Pseudo-Alexios II (Sultanate of Rum)

Pseudo-Alexios II. Komnenos ( Middle Greek Ψευδο-Ἀλέξιος Β΄ Κομνηνός ; † around 1197 at Nicomedia ) was a Byzantine usurper against Emperor Alexios III.

Life

Pseudo-Alexios II was one of several pretenders to the throne of the Byzantine Empire, who appeared during the reign of the Angeloi dynasty (1185-1204) in Asia Minor and claimed to be the emperor Alexios II , who had been murdered in 1183.

The pseudo-Alexios first reported his claims to the throne against Alexios III from Cilicia in July 1195 . but was soon forced to flee to the Seljuq prince of Ankara , Muhyi ad-Din Mas'ud Shah . With the help of Turkish troops he occupied Dadybra , a city in the eastern hinterland of Herakleia on the Bithynian Black Sea coast , after a four-month siege in 1196 , and also brought the Byzantine border fortresses Krateia and Claudiopolis under his control. An imperial counter-offensive under the command of Manuel Kantakuzenos failed. In December 1196, both sides signed a peace treaty in which Alexios III. obliged to pay tribute to Mas'ud.

The pseudo-Alexios established his regime for a short time so that he could collect taxes from the population in his domain, which even included several fortresses in the Ankara area. On the advance to Nicomedia he was killed (at the latest) in 1197; but it may also have been eliminated by Mas'ud himself in order to get rid of a dangerous rival. Alexios III In any case, it was no longer possible to regain the lost territories for Byzantium.

swell

• Niketas Choniates 461-463; 474-475 (ed. Jan-Louis van Dieten, CFHB Ser. Berol. Vol. 11, 1975)

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. 477-481 No. 155.
• Claude Cahen : The Formation of Turkey: The Seljukid Sultanate of Rum: Eleventh to Fourteenth Century. Pearson / Longman, Harlow 2001, ISBN 0-582-41491-1 , p. 44.
• 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. 136-137 No. 195.
• Jürgen Hoffmann: Rudiments of territorial states in the Byzantine Empire (1071-1210). Ars Una, Neuried 1974, ISBN 3-89391-396-3 , pp. 41-43, 93-94.
• Alexis GC Savvides: Byzantium in the Near East: Its Relations with the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum in Asia Minor, the Armenians of Cilicia and the Mongols, AD c. 1192-1237 (= Βυζαντινά Κείμενα και Μελέται. Τ. 17 , ISSN  1106-6180 ). Κέντρο Βυζαντινών Ερευνών - ΑΠΘ, Θεσσαλονίκη 1981, pp. 75-78.
• Alexis GC Savvides: Internal Strife and Unrest in Later Byzantium, XIth – XIIIth Centuries (AD 1025–1261). The Case of Urban and Provincial Insurrections (Causes and Effects). In: Σύμμεικτα KBE / EΙE. Vol. 7, 1987, ISSN  1105-1639 , pp. 237-273, here: p. 271.
• Αλέξης Γ. Κ. Σαββίδης: Βυζαντινά στασιαστικά και αυτονομιστικά κινήματα στα Δωδεκάνησα και τη Μικρά Ασία , 1189-1240 μ.Χ .: Συμβολή στη μελέτη της υστεροβυζαντινής προσωπογραφίας και τοπογραφίας την εποχή των Αγγέλων , των Λασκαρίδων της Νίκαιας και των Μεγαλοκομνηνών του Πόντου . Δόμος, Αθήνα 1987, chap. 3.
• Alexios G. Savvides, Benjamin Hendrickx (Eds.): Encyclopaedic Prosopographical Lexicon of Byzantine History and Civilization . Vol. 1: Aaron - Azarethes . Brepols Publishers, Turnhout 2007, ISBN 978-2-503-52303-3 , pp. 162-163.
• Alicia Simpson: Niketas Choniates. A Historiographical Study. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-967071-0 , p. 308.

Remarks

1. ↑ See Savvides, Byzantium in the Near East , p. 78.