To the Cursus Honorum of Philaretos Brachamios

Abstract

Philaretos Brachamios was a well-known personality who found himself at the center of Byzantine Middle Eastern politics after 1071. His anme appeared in the works of Armenian (Matt‘eos Urhayets‘i) and Syrian (Michael the Syrian) writers. Anna Komnena’s work preserved vague echoes of him. Philaretos’ cursus honorum is known primarily according to sigillography. This, however, concerns the last period of his activity from 1071 to 1093. When the Byzantine troops were crashed at Mantzikert, Emperor Romanos Diogenes lost the civil ware, he was taken captive and blinded in Adana, and a coup d’etat took place in Constantinople. The territories of the eastern themes of Byzantium were cut off from Constantinople by the Seljuks and acquired temporary autonomy. The contacts with Constantinople, which had lost control over these territories, were restored under Nikephoros Botaneiates (1077–1081) and were maintained under Alexios Komnenos, who overthrew the former. Philaretos became an autonomous, actually an independent ruler of the eastern themes, and the central government had to recognise it. This development reflected in the growth of the title. Philaretos’ cursus honorum prior to 1071 is known much worser, as only a small number of seals related to him survived. Recent publications of new seals allow the one to reconstruct his career more or less completely, with many of its periods still remaining poorly studied.

Keywords

• византия
• филарет врахамий
• восточные фемы
• антиохия
• эдесса
• сфрагистика