Nikephoros Karantenos
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Nikephoros Karantenos (or Nicephorus; Greek: Νικηφόρος ὁ Καραντηνός) was a Byzantine general who established fame fighting against the Bulgars in the Balkans and the Normans in Italy. The main sources for his life is the continuator (Skylitzes Continuatus) of John Skylitzes, Lupus Protospatharius, and the Anonymus Bariensis Chronicon.
Karantenos was rewarded for his service against the Bulgars with the title duke (doux) of Skopje. Then, in 1067, when Constantine X desired to retake the lost cities of Apulia, he sent Karantenos with Mabrikias to Bari. Taranto, Castellaneta, and Brindisi were reconquered from the Normans and a garrison of Varangians was established at the latter under Karantenos. He was given the title of strategos of Brindisi.
When the Normans put Brindisi under siege in 1070, Karantenos feigned surrender and then attacked the Normans as they were scaling the walls on ladders. He beheaded a hundred corpses and crossed the sea to Durazzo with the heads, thence shipping them off to Constantinople to impress the emperor.
In 1072, he was back in Bulgaria to pacify a revolt.
[edit] Sources
- Gay, Jules. L'Italie méridionale et l'empire Byzantin: Livre II. Burt Franklin: New York, 1904.
