Bardanes Tourkos (aft. 700)

Born after 0700 in Armenia

Descendants

Biography

Note: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardanes_Tourkos

Nothing is known of the early life of Bardanes. He is usually regarded as an Armenian on account of his first name (a hellenized form of Vardan), whilst his sobriquet "Tourkos", which was bestowed upon him, probably disparagingly, only after his revolt, could suggest a Khazar origin.[1][2]

Bardanes is probably identical with the patrikios Bardanios who appears in the chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor in the mid-790s. In 795, he was Domestic of the Schools, and was dispatched to arrest the monk Plato of Sakkoudion for his public opposition to the second marriage of Emperor Constantine VI (r. 780–797) to Plato's niece Theodote. In 797, as strategos of the Thracesian Theme, this same Bardanios supported the Empress-mother Irene of Athens when she usurped the throne from her son Constantine VI.[3][4][5][6] In 799, he is recorded as one of the four patrikioi who led the horses of the Empress' carriage on the Easter procession from the palace to the Church of the Holy Apostles.[7][8]

Irene herself was overthrown and exiled by the logothetes tou genikou (finance minister) Nikephoros on 31 October 802. At the time, Bardanes was patrikios and strategos of the Thracesians, but was soon transferred to command the powerful Anatolic Theme. In the next year, probably in preparation for a campaign against the Arabs after Nikephoros' refusal to continue the annual payment of tribute to the Abbasid Caliphate, the emperor apparently appointed Bardanes to the exceptional post of monostrategos ("single-general", in effect commander-in-chief) of the Empire's five Anatolian land themes.[2][9][10][11] It must be noted though that this appointment is by no means certain; he is mentioned as monostrategos only by later sources, while near-contemporary ones mention him only as strategos of the Anatolics. It is possible that later sources misinterpreted his title to mean "general of all the East" (Anatole).[12]

Sources