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Taticius was a Byzantine general during the reign
of Alexius I Comnenus. His name is also rendered
as Tatikios, Tatizius, Tatitius, Tatic, or Tetig.

His father an Arab who was captured by Alexius'
father John Comnenus and served as a slave in the
imperial household. Taticius and Alexius grew up
together, and he is described as an oikogenes of
Alexius (that is, "from the same house"). 

In 1078, before Alexius was emperor, he
accompanied Alexius in battle against his rival
Basilacius, and discovered Basilacius' plans for
an ambush. When Alexius became emperor in 1081 he
held the office of Grand Primicerius in the
imperial household. Later that year he commanded
the Seljuk Turks|Turkish (or possibly Pecheneg)
mercenary|mercenaries from Ohrid at the Battle of
Dyrrhachium (1081)|Battle of Dyrrhachium against
Robert Guiscard. 

In 1086 he was sent to Nicaea in an attempt to
recapture it from the Seljuks; he was forced to
retreat when he learned that Seljuk reinforcements
were on their way. Alexius sent him back with
naval assistance from Manuel Boutoumites, but
although he was able to defeat Abul-Kasim, the
governor of the city, in Bithynia, but could not
recapture the city. At the end of the year he was
recalled and sent to fight the Pechenegs, who were
assisting the heretical Manichaeans revolt against
Alexius, near Philippopolis. In 1087 he commanded
the Byzantine right wing in the Battle of Drista
against the Pechenegs, and in 1090 he defeated a
small force of 300 Pechenegs while leading the
Archontopouloi tagma against them.

In early 1094, he was placed in charge of guarding
Alexius' tent at Pentegostis. Here he discovered
the plot of Nicephorus Diogenes, son of the former
emperor Romanus IV|Romanus IV Diogenes, to kill
the emperor. Nicephorus was an old friend of
Alexius and Taticius and Alexius was reluctant to
punish him, but it was clear that Nicephorus was
ambitious for the throne. He was exiled and was
eventually blinded. Later in 1094, he attended the
synod of Blachernae which condemned Bishop Leo of
Chalcedon, presumably in some function of
security.

In 1095 Taticius accompanied Alexius in the
campaign against the Cumans. In 1096 he defended
Constantinople from reckless crusaders who
attacked the city after their arrival. In 1097,
with Tzitas and 2000 peltasts, Alexius sent him to
Nicaea to assist the crusaders in their Siege of
Nicaea|siege of the city. Crusade chronicler
Albert of Aix says that he acted as an envoy
between the Turks and the crusaders, but according
to the more reliable Anna Comnena, he was working
with Boutoumites to negotiate the surrender of the
city without the crusaders' knowledge. This caused
a deep rift between the Latins and Greeks. 

However, Taticius was ordered to accompany the
crusaders across Anatolia, both as a guide and
also to ensure that any captured territory was
retured to the Empire. After leaving Nicaea the
crusaders split into two groups. Taticius
accompanied the Normans|Norman (under Guiscard's
son Bohemund I of Antioch|Bohemund of Taranto,
Bohemund's nephew Tancred, Prince of
Galilee|Tancred, and Robert Curthose|Robert of
Normandy) and Flanders|Flemish (under Robert II of
Flanders|Robert of Flanders) contingents. The
Gesta Francorum records that he frequently warned
the crusaders of the ferocity of the Turks. 

During the siege of Antioch, Raymond of Aguilers
writes that he advised the crusaders to disperse
and capture the surrounding countryside before
attacking the city itself, which would also help
them avoid a famine (this advice was ignored). In
February of 1098 he left the siege; according to
Anna, who probably talked to Taticius personally
or had access to his reports, Taticius was
informed by Bohemund that the other crusaders
mistrusted him and had threatened his life.
Bohemund, on the other hand, spread the rumour
that Taticius was a coward and a traitor, and had
fled the army never intending to return, despite
his promises to bring back reinforcements from
Constantinople. This is the account preserved in
contemporary crusader chronicles, who refer to him
as a great enemy and a liar (periurio manet et
manebit, according to the Gesta Francorum); Anna's
account, of course, may be influenced by her deep
prejudice against Bohemund, a long-standing enemy
of her father.

In April of 1099 Taticius and the Norman mercenary
Landulf were made admirals and placed in charge of
a fleet sent from Constantinople to confront a
Pisan fleet on its way to assist the crusaders,
which had been pillaging the coasts of the Empire.
This fleet, equipped with Greek fire, ended up
roaming off the coast of Cilicia and Syria, and
came into conflict with the Pisans and later the
Genoa|Genoese in the following years.

The crusade chroniclers mention that Taticius had
a mutilated nose; mutilation of the face was a
common Byzantine punishment for traitors but this
does not appear to be the case in this instance.
According to Guibert of Nogent he had a prosthetic
gold nose as a replacement. Contrary to the
crusaders' opinions of him, Anna describes him as
"a valiant fighter, a man who kept his head under
combat conditions," and "a clever orator and a
powerful man of action." Anna also tells the story
that Taticius and Alexius were playing polo when
the general was thrown from his horse and landed
on the emperor. Alexius injured his knee in the
incident and was thereafter afflicted by gout.
Anna does not mention the date of this incident;
it is an aside in her account of Alexius'
campaigns against the Turks around 1110. 

There is no record of the dates of Taticius' birth
or death. Although the office of Grand Primicerius
was usually held by a eunuch, Taticius seems to
have had descendants who were members of a
powerful noble family in the 12th century,
including another general under Manuel I Comnenus.

==References==
*Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades, Vol.
1: The First Crusade. Cambridge, 1952.
*Basile Skoulatos, Les Personnages Byzantins de
L'Alexiade: Analyse Prosopographique et Synthèse.
Leuven, 1980.
*Albert of Aix, Historia Hierosolymitana.
*Anna Comnena, The Alexiad, trans. E.R.A. Sewter.
Penguin, 1969.
*Gesta Francorum|Gesta Francorum et aliorum
Hierosolimitanorum (anonymous)
*Guibert of Nogent, Dei gesta per Francos.
*Peter Tudebode, Historia de Hierosolymitano
itinere.
*Raymond of Aguilers, Historia Francorum qui
ceperunt Iherusalem.