1 Amantos, K., ‘Οἱ Βωτανειάται’, Ἑλληνικά 8 (1935) 48Google Scholar; Cheynet, J.-C., Pouvoir et contestations à Byzance (963-1210) (Paris 1998) 268Google Scholar; Kazhdan, A. P. (ed.), Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, I (Oxford and New York 1991) 314–15Google Scholar; Patlagean, É., Un Moyen Âge grec: Byzance IXe-XVe siècle (Paris 2007) 138–9Google Scholar.

2 Attaleiates, Michael, Historia, ed. Martín, I. Pérez (Madrid 2002) 216–17Google Scholar (hereafter Attaleiates): Ἡ μὲν οὖν τοῦ γένους αὐτοῦ ἀνωτάτω καὶ πρώτη σειρὰ ἐκ τῶν Φωκάδων ἐκείνων ὥρμηται, Φωκάδων ὧν κλέος εὐρὺ κατὰ πᾶσαν γῆν τε καὶ θάλασσαν. οὗτοι γὰρ ὑπερφυῶς τῶν ἄλλων τὸ κράτος ἐν βασιλείοις ἐκέκτηντο, στρατηγίαις τε καὶ δημαγωγίαις καὶ ἀνδρείῳ βραχίονι καὶ γένους ἐπισημότητι πάντας ἐπιεικῶς ὑπεραίροντες. . . Trans. Kaldellis, A. and Krallis, D., The History: Michael Attaleiates [Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 16] (Cambridge, MA and London 2012) 394–97Google Scholar.

3 For more on this, see Cheynet, J.-C., ‘Les Phocas’, in Dagron, G. and Mihaescu, H., Le traité sur la guérilla de l'empereur Nicéphore Phocas (Paris 1986) 314–15Google Scholar.

4 Attaleiates 216-17: εἰ δέ τις ἀναδράμοι πρὸς τὴν τῶν ἐνενήκοντα καὶ δύο γενεῶν ἀρχὴν καὶ ἀκρότητα (μέχρι γὰρ τοῦ τῆς ἀοιδίμου λήξεως βασιλέως κυρίου Νικηφόρου τοῦ Φωκᾶ τὸ ποσὸν τῶν τοιούτων συνεψηφίζετο γενεῶν), εὑρήσει κατηγμένους αὐτοὺς ἀπὸ τοῦ τρισμάκαρος καὶ μεγάλου Κωνσταντίνου. . . trans. Kaldellis and Krallis, 396-7.

5 Attaleiates 217-18: ἐκ τούτων οὖν, ὡς ὁ λόγος αἱρεῖ καὶ ἡ τοῦ γένους ἀναφορὰ περιάγει, οἱ Φωκάδες. . .αὐτοὶ καταγόμενοι τήν τε περιφάνειαν ἄνωθεν ἔσχον καὶ τὸ τῆς ἀνδρίας ἀλκιμώτατον καὶ ἀνύποιστον, ἐκ τῶν ὀνομαστῶν ἐκείνων Φαβίων. . ., trans. Kaldellis and Krallis, 398-99.

6 Krallis, D., Michael Attaleiates and the Politics of Imperial Decline in Eleventh-Century Byzantium (Tempe, AZ 2012) 146–50Google Scholar.

7 Rhetor, Menander, Basilikos Logos, ed. and trans. Russell, D. A. and Wilson, N. G. (Oxford 1981) 78–80Google Scholar.

8 In general, see Krallis, Michael Attaleiates and the Politics of Imperial Decline.

9 Though by no means certain, there is some evidence that the tenth-century Phokades were thought to have some link with Constantine I and that they may have worked to further that association. Several sources associate Nikephoros II Phokas with Constantine, as Markopoulos has shown. Additionally, in the so-called Pigeon House Church in Çavuşin (Cappadocia) Nikephoros and his family are depicted in frescoes alongside Constantine and Helena. Markopoulos, A., ‘Constantine the Great in Macedonian historiography: models and approaches’, in Magdalino, P. (ed.), New Constantines (Aldershot 1994) 164–70Google Scholar; Jolivet-Levy, C., Les églises byzantines de Cappadoce. Le programme iconographique de l'abside et de ses abords (Paris 1991) 18–20Google Scholar; Thierry, N., ‘Un portrait de Jean Tzimiskès en Cappadoce’, Travaux et Mémoires 9 (1985) 480–83Google Scholar.

10 See, for example, Grünbart, M., Inszenierung und Repräsentation der byzantinischen Aristokratie vom 10. bis zum 13. Jahrhundert (Münster 2015) 27–51Google Scholar.

11 For a recent discussion, see Papaioannou, S., Michael Psellos: Rhetoric and Authorship in Byzantium (Cambridge 2013) 13–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Psellos, Michael, Chronographia, ed. and trans. Reinsch, D. R., Michael Psellos Leben der byzantinischen Kaiser (976-1075) (Berlin 2015) 794–801Google Scholar. Reinsch, following an earlier argument of Ljubarskij, suggests that the letter(s) summarized at the end of Psellos' work may actually belong to the reign of Basil II and his struggle against the rebel Bardas Phokas. According to Reinsch (862, n.320), the letter belongs to a group of documents which Psellos had intended to use as a source for Basil II's reign, which a redactor then appended to the end of the Chronographia. See also J. Ljubarskij, ‘Der Brief des Kaisers an Phokas’, Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 26 (1977) 103-7.

13 Psellos probably died in 1078. Papaioannou, Michael Psellos: Rhetoric and Authorship in Byzantium, 13.

14 Krallis, D., ‘Attaleiates as a reader of Psellos’, in Jenkins, D. and Barber, C. (eds.), Reading Michael Psellos, (Leiden 2006) 167–8Google Scholar.

15 Krallis, ‘Attalieates as a reader of Psellos’,167.

16 Krallis, Michael Attaleiates and the Politics of Imperial Decline, 148-50.

17 Skylitzes, for example, records how in 1056 or 1057 the emperor Michael VI bestowed upon his nephew, also named Michael, both the title of doux of Antioch and the surname Ouranos, ‘because his genos supposedly derived from the ancient Ouranos’. Anna Komnene's two sons were also famously known by two different surnames (Komnenos and Doukas). Neither of them bore the family name of their father, Nikephoros Bryennios. See Skylitzes, John, Synopsis Historiarum, ed. Thurn, J. (Berlin, New York 1973)Google Scholar [Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae 5] 483; translation taken from Wortley, J., trans., John Skylitzes: A Synopsis of Byzantine History, 811-1057 (Cambridge 2010) 451Google Scholar; on the names of Komnene's, Anna sons, see Prodromos’ poem edited and published in Nikephoros Bryennios, Historiarum libri quattuor, ed. Gautier, P. (Brussels 1975) 344–47Google Scholar.

18 Ljubarskij, J., ‘Nikephoros Phokas in Byzantine historical writings. Trace of the secular biography in Byzantium’, Byzantinoslavica 54.2 (1993) 245–53Google Scholar.

19 Psellos, Michael, Orationes panegyricae, ed. Dennis, G. T. (Stuttgart 1994) 2.101-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 Ἡ Συνέχεια τῆς Χρονογραφίας τοῦ Ἰωάννου Σκυλίτση, ed. and trans. E. Th. Tsolakis (Thessalonike 1968) 172.10-14: Ἦν δὲ ὁ Βοτανειάτης τῶν εὐπατριδῶν, ἐκ τοῦ Φωκᾶ τὸ γένος πολυπλόκως μὲν ἀλλ’ὅμως κατάγων καὶ τῶν περιωνύμων Φλαβίων, οἳ τὸ γένος ἀπὸ τῆς περιδόξου καὶ πρεσβυτέρας Ῥώμης κατῆγον, καθὼς ἡ ἀνέκαθεν παράδοσις κρατεῖ περὶ αὐτοῦ.

21 Zonaras, John, Epitome historiarum libri XIII usque ad XVIII, ed. Büttner-Wobst, T., 3 vols. (Bonn 1897) III, 715.10-11Google Scholar: ἦν δὲ τῶν εὐπατρίδων ὁ Βοτανειάτης, ἐκ τοῦ Φωκᾶ τὴν τοῦ γένους ἕλκων σειρὰν νομιζόμενος.

22 For a review of Botaneiates’ career prior to ascending the throne, see Karagiorgou, O., ‘On the way to the throne: The career of Nikephoros III Botaneiates before 1078’, in Stavrakos, C., Wassiliou, A.-K., and Krikorian, M. K. (eds.), Hypermachos: Studien zu Byzantinistik, Armenologie und Georgistik. Festschrift für Werner Seibt zum 65. Geburtstag (Wiesbaden 2008) 105–32Google Scholar.

23 Attaleiates, 229-30; Patlagean, Un Moyen Âge grec, 138.

24 E.g. Attaleiates 212-14, here at 213.

25 Cheynet, Pouvoir et contestations à Byzance, 351.

26 Cheynet, Pouvoir et contestations à Byzance. 351. A third, less serious contender, Nikephoros Basilakios, drew his support primarily from central and southern Greece.

27 Cheynet, ‘Les Phocas’, 312-13.

28 Karagiorgiou, ‘On the way to the throne’, 120-21.

29 Zonaras, Epitome historiarum, III, 715.5-7: Οὕτω δὲ τῶν πραγμάτων ἐχόντων, οἱ τῶν ἑῴων ἀρχόντων προέχοντες συνελθόντες ἀποστασίαν ὠδίνησαν, καὶ τὸν κουροπαλάτην Νικηφόρον τὸν Βοτανειάτην εἰς βασιλέα προείλοντο. By this period, ‘the East’ could mean more or less any area of central or eastern Anatolia.

30 Vlysidou, V. N., Αριστοκρατικές οικογένειες καί εξουσία (9ος-10ος αι.): Έρευνες πάνω στα διαδοχικά στάδια αντιμετώπισης της αρμενο-παφλαγονικής και της καππαδοκικής αριστοκρατίας (Thessalonike 2001) 108–42Google Scholar; Cheynet, ‘Les Phocas’, 19; Stephenson, P., ‘A development in nomenclature on the seals of the Byzantine provincial aristocracy in the late tenth century’, Revue des études byzantines 52 (1994) 196CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

31 Ljubarskii, ‘Nikephoros Phokas in Byzantine historical writings’, 245-53; Talbot, A.-M. and Sullivan, D. F. (eds. and trans.), The History of Leo the Deacon: Byzantine Military Expansion in the Tenth Century (Washington, DC 2005) 14–15Google Scholar; Neville, L., ‘A history of the caesar John Doukas in Nikephoros Bryennios' Material for History?’ Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 32 (2008) 168–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 Ljubarskij, ‘Nikephoros Phokas in Byzantine historical writings’, 245-53.

33 Nikephoros Bryennios, Historiarum libri quattuor, 219: . . .μητρόθεν δὲ ἐς τοὺς Κοντοστεφάνους καὶ τοὺς Ἀβαλλάντας καὶ τοὺς Φωκάδας τοὺς πάλαι περιφανεστάτους καὶ πλούτῳ πολλῷ κομῶντας.

34 It is possible that the Phokades themselves first invented a genealogy that included the Fabii, which Botaneiates and/or Attaleiates simply borrowed. See Cheynet, ‘Les Phocas’, 290.

35 Tzetzes, John, Epistulae, ed. Leone, P. L. M. (Leipzig 1972) 18.12Google Scholar (Καισάρων ἀπόγονε); 18.18-19 (ὡς ὁ Σερβιλίων Καισάρων ἀπόγονος); 31.17 (τῶν πρὶν Καισάρων Σερβιλίων ἀπόγονε).

36 The seal bears the catalogue number BZS.1951.31.5.413 (formerly Fogg 413). McGeer, E., Nesbitt, J., and Oikonomidès, N. (eds.), Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, Volume 5: The East (continued), Constantinople and Environs, Unknown Locations, Addenda, Uncertain Readings (Washington, D.C. 2005) 109.1Google Scholar. Obverse: Bust of the Virgin orans; Reverse: Σφρ[α]γὶς σεβαστ[οῦ] Μαγκάφους Ἰω(άννου) ῥίζαν γένους ἔχοντο[ς] ἐξόχου (?) 'Ρώμης.

37 Nikephoros Bryennios, Historiarum libri quattuor, 67-68: ὁ πρῶτος Δούκας ἐκεῖνος. . .καθ'αἷμα τῷ μεγάλῳ Κωνσταντίνῳ καὶ γνησιώτατα προσῳκείωτο· ἐκείνου τε γὰρ ἐξάδελφος ἦν καὶ τὴν τοῦ δουκὸς Κωνσταντινουπόλεως ἀξίαν παρ'αὐτοῦ ἐγκεχείριστο, κἀντεῦθεν καὶ πάντες ἐξ αὐτοῦ κατωνομάσθησαν οἱ Δουκώνυμοι.

38 Grünbart, Inszenierung und Repräsentation der byzantinischen Aristokratie, 44 (Lampros nr. 56.26-33): Ἀλλὰ τολμήσας στρέφω, σεβαστοκρατόρισσα, πρὸς σὲ τοὺς λόγους. Γένος μὲν οὖν σὸν εἰς τὸ τῶν Αἰνειάδων ὡς εἰς ἀπαρχὴν ἀνάγειν. . . The addressee is possibly Eirene Doukaina, sister-in-law of Manuel I Komnenos.

39 Digenis Akritis, ed. and trans. E. Jeffreys (Cambridge 1998) G 1.267, 4.43, 4.59, 4.325, 6.14, and 6.414.

40 Digenis Akritis E 136-37.

41 Timarion 8, in Baldwin, B., trans., Timarion (Detroit 1984) 47Google Scholar. The passage concludes with the question, ‘What man does not know of her father of all men, distinguished as he is by his high offices of state, tested in the most important military commands, conferring in every way an incomparable nobility upon his daughter’?

42 Digenes Akrites viii-lx; Beaton, R., ‘Cappadocians at court: Digenes and Timarion’, in Mullett, M. and Smythe, D. (eds.), Alexios I Komnenos: Papers of the Second Belfast Byzantine International Colloquium, 14-16 April 1989, vol. I: Papers [Belfast Byzantine Texts and Translations, 4.1] (Belfast 1996) 329–38Google Scholar.

43 For an astute analysis of the Timarion as a satirical critique of the Byzantine aristocracy, see Alexiou, M., ‘Literary subversion and the aristocracy in twelfth century Byzantium: a stylistic analysis of the Timarion (Ch. 6-10)’, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 8 (1983) 29–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Krallis, D., ‘Harmless satire, stinging critique: notes and suggestions for reading the Timarion’, in Angelov, D. and Saxby, M. (eds.), Power and Subversion in Byzantium. Papers from the Forty-third Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Birmingham, March 2010 (Farnham 2013) 221–46Google Scholar.

44 Patlagean, Un Moyen Âge grec, 138-9.

45 John Zonaras, Epitome Historiarum, III, 675-76: ἐκ θηλείας οἱ τούτου [Constantine X] κατήγοντο πρόγονοι, ὅθεν οὐδὲ Δοῦκας λελόγιστο καθαρός, ἀλλ’ ἐπίμικτος καὶ κεκιβδηλευμένην ἔχων τὴν πρὸς τοὺς Δούκας συγγένειαν.

46 Laiou, A., ‘Family structure and the transmission of property’, in Haldon, J. (ed.), A Social History of Byzantium (Chichester 2009) 51–75Google Scholar.

47 Laiou, ‘Family structure’, 72: ‘Descent is cognatic, and the family property is transmitted through bilateral inheritance, with a strong preference in law for equal inheritance. . .’

48 See, for example, Duby, G. and LeGoff, J. (eds.), Famille et parenté dans l'Occident médiévale (Rome 1977)Google Scholar [Collection de l'École française de Rome 30]; Schmid, K., ‘Zur Problematik von Familie, Sippe und Geschlecht, Haus und Dynastie beim mittelalterlichen Adel: Vortragen zum Thema “Adel und Herrschaft im Mittelalter”’, Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins 105 (1957) 1–62Google Scholar.

49 Italikos, Michael, Lettres et discours [Archives de l'Orient chrétien 14], ed. Gautier, P. (Paris 1972) Ep.13.19-24Google Scholar (to Eirene Doukaina): Οἱ μὲν γὰρ μῦθοι τὰ γένη εἰς Πηλέας τε καὶ Αἰακοὺς τυχὸν ἀναφέροντες, τελευταῖον εἰς τὸν Δία τὴν τοῦ γένους σειρὰν ἀνάπτουσι. . . (‘The stories tracing families to Peleus and Ajax, finally attach the family line to Zeus. . .’ ).

50 Tougher, S., ‘Imperial families: the case of the Macedonians (867-1056),’ in Brubaker, L. and Tougher, S. (eds.), Approaches to the Byzantine Family (Aldershot and Burlington, VT 2013) 303–26Google Scholar; Gounaridis, P., ‘Constitution d'une généalogie à Byzance’, in Bresson, A. (ed.), Parenté et société dans le monde grec de l'Antiquité à l'âge moderne. Colloque international, Volos (Grèce), 19-20-21 juin 2003 (Pessac, Bordeaux 2006) 271–80Google Scholar; Patlagean, Un Moyen Âge grec, 108-11.

51 Chronographiae quae Theophanis Continuati nomine fertur Liber quo Vita Basilii Imperatoris amplectitur, ed. I. Ševčenko [Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae – Series Berolinensis 42] (Berlin 2011) 212-16.

52 Leo, Emperor VI, Oraison funèbre de Basile I, in Vogt, A. and Hausherr, S. (eds.), ‘Oraison funèbre de Basile I par son fils Léon VI le sage’, Orientalia Christiana 26.1, no.77 (1932) 44.27Google Scholar: οὐ γὰρ ἱστορίαν, ἀλλ’ εὐφημίαν ἐργάζεται.

53 Symeonis Magistri et Logothetae, Chronicon, ed. S. Wahlgren [Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae – Series Berolinensis 44/1] (Berlin 2006) 689-90.

54 David, Niketas, The Life of Patriarch Ignatius, ed. and trans. Smithies, A. [Dumbarton Oaks Texts 13] (Cambridge, MA 2013) 89Google Scholar.

55 The episode is also recounted in the Chronicon of Symeon the Logothete, 689-90.

56 Kekaumenos, Raccomandazioni e consigli di un galantuomo, M.D. Spadaro (Alessandria 1998) 102.31-3; Kekaumenos, Consilia et Narrationes, ed. and trans. C. Roueché (SAWS edition 2013): at http://www.ancientwisdoms.ac.uk/library/kekaumenos-consilia-et-narrationes/.

57 Attaleiates 217-18: ὥς που διὰ βίβλου τινὸς παλαιᾶς ἐχειραγωγήθην ποτέ. . . Attaleiates here refers specifically to the link between the Phokades and the Fabii.

58 Attaleiates 227-29: αὐτὸς ὁ Φωκᾶς ἀνεστηλωμένος ἐν τούτῳ. . .Καῖ εἶδον τοῦτον ἐγὼ τῇ νήσῳ ἐπιδεδημηκὼς καὶ ἔστιν ἐμφερὴς πάντῃ τῷ προμνημονευθέντι βασιλεῖ κῦρ Νικηφόρῳ τῷ Βωτανειάτῃ, πίστεως ἀκριβοῦς σύμβουλον τοῦ εἶναι τοῦτον ἐκείνου ἀπόγονον; trans. Kaldellis and Krallis, The History, 416-17.

59 Neville, L., Heroes and Romans in Twelfth-Century Byzantium: The Material for History of Nikephoros Bryennios (Cambridge 2012) 104–11CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

60 Holmes, C., Basil II and the Governance of Empire, 976-1025 (Oxford 2006) 202–10Google Scholar; Neville, L., “Families, politics, and memories of Rome in the Material for History of Nikephoros Bryennios,” in Brubaker, L. and Tougher, S. (eds.), Approaches to the Byzantine Family (Farnham and Burlington, VT 2013) 359–70Google Scholar.

61 For a summary, see Neville, Heroes and Romans, 105-11, 194-8.

62 For an excellent summary of these benefits, see Patlagean, Un Moyen Âge grec, esp. 95-162.