1.
Histamenon
–
Histamenon was the name given to the gold Byzantine solidus when the slightly lighter tetarteron was introduced in the 960s. To distinguish the two, the histamenon was changed in form from the solidus, becoming wider and thinner. Later usually shortened to stamenon, it was discontinued after 1092, in the 12th and 13th centuries, the name stamenon came to be applied to the concave billon and copper trachea coins. The Byzantine emperor Nikephoros II Phokas, however, introduced a new coin, the latter now became known as the histamenon, from the Greek verb ἵστημι, to stand up, implying that these followed the traditional standard. Initially, the two coins were virtually indistinguishable except in weight, during the later reign of Basil II, the tetarteron began to be minted in a thicker and smaller form, while the histamenon became correspondingly thinner and wider. Only during the rule of Constantine VIII, however, did the two coins become iconographically distinct as well. In addition, under Michael IV the Paphlagonian, it began to be minted in a concave form, possibly to increase the thin coins strength. Flat coins were struck at times, but scyphate ones came to predominate from Constantine IX on. These concave coins were known as histamena trachea or simply trachea from their shape, starting with Michael IV, who was a former money lender, the gold content began to be increasingly lowered and the coins debased. After a period of stability in circa 1055–1070, the gold content declined dramatically in the disastrous 1070s and 1080s. The michaelata of Michael VII Doukas still contained some 16 carats of gold, but by the time of Alexios I Komnenos, the nomismata struck contained almost no gold at all
Histamenon
–
Histamenon of Emperor
Constantine VIII (r. 1025–1028).
Histamenon
–
Histamenon of Emperor
Isaac I Komnenos (r. 1057–1059), with its by then characteristic concave form.
Histamenon
–
An example of the greatly debased later histamena: an
electrum coin of the first years of Emperor
Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118).
2.
List of Byzantine emperors
–
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
List of Byzantine emperors
–
Constantine XI
List of Byzantine emperors
–
Imperial insignia used by the
Palaiologos dynasty
List of Byzantine emperors
–
Constantine I "the Great" (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Α' ὁ Μέγας, Latin: Gaius Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus)
List of Byzantine emperors
–
Constantius II (Κωνστάντιος [Β'], Flavius Iulius Constantius)
3.
Byzantine Empire
–
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
Byzantine Empire
–
Tremissis with the image of
Justinian the Great (r. 527–565) (see
Byzantine insignia)
Byzantine Empire
–
Byzantine
lamellar armour klivanium (Κλιβάνιον) - a predecessor of Ottoman krug
mirror armour
Byzantine Empire
–
The Baptism of Constantine painted by
Raphael 's pupils (1520–1524,
fresco, Vatican City,
Apostolic Palace);
Eusebius of Caesarea records that (as
was common among converts of early Christianity) Constantine delayed receiving
baptism until shortly before his death
Byzantine Empire
–
Restored section of the Theodosian Walls.
4.
Coronation
–
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
Coronation
–
The coronation of
Charles VII of France (1429), detail of the painting Jeanne d'Arc (1886–1890) by
Jules Eugène Lenepveu.
Coronation
–
.
Miniature of
Charlemagne crowned emperor by
Pope Leo III, from Chroniques de France ou de Saint Denis, vol. 1; France, second quarter of 14th century.
Coronation
–
Roger II of Sicily receiving his crown directly from
Jesus Christ, mosaic from
Martorana, Palermo
Coronation
–
An ancient coronation from India
5.
Michael VI Stratiotikos
–
Michael VI Bringas, called Stratiotikos or Stratioticus or Gerontas, reigned as Byzantine emperor from 1056 to 1057. Apparently a relative of the powerful courtier Joseph Bringas, Michael Bringas was an elderly patrician, Michael Bringas was chosen by the empress Theodora as her successor shortly before her death in early September,1056. The appointment had been secured through the influence of Leo Paraspondylos, although Michael managed to survive a conspiracy organized by Theodosios, a nephew of the former emperor Constantine IX Monomachos, he was faced with the disaffection of the military aristocracy. After dismissing Bryennioss grievances in an audience, the emperor completely alienated the military, Michael compounded his error by rebuffing Bryennios after he had already ordered the restored general to lead a division of 3,000 men to reinforce the army in Cappadocia. Although Michael lost heart, the bureaucrats around him attempted to defend their position, on 26 August 1057, the governments army was routed at the Battle of Petroe near Nicaea, and Isaac Komnenos advanced on Constantinople. Privately Isaac showed himself more open to negotiation, and he was promised the status of co-emperor, however, during the course of these secret negotiations, a riot in favor of Isaac broke out in Constantinople. Patriarch Michael Keroularios convinced Michael VI to abdicate in Isaacs favor on 31 August 1057, the emperor duly followed the patriarchs advice and became a monk. He retired to his home and died there by 1059. Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Vol. article name needed
Michael VI Stratiotikos
–
Gold
tetarteron of Michael's reign
6.
Constantine X Doukas
–
Constantine X Doukas or Dukas, Latinized as Ducas was emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 24 November 1059 to 22 May 1067. Constantine Doukas was the son of Andronikos Doukas, a Paphlagonian nobleman who may have served as governor of the theme of Moesia. Addicted to endless debates about philosophy and theology, Constantine gained influence after he married, as his wife, Eudokia Makrembolitissa. In 1057, Constantine supported the usurpation of Isaac I Komnenos, in spite of this tacit opposition, Constantine was chosen as successor by the ailing Isaac in November 1059, under the influence of Michael Psellos. Isaac abdicated, and on November 24,1059, Constantine X Doukas was crowned emperor, undoing many of the necessary reforms of Isaac I, he bloated the military bureaucracy with highly paid court officials and crowded the Senate with his supporters. He also became unpopular with the population after he raised taxes to try to pay the army. Already old and unhealthy when he came to power, Constantine died on May 22,1067 and his final act was to demand that only his sons succeed him, forcing his wife Eudokia Makrembolitissa to take a vow not to remarry. By his first wife, a daughter of Constantine Dalassenos, Constantine X Doukas had no known children, by his second wife, Eudokia Makrembolitissa, he had the following issue, Michael VII Doukas, who succeeded as emperor. Andronikos Doukas, co-emperor from 1068 to 1078, konstantios Doukas, co-emperor from c.1060 to 1078, died 1081. Anna Doukaina, a nun Theodora Anna Doukaina, who married Domenico Selvo, zoe Doukaina, who married Adrianos Komnenos, a brother of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, I, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6 Norwich, John Julius, Byzantium, The Apogee, Penguin, ISBN 0-14-011448-3 Polemis, Demetrios I. The Doukai, A Contribution to Byzantine Prosopography, London, Athlone Press Psellus, Michael, Chronographia Coins of Constantine X Doukas
Constantine X Doukas
–
Gold
histamenon of Constantine X.
7.
Monastery of Stoudios
–
The residents of the monastery were referred to as Stoudites. The ruins of the monastery are situated not far from the Propontis in the section of the city called Psamathia and it was founded in 462 by the consul Flavius Studius, a Roman patrician who had settled in Constantinople, and was consecrated to Saint John the Baptist. Its first monks came from the monastery of Acoemetae and they were driven from the monastery and the city by Emperor Constantine V, after his death however, some of them returned. Hegumenos Sabas of Stoudios zealously defended the Orthodox doctrines against the Iconoclasts at the Seventh Ecumenical Council in Nicaea and his successor was Theodore the Studite to whom the monastery owes most of its fame, and who especially fostered academic and spiritual study. During St. Theodores administration also the monks were harassed and driven away several times, Theodores pupil, Naukratios, re-established discipline after the Iconoclastic dispute had come to an end. Hegumenos Nicholas refused to recognize the Patriarch St. Photios and was on this account imprisoned in his own monastery and he was succeeded by five abbots who recognized the patriarch. The brilliant period of the Stoudios came to an end at this time, as regards the intellectual life of the monastery in other directions, it is especially celebrated for its famous school of calligraphy which was established by Theodore. The art of illumination was cultivated, with many brilliant products of the monastic scriptorium now residing in Venice, Vatican City. The Theodore Psalter, created at the monastery in the century is in the collection of the British Library. In the eighth and eleventh centuries, the monastery was the centre of Byzantine religious poetry, besides Theodore and Niketas, a number of other theological writers are known. Three of the Stoudite monks rose to become the ecumenical patriarchs, in 1204, the monastery was destroyed by the Crusaders and was not fully restored until 1290, by Constantine Palaiologos. The Russian pilgrims Anthony and Stephen were amazed by the size of the monastic grounds and it is thought that the cloister sheltered as much as 700 monks at the time. The greater part of the monastery was destroyed when the Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453. The ancient structure sustained damage from the great fires of 1782 and 1920. The church building, presently a museum, after the end of its restoration in 2014 had plans to be converted into a mosque. Degrees of Orthodox monasticism History of Eastern Orthodox Christianity Sabas of Stoudios This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles. Official Website of the Ecumenical Patriarch | Studius Media related to Monastery of Stoudios at Wikimedia Commons Byzantium 1200 | Monastery of Saint John of Stoudios
Monastery of Stoudios
–
Byzantine
miniature depicting the Stoudios Monastery and the
Propontis (Sea of Marmara), from the
Menologion of Basil II (c. 1000).
Monastery of Stoudios
–
Image of St.
Theodore the Studite (11th-century
mosaic from
Nea Moni monastery on
Chios).
Monastery of Stoudios
–
Street view of the monastery
Monastery of Stoudios
–
Exterior walls of the monastery
8.
Constantinople
–
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
Constantinople
–
Constantinople in the Byzantine era
Constantinople
–
Map of Byzantine Constantinople
Constantinople
–
Emperor
Constantine I presents a representation of the city of Constantinople as tribute to an enthroned Mary and Christ Child in this church mosaic.
Hagia Sophia, c. 1000
Constantinople
–
Coin struck by Constantine I to commemorate the founding of Constantinople
9.
Dynasty
–
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
Dynasty
–
Charles I of England and his son, the future
James II
10.
Komnenos dynasty
–
Through intermarriages with other noble clans, notably the Doukai, Angeloi, and Palaiologoi, the Komnenos name appears among most of the major noble houses of the late Byzantine world. The first known member of the family, Manuel Erotikos Komnenos, acquired estates at Kastamon in Paphlagonia. The family thereby quickly became associated with the powerful and prestigious military aristocracy of Asia Minor, the Romanian historian George Murnu suggested in 1924 that the Komnenoi were of Aromanian descent, but this view too is now rejected. Modern scholars consider the family to have been entirely of Greek origin, Manuel Erotikos Komnenos was the father of Isaac I Komnenos and grandfather, through Isaacs younger brother John Komnenos, of Alexios I Komnenos. Isaac I Komnenos, a Stratopedarch of the East under Michael VI, in 1057 Isaac led a coup against Michael and was proclaimed emperor. Although his reign lasted only till 1059, when his courtiers pressured him to abdicate and become a monk, the dynasty returned to the throne with the accession of Alexios I Komnenos, Isaac Is nephew, in 1081. By this time, descendants of all the dynasties of Byzantium seem to have disappeared from the realm. Thereafter the combined clan often was referred as Komnenodoukai and several individuals used both surnames together, several families descended from the Komnenodoukai, such as Palaiologos, Angelos, Vatatzes and Laskaris. Alexios and Irenes youngest daughter Theodora ensured the success of the Angelos family by marrying into it. Under Alexios I and his successors the Empire was fairly prosperous, Alexios moved the imperial palace to the Blachernae section of Constantinople. Much of Anatolia was recovered from the Seljuk Turks, who had captured it just prior to Alexios reign, Alexios also saw the First Crusade pass through Byzantine territory, leading to the establishment of the Crusader states in the east. Remarkably, Alexios ruled for 37 years, and his son John II ruled for 25, after uncovering a conspiracy against him by his sister, the chronicler Anna Komnene, johns son Manuel ruled for another 37 years. The Komnenos dynasty produced a number of branches, the Angeloi were overthrown during the Fourth Crusade in 1204, by Alexios Doukas, a relative from the Doukas family. Their first emperor, named Alexios I, was the grandson of Emperor Andronikos I and these emperors – the Grand Komnenoi as they were known – ruled in Trebizond for over 250 years, until 1461, when David Komnenos was defeated and executed by the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II. Mehmed himself claimed descent from the Komnenos family via John Tzelepes Komnenos, the Trapezutine branch of the Komnenos dynasty also held the name of Axouchos as descendants of John Axouch, a Byzantine nobleman and minister to the Byzantine Komnenian Dynasty. A princess of the Trebizond branch is said to have been the mother of prince Yahya, another branch of the family founded the Despotate of Epirus in 1204, under Michael I Komnenos Doukas, great-grandson of Emperor Alexios I. When the eastern Empire was restored in 1261 at Constantinople, it was ruled by a closely related to the Komnenoi. The Palaiologoi ruled until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 and his claims to descent from the imperial dynasty of Trebizond, however, are most likely a fabrication
Komnenos dynasty
–
Alexios I Komnenos.
11.
Greek language
–
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
Greek language
–
Idealized portrayal of
Homer
Greek language
–
regions where Greek is the official language
Greek language
–
Greek language road sign, A27 Motorway, Greece
12.
Byzantine Emperor
–
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
Byzantine Emperor
–
Constantine XI
Byzantine Emperor
–
Imperial insignia used by the
Palaiologos dynasty
Byzantine Emperor
–
Constantine I "the Great" (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Α' ὁ Μέγας, Latin: Gaius Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus)
Byzantine Emperor
–
Constantius II (Κωνστάντιος [Β'], Flavius Iulius Constantius)
13.
Komnenos
–
Through intermarriages with other noble clans, notably the Doukai, Angeloi, and Palaiologoi, the Komnenos name appears among most of the major noble houses of the late Byzantine world. The first known member of the family, Manuel Erotikos Komnenos, acquired estates at Kastamon in Paphlagonia. The family thereby quickly became associated with the powerful and prestigious military aristocracy of Asia Minor, the Romanian historian George Murnu suggested in 1924 that the Komnenoi were of Aromanian descent, but this view too is now rejected. Modern scholars consider the family to have been entirely of Greek origin, Manuel Erotikos Komnenos was the father of Isaac I Komnenos and grandfather, through Isaacs younger brother John Komnenos, of Alexios I Komnenos. Isaac I Komnenos, a Stratopedarch of the East under Michael VI, in 1057 Isaac led a coup against Michael and was proclaimed emperor. Although his reign lasted only till 1059, when his courtiers pressured him to abdicate and become a monk, the dynasty returned to the throne with the accession of Alexios I Komnenos, Isaac Is nephew, in 1081. By this time, descendants of all the dynasties of Byzantium seem to have disappeared from the realm. Thereafter the combined clan often was referred as Komnenodoukai and several individuals used both surnames together, several families descended from the Komnenodoukai, such as Palaiologos, Angelos, Vatatzes and Laskaris. Alexios and Irenes youngest daughter Theodora ensured the success of the Angelos family by marrying into it. Under Alexios I and his successors the Empire was fairly prosperous, Alexios moved the imperial palace to the Blachernae section of Constantinople. Much of Anatolia was recovered from the Seljuk Turks, who had captured it just prior to Alexios reign, Alexios also saw the First Crusade pass through Byzantine territory, leading to the establishment of the Crusader states in the east. Remarkably, Alexios ruled for 37 years, and his son John II ruled for 25, after uncovering a conspiracy against him by his sister, the chronicler Anna Komnene, johns son Manuel ruled for another 37 years. The Komnenos dynasty produced a number of branches, the Angeloi were overthrown during the Fourth Crusade in 1204, by Alexios Doukas, a relative from the Doukas family. Their first emperor, named Alexios I, was the grandson of Emperor Andronikos I and these emperors – the Grand Komnenoi as they were known – ruled in Trebizond for over 250 years, until 1461, when David Komnenos was defeated and executed by the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II. Mehmed himself claimed descent from the Komnenos family via John Tzelepes Komnenos, the Trapezutine branch of the Komnenos dynasty also held the name of Axouchos as descendants of John Axouch, a Byzantine nobleman and minister to the Byzantine Komnenian Dynasty. A princess of the Trebizond branch is said to have been the mother of prince Yahya, another branch of the family founded the Despotate of Epirus in 1204, under Michael I Komnenos Doukas, great-grandson of Emperor Alexios I. When the eastern Empire was restored in 1261 at Constantinople, it was ruled by a closely related to the Komnenoi. The Palaiologoi ruled until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 and his claims to descent from the imperial dynasty of Trebizond, however, are most likely a fabrication
Komnenos
–
Alexios I Komnenos.
14.
Strategos autokrator
–
Autokratōr is a Greek epithet applied to an individual who exercises absolute power, unrestrained by superiors. In a historical context, it has applied to military commanders-in-chief. Its connection with Byzantine-style absolutism gave rise to the modern terms autocrat, in modern Greek, it means emperor, and the female form of the title is autokrateira. The title appeared in Classical Greece in the late 5th century BC and this was enacted when the general was expected to operate far from Athens, for instance during the Sicilian Expedition. Nevertheless, the generals remained accountable to the assembly for their conduct upon their return, similar practices were followed by other Greek states, such as Syracuse, where the post served as a power base for several of the citys tyrants. Stratēgoi autokratores were also appointed by various leagues of city-states to head their combined armies, thus Philip II of Macedon was declared as hēgemōn and stratēgos autokratōr of the southern Greek states by the League of Corinth, a position later given to his son Alexander the Great as well. The term was employed for envoys entrusted with plenipotentiary powers. Autokratōr became entrenched as the translation of the latter during the Roman Empire. As such it continued to be used in Greek translations from Latin until the adoption of the Greek title basileus by Emperor Heraclius in 629, in the Palaiologan period, this use was extended to include the designated heir. The title is evidenced in coins from 912, in imperial chrysobulls from the 11th century, the term stratēgos autokratōr continued to be used in the Byzantine period as well. The title is particularly prevalent in the 6th century, and re-appears in the 10th-11th centuries for senior military commanders, thus, for instance, Basil II installed David Arianites as stratēgos autokratōr of Bulgaria, implying powers of command over the other regional stratēgoi in the northern Balkans. The Byzantine imperial formula was imitated among the Balkan Slavic nations, and later, most notably, the emerging Tsardom of Russia. Deriving from this usage, the Russian tsars, from the establishment of the Russian Empire up to the fall of the Russian monarchy in 1917, used the formula Emperor, in the Slavic languages, the title was used in a translated form
Strategos autokrator
–
Ivory plaque with Emperor
Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos being crowned by
Christ. The legend reads: "Constantine, in God [faithful], autokratōr and basileus of the Romans.
15.
Basil II
–
Basil II was a Byzantine Emperor from the Macedonian dynasty who reigned from 10 January 976 to 15 December 1025. He was known in his time as Basil the Porphyrogenitus and Basil the Young to distinguish him from his supposed ancestor, the early years of his long reign were dominated by civil war against powerful generals from the Anatolian aristocracy. For this he was nicknamed the Bulgar Slayer, by which he is popularly known and his reign is therefore often seen as the medieval apogee of the Empire. She originated from the Peloponnese, possibly from the city of Sparta, Basils paternal ancestry is of uncertain origins, his putative ancestor Basil I, the founder of the dynasty, being variously ascribed Armenian, Slavic, or Greek origins. Indeed the biological father of Leo VI the Wise was possibly not Basil I, the family of Michael III were Anatolian Greeks from Phrygia, though originally of the Melchisedechian heretical faith. In 960, Basil was associated on the throne by his father, who died in 963. Nikephoros was murdered in 969 by his nephew John I Tzimisces, when Tzimisces died on 10 January 976, Basil II finally took the throne as senior emperor. Basil was a soldier and a superb horseman, and he would prove himself as an able general. Basil waited and watched without interfering, devoting himself to learning the details of administrative business, even though Nikephoros II Phokas and John I Tzimiskes were brilliant military commanders, both had proven to be lax administrators. Skleros was allowed to live, but he ended his days blind, perhaps through disease and these rebellions had a profound effect on Basils outlook and methods of governance. The historian Psellus describes the defeated Bardas Skleros giving Basil the following advice, let no generals on campaign have too many resources. Exhaust them with unjust exactions, to keep them busied with their own affairs, admit no woman to the imperial councils. Share with few your most intimate plans, Basil, it would appear, took this advice to heart. In order to defeat these dangerous revolts, Basil formed an alliance with Prince Vladimir I of Kiev, who in 988 had captured Chersonesos, Vladimir offered to evacuate Chersonesos and to supply 6,000 of his soldiers as reinforcements to Basil. In exchange he demanded to be married to Basils younger sister Anna, the Byzantines viewed all the nations of Northern Europe, be they Franks or Slavs, as barbarians. Anna herself objected to marrying a barbarian ruler, as such a marriage would have no precedence in imperial annals, Vladimir had conducted long-running research into different religions, including sending delegates to various countries. Marriage was not his primary reason for choosing the Orthodox religion, when Vladimir promised to baptize himself and to convert his people to Christianity, Basil finally agreed. Vladimir and Anna were married in the Crimea in 989, the Rus recruitments were instrumental in ending the rebellion, and they were later organized into the Varangian Guard
Basil II
–
Basil II (Βασίλειος Β' ο Βουλγαροκτόνος)
Basil II
–
Basil II and
Constantine VIII, holding cross.
Nomisma histamenon.
Basil II
–
Basil II and his step-father, Emperor Nikephoros II
Basil II
–
Triumph of Basil II through the
Forum of Constantine, from the
Madrid Skylitzes
16.
Nicaea
–
The ancient city is located within the modern Turkish city of İznik, and is situated in a fertile basin at the eastern end of Lake Ascanius, bounded by ranges of hills to the north and south. It is situated with its west wall rising from the lake itself, the lake is large enough that it could not be blockaded from the land easily, and the city was large enough to make any attempt to reach the harbour from shore-based siege weapons very difficult. The ancient city is surrounded on all sides by 5 kilometres of walls about 10 metres high and these are in turn surrounded by a double ditch on the land portions, and also included over 100 towers in various locations. Large gates on the three sides of the walls provided the only entrance to the city. Today the walls have been pierced in places for roads. The later version however was not widespread even in Antiquity, Antigonus is also known to have established Bottiaean soldiers in the vicinity, lending credence to the tradition about the citys founding by Bottiaeans. Following Antigonus defeat and death at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, the city was captured by Lysimachus, who renamed it Nicaea, in tribute to his wife Nicaea, who had recently died. Sometime before 280 BC, the city came under the control of the dynasty of the kings of Bithynia. This marks the beginning of its rise to prominence as a seat of the royal court, the two cities dispute over which one was the pre-eminent city of Bithynia continued for centuries, and the 38th oration of Dio Chrysostom was expressly composed to settle the dispute. Along with the rest of Bithynia, Nicaea came under the rule of the Roman Republic in 72 BC. The geographer Strabo described the city as built in the typical Hellenistic fashion with great regularity, in the form of a square, measuring 16 stadia in circumference, i. e. approx. This monument stood in the gymnasium, which was destroyed by fire but was restored with increased magnificence by Pliny the Younger, in his writings Pliny makes frequent mention of Nicaea and its public buildings. Emperor Hadrian visited the city in 123 AD after it had been damaged by an earthquake. The new city was enclosed by a wall of some 5 kilometres in length. Reconstruction was not completed until the 3rd century, and the new set of walls failed to save Nicaea from being sacked by the Goths in 258 AD, by the 4th century, Nicaea was a large and prosperous city, and a major military and administrative centre. Emperor Constantine the Great convened the First Ecumenical Council there, the city remained important in the 4th century, seeing the proclamation of Emperor Valens and the failed rebellion of Procopius. During the same period, the See of Nicaea became independent of Nicomedia and was raised to the status of a metropolitan bishopric, many of its grand civic buildings began to fall into ruin, and had to be restored in the 6th century by Emperor Justinian I. Nicaea became the capital of the Opsician Theme in the 8th century and remained a center of administration, a Jewish community is attested in the city in the 10th century
Nicaea
–
The Lefke Gate, part of Nicaea's city walls.
Nicaea
–
The theatre, restored by
Pliny the Younger.
17.
Bardas Skleros
–
Bardas Skleros or Sclerus was a Byzantine general who led a wide-scale Asian rebellion against Emperor Basil II in 976–979. Bardas belonged to the family of the Skleroi, which owned enormous estates at the eastern outskirts of Asia Minor. His mother Gregoria descended from Basil Is brother Bardas, the greatest coup of his early career was a brilliant defense of Constantinople against the army of Svyatoslav I of Kiev in 970. During the Battle of Arcadiopolis, he managed to inflict as many as 20,000 casualties on the Rus. After he had shown himself equal to dealing with the fiercest enemies of Byzantium, Bardas became an advisor to John I Tzimiskes. Upon Johns death, Skleros aspired to replace him as an acting emperor, the eunuch Basil Lekapenos, who actually led the imperial government, entertained other plans, however, deposing Bardas from his key post of general in the East in 975. Upon hearing the news of his deposition, Skleros came to an agreement with local Armenian, Georgian and he successfully stirred up rebellion among his relatives and adherents in the Asian provinces, rapidly making himself master of Caesaria, Antioch, and most of Asia Minor. After several navy commanders defected to Skleross side, he dashed to Constantinople, the rebel navy under Michael Kourtikios raided the Aegean and attempted to blockade the Dardanelles, but were defeated by the Imperial Fleet. Having lost supremacy at sea, Skleros at once laid siege to the town of Nicaea, the town was fortified by a certain Manuel Erotikos, father of the future emperor Isaac Komnenos and progenitor of the Komnenoi dynasty. Meanwhile, Basil recalled from exile Bardas Phokas the Younger, a general who had revolted in the previous reign, Phokas proceeded to Sebastea in the East, where his family demesnes were situated. He came to an understanding with David III Kuropalates of Tao, Skleros instantly left Nicaea for the East and defeated Phokas in two battles, but the latter was victorious in a third. On March 24,979 two leaders clashed in combat, with Skleros cutting the right ear of Phocas horse with his lance before sustaining a grave wound to the head. The rumour of his death put his army to flight, thereupon the rebellion was subdued without difficulty. After the Asian potentates refused to support his operations against Constantinople, Skleros. They resided in honourable captivity at the court for six years. In 987 Skleros was finally recalled to his homeland by Phokas, Skleros promptly mustered an army to support Phokass cause, but his plans of profiting from the attendant disorders were frustrated when Phokas had him committed to prison. Their leader inspired them with his own determination and bound them into one coherent body. By favours he won their loyalty, by his kindliness he earned their devotion and he reconciled their differences, ate at the same table as his men, drank from the same cup, called them by name, and by his flattery bound them to his allegiance
Bardas Skleros
–
Proclamation of Skleros as Emperor, miniature from the
Madrid Skylitzes.
Bardas Skleros
–
Clash between the armies of Skleros and Phokas, miniature from the Madrid Skylitzes.
18.
Steven Runciman
–
Sir James Cochran Stevenson Runciman, CH, FBA, known as Steven Runciman, was an English historian best known for his three-volume A History of the Crusades. His three-volume history has had a impact on common conceptions of the Crusades, primarily portraying the Crusaders negatively. Runciman was an admirer of the Byzantine Empire, and consequently held a bias against the Crusaders for the Fourth Crusade evident in his work. While praised by older crusade historians as a storyteller and prose stylist, born in Northumberland, he was the second son of Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford, and Hilda Runciman, Viscountess Runciman of Doxford. Both of his parents were or became members of parliament for the Liberal Party and his father was created Viscount Runciman of Doxford in 1937. His paternal grandfather, Walter Runciman, 1st Baron Runciman, was a shipping magnate and he was named after his maternal grandfather, James Cochran Stevenson, the MP for South Shields. It is said that he was reading Latin and Greek by the age of five, a Kings Scholar at Eton College, he was an exact contemporary and close friend of George Orwell. While there, they both studied French under Aldous Huxley, in 1921 he entered Trinity College of Cambridge University as a history scholar and studied under J. B. Bury, becoming, as Runciman later claimed, falsely, his first, and only, student. At first the reclusive Bury tried to brush him off, then, when Runciman mentioned that he could read Russian, Bury gave him a stack of Bulgarian articles to edit and his work on the Byzantine Empire earned him a fellowship at Trinity in 1927. After receiving an inheritance from his grandfather, Runciman resigned his fellowship in 1938. Thus, for much of his life he was an independent scholar and he went on to be a press attache at the British Legation in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, in 1940 and at the British Embassy in Cairo in 1941. From 1945 to 1947 he was a representative in Athens of the British Council, in his personal life, Runciman was an old-fashioned English eccentric, known, among other things, as an aesthete, raconteur, and enthusiast of the occult. He died in Radway, Warwickshire, while visiting relatives, aged 97, earlier the same year, he had made a final visit to Mount Athos to witness the blessing of the Protaton Tower at Karyes, which had been refurbished thanks to a gift from him. He was interred in Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, jonathan Riley-Smith, one of the leading historians of the Crusades, denounced Runciman for his perspective on the Crusades. Riley-Smith had been told by Runciman during an interview that he considered himself not a historian. Runciman held sympathies toward the Byzantine Empire and blamed the Crusaders, consequently, a bias against the Crusaders is evident in his work. Less than a decade after the Second World War ended, Runciman called the Fourth Crusade the greatest crime committed against humanity, edward Peters claims Runcimans three-volume narrative history, instantly became the most widely known and respected single-author survey of the subject in English. John M. Riddle says that for the part of the twentieth century Runciman was the greatest historian of the Crusades
Steven Runciman
–
Sir Stevenson Runciman Street in
Sofia, Bulgaria
19.
Hellenization
–
In modern times, Hellenization has been associated with the adoption of modern Greek culture and the ethnic and cultural homogenization of Greece. Other tribes that underwent varying degrees of Hellenization included Thracians, Dardanians, Paeonians and Illyrians south of the Jireček Line, Hellenization during the Hellenistic period, however, had its limitations. For example, areas of southern Syria that were affected by Greek culture mostly entailed Seleucid urban centers where Greek was commonly spoken, the countryside, on the other hand, was largely unaffected since most of its inhabitants spoke Syriac and continued to maintain their native traditions. Moreover, Hellenization did not necessarily involve assimilation of ethnic groups since Hellenistic Greeks in regions such as Asia Minor were conscious of their ancestral lineages. Hellenization can also refer to the medieval Byzantine Empire and Constantines founding of Constantinople, moreover, it can refer to the primacy of Greek culture and the Greek language after the reign of Emperor Heraclius in the 7th century AD. Hellenization during the period of Ottoman imperial rule entailed the higher status which Greek culture, in 1909, a commission appointed by the Greek government reported that one third of the villages of Greece should have their names changed, often because of their non-Greek origin. In other instances, names were changed from a name of Greek origin to the ancient Greek toponym. Some village names were formed from a Greek root word with a foreign suffix, the majority of the name changes took place in areas populated by ethnic Greeks, where a strata of foreign, or divergent, toponyms had accumulated over the centuries. However, in parts of northern Greece the population was not Greek-speaking. The process of the change of toponyms in modern Greece has been described as a process of Hellenization and this led to the diminution of the community of Corfiot Italians, resident in Corfu since the Middle Ages, by the 1940s there were only four hundred Corfiot Italians left. The twentieth century witnessed a debate over the extent of Hellenization in the Levant. Rudolf Bultmann thus argued that Christianity arose almost completely within those Hellenistic confines, in his Introduction to the 1964 book Meditations, the Anglican priest Maxwell Staniforth discussed the profound influence of Stoic philosophy on Christianity. In particular, Again in the doctrine of the Trinity, the conception of Father, Word
Hellenization
–
Map of the Macedonian Empire, circa 323 BC
Hellenization
–
A map showing the Greek territories and colonies during the
Archaic period.
20.
Vlach
–
Vlachs were initially identified and described during the 11th century by George Kedrenos. According to one theory, the Vlachs originated from Latinized Dacians. Nearly all Central and Southeastern European countries have sizable native Vlach minorities, as it is currently the case in Hungary, in Ukraine, in Serbia, in Croatia, in other countries, the Vlachs have assimilated in the local Slavic population. The term Vlach was also used for shepherds, like in mountains of Herzegovina region of Bosnia. Nowadays, Eastern Romance-speaking communities number around 24.19 million people, the word Vlach is of Germanic origin, an early loanword into Proto-Slavic from Germanic *Walhaz and used by ancient Germanic peoples for their Romance-speaking and Celtic neighbours. *Walhaz was evidently borrowed from the name of a Celtic tribe, known to the Romans as Volcae in the writings of Julius Caesar and to the Greeks as Ouólkai in texts by Strabo, Vlach is thus of the same origin as European ethnic names including the Welsh and Walloons. The word passed to the Slavs and from them to other peoples, such as the Hungarians and Byzantines, the Polish word for Italian has the same origin, as does the Slovenian, vaguely-derogatory lah. The Italian-speaking region south of the South Tyrol, now Trentino in Italy, was known as Welschtirol in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a 586 Byzantine chronicle of an incursion against the Avars in the eastern Balkans may have one of the earliest references to Vlachs. In the account, when carried by a mule slipped the muleteer shouted, Torna, torna. Byzantine historians used the Germanic Vlachs for Latin speakers, particularly Romanians, traveller Benjamin of Tudela of the Kingdom of Navarre was one of the first writers to use the word Vlachs for a Romance-speaking population. According to 10th century Arab chronicler Mutahhar al-Maqdisi, They say that in the Turkic neighbourhood there are the Khazars, Russians, Slavs, Waladj, Alans, Greeks, Byzantine writer Kekaumenos, author of the Strategikon, described a 1066 Roman revolt in northern Greece. Between the 12th and 14th centuries they were ruled by the Kingdom of Hungary, the Byzantine Empire, Byzantine historian John Kinnamos described Leon Vatatzes military expedition along the northern Danube, where Vatatzes mentioned the participation of Vlachs in battles with the Magyars in 1166. In the 13th century, the Asen royal family were the founders and rulers of the Vlach-Bulgarian kingdom, in 1213 an army of Romans, Transylvanian Saxons, and Pechenegs, led by Ioachim of Sibiu, attacked the Bulgars and Cumans from Vidin. After this, all Hungarian battles in the Carpathian region were supported by Romance-speaking soldiers from Transylvania, at the end of the 13th century, during the reign of Ladislaus the Cuman, Simon de Kéza wrote about the Blacki people and placed them in Pannonia with the Huns. Archaeological discoveries indicate that Transylvania was gradually settled by the Magyars, shortly after the fall of the Olt region, a church was built at the Cârța Monastery and Catholic German-speaking settlers from Rhineland and Mosel Valley began to settle in the Orthodox region. In the Diploma Andreanum issued by King Andrew II of Hungary in 1224, the Orthodox Vlachs spread further northward along the Carpathians to Poland, Slovakia, and Moravia and were granted autonomy under Ius Vlachonicum. In 1285 Ladislaus the Cuman fought the Tatars and Cumans, arriving with his troops at the Moldova River, a town, Baia, was documented in 1300 as settled by the Transylvanian Saxons. The Eastern Romance peoples refers to the Eastern Romance-speaking peoples, primarily the nations of Romanians and Moldovans and these two peoples had before Soviet rule been regarded part of one and the same, Romanian people
Vlach
–
Writ issued on 14 October 1465 by Wallachian voivode
Radu cel Frumos from his residence in
Bucharest
Vlach
–
Map of the Balkans, with significant populations of Vlachs (or Romanians) highlighted
Vlach
–
The
Jireček Line between Latin- and Greek-language Roman inscriptions
Vlach
–
Vlach (Romanian) branches and their territories
21.
Plovdiv
–
Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, with a population of 341,567 inhabitants as of 2015, while 544,628 live in its urban area. It is an important economic, transport, cultural, and educational center, Plovdiv has evidence of habitation since the 6th millennium BC when the first Neolithic settlements were established. It is said to be one of the oldest cities in the world, Plovdiv was known in the West for most of its recorded history by the name Philippopolis as Philip II of Macedon conquered it in the 4th century BC and gave his name to it. The city was originally a Thracian settlement, later being invaded by Persians, Greeks, Celts, Romans, Goths, Huns, Bulgarians, Slav-Vikings, Crusaders, on 4 January 1878, Plovdiv was liberated from Ottoman rule by the Russian army. It remained within the borders of Bulgaria until July of the same year, in 1885, Plovdiv and Eastern Rumelia joined Bulgaria. Plovdiv is situated in a region of south-central Bulgaria on the two banks of the Maritsa River. The city has developed on seven syenite hills, some of which are 250 metres high. Because of these hills, Plovdiv is often referred to in Bulgaria as The City of the Seven Hills, Plovdiv is host to cultural events such as the International Fair Plovdiv, the international theatrical festival A stage on a crossroad, and the TV festival The golden chest. There are many remains preserved from antiquity such as the ancient Plovdiv Roman theatre, Roman odeon, Roman aqueduct, Roman Stadium, the archaeological complex Eirene, and others. The oldest American educational institution outside the United States was founded in Plovdiv in 1860, on 5 September 2014, Plovdiv was selected as the Bulgarian host of the European Capital of Culture 2019. This happened with the help of the Municipal Foundation Plovdiv 2019″ - a non-government organization which was established in 2011 by Plovdivs City Council, the main objectives were to develop and to prepare Plovdivs bid book for European Capital of Culture in 2019. The organization has a board of directors, which consists of 9 members, the foundation also has a Public Council, chaired by the mayor of the city, and a Control Board supervises the organizations activities. The main objective of the foundation is strategic development and implementation of the bid book, Plovdiv was given various names throughout its long history. The Odrysian capital Odryssa is suggested to have been modern Plovdiv by numismatic research or Odrin, Philippopolis was identified later by Plutarch and Pliny as the former Poneropolis. Strabo identified Philip IIs settlement of most evil, wicked as Calybe, kendrisia was an old name of the city. An assumed name is the 1st century Tiberias in honor of the Roman emperor Tiberius, after the Romans had taken control of the area, the city was named in Latin, TRIMONTIUM, meaning The Three Hills, mentioned in the 1st century by Pliny. At times the name was Ulpia, Flavia, Julia after the Roman families, Ammianus Marcellinus wrote in the 4th century that the then city had been the old Eumolpias/Eumolpiada, i. e. the earliest name in chronological terms. In the 6th century Jordanes wrote that the name of the city was Pulpudeva
Plovdiv
–
1st row: Plovdiv on the banks of
Maritsa 2nd: The old town and the Three Hills 3rd: Streets in Plovdiv 4th: City Hall •
Plovdiv Roman theatre 5rd: Churches and the bath •
Mosque • Fountain
Plovdiv
–
Plan of the known parts of the Roman city superimposed on a plan of modern Plovdiv.
Plovdiv
–
Monument of
Krum in Plovdiv who was the first Bulgarian ruler to capture Plovdiv.
22.
Kastamuni
–
Kastamonu is the capital district of the Kastamonu Province, Turkey. According to the 2000 census, population of the district is 102,059 of which 64,606 live in the center of Kastamonu. The district covers an area of 1,834 km2, and it is located to the south of the province. The city is believed to have founded in the 18th century BC. The town was known as Timonion during the Roman period, the change of name of the town dates to the 10th century AD. Manuel came to the notice of Basil II because of his defence, in 978, of Nicaea against the rebel Bardas Skleros. The name Kastra Komnenon was shortened to Kastamone, and later turcified to Kastamoni, the Dress Code Revolution started at Kastamonu by Atatürk on August 23,1925. Atatürk made his speech concerning about the Hat and Dress Revolution in 1925 at his visit to Kastamonu at Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi building. The building is now used as Archeological Museum, the materials used by Atatürk in his Kastamonu visit are also exhibited in the museum. In the early 20th century, nickel was being mined in the area around Kastamonu, Kastamonu is home to Kastamonu University, which was established in 2006 by incorporating existing colleges, schools, and institutes that were previously under Ankara University and Gazi University. Notable high schools in Kastamonu are, Abdurrahman Paşa Lisesi, also known as Kastamonu Lisesi, Kastamonu Mustafa Kaya Lisesi, an Anatolian high school, one of the most successful high schools in Turkey outside Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir. Kastamonu has a climate with cold winters and warm summers. The average annual precipitation is distributed throughout the year, with spring being the wettest season. The main bus station has bus links to most major Turkish cities, Kastamonu is also the main railroad endpoint for the West Black Sea region. Latifî, Ottoman poet Iovan Tsaous, Greek musician and composer Oğuz Atay, novelist Rıfat Ilgaz, novelist Halit Akmansü, military officer in the Ottoman and Turkish armies Falling Rain Genomics, Inc. Runciman, Steven A History of the Crusades, Vol. I, The First Crusade, boğaç A. Ergene, Local Court, Provincial Society and Justice in the Ottoman Empire, Legal Practice and Dispute Resolution in Çankırı and Kastamonu. Studies in Islamic Law and Society, volume 17, Brill, Kastamonu governors official website Kastamonu, Çatalzeytin local newspaper Kastamonu culture & travel guide Kastamonu, Araç Muhacirler köyü
Kastamuni
–
Governor's historical office
23.
Paphlagonia
–
According to Strabo, the river Parthenius formed the western limit of the region, and it was bounded on the east by the Halys river. The name Paphlagonia is derived in the legends from Paphlagon, a son of Phineus, the greater part of Paphlagonia is a rugged mountainous country, but it contains fertile valleys and produces a great abundance of hazelnuts and fruit – particularly plums, cherries and pears. The mountains are clothed with forests, conspicuous for the quantity of boxwood that they furnish. Hence, its coasts were occupied by Greeks from an early period, among these, the flourishing city of Sinope, founded from Miletus about 630 BC, stood pre-eminent. The Paphlagonians were one of the most ancient nations of Anatolia and listed among the allies of the Trojans in the Trojan War, according to Homer and Livy, a group of Paphlagonians, called the Enetoi in Greek, were expelled from their homeland during a revolution. In the time of the Hittites, Paphlagonia was inhabited by the Kashka people and it seems perhaps that they were related to the people of the adjoining country, Cappadocia, who were speakers of one of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European languages. Their language would appear, from Strabos testimony, to have been distinctive, Paphlagonians were mentioned by Herodotus among the peoples conquered by Croesus, and they sent an important contingent to the army of Xerxes in 480 BC. All these rulers appear to have borne the name Pylaimenes as a sign that they claimed descent from the chieftain of that name who figures in the Iliad as leader of the Paphlagonians. At a later period, Paphlagonia passed under the control of the Macedonian kings, however, it continued to be governed by native princes until it was absorbed by the encroaching power of Pontus. From that time, the province was incorporated into the kingdom of Pontus until the fall of Mithridates. The name was retained by geographers, though its boundaries are not distinctly defined by the geographer Claudius Ptolemy. Paphlagonia reappeared as a province in the 5th century AD
Paphlagonia
–
Nature of
Amasra
Paphlagonia
–
Detail of a 15th-century map showing Anatolia, with Paphlagonia at top.
24.
John Komnenos (Domestic of the Schools)
–
John Komnenos was a Byzantine aristocrat and military leader. The younger brother of Emperor Isaac I Komnenos, he served as Domestic of the Schools during Isaacs brief reign, when Isaac I abdicated, Constantine X Doukas became emperor and John withdrew from public life until his death in 1067. John Komnenos was born c.1015 as the son of the patrikios Manuel Erotikos Komnenos. He is first mentioned in 1057, the year his elder brother Isaac I Komnenos, at the head of a group of generals, rebelled against Michael VI and forced him off the throne. At the time of the revolt, John held the post of doux, keroularios and his supporters led the opposition against Isaacs stringent economizing policies, forcing him to resign on 22 November 1059, after which he withdrew to the Stoudios Monastery. The crown then passed to Constantine X Doukas, although Bryennios asserts that it was first offered to John and he died as a monk on 12 July 1067. John Komnenos married Anna Dalassene, the daughter of Alexios Charon,1028, long outlived her husband and after his death ran the family as its undisputed matriarch. Anna became involved in conspiracies against the Doukas family, whom she never forgave for taking the throne in 1059, later she also played a major role in the successful overthrow of Nikephoros III Botaneiates and the rise of her son Alexios to the throne. After that, and for fifteen years, she served as the virtual co-ruler of the empire along her son. She then retired to a monastery, where she died in 1100 or 1102, Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press. Commémoraisons des Comnènes dans le typikon liturgique du monastère du Christ Philanthrope, a. Thessaloniki, Centre for Byzantine Studies, University of Thessaloniki
John Komnenos (Domestic of the Schools)
–
Lead seal of John Komnenos as
kouropalates and
Domestic of the Schools
John Komnenos (Domestic of the Schools)
–
Miniature portrait of Alexios I Komnenos
25.
Monastery
–
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone. A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church or temple, a monastery complex typically comprises a number of buildings which include a church, dormitory, cloister, refectory, library, balneary and infirmary. These may include a hospice, a school and a range of agricultural and manufacturing such as a barn. In English usage, the monastery is generally used to denote the buildings of a community of monks. In modern usage, convent tends to be applied only to institutions of female monastics, historically, a convent denoted a house of friars, now more commonly called a friary. Various religions may apply these terms in specific ways. The earliest extant use of the term monastērion is by the 1st century AD Jewish philosopher Philo in On The Contemplative Life, in England the word monastery was also applied to the habitation of a bishop and the cathedral clergy who lived apart from the lay community. Most cathedrals were not monasteries, and were served by canons secular, however, some were run by monasteries orders, such as York Minster. Westminster Abbey was for a time a cathedral, and was a Benedictine monastery until the Reformation. They are also to be distinguished from collegiate churches, such as St Georges Chapel, in most of this article, the term monastery is used generically to refer to any of a number of types of religious community. In the Roman Catholic religion and to some extent in certain branches of Buddhism, there is a more specific definition of the term. Buddhist monasteries are generally called vihara, viharas may be occupied by males or females, and in keeping with common English usage, a vihara populated by females may often be called a nunnery or a convent. However, vihara can also refer to a temple, in Tibetan Buddhism, monasteries are often called gompa. In Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, a monastery is called a wat, in Burma, a monastery is called a kyaung. A Christian monastery may be an abbey, or a priory and it may be a community of men or of women. A charterhouse is any monastery belonging to the Carthusian order, in Eastern Christianity, a very small monastic community can be called a skete, and a very large or important monastery can be given the dignity of a lavra. The great communal life of a Christian monastery is called cenobitic, as opposed to the life of an anchorite. In Hinduism monasteries are called matha, mandir, koil, or most commonly an ashram, jains use the Buddhist term vihara
Monastery
–
The
Monastery of Santa María del Parral of the
Hieronymites monks in
Segovia,
Spain
Monastery
–
Monastery of St. Nilus on
Stolbnyi Island in
Lake Seliger near
Ostashkov,
Russia, ca. 1910
Monastery
–
Tengboche Buddhist monastery,
Nepal
Monastery
–
Rumtek Monastery,
Gangtok Sikkim
26.
Stoudion
–
The residents of the monastery were referred to as Stoudites. The ruins of the monastery are situated not far from the Propontis in the section of the city called Psamathia and it was founded in 462 by the consul Flavius Studius, a Roman patrician who had settled in Constantinople, and was consecrated to Saint John the Baptist. Its first monks came from the monastery of Acoemetae and they were driven from the monastery and the city by Emperor Constantine V, after his death however, some of them returned. Hegumenos Sabas of Stoudios zealously defended the Orthodox doctrines against the Iconoclasts at the Seventh Ecumenical Council in Nicaea and his successor was Theodore the Studite to whom the monastery owes most of its fame, and who especially fostered academic and spiritual study. During St. Theodores administration also the monks were harassed and driven away several times, Theodores pupil, Naukratios, re-established discipline after the Iconoclastic dispute had come to an end. Hegumenos Nicholas refused to recognize the Patriarch St. Photios and was on this account imprisoned in his own monastery and he was succeeded by five abbots who recognized the patriarch. The brilliant period of the Stoudios came to an end at this time, as regards the intellectual life of the monastery in other directions, it is especially celebrated for its famous school of calligraphy which was established by Theodore. The art of illumination was cultivated, with many brilliant products of the monastic scriptorium now residing in Venice, Vatican City. The Theodore Psalter, created at the monastery in the century is in the collection of the British Library. In the eighth and eleventh centuries, the monastery was the centre of Byzantine religious poetry, besides Theodore and Niketas, a number of other theological writers are known. Three of the Stoudite monks rose to become the ecumenical patriarchs, in 1204, the monastery was destroyed by the Crusaders and was not fully restored until 1290, by Constantine Palaiologos. The Russian pilgrims Anthony and Stephen were amazed by the size of the monastic grounds and it is thought that the cloister sheltered as much as 700 monks at the time. The greater part of the monastery was destroyed when the Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453. The ancient structure sustained damage from the great fires of 1782 and 1920. The church building, presently a museum, after the end of its restoration in 2014 had plans to be converted into a mosque. Degrees of Orthodox monasticism History of Eastern Orthodox Christianity Sabas of Stoudios This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles. Official Website of the Ecumenical Patriarch | Studius Media related to Monastery of Stoudios at Wikimedia Commons Byzantium 1200 | Monastery of Saint John of Stoudios
Stoudion
–
Byzantine
miniature depicting the Stoudios Monastery and the
Propontis (Sea of Marmara), from the
Menologion of Basil II (c. 1000).
Stoudion
–
Image of St.
Theodore the Studite (11th-century
mosaic from
Nea Moni monastery on
Chios).
Stoudion
–
Street view of the monastery
Stoudion
–
Exterior walls of the monastery
27.
Michael Dokeianos
–
Michael Dokeianos, erroneously called Doukeianos by some modern writers, was a Byzantine nobleman and military leader, who married into the Komnenos family. He was active in Sicily under George Maniakes before going to Southern Italy as Catepan of Italy in 1040–41 and he was recalled after being twice defeated in battle during the Lombard-Norman revolt of 1041, a decisive moment in the eventual Norman conquest of southern Italy. He is next recorded in 1050, fighting against a Pecheneg raid in Thrace and he was captured during battle but managed to maim the Pecheneg leader, after which he was put to death and mutilated. The family name of Dokeianos is considered to derive from Dokia in the Armeniac Theme, the family only came into prominence in the mid-11th century, with Michael one of the first to be mentioned. He is generally considered as the Dokeianos who married a daughter of Manuel Erotikos Komnenos and sister of the future emperor Isaac I Komnenos. Together, they had a son, Theodore Dokeianos and it is known that he was wealthy, and possessed estates in Paphlagonia, possibly adjacent or part of the Komnenos family estates in the same region. Michael Dokeianos is first mentioned in 1040, as protospatharios and doux, prior to that, he was apparently a member of George Maniakes expeditionary force sent to conquer Sicily in 1038. Dokeianos also offered the rule of strategic fortress of Melfi to the Milanese mercenary Arduin, Arduin had served under previous Byzantine commanders as part of a Norman contingent, but had been flogged in a dispute about the distribution of booty taken from the Muslims in Sicily. Arduins grudge against the Byzantines now bore fruit and he sought the aid of the Normans who had been established at nearby Aversa since 1030, and received a contingent of 300 men, upon a promise to share his gains equally with them. Thus in March 1041 he and his men seized Melfi, the inhabitants initially opposed him, but eventually were won over by Arduin. The rebels quickly extended their control over the towns of Venosa, Ascoli. The two armies met at the Olivento river, where Dokeianos was defeated in a battle fought on 17 March, Dokeianos himself fell from his horse during the battle and was almost captured, until rescued by a squire. In the aftermath of the battle, both sides remained quiescent, the withdrawal of the imperial forces from Sicily resulted in the rapid collapse of the imperial position there. Under Maniakes, the Byzantines had conquered the eastern portion of the island, on the mainland, Boioannes did not fare better than his predecessor, as he was defeated and taken prisoner at the Battle of Montepeloso in September. Dokeianos re-appears in 1050, when he held the titles of patrikios and vestarches, histoire de la domination normande en Italie et en Sicile. The Age of Robert Guiscard, Southern Italy and the Northern Conquest, dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 74. A. Thessaloniki, Centre for Byzantine Studies, University of Thessaloniki, wortley, John, ed. John Skylitzes, A Synopsis of Byzantine History, 811-1057
Michael Dokeianos
–
Southern Italy ca. 1000, with the Byzantine provinces in yellow
28.
Katepano
–
The katepánō was a senior Byzantine military rank and office. The word was Latinized as capetanus/catepan, and its meaning seems to have merged with that of the Italian capitaneus, in the wake of the great eastern conquests of the 960s, however, the title acquired a more specific meaning. The newly acquired frontier zones were divided into smaller themata, and grouped together to form large regional commands and these were the ducates/katepanates of Antioch, covering the south-eastern frontier in northern Syria, of Mesopotamia in the east around the Euphrates, and of Chaldia in the north-east. During the reign of Emperor Basil II, the border was further expanded. A Serbian catepanate is also attested, which was known as the katepano of Ras and these were small subdivisions of the earlier themata, and consisted of little more than a fortified capital and its surrounding territory. In the Palaiologan era, the katepanikion was governed by a kephalē, like many other Byzantine institutions, the katepanikion as an administrative subdivision was also adopted in the Second Bulgarian Empire
Katepano
–
Map of the administrative structure of the Byzantine Empire in 1025. The regional eastern commands, variously under doukes or katepano, are outlined. Southern Italy was under the authority of the katepano of Italy, while Bulgaria, Serbia and
Paristrion were often under the authority of a single katepano.
29.
Anatolia
–
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
Anatolia
–
The traditional definition of Anatolia within modern Turkey
Anatolia
–
The location of
Turkey (within the rectangle) in reference to the
European continent. Anatolia roughly corresponds to the
Asian part of Turkey, except the eastern parts historically known as the
Armenian Highlands
Anatolia
–
1907 map of Asia Minor, showing the local ancient kingdoms
Anatolia
–
Mural of
aurochs, a
deer, and humans in
Çatalhöyük, which is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date. It was registered as a
UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012.
30.
Michael VI
–
Michael VI Bringas, called Stratiotikos or Stratioticus or Gerontas, reigned as Byzantine emperor from 1056 to 1057. Apparently a relative of the powerful courtier Joseph Bringas, Michael Bringas was an elderly patrician, Michael Bringas was chosen by the empress Theodora as her successor shortly before her death in early September,1056. The appointment had been secured through the influence of Leo Paraspondylos, although Michael managed to survive a conspiracy organized by Theodosios, a nephew of the former emperor Constantine IX Monomachos, he was faced with the disaffection of the military aristocracy. After dismissing Bryennioss grievances in an audience, the emperor completely alienated the military, Michael compounded his error by rebuffing Bryennios after he had already ordered the restored general to lead a division of 3,000 men to reinforce the army in Cappadocia. Although Michael lost heart, the bureaucrats around him attempted to defend their position, on 26 August 1057, the governments army was routed at the Battle of Petroe near Nicaea, and Isaac Komnenos advanced on Constantinople. Privately Isaac showed himself more open to negotiation, and he was promised the status of co-emperor, however, during the course of these secret negotiations, a riot in favor of Isaac broke out in Constantinople. Patriarch Michael Keroularios convinced Michael VI to abdicate in Isaacs favor on 31 August 1057, the emperor duly followed the patriarchs advice and became a monk. He retired to his home and died there by 1059. Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Vol. article name needed
Michael VI
–
Gold
tetarteron of Michael's reign
31.
Michael Psellos
–
This article is about the 11th-century Byzantine historian and philosopher. For the 9th-century Byzantine Emperor with the byname Psellus, see Michael II, Michael Psellus the Elder redirects here and is covered below under Pseudo-Psellus. Michael Psellos or Psellus was a Byzantine Greek monk, writer, philosopher and he was born in 1017 or 1018, and is believed to have died in 1078, although it has also been maintained that he remained alive until 1096. The main source of information about Psellos life comes from his own works, Michael Psellos was probably born in Constantinople. His family hailed from Nicomedia and, according to his own testimony, counted members of the consular and his baptismal name was Constantine, Michael was the monastic name he chose when he entered a monastery later in life. Psellos probably was a personal by-name referring to a speech defect, Michael Psellos was educated in Constantinople. At around the age of ten, he was sent to work outside the capital as a secretary of a provincial judge, when his sister died, he gave up that position and returned to Constantinople to resume his studies. While studying under John Mauropus, he met the later Patriarchs Constantine Leichoudes and John Xiphilinos, for some time, he worked in the provinces again, now serving as a judge himself. Some time before 1042 he returned again to Constantinople, where he got a position at court as a secretary in the imperial chancellery. From there he began a rapid court career and he became an influential political advisor to emperor Constantine IX Monomachos. During the same time, he became the professor at the University of Constantinople. After Monomachos death, however, he was recalled to court by his successor. Throughout the following years, he remained active in politics, serving as a political advisor to several successive emperors. However, Michael seems to have been inclined towards protecting Psellos. As his own autobiographic accounts cease at this point, there is little information about his later years. Some scholars believe that Psellos had to retreat into a monastery again at some time during the 1070s and it is a history of the Byzantine emperors during the century leading up to Psellos own time. It covers the reigns of fourteen emperors and empresses, beginning with the almost 50-year-long reign of Basil II, the Bulgar-Slayer and it is structured mainly as a series of biographies. Unlike most other works of the period, it places much more emphasis on the description of characters than on details of political
Michael Psellos
–
Michael Psellos (left) with his student, Byzantine Emperor,
Michael VII Doukas.
Michael Psellos
–
Rulers of the Byzantine Empire in the 11th century. Based on Chronographia
Michael Psellos
–
Compendium mathematicum, 1647
32.
Caesar (title)
–
Caesar is a title of imperial character. It derives from the cognomen of Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator, the change from being a familial name to a title adopted by the Roman Emperors can be dated to about AD 68/69, the so-called Year of the Four Emperors. For political and personal reasons Octavian chose to emphasize his relationship with Caesar by styling himself simply Imperator Caesar, without any of the other elements of his full name. His successor as emperor, his stepson Tiberius, also bore the name as a matter of course, born Tiberius Claudius Nero, he was adopted by Caesar Augustus on June 26,4 AD, as Tiberius Julius Caesar. The precedent was set, the Emperor designated his successor by adopting him, Claudius in turn adopted his stepson and grand-nephew Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, giving him the name Caesar in the traditional way, his stepson would rule as the Emperor Nero. Galba helped solidify Caesar as the title of the heir by giving it to his own adopted heir. Galbas reign did not last long and he was deposed by Marcus Otho. Otho did not at first use the title Caesar and occasionally used the title Nero as emperor, Otho was then defeated by Aulus Vitellius who acceded with the name Aulus Vitellius Germanicus Imperator Augustus. Vitellius did not adopt the cognomen Caesar as part of his name, vespasians son, Titus Flavius Vespasianus became Titus Flavius Caesar Vespasianus. By this point the status of Caesar had been regularised into that of a given to the Emperor-designate. After some variation among the earliest emperors, the style of the Emperor-designate on coins was usually Nobilissimus Caesar Most Noble Caesar, on March 1,293, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus established the Tetrarchy, a system of rule by two senior Emperors and two junior sub-Emperors. The two coequal senior emperors were styled identically to previous Emperors, as Imperator Caesar NN, pius Felix Invictus Augustus, and were called the Augusti, while the two junior sub-Emperors were styled identically to previous Emperors-designate, as Nobilissimus Caesar. Likewise, the junior sub-Emperors retained the title Caesar upon accession to the senior position, an exceptional case was the conferment of the dignity and its insignia to the Bulgarian khan Tervel by Justinian II who had helped him regain his throne in 705. The title was awarded to the brother of Empress Maria of Alania, according to the Klētorologion of 899, the Byzantine Caesars insignia were a crown without a cross, and the ceremony of a Caesars creation, is included in De Ceremoniis I.43. The title remained the highest in the hierarchy until the introduction of the sebastokratōr by Alexios I Komnenos. The title remained in existence through the last centuries of the Empire, in the late Byzantine hierarchy, as recorded in the mid-14th century Book of Offices of pseudo-Kodinos, the rank continued to come after the sebastokratōr. Pseudo-Kodinos writes that the forms of another form of hat, the domed skaranikon, and of the mantle. In the Middle East, the Persians and the Arabs continued to refer to the Roman and Byzantine emperors as Caesar
Caesar (title)
–
Bust of
Julius Caesar from the
Naples National Archaeological Museum.
Caesar (title)
–
Ancient Rome
Caesar (title)
–
The Byzantine emperor
Constantine the Great, mosaic in
Hagia Sophia,
Constantinople
Caesar (title)
33.
Patriarch of Constantinople
–
The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople is one of the most enduring institutions in the world and has had a prominent part in world history. The ecumenical patriarchs in ancient times helped in the spread of Christianity, in the Middle Ages they played a major role in the affairs of the Eastern Orthodox Church, as well as in the politics of the Orthodox world, and in spreading Christianity among the Slavs. Within the five sees of the Pentarchy, the Ecumenical Patriarch is regarded as the successor of Andrew the Apostle. The current holder of the office is Bartholomew I, the 270th holder of the title, in his role as head of the Orthodox Church of Constantinople, he also holds the title Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome. The see of Byzantium, whose foundation was ascribed to Andrew the Apostle, was originally a common bishopric. It gained importance when Emperor Constantine elevated Byzantium to a second capital alongside Rome, the sees ecclesiastical status as the second of five Patriarchates were developed by the Ecumenical Councils of Constantinople in 381 and Chalcedon in 451. The Turkish government recognizes him as the leader of the Greek minority in Turkey. The Patriarch was subject to the authority of the Ottoman Empire after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, today, according to Turkish law, he is subject to the authority of the state of Turkey and is required to be a citizen of Turkey to be Patriarch. The Patriarch of Constantinople has been dubbed the Ecumenical Patriarch since the 6th century, the monastic communities of Mount Athos are stauropegic and are directly under the jurisdiction of Ecumenical Patriarch, who is the only bishop with jurisdiction thereover. The Ecumenical Patriarch has a role among Orthodox bishops, though it is not without its controversy. He is primus inter pares, as he is senior among all Orthodox bishops and this primacy, expressed in canonical literature as presbeia, grants to the Ecumenical Patriarch the right to preside at pan-Orthodox synods. Additionally, the literature of the Orthodox Church grants to the Ecumenical Patriarch the right to hear appeals in cases of dispute between bishops. Historically, the Ecumenical Patriarch has heard such appeals and sometimes was invited to intervene in other disputes and difficulties. Even as early as the 4th century, Constantinople was instrumental in the deposition of multiple bishops outside its traditional jurisdiction. This still occurs today, as when in 2006 the patriarchate was invited to assist in declaring the archbishop of the Church of Cyprus incompetent due to his having Alzheimers disease. Additionally, in 2005, the Ecumenical Patriarchate convoked a synod to express the Orthodox worlds confirmation of the deposition of Patriarch Irenaios of Jerusalem. That is, his role is one of promoting and sustaining Church unity. Such a title is acceptable if it refers to this unique role, the five patriarchs of the ancient Pentarchy are to be given seniority of honour, but have no actual power over other bishops other than the power of the synod they are chairing
Patriarch of Constantinople
Patriarch of Constantinople
–
Ecumenical Patriarch of
Constantinople
Patriarch of Constantinople
–
Emblem found atop the front entrance of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Patriarch of Constantinople
–
Throne room inside the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The
Gospel is enthroned on the
dais; the Patriarch sits on the lower throne in front.
34.
Michael Keroularios
–
It can also refer to Patriarch Michael I of Alexandria and to Patriarch Michael I of Antioch. Michael Cerularius was born in Constantinople around 1000 AD, being ordained into the Church from a young age. He is noted for disputing with Pope Leo IX over church practices in respect of which the Roman Church differed from Constantinople, Pope Leo IX sent a letter to the Patriarch in 1054, that cited a large portion of the Donation of Constantine believing it genuine. Some scholars say that this letter of September 1053, the text of which is available in Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 744-769, was never actually despatched, but was set aside, Leo IX assured the Patriarch that the donation was completely genuine, not a fable or old wives tale, arguing that only the apostolic successor to Peter possessed primacy in the Church. Especially criticized were the Roman traditions of fasting on the Saturday Sabbath, Pope Leo IX sent Cardinal Humbert of Silva Candida on a legatine mission to treat with the Patriarch. Cerularius refused to meet with Cardinal Humbert and kept him waiting with no audience for months, Michael in turn excommunicated the cardinal and the Pope and subsequently removed the popes name from the diptychs, starting the East-West Schism. This schism led to the end of the alliance between the Emperor and the Papacy, and caused later Popes to ally with the Normans against the Empire, Patriarch Michael closed the Latin churches in his area, which exacerbated the schism. In 1965, those excommunications were rescinded by Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras, although the excommunication delivered by Cardinal Humbert was invalid, this gesture represented a significant step towards restoring communion between Rome and Constantinople. The short reign of the Empress Theodora saw Michael intrigue against the throne, the historian suggests that Theodora would have deposed Michael for his open effrontery and sedition, had she lived longer. The emperor duly followed the advice and became a monk. Having had a role in bringing him to the throne, Cerularius next quarrelled with Isaac I Komnenos over confiscation of church property, Michael went so far as to take the highly symbolic step of donning the purple shoes ceremonially reserved for the Emperor. Michael apparently planned a rebellion, to overthrow the Emperor and claim the Imperial Throne for himself or for his relative Constantine Doukas. Isaac exiled Michael to Proconnesus in 1058 and, as Michael refused to step down, had Psellus drew up the Accusation of heresy, Cerularius died before coming to trial. Mignes Patrologia Latina, Vol.143, Leo IX Epistolae Et Decreta. pdf -1.9 Mb, see Col. 744B-769D for Leo IXs letter. Mansis, Sacrorum Conciliorum Nova Amplissima Collectio, Vol.19. pdf -66 Mb, Michael Psellus, Fourteen Byzantine Rulers, E. R. A
Michael Keroularios
–
Michael I Cerularius
35.
Andrew I of Hungary
–
Andrew I the White or the Catholic was King of Hungary from 1046 to 1060. He descended from a branch of the Árpád dynasty. After spending fifteen years in exile, he ascended the throne during a revolt of the pagan Hungarians. He strengthened the position of Christianity in the Kingdom of Hungary and his efforts to ensure the succession of his son, Solomon, resulted in the open revolt of his brother, Béla. Béla dethroned Andrew by force in 1060, Andrew suffered severe injuries during the fighting and died before his brother was crowned king. Medieval sources provide two contradictory reports of the parents of Andrew, and his two brothers, Levente and Béla, for instance, the Chronicle of Zagreb and Saint Gerards Life write that their father was Vazul, a grandson of Taksony, Grand Prince of the Hungarians. The Illuminated Chronicle and other sources write of Vazuls relationship with some girl from the Tátony clan who bore his sons. According to a concurrent tradition, which has been preserved by most chronicles, modern historians, who reject the latter report, agree that Andrew and his brothers were the sons of Vazul and his concubine from the Tátony clan. According to the historian Gyula Kristó, Andrew was the second among Vazuls three sons and he writes that Andrew was born around 1015. According to medieval chronicles, Vazul was blinded during the reign of his cousin, King Stephen I, the king ordered Vazuls mutilation after the death, in 1031, of Emeric, his only son surviving infancy. The same source adds that the king expelled his blinded cousins three sons from Hungary. Having his own son died in his fathers life, and having no sons, Stephen, the king of good memory. For his kinsmans son disagreed with him on this, had him blinded, even if he was worthier of the kingdom, exiled from Hungary, Andrew and his brothers settled in the court of Duke Oldřich of Bohemia. Here they came across King Mieszko II of Poland who likewise took refuge in Bohemia after his opponents had expelled him from his kingdom, the Polish monarch regained his crown and returned to Poland in 1032. Andrew, Béla and Levente, whose condition of life was poor and mean in Bohemia, Hungarian chronicles have preserved a story full of fabulous or anachronistic details of the two brothers ensuing wanderings. For instance, they narrate that Andrew and Levente were captured by Cumans, having faced many hardships, Andrew and Levente established themselves in the court of Yaroslav the Wise, Grand Prince of Kiev in the late 1030s. The grand prince gave his daughter, Anastasia in marriage to Andrew, Kristó writes that Andrew, who had up to that time remained pagan, was baptized on this occasion. Having received permission from left their brother behind and made their way to the King of Lodomeria, since they had nowhere to lay their head, they went from there to the
Andrew I of Hungary
–
Coronation of Andrew I (
Illuminated Chronicle)
Andrew I of Hungary
–
The blinding of
Vazul after the death of
Emeric, the only son of King
Stephen I of Hungary
Andrew I of Hungary
–
Pagans slaughtering priests and the martyrdom of
St Gerard depicted in the
Anjou Legendarium
Andrew I of Hungary
–
The plaques of gold from the crown found at
Nyitraivánka (Ivanka pri Nitre, Slovakia)—Andrew I was crowned with this crown, according to historian Ferenc Makk
36.
Pechenegs
–
The Pechenegs or Patzinaks were a semi-nomadic Turkic people of the Central Asian steppes speaking the Pecheneg language which belonged to the Oghuz branch of Turkic language family. Three of the clans of the Pechenegs were the Kankalis/Kangli. The Pechenegs ethnonym derived from the Old Turkic word for brother-in-law”, sources written in different languages used similar denominations when referring to the confederation of the Pecheneg tribes. The modern Tatar name for them is Böcänäklär, Anna Komnene and other Byzantine authors referred to the Pechenegs as Patzinakoi or Patzinakitai. In medieval Latin texts, the Pechenegs were referred to as Pizenaci, East Slavic peoples use the terms Pečenegi or Pečenezi, while the Poles mentions them as Pieczyngowie or Piecinigi. The Hungarian word for Pecheneg is besenyő, the Romanian word for Pechenegs is Pecenegi According to Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, three of the eight Pechenegs provinces or clans were known under the name Kangar. He added that they received this denomination because they are more valiant and noble than the rest of the people, however, no Turkic word with the meaning suggested by the emperor has been demonstrated. Ármin Vámbéry connected the Kangar denomination to the Kirghiz words kangir, kangirmak and kani-kara, Omeljan Pritsak proposed that the name had initially been a composite term deriving from the Tocharian word for stone and the Iranian ethnonym As. If the latter assumption is valid, the ethnonym of the three Kangar tribes suggest that Iranian elements contributed to the formation of the Pecheneg people. Mahmud al-Kashgari, an 11th-century man of letters specialized in Turkic dialects argued that the language spoken by the Pechenegs was a variant of the Cuman and he suggested that foreign influences on the Pechenegs gave rise to phonetical differences between their tongue and the idiom spoken by other Turkic peoples. Anna Komnene likewise stated that the Pechenegs and the Cumans shared a common language, although the Pecheneg language itself died out centuries ago, the names of the Pecheneg provinces recorded by Constantine Porphyrogenitus prove that the Pechenegs spoke a Turkic language. The Huns, Khazars and Pechenegs are thought to have belonged to the same group of languages as the modern Chuvash language. Ibn Khordadbeh, Mahmud al-Kashgari, Muhammad al-Idrisi and many other Muslim scholars agreed that the Pechenegs belonged to the Turkic peoples. The Russian Primary Chronicle stated that the Torkmens, Pechenegs, Torks, and Polovcians descended from the sons of Ishmael. Paul Pelliot was the first to propose that a 7th-century Chinese work and it writes of the Pei-ju, a people settled along the En-chu and A-lan peoples east of Fu-lin. In contrast with this view, Victor Spinei argues that the first certain reference to the Pechenegs can be read in a Tibetan translation of an 8th-century Uyghur text and it narrates a war between two peoples, the Be-ča-nag and the Hor. The Pechenegs inhabited the region along the river Syr Darya at the time when the first records were made of them, the Pechenegs were forced to leave their Central Asian homeland by a coalition of the Oghuz Turks, Karluks and Kimaks. The Pechenegs westward migration started between the 790s and 850s, but its exact date cannot be determined, the Pechenegs settled in the steppe corridor between the rivers Ural and Volga
Pechenegs
–
History of the Turkic peoples Pre-14th century
Pechenegs
–
Pecheneg Khanates and neighboring territories, c.1015
Pechenegs
–
Sviatoslav enters Bulgaria with Pecheneg allies, from the Constantine Manasses Chronicle.
Pechenegs
–
The Pechenegs slaughter the "skyths" of
Sviatoslav I of Kiev.
37.
Kingdom of Hungary
–
The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed from the Middle Ages into the twentieth century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen I at Esztergom in about the year 1000, by the 12th century, the kingdom became a European middle power within the Western world. The House of Habsburg held the Hungarian throne after the Battle of Mohács until 1918, from 1867 territories connected to the Hungarian crown were incorporated into Austria-Hungary under the name of Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen. The monarchy ended with the deposition of the last king Charles IV in 1918, the kingdom was nominally restored during the Regency of 1920–46, ending with the Soviet occupation in 1946. From 1102 it also included Croatia, being in union with it. Today, the feast day of the first king Stephen I is a holiday in Hungary. The Latin forms Regnum Hungariae or Ungarie, Regnum Marianum, or simply Hungaria, were the used in official documents in Latin from the beginning of the kingdom to the 1840s. The German name Königreich Ungarn was used officially from 1784 to 1790, the Hungarian name was used in the 1840s, and then again from the 1860s to 1946. The non-official Hungarian name of the kingdom was Magyarország, which is still the colloquial, in Austria-Hungary, the unofficial name Transleithania was sometimes used to denote the regions of the Kingdom of Hungary. Officially, the term Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen was included for the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary, the Hungarians led by Árpád settled the Carpathian Basin in 895, established Principality of Hungary. The Hungarians led several successful incursions to Western Europe, until they were stopped by Otto I, the principality was succeeded by the Christian Kingdom of Hungary with the coronation of St Stephen I at Esztergom on Christmas Day 1000. The first kings of the kingdom were from the Árpád dynasty and he fought against Koppány and in 998, with Bavarian help, defeated him near Veszprém. The Catholic Church received powerful support from Stephen I, who with Christian Hungarians, Stephen I of Hungary was canonized as a Catholic saint in 1083 and an Orthodox saint in 2000. After his death, a period of revolts and conflict for supremacy ensued between the royalty and the nobles, in 1051 armies of the Holy Roman Empire tried to conquer Hungary, but they were defeated at Vértes Mountain. The armies of the Holy Roman Empire continued to suffer defeats, before 1052 Peter Orseolo, a supporter of the Holy Roman Empire, was overthrown by king Samuel Aba of Hungary. This period of revolts ended during the reign of Béla I, Hungarian chroniclers praised Béla I for introducing new currency, such as the silver denarius, and for his benevolence to the former followers of his nephew, Solomon. The second greatest Hungarian king, also from the dynasty, was Ladislaus I of Hungary. He was also canonized as a saint, however, kingship over all of Croatia would not be achieved until the reign of his successor Coloman
Kingdom of Hungary
–
King
Stephen I of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
–
Flag (1867-1918)
Kingdom of Hungary
–
The
Holy Crown of Hungary along with other
regalia
Kingdom of Hungary
–
Hungary (including
Croatia) in 1190, during the rule of
Béla III
38.
Constantine X
–
Constantine X Doukas or Dukas, Latinized as Ducas was emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 24 November 1059 to 22 May 1067. Constantine Doukas was the son of Andronikos Doukas, a Paphlagonian nobleman who may have served as governor of the theme of Moesia. Addicted to endless debates about philosophy and theology, Constantine gained influence after he married, as his wife, Eudokia Makrembolitissa. In 1057, Constantine supported the usurpation of Isaac I Komnenos, in spite of this tacit opposition, Constantine was chosen as successor by the ailing Isaac in November 1059, under the influence of Michael Psellos. Isaac abdicated, and on November 24,1059, Constantine X Doukas was crowned emperor, undoing many of the necessary reforms of Isaac I, he bloated the military bureaucracy with highly paid court officials and crowded the Senate with his supporters. He also became unpopular with the population after he raised taxes to try to pay the army. Already old and unhealthy when he came to power, Constantine died on May 22,1067 and his final act was to demand that only his sons succeed him, forcing his wife Eudokia Makrembolitissa to take a vow not to remarry. By his first wife, a daughter of Constantine Dalassenos, Constantine X Doukas had no known children, by his second wife, Eudokia Makrembolitissa, he had the following issue, Michael VII Doukas, who succeeded as emperor. Andronikos Doukas, co-emperor from 1068 to 1078, konstantios Doukas, co-emperor from c.1060 to 1078, died 1081. Anna Doukaina, a nun Theodora Anna Doukaina, who married Domenico Selvo, zoe Doukaina, who married Adrianos Komnenos, a brother of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, I, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6 Norwich, John Julius, Byzantium, The Apogee, Penguin, ISBN 0-14-011448-3 Polemis, Demetrios I. The Doukai, A Contribution to Byzantine Prosopography, London, Athlone Press Psellus, Michael, Chronographia Coins of Constantine X Doukas
Constantine X
–
Gold
histamenon of Constantine X.
39.
Monk
–
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of other monks. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many religions, in the Greek language the term can apply to women, but in modern English it is mainly in use for men. The word nun is typically used for female monastics, although the term monachos is of Christian origin, in the English language monk tends to be used loosely also for both male and female ascetics from other religious or philosophical backgrounds. However, being generic, it is not interchangeable terms that denote particular kinds of monk, such as cenobite, hermit, anchorite, hesychast. In Eastern Orthodoxy monasticism holds a special and important place. Orthodox monastics separate themselves from the world in order to pray unceasingly for the world and they do not, in general, have as their primary purpose the running of social services, but instead are concerned with attaining theosis, or union with God. However, care for the poor and needy has always been an obligation of monasticism, the level of contact though will vary from community to community. Hermits, on the hand, have little or no contact with the outside world. Orthodox monasticism does not have religious orders as are found in the West, basil the Great and the Philokalia, which was compiled by St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain and St. Makarios of Corinth. Hesychasm is of importance in the ascetical theology of the Orthodox Church. Meals are usually taken in common in a dining hall known as a trapeza. Food is usually simple and is eaten in silence while one of the brethren reads aloud from the writings of the Holy Fathers. The monastic lifestyle takes a deal of serious commitment. Within the cenobitic community, all monks conform to a way of living based on the traditions of that particular monastery. In struggling to attain this conformity, the comes to realize his own shortcomings and is guided by his spiritual father in how to deal honestly with them. For this same reason, bishops are almost always chosen from the ranks of monks, Eastern monasticism is found in three distinct forms, anchoritic, cenobitic, and the middle way between the two, known as the skete. One normally enters a community first, and only after testing and spiritual growth would one go on to the skete or, for the most advanced. However, one is not necessarily expected to join a skete or become a solitary, in general, Orthodox monastics have little or no contact with the outside world, including their own families
Monk
–
St. Anthony the Great of Egypt, considered the Father of
Christian Monasticism
Monk
–
Monastery of St. Dionysius on
Mount Athos.
Monk
–
General view of
Holy Trinity-Makaryev Monastery, on the
Volga River in
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast,
Russia.
Monk
–
Order of Saint Benedict
40.
Iliad
–
The iLiad was an electronic handheld device, or e-Reader, which could be used for document reading and editing. Like the Barnes and Noble nook, Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle, in 2010, sales of the iLiad ended when its parent company, iRex, filed for bankruptcy. The display used is an active matrix display, which uses E Ink Vizplex Imaging Film manufactured by E Ink Corporation. Underneath the E Ink screen is a tablet by WACOM which requires a stylus for input. When it was introduced, the Iliad had largest screen size of existing e-paper products, the iLiad can display document files in several formats, including PDF, Mobipocket, XHTML and plain text. It can also display JPEG, BMP and PNG images, as of May 3,2007 Mobipocket is supported, making the mobipocket digital rights management content available on this platform. IRexs product page for the states that Support for additional E-book formats will become available over the coming months. Through its wireless service, iDS, the iLiad can also download content. Les Echos, a French financial newspaper, is distributed this way, users can connect to their computer over a wireless network to sync new data onto the iLiads internal memory or an inserted MMC, SD, or CF card. The distributor of the iLiad is iRex Technologies, a Philips spin-off company and it was initially advertised in December 2005, to be launched in April 2006, but was delayed until July, when it started to be sold as a beta product. It was released to the public near the end of July. Its list price in Europe is €649, and in US $699, one of the advanced features of the iLiad is the ability to add notes to existing documents. With the integrated Wacom tablet and stylus, it is possible to directly on almost any document. Using the desktop software, those notes can be merged into the original document and this provides malleability, an important feature of physical books that is missing from most ebook products, allowing users to annotate, highlight, and personalize the text. Because of its open Linux operating system, the iLiad is able to run third party applications created for it, developers and users wishing to create or run third party applications can request shell access from the manufacturer. Developers have been able to improve on the devices functionality by porting viewers such as FBReader, full screen PDF reading is made available by community-supported iPDF releases. Programs for recreation, including audio playback, sudoku, and calendars, are rapidly growing community content available for use on the iLiad, independent users have also reported successful porting of mobile web browsers to iLiads Linux platform, although with limited functionality and many bugs. IRex as a company has had a relationship with its Open Source developers
Iliad
–
iRex iLiad
Iliad
Iliad
–
iLiad in sunlight
Iliad
–
iLiad e-book reader equipped with e-paper display
41.
Homer
–
Homer is the name ascribed by the ancient Greeks to the semi-legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems which are the central works of Greek literature. The Odyssey focuses on the home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca. Many accounts of Homers life circulated in classical antiquity, the most widespread being that he was a bard from Ionia. The modern scholarly consensus is that these traditions do not have any historical value, the Homeric question - by whom, when, where and under what circumstances were the Iliad and Odyssey composed - continues to be debated. Broadly speaking, modern scholarly opinion on the authorship question falls into two camps, one group holds that most of the Iliad and the Odyssey is the work of a single poet of genius. The other considers the Homeric poems to be the crystallization of a process of working and re-working by many contributors and it is generally accepted that the poems were composed at some point around the late eighth or early seventh century B. C. Most researchers believe that the poems were transmitted orally. The Homeric epics were the greatest influence on ancient Greek culture and education, to Plato, the chronological period of Homer depends on the meaning to be assigned to the word Homer. Was Homer a single person, an imaginary person representing a group of poets and this information is often called the world of Homer. The Homeric period would in that cover a number of historical periods, especially the Mycenaean Age. Considered word-for-word, the texts as we know them are the product of the scholars of the last three centuries. Each edition of the Iliad or Odyssey is a different, as the editors rely on different manuscripts and fragments. The term accuracy reveals a belief in an original uniform text. The manuscripts of the work currently available date to no earlier than the 10th century. These are at the end of a missing thousand-year chain of copies made as each generation of manuscripts disintegrated or were lost or destroyed and these numerous manuscripts are so similar that a single original can be postulated. The time gap in the chain is bridged by the scholia, or notes, on the existing manuscripts, librarian of the Library of Alexandria, he had noticed a wide divergence in the works attributed to Homer, and was trying to restore a more authentic copy. He had collected several manuscripts, which he named, the Sinopic, the one he selected for correction was the koine, which Murray translates as the Vulgate. Aristarchus was known for his selection of material
Homer
–
Idealized portrayal of Homer dating to the
Hellenistic period.
British Museum.
Homer
–
Part of an 11th-century manuscript, "the Townley Homer". The writing on the top and right side are
scholia.
Homer
–
Homer and His Guide, by
William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905), portraying Homer on
Mount Ida, beset by dogs and guided by the goatherder Glaucus (as told in
Pseudo-Herodotus)
Homer
–
Raphael 's inspired Homer on
Mount Parnassus.
42.
Ivan Vladislav of Bulgaria
–
Ivan Vladislav ruled as emperor of Bulgaria from August or September 1015 to February 1018. The year of his birth is unknown, he was born at least a decade before 987, saved from death by his cousin Gavril Radomir, the Bulgarian Emperor, in 976, Ivan Vladislav murdered him in October 1015 and seized the Bulgarian throne. After the failure of the negotiations he continued the resistance, attempting unsuccessfully to push the Byzantines back, Ivan Vladislav left a mixed heritage, varying from a reputation of being ruthless murderer to a hero defending his country as best as he could. The descendants of Ivan Vladislav entered the Byzantine nobility and rose to the highest ranks of the hierarchy, two women of his family became empresses of the Byzantine Empire and others became military commanders or high-ranking officials. He was an ancestor of the Byzantine emperor John II Komnenos, Ivan Vladislav was the son of Aron, the brother of Emperor Samuel of the Cometopuli dynasty. In 976 or 987 Samuel ordered his brother Aron executed for treason together with his family near Razmetanitsa. Ivan Vladislav was the survivor, being spared through the intercession of his cousin. His life during the subsequent decades and until his accession is unknown, however, from the outset Radomirs position was insecure, Ivan Vladislav, as a son of the elder of the Cometopouli brothers, could lay claim on the throne based on seniority. During that time the Byzantine king Basil II campaigned deep into Bulgarian territory and he retook the previously lost town of Voden and laid siege to the massive fortress of Maglen, situated to the north-west. Gavril Radomir did not have enough forces and was unable to interfere and his inability to cope with the Byzantine threat aroused discontent among the nobility and Ivan Vladislav became their chosen leader. The fall of Maglen sealed Gavril Radomirs fate—in the late summer of 1015, while hunting near Ostrovo, he was murdered by his cousin, Ivan Vladislav then seized the Bulgarian throne and took steps to ensure his position against potential rivals. After assuming the throne, Ivan Vladislav immediately sent a delegation to Basil II, Basil II soon understood that Ivan Vladislavs letter was a ruse and plotted a retaliatory action, bribing the kavkhan Theodore, who was in Byzantine captivity, to murder the Bulgarian ruler. Theodore in turn paid a man in Ivan Vladislavs employ to commit the murder. In the meantime Basil II continued his march, forcing the Bulgarian emperor to retreat to the Albanian mountains, with his supply routes cut, Basil II had to retreat back to Thessalonica leaving a small garrison in Ohrid, which was swiftly retaken by the Bulgarians. Back in his base at Mosynopolis, Basil divided the Byzantine army to harass the areas of Strumitsa, in January 1016 the Byzantine emperor returned to Constantinople. Meanwhile, Ivan Vladislav consolidated his positions in the mountains of Albania and Macedonia, as early as October 1015 he began the reconstruction of many strongholds destroyed during the war, including the fortress at Bitola. In 1016 he invited his vassal Prince Jovan Vladimir of Doclea, the emperor probably desired to seize the prince and so secure his western flank. The Prince was determined to attend the invitation of Tsar, but his wife Theodora Kosara did not trust the murderer of her brother, Ivan Vladislav however vowed not to threaten his vassals life, and sent him a golden cross as a proof of good will
Ivan Vladislav of Bulgaria
–
A victory of the Byzantines over the Bulgarians, from the
Madrid Skylitzes. After 1001 Basil II launched annual campaigns on Bulgarian territory, reversing the odds of war into the Byzantines' favour. Many Bulgarian fortresses had been conquered by force or treason by the time Ivan Vladislav came to the throne.
Ivan Vladislav of Bulgaria
–
The capture of Nikulitsa by the Byzantines. The death of Ivan Vladislav was a blow for the Bulgarian resistance. Only a few nobles continued the struggle with the Byzantines such as
Ibatzes and
Nikulitsa.
Ivan Vladislav of Bulgaria
–
The sarkophaguses of Bulgarian Tsars Samuil,
Gavril Radomir and Ivan Vladislav in Agios Achilios, Greece.
Ivan Vladislav of Bulgaria
–
The
Bitola inscription is a medieval stone inscription written in
Old Church Slavonic during the Ivan Vladislav's reign. He is titled "autocrat of the Bulgarians", "born Bulgarian" and notes that he renewed the fortress of
Bitola for "a salvation and sanctuary of the Bulgarians".
43.
First Bulgarian Empire
–
The First Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state that existed in southeastern Europe between the 7th and 11th centuries AD. It was founded circa 681 when Bulgar tribes led by Asparukh moved to the north-eastern Balkans, there they secured Byzantine recognition of their right to settle south of the Danube by defeating – possibly with the help of local South Slavic tribes – the Byzantine army led by Constantine IV. At the height of its power, Bulgaria spread from the Danube Bend to the Black Sea, as the state solidified its position in the Balkans, it entered into a centuries-long interaction, sometimes friendly and sometimes hostile, with the Byzantine Empire. Bulgaria emerged as Byzantiums chief antagonist to its north, resulting in several wars, Byzantium had a strong cultural influence on Bulgaria, which also led to the eventual adoption of Christianity in 864. After the disintegration of the Avar Khaganate, the country expanded its territory northwest to the Pannonian Plain, later the Bulgarians confronted the advance of the Pechenegs and Cumans, and achieved a decisive victory over the Magyars, forcing them to establish themselves permanently in Pannonia. During the late 9th and early 10th centuries, Simeon I achieved a string of victories over the Byzantines, thereafter, he was recognized with the title of Emperor, and proceeded to expand the state to its greatest extent. After the annihilation of the Byzantine army in the battle of Anchialus in 917, the Byzantines, however, eventually recovered, and in 1014, under Basil II, inflicted a crushing defeat on the Bulgarians at the Battle of Kleidion. By 1018, the last Bulgarian strongholds had surrendered to the Byzantine Empire, and it was succeeded by the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1185. After the adoption of Christianity, Bulgaria became the center of Slavic Europe. Old Bulgarian became the lingua franca of much of Eastern Europe, in 927, the fully independent Bulgarian Patriarchate was officially recognized. The Bulgars and other tribes in the empire gradually adopted an essentially foreign Slavic language. Since the late 9th century, the names Bulgarians and Bulgarian gained prevalence and became permanent designations for the local population, the First Bulgarian Empire became known simply as Bulgaria since its recognition by the Byzantine Empire in 681. Some historians use the terms Danube Bulgaria, First Bulgarian State, during its early existence, the country was also called the Bulgar state or Bulgar qaghanate. Between 864 and 917/927, the country was known as the Principality of Bulgaria or Knyazhestvo Bulgaria, in English language sources, the country is often known as the Bulgarian Empire. The eastern Balkan Peninsula was originally inhabited by the Thracians who were a group of Proto-Indo-European tribes, the whole region as far north as the Danube River was gradually incorporated into the Roman Empire by the 1st century AD. The decline of the Roman Empire after the 3rd century AD, nonetheless, it never relinquished the claim to the whole region up to the Danube. A series of administrative, legislative, military and economic reforms somewhat improved the situation, the group of Slavs that came to be known as the South Slavs was divided into Antes and Sclaveni who spoke the same language. The Slavic incursions in the Balkans increased during the half of Justinian Is reign and while these were initially pillaging raids
First Bulgarian Empire
–
Bulgaria during the reign of
Simeon the Great, 10th century
First Bulgarian Empire
–
Khan
Krum feasts after the
victory at Varbitsa Pass
First Bulgarian Empire
–
Simeon sends envoys to the
Fatimid Caliph to form an alliance against the Byzantines.
44.
Augusta (honorific)
–
Augusta, was a Roman imperial honorific title given to empresses and honoured women of the imperial families. It was the form of Augustus In the third century, Augustae could also receive the titles of Mater Castrorum. The title implied the greatest prestige, Augustae could issue their own coinage, wear imperial regalia, and rule their own courts. List of Roman and Byzantine empresses
Augusta (honorific)
–
Livia Livia Drvsilla
Augusta (honorific)
–
Antonia Minor Antonia Minor
Augusta (honorific)
–
Agrippina the Younger Ivlia Avgvsta Agrippina
Augusta (honorific)
–
Poppaea Sabina Poppaea Avgvsta Sabina
45.
Myrelaion
–
Bodrum Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, is a former Eastern Orthodox church converted into a mosque by the Ottomans. The church was known under the Greek name of Myrelaion, the palace of Myrelaion was built on top of a giant fifth century rotunda which, with an external diameter of 41.8 metres, was the second largest, after the Roman Pantheon, in the ancient world. Near the palace the Emperor built a church, which he intended from the beginning to use as place for his family. The first person to be buried there was his wife Theodora, in December 922, followed by his eldest son and co-emperor Christopher, who died in 931. By doing so, Romanos interrupted a six-century old tradition, whereby almost all the Byzantine emperors since Constantine I were buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles. Later the Emperor converted his palace into a nunnery and, after his deposition and death in exile as monk in the island of Prote in June 948, the shrine was ravaged by fire in 1203, during the Fourth Crusade. Abandoned during the Latin occupation of Constantinople, the building was repaired at the end of the thirteenth century, during the period of the Palaiologan restoration. After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the Myrelaion was converted into a mosque by Grand Vizier Mesih Paşa around the year 1500, the mosque was named after its substructure, but was also known under the name of its founder. The edifice was damaged again by fires in 1784 and 1911, in 1930, an excavation led by David Talbot Rice discovered the round cistern. In 1964-1965, a restoration led by the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul replaced almost all the external masonry of the edifice. In 1965, two parallel excavations led by art historian Cecil L. Striker and by R. Naumann focused respectively on the substructure, the building was finally restored in 1986 when it was reopened as mosque. In 1990, the cistern was restored too, and it has hosted a shopping mall for a few years, now the cistern is used by the women to pray. The central nave is surmounted by a dome, with a drum interrupted by arched windows. The four side naves are covered by barrel vaults, the edifice has a narthex to the west and a sanctuary to the east. The central bay of the narthex is covered by a dome, the nave is partitioned by four piers, which substituted in the Ottoman period the original columns. Many openings – windows, oeil-de-boeufs and arches – give light to the structure, the exterior of the building is characterized by the half cylindrical buttresses which articulate its façades. Originally an exonarthex existed too, but in the Ottoman period it was replaced by a wooden portico, the building has three polygonal apses. The central one belongs to the sanctuary, while the lateral are parts of two clover-shaped side chapels, prothesis and diakonikon, the Ottomans built a stone minaret close to the narthex
Myrelaion
–
The mosque viewed from northwest as of 2007
Myrelaion
–
The mosque in 1877
Myrelaion
–
Plan of the building, one of the first examples of a
cross-in-square church.
Myrelaion
46.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
International Standard Book Number
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A 13-digit ISBN, 978-3-16-148410-0, as represented by an
EAN-13 bar code
47.
The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
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The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium is a three volume historical dictionary published by the English Oxford University Press. It contains comprehensive information in English on topics relating to the Byzantine Empire and it was edited by Dr. Alexander Kazhdan, and was first published in 1991. Kazhdan was a professor at Princeton University who became a Senior Research Associate at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington and he contributed to many of the articles in the Dictionary and always signed his initials A. K. at the end of the article to indicate his contribution. The dictionary is available in printed and e-reference text versions from Oxford Reference Online and it covers the main historical events of Byzantium, as well as important social and religious events. It also includes biographies of eminent political and literary personalities and describes in detail religious, cultural topics include music, theology and the arts
The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
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The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
48.
List of Roman emperors
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Roman Emperors were rulers of the Roman Empire, wielding power over its citizens and military. The empire was developed as the Roman Republic invaded and occupied most of Europe and portions of northern Africa, under the republic, regions of the empire were ruled by provincial governors answerable to and authorised by the Senate and People of Rome. Rome and its senate were ruled by a variety of magistrates – of whom the consuls were the most powerful, the republic ended, and the emperors were created, when these magistrates became legally and practically subservient to one citizen with power over all other magistrates. Augustus, the first emperor, was careful to maintain the facade of republican rule, taking no specific title for his position and this style of government lasted for 300 years, and is thus called the Principate era. The modern word derives from the title imperator, which was granted by an army to a successful general, during the initial phase of the empire. This was characterised by the increase of authority in the person of the Emperor. For nearly two centuries there was often more than one emperor at a time, frequently dividing the administration of the vast territories between them. As Henry Moss warned, Yet it is important to remember that in the eyes of contemporaries the Empire was still one, the Empire and chain of emperors continued until the death of Constantine XI and the capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Empire in 1453. The emperors listed in this article are those generally agreed to have been legitimate emperors, the word legitimate is used by most authors, but usually without clear definition, perhaps not surprisingly, since the emperorship was itself rather vaguely defined legally. In Augustus original formulation, the princeps was selected by either the Senate or the people of Rome, a person could be proclaimed as emperor by their troops or by the mob in the street, but in theory needed to be confirmed by the Senate. The coercion that frequently resulted was implied in this formulation, by the medieval period, the very definition of the Senate became vague as well, adding to the complication. Lists of legitimate emperors are therefore influenced by the subjective views of those compiling them. Many of the emperors listed here acceded to the position by usurpation. Historically, the criteria have been used to derive emperor lists, Any individual who undisputedly ruled the whole Empire. Any individual who was nominated as heir or co-emperor by an emperor. Where there were multiple claimants, and none were legitimate heirs, so for instance, Aurelian, though acceding to the throne by usurpation, was the sole and undisputed monarch between 270–275 AD, and thus was a legitimate emperor. Gallienus, though not in control of the whole Empire, claudius Gothicus, though acceding illegally, and not in control of the whole Empire, was the only claimant accepted by the Senate, and thus, for his reign, was the legitimate emperor. The situation in the West is more complex, throughout the final years of the Western Empire the Eastern emperor was considered the senior emperor, and a Western emperor was only legitimate if recognized as such by the Eastern emperor
List of Roman emperors
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Augustus (Octavian), the first Roman Emperor of the Principate Era whose ascension ended
republic rule at Rome.
List of Roman emperors
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Augustus IMPERATOR CAESAR DIVI FILIVS AVGVSTVS
List of Roman emperors
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Tiberius TIBERIVS IVLIVS CAESAR AVGVSTVS
List of Roman emperors
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Caligula GAIVS IVLIVS CAESAR AVGVSTVS GERMANICVS
49.
Principate
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This reflects the principate emperors assertion that they were merely first among equals among the citizens of Rome. The title itself derived from the position of the princeps senatus, although dynastic pretences crept in from the start, formalizing this in a monarchic style remained politically unthinkable. Afterwards, Imperial rule in the Empire is designated as the dominate, initially, the theory implied the first citizen had to earn his extraordinary position by merit in the style that Augustus himself had gained the position of auctoritas. Large distributions of food for the public and charitable institutions were also means that served as popularity boosters while the construction of public works provided employment for the poor. With the fall of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, the principate was redefined in formal terms under the Emperor Vespasian, the position of princeps became a distinct entity within the broader – formally still republican – Roman constitution. Under the Antonine dynasty, it was the norm for the Emperor to appoint a successful, in modern historical analysis, this is treated by many authors as an ideal situation, the individual who was most capable was promoted to the position of princeps. Of the Antonine dynasty, Edward Gibbon famously wrote that this was the happiest and most productive period in human history and this first phase was to be followed by, or rather evolved into, the so-called dominate. Richard Alston, Aspects of Roman History, henning Börm, Wolfgang Havener, Octavians Rechtsstellung im Januar 27 v. Chr. und das Problem der „Übertragung“ der res publica. Gedanken zur Periodisierung der römischen Kaiserzeit, kurt A. Raaflaub, Mark Toher, Between Republic and Empire, Interpretations of Augustus and his Principate. Berkeley / Los Angeles / Oxford 1990
Principate
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Ancient Rome
50.
Augustus
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Augustus was the founder of the Roman Principate and considered the first Roman emperor, controlling the Roman Empire from 27 BC until his death in AD14. He was born Gaius Octavius into an old and wealthy equestrian branch of the plebeian gens Octavia and his maternal great-uncle Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, and Octavius was named in Caesars will as his adopted son and heir, then known as Octavianus. He, Mark Antony, and Marcus Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate to defeat the assassins of Caesar, following their victory at the Battle of Philippi, the Triumvirate divided the Roman Republic among themselves and ruled as military dictators. The Triumvate was eventually torn apart by the ambitions of its members. Lepidus was driven into exile and stripped of his position, in reality, however, he retained his autocratic power over the Republic as a military dictator. By law, Augustus held a collection of powers granted to him for life by the Senate, including supreme military command, and it took several years for Augustus to develop the framework within which a formally republican state could be led under his sole rule. He rejected monarchical titles, and instead called himself Princeps Civitatis, the resulting constitutional framework became known as the Principate, the first phase of the Roman Empire. The reign of Augustus initiated an era of peace known as the Pax Romana. Augustus dramatically enlarged the Empire, annexing Egypt, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum, and Raetia, expanding possessions in Africa, expanding into Germania, beyond the frontiers, he secured the Empire with a buffer region of client states and made peace with the Parthian Empire through diplomacy. Augustus died in AD14 at the age of 75 and he probably died from natural causes, although there were unconfirmed rumors that his wife Livia poisoned him. He was succeeded as Emperor by his adopted son Tiberius, Augustus was known by many names throughout his life, At birth, he was named Gaius Octavius after his biological father. Historians typically refer to him simply as Octavius between his birth in 63 until his adoption by Julius Caesar in 44 BC, upon his adoption, he took Caesars name and became Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus in accordance with Roman adoption naming standards. He quickly dropped Octavianus from his name, and his contemporaries referred to him as Caesar during this period, historians. In 27 BC, following his defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra and it is the events of 27 BC from which he obtained his traditional name of Augustus, which historians use in reference to him from 27 BC until his death in AD14. While his paternal family was from the town of Velletri, approximately 40 kilometres from Rome and he was born at Ox Head, a small property on the Palatine Hill, very close to the Roman Forum. He was given the name Gaius Octavius Thurinus, his cognomen possibly commemorating his fathers victory at Thurii over a band of slaves. Due to the nature of Rome at the time, Octavius was taken to his fathers home village at Velletri to be raised. Octavius only mentions his fathers equestrian family briefly in his memoirs and his paternal great-grandfather Gaius Octavius was a military tribune in Sicily during the Second Punic War
Augustus
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The statue known as the
Augustus of Prima Porta, 1st century
Augustus
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The Death of Caesar, by
Jean-Léon Gérôme (1867). On 15 March 44 BC, Octavius's adoptive father Julius Caesar was assassinated by a conspiracy led by
Marcus Junius Brutus and
Gaius Cassius Longinus.
Walters Art Museum,
Baltimore.
Augustus
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A statue of Augustus as a younger Octavian, dated ca. 30 BC
Augustus
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Bust of Augustus in
Musei Capitolini, Rome
