Nikephorus Xiphias

Nikephoros Xiphias ( Middle Greek Νικηφόρος Ξιφίας ; * before 980, † after 1028 in Constantinople ) was a Byzantine general and rebel against Emperor Basil II.

Life

The Patrikios and Protospatharios Nikephoros Xiphias was a relative (possibly a son) of Alexios Xiphias, who was the Katepan of Italy from 1006 to 1008 . Emperor Basileios used him as a strategos in various topics and entrusted him with the command of several campaigns, including in the year 1000 in the war against the Bulgarians , when he, together with his predecessor as strategos of Philippople , Theodorokanos , several cities, including Preslaw , conquered. Xiphias was also instrumental in the decisive victory in the Battle of Kleidion on June 29, 1014 by leading his armed forces around Mount Belasiza and thus enabling the encirclement of the Bulgarian troops. Together with Constantine Diogenes , he then conquered the city of Moglena . After the suppression of the last Bulgarian resistance in the spring of 1018, Xiphias had the fortresses of Serbia and Soskos razed .

In 1022, Xiphias supported the usurpation of Nikephoros Phokas Barytrachelos , who rose against Basil II in Cappadocia , the power base of the Phocades . With their troops they fell in the back of the emperor, who had embarked on a campaign against the Georgian king Giorgi I from Trebizond . Basil withdrew to the Mastaton fortress . From there he sent messengers to the rebels with the task of inciting them against one another - with success, because at a meeting on August 15, 1022, Xiphias ordered the murder of his co-conspirator. The emperor had him captured, sheared to a monk and banished to a monastery on the prince's island of Antigoni . Under Emperor Romanos III. he was called back to Constantinople, but withdrew voluntarily to the studio monastery .

swell

• Johannes Skylitzes , Basil 26 and passim
• Johannes Zonaras 17, 9

literature

• Ralph-Johannes Lilie , Claudia Ludwig, Thomas Pratsch, Beate Zielke, Harald Bichlmeier, Bettina Krönung, Daniel Föller, Alexander Beihammer , Günter Prinzing : Prosopography of the Middle Byzantine Period . 2nd department: (867-1025). Volume 4: Landenolfus (# 24269) - Niketas (# 25701). Created after preliminary work by F. Winkelmann . Published by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. De Gruyter, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-016669-9 , pp. 742–745 No. 25661 (with further information on Georgian and Arabic sources).
• Stephen H. Rapp: Studies in Medieval Georgian Historiography: Early Texts And Eurasian Contexts. Peeters Publishers, Leuven 2003, ISBN 9-042-91318-5 , p. 400.
• 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 , pp. 71-73 and passim .

Web links

• Nikephoros Xiphias in the Prosopography of the Byzantine World