Rendakis (Greek: Ρενδάκις), also Rendakios (Ρενδάκιος) or Rentakios (Ρεντάκιος) was a powerful Byzantine noble family in the 8th to 10th centuries.
History
The Rendakis family was first mentioned during the reign of Leo III the Isaurian (r. 717–741).[1] Although the family were native Greek speakers,[2] the etymology of the family name is believed by some scholars to have been of Slavic origin.[3] In the beginning of the 8th century, the number of officials of clearly provincial origin had increased, and the Rendakioi was one of these families.[4] In the 9th century, the family numbered among the most powerful families in the Byzantine Empire, alongside those of Bryennios, Choirosphaktes, Monomachos, and Tessarakontapechys.[5]
Members
Sisinnios Rendakis (Σισίννιος, fl. 719), patrikios and strategos of the Anatolic Theme under Emperor Leo III, according to the Miracles of Saint Demetrius, he commanded the imperial fleet that saved Thessaloniki from the barbarians.[6] He was from Macedonia. He fought against and was beheaded by the Bulgarians in ca. 718–719 because he had supported the attempt by the deposed emperor Anastasios II to recover his throne.
^Curta, Florin (2011). The Edinburgh History of the Greeks, C. 500 to 1050: The Early Middle Ages. Edinburgh University Press. p. 284. ISBN9780748638093. There were several individuals in early medieval Greece with surnames of Slavic origin which appear in written sources of the tenth (Rendakios Helladikos) or eleventh century (Constantine Rendakios…Even though the names are of Slavic origin, the individuals thus named were speakers of Greek, not Slavic.
^Vryonis 1981, p. 136: "Of Slavic origin were the families of Giabas, Rentacius, Branas (?), Bogdanos, and Boilas"
^Vryonis 1971, p. 161: "... ninth century [...] a clearly formed aristocracy [...] Rentacius, Tessaracontopechys, Bryennius, Choirosphactes, and Monomachus."
Vryonis, Speros S. (1971), The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the Process of Islamization from the Eleventh through the Fifteenth Century, University of California Press, ISBN0-520-01597-5