Niketas, possibly surnamed Abalantes (Greek: Νικήτας [Αβαλάντης]), was a Byzantine military commander who in 964 led a major expedition against the Fatimid Caliphate in Sicily, was defeated, and spent a few years in captivity, where he copied the Codex Parisinus gr. 497 manuscript.
His family name is uncertain: the only surviving source, in the Codex Parisinus gr. 497, has the fragmentary genitive form ...άντου. It was the historian Helene Ahrweiler who glossed the name to Abalantes,[1] but the accuracy of the emendation is not certain.[2] His brother, Michael, was a patrikios and protovestiarios (head chamberlain) of Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas (r. 963–969).[2]
According to the contemporary historian Leo the Deacon, Niketas was a eunuch, but also a pious and god-fearing man.[2] He was named protospatharios and droungarios of the Fleet (commander-in-chief of the central Imperial Fleet), and eventually promoted to patrikios as well.[2] In 964, Emperor Nikephoros II chose him to lead a large-scale expedition to Sicily,[2] where during the previous two years the Fatimids' Kalbid governors had begun reducing the remaining Byzantine strongholds in the Val Demone, capturing Taormina and laying siege to Rometta.[3] Niketas was the commander of the fleet and overall commander-in-chief, while the land forces were led by the Emperor's nephew, Manuel Phokas.[2]
According to Leo the Deacon, upon arriving in Sicily, the Byzantines were able to capture Syracuse and Himera, while Taormina and Leontini surrendered without resistance.[2] Encouraged by this success, the army under Manuel Phokas advanced heedlessly into the interior to relieve Rometta, but was ambushed in October 964 and destroyed by the Fatimid troops.[2][4] Rometta then capitulated, and the Fatimids proceeded to attack the Byzantine fleet in the Straits of Messina: in the so-called "Battle of the Straits", the Fatimid commander, Ahmad ibn al-Hasan al-Kalbi, scored a major victory, capturing many ships and taking Niketas captive.[2][5]
Niketas and other Byzantine commanders were brought to Ifriqiya, where they were handed over to the Fatimid caliph al-Mu'izz.[2] They remained in captivity, until ransomed by Nikephoros II, probably as part of the peace treaty concluded in 967. Leo the Deacon claims that the Emperor offered a sword that had belonged to Muhammad as ransom for Niketas, and threatened war otherwise.[2]
During his captivity in Ifriqiya, Niketas copied the homilies of Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzus in a fine calligraphic manuscript, which he donated to a monastery dedicated to St. George in 970, and which is now in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris (Parisinus gr. 947).[2][5]