Leo Passianos (died 22 June 1017) was the

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 A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...

sent by the

Catapan of Italy The Catepanate (or Catapanate) of Italy ( el, ''Katepaníkion Italías'') was a Theme (Byzantine district), province of the Byzantine Empire from 965 until 1071. At its greatest extent, it comprised mainland Italy south of a line drawn from Mon ...

Leo Tornikios Kontoleon Kontoleon TornikiosIn Latin, Tornicius Condoleo; in Italian Tornichio. The anonymous chronicler of Bari calls him Audronic, which some have taken as Andronicus. Chalandon uses the Gallicised form Contoléon. was the Catapan of Italy from May to S ...

to fight the Lombard rebel

Melus of Bari Melus (also ''Milus'' or ''Meles'', ''Melo'' in Italian) (died 1020) was a Lombard nobleman from the Apulian town of Bari, whose ambition to carve for himself an autonomous territory from the Byzantine catapanate of Italy in the early eleventh ...

in 1017. He is not to be confused with the other Passianos killed in Melus' first rebellion while fighting the Saracens under Ishmael of Montepeloso. Passianos met Melus on the

Fortore The Fortore (Latin: ''Fertor'' or ''Frento'') is a river which flows through the provinces of Benevento, Campobasso and Foggia in southern Italy. It is long. The river rises from the slopes of Monte Altieri, which reaches above sea level. The F ...

at Arenula. The battle was either indecisive (

William of Apulia William of Apulia ( la, Guillelmus Apuliensis) was a chronicler of the Normans, writing in the 1090s. His Latin epic, ''Gesta Roberti Wiscardi'' ("The Deeds of Robert Guiscard"), written in hexameters, is one of the principal contemporary source ...

) or a victory for Melus (

Leo of Ostia Leo Marsicanus (meaning "of the Marsi") or Ostiensis (meaning "of Ostia"), also known as Leone dei Conti di Marsi (1046, Marsica – 1115/7, Ostia), was a nobleman and monk of Monte Cassino around 1061 and Italian cardinal from the 12th cent ...

). Tornikios then took command himself and led them into a second encounter near Civita. This second battle was a victory for Melus, though

Lupus Protospatharius Lupus Protospatharius Barensis was the reputed author of the ''Chronicon rerum in regno Neapolitano gestarum'' (also called ''Annales Lupi Protospatharii''), a concise history of the Mezzogiorno from 805 to 1102. He has only been named as the aut ...

and the anonymous chronicler of Bari record a defeat. Passianos was killed in this battle.

Sources

*Chalandon, Ferdinand. ''Histoire de la domination normande en Italie et en Sicile''.

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, 1907. Byzantine generals 11th-century Byzantine military personnel 1017 deaths Byzantines killed in battle Catepanate of Italy Year of birth unknown {{Europe-mil-bio-stub