Tarchaneiotes
Sign in to saveTarchaneiotes (), feminine form Tarchaneiotissa (Ταρχανειώτισσα), also attested in the variant forms Trachaneiotes, Trachaniates, Tarchoniates, was the name of a Byzantine aristocratic family from Adrianople, active from the late 10th to the 14th century, mostly as military commanders. From the 15th century on some of its members were active in Italy, while a branch of the family migrated to Russia, where their name was russified to Trakhaniot (Траханиот). They are attested until the 17th century.
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Tarchaneiotes (), feminine form Tarchaneiotissa (Ταρχανειώτισσα), also attested in the variant forms Trachaneiotes, Trachaniates, Tarchoniates, was the name of a Byzantine aristocratic family from Adrianople, active from the late 10th to the 14th century, mostly as military commanders. From the 15th century on some of its members were active in Italy, while a branch of the family migrated to Russia, where their name was russified to Trakhaniot (Траханиот). They are attested until the 17th century.
The origin of the family is unknown. It has been suggested that their name derives from the village of Tarchaneion in Thrace, but alternatives have also been suggested, such a derivation from Mongol targan, "smith", suggested by Gyula Moravcsik, or the Georgian origin ascribed to them by Claude Cahen. No hypothesis can be conclusively proven.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Tarchaneiotes” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.