Leo Tornikios Kontoleon
Encyclopedia
Kontoleon Tornikios was the Catapan of Italy from May to September 1017. He was originally the strategos
Strategos
Strategos, plural strategoi, is used in Greek to mean "general". In the Hellenistic and Byzantine Empires the term was also used to describe a military governor...

of Cephallenia
Cephallenia (theme)
The Theme of Cephallenia or Cephalonia was a Byzantine theme located in western Greece, comprising the Ionian Islands, and extant from the 8th century until partially conquered by the Kingdom of Sicily in 1185.-History:...

. As strategos, he accompanied the catapan Basil Mesardonites
Basil Mesardonites
Basil Mesardonites was the Catapan of Italy, representing the Byzantine Emperor there, from 1010 to 1016 or 1017. He succeeded the catapan Curcuas, who died fighting the Lombards, then in rebellion under Melus, early in 1010. In March, Basil disembarked with reinforcements from Constantinople and...

 to Apulia
Apulia
Apulia is a region in Southern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its most southern portion, known as Salento peninsula, forms a high heel on the "boot" of Italy. The region comprises , and...

 in 1011. Basil died in 1016 and Leo was nominated to replace him, arriving in May. At the time, Melus of Bari
Melus of Bari
Melus was a Lombard nobleman from the Apulian town of Bari, whose ambition to carve for himself an autonomous territory from the Byzantine catapanate of Italy in the early 11th century inadvertently sparked the Norman presence in southern Italy.Melus and his brother-in-law Dattus rebelled in 1009...

 had risen in revolt again, this time with a band of Normans
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...

. Leo sent Leo Passianos
Leo Passianos
Leo Passianos was the Byzantine general sent by the Catapan of Italy Leo Tornikios Kontoleon to fight the Lombard rebel Melus of Bari in 1017. He is not to be confused with the other Passianos killed in Melus' first rebellion while fighting the Saracens under Ishmael of Montepeloso.Passianos met...

 with an army against him. Passianos and Melus met on the Fortore
Fortore
The Fortore is a river which flows through the provinces of Benevento, Campobasso and Foggia in southern Italy. It has a length of 110 km....

 at Arenula. The battle was either indecisive (William of Apulia
William of Apulia
William of Apulia was a chronicler of the Normans, writing in the 1090s. His Latin epic, Gesta Roberti Wiscardi , written in hexameters, is one of the principal contemporary sources for the Norman conquest of southern Italy, especially the career of Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia . It was composed...

) or a victory for Melus (Leo of Ostia
Leo of Ostia
Leo Marsicanus or Ostiensis , also known as Leone dei Conti di Marsi , was a nobleman and monk of Monte Cassino around 1061 and Italian cardinal from the twelfth century.In Monte Cassino, he became a friend of Desiderius of Benevento, later Pope Victor III, and it was to him that Leo dedicated...

). Tornikios then took command himself and led them into a second encounter near Civita
Civita
Civita is a Norwegian liberal think tank which gains support from, among others, the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise. In the beginning, it was led by Terje Svabø, but prominent Conservative Party politician Kristin Clemet took over on November 16, 2006 after having central roles in many...

. This second battle was a victory for Melus, though Lupus Protospatharius
Lupus Protospatharius
Lupus Protospatharius Barensis was the reputed author of the Chronicon rerum in regno Neapolitano gestarum , a precise history of the Mezzogiorno from 805 to 1102. He has only been named as the author since the seventeenth century...

 and the anonymous chronicler of Bar record a defeat. A third battle, a decisive victory for Melus, occurred at Vaccaricia, near the site of later Troia. The entire region from the Fortore to Trani
Trani
Trani is a seaport of Apulia, southern Italy, on the Adriatic Sea, in the new Province of Barletta-Andria-Trani , and 40 km by railway West-Northwest of Bari.- History :...

 had fallen to Melus and in September, Tornikios was relieved of his duties in favour of Basil Boiannes.

Sources

  • Chalandon, Ferdinand
    Ferdinand Chalandon
    Ferdinand Chalandon was a French medievalist and Byzantinist.Chalandon’s work remains the most substantial study of the Normans in Italy and though the details of what he wrote a hundred years ago have in places been modified, it remains the single most important work available to historians.Being...

    . Histoire de la domination normande en Italie et en Sicile. Paris
    Paris
    Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

    , 1907.
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