Alexios Melas

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Alexios Melas
Physical information
Species	Human
Race	Euran
Gender	Male
Hair color and style	Black
Eye color	Brown
Skin color	Light Olive
Biographical information
Father	Markos Melas
Mother	Zinovia Antoniou
Date of birth	25.III.1643 AN
Date of death	24.V.1729 AN (86)
Residence(s)	Petropolis
Allegiance(s)	Constancia
Service/branch	Imperial Guard
Years of service	Syntagmatarchis, The Most Serene Regiment of the Basilikē Touldon (1691 AN – 1694 AN) Syntagmatarchis, The Most Serene Regiment of the Optimatoi (1694 AN – 1729 AN) Mystikos for the Bab-e Dīvān of the Suren (1694 AN – 1729 AN)

A colonel (Syntagmatarchis) in the Imperial Guard of the Imperial Constancian Armed Forces, Alexios Melas was the officer commanding of the Most Serene Regiment of the Basilikē Touldon and as such was responsible for the depot and logistics of the Imperial Guard, the planning and implementation of its phased relocation from Asterapolis to Petropolis, the acquisition of lands and properties in the new capital for the officers and regiments of the guard, and the organising and carrying out of "razzias" into the Euran interior for the purpose of collecting corvée labourers to toil upon the city's innumerable construction projects.

After 1.VIII.1694 AN he was posted to Surenshahr serving there as Mystikos for the government of Mitradokht of Suren although retaining his Constancian rank and continuing to receive pay from the Imperial Court and from the Honourable Company.

Part of the Delegation of the Suren Confederacy to the Committee of Euran Salvation in 1708. Raised to the status of Ambassador of the Imperial State of Constancia to the Suren Confederacy in 1709.

Biography

Born the son of Markos Melas on 25.III.1643 AN, Alexios' mother had been taken into servitude as the daughter of a family condemned and massacred for their collaboration with the Jingdaoese occupation of the Euranikon Theme during the Euran War of 1636 AN to 1637 AN. The mother had been given to Markos Melas as a concubine, along with 364 grams of gold and a commission into the Exkoubitoi regiment of the Constancian Armed Forces, as a reward for conspicuous gallantry in floating improvised explosive devices into the midst of Jingdaoese riverine shipping during a night-time raid on occupied Portus Felix. Presented with the new born boy, the excubitor Markos had proceeded to examine the child. Discovering it to be free of obvious physical defects and sensitive to both the light of a candle and the prick of the needle, Markos declared that the child was to be spared from the fate of exposure in the desert and bestowed the name of Alexios upon him. A year after his birth, Alexios' mother was sold on to a Shirerithian merchant resident in Vey, while the boy was dispatched to the home of a wet-nurse for weaning onto solids. On Alexios' third birthday he was brought to the doorway of his father's home and formally accepted into the household, whereafter he was placed in the servants quarters to be raised amongst the children of the Komes Markos' attendants. From his earliest age, beginning at the moment he could walk unaided, Alexios learned to fight for his place at the kitchen table, grasping for the scraps and leftovers distributed according to age and standing in the eyes of the cook and her attendants. At the age of five Alexios gouged the eye of a fellow child whilst a play. For this he received a beating from his father in front of the assembled household. Shortly after this incident Alexios began to be seated at the servants table and had a plate set before him consisting of a meal of leftovers from his father's table which was untouched by the servants before it reached him. He was also encouraged, by instructions and sharp blows to eat with a knife and fork, to keep his elbows off the table, and to avoid slouching.

At the age of seven, Alexios was once more brought before his father who set him a series of physical trials, including a test of his courage by bringing a leashed guard dog into the room. Satisfied with the adequacy of these results. Markos assumed responsibility for his son's upbringing, moving him out of the servants quarters and into the suite of apartments reserved for the domestic household. During Alexios' infancy his father had contracted a formal marriage more suitable for his social standing, indeed this had been arranged within a year of his selling off the concubine who had been Alexios' mother. Accordingly entering into his father's chambers had been the first occasion on which he had been introduced to his half-brother, Pavlos, three years his junior.

Death

Died 1729.

Honors and Awards

• : Knight Commander of the Order of the Great Kingdom of Constancia (1710)