Megas Doux

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Megas Doux Alexios Apokaukos (1341-1345), in the garb of his office.
Megas Doux Alexios Apokaukos (1341-1345), in the garb of his office.

The Megas Doux (Greek: Μέγας Δουξ, "Grand Duke") was one of the highest positions in the hierarchy of the later Byzantine Empire. It is sometimes also given by the half-Latinizations "Megaduke" or "Megadux".

The title was created by Alexios I Komnenos, and was the equivalent of the Lord High Admiral of the Byzantine navy. Under the late Palaiologan emperors, the title was held together with the office of mesazōn, making the Megas Doux effectively the Emperor's prime minister, overseeing the Imperial Bureaucracy.

The last and most famous Megas Doux was Loukas Notaras,

[edit] Sources

  • The Immortal Emperor, by Donald Nicol.
  • The Fall of Constantinople 1453, by Steven Runciman.
  • Byzantium: Decline and Fall & A Short History of Byzantium, by John Julius Norwich.
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