Senior Byzantine military rank
Map of the administrative structure of the Byzantine Empire in 1025. The regional eastern commands, variously under
doukes
or
katepano
, are outlined. Southern Italy was under the authority of the
katepano
of Italy, while Bulgaria, Serbia and
Paristrion
were often under the authority of a single
katepano
.
The
katepan?
(
Greek
:
κατεπ?νω
;
lit.
'
[the one] placed at the top
'
, or
lit.
'
the topmost
'
) was a senior
Byzantine
military rank and office
. The word was
Latinized
as
capetanus/catepan
, and its meaning seems to have merged with that of the Italian "capitaneus" (which derives from the Latin word "caput", meaning head). This hybridized term gave rise to the
English language
term
captain
and its equivalents in other languages (
Capitan
,
Kapitan
,
Kapitan
, El Capitan, Il Capitano,
Kapudan Pasha
etc.)
History
[
edit
]
The
katepano
first appears in the 9th century, when it was used in the generic sense of "the one in charge" by two officials: the head of the
basilikoi anthr?poi
("imperial men"), a class of low-level court functionaries, and the head of the
Mardaites
marine detachments of the
Byzantine naval
theme of the
Cibyrrhaeots
in southern
Asia Minor
.
On the eve of the great eastern conquests of the 960s, however, the title acquired a more specific meaning.
The reconquered frontier zones were divided into smaller
themata
, and grouped together to form large regional commands, headed either by a
doux
("duke") or a
katepan?
.
[2]
These were the ducates/katepanates
[3]
of
Antioch
, covering the south-eastern frontier in northern
Syria
, of
Mesopotamia
in the east around the
Euphrates
, and of
Chaldia
in the north-east.
[4]
During the reign of Emperor
Basil II
(r. 976?1025), the eastern border was further expanded, and the katepanate of
Iberia
was established in 1022.
In the West, the most famous katepanate, that of
southern Italy
, is attested in the
Escorial Taktikon
, a list of offices compiled circa 971?975, and after the successful conclusion of the
Byzantine?Bulgarian Wars
, a
katepan?
of
Bulgaria
is also attested.
[4]
A
Serbian catepanate
is also attested, which was known as the
"
katepano
of Ras
".
[5]
With the catastrophic territorial losses suffered during the 11th century, the office disappears in the sense of the overall military commander, but is retained in a more local level: during the
Komnenian
and
Palaiologan
periods, the term
katepanikion
thus comes to denote low-level administrative areas, both in Asia Minor (including the
Empire of Trebizond
) and
Europe
.
These were small subdivisions of the earlier
themata
, and consisted of little more than a fortified capital (the
kastron
) and its surrounding territory. In the Palaiologan era, the
katepanikion
was governed by a
kephal?
(Greek: κεφαλ?, "head"), who had supreme civil and military authority within its bounds.
[6]
Like many other Byzantine institutions, the
katepanikion
as an administrative subdivision was also adopted in the
Second Bulgarian Empire
.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Haldon 1999
, pp. 84?85.
- ^
Note that the original Byzantine term for a territory ruled by a
katepan?
was
katepanikion
. The term katepanate/catepanate, used in modern scholarship, is of recent origin. (
ODB
, "Katepano" (A. Kazhdan), pp. 1115?1116.)
- ^
a
b
Holmes 2005
, pp. 301?302.
- ^
Krsmanovi? 2008
, pp. 186, 189.
- ^
Bartusis 1997
, pp. 33?34, 189?190, 236.
Sources
[
edit
]
- Bartusis, Mark C. (1997).
The Late Byzantine Army: Arms and Society 1204?1453
. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press.
ISBN
0-8122-1620-2
.
- Haldon, John
(1999).
Warfare, State and Society in the Byzantine World, 565?1204
. London: UCL Press.
ISBN
1-85728-495-X
.
- Holmes, Catherine (2005).
Basil II and the Governance of Empire (976?1025)
. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-19-927968-5
.
- Kazhdan, Alexander
, ed. (1991).
The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
0-19-504652-8
.
- Krsmanovi?, Bojana (2008).
The Byzantine Province in Change: On the Threshold Between the 10th and the 11th Century
. Belgrade: Institute for Byzantine Studies.
ISBN
9789603710608
.
- Ostrogorsky, George
(1956).
History of the Byzantine State
. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
- Runciman, Steven
(1988) [1929].
The Emperor Romanus Lecapenus and His Reign: A Study of Tenth-Century Byzantium
. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN
9780521357227
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
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Preceding
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Early
(330–717)
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Middle
(717–1204)
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Late
(1204–1453)
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By modern region
or territory
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Modern
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