Rendakis

Rendakis (Greek: Ρενδάκις), also Rendakios (Ρενδάκιος) or Rentakios (Ρεντάκιος) was the surname of a powerful Byzantine noble family in the 8th to 10th centuries.

History

The Rendakis family was first mentioned during the reign of Leo III the Isaurian (r. 717–741).^[1] Although the family were native Greek speakers,^[2] the etymology of the family name is believed by some scholars to have been of Slavic origin.^[3] In the beginning of the 8th century, the number of officials of clearly provincial origin had increased, and the Rendakioi was one of these families.^[4] In the 9th century, the family numbered among the most powerful families in the Byzantine Empire, alongside those of Bryennios, Choirosphaktes, Monomachos, and Tessarakontapechys.^[5]

Members

• Sisinnios Rendakis (Σισίννιος, fl. 719), patrikios and strategos of the Anatolic Theme under Emperor Leo III, according to the Miracles of Saint Demetrius, he commanded the imperial fleet that saved Thessaloniki from the barbarians.^[6] He was from Macedonia. He fought against and was beheaded by the Bulgarians in ca. 718–719 because he had supported the attempt by the deposed emperor Anastasios II to recover his throne.
• Rentakios (fl. 866–867), protovestiarios and parakoimomenos.^[7]
• Rentakios Helladikos (fl. 913–927), a native of Hellas, blinded by Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos for the plot to kill his own father, stealing and selling his family possessions, and forging a letter to Tsar Symeon of Bulgaria in order to desert.^[8]
  • Niketas Rentakios or Niketas Helladikos, Peloponnesian magnate
    • Sophia, married Christopher Lekapenos (co-emperor 921–931), son of Romanos I
• Constantine Rendakis
  • Demetrios Phalakros^[9]
• Rendakios the Athenian (fl. 1055), son-in-law of Sergios Betelakes. Married Helene.^[10]

References

1. Byzantinoslavica 1977, Volume 38–39,p. 178
2. Curta, Florin (2011). The Edinburgh History of the Greeks, C. 500 to 1050: The Early Middle Ages. Edinburgh University Press. p. 284. ISBN 9780748638093. There were several individuals in early medieval Greece with surnames of Slavic origin which appear in written sources of the tenth (Rendakios Helladikos) or eleventh century (Constantine Rendakios…Even though the names are of Slavic origin, the individuals thus named were speakers of Greek, not Slavic.
3. Vryonis 1981, p. 136: "Of Slavic origin were the families of Giabas, Rentacius, Branas (?), Bogdanos, and Boilas"
4. Brubaker-Haldon, p. 589
5. Vryonis 1971, p. 161: "... ninth century [...] a clearly formed aristocracy [...] Rentacius, Tessaracontopechys, Bryennius, Choirosphactes, and Monomachus."
6. Ekonomou, p. 236
7. Guilland 1967, p. 204.
8. Skylitzes 2010, p. 207
9. Cheynet 2006, p. 61
10. http://db.pbw.kcl.ac.uk/jsp/person.jsp?personKey=158967

Sources

• Bury, John Bagnell (1911). The Imperial Administrative System of the Ninth Century - With a Revised Text of the Kletorologion of Philotheos. London: Oxford University Press.
• Guilland, Rodolphe (1967). Recherches sur les Institutions Byzantines, Tome I (in French). Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.
• Vryonis, Speros S. (1971), The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the Process of Islamization from the Eleventh through the Fifteenth Century, University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-01597-5
• Cheynet, Jean-Claude (2006). The Byzantine aristocracy and its military function. Asgate Pub. ISBN 9780754659020.
• Skylitzes, John (2010). John Skylitzes: A Synopsis of Byzantine History, 811–1057: Translation and Notes. Wortley, John (translator). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-76705-9.