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The Golden Key of Chios

Chiot Aristocracy

Scholars have determined that the qualities defining the Byzantine aristocrat were established as early as the eighth century: primarily by virtue of birth and by virtue of moral and spiritual qualities. Military and civil officers who rendered services to the emperor were held in high esteem occupying a high position in the social pyramid. They derived their revenues from grants of land as a reward for their services. Aristocratic wealth came from three sources: personal wealth, gifts of land from the emperor, and high-ranking positions and offices to which "rogai" were attached. Land donations from emperors reached their apogee in the Palaiologan period. The greatest landlords who possessed vast stretches of land were the Church and the monasteries.

The eugeneia (nobility) of the lineage and the perpetuation of the oikos-house were secured through alliances and intermarriages between members of the great families. According to Angold, the heyday of the Byzantine aristocracy was the age of the Komnenoi (early 12th century), during which the top of the social pyramid was divided between two groups: the great noble families, who were active in the army or served in the imperial bureaucracy, and local families who were the leaders of the provincial towns. The mikroi occupied the base of the social pyramid. They were independent peasant proprietors, holders of small land parcels, free from obligations. Others were the Paroikoi, namely tenants, who paid rent for the land they cultivated.

There are a variety of western sources for the documentation of the Genoese period of Chios; Byzantine evidence on the great families includes historiography and sigillography. Chios prided herself on having her own aristocracy by birth, confirmed by the possession of land. The Chiot gentry originated from the greatest families of Byzantium. As early as the fourteenth century, their class was enlarged with the arrival of the Genoese rulers who dominated the island's life until the mid-sixteenth century.

The late medieval Chiot upper class was broken down into the following hierarchical scheme: a) Byzantine aristocrats, b) Genoese families that settled in the island in the aftermath of the conquest, and c) the Chiot-Genoese families. Co-existence of Genoese and Chiots first began in the mid-thirteenth century with the Treaty of Nymphaeum (1261) and the setting up of a Genoese emporium on Chiot soil. The establishment of the Genoese from the early fourteenth century onwards, brought about expansion of the Chiot social pyramid. Intermarriages between the locals and the settlers became frequent, bringing about the third division of the highest echelons of the Chiot aristocracy.

The Chiot archontes had a decisive role in the life of the island. Their lineage and position in local administration made them the natural community leaders. They held high military offices and enjoyed court titles. The archontes showed their prominent status in different ways. Either by erecting lavishly decorated residences in distinct areas of the town, or by their insignia which decorated their dwellings, their family shrines, and the funerary monuments. This was a means to perpetuate the name of the oikos-house. The sense of genealogy was much developed. Some personal archives of surviving families' descendants of whom are traced even in our days, provide evidence for that. Those family archives were the most important and richest sources for the prosopography, organization and evolution of the Chiot medieval social stratification. Unfortunately, a large percentage of them vanished in the 1822 massacre.

First references to the Noble Houses of Chios

The Quintet ruling houses of Chios during the 14th and 15th centuries.

The first study of history of the Chiot aristocratic houses is owed to Karl Hopf, who first produced a monograph on the oikos of the Giustiniani, the rulers of the second and longest Genoese occupation (1346-1566). G. Zolotas is credited for the first compilation of the medieval Chiot prosopography, which occupies a separate section in his "History of Chios"; it comprises all the Chiot and Genoese lineages from the tenth century until the very end of the Genoese period.

The catalogue describes also the origins of the houses, which altogether comprised the Chiot upper class. According to his estimations, the narrow circle of the Chiot aristocrats was already established in the Komnenian period. E. Malamut uses the evidence of four 11th-century lead seals connected with Chios (three seals of strategol and one of a nobelissimos)" But the specimen is too small and chronologically limited to be taken seriously into consideration.

The oldest historical mention of an archon of Chios is the testimony of John Kantakouzenos, who writes that the governor of the island during the period of the Zaccaria, was Leo Kalothetos, the most important of all the Chiot magnates. As a high imperial official, Kantakouzenos was a very close friend of Kalothetos. The latter held the governorship until 1340, when the emperor dismissed him from his office on account of a hostility that sprang against his person from the part of the Grand Domestikos Kantakouzenos and Apokaukos. The governorship of the island then passed to the hands of Kaloyannis Zyvos (or Cibo or Ziffo, as mentioned in the Genoese sources).

The next most significant and probably the oldest source recording the Chiot archontes is the treaty of concession of 1346. The treaty bears the terms and conditions agreed between the protagonists of the two parts followed by their signatures. On the one hand, the Admiral Simone Vignoso signed on behalf of the Commune of Genoa. On the other, prominent members of the Chiot aristocrats, as representatives of the whole body of the inhabitants of the island. Among the first terms the fifth clause was highly favorable for the interests of the Chiot aristocracy because it "safeguarded the privileges and possessions... which this class acquired from purchase, inheritance or grants from the Byzantine Emperors with chrysobulls." The Chiot aristocrats would adhere to the terms of the conventions imposed on them and the Genoese would recognize their class as hereditary and would respect them.

The Chiot signatories were: the Governor Kaloyannis Zyvus (Cibo or Ziffo), the Great Falconer Argenti, Constantine Zyvos (Cibo or Ziffo), the Grand Sakellarios Michael Koressios (Coressi), Sevastos Coressi (Syndicus), Georgio Agelastos (Syndicus et procuratore) and the "Protocomes Damala" (Centurione I Zaccaria).

How they assumed the power and became governors of the island is recorded again by John Kantakouzenos. The political crisis in the early fourteenth century caused by the civil war between Andronikos II and Andronikos III coincided with the possession of Chios, at that time by the Zaccaria family (1304-1329). The emperor held the sovereignty of the island but conceded the administration to Benedetto Zaccaria (and, after his death, to his successors) with a renewable lease. The expulsion of the latters' heir, Martino Zaccaria, in 1329 had a major repercussion on the island as it allowed the concession of the political power to the hands of the local magnates. It is likely that even prior to that period the conditions must have been the same, with the island in a state of semi-autonomy or autonomy and the concentration of power to the magnates. The sources clarify that the Chiot aristocrats were so powerful that they practically governed the island, albeit in theory in the name of the Byzantine Emperor. During the brief Byzantine repossession (1329-1346), the emperor appointed five of the most illustrious local families to govern Chios in his name. Those were: Kalothetos, Zyvos (Ziffo or Cibo), Argenti, Koressios (Coressi), and Damala (Damalas). This is the first historical recording of the nucleus of the closed Chiot aristocratic circle, dubbed "The Quintet." The treaty of submission is more valuable, because it is the first official recording of names of indigenous local magnates, and their offices.

The Maona of the Giustiniani

The byzantine repossession was brief. In 1346, a chartered company controlled by the Giustiniani called "Maona di Chio e di Focea", was set up in Genoa to reconquer and exploit Chios and the neighboring town of Phocaea in Asia Minor. Although the islanders firmly rejected an initial offer of protection, the island was invaded by a Genoese fleet, led by Simone Vignoso, and the castle besieged. This began the second occupation of Chios by the Genoese, which would last over 200 years.

Families of Genoese origin in Chios after 1566

A first census of the Chiot noble families is in 1681, when the Abbot of Burgo records the ancient Genoese families of Chios. The list, taken from the book "Viaggio di cinque anni" was published in 1686 in the prints of Agnelli (Milan); these families were:

Alessi, Argiroffi, Balzarini, Barbarini, Banti, Balli, Baselischi, Bavastrello, Borboni, Bressiani, Brissi, Calamata, Cametti, Caravi, Casanova, Castelli, Compiano, Condostavli, Coressi, Corpi, Damalà, D'Andria, Dapei, De Campi, Della Rocca, De Marchi, De Portu, Devia, Domestici, Doria, Facci, Filippucci, Fornetti, Frandalisti, Galiani, Gambiacco, Garchi, Garetti, Garpa, Giudici, Giustiniani, Giavanini, Graziani, Grimaldi, Leoni, Longhi, Machetti, Macripodi, Mainetti, Maloni, Mamabri, Marcopoli, Marneri, Moscardito, Massimi, Montarussi, Motacotti, Moroni, Ottaviani, Parodi, Pascarini, Pigri, Pisani, Portofino, Pretti, Ralli, Rastelli, Recanelli, Rendi, Reponti, Remoti, Rochi, Rubei, Salvago, Sangallo, Serini, Serra, Soffetti, Spinola, Stella, Testa, Timoni, Tubini, Valaperghi, Vegetti, Velati, Vernati, Viviani.

After the Genoese were expelled from the island by the Turks, the basis for a historical examination of Chiot nobility is the historical examination of Philip Pandély Argenti's "Libro d'oro de la Noblesse de Chio". It comprises of historical notes (164 pages) and genealogical trees (326 pages). The lack of a book about the nobility pushed Argenti to compose this Golden Book.

His inspiration started with the discovery of an "evangeliaire" owned by the Mavrogordato-Scarlato family. It contained genealogical records from the 18th century to the present day of this family and of the others present in Chios at that time they were recorded. It also recorded the 37 noble Chiot families divided into the hierarchy for which the first five houses constituted the "Pentada" (P), the subsequent twelve the "Dodèkada" (D) the other twenty were simply included in the noble sect.

Of these 37 families, the nobility of the island after the end of the Giustiniani domination in 1566, 7 are still from this Genoese dynasty: Casanova (branch of the Fieschi de Caneto), Castello (or de Castro, branch of the hotel Giustiniani), Grimaldi, Negroponte (direct descendants of Cattaneo-Zaccaria), Pateri, Prassacachi and Salvago. Two other Chiot families that are inscribed to the Genoese were: the Argenti, added to the Gentile hotel in 1532 and the Coressi (then Calvocoressi), inscribed to the Calvi hotel in 1537.

The Argenti study refers especially to the 17th-19th centuries allowing a historical memory for the descendants of the ancient and noble Genoese merchants settled on the island.

The Chiot nobility was thus composed of:

• Agelasto: (D) of Byzantine origin with genealogy since 1700, with 248 descendants.

• Argenti: (P) of Genoese origin with Nomikoi, Chadzi-Leonidi and Chochlakas branches, with genealogy including 212 descendants from 1511.

• Avierino: of Hellenic origin with genealogy since 1580, including 103 descendants.

• Calouta or Calauda: of Byzantine origin.

• Calvocoressi: (D) originating from the different Coresi in the Muzzala and Staphylà branches, with genealogy from 1600 with 439 descendants.

• Carali: descendants of the Coralli.

• Casanova: with genealogy of 62 descendants starting before 1750.

• Castelli, Castello, or De Castro.

• Chyssoveloni: went to Chios from Constantinople in the 17th century with genealogy from 1570 including 65 descendants as well as 34 others from 1740 of the Marakanava branch.

• Condostavlo or Condostavius (Contestable): (D) of byzantine origin. Distinguished in the Katramada and Kalaroni branches with genealogy starting in 1730 and includes 101 descendants.

• Coressi: (D) of byzantine origin, whose genealogy includes 62 members from 1558.

• Damala: Descendants of the Zaccaria, Barons of Damala.

• Franghiadi or Frangia: originating from the Peloponnese with genealogy of 97 descendants dating back to 1750.

• Galati: (D) of byzantine origin from Asia Minor. Distinguished in the Sikan and Foua branches, with genealogy of 275 descendants since 1640.

• Grimaldi

• Massimo or Maximo: with 84 descendants from 1570.

• Mavrogordato, Mavrocordato, or Maurocordato: (P) of byzantine origin. Divided into the branches Vitella, Lakana, de Nicola, Siphouni and Scarlati with a wide genealogy including 720 people starting in 1547.

• Negroponte: (D) with genealogy of 316 descendants beginning before 1530.

• Paspati: from the province of Caramania in Asia Minor with genealogy of 79 descendants dating back to 1750.

• Paterii or Paterio

• Petrocchino: (P) from Constantinople. Distinguished in the Harmatolos and Katsar Petros branches, with genealogy including 538 descendants from 1620.

• Prassacachi (D) with genealogy of 107 descendants since 1620.

• Ralli (D) present at the fall of the Byzantine Empire divided into Chaviarà branches with genealogy of 484 descendants with forward beginning in 1720, Pitsis with genealogies of 340 descendants starting in 1715 and Spechlis with genealogy 86 elements from 1718.

• Rodocanachi: (P) of byzantine origin whose genealogy is 513 descendants from 1536 for the Vlachou and Mèrelè branches, 76 from 1770 for the Sakoleva branch and 35 from before 1780 for the Sepsis branch.

• Roidi: of possible Greek origin, with genealogy of 188 descendants since 1715.

• Salvago: with 104 descendants since before 1670.

• Scanavi: with 156 descendants since 1680.

• Scaramanga: (D) of byzantine origin. Distinguished in the Makarana, Caloupa and Coco branches. With genealogy since 1560 and has 323 descendants.

• Schilizzi: (P) of byzantine origin, from Thrace in Asia Minor. Distinguished in the Arabian branches, Orphanoi, Karapiperi and Misè or latri, with genealogy since 1590 with 445 descendants.

• Sechiari: probably Modena origin with 134 descendants since 1680.

• Sevastopoulos: (D) of byzantine origin with genealogy before 1682 with 179 descendants.

• Sgouta: with genealogy since 1574, 90 descendants.

• Vlasto: of byzantine origin with presence also in the island of Crete. With genealogy since 1700 and 220 descendants.

• Vouro: (D) originating from the islands of Rhodes and Crete. Distinguished in the Maloukatou and de Cosis branches with genealogy comprising 207 descendants since 1500.

• Ziffo: from the island of Rhodes whose genealogy begins before 1720 with 125 descendants.

• Zizinia: with genealogy of 101 descendants since 1730.

• Zygomala: with genealogy since 1498 with 172 descendants.

The Massacre of Chios in 1822

The Massacre at Chios by Eugène Delacroix. This, and the works of Lord Byron, did much to draw the attention of mainland Europe to the catastrophe that had taken place in Chios (1824, oil on canvas, 419 cm × 354 cm (165 in × 139 in), Musée du Louvre, Paris).

Sources

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