| Summary: | Scion of an illustrious Anatolian military lineage of probable Armenian descent whose access in the Byzantine aristocracy is datable to the second half of the 10th century, Theodore Gabras was known for being a soldier with formidable abilities. Around 1075, he was able to reconquer Trebizond, the Pontic city which was the capital of Chaldia. At the beginning of the Eighties of the 11th century, he was nominated duke of Chaldia by Alexios I Komnenos, but, as Anna Komnene states, he immediately behaved as the government given to him was his own personal appanage and he handled it as it was his own private property. His career testifies a historical phase, the second half of the 11th century, in which the Byzantine institutions and political and social textures experienced deep changes. In the disruption of the eastern defensive system after the defeat of Mantzikert (1071), the territorial rooting of the Anatolian houses let some of them earn room for political autonomy, also thanks to the consensus they enjoyed among the local Church and populations. Theodore knew how to use his political and economic influence in Chaldia in order to integrate himself in the new system of government, but that same influence allowed him to build a sort of personal lordship, which the Gabrades held with mixed fortunes until the first half of the 12th century.
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