Apocapes

Apocapes (Apokapes or Apokapai) was an Armeno-Georgian noble family members of which are known to have held important positions in the Byzantine military administration in the 11th century.

The most notable member of the family was Basil Apocapes, son of the patrician Michael Apocapes or Abu K’ab, who had once served as a tent-guard for the influential Georgian Bagratid prince David of Tao (r. 966-1000) and then commanded the city of Edessa (modern-day Şanlıurfa, Turkey) under the Byzantine Emperor Michael IV the Paphlagonian (r. 1034-1041). In 1054, Basil Apocapes rallied the people of Manzikert and repulsed the Seljuks under Toğrül. Later, from 1059 to 1065, he served as archon (magistros and doux) of Paradounavon, literally "[lands] beside the Danube." In 1064, he, together with the future emperor Nicephorus Botaneiates, and his sons, was defeated and captured by the Oghuz Turks who had crossed the northern Balkans, but the outbreak of epidemic soon decimated the invaders and the prisoners were recovered. After the defeat of Romanos IV by Andronikos Doukas in 1071, he seems to have been under the command of Philaretos Brachamios, a Byzantine general of Armenian heritage, who had established himself in Cilicia, and served him as a governor of Edessa from 1077 until his death in 1083.

References

• Grünbart, M., "Die Familie Apokapes im Licht neuer Quellen," in N. Oikonomides, ed., Studies in Byzantine sigillography, V (Washington, DC, 1998), 29-41.
• Alexios G. C. Savvides. The Armenian-Georgian-Byzantine family of Apocapes/Abukab in the 11th c., Δίπτυχα 5 (1991), 96-104.