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Document Details : Title: Due membri sconosciuti della famiglia Gabras dai cartulari notarili genovesi Author(s): FASOLIO, Marco Journal: Byzantion Volume: 94 Date: 2024 Pages: 1-19 DOI: 10.2143/BYZ.94.0.3294555 Abstract : The Gabrades belonged to the Byzantine military aristocracy and were probably of Armenian descent. Deeply rooted in north-western Anatolia and flourishing from the 10th century until long after the fall of Constantinople, the family reached its apogee between the 1080s and the 1140s, when some of its members managed to carve out a semi-independent lordship in the duchy of Trebizond. As those Gabrades can somehow be regarded as the forerunners of the later Empire of Trebizond, scholars took interest in their biographies since the early 19th century. From the 1960s until very recently, several Byzantinists studied the lineage’s traits and prosopography. However, a few sources have still not been considered in scholarly literature. An analysis of the cartularies of Genoese colonial notaries brings to light two previously unknown Gabrades: a certain Gaura de Trapesunda, who sailed to Caffa in order to save his father-in-law from bankruptcy in 1343, and Iane Gaura, a Chian Greek who sold his slave to a Genoese citizen in 1359. The purpose of this article is to draw a profile of both individuals by examining the nature of the sources that mention them, their position in the history of the family, as well as their interactions with the socio-political environment in which they lived. |
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