Caesar Bardas and the accusation of an illicit aff air: a-re-examination
Caesar Bardas and the accusation of an illicit aff air: a-re-examination

Summary/Abstract: Caesar Bardas, whose decade-long administration has been unanimously admired by historians, was accused of having an incestuous relationship with his widowed daughter-in-law. Logothete Theoktistus and Patriarch Ignatius provided some of the harshest criticism, going so far as to publicly accuse the Caesar. This struggle led to the murder of the former and the eventual exile of the latter. The role Theoktistus played in accusing Bardas and relaying information concerning his illicit aff air has heretofore received little attention; rather, previous scholarship has tended to focus on the confl ict between Ignatius and Bardas. The present study re-examines the evidence and analyzes the historical contexts in which the alleged incestuous relationship was said to have occurred in order to counter the tendency among authors of historical and hagiographical works to tarnish Bardas’s image and recreate a more authentic view of this figure.

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