Philaretos Brachamios (Φιλάρετος Βραχάμιος; Armenian: Փիլարտոս Վարաժնունի, Pilartos Varajnuni; Latin: Philaretus Brachamius) was a distinguished Byzantine general and warlord of Armenian heritage. Philaretos is testified on seals as taxiarches (commander of an infantry regiment), as well as protospatharios and topoteretes (deputy commander) of the Tagmata of Cappadocia, then as magister and doux (duke), and finally as kuropalates and doux.

He held a high command in the army of Romanus IV Diogenes. After the Battle of Manzikert (1071), he commanded the forces of the fortress Romanopolis. As the only remaining Byzantine general in the southeast he established a quasi-autonomous realm, which stretched from Cilicia to Edessa. The core of his army was composed of 8,000 "Franks" (Normans) under Raimbaud. In 1078, at the beginning of the rule of Nicephorus III Botaniates, he became duke of Antioch, which included Edessa. Several seals testify him as megas domestikos and protokuropalates, then sebastos, then even protosebastos. In December 1084, he lost Antioch to Suleiman I, Sultan of Rum. In 1087, Edessa fell to Malik Shah and Philaretos escaped back to the fortress of Germanicia. However, some sources indicate that he died in 1086. He was the last well-known Scholen Domestikos of Anatolia. His sons handed Germanicia to the First Crusade in 1098.

See also

• Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia

References

• Chronicles of Matthew of Edessa, translation by A. Dostourian, Armenia and the Crusades, 10th to 12th Centuries. The Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa (Lanham, MD-London, 1993)
• Gravett, Christopher, and Nicolle, David. The Normans: Warrior Knights and their Castles. Osprey Publishing: Oxford, 2006.

External links

• Project Beauceant: Chronicle of events between 1050 and 1350