Kekaumenos

Kekaumenos (c. 1020 – after 1081), a Byzantine military commander and statesman. On his father's side, he was a Georgian from Tao (according to another view, an Armenian), and on his mother's side, a descendant of a Bulgarian voivode. In his old age, he devoted himself to writing. His work, the Strategikon, is a compilation of various treatises ("Admonitions to the Emperor," "Admonitions to the Toparch," etc.). In it, the author offers advice on both the military art and domestic matters; however, its primary value lies in the information it provides regarding Byzantium's relations with various peoples—specifically, Byzantine state affairs from the reign of Basil II (976–1025) to Romanos IV Diogenes (1067–1071). Kekaumenos provides an account regarding the heavy taxation levied on Iberia: "It was during the time of the Emperor Monomachos that Servlia (a tax collector) traveled to Iberia and Mesopotamia by imperial command to conduct a census there and impose such heavy taxes as the inhabitants of their country had never experienced, thereby forcing them, with their entire households, to go over to the side of the Persian king. That was the reason that they led the king of the Persians with vast armies against Romans."

Literature: გეორგიკა. ბიზანტიელი მწერლების ცნობები საქართველოს შესახებ, ს. ყაუხჩიშვილის გამოც., ტ. 5, თბ., 1963. (Georgika. Byzantine Writers' Accounts of Georgia, edited by S. Kaukhchishvili, Vol. 5, Tb., 1963).

L. Maniava