Theodore Palaiologos (stratiote)
Theodore Palaiologos was a 15th- and 16th-century Greek stratiote and diplomat in the service of the Republic of Venice and one of the key early formative figures of the Greek community in Venice. He was not related to the Palaiologos dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, but his family may have been their distant cousins.
Portrait of a stratiote, believed to be Theodore Palaiologos
The House of Palaiologos, also found in English-language literature as Palaeologus or Palaeologue, was a Byzantine Greek noble family that rose to power and produced the last and longest-ruling dynasty in the history of the Byzantine Empire. Their rule as Emperors and Autocrats of the Romans lasted almost two hundred years, from 1259 to the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.
Michael VIII Palaiologos (r. 1259–1282), founder of the imperial Palaiologos dynasty
John VI Kantakouzenos (center, r. 1347–1354) nearly succeeded in deposing the Palaiologos dynasty in favor of his own family, the Kantakouzenoi.
Constantine XI Palaiologos (r. 1449–1453), the final Byzantine Emperor
Thomas Palaiologos, younger brother of Constantine XI and Despot of the Morea 1428–1460