House of Skleros

The Skleroi were a family of Anatolian landed aristocrats who reached their greatest prominence in the tenth century, declining thereafter. By the time of the defeat of the rebel Rōmanos Skleros in 1063, only one significant branch of Skleroi remained, led by Rōmanos' elder brother Bardas, a prisoner in Constantinople. Despite this unpromising position, Bardas' children achieved one last burst of glory for the Skleroi in the early eleventh century: his son Pantherios was an important Eastern commander between 1100 and his death in 1118, while his daughter Eudocia became extremely influential in the court as ''Augusta. ''

The very last influential Skleros was Pantherios' grandson Andreas, who fought alongside John II Komnenos in the 1160s and 70s and became one of the Emperor's most trusted confidantes. Andreas left no children upon his death from an infected wound early in 1177, and so the Skleros name died with him, although the bloodline lived on, most notably in the imperial family.