Theodoros 13

Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire
SexE
FloruitL VIII
Dates782 (taq) / 788 (tpq)
LocationsCalabria;
Sicily (officeplace);
Sicily (residence);
Constantinople;
Sicily;
Italy
TitlesPatrikios (dignity);
Strategos, Sicily (office)
Textual SourcesAnnales Regni Francorum, ed. F. Kurze, MGH, Scr. Rer. Ger. 6 (1895; repr. 1950) (annals);
Nikaia, Second Council of (Seventh Ecumenical Council, a. 787) (Mansi XII-XIII) (conciliar);
Theophanes Confessor, Chronographia, ed. C. de Boor, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1883-85, repr. Hildesheim/NewYork, 1980); tr. and comm. C. Mango and R. Scott, The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor, Oxford 1997 (chronicle);
Zonaras = Ioannis Zonarae Epitome Historiarum, libri XIII-XVIII, ed. Th. Büttner-Wobst, (Bonn, 1897) (history)

Theodoros 13 was a eunuch; he was a patrikios in 782 when the empress Eirene 1 sent him against the rebel Elpidios 2 in Sicily with a large fleet, an army chosen from the themes and capable officers; described as a man of action (Θεόδωρον τὸν πατρίκιον, εὐνοῦχον, ἄνδρα δραστήριον); after much fighting Theodoros 13 was victorious and Elpidios 2 fled to Africa: Theoph. AM 6274, cf. Zon. XV 10. 20 (unnamed eunuch, loyal to Eirene, sent with an army to Sicily against Elpidios).

He was patrikios and strategos of Sicily in 788, when he joined Ioannes 522 and the former Lombard king Adalgisos 1 (Theodotos) on a campaign against Charlemagne (Karoulos 1) in Italy: Theoph. AM 6281 (σὺν Θεοδώρῳ πατρικίῳ καὶ στρατηγῷ Σικελίας). Patrikios and governor of Sicily; in 788 he was ordered by the emperor Constantine VI (Konstantinos 8), angry that his offer of marriage to the daughter of Charlemagne (Karoulos 1) had been rejected, to make war on the lands of Beneventum; he and his officers were encountered in Calabria by Lombard and Frankish troops under Hildeprand 2, Grimoald 6 and Winigis (Winichis 1) and were totally defeated: Annales Regni Francorum s.a. 788.

Theodoros 13 was probably strategos of Sicily from 782 to 788. He is therefore to be identified with the unnamed strategos of Sicily mentioned at the Second Council of Nikaia (the Seventh Ecumenical Council) in 787 by the bishop of Katana, Theodoros 70; before the Council this strategos had sent Theodoros 70 and Epiphanios 3 to accompany Leo 63 to Rome on his mission to deliver letters from the emperors to the pope, Hadrian I (Hadrianos 1): Mansi XII 1078 (ὁ σέβων τὴν ἁγιωσύνην ὑμῶν (referring to the patriarch, Tarasios 1) ὁ τῆς κατ'ἐμὲ Σικέλων ἐπαρχίας στρατηγὸς).

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