International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Marcin Böhm
University of Opole, Opole, Poland; 
[e-mail]
The Konstostephanos Family – 
Worst or the Best Mega Dukes of Komnenian Navy in the 12
th
Century
The Family of Kontostephanos reached many, by binding their fate with the Emperor Alexius 
I Comnenus (1081-1118). This ruler entrusted to its members vital tasks, mainly the safety of 
Byzantium at sea. Alexius gave them the command of naval forces in the rank of megas doux 
of Byzantine fleet. Isaac Kontostephanos was designed to block the straits between Italy and the 
Balkans, during the war with Boemond I in the years 1107-1108. But this task was to dificult to him, 
so he was dismissed from his post. Another representative of this family, Stephan, whose grandson 
of Alexius, Manuel I (1143-1180), saddled at the same position and a similar task, as Isaac, which 
was the naval war against the Normans from the south of Italy, also proved to be incompetent in 
maritime matters and before his dismissal from this post, the mega doux was spared by his death in 
1148. Next member of the Konstostephanos family, Andronicus began his career as a mega doux 
with the naval actions on the Danube, and subsequently serve as commander of naval forces of 
Byzantium by nearly twenty years, to both Manuel and his successors from the Comnenian dynasty. 
His command on the naval forces were full of failures, from failed expedition to Egypt in the year 
1169, through inept defense of the Aegean Sea against the Venetians in 1172, to finally, the betrayal, 
he has committed supporting the usurper Andronicus Comnenus (1183-1185).
Marcin Böhm
University of Opole, Opole, Poland; 
[e-mail]
Some Remarks on the History of the Navy of the Empire of Nicaea 
in the Light of the 
Chronicle
of Georgios Akropolites
The Empire of Nicaea was the successor state of the Byzantine Empire, and was founded after 
the Fourth Crusade by the Laskaris family. The History of the Empire of Nicaea lasted only from 
1204 to 1261, when Michael Palaiologos (1259-1282) recovered Constantinople. In Nicaea, among 
the many relics of the Byzantine world, also survived the Byzantine maritime tradition. The Nicean 
Emperors created their own naval forces on the East Coast of the Aegean Sea. The main objectives of 
this paper is to show, an account of Nicaean statesman, chief-in-command and historian, Georgios 
Akropolites (1217 or 1220-1271), about the role of the Navy of the Empire of Nicaea. I will try to 
answer, where was beating the heart of shipbuilding industry of this state, and how large were the 
fleets of Nicaea. This is important from point of view of martime history, because the fleet of the 
Empire of Nicaea, filled the gap created after the fall of Constantinople and Byzantine Empire, 
which was the local naval power in previous centuries.

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