palaiologoi referred katepanikion some less important administrative regions in Asia and Europe.

These were only small parts of the former themata , and they consisted of little more than a fortified capital (the kastron ) and its surroundings. At the time of the palaeologists , the Katepanat was ruled by a kephalē (Greek: κεφαλή, "head"), who united the highest civil and military powers in his office. Like many Byzantine institutions, the Katepanat was also adapted in the Second Bulgarian Empire .

See also

Katepanat Italy

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kazhdan, 1015
  2. ↑ Haldon, pp. 84-85.
  3. ↑ Holmes, pp. 301-302.
  4. ^ From Falkenhausen
  5. ↑ Holmes, pp. 301-302.
  6. ↑ Krsmanović, pages 186; 189
  7. ^ Kazhdan, 1015
  8. ↑ Bartusis, pp. 33-34, 189-190, 236.

literature

  • Bartusis, Mark C. (1997). The Late Byzantine Army: Arms and Society 1204-1453. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-1620-2 .
  • Haldon, John F. (1999). Warfare, State and Society in the Byzantine World, 565-1204. London, United Kingdom: University College London Press (Taylor & Francis Group). ISBN 1-85728-495-X .
  • Holmes, Catherine (2005). Basil II and the Governance of Empire (976-1025). Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-927968-5 .
  • Kazhdan, Alexander Petrovich, ed. (1991). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. New York, New York and Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6 .
  • Krsmanović, Bojana; Kolias, Taxiarchis G .; Maksimović, Ljubomir (2008). The Byzantine Province in Change: On the Threshold between the 10th and the 11th Century. Belgrade, Serbia; Athens, Greece: Institute for Byzantine Studies, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts; Institute for Byzantine Research, National Hellenic Research Foundation . ISBN 978-8-68-388311-0 .
  • von Falkenhausen, Vera : Investigations into the Byzantine rule in southern Italy from the 9th to the 11th century (writings on the intellectual history of eastern Europe, 1), Wiesbaden 1967; improved Italian edition: La dominazione bizantina nell'Italia meridionale dal IX all'XI secolo , Bari 1978.