Karykes

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Karykes was the Byzantine governor of Crete who led a revolt around 1090–1091 during the reign of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. The main sources for the revolt are Anna Komnene and Joannes Zonaras, but they give few details. Some later writers mix this uprising with a Cyprus revolt, and a historian even confuses names, but Karykes is known only by his family name, with no clear information about his relatives. It has been suggested that he might be the same Niketas Karykes who governed Bulgaria earlier, but this is uncertain. Other people named Karykes appear in later periods, including Basil Karykes.

The cause of the revolt is unclear from contemporary records. Some historians think it was a tax revolt against Alexios I’s fiscal policies. Judith Herrin links the Crete uprising to the Cyprus revolt and to the war with the emir of Smyrna, Tzachas, suggesting possible cooperation with him. Dimitris Tsougarakis argues that Karykes acted more like a military coup leader than a widespread popular rebel, since he did not have enough broad support to stand up to the central government. The Cyprus revolt appears to have been more durable. The Crete and Cyprus uprisings were probably independent, though they are mentioned together in some sources. The central government was busy fighting Pechenegs and Turks, so Crete’s and Cyprus’ governors may have acted on their own.

Karykes was almost certainly the ruler of Crete, holding the title of doux or katepano. His revolt began in late 1090 or early 1091, just before Emperor Alexios I won a major victory over the Pechenegs at Levounion in April 1091. For a time, Karykes managed to rule Crete against imperial authority.

In 1092 or 1093, Alexios I sent a fleet under megas doux Joannes Doukas to crush the rebellion. Accounts differ. The Life of Saint Meletios Younger says Doukas learned of the uprising in Euboea, then sailed to Crete to restore imperial rule with garrisons. A letter from Theophylact of Ohrid to Doukas at Chalkis would support that version. Anna Komnene, by contrast, says Doukas reached the island of Karpathos first, and the Cretans killed Karykes and surrendered to Doukas after that, placing the end of the revolt in the summer or fall of 1092. Some scholars think the spring of 1093 fits better with Doukas leaving Chalkis in spring, as the Life of Meletios suggests.

An inscription at Didyma about rebuilding the fort of Hieron was once used to link Doukas’ campaign to Crete, but this view is not widely accepted. After the revolt, Crete did not play a major imperial role again until the Venetians seized the island in 1205.

Some modern historians wonder if Karykes’ revolt helped shape the later rise of twelve Cretan noble families who appear in Venetian Crete in the 13th century. A forged 13th-century document describes an emperor named Alexios sending ships to force Crete to submit with help from these twelve families, but the story does not clearly match the reigns of Alexios I or II. It illustrates, however, that Crete’s political landscape remained complex even after Karykes’ uprising.