Theodore Palaiologos (stratiote)

Theodore Palaiologos (Italian: Teodoro Paleologo, Greek: Θεόδωρος Παλαιολόγος, romanized: Theodōros Palaiologos; 1452–1532) was a 15th- and 16th-century Greek stratiote (light-armed mercenary cavalryman) and diplomat in the service of the Republic of Venice and one of the key early formative figures of the Greek community in Venice. He was not related to the Palaiologos dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, but his family may have been their distant cousins.

Originally a soubashi (debt-collector/police enforcer) in Ottoman service in the Peloponnese, Theodore left Greece in 1478. He would serve as a stratiote for more than forty years, partaking in numerous battles and campaigns and would also serve as a military governor on the Venetian-held Greek island of Zakynthos for thirty years, from 1483 to 1513. As one of the most respected Greeks in Venice, the esteem held for Theodore by the Venetian government is probably what led to the Venetians allowing the local Greeks to construct their own Greek Orthodox church, San Giorgio dei Greci, in the city. After giving up soldiering in 1525, Theodore served as a diplomat and translator, and since he could speak Italian, Greek and Turkish, he accompanied Venetian ambassadors to the Ottoman Empire several times.