Constantine Gabras or Gavras () was the governor or ''doux'' (duke) of the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

province of Chaldia, centred on the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

port of Trebizond and its mountainous hinterland, the Pontic Alps, in northeast

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

, now part of

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Gabras ruled Chaldia as a semi-independent prince between 1126 and 1140.

Biography

The province of Chaldia effectively became an autonomous semi-hereditary domain of the Gabrades as his father,

Theodore Gabras Theodore Gabras () was a Byzantine Empire, Byzantine governor in the Pontus (region), Pontus who was involved in a minor unsuccessful rebellion against the Byzantine Emperor, Emperor Alexios I Komnenos around the year 1091. He is an Eastern Orthodo ...

, preceded him as governor. In the 1090s, his older brother Gregory had plotted against the

Byzantine emperor The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which Fall of Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised s ...

Alexios I Komnenos Alexios I Komnenos (, – 15 August 1118), Latinization of names, Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus, was Byzantine Emperor, Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. After usurper, usurping the throne, he was faced with a collapsing empire and ...

(r. 1081–1118) and had been imprisoned.. After service as ''

strategos ''Strategos'' (), also known by its Linguistic Latinisation, Latinized form ''strategus'', is a Greek language, Greek term to mean 'military General officer, general'. In the Hellenistic world and in the Byzantine Empire, the term was also use ...

'' of

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, Constantine became ''doux'' of Chaldia some time, probably quite shortly, before the death of Alexios I in 1118. Constantine seems to have been less rash in his politics than his brother, though he managed to rule Trebizond more or less free of central authority between 1126 and 1140. Choniates refers to him as the "tyrant of Trebizond.". Extant examples show that he minted his own lower denomination coinage. In 1140, Emperor

John II Komnenos John II Komnenos or Comnenus (; 13 September 1087 – 8 April 1143) was List of Byzantine emperors, Byzantine emperor from 1118 to 1143. Also known as "John the Beautiful" or "John the Good" (), he was the eldest son of Emperor Alexio ...

(r. 1118–1143) moved into Chaldia with the main Byzantine army in order to campaign against the Danishmend Turks. This display of force was enough to overawe Constantine Gabras and the region came under direct imperial control once more.

Later history of his family

Following their loss of power, the family of the Gabras had three options: to save their lands south of the Pontic Alps and their influence by joining the court of the

Seljuk Sultanate of Rum The Sultanate of Rum was a culturally Turco-Persian Sunni Muslim state, established over conquered Byzantine territories and peoples ( Rum) of Anatolia by the Seljuk Turks following their entry into Anatolia after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 ...

Konya Konya is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium. In 19th-century accounts of the city in En ...

; to save some of their influence within the Byzantine sphere by joining their new masters at Constantinople; or to move to the Byzantine province most closely connected to their former lands and, from c. 1200, free of control from Constantinople -- the Perateia in the

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

.Anthony Bryer, "A Byzantine Family: The Gabrades, c. 979 – c. 1653", ''University of Birmingham Historical Journal'', 12 (1970), p. 171 One member who joined the Seljuks of Rum became

vizier A vizier (; ; ) is a high-ranking political advisor or Minister (government), minister in the Near East. The Abbasids, Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was at first merely a help ...

to the sultan Kilij Arslan II (r. 1156–1192). A son of Constantine Gabras, also named Constantine, however, became a trusted minister of

Manuel I Komnenos Manuel I Komnenos (; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180), Latinized as Comnenus, also called Porphyrogenitus (; " born in the purple"), was a Byzantine emperor of the 12th century who reigned over a crucial turning point in the history o ...

. He led an important, and successful, diplomatic mission to the Seljuk sultan Kilij Arslan II in 1162. No doubt his mission was helped by the family contacts he would have had at the Seljuk court.

References

Citations

Sources

* * * *

External links

The Gabras Dynasty
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gabras, Constantine 12th-century Byzantine people Byzantine governors of Chaldia Constantine Byzantine Pontians