Magnates and their honours · The Byzantine Empire (the Empire of the Romans) · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Theodore Branas

The Branai are the great family of Adrianople: Alexios Branas raised his revolt of 1187 there among his own people, and in 1206 the Latins hand the city to his son Theodore.

In 1195 Theodore was among the nobles who made Alexios III emperor, and in April 1199 he was the governor of the district round Tzouroulos, where he warned the crowds gathering for a martyr's feast at Kouperion of Cuman raiders; a monk hid his letter, and the raiders took the pilgrims before the walls of Tzouroulos. On 1 January 1200 he is most likely still a governor or commander in eastern Thrace, but this is not pinned. The family's lands round Adrianople are inferred from its roots there; the Partitio of 1204 also names a Branas estate in the Peloponnese, by Patras and Methone (pel's ground).

Who he is

Name
Theodore Branas
Title
Governor of the region round Tzouroulos and Kouperion in April 1199 ('the governor of those regions', Choniates)
Since
attested as governor at the feast of St George, 23 April 1199; whether still in post on 1 January 1200 is not pinned
Born
not pinned (a young commander in 1196)
Family
Son of Alexios Branas, the general who rebelled at Adrianople, his home city, and was killed in 1187. Lives with Agnes-Anna of France, widow of the emperors Alexios II and Andronikos I. Led Alans for Isaac II; one of the nobles who helped Alexios III to the throne in 1195.
Confidence
medium

Choniates (index: leads Alans 225; plots with Alexios III 247; Dadibra 260; governs Kouperion 275; given Adrianople 352).

Overlord

The emperor.

What it holds

  • The governorship of the Tzouroulos district with Theodoropolis and Mesene (April 1199)
  • Family estates round Adrianople (inferred; not listed in any source of 1200)
  • A Branas estate near Patras and Methone (Partitio of 1204; pel)

How it was acquired

Inheritance (the family lands) and appointment (the district).

Allies and rivals

A partisan of Alexios III since 1195.

How things stand that morning

A governor in eastern Thrace in 1199; his post on 1 January 1200 not pinned.

Military

District troops; experienced commander of Alans.

Threats

  • Cuman raids on his district.

Places of note

  • Adrianople, the family's city: Home of the Branai.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: One dated notice of his governorship (April 1199); the Adrianople estates are an inference from the family's history.

On the map: The district is drawn from the town names in the 1198 list; its bounds are our estimate.

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.

Sources and studies

  1. Niketas Choniates, History (Historia), trans. H. J. Magoulias, O City of Byzantium: Annals of Niketas Choniates (Detroit 1984), the reign of Alexios III, book pages 249-296 (full text read through the archive.org search of the scan)
  2. Tafel and Thomas, Urkunden I (1856): the chrysobull of Alexios III for Venice, November 1198, with its list of provinces

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.