Demetrios Tornikes
Epi tou kanileiou
Krites of the velon
Logothetes of the dromos (foreign minister)
Sebastos
Events
Date of Birth: about 1121.
Place of Birth: unknown.
The estimated date is given by Stone and Owens. Darrouzès (p. 36) notes that Michael Choniates states that his friend Demetrios had died of ἀϐραμιαῖος γέρων, which Darrouzès states indicates an age of about 80.
Date of Death: about 1201.
Place of Death: returning from Illyria to Constantinople.
The estimated date is given by Stone and Owens.
Relationships
Father: unknown Tornikes.
Mother: a niece of Theophylaktos, bishop of Ohrid.
These relationships are given by Darrouzès (p. 43). Theoplyaktos’s niece was possibly the daughter of his brother Demetrios Hephaistos. Settipani (2021, p. 140 n.) suggests this, and that the name ‘Demetrius’ likely entered the Tornikes family through the Hephaistos marriage.
Spouse: a sister of Euthymios Malakes.
This relationship is given by Darrouzès (p. 43). Euthymios Tornikes, in a monody for Euthymios Malakes, mentioned that he was his nephew (Stone and Owens, p. 383). Euthymios Malakes was metropolitan of Neopatras.
Children:
(Complete source citations for facts about the children on this page are currently outside of the scope of this project.)
Konstantinos Tornikes (died about 1206) married a daughter of an illegitimate child of emperor Manuel I Komnenos.
Georgios Tornikes.
Euthymios Tornikes (died after 1222).
Eirene Tornikina (died 1184/5) married (1) emperor Isaakios II Angelos; married (2) Margit of Hungary.
Evidence
from Stone and Owens (p. 365):
A report on a synod convened by Emp. Isaakios II in September 1191 called Demetrios Tornikes a “πανσεβάστου σεβαστοῦ χυροῦ χαὶ οἰχείου τῷ χράτει χαὶ ἁγίῳ ἡμῶν αὐϑέντη βασιλέῖ χαὶ λογοϑέτου τοῦ δρόμου χυροῦ Δημητρίου τοῦ Τορνίχη” (Pansebastos sebastos lord and oikeios (of) our mighty and holy autocratic Emperor and logothetes of the dromos lord Demetrios Tornikes).
from the Annals of Niketas Choniates:
From among the judges of the velum, Demetrios Tornikes, Leon Monasteriotes, and Constantine Patrenos, who had not as yet been added to the lists of those who belonged to Andronikos’s circle nor openly and servilely subscribed to his every whim and bent their knees in submission, very nearly lost their lives. When they were required to prosecute the empress for the charges brought against her, they responded that first they wanted to ascertain whether this tribunal and trial were taking place according to the will and pleasure of the emperor. Andronikos, as though pricked with an ox-goad by this query, declared, “These are the men who incited the protosebastos to perpetrate his foul deeds. Seize them.” Forthwith, the bodyguards removed the two-edged swords from their shoulders as though to strike them down, and the populace, grabbing hold of their cloaks, insolently pulled them hither and thither so that they barely escaped with their lives.
[Magoulias’s note: The judges of the velum constituted the chief judiciary of the empire.]
References
J. Darrouzès, George et Dèmètrios Tornikès: lettres et discours (Paris, 1970).
“Demetrios Tornikes, sebastos and epi tou kanikleiou” in M. Jeffreys et al., Prosopography of the Byzantine World, 2016 (King’s College London, 2017).
“Euthymios (Malakes), metropolitan of Neai Patrai [1166, 1170]” in M. Jeffreys et al., Prosopography of the Byzantine World, 2016 (King’s College London, 2017).
O City of Byzantium, Annals of Niketas Choniates (Harry J. Magoulias tr.) (Wayne State University Press, 1984).
Settipani, Christian. Les lien dynastiques entre Byzance et l’étranger à l’époque des Comnènes et des Paléologues. (Éditions de Boccard, 2021).
Stone, D C and Charles R Owens. “[Eirene?], First Wife of Emperor Isaakios II Angelos, is a Probable Tornikina and Gateway to Antiquity” in Foundations (Jan. 2011).