1.
Heracles
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Heracles, born Alcaeus or Alcides, was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson and half-brother of Perseus. He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, a paragon of masculinity, the ancestor of clans who claimed to be Heracleidae. In Rome and the modern West, he is known as Hercules, with whom the later Roman emperors, in particular Commodus and Maximian, often identified themselves. The Romans adopted the Greek version of his life and works essentially unchanged, details of his cult were adapted to Rome as well. Extraordinary strength, courage, ingenuity, and sexual prowess with both males and females were among the characteristics commonly attributed to him, together with Hermes he was the patron and protector of gymnasia and palaestrae. His iconographic attributes are the skin and the club. These qualities did not prevent him from being regarded as a figure who used games to relax from his labors. By conquering dangerous archaic forces he is said to have made the safe for mankind. Many popular stories were told of his life, the most famous being The Twelve Labours of Heracles and his figure, which initially drew on Near Eastern motifs such as the lion-fight, was widely known. Heracles was the greatest of Hellenic chthonic heroes, but unlike other Greek heroes, the core of the story of Heracles has been identified by Walter Burkert as originating in Neolithic hunter culture and traditions of shamanistic crossings into the netherworld. Heracles role as a hero, whose death could be a subject of mythic telling, was accepted into the Olympian Pantheon during Classical times. Around him cries of the dead rang out like cries of birds scattering left, in Christian circles a Euhemerist reading of the widespread Heracles cult was attributed to a historical figure who had been offered cult status after his death. The ancient Greeks celebrated the festival of the Heracleia, which commemorated the death of Heracles, what is believed to be an Egyptian Temple of Heracles in the Bahariya Oasis dates to 21 BCE. A reassessment of Ptolemys descriptions of the island of Malta attempted to link the site at Ras ir-Raħeb with a temple to Heracles, several ancient cities were named Heraclea in his honor. A major factor in the tragedies surrounding Heracles is the hatred that the goddess Hera. A full account of Heracles must render it clear why Heracles was so tormented by Hera, Heracles was the son of the affair Zeus had with the mortal woman Alcmene. Zeus made love to her after disguising himself as her husband, Amphitryon, thus, Heracles very existence proved at least one of Zeus many illicit affairs, and Hera often conspired against Zeus mortal offspring as revenge for her husbands infidelities. His twin mortal brother, son of Amphitryon, was Iphicles, Hera did this knowing that while Heracles was to be born a descendant of Perseus, so too was Eurystheus
2.
Heraclius I of Kakheti
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Heraclius I or Nazar Alī Khān, of the Bagrationi dynasty, was a Georgian monarch who ruled the kingdoms of Kakheti and Kartli under the protection of the Safavid dynasty of Iran. He was son of Prince David of Kakheti, son of King Teimuraz I, taken to Russia when the pro-Persian king Rostom of Kartli defeated Teimuraz in 1648, he was raised and educated at the Romanov court at Moscow where he was known as Tsarevich Nicholas Davidovich. In 1662, he returned to take over the then-vacant crown of Kakheti at the invitation of local nobility and it is believed by some that he was a natural father of Peter the Great. The writer Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy researching the biography of Peter the Great and he thought he would ingratiate himself with Stalin by telling him this. Instead Stalin was appalled and forbade Tolstoy to mention the matter ever again, in 1675, Archil conflicted with the shah’s government, abandoned Kakheti and defected to the Ottoman Empire. Prince Nicholas capitalized on the turmoil, returned for a second time and was proclaimed as King of Kakheti Heraclius I. Earlier, in 1666, shah Suleiman I had succeeded Abbas II on the Iranian Safavid throne, in 1674, Suleiman I asked him to decisively end his stay in Russia, ordered him to Isfahan and promised to confirm him as king if Heraclius apostatized to Islam. The king refused to become Muslim and the subject, citing the oath of allegiance given by his ancestor, Alexander II of Kakheti. Hence, he was deprived of the crown, being allowed, however, Kakheti was subsequently under direct Safavid rule. In 1688, when the government of Iran declared its recalcitrant subject George XI of Kartli deposed and he converted to Islam assuming the title of Nazar Alī Khān in 1676. In reward, Heraclius was confirmed as King of Kartli and given a Persian army to win over the crown, to buttress Heracliuss authority, the shah appointed Abbās-qolī Khan, formerly a beglarbeg of Ganja, as Persian viceroy in Kakheti. The khan failed, however, to prevent George XI from staging a comeback in 1691 and it was not until 1696 that George admitted defeat and came to Isfahan to offer his submission to the new shah, Soltan Hosayn. At the same time, the shah grew increasingly dissatisfied with Nazar Alī Khān’s administration, having spent most of his life in Russia and Iran, his lack of knowledge of Georgian national traditions he had already estranged his subjects. Heraclius I married, in 1677, Ana, daughter of Prince Shermazan Cholokashvili and they were the parents of two sons and two daughters, David II, King of Kakheti. Princess Elene, who in 1715 married King Jesse of Kartli, Teimuraz II, King of Kakheti and of Kartli. Princess Ketevan, who married Prince Abel Andronikashvili, Princess Mariam, who married in 1714 Prince Edisher Cholokashvili and became a nun in widowhood, with the name of Makrine. She was a hymnist and copyist of religious texts, Heraclius I also had several natural children born of unknown concubines, of which better known are, Constantine II, King of Kakheti. Ketevan-Begum, who married c.1742 Prince Abdullah Beg of Kartli, little is known of Heracliuss other children, Ismail Rostom Vakhtang Demetre Gorgasal George Reza Quli Mirza Mustafa Mirza Lang, David Marshall, The Last Years of the Georgian Monarchy, 1658-1832
3.
List of Byzantine emperors
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This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Emperors listed below up to Theodosius I in 395 were sole or joint rulers of the entire Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire was the direct legal continuation of the eastern half of the Roman Empire following the division of the Roman Empire in 395. All Byzantine emperors considered themselves to be the rightful Roman emperor in direct succession from Augustus, the title of all Emperors preceding Heraclius was officially Augustus, although other titles such as Dominus were also used. Their names were preceded by Imperator Caesar and followed by Augustus, following Heraclius, the title commonly became the Greek Basileus, which had formerly meant sovereign but was then used in place of Augustus. Following the establishment of the rival Holy Roman Empire in Western Europe, in later centuries, the Emperor could be referred to by Western Christians as the Emperor of the Greeks. Towards the end of the Empire, the standard formula of the Byzantine ruler was in Christ, Emperor. For Roman emperors before Constantine I, see List of Roman emperors, family tree of the Byzantine emperors List of Roman emperors List of Roman usurpers List of Byzantine usurpers List of Roman and Byzantine empresses
4.
Byzantine Empire
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It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
5.
Coronation
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The ceremony can also be conducted for the monarchs consort, either simultaneously with the monarch or as a separate event. A ceremony without the placement of a crown on the head is known as an enthronement. Coronations are still observed in the United Kingdom, Tonga, in addition to investing the monarch with symbols of state, Western-style coronations have often traditionally involve anointing with holy oil, or chrism as it is often called. Wherever a ruler is anointed in this way, as in Great Britain and Tonga, some other lands use bathing or cleansing rites, the drinking of a sacred beverage, or other religious practices to achieve a comparable effect. Such acts symbolise the granting of divine favour to the monarch within the relevant spiritual-religious paradigm of the country, in the past, concepts of royalty, coronation and deity were often inexorably linked. Rome promulgated the practice of worship, in Medieval Europe. Coronations were once a direct expression of these alleged connections. Thus, coronations have often been discarded altogether or altered to reflect the nature of the states in which they are held. However, some monarchies still choose to retain an overtly religious dimension to their accession rituals, others have adopted simpler enthronement or inauguration ceremonies, or even no ceremony at all. In non-Christian states, coronation rites evolved from a variety of sources, buddhism, for instance, influenced the coronation rituals of Thailand, Cambodia and Bhutan, while Hindu elements played a significant role in Nepalese rites. The ceremonies used in modern Egypt, Malaysia, Brunei and Iran were shaped by Islam, Coronations, in one form or another, have existed since ancient times. Egyptian records show coronation scenes, such as that of Seti I in 1290 BC, judeo-Christian scriptures testify to particular rites associated with the conferring of kingship, the most detailed accounts of which are found in II Kings 11,12 and II Chronicles 23,11. Following the assumption of the diadem by Constantine, Roman and Byzantine emperors continued to wear it as the symbol of their authority. Although no specific coronation ceremony was observed at first, one gradually evolved over the following century, the emperor Julian was hoisted upon a shield and crowned with a gold necklace provided by one of his standard-bearers, he later wore a jewel-studded diadem. Later emperors were crowned and acclaimed in a manner, until the momentous decision was taken to permit the Patriarch of Constantinople to physically place the crown on the emperors head. Historians debate when exactly this first took place, but the precedent was established by the reign of Leo II. This ritual included recitation of prayers by the Byzantine prelate over the crown, after this event, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the ecclesiastical element in the coronation ceremonial rapidly develop. This was usually performed three times, following this, the king was given a spear, and a diadem wrought of silk or linen was bound around his forehead as a token of regal authority
6.
Phocas
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Phocas was Byzantine Emperor from 602 to 610. He usurped the throne from the Emperor Maurice, and was overthrown by Heraclius after losing a civil war. Phocas was a Greek-speaking native of Thrace, almost nothing is known of Phocass early life and the name of his father is unknown. He had at least two brothers, Comentiolus and Domentziolus, by 600, he was a subaltern officer in the Byzantine army serving in Maurices Balkan campaigns, and he was apparently viewed as a leader by his fellow soldiers. He was a member of a delegation sent by the army in that year to Constantinople to submit grievances to the government, the Avars had defeated the Byzantines in 598, had taken a large number of prisoners, and demanded a ransom. Maurice refused to pay and all the prisoners were killed, causing consternation among the army, the delegations complaints were rejected, and, according to several sources, Phocas himself was slapped and humiliated by prominent court officials at this time. The army almost immediately revolted and marched on the capital, with Phocas at its head, within a month, Maurices government had collapsed, the Emperor abdicated and fled the city, and the Green faction in Constantinople acclaimed Phocas as emperor. Phocas was crowned in the Church of St. John the Baptist, Maurice, who represented little genuine threat, was dragged from his monastic sanctuary at Chalcedon, and killed along with his six sons. It is said that he had to watch as his sons were executed in front of his eyes, the bodies were thrown in the sea and the heads of all were exhibited in Constantinople before Phocas made arrangements for a Christian burial for the relics of his deeply pious predecessor. Phocass rule was welcomed at first because he lowered taxes. Fulsome letters of praise from Pope Gregory I attest to this. The pope, Saint Gregory, appreciated his acceptance of the reforms he had begun, the agrarian reforms of the Church in Italy and particularly in Sicily had been followed in Egypt by the Orthodox Patriarchs. The Church needed money to pay for hospitals, maternity wards, Phocas faced rising opposition and was regarded by many as a populist. His coup détat was the first violent regime change in Constantinople since its foundation by Constantine and he is reported to have responded to this opposition with cruelty, allegedly killing thousands in an effort to keep control of the government. No histories written under Phocas survive, and thus we are dependent for information on historians writing under his successors, the Column of Phocas was the last Imperial monument ever to be erected in the Roman forum. In Phocass reign, the Byzantines were sovereign over the city of Rome, Phocas tended to support the popes in many of the theological controversies of the time, and thus enjoyed good relations with the papacy. Phocas gave the Pantheon to Pope Boniface IV for use as a church, in gratitude Smaragdus erected in the Roman Forum a gilded statue atop the rededicated Column of Phocas, which featured a new inscription on its base in the Emperors honour. The fluted Corinthian column and the plinth on which it sits were already standing in situ
7.
Constantine III (Byzantine emperor)
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Constantine III was Eastern Roman Emperor for four months in 641. He was the eldest son of the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius and his first wife Eudokia, Constantines birth name was Heraclius Novus Constantinus, which was also the official name under which he reigned. The name Constantine became established in later Byzantine texts as short for the Emperor and has become standard in modern historiography, in terms of official imperial nomenclature, the style Constantine III would be more appropriate for his son Constans II. Constantine was crowned co-emperor by his father on 22 January 613 and shortly after was betrothed to his cousin, Gregoria, a daughter of his fathers first cousin, Nicetas. As the couple were cousins, the marriage was technically incestuous. Furthermore, its illegality paled into insignificance beside Heraclius marriage to his niece Martina the same year, in comparison, Constantines marriage was far less scandalous than that of his fathers. Constantine and Gregoria married in 629 or perhaps early 630 and in that year their first child and their second child was another son, Theodosius. They also had a daughter named Manyanh who later married the last Sassanid King of Persia, Constantine became senior Emperor when his father died in 641. He reigned together with his younger half-brother Heraklonas, the son of Martina, indeed, he died of tuberculosis after only four months, leaving Heraklonas sole emperor. A rumor that Martina had him poisoned led first to the imposition of Constans II as co-emperor and then to the deposition, mutilation, the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press,1991
8.
Heraklonas
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Heraklonas was probably born at Lazica while his father was on campaign against Khosrau II of the Sassanid Empire. He was probably the son of Martina and Herakleios, but the first one born free of physical deformity. The premature death of Constantine III, in May 641, left Heraklonas sole ruler, but a suspicion that he and Martina had murdered Constantine led soon after to a revolt under the general Valentinus, who forced Heraklonas to accept his young nephew Constans II as co-ruler. Martina intended to balance this setback with the coronation of her son the Caesar David as emperor. But this merely irritated the supporters of Constans II, and Valentinus spread rumors that Martina and Heraklonas intended to eliminate Constans, the revolt which ensued toppled Heraklonas and his mother, who were subjected to mutilation and banishment. This was the first time an emperor had been subjected to mutilation. Nothing further is known about Heraklonas after his removal and exile to Rhodes and he is presumed to have died later that year. Constans II, the son of Constantine III, became sole emperor, list of Byzantine emperors This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed. The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press,1991, media related to Heraclonas at Wikimedia Commons
9.
Cappadocia
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Cappadocia is a historical region in Central Anatolia, largely in the Nevşehir, Kayseri, Kırşehir, Aksaray, and Niğde Provinces in Turkey. According to Herodotus, in the time of the Ionian Revolt, in these lists of countries, the Old Persian name is Haspaduya, which according to some researchers is derived from Iranian Huw-aspa-dahyu- the land/country of beautiful horses. Others proposed that Kat-patuka came from the Luwian language, meaning Low Country, subsequent research suggests that the adverb katta meaning down, below is exclusively Hittite, while its Luwian equivalent is zanta. Therefore the recent modification of this proposal operates with the Hittite katta peda-, Herodotus tells us that the name of the Cappadocians was applied to them by the Persians, while they were termed by the Greeks Syrians or White Syrians Leucosyri. Cappadocia appears in the account given in the book of Acts 2,9. The Cappadocians were named as one group hearing the Gospel account from Galileans in their own language on the day of Pentecost shortly after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Acts 2,5 seems to suggest that the Cappadocians in this account were God-fearing Jews. The region is mentioned in the Jewish Mishnah, in Ketubot 13,11. This division had come about before the time of Xenophon. The kingdom of Cappadocia still existed in the time of Strabo as a independent state. Cilicia was the given to the district in which Caesarea. The only two cities of Cappadocia considered by Strabo to deserve that appellation were Caesarea and Tyana, not far from the foot of the Taurus, Cappadocia lies in central Anatolia, in the heartland of what is now Turkey. The relief consists of a plateau over 1000 m in altitude that is pierced by volcanic peaks. The boundaries of historical Cappadocia are vague, particularly towards the west, to the south, the Taurus Mountains form the boundary with Cilicia and separate Cappadocia from the Mediterranean Sea. To the west, Cappadocia is bounded by the regions of Lycaonia to the southwest. This results in an area approximately 400 km east–west and 250 km north–south, due to its inland location and high altitude, Cappadocia has a markedly continental climate, with hot dry summers and cold snowy winters. Rainfall is sparse and the region is largely semi-arid, Cappadocia was known as Hatti in the late Bronze Age, and was the homeland of the Hittite power centred at Hattusa. After ending the Persian Empire, Alexander the Great tried to rule the area one of his military commanders. But Ariarathes, a Persian aristocrat, somehow became king of the Cappadocians, as Ariarathes I, he was a successful ruler, and he extended the borders of the Cappadocian Kingdom as far as to the Black Sea
10.
Turkey
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Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, parliamentary republic with a cultural heritage. The country is encircled by seas on three sides, the Aegean Sea is to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, Ankara is the capital while Istanbul is the countrys largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Approximately 70-80% of the countrys citizens identify themselves as ethnic Turks, other ethnic groups include legally recognised and unrecognised minorities. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority group, making up approximately 20% of the population, the area of Turkey has been inhabited since the Paleolithic by various ancient Anatolian civilisations, as well as Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians and Armenians. After Alexander the Greats conquest, the area was Hellenized, a process continued under the Roman Empire. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, the empire reached the peak of its power in the 16th century, especially during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Assyrian, following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states. Turkey is a member of the UN, an early member of NATO. Turkeys growing economy and diplomatic initiatives have led to its recognition as a regional power while her location has given it geopolitical, the name of Turkey is based on the ethnonym Türk. The first recorded use of the term Türk or Türük as an autonym is contained in the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Göktürks of Central Asia, the English name Turkey first appeared in the late 14th century and is derived from Medieval Latin Turchia. Similarly, the medieval Khazar Empire, a Turkic state on the shores of the Black. The medieval Arabs referred to the Mamluk Sultanate as al-Dawla al-Turkiyya, the Ottoman Empire was sometimes referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its European contemporaries. The Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest permanently settled regions in the world, various ancient Anatolian populations have lived in Anatolia, from at least the Neolithic period until the Hellenistic period. Many of these peoples spoke the Anatolian languages, a branch of the larger Indo-European language family, in fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical centre from which the Indo-European languages radiated. The European part of Turkey, called Eastern Thrace, has also been inhabited since at least forty years ago. It is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date, the settlement of Troy started in the Neolithic Age and continued into the Iron Age
11.
Dynasty
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A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system but sometimes also appearing in elective republics. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a house, historians periodize the histories of many sovereign states, such as Ancient Egypt, the Carolingian Empire and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties. As such, the dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which the family reigned and to describe events, trends. The word dynasty itself is often dropped from such adjectival references, until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty, that is, to increase the territory, wealth, and power of his family members. The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. Succession through a daughter when permitted was considered to establish a new dynasty in her husbands ruling house, however, some states in Africa, determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mothers dynasty when coming into her inheritance. It is also extended to unrelated people such as poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team. The word dynasty derives via Latin dynastia from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to power, dominion and it was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, power or ability, from dýnamai, to be able. A ruler in a dynasty is referred to as a dynast. For example, following his abdication, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ceased to be a member of the House of Windsor. A dynastic marriage is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, the marriage of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, to Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, for example, and their eldest child is expected to inherit the Dutch crown eventually. But the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso to Mabel Wisse Smit in 2003 lacked government support, thus Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession, lost his title as a Prince of the Netherlands, and left his children without dynastic rights. In historical and monarchist references to formerly reigning families, a dynast is a member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchys rules still in force. Even since abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Max and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position. The term dynast is sometimes used only to refer to descendants of a realms monarchs. The term can therefore describe overlapping but distinct sets of people, yet he is not a male-line member of the royal family, and is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor. Thus, in 1999 he requested and obtained permission from Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco. Yet a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time and that exclusion, too, ceased to apply on 26 March 2015, with retroactive effect for those who had been dynasts prior to triggering it by marriage to a Catholic
12.
Heraclian Dynasty
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The Byzantine Empire was ruled by Hellenized Armenian emperors of the dynasty of Heraclius between 610 and 711. The Heraclians presided over a period of events that were a watershed in the history of the Empire. At the beginning of the dynasty, the Empire was still recognizable as the Eastern Roman Empire, dominating the Mediterranean and harbouring a prosperous Late Antique urban civilization. By the dynastys end, a different state had emerged, medieval Byzantium. The Heraclian dynasty was named after the general Heraclius the Younger, who, in 610, sailed from Carthage, overthrew the usurper Phocas, and was crowned Emperor. At the time, the Empire was embroiled in a war with the Sassanid Persian Empire, after a long and exhausting struggle, Heraclius managed to defeat the Persians and restore the Empire, only to lose these provinces again shortly after to the sudden eruption of the Muslim conquests. His successors struggled to contain the Arab tide, the Levant and North Africa were lost, while in 674–678, a large Arab army besieged Constantinople itself. Nevertheless, the state survived and the establishment of the Theme system allowed the imperial heartland of Asia Minor to be retained, under Justinian II and Tiberios III the imperial frontier in the East was stabilized, although incursions continued on both sides. Ever since the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire continued to see Western Europe as rightfully Imperial territory, however, only Justinian I attempted to enforce this claim with military might. Temporary success in the West was achieved at the cost of Persian dominance in the East, however, after Justinians death, much of newly recovered Italy fell to the Lombards, and the Visigoths soon reduced the imperial holdings in Spain. At the same time, wars with the Persian Empire brought no conclusive victory, in 591 however, the long war was ended with a treaty favorable to Byzantium, which gained Armenia. Thus, after the death of Justinians successor Tiberius II, Maurice sought to restore the prestige of the Empire. Even though the Empire had gained smaller successes over the Slavs and Avars in pitched battles across the Danube, unrest had reared its head in Byzantine cities as social and religious differences manifested themselves into Blue and Green factions that fought each other in the streets. The final blow to the government was a decision to cut the pay of its army in response to financial strains, the combined effect of an army revolt led by a junior officer named Phocas and major uprisings by the Greens and Blues forced Maurice to abdicate. The Senate approved Phocas as the new Emperor and Maurice, the last emperor of the Justinian Dynasty, was murdered along with his four sons. The Persian King Khosrau II responded by launching an assault on the Empire, ostensibly to avenge Maurice, Phocas was already alienating his supporters with his repressive rule, and the Persians were able to capture Syria and Mesopotamia by 607. By 608, the Persians were camped outside Chalcedon, within sight of the capital of Constantinople, while Anatolia was ravaged by Persian raids. Making matters worse was the advance of the Avars and Slavic tribes heading south across the Danube, while the Persians were making headway in their conquest of the eastern provinces, Phocas chose to divide his subjects rather than unite them against the threat of the Persians
13.
Heraclius the Elder
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Heraclius the Elder was an East Roman general and the father of Byzantine emperor Heraclius. Of possible Armenian origin, Heraclius the Elder distinguished himself in the war against the Sassanid Persians in the 580s, as a subordinate general, Heraclius served under the command of Philippicus during the Battle of Solachon and possibly served under Comentiolus during the Battle of Sisarbanon. In circa 595, Heraclius the Elder is mentioned as a magister militum per Armeniam sent by Emperor Maurice to quell an Armenian rebellion led by Samuel Vahewuni and Atat Khorkhoruni. In circa 600, he was appointed as the Exarch of Africa and in 608, using North Africa as a base, the younger Heraclius managed to overthrow Phocas, beginning the Heraclian dynasty, which would rule Byzantium for a century. Heraclius the Elder died soon after receiving news of his sons accession to the Byzantine throne, Heraclius the Elder was possibly of Armenian origin and presumably bilingual at an early age. His origin is deduced by a passage of Theophylact Simocatta, which him a native of Byzantine Armenia. Heraclius the Elders own city is not specifically mentioned, mary and Michael Whitby suggest that Heraclius the Elder was at the time the magister militum per Armeniam. If so, his city was Theodosiopolis, the headquarters of the Roman forces in Armenia, as the chief military stronghold along the northeastern border of the empire, Theodosiopolis held an important strategic location that was contested in wars between the Byzantines and Persians. Emperors Anastasius I and Justinian I both refortified the city and built new defenses during their reigns, nothing is known of the specific ancestry of Heraclius the Elder, but this has not prevented modern historians from speculating on the matter. Cyril Mango has supported a theory which suggests that he was a descendant of Heraclius of Edessa. A passage from Sebeoss History has been understood to suggest an Arsacid origin of Heraclius the Elder and this theory was strongly supported by Cyril Toumanoff, while considered likely by Alexander Vasiliev and Irfan Shahîd. John of Nikiû and Constantine Manasses seem to consider his son, Heraclius the Younger, to be a Cappadocian, the Historia syntomos of Patriarch Nikephoros I of Constantinople mentions a single brother of Heraclius the Elder, named Gregoras, who was the father of Nicetas. Theophanes the Confessor mentions Epiphania as the mother of Emperor Heraclius, thus wife of Heraclius the Elder, in contrast, there is no source mentioning him in the same sentence as the siblings of Emperor Heraclius. That he was their father can be assumed though. The best attested sibling of Heraclius the Younger was arguably Theodore, maria, sister of Heraclius the Younger, is mentioned by Nikephoros I and identified as mother of Martina, whom Heraclius the Younger would go on to marry. Finally, Theophanes briefly mentions another Gregoras as a brother of Heraclius the Younger on the occasion of the death at Heliopolis circa 652/653. This is the mention of this sibling. Theophanes, however, might have misunderstood the relation between Gregoras and the emperor, Heraclius the Elder is first mentioned in 586 as a general serving under Philippicus during the Roman–Persian War of 572–591
14.
Heraclian dynasty
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The Byzantine Empire was ruled by Hellenized Armenian emperors of the dynasty of Heraclius between 610 and 711. The Heraclians presided over a period of events that were a watershed in the history of the Empire. At the beginning of the dynasty, the Empire was still recognizable as the Eastern Roman Empire, dominating the Mediterranean and harbouring a prosperous Late Antique urban civilization. By the dynastys end, a different state had emerged, medieval Byzantium. The Heraclian dynasty was named after the general Heraclius the Younger, who, in 610, sailed from Carthage, overthrew the usurper Phocas, and was crowned Emperor. At the time, the Empire was embroiled in a war with the Sassanid Persian Empire, after a long and exhausting struggle, Heraclius managed to defeat the Persians and restore the Empire, only to lose these provinces again shortly after to the sudden eruption of the Muslim conquests. His successors struggled to contain the Arab tide, the Levant and North Africa were lost, while in 674–678, a large Arab army besieged Constantinople itself. Nevertheless, the state survived and the establishment of the Theme system allowed the imperial heartland of Asia Minor to be retained, under Justinian II and Tiberios III the imperial frontier in the East was stabilized, although incursions continued on both sides. Ever since the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire continued to see Western Europe as rightfully Imperial territory, however, only Justinian I attempted to enforce this claim with military might. Temporary success in the West was achieved at the cost of Persian dominance in the East, however, after Justinians death, much of newly recovered Italy fell to the Lombards, and the Visigoths soon reduced the imperial holdings in Spain. At the same time, wars with the Persian Empire brought no conclusive victory, in 591 however, the long war was ended with a treaty favorable to Byzantium, which gained Armenia. Thus, after the death of Justinians successor Tiberius II, Maurice sought to restore the prestige of the Empire. Even though the Empire had gained smaller successes over the Slavs and Avars in pitched battles across the Danube, unrest had reared its head in Byzantine cities as social and religious differences manifested themselves into Blue and Green factions that fought each other in the streets. The final blow to the government was a decision to cut the pay of its army in response to financial strains, the combined effect of an army revolt led by a junior officer named Phocas and major uprisings by the Greens and Blues forced Maurice to abdicate. The Senate approved Phocas as the new Emperor and Maurice, the last emperor of the Justinian Dynasty, was murdered along with his four sons. The Persian King Khosrau II responded by launching an assault on the Empire, ostensibly to avenge Maurice, Phocas was already alienating his supporters with his repressive rule, and the Persians were able to capture Syria and Mesopotamia by 607. By 608, the Persians were camped outside Chalcedon, within sight of the capital of Constantinople, while Anatolia was ravaged by Persian raids. Making matters worse was the advance of the Avars and Slavic tribes heading south across the Danube, while the Persians were making headway in their conquest of the eastern provinces, Phocas chose to divide his subjects rather than unite them against the threat of the Persians
15.
Constans II
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Constans II,7 November 630 –15 September 668), also called Constantine the Bearded, was emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 641 to 668. He was the last emperor to serve as consul, in 642, Constans is a diminutive nickname given to the Emperor, who had been baptized Herakleios and reigned officially as Constantine. The nickname established itself in Byzantine texts and has become standard in modern historiography, Constans was the son of Constantine III and Gregoria. Due to the rumours that Heraklonas and Martina had poisoned Constantine III, later that same year his uncle was deposed, and Constans II was left as sole emperor. Constans owed his rise to the throne to a reaction against his uncle. In 644 Valentinus attempted to power for himself but failed. Under Constans, the Byzantines completely withdrew from Egypt in 642, a Byzantine fleet under the admiral Manuel occupied Alexandria again in 645, but after a Muslim victory the following year this had to be abandoned. The situation was complicated by the violent opposition to Monothelitism by the clergy in the west, the latter fell in battle against the army of Caliph Uthman, and the region remained a vassal state under the Caliphate until civil war broke out and imperial rule was again restored. Naturally, this compromise satisfied few passionate participants in the dispute. Meanwhile, the advance of the Caliphate continued unabated, in 647 they had entered Armenia and Cappadocia and sacked Caesarea Mazaca. In the same year, they raided Africa and killed Gregory, in 648 the Arabs raided into Phrygia, and in 649 they launched their first maritime expedition against Crete. A major Arab offensive into Cilicia and Isauria in 650–651 forced the Emperor to enter negotiations with Caliph Uthmans governor of Syria. The truce that followed allowed a respite and made it possible for Constans to hold on to the western portions of Armenia. In 654, however, Muawiyah renewed his raids by sea, Caliph Uthman was preparing to attack Constantinople, but he did not carry out the plan when the first Fitna broke out in 656. In 659 he campaigned far to the east, taking advantage of a rebellion against the Caliphate in Media, the same year he concluded peace with the Arabs. Now Constans could turn to church once again. Pope Martin I had condemned both Monothelitism and Constans attempt to halt debates over it in the Lateran Council of 649, now the Emperor ordered his Exarch of Ravenna to arrest the Pope. Exarch Olympius excused himself from this task, but his successor, Theodore I Calliopas, Pope Martin was brought to Constantinople and condemned as a criminal, ultimately being exiled to Cherson, where he died in 655
16.
Constantine IV
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Constantine IV, sometimes incorrectly called Pogonatos, the Bearded, out of confusion with his father, was Byzantine Emperor from 668 to 685. The eldest son of Constans II, Constantine IV had been named a co-emperor with his father in 654 and he had been given the responsibility of managing the affairs at Constantinople during his father’s extended absence in Italy and became senior Emperor when Constans was assassinated in 668. His mother was Fausta, daughter of patrician Valentinus, the first task before the new Emperor was the suppression of the military revolt in Sicily under Mezezius which had led to his fathers death. Within seven months of his accession, Constantine IV had dealt with the insurgency with the support of Pope Vitalian, but this success was overshadowed by troubles in the east. As early as 668 the Caliph Muawiyah I received an invitation from Saborios and he sent an army under his son Yazid against the Eastern Roman Empire. Yazid reached Chalcedon and took the important Byzantine center Amorion, while the city was quickly recovered, the Arabs next attacked Carthage and Sicily in 669. In 670 the Arabs captured Cyzicus and set up a base from which to further attacks into the heart of the Empire. Their fleet captured Smyrna and other cities in 672. Finally, in 672, the Arabs sent a fleet to attack Constantinople by sea. While Constantine was distracted by this, the Slavs unsuccessfully attacked Thessalonika, commencing in 674, the Arabs launched the long-awaited siege of Constantinople. Additional squadrons reinforced the forces of Abd ar-Rahman before they proceeded to the Hellespont, knowing that it was only a matter of time before Constantinople was under siege, Constantine had ensured that the city was well provisioned. He also constructed a number of fireships and fast-sailing boats provided with tubes or siphons for squirting fire. This is the first known use of Greek fire in combat, in September the Arabs, having failed in their attempts to take the city, sailed to Cyzicus, which they made their winter quarters. Over the following five years, the Arabs would return spring to continue the siege of Constantinople. The city survived, and finally in 678 the Arabs were forced to raise the siege, the Arabs withdrew and were almost simultaneously defeated on land in Lycia in Anatolia. This unexpected reverse forced Muawiyah I to seek a truce with Constantine, the raising of the siege allowed Constantine to go to the relief of Thessalonika, still under siege from the Slavs. With the temporary passing of the Arab threat, Constantine turned his attention to the Church, in November 680 Constantine convened the Sixth Ecumenical Council. Constantine presided in person during the formal aspects of the proceedings, surrounded by his court officials, the Council reaffirmed the Orthodox doctrines of the Council of Chalcedon in 451
17.
Heraclius (son of Constans II)
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Heraclius was Byzantine co-emperor from 659 to 681. He was the focus of a revolt and was eventually dethroned by his brother. Heraclius was one of the sons of Constans II and his mother was Fausta, daughter of the Patrician Valentinus. In 663, Constans tried to have his sons join him in Sicily, but this provoked an uprising in Constantinople. With Constans II’s death in 668, Constantine IV became the senior emperor and he attempted to demote his brothers from the imperial position, but this provoked a military revolt in the Anatolic Theme. The army marched to Chrysopolis, and sent a delegation across the straits of the Hellespont to Constantinople and they based their demand on the belief that, since Heaven was ruled by the Trinity, in the same way the empire should be governed by three Emperors. He also invited the leaders of the rebellion to come over to Constantinople, happy with this apparently positive outcome, the army departed back into the interior of Anatolia, while the instigators of the movement entered the city. With the military threat now gone, Constantine moved against the leaders of the revolt, yet his being the focus of a plot to curtail Constantine’s power meant that both he and his brother were now suspect in the senior emperor’s eyes. Also, the emperor was keen to raise up his own son, after 681, Heraclius and his brother disappear from the historical record
18.
Tiberius (son of Constans II)
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Tiberius was Byzantine co-emperor from 659 to 681. He was the focus of a revolt and was eventually dethroned by his brother. Tiberius was the youngest son of Constans II and his mother was Fausta, daughter of the Patrician Valentinus. In 663, Constans tried to have his sons join him in Sicily, but this provoked an uprising in Constantinople. With Constans II’s death in 668, Constantine IV became the senior emperor and he attempted to demote his brothers from the imperial position, but this provoked a military revolt in the Anatolic Theme. The army marched to Chrysopolis, and sent a delegation across the straits of the Hellespont to Constantinople and they based their demand on the belief that, since Heaven was ruled by the Trinity, in the same way the empire should be governed by three Emperors. He also invited the leaders of the rebellion to come over to Constantinople, happy with this apparently positive outcome, the army departed back into the interior of Anatolia, while the instigators of the movement entered the city. With the military threat now gone, Constantine moved against the leaders of the revolt, after 681, Tiberius and his brother disappear from the historical record
19.
Justinian II
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Justinian II, surnamed the Rhinotmetos or Rhinotmetus, was the last Byzantine Emperor of the Heraclian Dynasty, reigning from 685 to 695 and again from 705 to 711. His second reign was even more despotic than the first, and it too saw his eventual overthrow in 711, Justinian II was eldest son of Emperor Constantine IV and Anastasia. His father raised him to the throne as joint emperor in 681 on the fall of his uncles Heraclius and Tiberius, in 685, at the age of sixteen, Justinian II succeeded his father as sole emperor. Due to Constantine IVs victories, the situation in the Eastern provinces of the Empire was stable when Justinian ascended the throne. After a preliminary strike against the Arabs in Armenia, Justinian managed to augment the sum paid by the Umayyad Caliphs as an annual tribute, the incomes of the provinces of Armenia and Iberia were divided among the two empires. In 687, as part of his agreements with the Caliphate, Justinian removed from their native Lebanon 12,000 Christian Maronites, additional resettlement efforts, aimed at the Mardaites and inhabitants of Cyprus allowed Justinian to reinforce naval forces depleted by earlier conflicts. Justinian took advantage of the peace in the East to regain possession of the Balkans, in 687 Justinian transferred cavalry troops from Anatolia to Thrace. With a great campaign in 688–689, Justinian defeated the Bulgars of Macedonia and was finally able to enter Thessalonica. The subdued Slavs were resettled in Anatolia, where they were to provide a force of 30,000 men. Emboldened by the increase of his forces in Anatolia, Justinian now renewed the war against the Arabs, with the help of his new troops, Justinian won a battle against the enemy in Armenia in 693, but they were soon bribed to revolt by the Arabs. The result was that Justinian was comprehensively defeated at the Battle of Sebastopolis, caused by the defection of most of his Slavic troops, while he himself was forced to flee to the Propontis. There, according to Theophanes, he took out his frustration by slaughtering as many of the Slavs in and around Opsikion as he could lay his hands on. In the meantime, a Patrician by the name of Symbatius proceeded to rebel in Armenia, and opened up the province to the Arabs, meanwhile, the Emperors bloody persecution of the Manichaeans and suppression of popular traditions of non-Orthodox origin caused dissension within the Church. In 692 Justinian convened the so-called Quinisext Council at Constantinople to put his religious policies into effect, the emperor ordered Pope Sergius I arrested, but the militias of Rome and Ravenna rebelled and took the Popes side. If his land policies threatened the aristocracy, his tax policy was no more popular with the common people, through his agents Stephen and Theodotos, the emperor raised the funds to gratify his sumptuous tastes and his mania for erecting costly buildings. This, ongoing religious discontent, conflicts with the aristocracy, in 695 the population rose under Leontios, the strategos of Hellas, and proclaimed him Emperor. Justinian was deposed and his nose was cut off to prevent his again seeking the throne and he was exiled to Cherson in the Crimea. Leontius, after a reign of three years, was in turn dethroned and imprisoned by Tiberius Apsimarus, who assumed the throne
20.
Tiberius (son of Justinian II)
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Tiberius was the only son of the Byzantine emperor Justinian II, and his only child by his second wife Theodora of Khazaria, whom he married ca.704 whilst in exile among the Khazars. Tiberius was probably born in 705, during his fathers absence in a bid to regain the Byzantine throne, following Justinians success, Tiberius and his mother were recalled to Constantinople, where the infant was raised to co-emperor. The only thing known of him thereafter is his participation in the reception of Pope Constantine I in early 711. Following the overthrow of his father in December 711, he was murdered by the patrikios Mauros and John Strouthos, tiberios, Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit, I. Band, Theophylaktos – az-Zubair, Anonymi, Walter de Gruyter, p.51, ISBN 978-3-11-016675-0
21.
Justinian dynasty
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The Justinian Dynasty is a family who ruled over the Byzantine Empire from 518 to 602. It originated with Justin I and ended with Maurice, patriarch Germanus I of Constantinople, whose father was named Justinian, might have been a descendant of the dynasty. The names Justin, Justinian and Germanus were common among dynasty members, married Baduarius adoption of Tiberius II Constantine - From his marriage to Ino Anastasia. Constantina, a daughter who married Maurice Theodosius, eldest son and co-emperor of Maurice. Married a daughter of patrikios Germanus, history of the Later Roman Empire. Whitby, Michael, The Cambridge ancient history 14, late Antiquity, empire and successors, A. D.425 -600, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-32591-9
22.
Twenty Years' Anarchy
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Justinian II set in motion a chain of events by embarking on a despotic and increasingly violent course. Leontios proved equally unpopular and was in turn overthrown by Tiberios III, justinian then continued to reign for a further six years. His treatment of Tiberios and his supporters had been brutal and he continued to rule in a manner that was despotic and he lost the ground regained by Tiberios in the east, and imposed his views on the Pope. However, before long he faced a rebellion led by Philippikos Bardanes, justinian was captured and executed as was his son and co-emperor, Tiberius, thus extinguishing the Heraclian line. Justinian had taken the Byzantine empire yet further from its origins and he effectively abolished the historical role of Consul, merging it with Emperor, thus strengthening the Emperors constitutional position as absolute monarch. Militarily the Bulgars reached the walls of Constantinople, and moving troops to defend the capital allowed the Arabs to make incursions in the east and his reign ended abruptly when an army rebellion deposed him and replaced him with Anastasius II. Anastasius reversed his predecessors religious policies and responded to Arab attacks by sea and land, however the very army that had placed him on the throne rose against him, proclaimed a new emperor and besieged Constantinople for six months, eventually forcing Anastasius to flee. He in turn faced rebellion from two other themata, Anatolikon and Armeniakon in 717, and chose to resign, being succeeded by Leo III bringing an end to the cycle of violence and instability. However the strength of the organization within the empire. Byzantine–Arab Wars Byzantium under the Isaurians Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars#Tervels wars Kaegi, Walter Emil, Byzantium and the Early Islamic Conquests. Cambridge, United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press, bellinger, Alfred Raymond, Grierson, Philip, eds. Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection, Phocas to Theodosius III, Byzantium The Imperial centuries AD 610-1071
23.
Latin language
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
24.
Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
25.
Byzantine emperors
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This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Emperors listed below up to Theodosius I in 395 were sole or joint rulers of the entire Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire was the direct legal continuation of the eastern half of the Roman Empire following the division of the Roman Empire in 395. All Byzantine emperors considered themselves to be the rightful Roman emperor in direct succession from Augustus, the title of all Emperors preceding Heraclius was officially Augustus, although other titles such as Dominus were also used. Their names were preceded by Imperator Caesar and followed by Augustus, following Heraclius, the title commonly became the Greek Basileus, which had formerly meant sovereign but was then used in place of Augustus. Following the establishment of the rival Holy Roman Empire in Western Europe, in later centuries, the Emperor could be referred to by Western Christians as the Emperor of the Greeks. Towards the end of the Empire, the standard formula of the Byzantine ruler was in Christ, Emperor. For Roman emperors before Constantine I, see List of Roman emperors, family tree of the Byzantine emperors List of Roman emperors List of Roman usurpers List of Byzantine usurpers List of Roman and Byzantine empresses
26.
Exarchate of Africa
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It was created by emperor Maurice in the late 580s and survived until the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb in the late 7th century. It included the provinces of Africa Proconsularis, Byzacena, Tripolitania, Numidia, Mauretania Caesariensis and Mauretania Sitifensis, in the 560s, a Roman expedition succeeded in regaining parts of southern Spain, which were administered as the new province of Spania. Under Justinian I, the process was reversed for provinces which were judged to be especially vulnerable or in internal disorder. Two exarchates were established, one in Italy, with seat at Ravenna, the first African exarch was the patricius Gennadius. The Visigothic Kingdom was also a continuous threat, the African exarch was in possession of Mauretania II, which was little more than a tiny outpost in southern Spain. The conflict continued until the final conquest of the last Spanish strongholds in c.624 by the Visigoths, the Byzantines retained only the fort of Septum, across the Strait of Gibraltar. Due to religious and political ambitions, the Exarch Gregory the Patrician declared himself independent of Constantinople in 647, the first Islamic expeditions began with an initiative from Egypt under the emir Amr ibn al-As and his nephew Uqba ibn Nafi. Sensing Roman weakness they conquered Barca, in Cyrenaica, then successively on to Tripolitania where they encountered resistance, due to the unrest caused by theological disputes concerning Monothelitism and Monoenergism the Exarchate under Gregory the Patrician distanced itself from the empire in open revolt. Carthage being flooded with refugees from Egypt, Palestine and Syria exacerbated religious tensions, afterwards the Exarchate became a semi-client state under a new Exarch called Gennadius. Attempting to maintain tributary status with Constantinople and Damascus strained the resources of the Exarchate, the peak of resistance reached by the Exarchate with assistance from the Berber allies of king Kusaila was the victory over the forces of Uqba ibn Nafi at the Battle of Vescera in 682. This victory caused the Muslim forces to retreat to Egypt, giving the Exarchate a decades respite, the repeated confrontations took their toll on the dwindling and ever-divided resources of the Exarchate. In 698, the Muslim commander Hasan ibn al-Numan and a force of 40,000 men crushed Roman Carthage, many of its defenders were Visigoths sent to defend the Exarchate by their king, who also feared Muslim expansion. Many Visigoths fought to the death, in the ensuing battle Roman Carthage was again reduced to rubble and it was also an enormous blow because it permanently ended Roman presence in Africa. Histoire de la Domination Byzantine en Afrique, Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century. Histoire de lAfrique du Nord, vol.1 - Des origines a la conquête arabe,1961 edition, Paris, Payot Pringle, Denys. The Defence of Byzantine Africa from Justinian to the Arab Conquest, An Account of the Military History, oxford, United Kingdom, British Archaeological Reports
27.
Bosphorus
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The Bosphorus or Bosporus is a narrow, natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in northwestern Turkey. It forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia, and separates Asian Turkey from European Turkey. The worlds narrowest strait used for navigation, the Bosphorus connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara, and, by extension via the Dardanelles. Most of the shores of the strait are heavily settled, straddled by the city of Istanbuls metropolitan population of 17 million inhabitants extending inland from both coasts, together with the Dardanelles, the Bosphorus forms the Turkish Straits. This folk etymology was canonized by Aeschylus in Prometheus Bound, where Prometheus prophesies to Io that the strait would be named after her, the site where Io supposedly went ashore was near Chrysopolis, and was named Bous the Cow. The same site was known as Damalis, as it was where the Athenian general Chares had erected a monument to his wife Damalis. Historically, the Bosphorus was also known as the Strait of Constantinople, or the Thracian Bosphorus and these are expressed in Herodotus Histories,4.83, as Bosporus Thracius, Bosporus Thraciae, and Βόσπορος Θρᾴκιος, respectively. Other names by which the strait is referenced by Herodotus include Chalcedonian Bosporus, the term eventually came to be used as common noun βόσπορος, meaning a strait, and was also formerly applied to the Hellespont in Classical Greek by Aeschylus and Sophocles. Presently, the waterway is officially referred to as simply Bosphorus, the Marmara further connects to the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas via the Dardanelles. A common mistake made by those who are unfamiliar with the locale is to assume the Bosphorus is a river, when it is, in fact. The exact scientific cause and date of the formation of the Bosphorus remain the subject of debate among geologists, many geologists, however, claim that the strait is much older, even if relatively young on a geologic timescale. The Symplegades were defeated when the lyrical hero Jason obtained successful passage, whereupon the rocks became fixed, between these limits, the strait is 31 km long, with a width of 3,329 m at the northern entrance and 2,826 m at the southern entrance. Its maximum width is 3,420 m between Umuryeri and Büyükdere Limanı, and minimum width 700 m between Kandilli Point and Aşiyan, the depth of the Bosphorus varies from 13 to 110 m in midstream with an average of 65 m. The deepest location is between Kandilli and Bebek with 110 m, the most shallow locations are off Kadıköy İnciburnu on the northward route with 18 m and off Aşiyan Point on the southward route with 13 m. The study of the water and wind erosion of the straits relates to that of its formation, sections of the shore have been reinforced with concrete or rubble and sections of the strait prone to deposition are periodically dredged. These channels are the main pathway for sediments to the deep sea where they form sedimentary deposits. These deposits ultimately hold not only untapped reserves of gas and oil and our initial findings show that the flow in these channels is quite different to the flow in river channels on land. Specifically, as flow moves around a bend it spirals in the direction in the deep sea compared to the spiral found in river channels on land
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Constantinople
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Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman/Byzantine Empire, and also of the brief Latin, and the later Ottoman empires. It was reinaugurated in 324 AD from ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great, after whom it was named, Constantinople was famed for its massive and complex defences. The first wall of the city was erected by Constantine I, Constantinople never truly recovered from the devastation of the Fourth Crusade and the decades of misrule by the Latins. The origins of the name of Byzantion, more known by the later Latin Byzantium, are not entirely clear. The founding myth of the city has it told that the settlement was named after the leader of the Megarian colonists, Byzas. The later Byzantines of Constantinople themselves would maintain that the city was named in honour of two men, Byzas and Antes, though this was likely just a play on the word Byzantion. During this time, the city was also called Second Rome, Eastern Rome, and Roma Constantinopolitana. As the city became the remaining capital of the Roman Empire after the fall of the West, and its wealth, population, and influence grew. In the language of other peoples, Constantinople was referred to just as reverently, the medieval Vikings, who had contacts with the empire through their expansion in eastern Europe used the Old Norse name Miklagarðr, and later Miklagard and Miklagarth. In Arabic, the city was sometimes called Rūmiyyat al-kubra and in Persian as Takht-e Rum, in East and South Slavic languages, including in medieval Russia, Constantinople was referred to as Tsargrad or Carigrad, City of the Caesar, from the Slavonic words tsar and grad. This was presumably a calque on a Greek phrase such as Βασιλέως Πόλις, the modern Turkish name for the city, İstanbul, derives from the Greek phrase eis tin polin, meaning into the city or to the city. In 1928, the Turkish alphabet was changed from Arabic script to Latin script, in time the city came to be known as Istanbul and its variations in most world languages. In Greece today, the city is still called Konstantinoúpolis/Konstantinoúpoli or simply just the City, apart from this, little is known about this initial settlement, except that it was abandoned by the time the Megarian colonists settled the site anew. A farsighted treaty with the emergent power of Rome in c.150 BC which stipulated tribute in exchange for independent status allowed it to enter Roman rule unscathed. The site lay astride the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and had in the Golden Horn an excellent and spacious harbour. He would later rebuild Byzantium towards the end of his reign, in which it would be briefly renamed Augusta Antonina, fortifying it with a new city wall in his name, Constantine had altogether more colourful plans. Rome was too far from the frontiers, and hence from the armies and the imperial courts, yet it had been the capital of the state for over a thousand years, and it might have seemed unthinkable to suggest that the capital be moved to a different location. Constantinople was built over 6 years, and consecrated on 11 May 330, Constantine divided the expanded city, like Rome, into 14 regions, and ornamented it with public works worthy of an imperial metropolis
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Asia Minor
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Anatolia, in geography known as Asia Minor, Asian Turkey, Anatolian peninsula, or Anatolian plateau, is the westernmost protrusion of Asia, which makes up the majority of modern-day Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Sea of Marmara forms a connection between the Black and Aegean Seas through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits and separates Anatolia from Thrace on the European mainland. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to a line between the Gulf of Alexandretta and the Black Sea to the Armenian Highlands, thus, traditionally Anatolia is the territory that comprises approximately the western two-thirds of the Asian part of Turkey. The Turkification of Anatolia began under the Seljuk Empire in the late 11th century, however, various non-Turkic languages continue to be spoken by minorities in Anatolia today, including Kurdish, Assyrian, Armenian, Arabic, Laz, Georgian, and Greek. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to a line running from the Gulf of Alexandretta to the Black Sea. This traditional geographical definition is used, for example, in the latest edition of Merriam-Websters Geographical Dictionary, under this definition, Anatolia is bounded to the east by the Armenian Highlands, and the Euphrates before that river bends to the southeast to enter Mesopotamia. To the southeast, it is bounded by the ranges that separate it from the Orontes valley in Syria, the first name the Greeks used for the Anatolian peninsula was Ἀσία, presumably after the name of the Assuwa league in western Anatolia. As the name of Asia came to be extended to areas east of the Mediterranean. The name Anatolia derives from the Greek ἀνατολή meaning “the East” or more literally “sunrise”, the precise reference of this term has varied over time, perhaps originally referring to the Aeolian, Ionian and Dorian colonies on the west coast of Asia Minor. In the Byzantine Empire, the Anatolic Theme was a theme covering the western, the modern Turkish form of Anatolia is Anadolu, which again derives from the Greek name Aνατολή. The Russian male name Anatoly and the French Anatole share the same linguistic origin, in English the name of Turkey for ancient Anatolia first appeared c. It is derived from the Medieval Latin Turchia, which was used by the Europeans to define the Seljuk controlled parts of Anatolia after the Battle of Manzikert. Human habitation in Anatolia dates back to the Paleolithic, neolithic Anatolia has been proposed as the homeland of the Indo-European language family, although linguists tend to favour a later origin in the steppes north of the Black Sea. However, it is clear that the Anatolian languages, the oldest branch of Indo-European, have spoken in Anatolia since at least the 19th century BC. The earliest historical records of Anatolia stem from the southeast of the region and are from the Mesopotamian-based Akkadian Empire during the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 24th century BC, scholars generally believe the earliest indigenous populations of Anatolia were the Hattians and Hurrians. The region was famous for exporting raw materials, and areas of Hattian-, one of the numerous cuneiform records dated circa 20th century BC, found in Anatolia at the Assyrian colony of Kanesh, uses an advanced system of trading computations and credit lines. They were speakers of an Indo-European language, the Hittite language, originating from Nesa, they conquered Hattusa in the 18th century BC, imposing themselves over Hattian- and Hurrian-speaking populations. According to the most widely accepted Kurgan theory on the Proto-Indo-European homeland, however, the Hittites adopted the cuneiform script, invented in Mesopotamia
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Battle of Nineveh (627)
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The Battle of Nineveh was the climactic battle of the Byzantine-Sassanid War of 602–628. The Byzantine victory later resulted in war in Persia and for a period of time restored the Roman empire to its ancient boundaries in the Middle East. This resurgence of power and prestige was not to last, as within a matter of a few years, when Emperor Maurice was murdered by the usurper Phocas, Khosrau II declared war, ostensibly to avenge his benefactors death. While the Persians were successful during the first stages of the war, conquering much of the Levant, Egypt, and even Anatolia, Heraclius campaigns altered the balance, forcing the Persians on the defensive and allowing for the Byzantines to regain momentum. Allied with the Avars, the Persians attempted to take Constantinople, the Caucasus-based Turks responded by sending 40,000 of their men to ravage the Persian empire in 626 to start the Third Perso-Turkic War. Joint Byzantine and Göktürks operations were focused on besieging Tiflis, in mid-September 627, leaving Ziebel to continue the siege of Tiflis, Heraclius invaded the Persian heartland, this time with between 25,000 and 50,000 troops and 40,000 Göktürks. The Göktürks, however, quickly deserted him because of the winter conditions. Heraclius was tailed by Rhahzadhs army of 12,000, but managed to evade Rhahzadh and invaded the heartland of the Persian Empire, Heraclius acquired food and fodder from the countryside, so Rhahzadh, following through countryside already stripped, could not easily find provisions. This resulted in harm to Rhahzadhs animals, on 1 December, Heraclius crossed the Great Zab River and camped near the ruins of the capital of the former Assyrian Empire of Nineveh in Persian ruled Assyria/Assuristan. This was a movement from south to north, contrary to the expectation of a southward advance, however, this can be seen as a way to avoid being trapped by the Persian army in case of a defeat. Rhahzadh approached Nineveh from a different position, news that 3,000 Persian reinforcements were approaching reached Heraclius, forcing him to act. He gave the appearance of retreating from Persia by crossing the Tigris, Heraclius had found a plain west of the Great Zab some distance from the ruins of Nineveh. This allowed the Byzantines to take advantage of their strengths in lances, furthermore, the fog reduced the Persian advantage in missile troops and allowed the Byzantines to charge without great losses from missile barrages. Walter Kaegi believes that this took place near Karamlays Creek. Rhahzadh deployed his forces into three masses and attacked, Heraclius feigned retreat to lead the Persians to the plains before reversing his troops to the surprise of the Persians. After eight hours of fighting, the Persians suddenly retreated to nearby foothills, nikephoros Brief History tells that Rhahzadh challenged Heraclius to personal combat. Heraclius accepted and killed Rhahzadh in a single thrust, two other challengers fought and also lost, in any case, Rhahzadh died sometime in the battle. The 3,000 Persian reinforcements arrived too late for the battle, the victory at Nineveh was not total as the Byzantines were unable to capture the Persian camp
31.
Khosrau II
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Khosrow II, entitled Aparvēz, also Khusraw Parvēz, was the last great king of the Sasanian Empire, reigning from 590 to 628. He was the son of Hormizd IV and the grandson of Khosrow I and he was the last king of Persia to have a lengthy reign before the Muslim conquest of Iran, which began five years after his death by execution. The Byzantines also regained the True Cross, which Khosrow had captured following his conquest of the Levant during the same 602–628 war. Khosrow and Shirin tells the story of his love for the Aramean or Roman princess Shirin, Khosrow is first mentioned in the 580s, when was at Partaw, the capital of Caucasian Albania. During his stay there, he served as the governor of the kingdom, furthermore, Khosrow II also served as the governor of Arbela around this period. According to a legend, Khosrow had a shabestan in which over 3,000 concubines resided, Khosrow was raised to the throne by his two uncles Vistahm and Vinduyih, who were the leaders of a palace coup that deposed, blinded and killed Hormizd IV. Furthermore, Persia was required to cease intervening in the affairs of Iberia and Armenia, after some time, Khosrow along with the Byzantine commander of the south, Comentiolus, invaded Mesopotamia. During this invasion, Nisibis and Martyropolis quickly defected to them, during the same period, Khosrow, feeling disrespected by Comentiolus, convinced Maurice to replace the latter with Narses as the commander of the south. Khosrow and Narses then penetrated deeper into Bahrams territory, seizing Dara and then Mardin on February, shortly after this, Khosrow sent one of his Iranian supporters, Mahbodh, to capture Ctesiphon, which he managed to accomplish. Meanwhile, Khosrows two uncles and John Mystacon, conquered northern Adurbadagan, and went further south in the region, where they defeated Bahram at Blarathon, however, Khosrow managed to deal with him by either having him assassinated or convince the Turks to execute him. Peace with the Byzantines was then officially concluded, for his aid, Maurice received much of Persian Armenia and western Georgia, and received the abolition of the subsidies which had formerly been paid to the Sasanians. Soon, however, Khosrow changed his intentions, trying to disassociate himself from his fathers murder, the Sasanian monarchs traditional mistrust of over-powerful magnates and Khosrows personal resentment of Vinduyihs patronising manner certainly contributed to this decision. Vinduyih was soon put to death, according to a Syriac source captured while trying to flee to his brother in the East, at the news of his brothers murder, Vistahm rose in open revolt. According to Dinawari, Vistahm sent a letter to Khosrow announcing his claim to the throne through his Parthian heritage, indeed, I am more deserving on account of my descent from Darius, son of Darius, who fought Alexander. You Sasanians deceitfully gained superiority over us and usurped our right and your ancestor Sasan was no more than a shepherd. Vistahms revolt, like Bahramss shortly before, found support and spread quickly, local magnates as well as the remnants of Bahram Chobins armies flocked to him, especially after he married Bahrams sister Gordiya. He even campaigned in the east, where he subdued two Hephthalite princes of Transoxiana, Shaug and Pariowk, the date of Vistahms uprising is uncertain. From his coinage, it is known that his rebellion lasted for seven years, the commonly accepted dates are ca
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Kavadh II
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Shērōē, better known by his dynastic name of Kavadh II, was king of the Sasanian Empire briefly in 628. He was the son of Khosrau II and he became king after orchestrating a coup détat against his father. Kavadh II was the son of Khosrau II, the king of the Sasanian Empire, and Maria, daughter of Maurice, Kavadh was later imprisoned by his father who wanted to ensure the succession of his favorite son Mardanshah, the son of his favorite wife, Shirin. His fathers reputation had been ruined during the last phase of the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, in 627, the Sasanian general Rhahzadh was slain and Dastgerd, the kings favorite residence, had been sacked by Heraclius, who was advancing towards Ctesiphon. On 25 February, Kavadh, along with Aspad Gushnasp, captured Ctesiphon, Kavadh II then proclaimed himself as king of the Sasanian Empire and ordered the execution of all his brothers and half-brothers, which included Mardanshah, the favorite son of Khosrau II. Three days later he ordered Mihr Hormozd to execute his father, however, after the execution of his father, Kavadh had Mihr Hormozd killed. Kavadh also appointed Varaztirots II Bagratuni as Marzban of Persian Armenia, Kavadh II later died from plague after a few months reign on 6 September 628. He was succeeded by his eight-year-old son Ardashir III for whom he decreed Emperor Heraclius act as regent and these decisions along with his Christian faith led the Zoroastrian priesthood to eliminate him and his young heir not long after. A passage of the Chronicle of Edessa identifies Anzoy the Roman as the wife of Kavadh II, the woman was probably a Christian princess from the Byzantine Empire. Siroe is the subject of operas by a number of composers including Pasquale Errichelli, Johann Adolph Hasse, Leonardo Vinci, Antonio Vivaldi and George Frideric Handel. Morris, John, The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Volume III, AD 527–641, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-20160-8 Morony, decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire, The Sasanian-Parthian Confederacy and the Arab Conquest of Iran. Al-Tabari, Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Jarir, the History of Al-Tabari, The Sasanids, the Lakhmids, and Yemen. Albany, NY, State University of New York Press
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Muslim conquests
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The early Muslim conquests also referred to as the Arab conquests and early Islamic conquests began with the Islamic Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century. He established a new unified polity in the Arabian Peninsula which under the subsequent Rashidun, the resulting empire stretched from the borders of China and the Indian subcontinent, across Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, Sicily, and the Iberian Peninsula, to the Pyrenees. The Muslim conquests brought about the collapse of the Sassanid Empire, the reasons for the Muslim success are hard to reconstruct in hindsight, primarily because only fragmentary sources from the period have survived. Most historians agree that the Sassanid Persian and Byzantine Roman empires were militarily and economically exhausted from decades of fighting one another, in the case of Byzantine Egypt, Palestine and Syria, these lands had only a few years before being reclaimed from the Persians. The estimates for the size of the Islamic Caliphate suggest it was more than thirteen million square kilometers, the last of these wars ended with victory for the Byzantines, Emperor Heraclius regained all lost territories, and restored the True Cross to Jerusalem in 629. According to George Liska, the unnecessarily prolonged Byzantine–Persian conflict opened the way for Islam, in late 620s Muhammad had already managed to conquer and unify much of Arabia under Muslim rule, and it was under his leadership that the first Muslim-Byzantine skirmishes took place. The province of Syria was the first to be wrested from Byzantine control, on the heels of their victory, the Arab armies took Damascus in 636, with Baalbek, Homs, and Hama to follow soon afterwards. However, other fortified towns continued to resist despite the rout of the army and had to be conquered individually. Jerusalem fell in 638, Caesarea in 640, while others held out until 641, the Byzantine province of Egypt held strategic importance for its grain production, naval yards, and as a base for further conquests in Africa. The Muslim general Amr ibn al-As began the conquest of the province on his own initiative in 639, nevertheless, the province was scarcely urbanized and the defenders lost hope of receiving reinforcements from Constantinople when the emperor Heraclius died in 641. The last major center to fall into Arab hands was Alexandria, according to Hugh Kennedy, Of all the early Muslim conquests, that of Egypt was the swiftest and most complete. Seldom in history can so massive a political change have happened so swiftly, after an Arab incursion into Sasanian territories, the energetic king Yazdgerd III, who had just ascended the Persian throne, raised an army to resist the invasion. However, the Persians suffered a defeat at the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah in 636. As a result, the Arab-Muslims gained control over the whole of Iraq, including Ctesiphon, the Persian forces withdrew over the Zagros mountains and the Arab army pursued them across the Iranian plateau, where the fate of the Sasanian empire was sealed at the Battle of Nahavand. In the aftermath of their victory over the army, the invaders still had to contend with a collection of militarily weak. It took decades to bring all under control of the caliphate. The rapidity of the early conquests has received various explanations, contemporary Christian writers conceived them as Gods punishment visited on their fellow Christians for their sins. Early Muslim historians viewed them as a reflection of religious zeal of the conquerors, according to Chase F. Robinson, it is likely that Muslim forces were often outnumbered, but, unlike their opponents, they were fast, well coordinated and highly motivated
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Arabian Peninsula
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The Arabian Peninsula, simplified Arabia is a peninsula of Western Asia situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian plate. From a geological perspective, it is considered a subcontinent of Asia and it is the largest peninsula in the world, at 3,237,500 km2. The Arabian Peninsula consists of the countries Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the Arabian Peninsula plays a critical geopolitical role in the Middle East and the Arab world due to its vast reserves of oil and natural gas. Before the modern era, it was divided into four regions, Hejaz, Najd, Southern Arabia. Hejaz and Najd make up most of Saudi Arabia, Southern Arabia consists of Yemen and some parts of Saudi Arabia and Oman. Eastern Arabia consists of the coastal strip of the Persian Gulf. The most prominent feature of the peninsula is desert, but in the southwest there are mountain ranges, harrat ash Shaam is a large volcanic field that extends from the northwestern Arabian Peninsula into Jordan and southern Syria. The peninsulas constituent countries are Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the island nation of Bahrain lies off the east coast of the peninsula. Six countries form the Gulf Cooperation Council, however, this is a disputed term. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia covers the part of the peninsula. The majority of the population of the live in Saudi Arabia. The peninsula contains the worlds largest reserves of oil, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are economically the wealthiest in the region. Qatar, a peninsula in the Persian Gulf on the larger peninsula, is home of the Arabic-language television station Al Jazeera. Kuwait, on the border with Iraq, is an important country strategically, though historically lightly populated, political Arabia is noted for a high population growth rate - as the result of both very strong inflows of migrant labor as well as sustained high birth rates. The population tends to be young and heavily skewed gender ratio dominated by males. In many states, the number of South Asians exceeds that of the local citizenry, the four smallest states, which have their entire coastlines on the Persian Gulf, exhibit the worlds most extreme population growth, roughly tripling every 20 years. In 2014, the population of the Arabian Peninsula was 77,983,936. Listed here are the human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups in Arabia Haplogroup J is the most abundant component in the Arabian peninsula and its two main subclades, show opposite latitudinal gradients in the Middle East
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Sasanian Empire
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The Sasanian Empire was founded by Ardashir I, after the fall of the Parthian Empire and the defeat of the last Arsacid king, Artabanus V. According to a legend, the vexilloid of the Sasanian Empire was the Derafsh Kaviani, in many ways, the Sasanian period witnessed the peak of ancient Iranian civilization. Persia influenced Roman culture considerably during the Sasanian period, the Sasanians cultural influence extended far beyond the empires territorial borders, reaching as far as Western Europe, Africa, China and India. It played a prominent role in the formation of both European and Asian medieval art, much of what later became known as Islamic culture in art, architecture, music and other subject matter was transferred from the Sasanians throughout the Muslim world. Conflicting accounts shroud the details of the fall of the Parthian Empire, the Sassanid Empire was established in Estakhr by Ardashir I. Papak was originally the ruler of a region called Khir, however, by the year 200, he managed to overthrow Gochihr, and appoint himself as the new ruler of the Bazrangids. His mother, Rodhagh, was the daughter of the governor of Pars. Papak and his eldest son Shapur managed to expand their power all of Pars. The subsequent events are unclear, due to the nature of the sources. It is certain, however, that following the death of Papak, Ardashir, sources reveal that Shapur, leaving for a meeting with his brother, was killed when the roof of a building collapsed on him. By the year 208, over the protests of his brothers who were put to death. Once Ardashir was appointed shahanshah, he moved his capital further to the south of Pars, the city, well supported by high mountains and easily defendable through narrow passes, became the center of Ardashirs efforts to gain more power. The city was surrounded by a high, circular wall, probably copied from that of Darabgird, in a second attempt to destroy Ardashir, Artabanus V himself met Ardashir in battle at Hormozgan, where Artabanus V met his death. Following the death of the Parthian ruler, Ardashir I went on to invade the provinces of the now defunct Parthian Empire. Ardashir was aided by the geography of the province of Fars, in the next few years, local rebellions would form around the empire. Nonetheless, Ardashir I further expanded his new empire to the east and northwest, conquering the provinces of Sistan, Gorgan, Khorasan, Margiana, Balkh and he also added Bahrain and Mosul to Sassanids possessions. In the west, assaults against Hatra, Armenia and Adiabene met with less success, in 230, he raided deep into Roman territory, and a Roman counter-offensive two years later ended inconclusively, although the Roman emperor, Alexander Severus, celebrated a triumph in Rome. Ardashir Is son Shapur I continued the expansion of the empire, conquering Bactria, invading Roman Mesopotamia, Shapur I captured Carrhae and Nisibis, but in 243 the Roman general Timesitheus defeated the Persians at Rhesaina and regained the lost territories
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Roman Syria
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Syria was an early Roman province, annexed to the Roman Republic in 64 BC by Pompey in the Third Mithridatic War, following the defeat of Armenian King Tigranes the Great. Following the partition of the Herodian Kingdom into tetrarchies in 6 AD, it was absorbed into Roman provinces, with Roman Syria annexing Iturea. Later, in 135 AD, in the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt, Syrian province was merged with Judea province, one province During the early empire, the Roman army in Syria accounted for three legions with auxiliaries, they defended the border with Parthia. Syrian province forces were engaged in the Great Jewish Revolt of 66–70 AD. In 66 AD, Cestius Gallus, the legate of Syria, brought the Syrian army, based on XII Fulminata, reinforced by troops, to restore order in Judaea. The legion, however, was ambushed and destroyed by Jewish rebels at the Battle of Beth Horon, the future emperor Vespasian was put in charge of subduing the Jewish revolt. In the summer of 69, Vespasian, with the Syrian units supporting him, the governor of Syria retained the civil administration of the whole large province undiminished, and held for long alone in all Asia a command of the first rank. It was Severus who at length withdrew the first place in the Roman military hierarchy from the Syrian governor, the emperor Septimius Severus divided up Roman Syria in the fashion it would remain until the rule of the Tetrarchs. From the later 2nd century, the Roman senate included several notable Syrians, Syria was of crucial strategic importance during the crisis of the third century. In 244 AD, Rome was ruled by a native Syrian from Philippopolis in the province of Arabia Petraea, the emperor was Marcus Iulius Philippus, more commonly known as Philip the Arab. Philip became the 33rd emperor of Rome upon its millennial celebration, in 259/260 a similar event happened when Shapur I again defeated a Roman field army and captured the Roman emperor, Valerian, alive at the battle of Edessa. Again Roman Syria suffered as cities were captured, sacked and pillaged, from 268 to 273, Syria was part of the breakaway Palmyrene Empire. Following the reforms of Diocletian, Syria Coele became part of the Diocese of Oriens, after c.415 Syria Coele was further subdivided into Syria I, with the capital remaining at Antioch, and Syria II or Syria Salutaris, with capital at Apamea on the Orontes. In 528, Justinian I carved out the coastal province Theodorias out of territory from both provinces. The region remained one of the most important provinces of the Byzantine Empire and it was occupied by the Sassanids between 609 and 628, then recovered by the emperor Heraclius, but lost again to the advancing Muslims after the battle of Yarmouk and the fall of Antioch. The city of Antioch was recovered in 963 AD along with other parts of the country. A reconquest undertaken by the Fatimad caliphate in the 970s retook most parts of Syria from the Byzantines, however, the Byzantine emperor Basil II reconquered all of Syria from Muslims by 1000 AD. Frequent rebellions, however, weakened Byzantine control over Syria, by 1045 only the city of Antioch remained Byzantine
37.
Theodore (brother of Heraclius)
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Theodore was the brother of the Byzantine emperor Heraclius, a curopalates and leading general in Heraclius wars against the Persians and against the Arab invasions. He was the son of the general and exarch of Africa Heraclius the Elder, in 612, after the deposition and imprisonment of the magister militum per Orientem Priscus, command of his troops was assumed by Theodore and Philippicus. In late 613, Theodore accompanied his brother in a campaign against the Sasanid Persians near Antioch, although initially successful, the Byzantines were defeated and most of Cilicia conquered by the Persians. Theodore reappears in 626, when he was sent with part of Heraclius army against the forces of the Persian general Shahin, Theodore heavily defeated Shahin in northeastern Anatolia, and then reportedly sailed to Constantinople, which was being besieged by the Avar-Sasanian forces. By the time he arrived, the siege was effectively at an end, after conclusion of peace with Kavadh II in 628, Theodore was sent as his brothers envoy to organize the Persian withdrawal from Syria and northern Mesopotamia. According to the chroniclers, the Persian garrisons were reluctant to leave, when Theodores troops entered the city, they began attacking and killing the Jews, until Heraclius, petitioned by a Jew who managed to escape, sent an order to stop this. Theodore was left by Heraclius as his viceroy in the East, and entrusted with the command of Byzantine forces. In this capacity, Theodore faced the first Muslim attacks on the Byzantine provinces and he seems to have underestimated the threat, and was unable to counter their raids. He was probably the Byzantine commander at the Battle of Mutah in 629, the first major encounter of the Muslim Arabs, in 634, he led his forces from Mesopotamia to Syria, where he apparently suffered a heavy defeat at a battle near Gabitha. Thereafter he retreated to Edessa or Antioch, joining Heraclius, during the Byzantine counteroffensive of 636, he re-occupied Emesa and Damascus, which had been abandoned by the Muslims. He most likely did not participate in the final Battle of Yarmouk on 20 August 636, instead, his failure to counter the Muslim expeditions caused a rift in his relations with Heraclius, and Theodore allegedly criticized his brothers controversial marriage to his niece Martina. In response, Heraclius recalled Theodore to Constantinople and ordered his son Heraclonas to publicly humiliate and this humiliation caused Theodores son, also named Theodore, to participate in the abortive plot of John Athalarichos to overthrow Heraclius in 637. Of Theodores other son, Gregory, nothing is known, greatrex, Geoffrey, Lieu, Samuel N. C. Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6 Martindale, John R. Jones, morris, John, The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Volume III, AD 527–641, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-20160-8
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Mesopotamia
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In the Iron Age, it was controlled by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires. The Sumerians and Akkadians dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of history to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. It fell to Alexander the Great in 332 BC, and after his death, around 150 BC, Mesopotamia was under the control of the Parthian Empire. Mesopotamia became a battleground between the Romans and Parthians, with parts of Mesopotamia coming under ephemeral Roman control. In AD226, eastern part of it fell to the Sassanid Persians, division of Mesopotamia between Roman and Sassanid Empires lasted until the 7th century Muslim conquest of Persia of the Sasanian Empire and Muslim conquest of the Levant from Byzantines. A number of primarily neo-Assyrian and Christian native Mesopotamian states existed between the 1st century BC and 3rd century AD, including Adiabene, Osroene, and Hatra, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. The regional toponym Mesopotamia comes from the ancient Greek root words μέσος middle and ποταμός river and it is used throughout the Greek Septuagint to translate the Hebrew equivalent Naharaim. In the Anabasis, Mesopotamia was used to designate the land east of the Euphrates in north Syria, the Aramaic term biritum/birit narim corresponded to a similar geographical concept. The neighbouring steppes to the west of the Euphrates and the part of the Zagros Mountains are also often included under the wider term Mesopotamia. A further distinction is made between Northern or Upper Mesopotamia and Southern or Lower Mesopotamia. Upper Mesopotamia, also known as the Jazira, is the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris from their sources down to Baghdad, Lower Mesopotamia is the area from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf and includes Kuwait and parts of western Iran. In modern academic usage, the term Mesopotamia often also has a chronological connotation and it is usually used to designate the area until the Muslim conquests, with names like Syria, Jazirah, and Iraq being used to describe the region after that date. It has been argued that these later euphemisms are Eurocentric terms attributed to the region in the midst of various 19th-century Western encroachments, Mesopotamia encompasses the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, both of which have their headwaters in the Armenian Highlands. Both rivers are fed by tributaries, and the entire river system drains a vast mountainous region. Overland routes in Mesopotamia usually follow the Euphrates because the banks of the Tigris are frequently steep and difficult. The climate of the region is semi-arid with a vast desert expanse in the north which gives way to a 15,000 square kilometres region of marshes, lagoons, mud flats, in the extreme south, the Euphrates and the Tigris unite and empty into the Persian Gulf. In the marshlands to the south of the area, a complex water-borne fishing culture has existed since prehistoric times, periodic breakdowns in the cultural system have occurred for a number of reasons. Alternatively, military vulnerability to invasion from marginal hill tribes or nomadic pastoralists has led to periods of trade collapse and these trends have continued to the present day in Iraq
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United Armenia
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The ARF idea of United Armenia incorporates claims to Western Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh, the landlocked exclave Nakhichevan of Azerbaijan and the Javakheti region of Georgia. Nagorno-Karabakh and Javakhk are overwhelmingly inhabited by Armenians, Western Armenia and Nakhichevan had significant Armenian populations in the early 20th century, but no longer do. In 1919 the ARF-dominated government of the First Republic of Armenia declared the unification of Armenian lands. The ARF bases its claims to Turkey on the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres, the territorial claims to Turkey are often seen as the ultimate goal of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the hypothetical reparations of the genocide. The most recent Armenian irredentist movement, the Karabakh movement that began in 1988, some Armenian nationalists consider Nagorno-Karabakh the first stage of a United Armenia. The term United Armenia was created during the Armenian national awakening in the half of the 19th century. During this period, the Armenian-populated areas were divided between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, one of the earliest uses of the phrase United Armenia is by the English Society of Friends of Russian Freedom in an 1899 edition of Free Russia monthly. It quotes a confidential report of Grigory Golitsin sent to tsar Nicholas II containing suggestions for a future policy, Golitsin is convinced that there exists a nationalist movement which aims at the restoration of the independent Armenia of the past. Golitsin writes that their ideal is one great and united Armenia, the idea of an independent and united Armenia was the main goal of the Armenian national liberation movement during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By the 1890s, a low-intensity armed conflict developed between the three major Armenian parties—the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Hnchak and Armenakan— and the Ottoman government. After the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, some Armenians felt that the situation would improve, however, after the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, the Ottoman government was pushed to accept the reforms in the Armenian provinces in early 1914. The Armenians of eastern Ottoman Empire were exterminated by the Ottoman government in 1915, an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed, while the survivors found refuge in other countries. These events, which are known as the Armenian Genocide, are denied by the Turkish state. The Ottoman government successfully ended the two thousand year Armenian presence in Western Armenia. By 1916, most of Western Armenia was occupied by the Russian Empire as part of the Caucasian Campaign of World War I, in parts of the occupied areas, especially around Van, an Armenian autonomy was briefly set up. The Russian army left the region due to the Revolution of 1917, the Ottoman Empire quickly regained the territories from the small number of irregular Armenian units. In the Caucasus, the Special Transcaucasian Committee was set up after the February Revolution, the Bolsheviks took power in Russia through the October Revolution and soon signed the Armistice of Erzincan to stop the combat in Turkish Armenia. Russian forces abandoned their positions and left the area under weak Armenian control, the Bolsheviks set up the Transcaucasian Commissariat in the Caucasus
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Diocese of Egypt (Late Antiquity)
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The Diocese of Egypt was a diocese of the later Roman Empire, incorporating the provinces of Egypt and Cyrenaica. Its capital was at Alexandria, and its governor had the title of praefectus augustalis instead of the ordinary vicarius. The diocese was part of the Diocese of the East. 380, it became an entity, which lasted until its territories were finally overrun by the Muslim conquest of Egypt in the 640s. Egypt was formed into a diocese in about 381. According to the Notitia Dignitatum, which for the Eastern part of the Empire dates to ca, in the middle of the 5th century, however, the latter was also promoted to the rank of comes. The comes limitis Aegypti enjoyed great power and influence in the diocese, from the 5th century, the comes is attested as exercising some civilian duties as well, and from 470 on, the offices of comes and praefectus augustalis were sometimes combined in a single person. This tendency to unite civil and military authority was formalized by Justinian I in his 539 reform of Egyptian administration, studies in the Byzantine Monetary Economy c. The Imperial Presence, Government and Army, in Bagnall, Roger S. Egypt in the Byzantine World, 300-700
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Croats
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Croats are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group at the crossroads of Central Europe, Southeast Europe, and the Mediterranean Sea. Croats mainly live in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, but are a recognized minority in Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have migrated throughout Europe, evidence is rather scarce for the period between the 7th and 8th centuries, CE. Archaeological evidence shows population continuity in coastal Dalmatia and Istria, in contrast, much of the Dinaric hinterland appears to have been depopulated, as virtually all hilltop settlements, from Noricum to Dardania, were abandoned in the early 7th century. Although the dating of the earliest Slavic settlements is still disputed, the origin, timing and nature of the Slavic migrations remain controversial, however, all available evidence points to the nearby Danubian and Carpathian regions. Much uncertainty revolves around the circumstances of their appearance given the scarcity of literary sources during the 7th and 8th century Dark Ages. Traditionally, scholarship has placed the arrival of the Croats in the 7th century, as such, the arrival of the Croats was seen as a second wave of Slavic migrations, which liberated Dalmatia from Avar hegemony. However, as early as the 1970s, scholars questioned the reliability of Porphyrogenitus work, rather than being an accurate historical account, De Administrando Imperio more accurately reflects the political situation during the 10th century. The major basis for this connection was the similarity between Hrvat and inscriptions from the Tanais dated to the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, mentioning the name Khoroathos. Similar arguments have been made for an alleged Gothic-Croat link and they appear to have been based around Nin and Klis, down to the Cetina and south of Liburnia. Here, concentrations of the Old Croat culture abound, marked by very wealthy warrior burials dating to the 9th century CE. Other, distinct polities also existed near the Croat duchy and these included the Guduscans, the Narentines and the Sorabi who ruled some other eastern parts of ex-Roman Dalmatia. Also prominent in the territory of future Croatia was the polity of Prince Liutevid, however, soon, the Croats became the dominant local power in northern Dalmatia, absorbing Liburnia and expanding their name by conquest and prestige. In the south, while having periods of independence, the Naretines also merged with Croats later under control of Croatian Kings, with such expansion, Croatia soon became dominant power and absorb other polities between Frankish, Bulgarian and Byzantine empire. Each vied for control of the Northwest Balkan regions, nevertheless, two independent Slavic dukedoms emerged sometime during the 9th century, the Croat Duchy and Principality of Lower Pannonia. Having been under Avar control, lower Pannonia became a march of the Carolingian Empire around 800, aided by Vojnomir in 796, the first named Slavic Duke of Pannonia, the Franks wrested control of the region from the Avars before totally destroying the Avar realm in 803. After the death of Charlemagne in 814, Frankish influence decreased on the region, the Frankish margraves sent armies in 820,821 and 822, but each time they failed to crush the rebels. Aided by Borna the Guduscan, the Franks eventually defeated Ljudevit, for much of the subsequent period, Savia was probably directly ruled by the Carinthian Duke Arnulf, the future East Frankish King and Emperor
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Serbs
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The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group that formed in the Balkans. The majority of Serbs inhabit the state of Serbia, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina. They form significant minorities in Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia, there is a large Serb diaspora in Western Europe, and outside Europe there are significant communities in North America and Australia. The Serbs share many traits with the rest of the peoples of Southeast Europe. They are predominantly Eastern Orthodox Christians by religion, the Serbian language is official in Serbia, co-official in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is spoken by the majority in Montenegro. The modern identity of Serbs is rooted in Eastern Orthodoxy and traditions, in the 19th century, the Serbian national identity was manifested, with awareness of history and tradition, medieval heritage, cultural unity, despite living under different empires. When the Principality of Serbia gained independence from the Ottoman Empire, Orthodoxy became crucial in defining the national identity, instead of language which was shared by other South Slavs. The tradition of slava, the family saint feast day, is an important ethnic marker of Serb identity, the origin of the ethnonym is unclear. Serbia has among the tallest people in the world, after Montenegro and Netherlands, Slavs invaded and settled the Balkans in the 6th and 7th centuries. Up until the late 560s their activity was raiding, crossing from the Danube, the Danube and Sava frontier was overwhelmed by large-scale Slavic settlement in the late 6th and early 7th century. What is today central Serbia was an important geo-strategical province, through which the Via Militaris crossed and this area was frequently intruded by barbarians in the 5th and 6th centuries. The numerous Slavs mixed with and assimilated the descendants of the indigenous population, numerous small Serbian states were created, located in modern Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia. With the decline of the Serbian state of Duklja in the late 11th century, Raška separated from it, prince Stefan Nemanja conquered the neighbouring territories of Kosovo, Duklja and Zachlumia. The Nemanjić dynasty ruled over Serbia until the 14th century, over the next 140 years, Serbia expanded its borders. Its cultural model remained Byzantine, despite political ambitions directed against the empire, the medieval power and influence of Serbia culminated in the reign of Stefan Dušan, who ruled the state from 1331 until his death in 1355. Ruling as Emperor from 1346, his territory included Macedonia, northern Greece, Montenegro, when Dušan died, his son Stephen Uroš V became Emperor. With the death of two important Serb leaders in the battle, and with the death of Stephen Uroš that same year, hrebeljanović was subsequently accepted as the titular leader of the Serbs because he was married to a member of the Nemanjić dynasty. In 1389, the Serbs faced the Ottomans at the Battle of Kosovo on the plain of Kosovo Polje, both Lazar and Sultan Murad I were killed in the fighting
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Balkans
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The Balkan Peninsula, or the Balkans, is a peninsula and a cultural area in Eastern and Southeastern Europe with various and disputed borders. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch from the Serbia-Bulgaria border to the Black Sea, the highest point of the Balkans is Mount Musala 2,925 metres in the Rila mountain range. In Turkish, Balkan means a chain of wooded mountains, the name is still preserved in Central Asia with the Balkan Daglary and the Balkan Province of Turkmenistan. A less popular hypothesis regarding its etymology is that it derived from the Persian Balā-Khāna, from Antiquity through the Middle Ages, the Balkan Mountains had been called by the local Thracian name Haemus. According to Greek mythology, the Thracian king Haemus was turned into a mountain by Zeus as a punishment, a reverse name scheme has also been suggested. D. Dechev considers that Haemus is derived from a Thracian word *saimon, a third possibility is that Haemus derives from the Greek word haema meaning blood. The myth relates to a fight between Zeus and the monster/titan Typhon, Zeus injured Typhon with a thunder bolt and Typhons blood fell on the mountains, from which they got their name. The earliest mention of the name appears in an early 14th-century Arab map, the Ottomans first mention it in a document dated from 1565. There has been no other documented usage of the word to refer to the region before that, there is also a claim about an earlier Bulgar Turkic origin of the word popular in Bulgaria, however it is only an unscholarly assertion. The word was used by the Ottomans in Rumelia in its meaning of mountain, as in Kod̲j̲a-Balkan, Čatal-Balkan, and Ungurus-Balkani̊. The concept of the Balkans was created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808, during the 1820s, Balkan became the preferred although not yet exclusive term alongside Haemus among British travelers. Among Russian travelers not so burdened by classical toponymy, Balkan was the preferred term, zeunes goal was to have a geographical parallel term to the Italic and Iberian Peninsula, and seemingly nothing more. The gradually acquired political connotations are newer and, to a large extent, after the dissolution of Yugoslavia beginning in June 1991, the term Balkans again received a negative meaning, especially in Croatia and Slovenia, even in casual usage. A European Union initiative of 1999 is called the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, and its northern boundary is often given as the Danube, Sava and Kupa Rivers. The Balkan Peninsula has an area of about 470,000 km2. It is more or less identical to the known as Southeastern Europe. As of 1920 until World War II, Italy included Istria, the current territory of Italy includes only the small area around Trieste inside the Balkan Peninsula. However, the regions of Trieste and Istria are not usually considered part of the Balkans by Italian geographers, the Western Balkans is a neologism coined to describe the countries of ex-Yugoslavia and Albania
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