Katakalon Kekaumenos (Greek: Κατακαλὼν Κεκαυμένος) was a prominent Byzantine general of the mid-11th century.
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Katakalon Kekaumenos was born in Koloneia, and although apparently a member of the noble Katakalon family, according to John Skylitzes he was not of aristocratic origin.[1] He first distinguished himself in the Sicilian campaign of George Maniakes. There Kekaumenos, with the rank of protospatharios, commanded a contingent from the Armeniac Theme and led the successful defence of Messina against an Arab attack in 1040.[1][2]
In 1042, Michael V (r. 1041–1042) charged him with quelling an uprising in Constantinople. In the next year, he defeated the Rus' raid against the imperial capital, and was named vestes and archon of the Danubian cities.[1] Under Constantine IX Monomachos (r. 1042–1055) he had a highly successful career. He served in the East as doux of Iberia, and became governor of Ani after it was annexed by the Empire in 1045, and led the local forces in the first clashes with the Seljuk Turks.[3] In the late 1040s, he had been promoted to the post of stratelates of the East, and participated in the campaign against the Pechenegs, as second-in-command to the militarily inexperienced rhaiktor Nikephoros. During this campaign, he was seriously injured.[1][4] Ca. 1055 he was raised to magistros and named to the prestigious and powerful post of doux of Antioch.[1][3]
Constantine IX's successor, Michael VI, generally mistrusted the prominent generals and treated them badly; he refused Katakalon and Isaac Komnenos, both of them already ranked as magistroi, promotion to the title of proedros, and eventually dismissed Kekaumenos.[5] In turn, Kekaumenos actively supported the uprising of Isaac Komnenos in 1057, and was rewarded with the title of kouropalates.[1]
Kekaumenos apparently wrote an autobiography, which was then used as his primary source for the events of 1042–1057 by John Skylitzes in his own history. Hence Skylitzes' narrative focuses in detail on his career and is highly laudatory of the general and his achievements.[1][6] Katakalon Kekaumenos has also been put forward as the author of the so-called Strategikon of Kekaumenos, but his identification with its author, known only as Kekaumenos, is mostly rejected by modern scholars.[7]