Michael Melissenos was a notable Byzantine

Byzantine

Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...

 aristocrat and general during the reign of Emperor Constantine V

Constantine V

Constantine V was Byzantine emperor from 741 to 775; ); .-Early life:...

 (r. 741–775).

Michael is the first attested member of the noble Melissenos family. A favourite of Constantine V, he was given an unnamed sister of Eudokia

Eudokia, wife of Constantine V

-Family:According to the chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor, Eudokia was a sister-in-law of Michael Melissenos, strategos of the Anatolikon Theme. Her sister and brother-in-law were parents to Patriarch Theodotos I of Constantinople.-Empress:...

, 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

Patriarch of Constantinople

The Ecumenical Patriarch is the Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome – ranking as primus inter pares in the Eastern Orthodox communion, which is seen by followers as the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church....

 in 815–821 as Theodotos I.

In 766/767, as part of a major reshuffle intended to place reliable and pro-iconoclast people in positions of authority, Emperor Constantine V appointed Michael as 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 the Anatolic Theme

Anatolic Theme

The Anatolic Theme , more properly known as the Theme of the Anatolics was a Byzantine theme in central Asia Minor...

, at the time the 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

Theophanes the Confessor

Saint Theophanes Confessor was a member of the Byzantine aristocracy, who became a monk and chronicler. He is venerated on March 12 in the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Church .-Biography:Theophanes was born in Constantinople of wealthy and noble iconodule parents: Isaac,...

. In 771, Michael took part in an expedition against an Abbasid

Abbasid

The Abbasid Caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids , was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate from all but the al-Andalus region....

 raid into Isauria

Isauria

Isauria , in ancient geography, is a rugged isolated district in the interior of South Asia Minor, of very different extent at different periods, but generally covering what is now the district of Bozkır and its surroundings in the Konya province of Turkey, or the core of the Taurus Mountains. In...

. His troops however were heavily defeated, and unable to prevent the looting of the region. Nothing further is known of him.

Sources