The Sgouros ( grc-x-medieval, Σγουρός), also known as Sgouropoulos (), Sgouromallaios (), Sgouranos (), Sgouris (), Sgourismenos (), Sgouritzis (), and Sgourogiannis (), was a

Byzantine Greek Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the Ottoman co ...

noble family – composed of multiple branches – that originated from

Nafplio Nafplio ( ell, Ναύπλιο) is a coastal city located in the Peloponnese in Greece and it is the capital of the regional unit of Argolis and an important touristic destination. Founded in antiquity, the city became an important seaport in the ...

Name

The name of the family derives from the Greek adjective (), which is indicative of wavy hair. According to linguist and philologist Georgios Babiniotis, the adjective derives either from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

(γυρός) 'curved, round' with the introduction of the prefix σ-, or from the noun (σβούρος), which might have been detached from (σβουρό-μαλλος).

History

The Sgouros family was a rich and powerful family, which first appeared in the middle of the 11th c. in

. From the very beginning right until the 15th c., it was part of the Byzantine provincial middle class. Members of the family appear to hold both political and ecclesiastical positions, and they were also distinguished as scholars, scribes, orators, etc. The Byzantinist Alexander Kazhdan, who was a notable scholar of mid-Byzantine and late Byzantine society, identified twelve representatives of the family during the reign of

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 ...

(1081-1118). With the appearance of the most prominent Sgouroi at the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th centuries (Theodoros and Leon), the family arranged marriages with the noble family of

Angeloi The House of Angelos (; gr, Ἄγγελος), feminine form Angelina (), plural Angeloi (), was a Byzantine Greek noble lineage which rose to prominence through the marriage of its founder, Constantine Angelos, with Theodora Komnene, the youn ...

. Although many Sgouroi were distinguished in public administrative positions from the time of Alexios I Komnenos, they never seem to have been members of the aristocratic court in

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

. Some of the most important positions held by the recorded members – mainly from 1086/1088 AD and thereafter – were those of the ''

protospatharios ''Prōtospatharios'' ( el, πρωτοσπαθάριος) was one of the highest court dignities of the middle Byzantine period (8th to 12th centuries), awarded to senior generals and provincial governors, as well as to foreign princes. History Th ...

'', ''

sebastos ( grc-gre, σεβαστός, sebastós, venerable one, Augustus, ; plural , ) was an honorific used by the ancient Greeks to render the Roman imperial title of . The female form of the title was (). It was revived as an honorific in the 11th-ce ...

'', ''

chartoularios The ''chartoularios'' or ''chartularius'' ( el, χαρτουλάριος), Anglicized as chartulary, was a late Roman and Byzantine administrative official, entrusted with administrative and fiscal duties, either as a subaltern official of a depar ...

'', ''

proedros ''Proedros'' ( el, πρόεδρος, "president") was a senior Byzantine court and ecclesiastic title in the 10th to mid-12th centuries. The female form of the title is ''proedrissa'' (προέδρισσα). Court dignity The title was created in ...

'', '' domestikos'', ''

protostrator ''Prōtostratōr'' ( el, πρωτοστράτωρ) was a Byzantine court office, originating as the imperial stable master. Its proximity to the imperial person led to a highly visible role in imperial ceremonies, and served as a springboard for ...

'', '' logothetis'', ''

megas hetaireiarches The ( grc-gre, ἑταιρειάρχης), sometimes anglicized as Hetaeriarch, was a high-ranking Byzantine officer, in command of the imperial bodyguard, the . In the 9th–10th centuries there appear to have been several , each for one of the su ...

'', ''

protonotarios The word prothonotary is recorded in English since 1447, as "principal clerk of a court," from L.L. ''prothonotarius'' ( c. 400), from Greek ''protonotarios'' "first scribe," originally the chief of the college of recorders of the court of the B ...

'', ''prokathimenos'', '' protallagator'', and ''

sebastohypertatos ( gr, σεβαστοϋπέρτατος, , the supreme venerable one) was a Byzantine honorific title. The title formed the basis for a further compound title, ( gr, πρωτοσεβαστοϋπέρτατος, , the first supreme venerable one) ...

'' (by Leon Sgouros).

Members

There have been about 90 recorded members of the family and its branches between the 11th and 15th centuries. Of those, only four were women. Furthermore, 37 belonged to the branch of (one related through marriage to the

Doukas family The House of Doukas, Latinized as Ducas ( el, Δούκας; feminine: Doukaina/Ducaena, Δούκαινα; plural: Doukai/Ducae, Δοῦκαι), from the Latin title ''dux'' ("leader", "general", Hellenized as 'ðouks'', is the name of a Byzan ...

), 16 to (one related through marriage to the Doukas family), 14 to , four to (two related through marriage to the Palaiologoi family), two , and one , , and respectively. The following table lists them chronologically.

Footnotes

References

* * * * {{Cite book , last=Babiniotis , first=Georgios , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e4VPAQAAIAAJ , title=Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας Ελληνικής γλώσσας , publisher=Lexicology Center Ltd. , year=2010 , isbn=978-960-89751-8-7 , language=el , author-link=Georgios Babiniotis , orig-year=2009 Byzantine families