Constantine Gabras

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Konstantin Gabras ( Middle Greek Κωνσταντῖνος Γαβρᾶς ; * before 1090; † after 1140) was a Byzantine military commander who ruled de facto independently over the Pontic Black Sea coast under Emperor John II .

Life

The Protonobelissimos Constantine Gabras was the younger son of Theodore Gabras († 1099), which under Emperor I. Alexios as a quasi-autonomous rulers of Trebizond had established. In 1108 Alexios I sent the young troop leader in the war against the Norman prince Bohemond of Taranto with a reconnaissance command to Petrula (east of Dyrrhachion ), but the ambitious Gabras refused this task as too minor. During the conflict between the Byzantines and the Rum Seljuks , he defended the city of Philadelphia as strategos in 1111and a year later brought their sultan Malik Shah I at Kelbianon (in the upper Kaystrostal ) a defeat. In 1113 and 1116 Gabras was involved as a commander in further skirmishes with the Turks in Lydia and Phrygia .

Like his father, Constantine Gabras was appointed Dux of the strategically important subject of Chaldia around 1118 , although it is unclear whether this happened under Alexios I or under his successor John II. In 1119 he suffered a defeat in an offensive against the Danischmenden and was captured by the emirs Ghazi Gümüschtegin and Tuğrul von Melitene , but was released again when the two Turks fell out. From 1126 at the latest, Gabras controlled the city of Trebizond and the Chaldean coastal area as Toparches largely independently of the central government in Constantinople and also issued his own coins . Niketas Choniates describes him as the "tyrant of Trebizond".

When the Danischmenden emir Malik Mehmet Ghazi III. In 1139 , when Cilicia , which had recently been conquered by the Byzantines, invaded, Gabras took the side of the Turks. When the main Byzantine armed forces counterattacked , John II pushed back the Danischmenden from Bithynia and Paphlagonia . With an advance to Chaldia (1140) he forced Gabras to submit, and there, too, restored imperial authority.

What became of Constantine Gabras is unclear, but he could have been brought to Constantinople, because his son of the same name rose to ministerial position under Emperor Manuel I and headed a successful diplomatic mission to Sultan Kilij Arslan II in 1162. Some members of the Gabras -Family sought protection with the Seljuks, others fled across the Black Sea to the Crimea , where they founded the Principality of Theodoro after the conquest of Constantinople by the Crusaders .

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literature

  • Michael Angold : The Byzantine Empire, 1025-1204. A Political History. 2nd edition. Longman, London et al. 1997, ISBN 0-582-29468-1 , pp. 130, 157.
  • Anthony AM Bryer: A Byzantine Family: The Gabrades, c. 979 - c. 1653. In: University of Birmingham Historical Journal. Vol. 12, 1969/1970, ISSN  0261-2984 , pp. 164-187.
  • Anthony AM Bryer: The Empire of Trebizond and the Pontos (= Variorum Collected Studies Series. Vol. 117). Variorum Reprints, London 1980, ISBN 0-86078-062-7 , p. 177 and passim .
  • Jean-Claude Cheynet: Pouvoir et contestations à Byzance (963-1210) (= Publications de la Sorbonne. Series Byzantina Sorbonensia. Vol. 9). Reimpression. Publications de la Sorbonne Center de Recherches d'Histoire et de Civilization Byzantines, Paris 1996, ISBN 2-85944-168-5 , p. 104, No. 137.
  • Philip Grierson : Byzantine Coins. Methuen et al., London et al. 1982, ISBN 0-416-71360-2 , pp. 228-229.
  • Alexander P. Kazhdan (Ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Oxford University Press, New York NY 1991, ISBN 0-19-504652-8 , p. 812.
  • Basile Skoulatos: Les Personnages Byzantins de l'Alexiade. Analysis Prosopographique et Synthèse (= Recueil de Travaux d'Histoire et de Philoloqie. Sér. 6, Fasc. 20, ZDB -ID 437846-5 ). Nauwelaerts, Louvain-la-Neuve 1980, No. 40 (also: Louvain, Universität, Dissertation, 1978).

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personal data
SURNAME Constantine Gabras
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Κωνσταντῖνος Γαβρᾶς (Middle Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Byzantine Dux of Chaldia, rebel against John II.
DATE OF BIRTH before 1090
DATE OF DEATH after 1140