Barsakios imperial protospatharios and strategos of Cephalonia (ninth century)

Commentary

Lines 1 and 2 (rev.): both betas in these lines are of the double loop type, but they are close to the R-type beta, as it appears, for example, on the seal of the Patriarch Ignatios (847-58, 867-77: Datedd Seals, no. 51). As a result, we will neither exclude nor press the identification of our Barsakios with the patrikios Barsakios who became strategos of Longobardia in 894, possibly after having governed Sicily in 880/81 (DOSeals 1.5.10: same type of seal). Cf. also DOSeals 2, no. 8.41.

The theme of Cephalonia (Κεφαλληνία or Κεφαλονία, cf. nos. 1.15 and 1.16 below) included the Ionian islands ("ἤγουν τὰ νησία": De Adm. Imp. chap. 50, line 85; cf. Commentary, 188), with the possible exception of Kythera. The first mention in written sources of a strategos (praefectus) of Cephalonia is found under the year 809 (Annales of Eucherius: MGH SS, I, 196-97; cf. Pertusi, in De Them., 174); but Laurent (Vatican, 96 and note 1) rightly observed that Pančenkohad published (Katalog, no. 408, cf. pl. V, no. 4) the seal of Lykastos, strategos Cephalonia which can be reasonably assigned to the 8th century--a conclusion that is corroborated by our nos. 1.15, 1.17, 1.18 below (cf. also the seal M-501 of the Hermitage, reproduced by I. Sokolova, in VizVrem 42 [1981] table IVa). Thus it may be concluded that a strategeia of Cephalonia had been established already in the 8th century, with a view to reestablishing firm imperial control over the western coast of the Balkans, defending it against the Arabs, and preparing the Byzantine counterattack against Italy. In the 9th and early 10th century, close administrative relations, possibly of dependence, were established between Cephalonia and Longobardia, and in several instances the armies of the two provinces were placed under one commander (cf. N. Oikonomides, "Constantin VII et les thèmes de Céphalonie et de Longobardie," REB 23 [1965] 122 ff; Falkenhausen, Dominazione, 26-27; and DOSeals 1.3.2-1.3.4). There are also instances where the commander of Cephalonia is identical with the one of the neighboring theme of Nikopolis (see Seibt, Nikopolis, 334, and DOSeals 2, no 2.2).

The strategos, attested until the 10th century, presumably resided on the island of Cephalonia but also elsewhere, for example, on the important island of Corfou (see DOSeals 2, § 5). As is natural for an insular theme, Cephalonia had its own fleet (with a contingent of Mardaïtai: Cer., 665, cf. Malamut, Iles, 164), headed by a special tourmarches (τοῦ πλωίμου Κεφαλληνίας; Laurent, Vatican, no. 96), while other tourmarchai (including one of Cephalonia [?]: Sig., 208; and one of Corfou, cf. § 5 below) and their subordinates, such as the droungarioi, commanded the army. As a gateway to foreign countries, it had its own kommerkiarioi (e.g., no. 1.5 below), who may be identical with the kommerkiarioi of the West (see DOSeals 1.1 and 1.1.23-1.1.29; different hypothesis in Dunn, Kommerkiarios). We know of an 8th/9th century seal of Basil τῶν δεήσεων Κεφαλληνίας (Pančenko, Katalog, no. 292), indicating that at a certain moment around the year 800 an imperial emissary went to the theme to receive the presumably numerous requests or complaints of the population (R. Guilland, "Le maître des requêtes: ὁ ἐπὶ τῶν δεήσεων," Byzantion 35 [1965] 97-98 = Guilland, Titres, no. XXII; cf. also A. Kazhdan, "Hagiographical Notes," Byzantion 56 [1986] 149-150). We also know that an exarch represented in the 10th century, the interests of the patriarch in the whole theme of Cephalonia (Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 242 bis).

On the theme of Cephalonia, see the bibliography quoted in Listes, 352, note 364; Soustal, Nikopolis und Kephallenia, 175-77; Winkelmann, Ämterstruktur, 102-4, 125; Malamut, Iles, 186-88, 307-9, 485-87, 516-21, and passim; P. Niavis, in the Praktika of the Fifth International Panionian Congress (1986) I (Argostoli, 1989), 43-47; ODB II, 1122-23.