Gregory Pakourianos
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Gregory Pakourianos (Georgian: გრიგოლ ბაკურიანის-ძე, Grigol Bakurianis-dze) (died 1086) was a prominent Georgian politician and military commander in the Byzantine service.
He was a son of Bakuri (Pakourianos), a Georgian/Iberian duke from the Tao region which had been annexed by the Byzantines since 1001. Engaged in a Byzantine military service since at least the early 1060s, he served in Georgia, Armenia, Tao, and Syria. He participated in the unsuccessful defense of Ani against the Seljuk leader Alp Arslan in 1064. He served afterwards under Michael VII Ducas (1071–78) and Nicephorus III Botaniates (1078–81) in various responsible positions on both the eastern and the western frontiers of the empire. As the Seljuk advance forced the Byzantines to evacuate the eastern Anatolian fortresses, he ceded the control over Kars to King George II of Georgia in 1072-1073 but this did not prevent the invaders from capturing the city.
Later he was involved in a coup that removed Nicephorus III. The new Emperor Alexius I Comnenus appointed him megas domestikos of All the West and gave him many more properties in the Balkans. He possessed numerous estates in various parts of the empire and was afforded a variety of privileges by the emperor, including exemption from certain taxes.
In 1081, he commanded left flank in the battle against the Normans at Dyrrachium. A year later he evicted the Normans from Moglena, the present day Greece. He fell in 1086 in a battle against the Pechenegs, apparently at the village of Belyakovo, north of Philippopolis.
He was also known as a noted patron and promoter of Christian culture. He together with his brother Apasios made in 1074 a significant donation to the Georgian Monastery of Iveron on Mount Athos. In 1083, he founded the Georgian Orthodox monastery of Petritzos (Petritsoni) (the present day Bachkovo Monastery) and wrote the regulations (typicon) for it.
