Niketas 160 was born in a fifteenth indiction and he died in a fifteenth indiction: Vita Nicet. Patric. 22. He died in October of a fifteenth indiction in the reign of the emperor Theophilos 5: Synax. Nicet. Patric. (in AASS Oct. III, pp. 448-449). The only year which corresponds to this is 836/837; he therefore died in October 836. The day of his death was 6 October: Synax. Eccl. Const. 116, 4-6. He was aged seventy-five when he died: Vita Nicet. Patric. 26, Synax. Nicet. Patric. 6. He was therefore born in 761/762.

Niketas 160 was the son of Gregorios 168 and Anna 17; he was born in Paphlagonia and went to Constantinople when he was aged seventeen (therefore in 778/779); he had been made a eunuch by his parents and he entered service under the empress Eirene (Eirene 1); he reached a high position on her staff (he became πρῶτος ἐν τοῖς οἰκείοις πάντων; the precise significance of this is unclear): Synax. Nicet. Patric. 1.

According to one source Niketas 160 was a relative (συγγένης) of the empress Eirene 1, who promoted him as much because of his qualities as because of their kinship; he was allegedly sent by her as her representative at the Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787 (ἐκ προσώπου τῆς δεσποίνης): Menol. Basil. (PG 117) 93.

Later Niketas 160 was made a patrikios and subsequently became strategos of Sicily: Synax. Nicet. Patric. 1 (φθάσας τὸ τῶν πατρικίων ἀξίωμα στρατηγὸς Σικελίας προβάλλεται), Menol. Basil. (PG 117) 93 (τιμηθεὶς πατρίκιος, προεχειρίσθη στρατηγὸς Σικελίας).

Governor of Sicily; in 797 Niketas 160 sent to Charlemagne (Karoulos 1) an envoy, Theoktistos 25, with a letter from the emperor: Annales Regni Francorum s.a. 797 (p. 105). See Winkelmann, Rangstruktur, 86-87.

During his term in office Niketas 160 is said to have performed well and aided widows and orphans; he then returned to Constantinople, where he found that the iconoclast Leo (Leo 15) had become emperor; he thereupon gave up his rank and his wealth and abandoned the world to become a monk; on hearing of this the emperor ordered him to surrender an icon of the Saviour to be burned; he refused and was sent into exile where he suffered much before dying: Menol. Bas. (PG 117) 93BC, Synax. Eccl. Const. 116, 4-6.

According to another account, he desired to become a monk but was prevented by the emperors Nikephoros 8 and Staurakios 2; after the death of Staurakios 2 (in 811) he became a monk; he was then aged fifty: Synax. Nicet. Patric. 2. He was a monk in the monastery of Chrysonike in Constantinople: Synax. Nicet. Patric. 3. When the persecution of iconophiles resumed under the emperor Leo 15, he refused to hand over icons (cf. above) and was exiled from Constantinople: Synax. Nicet. Patric. 3.

He was again exiled during the persecution under the emperor Theophilos 5: Synax. Nicet. Patric. 4. He visited Panteichion and then Eribolos before settling on an estate belonging to a relative, Nikolaos 86, at a villa called Zouloupas: Synax. Nicet. Patric. 5, Vita Nicet. Patric. 2-4. He withdrew from there to Katnia where he built a church; he died there after several years: Synax. Nicet. Patric. 6, Vita Nicet. Patric. 22.

Possibly identical with Niketas 34 and Niketas 35. Possibly identical also with the owner of a seal published by Salinas, Notizie Degli Scavi 1894, 416-417, found at Rhegium (Reggio di Calabria); Papachrysanthou, TM 3, p. 316, n. 48, argued that this seal therefore dated after the strategos of Sicilia moved his headquarters from Syracuse to Rhegium, and therefore was after 902, but seals by their nature travelled and the finding of this seal at Rhegium does not mean that it did not originate from Syracuse. However, this seal does not appear to have belonged to the same person as Borsari, no. 6 (cf. Niketas 34); see the remarks of Borsari and Papachrysanthou.

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