View source for Argyros (Byzantine family)

{{Short description|Byzantine aristocratic family}}
{{Infobox noble house
|surname          = Argyros
|native_name      = Αργυρός
|other_name       =
|coat of arms     =
|image_size       =
|caption          =
|type             = House of the [[Byzantine]] [[dynatoi|land-holding military aristocracy]]
|country          = {{Flag|Byzantine Empire}}
|founded          = {{Start date|9th century}}
|founder          = [[Leo Argyros (9th century)|Leo Argyros]] {{Small|(first known)}}
|final ruler      = [[Romanos III Argyros]] (Byzantine emperor)
|ethnicity        = [[Byzantine Greeks|Greek]]}}
'''Argyros''' ({{Langx|el|{{lang|grc|Ἀργυρός}}}}, derived from {{lang|grc|ἄργυρος}}, "silver"), feminine '''Argyre''' ({{lang|grc|Ἀργυρή}}), [[List of Latinised names|Latinized]] as '''Argyrus''' and '''Argyra''', was the name of a prominent aristocratic family of [[Byzantine emperor|Roman Emperors]] of the [[Byzantine Empire]] active from the middle of the 9th century until the very end of the Empire in the 15th century, although it passed its peak after the mid-11th century. The name also evolved the variant forms '''Argyropoulos''' ({{lang|grc|Ἀργυρόπουλος}}) and the feminine '''Argyropoulina''' ({{lang|grc|Ἀργυροπουλίνα}}).{{sfn|Kazhdan|1991|p=165}}
The Argyroi apparently originated in the province of [[Charsianon]], where they had large estates.{{sfn|Kazhdan|1991|p=165}}{{sfn|Cheynet|Vannier|2003|p=58}} They hence belonged to the [[Anatolia]]n land-holding military aristocracy (the "''[[dynatoi]]''"); indeed, they are among the earliest, and almost archetypal, such families to emerge, along with the [[Doukai]].{{sfn|Cheynet|Vannier|2003|p=58}} The family is first securely attested in the mid-9th century, but may have its origins in a certain ''[[patrikios]]'' Marianos and his son Eustathios, who was captured by the [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyads]] in 740/41 and executed after refusing to convert to Islam.{{sfn|Cheynet|Vannier|2003|p=58}}
Beginning with the family's founder, [[Leo Argyros (9th century)|Leo Argyros]], most of the early members were military officers, such as [[Eustathios Argyros (general under Leo VI)|Eustathios Argyros]] and his sons [[Leo Argyros (10th century)|Leo]] and [[Pothos Argyros (Domestic of the Schools)|Pothos]], or [[Basil Argyros]] in the 11th century.{{sfn|Kazhdan|1991|p=165}} Basil's brother, the only Argyros from the family's heyday to have become a civil service official, became Emperor [[Romanos III Argyros]] (r. 1028–34).{{sfn|Kazhdan|1991|p=165}} [[Alexios I Komnenos]] was engaged to marry an Argyros lady, but she died before the wedding. In the [[Komnenian period]] the family declined in status, and the later Argyroi or Argyropouloi were mostly landholders or intellectuals, among others the astronomer [[Isaac Argyros]] and the humanist [[John Argyropoulos]].
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
==Sources==
* {{cite journal|last1=Cheynet |first1=J.-C. |last2=Vannier |first2=J.-F. |title=Les Argyroi |url=http://doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0584-9888/2003/0584-98880340057C.pdf |journal=Zbornik Radova Vizantološkog Instituta |volume=40 |year=2003 |pages=57–90 |doi=10.2298/ZRVI0340057C |language=French |issn=0584-9888 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723081532/http://doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0584-9888/2003/0584-98880340057C.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-23 |doi-access=free }}
*{{cite encyclopedia|last=Kazhdan|first=Alexander|author-link=Alexander Kazhdan|title=Argyros|page=165|editor-last=Kazhdan|editor-first=Alexander|editor-link=Alexander Kazhdan|encyclopedia=[[The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium]]|location=New York and Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1991|isbn=978-0-19-504652-6 }}
[[Category:Argyros family| ]]