The Melissenoi are one of the oldest known aristocratic
Greek families of the middle Byzantine period. Genealogies from the 16th and 17th centuries trace the family to a
patrikios Michael, relative of
Michael I Rhangabe (reigned 811–813) and his son the
magistros Leo, but the family stretches back another half-century to the general
Michael Melissenos, a favourite of Emperor
Constantine V (r. 741–775). This Michael married a sister of Constantine's wife,
Eudokia, and their son,
Theodore Kassiteras Melissenos, became
Patriarch of Constantinople in 815–821. In the 9th–11th centuries, they were mostly active in
Asia Minor, serving as generals and governors of the local
themes. In the late 11th century, the family seems to have had ties particularly with the area of
Dorylaion in
Phrygia. The Melissenoi also appear to have maintained close ties to the other families comprising the military aristocracy (the
dynatoi) of this period, which likewise mostly originated from Asia Minor. Thus, two of the Melissenoi, the
doux of
Antioch Leo and his brother Theognostos, supported the aristocratic revolt of
Bardas Phokas the Younger in the early reign of
Basil II (r. 976–1025). For the remainder of Basil's reign, the Melissenoi do not appear to have occupied high military posts, but they re-appear among the highest rungs of the aristocracy in the later 11th century, when a Theognostes Melissenos was
katepano of
Mesopotamia, while Maria Melissene was one of the few holders of the exalted title of
zoste patrikia. In the 1080s the general
Nikephoros Melissenos, after launching a rebellion against
Nikephoros III Botaneiates (r. 1078–1081), accommodated himself with Botaneiates' successor,
Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118), whose sister Eudokia he had married, in exchange for the title of
Caesar and estates near
Thessalonica. Under the
Komnenian emperors, the Melissenoi were chiefly civil officials, but despite their family ties to the reigning dynasty, the family ceased occupying high state offices after ca. 1118. In the 13th century, a branch of the family are attested as landowners around
Smyrna, while other branches of the family settled in the
Morea and in
Epirus, and a lady of the house even married
Michael I Komnenos Doukas, the founder of the
Despotate of Epirus. Later traditions also hold that an Andreas Melissenos moved to
Crete as one of the
twelve noble families of Crete, founding there a local branch of the family. From this line the later Melissenoi descended, including
Patriarch Gregory III of Constantinople (1443–1450). The 18th-century Russian general
Pyotr Melissino, born in
Cephalonia, claimed descent from the Cretan branch of the Melissenos family. His son,
Aleksey, also became a general in the
Imperial Russian Army, and served in the
Patriotic War of 1812. He was killed at the
Battle of Dresden in 1813. Cephalonian poet and lawer
Antonios Melissenos was also member of this branch of Melissenos family.
Sophia Antoniadis, the first female professor of the Humanities in the Netherlands, was descended from the family. The 16th-century historian and metropolitan of
Monemvasia,
Makarios Melissenos, was not an actual member of the family, but adopted the surname during his exile at the court of
Naples. == References ==