Alexios Apokaukos
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Alexios Apokaukos, also Latinized as Alexius Apocaucus, was a chief minister and head of the navy in the Byzantine Empire, during the reigns of emperors Andronikos III Palaiologos and John V Palaiologos. Although he owed his rise to high state offices to the patronage of John VI Kantakouzenos, he became, together with Patriarch John XIV Kalekas, one of the leaders of the faction supporting Emperor John V in the civil war of 1341–1347 against his one-time benefactor. Apokaukos died when he was lynched by political prisoners during an inspection of a new prison.
Donor portrait of the megas doux Alexios Apokaukos, from a collection of the "Works of Hippocrates" commissioned by him in the early 1340s. Alexios is depicted in the garb of his office, wearing a richly decorated kabbadion and the skaranikon, a ceremonial headdress depicting the reigning emperor.
Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos (r. 1347–1354), Apokaukos's patron and victim of his protégé's ambition
John V Palaiologos
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John V Palaiologos or Palaeologus was Byzantine emperor from 1341 to 1391, with interruptions. His long reign was marked by constant civil war, the spread of the Black Death and several military defeats to the Ottoman Turks, who rose as the dominant power of the region.
Restored mosaic of John V Palaiologos in the eastern arch of Hagia Sophia.