1.
List of Byzantine emperors
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This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Emperors listed below up to Theodosius I in 395 were sole or joint rulers of the entire Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire was the direct legal continuation of the eastern half of the Roman Empire following the division of the Roman Empire in 395. All Byzantine emperors considered themselves to be the rightful Roman emperor in direct succession from Augustus, the title of all Emperors preceding Heraclius was officially Augustus, although other titles such as Dominus were also used. Their names were preceded by Imperator Caesar and followed by Augustus, following Heraclius, the title commonly became the Greek Basileus, which had formerly meant sovereign but was then used in place of Augustus. Following the establishment of the rival Holy Roman Empire in Western Europe, in later centuries, the Emperor could be referred to by Western Christians as the Emperor of the Greeks. Towards the end of the Empire, the standard formula of the Byzantine ruler was in Christ, Emperor. For Roman emperors before Constantine I, see List of Roman emperors, family tree of the Byzantine emperors List of Roman emperors List of Roman usurpers List of Byzantine usurpers List of Roman and Byzantine empresses
2.
Byzantine Empire
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It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
3.
John V Palaiologos
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John V Palaiologos or Palaeologus was a Byzantine emperor, who succeeded his father in 1341 at age eight. John V was the son of Emperor Andronikos III and his wife Anna and his long reign was marked by the gradual dissolution of imperial power amid numerous civil wars and the continuing ascendancy of the Ottoman Turks. John V came to the throne at age eight, during this civil war in 1343 Anna pawned the Byzantine crown jewels for 30,000 Venetian ducats. From 1346 to 1349, the Black Plague devastated Constantinople, victorious in 1347, John Kantakouzenos ruled as co-emperor until his son Matthew was attacked by John V in 1352, leading to a second civil war. John V asked the ruler of Serbia, Stefan Dušan for help, the Ottoman Empire thus acquired its first European territory, at Çimpe and Gallipoli. Able to retake Constantinople in 1354, John V removed and tonsured John VI, by 1357, he had deposed Matthew as well, the Ottomans, who had been allied with the Kantakouzenoi, continued to press John. Suleyman Paşa, the son of the Ottoman sultan, led their forces in Europe and was able to take Adrianople and Philippopolis and to exact tribute from the emperor. John V appealed to the West for help, proposing to end the schism between the Byzantine and Latin churches by submitting the patriarchate to the supremacy of Rome. In 1366, John V reached the Hungarian Kingdom, arriving at the Royal city of Buda to meet King Louis I of Hungary, however, the Byzantine emperor offended the king by staying on his horse, while Louis descended and approached him on foot. The Hungarian monarch then offered him help on the condition that John change his confession to the catholic, the Emperor left the court of Buda with empty hands and continued his trip throughout Europe searching for assistance against the Ottomans. Impoverished by war, he was detained as a debtor when he visited Venice in 1369 and was captured on his way back in Bulgarian territories. In 1371, he recognized the suzerainty of the Ottoman sultan Murad I, Murad later assisted him against his son Andronikos when the latter deposed him in 1376. In 1390, his grandson John VII briefly usurped the throne, the same year, John ordered the strengthening of the Golden Gate in Constantinople, utilizing marble from the decayed churches in and around the city. Upon completion of construction, Bayezid I demanded that John raze these new works, threatening war and the blinding of his son Manuel. John V filled the Sultans order but is said to have suffered from this humiliation, John V was finally succeeded to the imperial throne by his son Manuel. His younger son Theodore had already acceded to the Despotate of Morea in 1383, John V married Helena Kantakouzene, daughter of his co-emperor John VI Kantakouzenos and Irene Asanina, on 28 May 1347. They had at least six children -- four sons and at least two daughters and their known children include, Andronikos IV Palaiologos, Irene Palaiologina, who married her first cousin Prince Halil of Ottoman Empire, son of Orhan I and Helenas sister Theodora Kantakouzene. The couple had two sons, Princes Gunduz and Omer, list of Byzantine emperors Harris, Jonathan, The End of Byzantium
4.
Constantinople
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Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman/Byzantine Empire, and also of the brief Latin, and the later Ottoman empires. It was reinaugurated in 324 AD from ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great, after whom it was named, Constantinople was famed for its massive and complex defences. The first wall of the city was erected by Constantine I, Constantinople never truly recovered from the devastation of the Fourth Crusade and the decades of misrule by the Latins. The origins of the name of Byzantion, more known by the later Latin Byzantium, are not entirely clear. The founding myth of the city has it told that the settlement was named after the leader of the Megarian colonists, Byzas. The later Byzantines of Constantinople themselves would maintain that the city was named in honour of two men, Byzas and Antes, though this was likely just a play on the word Byzantion. During this time, the city was also called Second Rome, Eastern Rome, and Roma Constantinopolitana. As the city became the remaining capital of the Roman Empire after the fall of the West, and its wealth, population, and influence grew. In the language of other peoples, Constantinople was referred to just as reverently, the medieval Vikings, who had contacts with the empire through their expansion in eastern Europe used the Old Norse name Miklagarðr, and later Miklagard and Miklagarth. In Arabic, the city was sometimes called Rūmiyyat al-kubra and in Persian as Takht-e Rum, in East and South Slavic languages, including in medieval Russia, Constantinople was referred to as Tsargrad or Carigrad, City of the Caesar, from the Slavonic words tsar and grad. This was presumably a calque on a Greek phrase such as Βασιλέως Πόλις, the modern Turkish name for the city, İstanbul, derives from the Greek phrase eis tin polin, meaning into the city or to the city. In 1928, the Turkish alphabet was changed from Arabic script to Latin script, in time the city came to be known as Istanbul and its variations in most world languages. In Greece today, the city is still called Konstantinoúpolis/Konstantinoúpoli or simply just the City, apart from this, little is known about this initial settlement, except that it was abandoned by the time the Megarian colonists settled the site anew. A farsighted treaty with the emergent power of Rome in c.150 BC which stipulated tribute in exchange for independent status allowed it to enter Roman rule unscathed. The site lay astride the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and had in the Golden Horn an excellent and spacious harbour. He would later rebuild Byzantium towards the end of his reign, in which it would be briefly renamed Augusta Antonina, fortifying it with a new city wall in his name, Constantine had altogether more colourful plans. Rome was too far from the frontiers, and hence from the armies and the imperial courts, yet it had been the capital of the state for over a thousand years, and it might have seemed unthinkable to suggest that the capital be moved to a different location. Constantinople was built over 6 years, and consecrated on 11 May 330, Constantine divided the expanded city, like Rome, into 14 regions, and ornamented it with public works worthy of an imperial metropolis
5.
Peloponnese
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The Peloponnese or Peloponnesus is a peninsula and geographic region in southern Greece. It is separated from the part of the country by the Gulf of Corinth. During the late Middle Ages and the Ottoman era, the peninsula was known as the Morea, the peninsula is divided among three administrative regions, most belongs to the Peloponnese region, with smaller parts belonging to the West Greece and Attica regions. In 2016, Lonely Planet voted the Peloponnese the top spot of their Best in Europe list, the Peloponnese is a peninsula that covers an area of some 21,549.6 square kilometres and constitutes the southernmost part of mainland Greece. It has two connections with the rest of Greece, a natural one at the Isthmus of Corinth. The peninsula has an interior and deeply indented coasts. The Peloponnese possesses four south-pointing peninsulas, the Messenian, the Mani, the Cape Malea, mount Taygetus in the south is the highest mountain in the Peloponnese, at 2,407 metres. Οther important mountains include Cyllene in the northeast, Aroania in the north, Erymanthos and Panachaikon in the northwest, Mainalon in the center, the entire peninsula is earthquake prone and has been the site of many earthquakes in the past. The longest river is the Alfeios in the west, followed by the Evrotas in the south, extensive lowlands are found only in the west, with the exception of the Evrotas valley in the south and in the Argolid in the northeast. The Peloponnese is home to spectacular beaches, which are a major tourist draw. Two groups of islands lie off the Peloponnesian coast, the Argo-Saronic Islands to the east, the island of Kythera, off the Epidaurus Limera peninsula to the south of the Peloponnese, is considered to be part of the Ionian Islands. The island of Elafonissos used to be part of the peninsula but was separated following the quake of 365 AD. Since antiquity, and continuing to the present day, the Peloponnese has been divided into seven regions, Achaia, Corinthia, Argolid, Arcadia, Laconia, Messinia. Each of these regions is headed by a city, the largest city is Patras in Achaia, followed by Kalamata in Messinia. The peninsula has been inhabited since prehistoric times and its modern name derives from ancient Greek mythology, specifically the legend of the hero Pelops, who was said to have conquered the entire region. The name Peloponnesos means Island of Pelops, the Mycenaean civilization, mainland Greeces first major civilization, dominated the Peloponnese in the Bronze Age from its stronghold at Mycenae in the north-east of the peninsula. The Mycenean civilization collapsed suddenly at the end of the 2nd millennium BC, archeological research has found that many of its cities and palaces show signs of destruction. The subsequent period, known as the Greek Dark Ages, is marked by an absence of written records
6.
Despotate of Morea
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The Despotate of the Morea or Despotate of Mystras was a province of the Byzantine Empire which existed between the mid-14th and mid-15th centuries. The territory was ruled by one or more sons of the current Byzantine emperor. Its capital was the city of Mystras, near ancient Sparta. The Despotate of the Morea was created out of territory seized from the Frankish Principality of Achaea and this had been organized from former Byzantine territory after the Fourth Crusade. In 1259, the Principalitys ruler William II Villehardouin lost the Battle of Pelagonia against the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus, William was forced to ransom himself by surrendering most of the eastern part of Morea and his newly built strongholds. The surrendered territory became the nucleus of the Despotate of Morea, a later Byzantine emperor, John VI Kantakouzenos, reorganized the territory during the mid-14th century to establish it as an appanage for his son, the Despot Manuel Kantakouzenos. The rival Palaiologos dynasty seized the Morea after Manuels death in 1380, Theodore ruled until 1407, consolidating Byzantine rule and coming to terms with his more powerful neighbours—particularly the expansionist Ottoman Empire, whose suzerainty he recognised. He also sought to reinvigorate the economy by inviting Albanians to settle in the territory. Subsequent despots were the sons of the Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos, brother of the despot Theodore, Constantine, Demetrios, however, in 1446 the Ottoman Sultan Murad II destroyed the Byzantine defences—the Hexamilion wall at the Isthmus of Corinth. His attack opened the peninsula to invasion, though Murad died before he could exploit this and his successor Mehmed II the Conqueror captured the Byzantine capital Constantinople in 1453. The despots, Demetrios Palaiologos and Thomas Palaiologos, brothers of the last emperor, failed to send him any aid and their own incompetence resulted in an Albanian–Greek revolt against them, during which they invited in Ottoman troops to help them put down the revolt. At this time, a number of influential Moreote Greeks and Albanians made private peace with Mehmed, Demetrios ended up a prisoner of the Ottomans and his younger brother Thomas fled. By the end of the summer the Ottomans had achieved the submission of all cities possessed by the Greeks. A few holdouts remained for a time, the rocky peninsula of Monemvasia refused to surrender and it was first ruled for a brief time by a Catalan corsair. When the population drove him out they obtained the consent of Thomas to submit to the Popes protection before the end of 1460, the Mani Peninsula, on the Moreas south end, resisted under a loose coalition of the local clans and then that area came under Venices rule. The very last holdout was Salmeniko, in the Moreas northwest, Graitzas Palaiologos was the military commander there, stationed at Salmeniko Castle. While the town surrendered, Graitzas and his garrison and some town residents held out in the castle until July 1461. Thus ended the last of the Byzantine Empire proper, after 1461 the only non-Ottoman territories were possessed by Venice, the port cities of Modon and Koroni at the southern end of the Morea, the Argolid with Argos, and the port of Nafplion
7.
Mistra
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Mystras or Mistras, also known as Myzithras in the Chronicle of the Morea, is a fortified town and a former municipality in Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece. The site remained inhabited throughout the Ottoman period, when it was mistaken by Western travellers for ancient Sparta, in the 1830s, it was abandoned and the new town of Sparti was built, approximately eight kilometres to the east. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Sparti, the municipal unit has an area of 131.948 km2. In late 1248, William II of Villehardouin, ruler of the Frankish Principality of Achaea, captured Monemvasia, the last remaining Byzantine outpost on the Morea. In September 1259, William of Villehardouin was defeated and captured, along many of his nobles, at the Battle of Pelagonia. Two years later, the Nicaeans recaptured Constantinople, putting an end to the Latin Empire, the handover was effected in 1262, and henceforth Mystras was the seat of the governor of the Byzantine territories in the Morea. Initially this governor was changed every year, but after 1308 they started being appointed for longer terms, almost immediately on his return to the Morea, William of Villehardouin renounced his oath to the emperor, and warfare broke out between Byzantines and Franks. The first Byzantine attempts to subdue the Principality of Achaea were beaten back in the battles of Prinitsa and Makryplagi, warfare became endemic, and the Byzantines slowly pushed the Franks back. From 1348 until its surrender to the Ottoman Turks on 31 May 1460, Mystras was the residence of a Despot who ruled over the Byzantine Morea, known as the Despotate of the Morea. The frescos in the Peribleptos Monastery Church, dating between 1348 and 1380, are a rare surviving late Byzantine cycle, crucial for the understanding of Byzantine art. Mystras was also the last centre of Byzantine scholarship, the Neoplatonist philosopher George Gemistos Plethon lived there until his death in 1452 and he and other scholars based in Mystras influenced the Italian Renaissance, especially after he accompanied the emperor John VIII Palaiologos to Florence in 1439. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, was despot at Mystras before he came to the throne, demetrius Palaeologus the last despot of Morea, surrendered the city to the Ottoman emperor Mehmed II in 1460. As Mezistre, it was the seat of a Turkish sanjak, the Venetians occupied it from 1687 to 1715, but otherwise the Ottomans held it until 1821 and the beginning of the Greek War of Independence. It was abandoned under King Otto for the rebuilt town of Sparta. In 1989 the ruins, including the fortress, palace, churches, Mystras is situated on the slopes of Taygetos Mountain. The archaeological site stands above the village of Mystras and the city of Sparta. The greenery surrounding the area is composed mainly by trees and cypresses. Some small rivers and lakes are found in the region, Gemistus Pletho, philosopher and scholar Manuel Kantakouzenos, first Despot of Morea John VI Kantakouzenos Manuel Kantakouzenos Gemistus Pletho Theodora Tocco Cleofe Malatesta 1
8.
Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
9.
Theodora Kantakouzene, wife of Orhan
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Theodora Kantakouzene was a Byzantine princess, the daughter of Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos and the fifth wife of the Ottoman Sultan Orhan Gazi. After her marriage to Orhan, she became known among the Turks as Maria Hatun, Theodora was one of the three daughters of Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos by his wife Irene Asanina. The historian Nikephoros Gregoras erroneously calls her Maria in one passage, the marriage took place in the summer of the same year. Her parents and sisters escorted her to Selymbria, where Orhans representatives, including grandees of his court and a cavalry regiment, arrived on a fleet of 30 ships. A ceremony was held at Selymbria, where Orhans envoys received her and escorted her to the Ottoman lands in Bithynia, across the Marmara Sea, Theodora remained a Christian after her marriage, and was active in supporting the Christians living under Ottoman rule. In 1347 she gave birth to her son, Şehzade Halil. The Byzantine emperor John V Palaiologos was instrumental in his eventual release, later, Halil married Irene, a daughter of John V Palaiologos and Theodoras sister, Helena Kantakouzene. Except for a sojourn in Constantinople in February 1347, in the aftermath of her fathers victory in the civil war. After that, she returned to Constantinople, where she lived with her sister. She is last known to have been imprisoned at Galata during the brief reign of Andronikos IV Palaiologos there in 1379–81. The Reluctant Emperor, A Biography of John Cantacuzene, Byzantine Emperor and Monk, trapp, Erich, Walther, Rainer, Beyer, Hans-Veit, Sturm-Schnabl, Katja. Vienna, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
10.
Dynasty
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A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system but sometimes also appearing in elective republics. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a house, historians periodize the histories of many sovereign states, such as Ancient Egypt, the Carolingian Empire and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties. As such, the dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which the family reigned and to describe events, trends. The word dynasty itself is often dropped from such adjectival references, until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty, that is, to increase the territory, wealth, and power of his family members. The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. Succession through a daughter when permitted was considered to establish a new dynasty in her husbands ruling house, however, some states in Africa, determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mothers dynasty when coming into her inheritance. It is also extended to unrelated people such as poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team. The word dynasty derives via Latin dynastia from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to power, dominion and it was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, power or ability, from dýnamai, to be able. A ruler in a dynasty is referred to as a dynast. For example, following his abdication, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ceased to be a member of the House of Windsor. A dynastic marriage is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, the marriage of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, to Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, for example, and their eldest child is expected to inherit the Dutch crown eventually. But the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso to Mabel Wisse Smit in 2003 lacked government support, thus Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession, lost his title as a Prince of the Netherlands, and left his children without dynastic rights. In historical and monarchist references to formerly reigning families, a dynast is a member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchys rules still in force. Even since abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Max and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position. The term dynast is sometimes used only to refer to descendants of a realms monarchs. The term can therefore describe overlapping but distinct sets of people, yet he is not a male-line member of the royal family, and is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor. Thus, in 1999 he requested and obtained permission from Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco. Yet a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time and that exclusion, too, ceased to apply on 26 March 2015, with retroactive effect for those who had been dynasts prior to triggering it by marriage to a Catholic
11.
Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
12.
Latin language
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
13.
Greek people
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The Greeks or Hellenes are an ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Albania, Turkey, Sicily, Egypt and, to a lesser extent, other countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world, many of these regions coincided to a large extent with the borders of the Byzantine Empire of the late 11th century and the Eastern Mediterranean areas of ancient Greek colonization. The cultural centers of the Greeks have included Athens, Thessalonica, Alexandria, Smyrna, most ethnic Greeks live nowadays within the borders of the modern Greek state and Cyprus. The Greek genocide and population exchange between Greece and Turkey nearly ended the three millennia-old Greek presence in Asia Minor, other longstanding Greek populations can be found from southern Italy to the Caucasus and southern Russia and Ukraine and in the Greek diaspora communities in a number of other countries. Today, most Greeks are officially registered as members of the Greek Orthodox Church, the Greeks speak the Greek language, which forms its own unique branch within the Indo-European family of languages, the Hellenic. They are part of a group of ethnicities, described by Anthony D. Smith as an archetypal diaspora people. Both migrations occur at incisive periods, the Mycenaean at the transition to the Late Bronze Age, the Mycenaeans quickly penetrated the Aegean Sea and, by the 15th century BC, had reached Rhodes, Crete, Cyprus and the shores of Asia Minor. Around 1200 BC, the Dorians, another Greek-speaking people, followed from Epirus, the Dorian invasion was followed by a poorly attested period of migrations, appropriately called the Greek Dark Ages, but by 800 BC the landscape of Archaic and Classical Greece was discernible. The Greeks of classical antiquity idealized their Mycenaean ancestors and the Mycenaean period as an era of heroes, closeness of the gods. The Homeric Epics were especially and generally accepted as part of the Greek past, as part of the Mycenaean heritage that survived, the names of the gods and goddesses of Mycenaean Greece became major figures of the Olympian Pantheon of later antiquity. The ethnogenesis of the Greek nation is linked to the development of Pan-Hellenism in the 8th century BC, the works of Homer and Hesiod were written in the 8th century BC, becoming the basis of the national religion, ethos, history and mythology. The Oracle of Apollo at Delphi was established in this period, the classical period of Greek civilization covers a time spanning from the early 5th century BC to the death of Alexander the Great, in 323 BC. It is so named because it set the standards by which Greek civilization would be judged in later eras, the Peloponnesian War, the large scale civil war between the two most powerful Greek city-states Athens and Sparta and their allies, left both greatly weakened. Many Greeks settled in Hellenistic cities like Alexandria, Antioch and Seleucia, two thousand years later, there are still communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan, like the Kalash, who claim to be descended from Greek settlers. The Hellenistic civilization was the period of Greek civilization, the beginnings of which are usually placed at Alexanders death. This Hellenistic age, so called because it saw the partial Hellenization of many non-Greek cultures and this age saw the Greeks move towards larger cities and a reduction in the importance of the city-state. These larger cities were parts of the still larger Kingdoms of the Diadochi, Greeks, however, remained aware of their past, chiefly through the study of the works of Homer and the classical authors. An important factor in maintaining Greek identity was contact with barbarian peoples and this led to a strong desire among Greeks to organize the transmission of the Hellenic paideia to the next generation
14.
Byzantine aristocracy
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The Byzantine Empire had a complex system of aristocracy and bureaucracy, which was inherited from the Roman Empire. At the apex of the hierarchy stood the emperor, who was the sole ruler, beneath him, a multitude of officials and court functionaries operated the complex administrative machinery that was necessary to run the empire. In addition to officials, a large number of honorific titles existed. Over the more than years of the empires existence, different titles were adopted and discarded. At first the various titles of the empire were the same as those in the late Roman Empire, however, by the time that Heraclius was emperor, many of the titles had become obsolete. By the time of Alexios I reign, many of the positions were either new or drastically changed, however, from that time on they remained essentially the same until the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453. In this, the new titles derived from older, now obsolete, public offices, a senatorial class remained in place, which incorporated a large part of the upper officialdom as every official from the rank of protospatharios was considered a member of it. During this period, many families remained important for several centuries, the 10th and 11th centuries saw a rise in importance of the aristocracy, and an increased number of new families entering it. In the 11th and 12th century for instance, some 80 civil and 64 military noble families have been identified and these were the highest titles, usually limited to members of the imperial family or to a few very select foreign rulers, whose friendship the Emperor desired. Basileus, the Greek word for sovereign which originally referred to any king in the Greek-speaking areas of the Roman Empire and it also referred to the Shahs of Persia. Heraclius adopted it to replace the old Latin title of Augustus in 629, Heraclius also used the titles autokrator and kyrios. The feminine form basilissa referred to an empress, empresses were addressed as eusebestatē avgousta, and were also called kyria or despoina. This was rooted firmly in the Roman republican tradition, whereby hereditary kingship was rejected, in such a case the need for an imperial selection never arose. In several cases the new Emperor ascended the throne after marrying the previous Emperors widow, or indeed after forcing the previous Emperor to abdicate, several emperors were also deposed because of perceived inadequacy, e. g. after a military defeat, and some were murdered. Autokratōr — self-ruler, this title was equivalent to imperator. Despotēs – Lord, This title was used by the emperors themselves since the time of Justinian I and it was extensively featured in coins, in lieu of Basileus. In the 12th century, Manuel I Komnenos made it a separate title, the first such despotēs was actually a foreigner, Bela III of Hungary, signifying that Hungary was considered a Byzantine tributary state. In later times, a despot could be the holder of a despotate, for example, the feminine form, despoina, referred to a female despot or the wife of a despot, but it was also used to address the Empress
15.
Byzantine army
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The Byzantine army or Eastern Roman army was the primary military body of the Byzantine armed forces, serving alongside the Byzantine navy. A direct descendant of the Roman army, the Byzantine army maintained a level of discipline, strategic prowess. It was among the most effective armies of western Eurasia for much of the Middle Ages, over time the cavalry arm became more prominent in the Byzantine army as the legion system disappeared in the early 7th century. Since much of the Byzantine military focused on the strategy and skill of generals utilizing militia troops, heavy infantry were recruited from Frankish, restricted to a largely defensive role in the 7th to mid-9th centuries, the Byzantines developed the theme-system to counter the more powerful Caliphate. With one of the most powerful economies in the world at the time, after the collapse of the theme-system in the 11th century, the Byzantines grew increasingly reliant on professional Tagmata troops, including ever-increasing numbers of foreign mercenaries. The Komnenian emperors made great efforts to re-establish a native army, the Komnenian successes were undone by the subsequent Angeloi dynasty, leading to the dissolution of the Empire at the hands of the Fourth Crusade in 1204. The Emperors of Nicaea managed to form a small but effective force using the structure of light and heavily armed troops. It proved effective in defending what remained of Byzantine Anatolia and reclaiming much of the Balkans, another period of neglect of the military followed in the reign of Andronikos II Palaiologos, which allowed Anatolia to fall prey to an emerging power, the Ottoman emirate. In the period after the Muslim conquests, which saw the loss of Syria and Egypt, despite this unprecedented disaster, the internal structures of the army remained much the same, and there is a remarkable continuity in tactics and doctrine between the 6th and 11th centuries. The Eastern Empire dates from the creation of the Tetrarchy by the Emperor Diocletian in 293 and his plans for succession did not outlive his lifetime, but his reorganization of the army did by centuries. Rather than maintain the traditional infantry-heavy legions, Diocletian reformed it into limitanei, there was an expansion of the importance of the cavalry, though the infantry still remained the major component of the Roman armies, in contrast to common belief. In preparation for Justinians African campaign of 533-534 AD, the army assembled amounted to 10,000 foot soldiers and 5,000 mounted archers, the limitanei and ripenses were to occupy the limes, the Roman border fortifications. The field units, by contrast, were to stay well behind the border and move quickly where they were needed, whether for offensive or defensive roles, the field units were held to high standards and took precedence over Limitanei in pay and provisions. Cavalry formed about one-third of the units, but as a result of smaller units, about half the cavalry consisted of heavy cavalry. They were armed with spear or lance and sword and armored in mail, some had bows, but they were meant for supporting the charge instead of independent skirmishing. In the field there was a component of some 15% of cataphractarii or clibanarii. The light cavalry featured high amongst the limitanei, being very useful troops on patrol, the infantry of the comitatenses was organized in regiments of about 500–1,200 men. They were still the heavy infantry of old, with a spear or sword, shield, body armour, but now each regiment was supported by a detachment of light infantry skirmishers
16.
Grand Domestic
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The title of Grand Domestic was given in the 11th–15th centuries to the commander-in-chief of the Byzantine army, directly below the Byzantine Emperor. It evolved from the office of the Domestic of the Schools. From Byzantium, it was adopted by the breakaway Empire of Trebizond. Nevertheless, the office was sometimes referred to in the sources as the Grand Domestic of the Schools or of the army. For most of its existence, the office of Grand Domestic was by its nature confined to a single holder, the office varied in importance in the court hierarchy. Under the Komnenian emperors, it immediately after the imperial titles of Caesar, sebastokratōr. In the 13th century, it rose and fell according to the desire to honour its holder, but was usually at seventh place, below the prōtovestiarios. Like all Byzantine offices, it was neither hereditary nor transferable, the office also included various ceremonial functions, as detailed in the mid-14th century account of offices of pseudo-Kodinos. Alternatively, a domed skaranikon hat could be worn, again in red and gold, with a portrait of the emperor, standing crowned and flanked by angels, within a circle of pearls, the skaranikon itself was also bordered with pearls. A rich silk tunic, the kabbadion, of two colours, decorated with stripes of gold braid. A staff of office with carved knobs, with the first of plain gold, the second of gold bordered with silver braid, the third like the first, the Late Byzantine Army, Arms and Society 1204–1453. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania Press, recherches sur les institutions byzantines, Tome I. Recherches sur les institutions byzantines, Tome I, haldon, John F. Warfare, State and Society in the Byzantine World, 565-1204. New York and Oxford, Oxford University Press, george Akropolites, The History – Introduction, Translation and Commentary. The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261–1453, vienna, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. The Latin Renovatio of Byzantium, The Empire of Constantinople, verpeaux, Jean, ed. Pseudo-Kodinos, Traité des Offices. Paris, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
17.
Andronikos III Palaiologos
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Andronikos III Palaiologos, commonly Latinized as Andronicus III Palaeologus, was Byzantine emperor from 1328 to 1341. Born Andronikos Doukas Angelos Komnenos Palaiologos, he was the son of Michael IX Palaiologos and he was proclaimed co-emperor in his youth, before 1313, and in April 1321 he rebelled in opposition to his grandfather, Andronikos II Palaiologos. He was formally crowned co-emperor on February 1325, before ousting his grandfather outright and his early death left a power vacuum that resulted in the disastrous civil war between his Empress-dowager, Anna of Savoy, and his closest friend and supporter, John VI Kantakouzenos. Andronikos was born in Constantinople on 25 March 1297, the 38th birthday of his paternal grandfather and his father, Michael IX Palaiologos, began reigning in full imperial style as co-emperor circa 1295. In March 1318, Andronikos married Irene of Brunswick, daughter of Henry I, in circa 1321 she gave birth to a son, who died in infancy. In 1320, Andronikos accidentally caused the death of his brother Manuel, after which their father, co-emperor Michael IX Palaiologos, Emperor Andronikos II disowned his grandson Andronikos, who then fled the capital and rallied his supporters in Thrace and began to reign as rival emperor in 1321. Andronikos then waged the intermittent Byzantine civil war of 1321–28 against his reigning grandfather, empress Irene died on 16/17 August 1324 with no surviving child. Theodora Palaiologina, sister of Andronikos III, married the new tsar Michael Shishman of Bulgaria in 1324, Andronikos III, then a widower, married Anna of Savoy in October 1326. In 1327 she gave birth to Maria Palaiologina, Andronikos III concluded the Treaty of Chernomen of 1327, an alliance with tsar Michael Shishman of Bulgaria against Stephen Uroš III Dečanski of Serbia. The Byzantine civil war flared again and ultimately led to the deposition in 1328 of Emperor Andronikos II, Ottoman Turks besieged Nicaea in Asia Minor, historically the provisional capital of the Byzantine Empire from the Fourth Crusade until the Byzantine recapture of Constantinople. Andronikos III launched an attempt, which Ottoman sultan Orhan defeated at the Battle of Pelekanon on 10 or 15 June 1329. Nevertheless, Andronikos III effected the recovery of Lordship of Chios from Martino Zaccaria in a naval battle, an alliance with Bulgaria failed to secure any gains for the Byzantine empire. On 28 July 1330, the Serbians decisively defeated the Bulgarians in the Battle of Velbazhd without significant Byzantine participation, the Ottomans continued to advance in 1331, finally taking Nicaea. Andronikos III wanted Nicomedia and the other few Byzantine forts in Anatolia not to suffer the same fate, Andronikos III reorganized and attempted to strengthen the weakened Byzantine navy, which comprised only 10 ships by 1332, in emergencies, he still could muster a hundred extra merchant ships. The Muslim traveler Ibn Battuta visited Constantinople towards the end of 1332, Byzantine sources do not attest to the meeting. Stephen Gabrielopoulos, ruler over Thessaly, died circa 1333, taking advantage of the secession crisis, Syrgiannes Palaiologos, entrusted with the governorship of Thessalonica, deserted to the side of king Stephen Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia and aided their advance in Macedonia. He led the Serbians to take Kastoria, Ohrid, Prilep, Strumica, Byzantine general Sphrantzes Palaiologos, posing as a deserter, entered the Serbian camp and killed Syrgiannes Palaiologos, ending his advance and bringing the Serbian army into disarray. In August 1334, the king of Serbia made peace with Andronikos III, Andronikos III meanwhile effected the recovery of Phocaea in 1334 from the last Genoese governor, Domenico Cattaneo
18.
Byzantine emperor
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This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Emperors listed below up to Theodosius I in 395 were sole or joint rulers of the entire Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire was the direct legal continuation of the eastern half of the Roman Empire following the division of the Roman Empire in 395. All Byzantine emperors considered themselves to be the rightful Roman emperor in direct succession from Augustus, the title of all Emperors preceding Heraclius was officially Augustus, although other titles such as Dominus were also used. Their names were preceded by Imperator Caesar and followed by Augustus, following Heraclius, the title commonly became the Greek Basileus, which had formerly meant sovereign but was then used in place of Augustus. Following the establishment of the rival Holy Roman Empire in Western Europe, in later centuries, the Emperor could be referred to by Western Christians as the Emperor of the Greeks. Towards the end of the Empire, the standard formula of the Byzantine ruler was in Christ, Emperor. For Roman emperors before Constantine I, see List of Roman emperors, family tree of the Byzantine emperors List of Roman emperors List of Roman usurpers List of Byzantine usurpers List of Roman and Byzantine empresses
19.
Second Palaiologan Civil War
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The war polarized Byzantine society along class lines, with the aristocracy backing Kantakouzenos and the lower and middle classes supporting the regency. To a lesser extent, the conflict acquired religious overtones, Byzantium was embroiled in the Hesychast controversy, and adherence to the mystical doctrine of Hesychasm was often equated with support for Kantakouzenos. As the chief aide and closest friend of Emperor Andronikos III, in response, Kantakouzenos army and supporters proclaimed him co-emperor in October, cementing the rift between himself and the new regency. The split immediately escalated into armed conflict, during the first years of the war, forces of the new regency prevailed. In the wake of several uprisings, most notably that of the Zealots in Thessalonica. With assistance from Stefan Dušan of Serbia and Umur Beg of Aydin, by 1345, despite Dušans defection to the opposition and the withdrawal of Umur, Kantakouzenos retained the upper hand through the assistance of Orhan, ruler of the Ottoman emirate. The June 1345 murder of megas doux Apokaukos, the chief administrator. Formally crowned as emperor in Adrianople in 1346, Kantakouzenos entered Constantinople on 3 February 1347, by agreement, he was to rule for ten years as the senior emperor and regent for John V, until the boy came of age and ruled alongside him. Despite this apparent victory, subsequent resumption of the war forced John VI Kantakouzenos to abdicate. The consequences of the conflict proved disastrous for the Empire. Seven years of warfare, the presence of marauding armies, social turmoil, the conflict also allowed Dušan to conquer Albania, Epirus and most of Macedonia, where he established the Serbian Empire. The Bulgarian Empire also acquired territory north of the Evros river, in 1341, the once-mighty Byzantine Empire was in a state of turmoil. During Andronikos IIs long reign, the remaining Byzantine possessions in Asia Minor slowly fell to the advancing Turks and this caused a flood of refugees into Byzantiums European provinces, while at the same time the Catalan Company wrought havoc in the imperial domains. Taxes also rose dramatically to finance tributes to the Empires enemies, a combination of these failures and personal ambition moved the Emperors grandson and heir, the young Andronikos III Palaiologos, to revolt. Supported by a group of aristocrats led by John Kantakouzenos. The only son of a governor of the Byzantine holdings in the Morea. He inherited vast estates in Macedonia, Thrace and Thessaly, and became a childhood friend, during Andronikos IIIs reign, John Kantakouzenos acted as his chief minister, holding the office of megas domestikos, commander-in-chief of the Byzantine army. The relationship between the two remained close, and in 1330, when the heirless Andronikos III fell ill he insisted that Kantakouzenos be proclaimed Emperor or regent after his death
20.
Morea
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The Morea was the name of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The name was used for the Byzantine province known as the Despotate of the Morea, by the Ottoman Empire for the Morea Eyalet, there is some uncertainty over the origin of the medieval name Morea, which is first recorded only in the 10th century in the Byzantine chronicles. The British Byzantinist Steven Runciman suggested that the name comes from the likeness of its shape to that of a mulberry leaf, after the conquest of Constantinople by the forces of the Fourth Crusade, two groups of Franks undertook the occupation of the Morea. They created the Principality of Achaea, a largely Greek-inhabited statelet ruled by a Latin autocrat, in referring to the Peloponnese, they followed local practice and used the name Morea. The most important prince in the Morea was Guillaume II de Villehardouin, an initial Byzantine drive to reconquer the entire peninsula failed in the battles of Prinitza and Makryplagi, and the Byzantines and Franks settled to an uneasy coexistence. In the mid-14th century, the later Byzantine Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos reorganized Morea into the Despotate of the Morea, sons of the emperor with the rank of despotes were usually sent to rule the province as an appanage. By 1430, the Byzantines eventually recovered the remainder of the Frankish part of the Morea, in July 1461 the last holdout, Salmeniko Castle, was taken. The peninsula was captured for the Republic of Venice by Francesco Morosini during the Morean War of 1684–99, venetian rule proved unpopular, and the Ottomans recaptured the Morea in a lightning campaign in 1714. Under renewed Ottoman rule, centered at Tripolitsa, the region enjoyed relative prosperity, the latter 18th century was marked by renewed dissatisfaction. Armed bands of the klephts emerged, undeterred by the repression of the Orlov Revolt. They waged guerrilla war against the Turks, aided both by the decay of Ottoman power and the emergence of Greek national consciousness, ultimately, the Morea and its inhabitants provided the cradle and backbone of the Greek Revolution. The anonymous 14th century Chronicle of the Morea relates events of the Franks establishment of feudalism in mainland Greece following the Fourth Crusade, despite its unreliability about historical events, the Chronicle is famous for its lively portrayal of life in the feudal community. The language in Greek versions is notable as it reflects the transition from Medieval to Modern Greek. The original language of the Chronicle is disputed, but recent scholarship prefers the Greek version in MS Havniensis 57, other manuscripts include the Ms Parisinus graecus 2898. The difference of one century in the texts shows a considerable number of linguistic differences due to the rapid evolution of the Greek language. List of traditional Greek place names Bon, Antoine, recherches historiques, topographiques et archéologiques sur la principauté d’Achaïe. M. J. Jeffreys, The Chronicle of Morea, Priority of the Greek Version, teresa Shawcross, The Chronicle of Morea, Historiography in Crusader Greece
21.
Palaiologos
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Founded by the 11th-century general Nikephoros Palaiologos and his son George, the family rose to the highest aristocratic circles through its marriage into the Doukas and Komnenos dynasties. A branch of the Palaiologos became the lords of Montferrat. This inheritance was eventually incorporated by marriage to the Gonzaga family, rulers of the Duchy of Mantua, the origins of the Palaiologoi are unknown. Later traditions sometimes tied them to the Italian city of Viterbo or to the Romans who immigrated east with Constantine the Great during the founding of his new capital, both were probably fabrications created to help legitimize the dynasty. The family are first attested as local lords in Asia Minor, particularly Anatolikon and he supported the revolt of Nikephoros Botaneiates, while his son George married Anna Doukaina and therefore supported his sister-in-laws husband Alexios Komnenos during his rise to power. As commander of Dyrrhachium, George faced the Norman Duke Robert Guiscard in battle, the Palaiologoi held military offices and further united their family to the Doukai and Komnenoi during the 12th century. They followed Theodore Laskaris to Nicaea and began to assume high-ranking political offices as well, Alexios Palaiologos, whose wife was a granddaughter of Zoe Doukaina and her husband Adrianos Komnenos. Another Alexios Palaiologos married Irene Angelina, eldest daughter of Alexios III Angelos, the latter couples daughter Theodora Palaiologina married her cousin Andronikos Palaiologos, who was descended from Zoe. The couple were the progenitors of the imperial dynasty and their son was Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos. Michael VIIIs son Andronikos II Palaiologos married Anne of Hungary and fathered Michael Palaiologos, Michael IX married Rita of Armenia. Their son, the grandson of Andronikos II, was Andronikos III Palaiologos, Andronikos III married Anna of Savoy. Their son was John V Palaiologos, John V married Helena Kantakouzene, a daughter of his co-ruler John VI Kantakuzenos. Their sons included Andronikos IV Palaiologos and Manuel II Palaiologos and they were the parents of John VIII Palaiologos and Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last Byzantine emperor, as well as the despots of Morea Demetrios Palaiologos and Thomas Palaiologos. Demetrios, after giving Mehmed II a pretext to invade Morea, was kept from his throne and his daughter Helen was a member of the sultans harem for a time. Thomas, in exile in Venice, sold the title to Charles VIII of France. Thomas daughter Zoe married Ivan III of Russia and, on rejoining the Orthodox faith and her influence on the court curtailed the power of the boyars and eventually led to the proclamation of the Grand Prince of Muscovy as the Tsar of all the Russias. Though Thomass male-line descendants soon became extinct, his descent lives on through a daughter, one such female descendant, Princess dArenberg, married at the beginning of the 19th century a Pfalzgraf of Zweibrücken, whereby the Dukes of Bavaria descend from Byzantine emperors. Also Queen Anne, consort of former king Michael of Romania descends from these Arenbergs, reportedly Herina, the first wife of Emperor Isaac II Angelos who reigned from 1185 to 1195, was of the Palaiologos family
22.
Andronikos II Palaiologos
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Andronikos II Palaiologos, usually Latinized as Andronicus II Palaeologus, was Byzantine emperor from 11 December 1282 to 23 or 24 May 1328. Andronikos II was born Andronikos Doukas Angelos Komnenos Palaiologos at Nicaea and he was the eldest surviving son of Michael VIII Palaiologos and Theodora Palaiologina, grandniece of John III Doukas Vatatzes. Andronikos was acclaimed co-emperor in 1261, after his father Michael VIII recovered Constantinople from the Latin Empire, Andronikos II was also plagued by economic difficulties. During his reign the value of the Byzantine hyperpyron depreciated precipitously, in 1291, he hired 50–60 Genoese ships, but the Byzantine weakness resulting from the lack of a navy became painfully apparent in the two wars with Venice in 1296–1302 and 1306–10. Later, in 1320, he tried to resurrect the navy by constructing 20 galleys, Andronikos II Palaiologos sought to resolve some of the problems facing the Byzantine Empire through diplomacy. After the death of his first wife Anne of Hungary, he married Yolanda of Montferrat, another marriage alliance attempted to resolve the potential conflict with Serbia in Macedonia, as Andronikos II married off his five-year-old daughter Simonis to King Stefan Milutin in 1298. Andronikos II had resettled those Cretans in the region of Meander river, in spite of some successes, the Catalans were unable to secure lasting gains. There they conquered the Duchy of Athens and Thebes, the Turks continued to penetrate the Byzantine possessions, and Prusa fell in 1326. By the end of Andronikos IIs reign, much of Bithynia was in the hands of the Ottoman Turks of Osman I and his son and heir Orhan. Also, Karasids conquered Mysia-region with Paleokastron after 1296, Germiyan conquered Simav in 1328, Saruhan captured Magnesia in 1313, the Empires problems were exploited by Theodore Svetoslav of Bulgaria, who defeated Michael IX and conquered much of northeastern Thrace in c. The conflict ended with yet another marriage, between Michael IXs daughter Theodora and the Bulgarian emperor. The conflict precipitated Bulgarian involvement, and Michael Asen III of Bulgaria attempted to capture Andronikos II under the guise of sending him military support, in 1328 Andronikos III entered Constantinople in triumph and Andronikos II was forced to abdicate. Andronikos II died as a monk at Constantinople in 1332, on 8 November 1273 Andronikos II married as his first wife Anna of Hungary, daughter of Stephen V of Hungary and Elizabeth the Cuman, with whom he had two sons, Michael IX Palaiologos. Constantine was forced to become a monk by his nephew Andronikos III Palaiologos, Anna died in 1281, and in 1284 Andronikos married Yolanda, a daughter of William VII of Montferrat, with whom he had, John Palaiologos, despotes. Simonis Palaiologina, who married King Stefan Milutin of Serbia, the Late Byzantine Army, Arms and Society 1204–1453. The Late Medieval Balkans, A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest, ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press. Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, laiou, Angeliki E. Constantinople and the Latins, The Foreign Policy of Andronicus II, 1282–1328. Η εσωτερική πολιτική του Ανδρονίκου Β΄ Παλαιολόγου, the Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261–1453
23.
Anna of Savoy
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Not to be confused with Anne of Savoy Anna of Savoy, born Giovanna was a Byzantine Empress consort, as the second spouse of Andronikos III Palaiologos. She served as regent during the minority of her son from 1341 until 1347, Anna was a daughter of Amadeus V, Count of Savoy, and his second wife, Maria of Brabant. She was betrothed to Andronikos III Palaiologos, during which time he was involved in a war with his paternal grandfather Andronikos II Palaiologos. He had claimed the throne since 1321, according to the history of John VI Kantakouzenos, the marriage took place in October,1326. She joined the Eastern Orthodox Church and took the name Anna, in 1328, Andronikos III entered Constantinople and finally deposed his grandfather. On 15 June 1341, Andronikos III died and he was succeeded by their son John V who was still three days short of his ninth birthday. Anna was appointed regent for her son, however Andronikos III had entrusted the administration to his advisor John Kantakouzenos. Anna did not trust the powerful advisor, at about the same time, Stefan Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia launched an invasion of Northern Thrace. Kantakouzenos left Constantinople to try to order to the area. In his absence, Patriarch John XIV of Constantinople and courtier Alexios Apokaukos convinced Anna that the advisor was her enemy. Anna declared Kantakouzenos an enemy of the state and offered the title of eparch of Constantinople to Apokaukos, Kantakouzenos was still in control of part of the Byzantine army. On 26 October 1341, he answered by proclaiming himself emperor at Didymoteicho and this was the beginning of a civil war that would last until 1347. Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria soon allied with the faction under John V, both rulers were actually taking advantage of the civil war for their own political and territorial gains. In time John VI would ally himself with Orhan I of the nascent Ottoman emirate, at the same time Anna was attempting to gain support from Western Europe. In Summer,1343 an emissary proclaimed her loyalty to Pope Clement VI in Avignon, in August,1343, Anna pawned the Byzantine crown jewels to the Republic of Venice for 30,000 ducats as part of an attempt to secure more finances for the war. However Anna at last lost the war, on 3 February 1347, the two sides reached an agreement. John VI was accepted as emperor with John V as his junior co-ruler. The agreement with the marriage of John V to Helena Kantakouzene, John VI entered Constantinople and took effective control of the city
24.
Patriarch of Constantinople
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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
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John XIV of Constantinople
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John XIV, surnamed Kalekas was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 1334 to 1347. He was an anti-hesychast and opponent of Gregory Palamas and he was an active participant in the Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347 as a member of the regency for John V Palaiologos, against John VI Kantakouzenos. John Kalekas was born about the year 1282 in Apros, Thrace, after having grown up in modest circumstances, John was married and had a son and daughter. John came under the patronage of John Kantakouzenos, the minister of emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos and later megas domestikos. Barlaam, trained in western scholastic theology, was scandalized and began to campaign against the practice, the dispute grew until 1341, when emperor Andronikos III, a supporter of Gregory Palamas, convened the Fifth Council of Constantinople. Although he was supportive of Barlaam, John did not resist his condemnation, thereafter, Barlaams cause was taken up by Gregory Akindynos. In 1344, in a synod convened by John Kantakouzenos, where the patriarch John was absent, during the same synod, John also had Bishop Isidore of Monembasia, a disciple of Gregory, excommunicated. After the death of emperor Andronikos III in June 1341, two factions emerged at the imperial court concerned with the regency for the infant co-emperor John V Palaiologos, aided by the intrigues of Alexios Apokaukos, the two sides engaged in a Byzantine civil war that lasted until 1347. After some maneuvering one faction formed around John Kantakouzenos, who was a supporter of Gregory Palamas, in forming the faction, Anna made Patriarch John a regent and appointed Alexios Apokaukos an eparchos. Initially, the regency held the hand, but by 1345 John Kantakouzenos, aided by help from Orhan I of the Ottoman emirate. In 1346, John VI Kantakouzenos was crowned co-emperor in Adrianople, then, the regency war ended with the agreement that John Kantakouzenos would be the senior emperor and regent for John V Palaiologos until he was old enough to rule on his own. A synod was held in February 1347 which deposed John, exiling him to Didymoteicho, Isidore Buchiras, who had been excommunicated by the synod of 1344, was now made patriarch. Within days after the end of the concilabulum, John VI Kantakouzenos, victoriously entered Constantinople, one of his first acts was to confirm the deposition of John XIV and to approve the synodal tome that had just been issued against him. In the latter part of 1347, the deposed John Kalekas was returned from exile to Constantinople where he died later in the year
26.
Alexios Apokaukos
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Alexios Apokaukos was a leading Byzantine statesman and high-ranking military officer during the reigns of emperors Andronikos III Palaiologos and John V Palaiologos. Apokaukos died when he was lynched by political prisoners during an inspection of a new prison, alexios was of humble origin, and was born in the late 13th century somewhere in Bithynia. He nevertheless studied under the scholar Theodore Hyrtakenos, and became a tax official, by 1320 he was director of the salt pans, from which he later advanced to the position of domestikos of the themes of the West. He rose in the hierarchy until, in 1321, he was appointed the imperial parakoimōmenos. Under the threat of war, the Emperor surrendered Thrace and some districts in Macedonia to the rule of his grandson, in early 1341, shortly before Andronikoss death, he was rewarded with the high office of megas doux, giving him the high command over the Byzantine navy. He re-equipped the fleet, paying from his own pocket 100,000 hyperpyra, Kantakouzenos did not claim the throne for himself, but demanded the regency, based on his close association with the deceased emperor, and with the support of the capitals troops secured it. As soon as Kantakouzenos left Constantinople in July 1341 to campaign against the Empires enemies who were assaulting it, Apokaukos also tried to kidnap the young John V, but failed and was forced to flee to his house at Epibatai. However, when Kantakouzenos returned victorious to the capital, instead of depriving Apokaukos of his offices, Apokaukos put on an exaggerated display of deference to Kantakouzenos, who allowed him to resume his offices and return to Constantinople, while Kantakouzenos left on yet another campaign. Once back in the city, however, the Patriarch and Apokaukos seized power, Kantakouzenoss family and friends were imprisoned, the Patriarch was declared regent, while Anna named Apokaukos as urban prefect of Constantinople. Kantakouzenos responded by having himself declared emperor at Didymoteicho in October 1341, the two coronations finalized the split, and ushered in a civil war that would embroil the Byzantine Empire and all of its neighbours until 1347 with Kantakouzenoss victory. In a similar development in 1342, Thessalonica, the Empires second-largest city, was seized by a known as the Zealots. Their anti-aristocratic beliefs made them enemies of Kantakouzenism, and earned them the support of the regency, Apokaukos himself arrived with a fleet of 70 ships to aid them, and appointed his elder son John Apokaukos as the citys governor, although the latters authority would remain only nominal. In the first years of the war, the tide was in favour of the regency, until, in the summer of 1342, however, from 1343 onwards, with the aid of his friend, Umur Beg of Aydin, Kantakouzenos began to reverse the situation. Gradually, Apokaukoss supporters abandoned him, including his son Manuel, in early 1345, Apokaukos and Kalekas rejected offers of reconciliation conveyed by two Franciscan monks. Trying to bolster his power, Apokaukos began a series of proscriptions in the capital. On 11 June 1345, Apokaukos suddenly decided to inspect the new prison, the prisoners immediately rose up and lynched him, and his head was severed and stuck on a pole. The prisoners believed that by getting rid of the hated Apokaukos, as a result, all prisoners, some 200 in total, were massacred, even though some attempted to seek refuge in a nearby monastery. As such, it marked the beginning of the wars end, alexios Apokaukos had two brothers, John and Nikephoros, of whom very little is known
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Frankokratia
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The term derives from the fact that the Orthodox Greeks called the Western European Catholics Latins, most of whom were of French or Venetian origin. The Latin Empire, centered in Constantinople and encompassing Thrace and Bithynia and its territories were gradually reduced to little more than the capital, which was eventually captured by the Empire of Nicaea in 1261. Duchy of Philippopolis, fief of the Latin Empire in northern Thrace, lemnos formed a fief of the Latin Empire under the Venetian Navigajoso family from 1207 until conquered by the Byzantines in 1278. Its rulers bore the title of megadux of the Latin Empire, the Kingdom of Thessalonica, encompassing Macedonia and Thessaly. The brief existence of the Kingdom was almost continuously troubled by warfare with the Second Bulgarian Empire, eventually, it was conquered by the Despotate of Epirus. The County of Salona, centred at Salona, like Bodonitsa, was formed as a state of the Kingdom of Thessalonica. It came under Catalan and later Navarrese rule in the 14th century and it was finally conquered by the Ottomans in 1410. The Marquisate of Bodonitsa, like Salona, was created as a vassal state of the Kingdom of Thessalonica. In 1335, the Venetian Giorgi family took control, and ruled until the Ottoman conquest in 1414, the Principality of Achaea, encompassing the Morea or Peloponnese peninsula. It quickly emerged as the strongest Crusader state, and prospered even after the demise of the Latin Empire and its main rival was the Byzantine Despotate of the Morea, which eventually succeeded in conquering the Principality. It also exercised suzerainty over the Lordship of Argos and Nauplia, the Duchy of Athens, with its two capitals Thebes and Athens, and encompassing Attica, Boeotia, and parts of southern Thessaly. In 1311, the Duchy was conquered by the Catalan Company, and in 1388, it passed into the hands of the Florentine Acciaiuoli family, the Duchy of Naxos or of the Archipelago, founded by the Sanudo family, it encompassed most of the Cyclades. In 1383, it passed under the control of the Crispo family, the Duchy became an Ottoman vassal in 1537, and was finally annexed to the Ottoman Empire in 1579. The Triarchy of Negroponte, encompassing the island of Negroponte, originally a vassal of Thessalonica and it was fragmented into three baronies run each by two barons. This fragmentation enabled Venice to gain influence acting as mediators, by 1390 Venice had established direct control of the entire island, which remained in Venetian hands until 1470, when it was captured by the Ottomans. The County palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos and it encompassed the Ionian Islands of Cephalonia, Zakynthos, Ithaca, and, from ca. Created as a vassal to the Kingdom of Sicily, it was ruled by the Orsini family from 1195 to 1335, the county was split between Venice and the Ottomans in 1479. Rhodes became the headquarters of the monastic order of the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John in 1310
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Didymoteichon
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Didymóteicho is a town located on the eastern edge of the Evros regional unit of East Macedonia and Thrace, in northeastern Greece. It is the seat of the municipality of the same name. The town sits on a plain and located south east of Svilengrad, south of Edirne, Turkey and Orestiada, west of Uzunköprü, Turkey, about 20 km north of Soufli and about 90 km north of Alexandroupoli. The municipality of Didymóteicho has an area of 565.4 km². Didymoteicho is just 2 kilometers away from the Greek-Turkish border, and as a result it is home to many Greek military units, hundreds of thousands of Greek men had to either receive military training or spend part of their military service here. The city was known in Katharevousa as Διδυμότειχον, Didymóteichon, from δίδυμος, dídymos, twin and τεῖχος, teîchos. Other relevant names of Didymoteicho include Dimotika and Dimetoka, forests dominate the banks and parts of the plain. Much of the area is used for farming, the main produce is cattle, fruits and vegetables and some flowers. Near the area lies the great forest of Dadia, Didymoteicho is located around 12 km from Turkey and the western banks of the Evros. It is the easternmost municipality on the mainland of Greece, in the west, much of the land is mountainous and forested, while farmlands are located in the central and the northern part. It is on the railway line Thessaloniki–Istanbul and the Greek road 51.372 km2, the province of Didymoteicho was one of the provinces of the Evros Prefecture. Its territory corresponded with that of the current municipality Didymoteicho and the municipal unit Orfeas, the area around the town was inhabited in Neolithic times. It was later an important Thracian and Hellenistic town, sacked by the Romans in 204 BC, the city would later be one of the most important towns in Thrace, having its own assembly, and an episcopal see. The ruins of the ancient city are now known as the Kale, a solid gold bust of Emperor Septimius Severus found on the site of Plotinopolis in 1965 is now in the museum at Komotini. According to F. A. Giannopoulos, Didymoteicho was probably built in the 6th century by Justinian I to replace Plotinopolis and it seems that already in the 7th century, Plotinopolis had been abandoned in favour of the new site. The fortress was captured by Krum of Bulgaria in 813, but in 879 it was a bishopric whose incumbent, Nikephoros, a century later, it served as a place of exile for the general and rebel Bardas Skleros, who unsuccessfully tried to oust Byzantine Emperor Basil II. Didymoteicho briefly became the seat of a lordship within the Latin Empire after the Fourth Crusade. In the early 13th century, the town was fought over by Latin crusaders, members of the Angelos family, finally the Empire of Nicaea returned Didymoteicho to Byzantine Greek control by capturing it around 1243 during the reign of John III Doukas Vatatzes
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Thrace
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It comprises southeastern Bulgaria, northeastern Greece, and the European part of Turkey. In antiquity, it was referred to as Europe, prior to the extension of the term to describe the whole continent. The name Thrace comes from the Thracians, an ancient Indo-European people inhabiting Southeastern Europe, the word itself was established by the Greeks for referring to the Thracian tribes, from Ancient Greek Thrake, descending from Thrāix. The name of the continent Europe first referred to Thrace proper, the region obviously took the name of the principal river there, Hebros, probably from the Indo-European arg white river, according to an alternative theory, Hebros means goat in Thracian. In Turkey, it is referred to as Rumeli, Land of the Romans. The name appears to derive from an ancient heroine and sorceress Thrace, who was the daughter of Oceanus and Parthenope, the historical boundaries of Thrace have varied. In one ancient Greek source, the very Earth is divided into Asia, Libya, Europa and this largely coincided with the Thracian Odrysian kingdom, whose borders varied over time. After the Macedonian conquest, this regions former border with Macedonia was shifted from the Struma River to the Mesta River and this usage lasted until the Roman conquest. Henceforth, Thrace referred only to the tract of land covering the same extent of space as the modern geographical region. The medieval Byzantine theme of Thrace contained only what today is Eastern Thrace, the largest cities of Thrace are, İstanbul, Plovdiv, Burgas, Stara Zagora, Haskovo, Yambol, Komotini, Alexandroupoli, Xanthi, Edirne, Çorlu and Tekirdağ. Most of the Bulgarian and Greek population are Christians, while most of the Turkish inhabitants of Thrace are Muslims, Ancient Greek mythology provides them with a mythical ancestor, named Thrax, son of the war-god Ares, who was said to reside in Thrace. The Thracians appear in Homers Iliad as Trojan allies, led by Acamas, later in the Iliad, Rhesus, another Thracian king, makes an appearance. Cisseus, father-in-law to the Trojan elder Antenor, is given as a Thracian king. Homeric Thrace was vaguely defined, and stretched from the River Axios in the west to the Hellespont, Greek mythology is replete with Thracian kings, including Diomedes, Tereus, Lycurgus, Phineus, Tegyrius, Eumolpus, Polymnestor, Poltys, and Oeagrus. In addition to the tribe that Homer calls Thracians, ancient Thrace was home to other tribes, such as the Edones, Bisaltae, Cicones. Thrace is also mentioned in Ovids Metamorphoses in the episode of Philomela, Procne, Tereus, the King of Thrace, lusts after his sister-in-law, Philomela. He kidnaps her, holds her captive, rapes her, Philomela manages to get free, however. She and her sister, Procne, plot to get revenge, by killing Itys, at the end of the myth, all three turn into birds – Procne, a swallow, Philomela, a nightingale, and Tereus, a hoopoe
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Mercenary
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A mercenary is a person who takes part in an armed conflict who is not a national or party to the conflict and is motivated to take part in the hostilities by desire for private gain. Mercenaries fight for money or other recompense instead of fighting for ideological interests, in the last century, and as reflected in the Geneva Convention, mercenaries have increasingly come to be seen as less entitled to protections by rules of war than non-mercenaries. However, whether or not a person is a mercenary may be a matter of degree, Protocol Additional GC1977 is a 1977 amendment protocol to the Geneva Conventions. Article 47 of the protocol provides the most widely accepted definition of a mercenary, though not endorsed by some countries. The Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, a mercenary shall not have the right to be a combatant or a prisoner of war. All the criteria must be met, according to the Geneva Convention, according to the GC III, a captured soldier must be treated as a lawful combatant and, therefore, as a protected person with prisoner-of-war status until facing a competent tribunal. That tribunal, using criteria in APGC77 or some equivalent domestic law, may decide that the soldier is a mercenary. The only possible exception to GC IV Art 5 is when he is a national of the authority imprisoning him, if, after a regular trial, a captured soldier is found to be a mercenary, then he can expect treatment as a common criminal and may face execution. As mercenary soldiers may not qualify as PoWs, they cannot expect repatriation at wars end, the four mercenaries sentenced to death were shot by a firing squad on 10 July 1976. The legal status of civilian contractors depends upon the nature of their work, on 4 December 1989, the United Nations passed resolution 44/34, the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries. It entered into force on 20 October 2001 and is known as the UN Mercenary Convention. Article 1 contains the definition of a mercenary, Article 1.1 is similar to Article 47 of Protocol I, however Article 1. – under Article 1.2 a person does not have to take a part in the hostilities in a planned coup détat to be a mercenary. Critics have argued that the convention and APGC77 Art,47 are designed to cover the activities of mercenaries in post-colonial Africa and do not address adequately the use of private military companies by sovereign states. While the United States governed Iraq, no U. S. citizen working as a guard could be classified as a mercenary because he was a national of a Party to the conflict. S. However, those who acknowledge the United States and other forces as continuing parties to the conflict might insist that U. S. armed guards cannot be called mercenaries. The laws of countries forbid their citizens to fight in foreign wars unless they are under the control of their own national armed forces. If a person is proven to have worked as a mercenary for any other country while retaining Austrian citizenship, in 2003, France criminalized mercenary activities, as defined by the protocol to the Geneva convention for French citizens, permanent residents and legal entities
31.
Serbian Empire
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The Serbian Empire is a historiographical term for the empire in the Balkan peninsula that emerged from the medieval Serbian Kingdom. It was established in 1346 by King Stefan Dušan, known as the Mighty and he also promoted the Serbian Church to an Orthodox patriarchate. His son and successor, Uroš the Weak, lost most of the territory, the Serbian Empire effectively ended with the death of Stefan V in 1371 and the break-up of the Serbian state. Some successors of Stefan V claimed the title of Emperor in parts of Serbia until 1402, Stefan Dušan became King of Serbia by deposing father, Stefan Dečanski. By 1345, Dušan the Mighty had expanded his state to cover half of the Balkans, therefore, in 1345, in Serres, Dušan proclaimed himself Tsar. On 16 April 1346, in Skopje, he had himself crowned Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks, the ceremony was performed by the newly elevated Serbian Patriarch Joanikije II, the Bulgarian Patriarch Simeon, and Nicholas, the Archbishop of Ohrid. Tsar Dušan doubled the size of his kingdom, seizing territories to the south, southeast. Serbia held parts of modern Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moravian Serbia, Kosovo, Zeta, modern Macedonia, modern Albania and he did not fight a single field battle, instead winning his empire by besieging cities. Dušan undertook a campaign against the Byzantine Empire, which was attempting to avert a deteriorating situation after the destruction caused by the Fourth Crusade, Dušan swiftly seized Thessaly, Albania, Epirus, and most of Macedonia. Dušan thus ruled over the almost the entire Balkan peninsula, with only southern Greece, Salonica and he gave sanctuary to the former regent of the Byzantine Empire, John VI Kantakouzenos, in revolt against the government, and agreed to an alliance. In 1349 and 1354, Dušan enacted a set of known as Dušans Code. The Code was based on Roman-Byzantine law and the first Serbian constitution and it was a Civil and Canon law system, based on the Ecumenical Councils, for the functioning of the state and the Serbian Orthodox Church. In 1355, Dušan begin military preparations, assembling an army of 80,000 men, Dušan marched towards Constantinople, capturing Adrianople in a fierce battle. The Serbian army was proceeding to Constantinople, located 40 miles to the east and his expedition ended as well, and the army retreated carrying the dead body of the man who had elevated Serbia to the rank of a great power. Dušan was succeeded by his son, Stefan Uroš V, called the Weak, the combination of sudden conquest, backwards administration, and failure to consolidate its holdings led to the fragmentation of the empire. The period was marked by the rise of a new threat, the Ottoman Turkish sultanate gradually spread from Asia to Europe and conquered first Byzantine Thrace, and then the other Balkan states. Too incompetent to sustain the empire created by his father. The Serbian Empire of Stefan V fragmented into a conglomeration of principalities, Stefan Uroš V died childless on 4 December 1371, after much of the Serbian nobility had been killed by the Ottoman Turks during the Battle of Maritsa
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Ottoman Turkey
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After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
33.
Orchan
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Orhan Gazi was the second bey of the nascent Ottoman Sultanate from 1323/4 to 1362. He was born in Söğüt, as the son of Osman Gazi, in the early stages of his reign, Orhan focused his energies on conquering most of northwestern Anatolia. The majority of areas were under Byzantine rule and he won his first battle, at Pelekanon. Orhan also occupied the lands of the Karasids of Balıkesir and the Ahis of Ankara, a series of civil wars surrounding the ascension of the nine-year-old emperor John V Palaiologos benefited Orhan greatly. In the Byzantine civil war of 1352–1357, Kantakouzenos used Ottoman forces against John V himself, a major earthquake devastated Gallipoli two years later and Orhans son Süleyman Pasha occupied the town, giving the Ottomans a strong bridgehead into mainland Europe. Orhan was born around 1281, he was the first son of Osman I, Orhans grandfather, Ertugrul Gazi named his grandson after a famous Orhan Alp. Early childhood and adulthood of Orhan are unknown but he grown a very close to his father, in some historical articles, when Orhan was 20 year old, his father sent him in small Ottoman province named Nakihir, but Orhan returned to Ottoman capital Sogut in 1309. Sultan Osman Gazi died in either 1323 or 1324, and Orhan succeeded him, according to Ottoman tradition, when Orhan succeeded his father, he proposed to his brother, Alaeddin, that they should share the emerging empire. The latter refused on the grounds that their father had designated Orhan as sole successor, and he only accepted as his share the revenues of a single village near Bursa. Orhan then told him, Since, my brother, thou will not take the flocks, the word vizier, vezir in the Ottoman language, from Arabic wazīr, meant the bearer of a burden. Alaeddin, in accepting the office, accepted his brothers burden of power, Alaeddin, by his military legislation, may be truly said to have organized victory for the Ottoman dynasty. Orhans predecessors, Ertuğrul and Osman I, had made war at the head of the armed vassals and this army rode on horseback to their princes banner when summoned for each expedition, and were disbanded as soon as the campaign was over. Alaeddin determined to ensure any future success by forming a corps of paid infantry and these troops were called Yaya, or piyade. They were divided into tens, hundreds, and thousands with their commanders and their pay was high, and their pride soon caused their sovereign some anxiety. Orhan wished to provide a check to them, and he took counsel for this purpose with his brother Alaeddin and Kara Khalil Çandarlı, Çandarlı laid before his master and the vizier a project. Out of this arose the renowned corps of Janissaries, which was considered the scourge of the Balkans and Central Europe for a long time, Çandarlı proposed to Orhan to create an army entirely composed of the children of conquered places. Çandarlı argued that, The conquered are the responsibility of the conqueror, who is the ruler of them, of their lands, of their goods, of their wives. We have a right to do, same as what we do with our own, and the treatment which I propose is not only lawful, but benevolent
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Bursa
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Bursa is a large city in Turkey, located in northwestern Anatolia, within the Marmara Region. It is the fourth most populous city in Turkey and one of the most industrialized metropolitan centres in the country, the city is also the administrative centre of Bursa Province. Bursa was the first major and second overall capital of the Ottoman State between 1335 and 1363, the ski resort of Mount Uludağ towers over it. The mountain was called the Mysian Olympus by the Romans who lived there before, Bursa has rather orderly urban growth and borders a fertile plain. The mausoleums of the early Ottoman sultans are located in Bursa, Bursa also has thermal baths and several museums, including a museum of archaeology. The shadow play characters Karagöz and Hacivat are based on historic personalities who lived and died in Bursa, Bursa is also home to some of the most famous Turkish dishes such as İskender kebap, specially candied marron glacés, peaches and Turkish Delight. Bursa houses the Uludağ University, and its population can claim one of the highest overall levels of education in Turkey, the historic towns of İznik, Mudanya and Zeytinbağı are all situated in Bursa Province. In 2015, Bursa had a population of 2,340,000, the earliest known human settlement near Bursas current location was at Ilıpınar Höyüğü around 5200 BC. It was followed by the ancient Greek city of Cius, which Philip V of Macedon granted to Prusias I, Prusias rebuilt the city and renamed it Prusa. After 128 years of Bithynian rule, Nicomedes IV, the last King of Bithynia, an early Roman Treasure was found in the vicinity of Bursa in the early 20th century. Composed of a womans silver toilet articles, it is now in the British Museum, Bursa became the first major capital city of the early Ottoman Empire following its capture from the Byzantines in 1326. As a result, the city witnessed a considerable amount of growth throughout the 14th century. After conquering Edirne in East Thrace, the Ottomans turned it into the new city in 1363. The Ottoman sultan Bayezid I built the Bayezid Külliyesi in Bursa between 1390 and 1395 and the Ulu Cami between 1396 and 1400, Bursa remained to be the most important administrative and commercial centre in the empire until Mehmed II conquered Constantinople in 1453. The population of Bursa was 45,000 in 1487, during the Ottoman period, Bursa continued to be the source of most royal silk products. Following the foundation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, Bursa became one of the centres of the country. The economic development of the city was followed by population growth, the most recent arrival of Balkan Turks took place in the 1940s until the 1990s, when the communist regime in Bulgaria expelled approximately 150,000 Bulgarian Turks to Turkey. About one-third of these 150,000 Bulgarian Turkish refugees eventually settled in Bursa, Bursa is settled on the northwestern slopes of Mount Uludağ in the southern Marmara Region
35.
Harem
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The structure of the harem and the extent of monogamy or polygamy has varied depending on the familys personalities, socio-economic status, and local customs. This private space has been understood as serving the purposes of maintaining the modesty, privilege. In former times, some harems were guarded by eunuchs who were allowed inside, there are several Renaissance paintings dating to the 16th century that defy Orientalist tropes and portray the women of the Ottoman harem as individuals of status and political significance. In many periods of Islamic history women in the harem exercised various degrees of political power, the word has been recorded in the English language since early 17th century. It comes from the Arabic ḥarīm, which can mean a sacred inviolable place, in English the term harem can mean also the wives of a polygamous man. The triliteral Ḥ-R-M appears in other terms related the notion of such as haram, mahram, ihram and al-Ḥaram al-Šarīf. In Turkish of the Ottoman era, the harem, i. e. the part of the reserved for women was called haremlık. Some scholars have used the term to refer to royal households throughout history. In Muscovite Russia the area of houses where women were secluded was known as terem. The idea of harem or seclusion of women did not originate with Muhammad or Islam and these practices were well established amongst the upper classes of Iraq, the Byzantine Empire, Ancient Greece and Persia for thousands of years before the advent of Islam. The practice of secluding women was common to many ancient near eastern communities, in pre-Islamic Assyria, Persia, and Egypt, most royal courts had a harem, where the ruler’s wives and concubines lived with female attendants, and eunuchs. The harem system first became fully institutionalized in the Islamic world under the Abbasid caliphate, Some scholars believe that Islamic culture adopted the custom of secluding women from the Byzantine Empire and Persia, and then read those customs back into the Quran. According to Eleanor Doumato, the practice of secluding women in Islam is based on both tradition and social custom. One verse in particular discusses hijab, in modern usage hijab colloquially refers to the religious attire worn by Muslim women, but its original meaning was a veil or curtain that physically separates female from male space. Leila Ahmed describes the ideal of seclusion as a a mans right to keep his women concealed-invisible to other men, Ahmed identifies the practice of seclusion as a social ideal and one of the four factors that shaped the lives of women in the Mediterranean Middle East. For example, contemporary sources from the Byzantine Empire describe the social mores that governed womens lives, Women were not supposed to be seen in public. They were guarded by eunuchs and could leave the home veiled. Some of these customs were borrowed from the Persians, but Greek society also influenced the development of patriarchal tradition, the ideal of seclusion was not fully realized as social reality
36.
Greek Orthodoxy
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Historically, the term Greek Orthodox has also been used to describe all Eastern Orthodox Churches in general, since Greek in Greek Orthodox can refer to the heritage of the Byzantine Empire. Over time, most parts of the liturgy, traditions, and practices of the church of Constantinople were adopted by all, thus, the Eastern Church came to be called Greek Orthodox in the same way that the Western Church is called Roman Catholic. Orthodox Churches, unlike the Catholic Church, have no Bishopric head, such as a Pope, however, they are each governed by a committee of Bishops, called the Holy Synod, with one central Bishop holding the honorary title of first among equals. Greek Orthodox Churches are united in communion with other, as well as with the other Eastern Orthodox Churches. The Eastern Orthodox hold a doctrine and a common form of worship. The most commonly used Divine Liturgy of the Orthodox Church was written by Saint John Chrysostom, others, are attributed to St. Basil the Great, St. James, the Brother of God and St. The majority of Greek Orthodox Christians live within Greece and elsewhere in the southern Balkans, but also in Lebanon, Cyprus, Anatolia, European Turkey, and the South Caucasus. In addition, due to the large Greek diaspora, there are many Greek Orthodox Christians who live in North America, Orthodox Christians in Finland, who compose about 1% of the population, are also under the jurisdiction of a Greek Orthodox Church. Thus, they may attend services held in Old Russian and Old Church Slavonic, the Church conducts its liturgy in Koine Greek in the areas of Albania populated by the ethnic Greek minority, alongside the use of Albanian throughout the country. The Greek and Eastern Churches online Constantelos, Demetrios J. Understanding the Greek Orthodox church, its faith, history, the Orthodox Eastern Church Hussey, Joan Mervyn. The orthodox church in the Byzantine empire online Kephala, Euphrosyne, the Church of the Greek People Past and Present Latourette, Kenneth Scott. Christianity in a Revolutionary Age, II, The Nineteenth Century in Europe, The Protestant,2, 479-484, Christianity in a Revolutionary Age, IV, The Twentieth Century in Europe, The Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Churches McGuckin, John Anthony. The Encyclopedia of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, media related to Greek Orthodox Church at Wikimedia Commons
37.
Slavery in the Ottoman Empire
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Slavery in the Ottoman Empire was a legal and significant part of the Ottoman Empires economy and society. The main sources of slaves were war captives and organized enslavement expeditions in North and East Africa, Eastern Europe and it has been reported that the selling price of slaves fell after large military operations. Enslavement of Caucasians was banned in the early 19th century, while slaves from other groups were allowed, in Constantinople, the administrative and political center of the Empire, about a fifth of the population consisted of slaves in 1609. Sixteenth- and 17th-century customs statistics suggest that Istanbuls additional slave import from the Black Sea may have totaled around 2.5 million from 1450 to 1700, even after several measures to ban slavery in the late 19th century, the practice continued largely unabated into the early 20th century. As late as 1908, female slaves were sold in the Ottoman Empire. Sexual slavery was a part of the Ottoman slave system throughout the history of the institution. A member of the Ottoman slave class, called a kul in Turkish, harem guards and janissaries are some of the better known positions a slave could hold, but slaves were actually often at the forefront of Ottoman politics. The majority of officials in the Ottoman government were bought slaves, raised free, many officials themselves owned a large number of slaves, although the Sultan himself owned by far the largest amount. By raising and specially training slaves as officials in schools such as Enderun. In the mid-14th century, Murad I built an army of slaves, the new force was based on the Sultans right to a fifth of the war booty, which he interpreted to include captives taken in battle. The captive slaves converted to Islam and trained in the personal service. The devşirme system could be considered a form of slavery because the Sultans had absolute power over them, slaves were traded in special marketplaces called Esir or Yesir that were located in most towns and cities. It is said that Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror established the first Ottoman slave market in Constantinople in the 1460s, probably where the former Byzantine slave market had stood. According to Nicolas de Nicolay, there were slaves of all ages, most of the military commanders of the Ottoman forces, imperial administrators, and de facto rulers of the Empire, such as Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha and Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, were recruited in this way. By 1609, the Sultans Kapıkulu forces increased to about 100,000, domestic slavery was not as common as military slavery. On the basis of a list of estates belonging to members of the ruling class kept in Edirne between 1545 and 1659, the data was collected, out of 93 estates,41 had slaves. The total number of slaves in the estates was 140,54 female and 86 male,134 of them bore Muslim names,5 were not defined, and 1 was a Christian woman. Some of these appear to have been employed on farms
38.
Republic of Genoa
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It began when Genoa became a self-governing commune within the Regnum Italicum, and ended when it was conquered by the French First Republic under Napoleon and replaced with the Ligurian Republic. Corsica was ceded to France in the Treaty of Versailles of 1768, before 1100, Genoa emerged as an independent city-state, one of a number of Italian city-states during this period. Nominally, the Holy Roman Emperor was overlord and the Bishop of Genoa was president of the city, however, actual power was wielded by a number of consuls annually elected by popular assembly. The Adorno, Campofregoso, and other merchant families all fought for power in this Republic, as the power of the consuls allowed each family faction to gain wealth. The Republic of Genoa extended over modern Liguria and Piedmont, Sardinia, Corsica, through Genoese participation on the Crusades, Genoese colonies were established in the Middle East, in the Aegean, in Sicily and Northern Africa. The collapse of the Crusader States was offset by Genoa’s alliance with the Byzantine Empire, as Venices relations with the Byzantine Empire were temporarily disrupted by the Fourth Crusade and its aftermath, Genoa was able to improve its position. Genoa took advantage of opportunity to expand into the Black Sea and Crimea. Internal feuds between the families, the Grimaldi and Fieschi, the Doria, Spinola, and others caused much disruption. However, this prosperity did not last, the Black Death was imported into Europe in 1347 from the Genoese trading post at Caffa in Crimea, on the Black Sea. Following the economic and population collapse, Genoa adopted the Venetian model of government, the wars with Venice continued, and the War of Chioggia -- where Genoa almost managed to decisively subdue Venice—ended with Venices recovery of dominance in the Adriatic. In 1390 Genoa initiated a crusade against the Barbary pirates with help from the French, though it has not been well-studied, the fifteenth century seems to have been a tumultuous time for Genoa. After a period of French domination from 1394–1409, Genoa came under rule by the Visconti of Milan, Genoa lost Sardinia to Aragon, Corsica to internal revolt and its Middle Eastern, Eastern European and Asia Minor colonies to the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Under the ensuing economic recovery, many aristocratic Genoese families, such as the Balbi, Doria, Grimaldi, Pallavicini, according to Felipe Fernandez-Armesto and others, the practices Genoa developed in the Mediterranean were crucial in the exploration and exploitation of the New World. At the time of Genoa’s peak in the 16th century, the city attracted many artists, including Rubens, Caravaggio and Van Dyck. The architect Galeazzo Alessi designed many of the city’s splendid palazzi, as did in the decades that followed by fifty years Bartolomeo Bianco, a number of Genoese Baroque and Rococo artists settled elsewhere and a number of local artists became prominent. At the time of its founding in the early 11th century the Republic of Genoa consisted of the city of Genoa, as the commerce of the city increased, so did the territory of the Republic. By 1015 all of Liguria fell under the Republic of Genoa, after the First Crusade in 1098 Genoa gained settlements in Syria. In 1261 the city of Smyrna in Asia Minor became Genoese territory, in 1255 Genoa established the colony of Caffa in Crimea
39.
Treaty of Nymphaeum (1261)
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The Treaty of Nymphaeum was a trade and defense pact signed between the Empire of Nicaea and the Republic of Genoa in Nymphaion in March 1261. This treaty would have a impact on both the restored Byzantine Empire and the Republic of Genoa that would later dictate their histories for several centuries to come. Following the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204, in all its history, however, the city had never been taken without the control of the surrounding sea access to the city itself. Around the late 1250s and early 1260s, Venice still maintained a patrol of thirty ships in the Bosporus to keep control of the straits. The failed Nicaean Siege of Constantinople in 1260 also pressed the need further for a fleet on any attack on Constantinople. In addition, the treaty stipulated the permission for horses and weapons to be purchased by Nicaea from Genoese territories, the Treaty of Nymphaeum was very similar in its objectives as the Byzantine–Venetian Treaty of 1082, in which Venice gained considerable concessions from the Byzantine Empire. Despite this treaty, Constantinople was recaptured in a manner by Alexios Strategopoulos on July 25,1261. The Treaty of Nymphaeum thus became nearly redundant for the Byzantines, however, as Venice and other Catholic powers continued to threaten the Byzantine Empire with invasion, the treaty would remain in force, with minor modifications. However, this would be a competition to Venice as this would threaten their trade position within the East as well
40.
Galata
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Galata was a neighbourhood opposite Constantinople, located at the northern shore of the Golden Horn, the inlet which separates it from the historic peninsula of old Constantinople. The Golden Horn is crossed by bridges, most notably the Galata Bridge. The medieval citadel of Galata was a colony of the Republic of Genoa between 1273 and 1453, the famous Galata Tower was built by the Genoese in 1348 at the northernmost and highest point of the citadel. At present, Galata is a quarter within the borough of Beyoğlu in Istanbul, there are several theories concerning the origin of the name Galata. In historic documents, Galata is often called Pera, which comes from the old Greek name for the place, Peran en Sykais, the quarter first appears in Late Antiquity as Sykai or Sycae. By the time the Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae was compiled in ca.425 AD, according to the Notitia, it featured public baths and a forum built by Emperor Honorius, a theatre, a porticoed street and 435 mansions. It is also probable that the settlement was enclosed by walls in the 5th century, Sykai received full city rights under Justinian I, who renamed it Iustinianopolis, but declined and was probably abandoned in the 7th century. Only the large tower, Megalos Pyrgos which controlled the northern end of the sea chain that blocked the entrance to the Golden Horn remained, in the 11th century, the quarter housed the citys Jewish community, which came to number some 2,500 people. In 1171, a new Genoese settlement in the area was attacked, the kastellion and the Jewish quarter were seized and destroyed in 1203 by the Catholic crusaders during the Fourth Crusade, shortly before the sack of Constantinople. In 1233, during the subsequent Latin Empire, a small Catholic chapel dedicated to St. Paul was built in place of a 6th-century Byzantine church in Galata. In 1407, Pope Gregory XII, in order to ensure the maintenance of the church, in 1261, the quarter was retaken by the Byzantines, but Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos granted it to the Genoese in 1267 in accordance with the Treaty of Nymphaeum. The precise limits of the Genoese colony were stipulated in 1303, the Genoese however disregarded this, and through subsequent expansions of the walls, enlarged the area of their settlement. At present, only a portion of the Genoese walls are still standing. Bankalar Caddesi has rows of Ottoman-era bank buildings, including the headquarters of the Ottoman Central Bank, several ornaments that were originally on the facade of the Genoese Palace were used to embellish these 19th-century bank buildings in the late Ottoman period. The seaside mansion of the Camondo family, popularly known as the Camondo Palace, was built between 1865 and 1869 and designed by architect Sarkis Balyan and it is located on the northern shore of the Golden Horn, within the nearby Kasımpaşa quarter to the west of Galata. It later became the headquarters of the Ministry of the Navy during the late Ottoman period, Galatasaray S. K. Galatasaray literally means Galata Palace. La Géographie Ecclésiastique de lEmpire Byzantin, part, Le Siège de Constantinople et le Patriarcat Oecuménique. 3rd Vol. Les Églises et les Monastères, petite Guide a travers les Monuments Byzantins et Turcs
41.
Bosphorus
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The Bosphorus or Bosporus is a narrow, natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in northwestern Turkey. It forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia, and separates Asian Turkey from European Turkey. The worlds narrowest strait used for navigation, the Bosphorus connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara, and, by extension via the Dardanelles. Most of the shores of the strait are heavily settled, straddled by the city of Istanbuls metropolitan population of 17 million inhabitants extending inland from both coasts, together with the Dardanelles, the Bosphorus forms the Turkish Straits. This folk etymology was canonized by Aeschylus in Prometheus Bound, where Prometheus prophesies to Io that the strait would be named after her, the site where Io supposedly went ashore was near Chrysopolis, and was named Bous the Cow. The same site was known as Damalis, as it was where the Athenian general Chares had erected a monument to his wife Damalis. Historically, the Bosphorus was also known as the Strait of Constantinople, or the Thracian Bosphorus and these are expressed in Herodotus Histories,4.83, as Bosporus Thracius, Bosporus Thraciae, and Βόσπορος Θρᾴκιος, respectively. Other names by which the strait is referenced by Herodotus include Chalcedonian Bosporus, the term eventually came to be used as common noun βόσπορος, meaning a strait, and was also formerly applied to the Hellespont in Classical Greek by Aeschylus and Sophocles. Presently, the waterway is officially referred to as simply Bosphorus, the Marmara further connects to the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas via the Dardanelles. A common mistake made by those who are unfamiliar with the locale is to assume the Bosphorus is a river, when it is, in fact. The exact scientific cause and date of the formation of the Bosphorus remain the subject of debate among geologists, many geologists, however, claim that the strait is much older, even if relatively young on a geologic timescale. The Symplegades were defeated when the lyrical hero Jason obtained successful passage, whereupon the rocks became fixed, between these limits, the strait is 31 km long, with a width of 3,329 m at the northern entrance and 2,826 m at the southern entrance. Its maximum width is 3,420 m between Umuryeri and Büyükdere Limanı, and minimum width 700 m between Kandilli Point and Aşiyan, the depth of the Bosphorus varies from 13 to 110 m in midstream with an average of 65 m. The deepest location is between Kandilli and Bebek with 110 m, the most shallow locations are off Kadıköy İnciburnu on the northward route with 18 m and off Aşiyan Point on the southward route with 13 m. The study of the water and wind erosion of the straits relates to that of its formation, sections of the shore have been reinforced with concrete or rubble and sections of the strait prone to deposition are periodically dredged. These channels are the main pathway for sediments to the deep sea where they form sedimentary deposits. These deposits ultimately hold not only untapped reserves of gas and oil and our initial findings show that the flow in these channels is quite different to the flow in river channels on land. Specifically, as flow moves around a bend it spirals in the direction in the deep sea compared to the spiral found in river channels on land
42.
Byzantine navy
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The Byzantine navy was the naval force of the East Roman or Byzantine Empire. Like the empire it served, it was a continuation from its Imperial Roman predecessor. The first threat to Roman hegemony in the Mediterranean was posed by the Vandals in the 5th century and this process would be furthered with the onset of the Muslim conquests in the 7th century. Following the loss of the Levant and later Africa, the Mediterranean Sea was transformed from a Roman lake into a battleground between Byzantines and Arabs, initially, the defence of the Byzantine coasts and the approaches to Constantinople was borne by the great fleet of the Karabisianoi. Progressively however it was split up into several regional fleets, while a central Imperial Fleet was maintained at Constantinople, guarding the city, by the late 8th century, the Byzantine navy, a well-organized and maintained force, was again the dominant maritime power in the Mediterranean. The antagonism with the Muslim navies continued with alternating success, but in the 10th century, during the 11th century, the navy, like the Empire itself, began to decline. A period of recovery under the Komnenians was followed by period of decline. After the Empire was restored in 1261, several emperors of the Palaiologan dynasty tried to revive the navy, the diminished navy, however, continued to be active until the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans in 1453. The Byzantine navy, like the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire itself, was a continuation of the Roman Empire, after the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, in the absence of any external threat in the Mediterranean, the Roman navy performed mostly policing and escort duties. Massive sea battles, like those fought in the Punic Wars, no longer occurred, the civil wars of the 4th and early 5th centuries, however, did spur a revival of naval activity, with fleets mostly employed to transport armies. The new Vandalic Kingdom of Carthage, under the capable king Geiseric, immediately launched raids against the coasts of Italy and Greece, the Vandal raids continued unabated over the next two decades, despite repeated Roman attempts to defeat them. The Western Empire was impotent, its navy having dwindled to almost nothing, a first Eastern expedition in 448, however, went no further than Sicily, and in 460, the Vandals attacked and destroyed a Western Roman invasion fleet at Cartagena in Spain. Finally, in 468, a huge Eastern expedition was assembled under Basiliscus, reputedly numbering 1,113 ships and 100,000 men, but it failed disastrously. About 600 ships were lost to ships, and the financial cost of 130,000 pounds of gold and 700000 pounds of silver nearly bankrupted the Empire. This forced the Romans to come to terms with Geiseric and sign a peace treaty, after Geiserics death in 477, however, the Vandal threat receded. The 6th century marked the rebirth of Roman naval power, in 508, as antagonism with the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Theodoric flared up, the Emperor Anastasius I is reported to have sent a fleet of 100 warships to raid the coasts of Italy. In 513, the general Vitalian revolted against Anastasius, the rebels assembled a fleet of 200 ships which, despite some initial successes, were destroyed by admiral Marinus, who employed a sulphur-based incendiary substance to defeat them. This fact was not lost on the Byzantines enemies, already in the 520s, Theodoric had planned to build a massive fleet directed against the Byzantines and the Vandals, but his death in 526 limited the extent to which these plans were realized
43.
List of Byzantine Emperors
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This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Emperors listed below up to Theodosius I in 395 were sole or joint rulers of the entire Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire was the direct legal continuation of the eastern half of the Roman Empire following the division of the Roman Empire in 395. All Byzantine emperors considered themselves to be the rightful Roman emperor in direct succession from Augustus, the title of all Emperors preceding Heraclius was officially Augustus, although other titles such as Dominus were also used. Their names were preceded by Imperator Caesar and followed by Augustus, following Heraclius, the title commonly became the Greek Basileus, which had formerly meant sovereign but was then used in place of Augustus. Following the establishment of the rival Holy Roman Empire in Western Europe, in later centuries, the Emperor could be referred to by Western Christians as the Emperor of the Greeks. Towards the end of the Empire, the standard formula of the Byzantine ruler was in Christ, Emperor. For Roman emperors before Constantine I, see List of Roman emperors, family tree of the Byzantine emperors List of Roman emperors List of Roman usurpers List of Byzantine usurpers List of Roman and Byzantine empresses
Baynes, T.S., ed. (1878), "Johannes Cantacuzenus", Encyclopædia Britannica, 5 (9th ed.), New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, p. 27
Baynes, T.S., ed. (1878), "
