Alexios Gidos ( el, Ἀλέξιος Γίδος; ) was a senior

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

general of the late 12th century. He is the first attested member of the Gidos family, which rose to some prominence in the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

at the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th centuries. Alexios Gidos is first mentioned on the occasion of the Norman sack of Thessalonica in 1185, when he held the post of "

Grand Domestic The title of grand domestic ( grc-gre, μέγας δομέστικος, ''mégas doméstikos'') was given in the 11th–15th centuries to the commander-in-chief of the Byzantine army, directly below the Byzantine Emperor. It evolved from the earl ...

of the East", i.e. commander-in-chief of the Byzantine army's forces in

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...

. He apparently retained his high post after the downfall of Emperor

Andronikos I Komnenos Andronikos I Komnenos ( gr, Ἀνδρόνικος Κομνηνός; – 12 September 1185), Latinized as Andronicus I Comnenus, was Byzantine emperor from 1183 to 1185. He was the son of Isaac Komnenos and the grandson of the emperor Al ...

, and re-appears in 1194, when Andronikos' successor

Isaac II Angelos Isaac II Angelos or Angelus ( grc-gre, Ἰσαάκιος Κομνηνός Ἄγγελος, ; September 1156 – January 1204) was Byzantine Emperor from 1185 to 1195, and again from 1203 to 1204. His father Andronikos Doukas Angelos was a ...

sent him against the

Bulgarians Bulgarians ( bg, българи, Bǎlgari, ) are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and the rest of Southeast Europe. Etymology Bulgarians derive their ethnonym from the Bulgars. Their name is not completely unders ...

. This time Gidos was "Grand Domestic of the West", but still commanding the eastern troops, while Basil Vatatzes commanded the western forces. The two generals were heavily defeated at the Battle of Arcadiopolis: most of the Byzantine army, along with Vatatzes, fell, while Gidos managed to escape only with great difficulty. Nothing further is known of him. In 1898/99, the Greek scholar S. Papadimitriou theorized that the family name and therefore the ancestry of the family was originally

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, he believed the family surname to be the

hellenized Hellenization (other British spelling Hellenisation) or Hellenism is the adoption of Greek culture, religion, language and identity by non-Greeks. In the ancient period, colonization often led to the Hellenization of indigenous peoples; in th ...

form of the Italian name ''Guido''. This in turn led to speculation that there may have been a direct connection with the Gidos family and Guy/Guido, a son of the

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

conqueror of southern Italy, Robert Guiscard, who defected to the Byzantine emperor

Alexios I Komnenos Alexios I Komnenos ( grc-gre, Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός, 1057 – 15 August 1118; Latinized Alexius I Comnenus) was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. Although he was not the first emperor of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during ...

(ruled 1081–1118) centuries earlier, entered his service and possibly married into the imperial family. On the other hand, in his ''Die byzantinische Aussenpolitik zur Zeit der letzten Komnenenkaiser'' (1967), W. Hecht cast doubt on their Latin origin, and argued that at any rate, by the time Alexios Gidos appears, the family had been thoroughly Byzantinized and shed their Latin identity. It is however impossible to prove any connection with the son of Robert Guiscard or a Latin origin, Byzantine sources do not treat the family as having a foreign origin. Similarly, another view considers the etymology of the family surname to be of Greek origin, a derivation from the Greek word for "goat" ('Gida' γίδα f., γίδι)

References

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gidos, Alexios 12th-century Byzantine people Byzantine generals Grand Domestics Byzantine people of the Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars