Alexios II of Trebizond

Alexios II Megas Komnenos or Alexius II (Greek: Αλέξιος Β΄ Μέγας Κομνηνός, Alexios II Megas Komnēnos, Sept./Dec. 1282–3 May 1330), was Emperor of Trebizond from 1297 to 1330. He was the elder son of John II and Eudokia Palaiologina.

Alexios proved to be a skillful and energetic ruler, under whose rule the Empire of Trebizond reached the climax of its prosperity. He rebuffed the inroads of the marauding Turks, and adequately handled the encroachment of Genoa and Venice. He also cultivated the arts and sciences at his court serving as a patron to the Byzantine astronomer Gregory Choniades and the scholar Constantine Loukites.

He ascended the throne at the age of 14 after the death of his father. He came under the care of his uncle, the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos. The latter wanted to marry his young ward to a daughter of the high court official Nikephoros Choumnos, but Alexios without asking for the permission married an Iberian princess, Djiadjak Jaqeli, the daughter of Beka I Jaqeli, atabeg of Samtskhe, around 1300. Andronikos appealed to the Church to annul the marriage but the Patriarch refused to oblige, on the ground that the young man’s wife was reported to be already pregnant. Alexios' mother Eudokia, who now returned to Trebizond on the pretext of inducing her son to dissolve the marriage, advised him to keep his Iberian wife.

In 1301 or 1302 he defeated a Turkoman invasion, who after conquering province of Chalybia, had penetrated deep into Trebizond's territory to sack Kerasous (modern Giresun), the second most important city of the Empire. Alexios captured their general and built a fort overlooking the sea to secure his possession of the city.

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