[ad. med.L. catapan-us cate-, cati-; in F. catapan; according to Littré, f. Gr. κατεπάνω τῶν ἀξιωμάτων (he who is) placed over the dignities.] The officer who governed Calabria and Apulia under the Byzantine emperors.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., Catapan or Catipan, a name the later Greeks, about the twelfth century, gave the governor of their dominions in Italy.
1832. trans. Sismondi’s Ital. Rep., i. 24. From time to time … a catapan, or other magistrate, was sent.
1855. Milman, Lat. Chr. (1864), III. VI. ii. 428. The Greek Argyrous the last catapan, the ally of Leo IX. had retired in despair.
