Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/838

Rh 820 COMNENUS. (Dion Cass. lib. Ixxii. and Excerpta Vaticana, p. 121, ed. Sturz; Herodian. i. 10 — 55; Capitolin. M. Aurel. ; Lamprid. Commod. ; and the minor Roman historians.) [W. R.] COMNE'NA. [Anna Comnena.] COMNE'NUS, the name of an illustrious By- saniine family, which in all probability was of Italian origin, and migrated to the East in the time of Constantine the Great or his immediate successors. Several of the other great Byzantine families were likewise of Italian origin, as for in- stance the Ducae. That the name Comnenus was not unknown in Italy in early times, is proved by an inscription on a marble discovered in the walls of the church of St. Secundus, at Ameria in Italy, and which stands thus : — L. COMNENO. 0. L. FELICI. COMNENAE. q. L. NYMPHE. ET. COMNENO. 3. L. FELIONI. C. SERVILIO. ALBANO. Six emperors of the F>ast, — Isaac I., Alexis I., Calo-Joannes (John II.), Manuel I., Alexis II., and Andronicus I., — all the emperors of Trebizond, and a vast number of generals, statesmen, and authors, were descended from the family of the Comneni ; but while almost all of them were dis- tinguished by the choicest natural gifts both of COMNENUS. mind and of body, many of them were notorious for a laxity of morals, in which they were excelled by none of their frivolous countrymen. Imperial families, such as the Ducae, the Angeli, the Pa- laeologi, several royal houses in Europe, and even the reigning dynasty of the sultans in Turkey, boasted, and still boast, of being descended from the Comneni ; and down to this very day the pre- tensions of a noble family in France to be entitled by descent to the name of Princes de Comnene have attracted the attention of historians of repute. A history of that family would be a most valuable contribution to our knowledge of the Greeks during the middle ages. When the Comneni first became known in history, in the tenth century, they be- longed to the Greek nobility in Asia, and their family seat was at Castamone, a town in Paphla- gonia, near the Black Sea, where Alexis Comnenus, afterwards emperor, visited the palace of his ances- tors during the reign of Michael VII. Ducas Para- pinaces. Towards the close of the tenth century two Comneni, Manuel and Nicephorus, became conspicuous, who were probably brothers, and who are generally called the ancestors of the Comnenian family. The following table exhibits the genealogy of this family, as far as it can be traced, together I with a brief account of each individual of it. Manuel, Praefectus totius Orientis in a. d. 976, under the emperor Basil II.; died before 1 025. I Nicephorus Protospatharius ; praefect of Aspracania (Media Superior) in 101b'; blinded in 1026 by order of the emperor Con- stantine IX. ; time of death uncertain ; no issue known. I 1. Isaac I., Emperor [IsaacusL] ; died probably in 1061 ; married Aiciitherina, or Catherina, daughter of either Samuel or John Wladislaus, kings of Bulgaria. 1. Manuel, of whom nothing is known ; died young, before 1059. 2. Maria, retired 'ith her mother into the convent of Myri- laeum, after 1 059. 2- Joannes Curopalata, Magnus Domesticus, died shortly after 1067; married Anna Dalassena, daughter of Alexis Charon, praefect of the By- zantine part of Italy. 3. A daughter, married one Doceanus, probably Michael Do- ceanus, Pro- tospatharius. I I.Manuel, bom before 1048 ; Protoproedrus, Protostrator, Curopalata, a great general; taken prisoner by the Turks in 1069 ; soon restored to liberty ; died shortly after 1069, in Bithynia. I I 2. Isjiac, Sebasto- crator. See Ite- loii I. 3. Alexis, Emperor. See be- low, II. 4. Adrian, Pro- 5. Nioephor- tosebastus, us, Sebastus, Magnus Do- Magnus mesticus Occi- Drungarius; dentis ; marr. killed in a Zoe, youngest battle with daugh. of the the Scy- Emperor Con- thians, in stantine XL 1089. Ducas, and Eudoxia Da- lassena ; left issue, of whom nothing is known. Daughter, married a descendant of the emperor Nicephorus Botaniates. I 6. Maria, married Michael Taronita, Protosebas- tus, Proto- vestiarius, Panhyper- sebastus, a Syrian noble. I 7. Eudoxia, married Ni- cephorus Melissenus ; their descen- dants receiv- ed among the Spanish no- bility to- wards the end of the sixteenth century. 8. Theodora, married either Diogenes, or more probably Leo, both sons of the emperor Romanus Dio- genes. Leo was killed in 1090, and Theodora retired to the convent of Melissaeum. Daughter, married Gregorius Pacurianus, Sebastus, son of Pacurianus, Magnus Domesticus Occidentis. From above. I. Isaac, the excellent elder brother of Alexis I., died before 1118, in a convent to which he retired when old ; married Irene, daughter of a prince of the Alani, and a relative of Maria, wife of the emperor Michael VII. Ducas Parapinaces, and, after his death, of the emperor Romanus Diogenes.