Military and Political Career
In 1086 he was sent to Nicaea in an attempt to recapture it from the Seljuks; he was forced to retreat when he learned that Seljuk reinforcements were on their way. Alexius sent him back with naval assistance from Manuel Boutoumites, but although he was able to defeat Abu'l Qasim, the governor of the city, in Bithynia, but could not recapture the city. At the end of the year he was recalled and sent to fight the Pechenegs, who were assisting the heretical Manichaeans revolt against Alexius, near Philippopolis. In 1087 he commanded the Byzantine right wing in the Battle of Dristra against the Pechenegs, and in 1090 he defeated a small force of 300 Pechenegs while leading the Archontopouloi tagma against them.
In early 1094, he was placed in charge of guarding Alexius' tent at Pentegostis. Here he discovered the plot of Nicephorus Diogenes, son of the former emperor Romanus IV Diogenes, to kill the emperor. Nicephorus was an old friend of Alexius and Tatikios and Alexius was reluctant to punish him, but it was clear that Nicephorus was ambitious for the throne. He was exiled and was eventually blinded. Later in 1094, he attended the synod of Blachernae which condemned Bishop Leo of Chalcedon, presumably in some function of security. In the records of this synod Tatikios is given the court title of protoproedros.
In 1095 Tatikios accompanied Alexius in the campaign against the Cumans.
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