{{Short description|12th-century Byzantine military leader}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2023}} {{Infobox person | name = Alexios Axouch | birth_date = {{Circa|12th century}} | birth_place = Byzantine Empire | death_date = {{Circa|Late 12th century}} | other_names = Alexios Axouchos, Axuch | occupation = Nobleman, Military Leader | known_for = Protostrator, military campaigns under Manuel I Komnenos, involvement in Byzantine-Sicilian relations | spouse = Maria Komnene | children = {{Unbulleted list|John Komnenos "the Fat"|Another son}} | parents = John Axouch }} '''Alexios Axouch''' or '''Axouchos''', sometimes found as '''Axuch''' ({{langx|el|{{lang|grc|Ἀλέξιος Ἀξούχ, Ἀξοῦχος}}|Alexios Axouch, Axouchos}}), was a 12th-century Byzantine nobleman and military leader of mixed Seljuk and Byzantine ancestry.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Demirkent |first=Işın |title=Ioannes Aksukhos |url=https://belleten.gov.tr/tam-metin/2367/tur |url-status=live |website=Belleten}}</ref>
==Biography== Alexios Axouch was the son of John Axouch, the {{Transliteration|grc|megas domestikos}} (chief commander) of the Byzantine army, boyhood friend and "right-hand man" of Emperor John II Komnenos ({{reign|1118|1143}}).<ref name="ODB239">{{harvnb|ODB|loc="Axouch" (A. Kazhdan, A. Cutler), p. 239}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Magdalino|2002|pp=195, 207}}.</ref> Alexios himself married Maria Komnene, the daughter of John II's eldest son and co-emperor Alexios, who died in 1142.<ref name="ODB239"/><ref name="Guilland">{{harvnb|Guilland|1967|p=481}}.</ref>
An experienced soldier, Alexios was awarded the rank of {{Transliteration|grc|protostrator}} and participated in several military campaigns during the middle reign of Emperor Manuel I Komnenos ({{reign|1143|1180}}).<ref name="ODB239"/> He was sent to southern Italy in 1157, in an effort to retrieve the Byzantine position there following the defeat of {{Transliteration|grc|megas doux}} Alexios Komnenos.<ref name="Guilland"/>{{sfn|Magdalino|2002|pp=60–61}} Despite having at the same time to manage the delicate relations, fraught with mutual suspicion, with the Holy Roman Empire, which dominated northern Italy, Axouch was apparently very successful in his mission, leading to the conclusion of an honourable peace with King William I of Sicily in 1158 that allowed the Byzantine army to extricate itself from the Italian adventure.{{sfn|Magdalino|2002|pp=61–63}} This allowed Manuel to focus his attention on the East, where his policies in Cilicia against the Armenian lord Thoros had failed spectacularly.{{sfn|Magdalino|2002|pp=61, 67}} In 1165, Alexios himself was sent to Cilicia as commander-in-chief ({{Transliteration|grc|strategos autokrator}}) and governor ({{Transliteration|grc|doux}}) during the captivity of Constantine Kalamanos.<ref name="Guilland"/>{{sfn|Magdalino|2002|p=107}} He possibly also participated in the war with Hungary in 1166 alongside the future Béla III of Hungary.<ref name="ODB239"/><ref name="Guilland"/>
In {{Circa|1167/70}}, however, he fell out of favour with Manuel after being charged with conspiring against him and having previously been criticized for a peculiar act of ''lèse majesté'': he had decorated one of his palaces in Constantinople with magnificent pictures of the campaigns and victories of Kilij Arslan II ({{reign|1156|1192}}), the Seljuk Sultan of Iconium, and not, as was customary, with the exploits of Manuel himself.<ref name="ODB239"/><ref>{{harvnb|ODB|loc="History Painting" (239, 938–939}}.</ref> Modern scholarship considers this accusation unlikely.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schmidt |first=Tristan |date=2022 |title=Performing Military Leadership in Komnenian Byzantium: Emperor Manuel I, His Generals, and the Hungarian Campaign of 1167 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27172439 |journal=Dumbarton Oaks Papers |volume=76 |pages=163–180 |issn=0070-7546 |quote=Kinnamos, too, gives hints that the conflict was partly rooted in public communication and image building. Included in his list of charges is that Axouch id not decorate his suburban palace with “the emperor’s deeds, which he achieved in wars and hunts, which is customary for those who hold state offices.” Even worse, Axouch depicted the Seljuk sultan’s deeds instead. Although this last accusation seems rather unlikely, Kinnamos obviously considered Axouch’s public communication of loyalty—or rather the lack of such communication—a significant factor contributing to his downfall.}}</ref> In addition, among other things, Alexios was also accused of "dabbling in sorcery" and conspiring with a Latin "wizard" to drug the Empress Maria of Antioch to prevent her from giving birth to an heir.{{sfn|Garland|Stone|2006}} The historian John Kinnamos maintained that the charges of conspiracy were genuine, but Niketas Choniates believed that Axouch had been set up by the insecure Manuel.{{sfn|Magdalino|2002|pp=19, 218}} In particular, Choniates reports that Manuel suspected both Axouch and his cousin, the future Andronikos I Komnenos ({{reign|1183|1185}}), because of the AIMA prophecy, that stated that his successor's name would begin with an "A".{{sfn|Magdalino|2002|pp=6–7}} Whatever the truth, Alexios was found guilty and confined to a monastery for the rest of his days,<ref name="ODB239"/> despite his wife's repeated efforts to secure his release by Manuel.<ref name="Guilland"/> Maria reportedly died from her sorrow over her husband's fate, while Alexios himself also dying a few years after his tonsure.<ref name="Guilland"/>
Alexios Axouch had two sons, one of whom, John Komnenos "the Fat", led an abortive revolt against Emperor Alexios III Angelos ({{reign|1195|1203}}) in July 1201, and was killed during it.<ref name="ODB239"/><ref name="Guilland"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==Sources== * {{cite encyclopedia|last1=Garland|first1=Lynda|author-link=Lynda Garland |last2=Stone|first2=Andrew|year=2006 |title=Mary of Antioch |encyclopedia=De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and Their Families |url=http://www.roman-emperors.org/maryant.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060301220231/http://www.roman-emperors.org/maryant.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=1 March 2006|access-date=5 April 2012}} *{{cite book | first = Rodolphe | last = Guilland | chapter = Le Protostrator | pages = 478–497 | title= Recherches sur les institutions byzantines, Tome I| language = French | publisher = Akademie-Verlag | location = Berlin | year = 1967 }} *{{Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium|ref={{harvid|ODB}}}} *{{The Empire of Manuel I Komnenos}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Axouch, Alexios}} Category:12th-century Byzantine military personnel Category:Komnenos dynasty Alexios Category:Protostratores Category:Generals of Manuel I Komnenos Category:Byzantine people of the Byzantine–Norman wars Category:Monastery prisoners