{{Short description|Byzantine general and aristocrat}} '''Michael Melissenos''' ({{langx|el|{{lang|grc|Μιχαὴλ Μελισσηνός}}}}) was a notable Byzantine aristocrat and general during the reign of Emperor Constantine V ({{reign|741|775}}).
==Biography== Michael is the first attested member of the noble Melissenos family.{{sfn|ODB|loc="Melissenos" (A. Kazhdan), p. 1335}} A favourite of Constantine V, he was given an unnamed sister of Eudokia, Constantine V's third wife, in marriage. Becoming thus a relative of the Emperor, Michael secured a prominent position in the imperial hierarchy. The couple had at least one son, Theodotos Kassiteras Melissenos, who became Patriarch of Constantinople in 815–821 as Theodotos I.{{sfn|ODB|loc="Melissenos" (A. Kazhdan), p. 1335}}{{sfn|Rochow|1994|pp=11–12}}{{sfn|PmbZ|loc=Michael Melissenos (#5029)}}
In 766/767, as part of a major reshuffle intended to place reliable and pro-iconoclast people in positions of authority, Constantine V appointed Michael as the ''strategos'' of the Anatolic Theme, at the time the Byzantine Empire's most important and powerful military post. Possibly at this time he received the dignity of ''patrikios'', with which he is designated in the ''Chronicle'' of Theophanes the Confessor.{{sfn|PmbZ|loc=Michael Melissenos (#5029)}}{{sfn|Rochow|1994|pp=12, 75}}{{sfn|Bury|1911|pp=40–41}} In 771, Michael took part in an expedition against an Abbasid raid into Isauria. His troops, however, were heavily defeated, and unable to prevent the looting of the region. Nothing further is known of him.{{sfn|PmbZ|loc=Michael Melissenos (#5029)}}
==References== {{reflist|24em}}
==Sources== * {{cite book | last=Bury | first=John Bagnell | authorlink=J. B. Bury | title=The Imperial Administrative System of the Ninth Century - With a Revised Text of the Kletorologion of Philotheos | year=1911 | location=London | publisher=Oxford University Press | url=https://archive.org/details/imperialadminist00buryrich}} *{{Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium|ref={{harvid|ODB}}}} *{{Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit|volume=A3|title=Michael Melissenos (#5029)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wtLm7NLZJ5wC&pg=PA274|pages=274–275}} *{{cite book|last=Rochow|first=Ilse|title=Kaiser Konstantin V. (741–775). Materialien zu seinem Leben und Nachleben|location=Frankfurt am Main|publisher=Peter Lang|year=1994|isbn=3-631-47138-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=blhoAAAAMAAJ|language=German}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Melissenos, Michael}} Category:8th-century births Category:Year of death unknown Category:8th-century Byzantine generals Category:Byzantine Iconoclasm Michael Category:Patricii Category:Byzantine people of the Arab–Byzantine wars Category:Governors of the Anatolic Theme