A court
eunuch and favourite of
Constantine VIII (r. 1025–28), Spondyles was among the coterie of court officials appointed to senior positions on Constantine's accession as sole emperor. In 1027, as the emir of
Aleppo,
Salih ibn Mirdas, raided Byzantine territory. Spondyles, although inexperienced in warfare, marched out to meet him, and was defeated and forced to withdraw to the safety of Antioch. Shortly after (in 1027/28) he was also tricked by the Arab tribal leader
Nasr ibn Musharraf al-Rawadifi, who was captured by Michael's deputy,
Pothos Argyros. Nasr persuaded Michael to release him and allow him to construct a fortress at
al-Maniqa from where he would defend the Byzantine domains. Michael agreed and even sent a 1,000-strong garrison there, but when the fortress was finished, Nasr refused to hand it over, and with assistance from the emir of
Tripoli and the local
Fatimid commander, killed the garrison. In July 1029, Michael resolved to attack Aleppo, despite having no authorisation from Emperor
Romanos III (r. 1028–34) and disregarding the pleas of the
Mirdasid brothers
Shibl al-Dawla Nasr and
Mu'izz al-Dawla Thimal to maintain the peace. In the event, he was caught in an ambush at Kaybar and his camp was raided by the Arabs, after which he retreated and concluded a treaty with the Mirdasids. Following these failures, he was dismissed by Romanos III, who resolved to campaign in Syria in person, sending his brother-in-law
Constantine Karantenos ahead with some troops to replace Michael Spondyles. In the event, however, the emperor's own campaign would result in a
humiliating defeat. Michael (called Sphrondeles by the Latin historians) re-appears in 1038, when he joined
George Maniakes in his
Sicilian expedition. He probably replaced
Constantinos Opos as
catepan before
Nikephoros Doukeianos could take over the post the next year (1039). ==References==