Product Code Database
The katepánō (, ) was a senior Byzantine Empire military rank and office. The word was 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 and its equivalents in other languages (, , Kapitän, Capitán, Capitano, Kapudan Pasha, etc.)
The reconquered frontier zones were divided into smaller themata, and grouped together to form large regional commands, headed either by a dux ("duke") or a katepanō.. These were the ducates/katepanatesNote that the original Byzantine term for a territory ruled by a katepanō was katepanikion. The term katepanate/catepanate, used in modern scholarship, is of recent origin. (.) 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.. 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 katepanō of Bulgaria is also attested. A Serbian catepanate is also attested, which was known as the " katepano of Ras"..
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 period 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 kephalē (Greek: κεφαλή, "head"), who had supreme civil and military authority within its bounds.. Like many other Byzantine institutions, the katepanikion as an administrative subdivision was also adopted in the Second Bulgarian Empire.
|
|
