Nikephoros Ouranos

Nikephoros Ouranos
Born	Unknown
Died	c. 1010
Allegiance	Byzantine Empire
Rank	Domestic of the Schools, doux of Antioch, viceroy of the Eastern frontier
Battles/wars	Battle of Spercheios

Nikephoros Ouranos (Greek: Νικηφόρος Οὐρανός; fl. c. 980 – c. 1010), Latinized as Nicephorus Uranus, was a high-ranking Byzantine official and general during the reign of Emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025). One of the emperor's closest associates, he was active in Europe in the wars against the Bulgarians, scoring a major victory at Spercheios, and against the Arabs in Syria, where he held command during the first decade of the 11th century as Basil's virtual viceroy. A well-educated man, he wrote a military manual (Taktika) and composed several surviving poems and hagiographies.

Very little is known of Ouranos's origin, his early years or his family, and the chronicles represent him very much as a "new man". A prōtospatharios and asēkrētis Basil Ouranos, possibly an elder relative, is attested, and we know from Nikephoros's letters that he had a brother named Michael. Nikephoros Ouranos himself first enters history in the early 980s, during negotiations between Byzantium and the Emir of Baghdad for the return of the renegade rebel general Bardas Skleros. After a first Byzantine embassy in 980, an Arab embassy under Ibn Shahram visited Constantinople in 982, and Ouranos is mentioned in its report as a confidante of the young Basil II, holding the high court position of epi tou kanikleiou (keeper of the kanikleion, the imperial inkstand). Ibn Shahram further mentioned that Ouranos's close association with the emperor made him an enemy to the powerful eunuch parakoimomenos, Basil Lekapenos, who had supervised the affairs of state for decades. During the negotiations, Ouranos functioned as the intermediary between the Arabs and the emperor, and he was subsequently chosen by the parakoimomenos to head a Byzantine delegation to Baghdad, which would take custody of Skleros.

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