Governor of Nikopolis

Who he is

Name

Senachereim? (not pinned)

Title

Imperial governor (doux) of the province (thema) of Nikopolis

Since

Appointed by Alexios III (date not pinned)

Born

Not pinned

Family

Married to a Melissene, first cousin of Michael Komnenos Doukas's first wife (Life of St Theodora of Arta)

Confidence

low

The late 13th-century Life of St Theodora of Arta, often thought unreliable, says Alexios III made Senachereim governor of Nikopolis and that the local people killed him before Michael Komnenos Doukas arrived (1204-1205); Michael then married his widow and succeeded him. Villehardouin partly confirms this: Michael married the daughter of a great local man. Whether Senachereim already held the post on 1 January 1200 is not known.

Overlord

The emperor Alexios III Angelos.

What it holds

• Arta and the plain of the Arachthos and Louros, with the ruins of Nikopolis and the fortress-see of Rogoi (Arta)
• The estate (episkepsis) of Arta
• Acarnania with Vonitsa (Vonitsa) and the estates of Achelous and Anatolikon (Anatolikon)
• Aetolia with Naupaktos, the metropolitan see (Naupaktos)
• The estate of Lesiana (place not pinned)
• Lefkada (never taken by the Normans in 1185; whether it answered to Nikopolis or went with Corfu, the remnant of the old island theme of Kephallenia, as in the 1204 list 'Leukas et Coripho', is not pinned)

How it was acquired

Imperial throughout the 12th century; Bohemond besieged Arta without success in 1082.

Allies and rivals

The great local families (the Melissenoi by marriage, on the Life of St Theodora; no estate of theirs is located); the metropolitan of Naupaktos; the Venetian traders at Arta and Vonitsa. Rival across the water: the count of Kefalonia.

How things stand that morning

Byzantine. A governor appointed by Alexios III holds the province from Arta, possibly Senachereim (low confidence); the episkepseis are in the hands of churches, monasteries and private holders whose names are not recorded. Across the borders: Vagenetia (doux of Dyrrachion) north of the Acheron, the province of Ioannina to the north, Thessaly (mac) beyond the Pindus, Hellas (pel) beyond the Mornos, Patras and the Peloponnese (pel) across the Gulf of Corinth, the count of Kefalonia's islands to the south-west.

Wealth

The plains of Arta and the Achelous, the lagoons and fisheries of Mesolongi and Anatolikon, the harbours of the Ambracian Gulf and of Naupaktos, the Venetian trade (Arta had links with Venice in the Komnenian period).

Military

Walled Naupaktos and Vonitsa; the fortress of Rogoi; Arta's castle is not yet built (Michael I builds it after 1205). No numbers.

Threats

• The count of Kefalonia and the corsairs of the Ionian Sea
• The breakdown of imperial authority in the provinces

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1204-1205 (beyond 1200)The local people kill the governor Senachereim; Michael Komnenos Doukas, Alexios III's cousin, marries his widow and takes over the province from Arta, the start of the later state of Epirus.Depends on: The fall of Constantinople (1204) and the collapse of imperial authority Stopped by: A surviving empire, or Senachereim keeping his people's loyalty

Places of note

• Nikopolis (ruins): The Roman city that gave the province its name; long abandoned

Where the sources disagree

• The only name for this governorship under Alexios III comes from a late hagiography; the date of the appointment is unknown, so the holder on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Evidence: The province's make-up is known from the 1198 chrysobull and the 1204 partition; its governor rests on the Life of St Theodora of Arta.

On the map: Rough outlines; the inner bounds of the estates (episkepseis) are unknown, and the eastern edge against Thessaly and Hellas is guessed along the Pindus and the Mornos.

Primary sources for Byzantium

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Chronicle of Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (about 1227 to 1241, at the Cistercian abbey of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne). The widest net of any Latin chronicle for 1200, compiled from dozens of sources, many now lost. Read online
• History of Niketas Choniates, Niketas Choniates (about 1185 to 1217, in stages, with a final revision in exile at Nicaea after 1204). The central narrative for the Byzantine Empire under Alexios III Angelos: the Bulgarian and Vlach war under Kaloyan, the breakaway of Ivanko in the Rhodopes and his capture by treachery in 1200, Dobromir Chrysos at Prosek and Strumica and the emperor's campaign and settlement with him, the Cuman raids into Thrace, John Komnenos the Fat's one-day revolt at Constantinople on 31 July 1200, the loosening of imperial control in the provinces and the rise of Leo Sgouros, and the court's fiscal abuses. Read online
• The Capture of Constantinople, Gunther of Pairis (about 1205 to 1210). Written at the Cistercian abbey of Pairis in Alsace from the account of its abbot Martin, who preached the crusade at Basel in 1200 (Gunther gives the sermon) and led a contingent from the Upper Rhine. Read online
• The Conquest of Constantinople, Robert de Clari, knight of Picardy (about 1205 to 1216). A rank-and-file crusader's account that begins with the preaching of the crusade and the taking of the cross in 1199 to 1200 by the counts of Flanders, Blois and Champagne and by the Picard lords, among them Peter of Amiens, Robert's own lord, then the negotiations with Venice. Read online
• The Palace Revolution of John Komnenos (31 July 1200), Nicholas Mesarites (1200 or soon after). An eyewitness narrative of the one-day coup of John Komnenos the Fat at Constantinople on 31 July 1200: the crowning of the usurper in Hagia Sophia, the mob's plunder of the Great Palace, the stand of the palace clergy and the guard at the church of the Virgin of the Pharos, where Mesarites was skeuophylax, and the recovery of the palace by Alexios III's men that night. Read online
• History of the doges of Venice (about 1229, with a continuation). The earliest surviving Venetian narrative close to the events. Read online
• The Conquest of Constantinople (Villehardouin), Geoffrey of Villehardouin (about 1207 to 1213). Opens with the preaching of Fulk of Neuilly and the tournament at Ecry (28 November 1199) where Theobald III of Champagne and Louis of Blois took the cross, then the taking of the cross by Baldwin of Flanders, Hugh of Saint-Pol, Geoffrey of Perche and others through early 1200, the assemblies at Soissons and Compiegne in 1200, and the six envoys sent to Venice in the winter of 1200 to 1201. Read online
• The History of the Seljuks of Rum, Ibn Bibi (Nasir al-Din Husayn ibn Muhammad) (about 1281 to 1285, at Konya). The main Seljuk narrative for Rum begins with Kilij Arslan II's partition of the sultanate among his sons and his death (1192), Kaykhusraw I's first reign at Konya, his deposition in 1196 to 1197 by Rukn al-Din Sulayman II, Kaykhusraw's wanderings to Cilician Armenia, Aleppo and Constantinople, Sulayman's reduction of his brothers' towns (Tokat, Malatya, Amasya, and Ankara by 1204) and his Erzurum and Georgian campaigns. Read online

7 more in the sources library for The Balkans and Byzantium.