Asomatianos Tzamplakon

Asomatianos Tzamplakon (Greek: Ἀσωματιανός Τζαμπλάκων, fl. 1348–1349) was a Byzantine aristocrat and admiral during the Byzantine–Genoese War of 1348–1349.

The Tzamplakones were an important and wealthy aristocratic family attested since the mid-13th century, when one of its members achieved the high military rank of Domestic of the Schools. Alexios Tzamplakon, Asomatianos' father, was this man's son.^[1][2] His brothers, Demetrios and Arsenios, also achieved high offices during the same period.^[3]

Asomatianos is first attested in 1348, as megas doux (commander-in-chief of the Byzantine navy). He was placed in charge of the Byzantine effort to construct a new fleet to use against the Genoese colony of Galata in the Byzantine–Genoese War of 1348–1349. His fleet's inexperience and incompetence led to its destruction or capture by the Genoese.^[2][3] Tzamplakon survived the debacle, and died sometime before 1356.^[2][3]

References

1. Kazhdan (1991), p. 2135
2. PLP 27753
3. Guilland (1967), p. 550

Sources

• Guilland, Rodolphe (1967). Recherches sur les institutions byzantines [Studies on the Byzantine Institutions]. Berliner byzantinische Arbeiten 35 (in French). Vol. I. Berlin and Amsterdam: Akademie-Verlag & Adolf M. Hakkert. OCLC 878894516.
• Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
• Trapp, Erich; Beyer, Hans-Veit; Kaplaneres, Sokrates; Leontiadis, Ioannis (1991). "27753. Τζαμπλάκων Ἀσωματιανός". Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit (in German). Vol. 11. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. ISBN 3-7001-3003-1.