Basil of Trebizond

Who was Basil of Trebizond?

Basil Megas Komnenos was Emperor of Trebizond from August 1332 until his death in 1340. Basil was a younger son of Emperor Alexios II of Trebizond and his wife Djiadjak Jaqeli. When his elder brother Andronikos III assumed the throne in 1330 and killed two of his brothers, Basil managed to escape to Constantinople.

After the death of Andronikos III, during the reign of his infant son, Manuel II, the pro-Byzantine party at Trebizond called Basil from Constantinople to take the throne. In August 1332 Manuel was deposed and intended for a monastery, while Basil was crowned emperor. Basil purged the court of his brother and nephew's supporters, but the man he appointed as the new megas doux, John the Eunuch, revolted in favor of the deposed Manuel. The revolt was crushed and to prevent further trouble the child was murdered in 1333, probably on Basil's order.

Despite Basil's return, the factional strife continued. According to George Finlay, the great officers and principal nobles had become petty sovereigns, reducing the countryside to anarchy. The Scholarioi, the militia of capital, became so disaffected that he had to hire foreign bodyguards to protect his person, who rapidly made themselves and their master hated for their arrogance and corruption. Such was his unpopularity with the people of the city, that when a solar eclipse took place they took it for a sign of divine wrath and forced the emperor to seek refuge in the citadel and tried to pelt him with stones.