Skleros
Sign in to saveThe Skleros (; plural: Σκληροί, Skleroi), latinized Sclerus, feminine form Skleraina (Σκλήραινα), Latinized Scleraena, was a noble Byzantine family active mostly in the 9th–11th centuries as members of the military aristocracy, and as civil functionaries thereafter.
Key facts
- Family.name
- Skleros
- Family.native_name
- Σκληρός
- Family.native_name_lang
- el
- Family.other_names
- Sclerus
- Family.type
- Family
- Family.image
- BardasSklerosEmperor.jpg
- Family.image_caption
- Bardas Skleros receives officials as emperor, miniature from the Madrid Skylitzes
- Family.region
- North-eastern Asia Minor
- Family.origin
- Melitene
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
6 sectionsContents
- Origin and early members
- Bardas Skleros and the family's apex
- Rise and decline in the 11th century
- Skleroi of the 12th–14th centuries
- References
- Sources
The Skleros (; plural: Σκληροί, Skleroi), latinized Sclerus, feminine form Skleraina (Σκλήραινα), Latinized Scleraena, was a noble Byzantine family active mostly in the 9th–11th centuries as members of the military aristocracy, and as civil functionaries thereafter.
==Origin and early members== thumb|right|250px|Byzantine Asia Minor and the Arab–Byzantine frontier zone in the middle of the 9th century The family descended from north-eastern Asia Minor, either from Lesser Armenia or the theme of Sebasteia. Due to their place of origin, they have been traditionally regarded as Armenians, although this is nowhere explicitly attested. It has also been suggested that the family was mixed Greek–Armenian. However, the evidence for the family's alleged Armenian origins is tenuous. The Greek surname Skleros () indicates that the family's founding father may have been at least partly Greek, since Byzantines of Armenian origin generally had surnames that were recognizably Armenian with simply a Greek suffix.