Michael Kourtikios (Greek: Μιχαήλ Κουρτίκιος) was a senior Byzantine military commander and a partisan of Bardas Skleros during the latter's rebellion against Basil II.
The Kourtikios or Kourtikes family was Armenian in origin and entered Byzantine service under Basil I the Macedonian (r. 867–886), when its eponymous founder, K'urdik, ceded his fortress of Lokana to the Empire.
[6][7] Leo the Deacon, however, who was a contemporary to the rebellion, reports that this happened only later, in 978, after Skleros scored a victory against the loyalist general Bardas Phokas the Younger, that Attaleia went over to the rebel.
[8] Werner Seibt, followed by other scholars like Alexander Kazhdan and Michael Whittow, furthermore suggested that Kourtikios was actually the admiral deposed by the Attaleians, who then switched his allegiance to Skleros.
[1][3][9] According to Skylitzes, Kourtikios attacked and raided several Aegean islands, and prepared to capture Abydos on the Hellespont,[10] thereby cutting Constantinople's seaborne links to the western provinces still loyal to Basil, as well as allowing Skleros to ferry his troops over to Europe.