[1] Nikephoros first appears in the reign of John III Vatatzes (r. 1221–1254), who named him his epi tes trapezes and in 1237 gave him command of the recently gained and strategically important fortress of Tzouroulos in Thrace.
[3] Considered, according to George Akropolites, a skillful general, by 1252 he was placed as acting megas domestikos of the army, succeeding his deceased father-in-law Andronikos Palaiologos.
[4] Tarchaneiotes remained acting megas domestikos into the first part of Theodore II Laskaris's reign (1254–1258), when the post was conferred onto the new emperor's favourites, the Mouzalon brothers Andronikos and George.
He was rewarded with the restoration to the rank of megas domestikos (circa 1260), while his sons too received high state offices.
Tarchaneiotes was married twice, first to a daughter of the protostrator Andronikos Doukas Aprenos, and secondly to Maria-Martha Palaiologina, the eldest sister of Michael VIII Palaiologos.