Tornik

Other name forms: Τορνίκης (Tornikes, Greek), Τορνίκιος (Tornikios, Greek), T‘ornik (Armenian), Teranik (Armenian).

Ruler of half of Taron, either alone or with a brother.

Patrikios.

Events 

Date of Birth: unknown.

Place of Birth: unknown.

Tornik was a minor when his father died between 906 and 912. (PdmZO; Constantine Porphyrogenitus (DAI p. 192-3))

Date of Death: unknown.

Place of Death: unknown.

Tornik seems to have died in the 920s.

Relationships

Father: Apoganem.

This relationship is given by the PdmZO. It is recorded in Constantine Porphyrogenitus (DAI p. 192-3).

Mother: unknown.

Spouse: unknown.

Children: 

(Complete source citations for facts about the children on this page are currently outside of the scope of this project.)

(probably) Nikolaos Tornikes.

(probably) Leon Tornikes.

Descendant: 

unknown Tornikes, father of Demetrios Tornikes

Evidence

The emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, writing in about 952, in a confidential document for his son, mentions only one son of Tornik (DAI p. 197):

Now, the sons of the magister Krikorikios, this same patrician Pankratios and the patrician Asotios, greatly vexed and oppressed their cousin, the patrician Tornikios, who, finding their aggressiveness unendurable, wrote to the emperor to send a trustworthy servant and take over his country, and conduct himself and his wife and their child [τό παιδίον] to the emperor. The emperor sent the protospatharius Krinitis, the interpreter, to take him and conduct him to the city protected of God, in accordance with his demand. But when Krinitis arrived in that country, he found that Tornikios had already departed this life, having devised before his end that all his country should be subject to the emperor of the Romans, and that his wife and his child [τό παιδίον] should go to the emperor; and to her, on her arrivall, the emperor gave for her residence the monastery in Psomathia of the protospatharius Michael, formerly collector of Chaldia. 

A marginal note in the late 11th century Paris manuscript, written in the same hand as the rest of the manuscript, states: Οὗτο(ς) ἐστὶ(ν) ὁ π(ατ)ὴρ Νικο(λάου) μαγίστρου τοῦ Τορνίκη 

(Οὗτος  being Tornik).

Nikolaos appears to be the Nikolaos Tornikes who with his brother Leon supported the final seizure of power by Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus in 945, although it appears that Leon is not mentioned in the above account by Constantine. Perhaps Leon was left behind in Taron, or hadn’t been born yet.

There is also an Ibn Ṭurnīq, mentioned by the Arab author Ibn Ẓāfir under the year 936, and as holding the city of Muš (Taron) in the year 940. It is not clear whether this would have been Nikolaos. The PdmZO thinks probably not. Adontz thinks it is probably Bagrat, the son of Apoganem’s brother Grigor.

References

Adontz, N. “Les Taronites a Byzance” in Byzantion v. 9, no. 2 (1934) pp. 715-738, v. 10, no. 2 (1935) pp. 531-551; v. 11, no. 1 (1936), pp. 21-42.  

Constantine Porphyrogenitus. De Administrando Imperio. (Dumbarton Oaks Texts, 1967).

Lilie, Ralph-Johannes, Claudia Ludwig, Beate Zielke, and Thomas Pratsch. “Leon Tornikios bzw. Tornikes” in Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit Online (2013).

Lilie, Ralph-Johannes, Claudia Ludwig, Beate Zielke, and Thomas Pratsch. “Nikolaos Tornikios” in Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit Online (2013).

Lilie, Ralph-Johannes, Claudia Ludwig, Beate Zielke, and Thomas Pratsch. “T‘ornik” in Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit Online (2013).