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A note on the death of Leo Sgurus in A.D. 1208*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Alexis G.C. Savvides
Alexis G.C. Savvides*
Affiliation:
Centre for Byzantine Research, Athens
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Extract

Leo Sgurus, archon and ‘tyrant’ of Argolis and Corinthia from c.1200 with an impressive career in the period until c.1208, succeeded in establishing an extensive albeit short-lived Territorialstaat in the NE Peloponnesus following the Latin capture of Constantinople on 12/13 April 1204 and the subsequent Latin onslaught in Greek territories. Truly among the most outstanding figures of the late Byzantine era, Sgurus has been characterized by Dionysios A. Zakythenos as one of the last ‘defenders of Greek independence’ following the Frankish conquest of 1204, 2 for this local archon seems to have constituted the sole realistic hope of the mainland Greece populations for an effective stance against the marching crusaders of Boniface of Montferrat, though, as the late George Kolias observed thirty years ago, he unwisely directed his activities rather against his compatriots than against the Latin invader. Yet, it has recently been said by Michael J. Angold that Sgurus ‘almost certainly enjoyed local backing in his expeditions’.

Type
Short Notes
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 12 , 1988 , pp. 289 - 295
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 1988

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References

1 See Hoffmann, J. H., Rudimente von Territorialstaaten im byzantinischen Reich, 1071-1210 (Munich 1974) 56 ff., 95 ffGoogle Scholar.; Setton, K., The Papacy and the Levant, I: 13th & 14th Cent. (Philadelphia 1976) 21 ff.Google Scholar; Koder-F. Hild, J., Hellas und Thessalia (Vienna 1976: TIB, 1) 68, 69 Google Scholar; cf. details in my article, , MGEY Al (1987), 74-6.

2 Zakythenos, D., , 1453 (Athens 1972, repr. 1980) 86 Google Scholar.

3 Kolias, G., (Thessalonica 19842)82.Google Scholar

4 Angold, M., The Byzantine Empire, 1025-1204. A Political History (London-New York 1984) 278 Google Scholar.

5 5 (1983) 172, who also dates Sgurus’s annexation of Argos and Corinth to 1203 and 1204 respectively, though they seem to have been captured by the Naupliote dynast in or before 1202.

6 Cf. Koder-Hild, Hellas & Thesalia] 270; Sawides, A. , 1st Geogr 2 (1987-8) 49ffGoogle Scholar.

7 See Sawides, A., AEM 24 (1981/2) 318–19 Google Scholar.

8 Scutariotes, MB 7 (1894) 453: Note that Scutariotes, like Acropolites (ed. A. Heisenberg-P. Wirth, I, Stuttgart 1978: Teubner, p. 13), places the marriages in Corinth, while Nicetas Choniates (ed. J.-L. van Dieten, Berlin-New York 1975: CFHB, 608, 609) correctly places it in Larissa; cf. Barzos, C., II (Thessalonica 1984) 797 Google Scholar and table 630-31. If Scutariotes is correct, then the title of sebastohypertatus, appearing on Sgurus’s surviving lead seal, was probably afforded to him before 1204, probably by Alexius III. On this cf. Laurent, V., ‘Les bulles métriques dans la sigillographie byzantine’, Hell 5 (1932) 173–4 Google Scholar; Kordoses, M., 1st Georgr 1 (1986), 64, n.21, 71–2 Google Scholar & refs.; Guilland, R., Recherches sur les institutions byzantines, II (Amsterdam 1967)Google Scholar 3. Sgurus may, however, have received the title of sebastohypertatus during the Larissa meeting (1204): see Gregorovius, op.cit., I, 369. Lamprynides, M., (Athens 1898,1, Nauplion 19753) 30 Google Scholar; Sardeles, C., art. fasc. 73 (Athens, July 1974) 17 Google Scholar. On Sgurus’s seal, bearing an effigy of a military Saint (probably St. Theodore Stratelates), see Bon, A., Le Péloponnèse Byzantin jusqu’ à 1204 (Paris 1951) 204–5 Google Scholar (no. 68); cf. Schlumberger, G., La Sigillographie de l’Empire Byzantin (Paris 1886) 698–9 Google Scholar.

9 Tarsule, Athena, (Athens 1971) 33 Google Scholar.

10 Cheetham, N., Medieval Greece (New Haven 1981) 65 Google Scholar.

11 For bibliogr. refs. on Sgurus’s meteoric career see (Athens 1986) 41–2 Google Scholar & xsns., 175; cf. also the recent detailed treatment by Kordoses, M., (Athens 1981, doct. diss.) 93, 95 ff., 97 ffGoogle Scholar.; idem, … op.cit., 63 ff., 67ff., 72ff., 76ff., 80ff. with detailed refs.

12 Zakythenos, op.cit., 86.

13 See Longnon, J., L’Empire Latin de Constantinople et la Principauté de Morée (Paris 1949) 92 Google Scholar; Bon, A., La Morée Franque (Paris 1969) 68 Google Scholar; Hoffmann, op.cit., 59; Setton, Papacy, I, 405-6, n.7; idem, in CMH IV, 1 (19662) 389; Gritsopulos, T., Pel 9 (1972, also publ, separately: Athens 1973) 161, 172 Google Scholar; Runciman, S., Mistra. Byzantine Capital ofthe Péloponnèse (London 1980) 21–2 Google Scholar; Cheetham, op.cit., 65; Savvides, 42, etc. For older literature cf. Kordoses, ., 117, n.109. The index of K. Setton (ed.), A History of the Crusades, II: The Later Crusades, 1189-1311 (Madison 19692), 845, dates Sgurus’s death c.1208, while in his relevant chapter in this collective work J. Longnon (p.240) correctly dates the subsequent capitulation of the Acrocorinthus in 1209 (see below, n.29).

14 Acropolites, I, 13; Scutariotes, 453.

15 Ephraem, ed. Odys. Lampsides, II (Athens 1985) 237-8, vs. 7296-7332, esp. 7321-22, and p.247, vs. 7578-80.

16 Kordoses, 118, attributes these petitions to Cyrill, who held the metropolitan see of Monembasia towards the middle of the 15th cent., after Dositheus (c.1437), Theodosius or Theodorus (c.1438) and Silvester (c.1439); cf. Gritsopulos, T., art. ThEE 6 (1966) col. 44 Google Scholar (Cyrill is recorded to have held the metropolitanate jointly with a certain Joseph). Gritsopulos, however, attributes the two petitions to Dorotheus, and moreover dates them to 1426, in which case the addressee was the Patriarch Joseph II (1416-39).

17 In this case it could be either Metrophanes II (1440-43) or Gregory III Mammas (1443-51) who received those petitions.

18 Reference to Caius Fabricius Luscinus (late 4th-early 3rd cent. B.C.) one of the opponents of the Epirote king, Pyrrhus, in the 270s.

19 In Bibl. Apost. Vatic./Cod.Pal.Gr. 226, fol. 122r, lines 22-3; ed. Sp. Lampros, 12 (1915) 288; cf. Setton, Papacy, I, 405-6, n.7& refs.; Kordoses, 117-18, n.20.

20 Cf. Chryssa Maltezu in IEE vol. IX (1979), 248; Kordoses, …, 99; idem, op.cit. Cf. also above, n.13.

21 Buchon, J., Histoire des Conquêtes et de l’Establissement des Français dans les États de l’Ancienne Grèce sous les Villehardouins à la suite de la 4ème Croisade, I (Paris 1846) 176 Google Scholar; Lamprynides, M., (1898 1) 72–4 — (1975 3), 37–8 Google Scholar. Kordoses, 118, n.21, writes that Lamprynides apparently borrowed this information from Buchon, who had made a muddle between Sgurus and Alexius III, but this explanation is not sufficient to nullify the 2nd version of Sgurus’s death, which follows the events from the alleged flight of the dynast from the Acrocorinthus.

22 See Drabellas, G., art. MEE 18, p.104; Tarsule, A., op.cit., 33 Google Scholar.

23 This sally was recorded by the Chronicle of the Morea (ed. P. Kalonaros, Athens 1940, 65, vs. 1528ff.) and Villehardouin (ed. E. Farai, II, Paris 1939, repr. 1961: Bude 140-3 with French tr. & comm., §331-2; cf. Engl.tr. Margaret Shaw, Harmonds-worth 1963, repr. 1978: Penguin Classic 114-15). See also Nie. Choniates (CFHB, 611) and Kordoses, 78.

24 This dating is followed by Vula Konte, op.cit., who dates Sgurus’s death to 1209.

25 This is the only account that makes reference to a wife of Sgurus. The other sources (cf. Savvides, 125, n.153) are silent about this.

26 See Miller, W. in CMH IV (1923 1) 436 Google Scholar; Nicol, D., The Despotate of Epiros (Oxford 1957) 24ffGoogle Scholar.; Gritsopulos, 172; Cheetham, op.cit., 65. See now the detailed account by Kordoses EpChr 22 (1980), 49-57, esp. 55ff. & refs.; 119 ff. Cf. Savvides, 122-3, n. 140, 125, n.153.

27 Loenertz, R., ‘Aux Origines du Despotat d’Epire et de la Principauté d’Achaïe’, B 43 (1973) 390–1 Google Scholar, followed by Nicol, D. in IEE IX, 82 (he refers to ‘a certain Theodore’, although in his chapter in CMH IV, 1, 297 Google Scholar, he accepts the fact that Michael I had entrusted to his brother Theodore the defence against the Latins of the few remaining Greek strongholds in the Morea). Loenertz is also followed by Barzos, C., II, 678, n.37 Google Scholar; actually Barzos did not mention anything concerning Theodore’s involvement in the affairs of the Péloponnèse in his lengthy pro-sopographical chapter on Theodore (ibid., 548ff., no. 168). Finally, Loenertz is followed by Prinzing, G., ‘Studien zur Provinz und Zentralverwaltung im Machtbereich der Epirotischen Herrscher Michael I. und Theodoros Dukas’, EpChr 25 (1983) 39 Google Scholar.

28 Ziangos, N., (Athens 1974) 80–1 Google Scholar.

29 See Sphekopulos, J., (Athens 1968) 65–6, 89–90 Google Scholar; Kordoses, 119-22 & refs. Runciman, however, dates the capitulation of Acrocorinth to the autumn of 1210 (Mistra, 22-3).