Michael Monomachos

Monomachos remained in Thessalonica until 1332/3. In that year, Stephen Gabrielopoulos, the semi-independent ruler of western Thessaly and parts of southwestern Macedonia, died. Gabrielopoulos had been a Byzantine vassal, but the neighbouring ruler of Epirus, John II Orsini, quickly moved to take over his territories. In response, Andronikos III ordered Monomachos in Thessalonica to intervene, before coming himself to Thessaly at the head of an army.^[3] The Byzantines soon regained control of most of the region, although the historian Božidar Ferjančić doubts Kantakouzenos' assertion that the Epirote forces were completely expelled and all of Thessaly recaptured at that time, pointing out the lack of imperial charters in western Thessaly before 1336, and insists that the imperial forces captured only the eastern portions of the region in 1332/3. Andronikos III, after spending the winter in the area, left Monomachos as the governor of the new province, with the title of protosebastos.^[2][4] At the latest by the time of John II Orsini's death in 1335, Monomachos and Andronikos III were able to extend Byzantine control over western Thessaly as well, and even to advance into Epirus proper and capture Ioannina.^[5]

In 1338, Andronikos III completed his invasion of the Epirote heartland by capturing the Epirote capital, Arta, and annexing Epirus to the Empire. This move was opposed by the local population, who in the next year rebelled against Palaiologan rule. The Epirotes rallied around their young ruler, Nikephoros II Orsini, who escaped Byzantine custody and returned to Epirus with troops from the Angevin court of Naples. The rebels captured Arta and took the Byzantine governor, Theodore Synadenos, prisoner.^[6] Consequently, in late 1339 or early 1340, a Byzantine army under Monomachos and John Angelos advanced against the rebels, followed soon by the emperor himself. By the end of the year, the various rebel-held strongholds capitulated. Nikephoros was accorded the title of panhypersebastos and sent to Thessalonica, where his mother and sister already lived, and Epirus returned to Byzantine control with John Angelos as governor.^[7]

With the outbreak of the