Bardanes Tourkos

Bardanes
Allegiance	Byzantine Empire
Rank	Domestic of the Schools, strategos of the Thracesians and the Anatolics, monostrategos of the Anatolian themes

Bardanes, nicknamed Tourkos, "the Turk" (Greek: Βαρδάνης ὁ Τοῦρκος, fl. 795–803), was a Byzantine general of Armenian origin who launched an unsuccessful rebellion against Emperor Nikephoros I (r. 802–811) in 803. Although a major supporter of Byzantine empress Irene of Athens (r. 797–802), soon after her overthrow he was appointed by Nikephoros as commander-in-chief of the Anatolian armies. From this position, he launched a revolt in July 803, probably in opposition to Nikephoros's economic and religious policies. His troops marched towards Constantinople, but failed to win popular support. At this point, some of his major supporters deserted him and, reluctant to engage the loyalist forces in battle, Bardanes gave up and chose to surrender himself. He retired as a monk to a monastery he had founded. There he was blinded, possibly on Nikephoros's orders.

Nothing is known of the early life of Bardanes. He is usually regarded by modern scholars as an Armenian on account of his first name (a Hellenized form of Vardan), whilst his sobriquet "Tourkos", which was bestowed upon him, probably disparagingly, only after his revolt, could suggest a Khazar origin.

Bardanes is probably identical with the patrikios Bardanios who appears in the Chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor in the mid-790s. In 795, he was Domestic of the Schools (commander of the Scholai guards), and was dispatched to arrest the monk Plato of Sakkoudion for his public opposition to the second marriage of Emperor Constantine VI (r. 780–797) to Plato's niece Theodote. In 797, as strategos (military governor) of the Thracesian Theme, this same Bardanios supported the Empress-mother Irene of Athens when she usurped the throne from her son. On Easter Monday, 1 April 799, he is recorded as one of the four patrikioi (along with Niketas Triphyllios, Sisinnios Triphyllios and Constantine Boilas) who led the horses of the Empress's carriage on a unique triumphal procession from the palace to the Church of the Holy Apostles.

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