Katepano

The Katepan (Greek: κατεπάνω, literally " the top -placed " ) was a higher military rank and title in the Byzantine Empire. This term was Latinized as capetanus / catepan, and its meaning seems to have mixed up with that of the Italian capitaneu, the caput is derived from the Latin word for head. This hybrid concept is the root of the German word " captain " and its equivalents in other languages ​​( Captain, Capitan, Kapitan, El Capitan, Il Capitano, Kapudan Pasha, etc.). The manor of Katepan called the Katepanat.

History

The term is for the first time in the 9th century used in the sense of " commander " for two different offices: the commander of the basilikoi anthropoi ( " royal men " ), low-ranking court dignitaries, and the commander of the Byzantine navy Mardaiten commands the theme of Kibyrrhaioten in southern Asia Minor.

However, in the wake of the great eastern conquests of the 960s years of title gets a specific meaning. The newly acquired frontier regions were divided into smaller themata and into larger regional command units that were performed either by a doux ( " prince " ) or just a Katepan. These were the rulers or Katepanate of Antioch, which included the south-eastern border in northern Syria, Mesopotamia in the east to the Euphrates around, and Chaldia in the north -east. Under the reign of Basil II (976-1025), the eastern boundary was extended even further and built the Katepanat of Iberia in 1022.

To the west of the kingdom of today best known Katepanat of South Italien.Nach was the successful conclusion of the Byzantine- Bulgarian Wars is also a Katepan of Bulgaria occupied. Finally, for a Serbian Katepan occupied under the name " Katepan of Ras ."

With the massive territorial losses of the 11th century the office disappears in the sense of a given wide- ranging powers military commander. On a more local level, however, a so conceptually related administrative unit remains: During the reign of the Komnenos and Palaiologos referred katepanikion some less important administrative regions in Asia Minor and Europe.

These were just small parts of the former themata, and they consisted of little more than a fortified capital ( the kastron ) and its surroundings. At the time of the Palaiologos Katepanat was a kephale (Greek: κεφαλή, " head") ruled that there vereinte.Wie supreme civil and military authority in his office many Byzantine institutions was also adapted the Katepanat in the Second Bulgarian Empire.