Nikephoros Bryennios the Elder

Nikephoros Bryennios ( Middle Greek Νικηφόρος Βρυέννιος ; † after 1094 probably in Adrianople ) was a Byzantine general and usurper against Emperor Michael VII.

Life

Nikephoros Bryennios was the son of the general of the same name , who defeated Emperor Michael VI in 1057 without success . had raised. Like his father, he made a career in the Byzantine military hierarchy under the emperors Constantine X and Romanos IV . In the battle of Manzikert against the Seljuks in 1071 he commanded the left wing; he was one of the few generals who honored the affair in this devastating battle for Byzantium.

Under Emperor Michael VII Nikephoros Bryennios officiated from 1072 to 1073 as Dux of Bulgaria , where he restored Byzantine rule after the failed revolt under Konstantin Bodin and Georgi Vojtech . He was then appointed Dux of Dyrrhachion .

When Michael VII signed a treaty with the Seljuks in 1077, which was extremely unfavorable for Byzantium, about large-scale cession of territory in Anatolia , Nikephoros Bryennios' brother John instigated a rebellion in Adrianople against the in his opinion incapable emperor and his powerful minister Nikephoritzes . Nikephoros Bryennios initially hesitated to join the revolt, but changed his stance when he learned that Nikephoritzes had decided to remove him from the office of Dux of Dyrrhachion and replace him with Nikephoros Basilakes .

In October 1077 Nikephoros Bryennios had himself proclaimed anti -emperor in Traianopolis . He gathered a multiethnic force made up of Thracians , Bulgarians , Macedonians , Slavs , Italians , Franks , Oghusen and Greeks and sent them outside the walls of Constantinople in November 1077 under the command of John of Adrianople . Because the Bryennoi gave up the suburbs for sacking without hesitation, strong resistance against their claims to rule formed in the capital, so that Michael VII succeeded in persuading the besiegers to retreat to Thrace . At the end of March 1078, however, Michael had to vacate the throne for the general Nikephoros Botaneiates , who had also risen to the rank of anti-emperor in Nikaia on January 7th .

Nikiforos Nikiforos Botaneiates offered Bryennios the title of Kaisar on if it renounce its imperial ambitions and it would subject. When he refused, Botaneiates sent the young general Alexios Komnenos with an army against him. In a battle at Kalabrye in Thrace, Nikephoros Bryennios was defeated and taken prisoner. Nikephorus Basilakes, who was proclaimed emperor by the remaining troops in Thessaloniki , was also defeated by Alexios a little later.

Nikephoros Botaneiates blinded the defeated rival to the throne , but left him his property and gave him new, high official dignity. Nikephoros Bryennios apparently returned to his hometown Adrianople, which he defended in 1094/95 despite his disability against an attack by the Cumans under the pretender Constantine Diogenes , who pretended to be the son of Emperor Romanos IV, who died in 1073. His grandson (or son), the historian Nikephoros Bryennios , became the son-in-law of Emperor Alexios I through his marriage to Anna Komnena .

swell

• Michael Attaleiates 242–247 and passim
• Nikephoros Bryennios 223-231 and passim
• Michael Glykas 615
• Anna Komnena , Alexiade 1 , 12-20
• Skylitzes Continuatus 172-184
• Johannes Zonaras 18, 17-22

literature

• Alexander Canduci: Triumph and Tragedy - The Rise and Fall of Rome's Immortal Emperors. Murdoch Books, Sydney 2010, ISBN 978-1-74196-598-8 , p. 276.
• 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 , pp. 83-84 No. 104.
• Alexander P. Kazhdan (Ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Oxford University Press, New York NY 1991, ISBN 0-19-504652-8 , pp. 330-331.
• John Julius Norwich : Byzantium. The Apogee . Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1992, ISBN 0-394-53779-3 , pp. 348, 359-361.
• Alexios G. Savvides, Benjamin Hendrickx (Eds.): Encyclopaedic Prosopographical Lexicon of Byzantine History and Civilization . Vol. 2: Baanes-Eznik of Kolb . Brepols Publishers, Turnhout 2008, ISBN 978-2-503-52377-4 , pp. 162-163.
• Basile Skoulatos: Les Personnages Byzantins de l'Alexiade. Analysis Prosopographique et Synthèse (= Recueil de Travaux d'Histoire et de Philologie. Sér. 6, Vol. 20, ZDB -ID 437846-5 ). Nauwelaerts, Louvain-la-Neuve 1980, p. 143 (At the same time: Louvain, Universität, Dissertation, 1978).
• Paul Stephenson: Byzantium′s Balkan Frontier. A Political Study of the Northern Balkans 900-1204. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2000, ISBN 0-521-77017-3 , p. 145.

Web links

• Nikephoros Bryennios in the Prosopography of the Byzantine World