Kourtikios

Kourtikios (Greek: Κουρτίκιος) or Kourtikes (Κουρτίκης) was the name of a Byzantine aristocratic family of Armenian origin.

The family's eponymous founder, K'urdik, was an Armenian nobleman who went over to the Byzantine Empire and surrendered his domain, the town of Lokana, to Emperor Basil I the Macedonian, settling with his family in Byzantine territory.^[1][2] His descendants counted among the senior members of the military aristocracy in the next two centuries. Several members supported the rebellions of various military aristocrats from Constantine Doukas (Kourtikios the Armenian) to Bardas Skleros (Michael Kourtikios), and in the 11th century, they intermarried with the leading aristocratic families of the time, including the imperial dynasties of the Komnenoi and the Doukai.^[1] The family's fortunes declined abruptly in the 12th century, when a single member is known, occupying a modest provincial post. At the same time, a branch of the family became active in Armenian Cilicia. The family produced a few senior officials under the Empire of Nicaea, but declined again in the Palaiologan period.^[1]

References

1. Kazhdan 1991, pp. 1157–1158.
2. Whittow 1996, p. 315.

Sources

• Kazhdan, Alexander (1991). "Kourtikios". In Kazhdan, Alexander. The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 1157–1158. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6.
• Whittow, Mark (1996). The Making of Byzantium, 600–1025. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-20496-4.