Alexios Apokaukos

Ἀλέξιος Ἀπόκαυκος Alexios Apokaukos
Donor portrait of the megas doux Alexios Apokaukos, from a collection of the "Works of Hippocrates" commissioned by him in the early 1340s. Alexios is depicted in the garb of his office, wearing a richly decorated kabbadion and the skaranikon, a ceremonial headdress depicting the reigning emperor.
Died	1345
Nationality	Byzantine Empire
Occupation	Statesman and military officer

Alexios Apokaukos (Greek: Ἀλέξιος Ἀπόκαυκος; died 1345) was a leading Byzantine statesman and high-ranking military officer (megas doux) during the reigns of emperors Andronikos III Palaiologos (r. 1328–1341) and John V Palaiologos (r. 1341–1357). Although he owed his rise to high state offices to the patronage of John VI Kantakouzenos (r. 1347–1354), he became, together with Patriarch John XIV Kalekas, one of the leaders of the faction supporting Emperor John V in the civil war of 1341–1347 against his one-time benefactor. Apokaukos died when he was lynched by political prisoners during an inspection of a new prison.

Alexios was of humble origin, and was born in the late 13th century somewhere in Bithynia. He nevertheless studied under the scholar Theodore Hyrtakenos, and became a tax official. By 1320 he was director of the salt pans, from which he later advanced to the position of domestikos of the themes of the West. He rose in the bureaucratic hierarchy until, in 1321, he was appointed the imperial parakoimōmenos (chamberlain). His position made him useful to John Kantakouzenos, who included him in a conspiracy, together with Syrgiannes Palaiologos and the prōtostratōr Theodore Synadenos, which aimed to depose the aging Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos in favour of his grandson Andronikos III. Under the threat of war, the Emperor surrendered Thrace and some districts in Macedonia to the rule of his grandson. When Andronikos III became sole emperor in 1328, his close friend Kantakouzenos became his chief minister, and Alexios was awarded with the positions that Kantakouzenos himself had formerly held: head of the imperial secretariat (mesazōn) and in charge of the state's finances. These positions allowed him to amass a considerable personal fortune, which he used to construct a personal refuge, a fortified tower-house at the site of Epibatai near Selymbria, at the coast of the Sea of Marmara. In early 1341, shortly before Andronikos's death, he was rewarded with the high office of megas doux, giving him the high command over the Byzantine navy. He re-equipped the fleet, paying from his own pocket 100,000 hyperpyra.