Pseudo-Constantine Diogenes

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(Pseudo) Konstantin Diogenes ( medium Greek Κωνσταντῖνος Διογένης ; † after 1095 ) was a Byzantine Usurpator , as the pretender against Kaiser Alexios I. occurred.

Life

The eldest son of the Byzantine emperor Romanos IV , Constantine Diogenes , died in 1074 in a battle near Antioch against the Seljuks . In 1094 a man named Charakenos from Asia Minor appeared in Constantinople , who insisted on himself to be Constantine Diogenes. The widow of the real Constantine Diogenes, Theodora , furiously denied these claims. Her brother, Emperor Alexios I, initially ignored the arrogant, but then banished him to Kherson at Theodora's urging . There the pseudo-Diogenes managed to escape from prison with the help of Cuman traders. The Cumans accepted the pretender and after a while recognized him as emperor.

In the spring of 1095 the Cuman chief Togartak fell into the Byzantine theme of Paristrion under the pretext of wanting to help the alleged Diogenes to the throne . On the advice of his generals, Alexios I initially avoided open arms against the invaders. With the help of the guards , the Cumans crossed the Zygos and advanced into Macedonia and Thrace . Goloe (near Sungurlare ), Dampolis and several other cities opened their gates to the alleged Diogenes. It was only in Anchialos that Alexios I managed to repel an attack by the Cumans. This then turned against Adrianople , which was defended by the former counter-emperor Nikephoros Bryennios . According to Anna Komnena , the blind Bryennios recognized the alleged Diogenes, who appeared in front of the city wall with imperial insignia, as a swindler. After a 48-day siege, Bryennios' troops dared a sortie and pushed the attackers back with heavy losses, with the Pseudo-Diogenes being wounded by lashes.

Eventually the Byzantines succeeded in setting a trap for the usurper. The commander Alakaseus sneaked into the trust of the pseudo-Diogenes and asked him for help with the retaliation allegedly suffered by Alexios I. The governor of Poutza (near Adrianople) made himself available as an accomplice , who pretended to surrender his city without a fight and invited him to a feast at his castle. When Pseudo-Diogenes and his men slept, they were disarmed and killed except for their leader. He was taken as a prisoner via Tzurulos to Constantinople and there blinded on the orders of the regent Anna Dalassene . His further fate is unknown.

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literature

  • 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. 99-100 No. 129.
  • Alexander Kazhdan : "Rus" -Byzantine Princely Marriages in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries. In: Harvard Ukrainian Studies 12–13, 1988–1989, ISSN  0363-5570 , pp. 414–429 ( PDF 1.3 MB ).
  • Marguerite Mathieu: Les faux Diogènes. In: Byzantion 22, 1952, ISSN  0378-2506 , pp. 134-148 ( digitized version ).
  • 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, No. 49 (also: Louvain, Universität, Dissertation, 1978).

Web links

Remarks

  1. The pseudo-Diogenes has the first name Leon at Anna Komnena . From the context, however, it is clear that the pretender appeared under the identity of his older brother Constantine Diogenes. It is unclear whether this mix-up goes back to Anna Komnena or whether the pretender (mistakenly) called himself Leon instead of Constantine. He is not identical to another alleged Leon Diogenes who appeared with the Kievan Rus two decades later . See Kazhdan, Marriages , pp. 420-422.