Abstract
M.A.
Description of the topic and major sources
The present study consists of a prosopographical examination of a major per-sonality at the turn of the 12th-13th century, before and after the conquest of Constan-tinople by the knights o the Fourth Crusade (1204), based on the major contemporary and later Byzantine sources (Michael and Niketas the Choniatai, Theodore Skoutari-otes, Ephraim of Ainos, Chronicle of the Morea and Geoffrey of Villehardouin), as well as on the available secondary bibliography (specialised articles and major syn-theses by J. Hoffmann, K. Setton, M. Kordoses, R. Radić, A. Savvides, Aneta Ilieva, P. Niaves et alii). The codification of this material puts Sgouros’ career in the right perspective and helps solve various misinterpretations regarding his personality, aims and rôle vis-à-vis his contemporary events.
Aims and methodology
The existing bibliography refers to various aspects of Sgouros’ meteoric career, yet a complete and analytical study on this topic was still missing. The present dissertation’s aim is to fill this gap by providing a detailed biography of this important independent Greek lord (“archon”),whose activities span between c. 1200 and c. 1208. Moreover, this study also provides information on the family (“oikos”) of the Sgouroi as well as prosopographical data on Leon’s father, Theodore Sgouros –also a local lord in the north-eastern Peloponnese (the Morea) at the close of the 12th century – as well as on his enigmatic brother, Gabriel Sgouros, who seems to have remained ‘phrouriarch’ of Nauplion after Leo’s violent end.
Additionally, the dissertation tackles topographical/geographical issues re-garding Sgouros’ advance from the north-eastern Peloponnese to central Greece (“Hellas”), as far north as Thessaly’s capital, Larissa, also providing relevant maps and sketches/photographs. Moreover, it provides sigillographic evidence according to the only surviving lead seal (molybdōboullon) of Leon Sgouros, nowadays in the Athens Numismatic Museum.
A brief sketch of Sgouros’ personality and activities
A highly controversial figure, Leon Sgouros has been variably characterised an unscrupulous and ambitious local tyrant, but also a heroic adversary against the Latin onslaught and the last defender of medieval Hellenism at the time of the Fourth Crusade and the ensuing first fall of Constantinople to the Crusaders (1204). Although several of this compatriots had placed upon him their hopes for an effective resistance against the Western invaders of Greece, Sgouros would expend most of his energy combating his fellow Greeks, in the course of his desperate attempt to expand his territories northwards, reaching as far as Larissa, the capital of central Greece (Thessaly), only to be repulsed by the advancing latin conquerors of northern Greece at Thermopylai and seek shelter in the steep fortress of Akrocorinth (northeastern Mo-rea), where he was blockaded and besieged for almost four years), c. 1204-c.1208). He eventually perished fighting the Latins either leaping on horseback from the preci-pices of Akrokorinth, or defending his native Nauplion.
Evolution of the present study
Sgouros’ eventful career is here examined in the following sections:
a. His origins, the social-political conditions of his time and the rôle of his family in this context.
b. His prevalence in the north-eastern Peloponnese (c.1200-1202/1203).
c. His invasion of Attica and Boeotia (capture of Athens -except the Acropolis- and Thebes), as well as of Euboea (1203-1204).
d. Arrival in Thessaly (Larissa); pact with ex-emperor Alexios III Angelos, stand in Thermopylae and withdrawal to Akrocorinth (1204)
e. Long siege of Sgouros in Akrocorinth by the Latins and his legendary suicide on horseback from the fortress (1204-1208); the alternative version of his assassina-tion outside Nauplion.
f. Evaluation of his personality according to the testimony provided by the primary sources as well as by modern scholars (negative criticisms, but also positive as-pects). Sgouros’ real contribution to the attempt for the survival of medieval Hel-lenism.
g. The above sections roughly correspond to the chapters of the present dissertation.