Nikephoros Komnenos

Nikephoros Komnenos (Νικηφόρος Κομνηνός; ca. 970 – after 1026/7) was a Byzantine military leader under Basil II and Constantine VIII, serving as governor of the Armenian region of Vaspurakan, and one of the first known members of the Komnenos family.

Biography
Nikephoros Komnenos is one of the first documented members of the Komnenos family, but his early life, and indeed his connection to the main branch of the family, are unknown. The Greek scholar Konstantinos Varzos suggested that he was born ca. 970, and that he was the younger brother of the Komnenian dynasty's patriarch, Manuel Erotikos Komnenos, but both assumptions cannot be verified.

He is first attested in ca. 1022, shortly after the King of Vaspurakan, Senekerim-Hovhannes (reigned 1003–1021), unable to confront the pressure of his Muslim neighbours, surrendered his kingdom to the Byzantine emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025) in exchange for large estates and the governorship of the theme of Sebasteia. Basil initially gave the new province (Ἀσπρακανία, Asprakania, in Greek) to Basil Argyros, but was forced to replace him soon after due to his ineptitude. The protospatharios Nikephoros Komnenos was the chosen successor as governor (strategos or katepano), and he swiftly managed to actually enforce Byzantine rule over the country. The contemporary Armenian historian Aristakes Lastivertsi records that he captured the principality of Arzes on the northern shore of Lake Van, and incorporated it into his province, although from the narrative of the likewise contemporary Arab Christian historian Yahya of Antioch, the feat seems to have been carried out by Emperor Basil himself.

Nikephoros Komnenos continued to serve as strategos of Vaspurakan under Basil II's brother and successor, Constantine VIII (r. 1025–1028), but in 1026 he was dismissed on suspicion of disloyalty and recalled to Constantinople, where he was blinded. Two different versions are provided by the sources on the background to his recall: the Byzantine chronicler John Skylitzes reports that he insisted on a written pledge of support from his troops, intended to be used against the neighbouring Turkish rulers, but which was interpreted by Constantine as an attempt to create a force personally loyal to him. While Skylitzes declares the accusation baseless and puts the blame on the over-suspicious Constantine, Aristakes claims that Nikephoros was indeed engaged in treasonous talks with King George I of Georgia (r. 1014–1027), aiming to declare himself emperor or making Vaspurakan an independent kingdom. When the troops of Cappadocia found out about it, however, they captured Nikephoros and sent him prisoner to Constantinople, where Constantine VIII, after carefully examining the affair and convincing himself of Nikephoros' guilt, had him and eight of his companions blinded in the next year.

His fate after that, the date of his death, as well as any descendants, are unknown.