1.
Constantine V
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Constantine V was Byzantine emperor from 741 to 775. Constantine was born in Constantinople, the son and successor of Emperor Leo III, in August 720 he was associated on the throne by his father, who had him marry Tzitzak, daughter of the Khazar khagan Bihar. His new bride was baptized as Irene in 732, Constantine V succeeded his father as sole emperor on 18 June 741. Artabasdos was the stratēgos of the Armeniac theme, Constantine was defeated and sought refuge in Amorion, while Artabasdos advanced on Constantinople and was accepted as Emperor. Constantine received the support of the Anatolic and Thracesian themes, Artabasdos secured the support of the themes of Thrace and Opsikion, the rival emperors bided their time making military preparations. Artabasdos marched against Constantine in May 743 but was defeated, three months later Constantine defeated Artabasdos son Niketas and headed for Constantinople. In early November Constantine was admitted into the capital and immediately turned on his opponents, the usurpation of Artabasdos was connected with restoring the veneration of images, leading Constantine to become perhaps an even more fervent iconoclast than his father. Constantines avowed enemies over this extremely emotional issue, the iconodules, using this obscene name, they spread the rumour that as an infant he had defecated in his baptismal font, or on the imperial purple cloth with which he was swaddled. Constantines position on Iconoclasm was clear, He cannot be depicted, for what is depicted in one person, and he who circumscribes that person has plainly circumscribed the divine nature which is incapable of being circumscribed. In February 754 Constantine convened a synod at Hieria, which was attended entirely by Iconoclast bishops, the council approved of Constantines religious policy and secured the election of a new Iconoclast patriarch, but refused to follow in all of Constantines views. The synod was followed by a campaign to remove images from the walls of churches and to purge the court, the repressions against the monks were largely led by the Emperors general Michael Lachanodrakon, who threatened resistant monks with blinding and exile. An iconodule abbot, Stephen Neos, was lynched by a mob at the behest of the authorities. As a result, many fled to southern Italy and Sicily. By the end of Constantines reign, Iconoclasm had gone as far as to brand relics, ultimately, iconophiles considered his death a divine punishment. In the 9th century he was disinterred, and his remains were thrown into the sea, Constantine was an able general and administrator. He reorganised the themes, the districts of the Empire. This organization was intended to minimize the threat of conspiracies and to enhance the capabilities of the Empire. With this reorganized army he embarked on campaigns on the three major frontiers, in 746, profiting by the unstable conditions in the Umayyad Caliphate, which was falling apart under Marwan II, Constantine invaded Syria and captured Germanikeia
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.
Theodosius III
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Theodosios III or Theodosius III was Byzantine Emperor from 715 to 25 March 717. Theodosius was an officer and tax collector in the southern portion of the theme of Opsikion. According to one theory, he was the son of the former Emperor Tiberius III, according to another theory, he was of low extraction. When the thematic troops rebelled against Emperor Anastasius II, Theodosius was chosen as emperor and he did not readily accept this choice and, according to the chronicler Theophanes the Confessor, even attempted to hide in the forests near Adramyttium. Eventually he was found and was acclaimed emperor in May 715, Theodosius and his troops immediately laid siege to Constantinople. Six months later, in November, they gained entry to the city, Theodosius showed himself remarkably moderate in his treatment of his predecessor and his supporters. Through the intercession of Patriarch Germanus I of Constantinople, Anastasius II was convinced to abdicate, little is known of Theodosius short reign. He immediately faced an Arab invasion deep into Anatolia and the advance of the Arab fleet, in 716 he concluded a treaty with Tervel of Bulgaria favorable to the Bulgarians in an effort to secure support against the Arab invasion. This policy paid off in 719 when they helped relieve the Second Arab siege of Constantinople, in 717, the strategos of the Anatolic Theme, Leo the Isaurian, rebelled against Theodosius rule in collusion with Artabasdos, the strategos of the Armeniac Theme. Theodosius son was captured by Leo in Nicomedia, and Theodosius chose to resign the throne on 25 March 717 and he and his son subsequently entered the clergy. The resignation of Theodosius III ended a string of short-lived and ineffective rulers often skipped over in history books, in his History of the Byzantine Empire, Vol.1, A. A. By 729 Theodosius is believed to have become bishop of Ephesus, modern historians however suspect the bishop was actually his son. Either way, this bishop was last recorded alive on 24 July 754, by his unnamed wife, Theodosius III was the father of at least one son, Theodosius, perhaps the bishop in question. List of Byzantine emperors Ostrogorsky, George, the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press,1991
4.
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
5.
Byzantine Empire under the Isaurian dynasty
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The Byzantine Empire was ruled by the Isaurian or Syrian dynasty from 717 to 802. The Heraclian dynasty faced some of the greatest challenges in history, after successfully overcoming the Sassanid Persians, the Emperor Heraclius and his exhausted realm were faced with the sudden onset of the Muslim expansion from Arabia into the Levant. Following the Muslim conquest of Syria, the province of Egypt. These three areas would be the fields of Byzantine-Arab contention during the next half-century. The Arabs continued to make headway, most notably constructing a navy that successfully challenged Byzantine supremacy in the Mediterranean, the outbreak of the Muslim civil war in 656 bought the Byzantines time, and emperor Constans II reinforced his position in the Balkans and Italy. At the same however, he was defeated by the Bulgar khan Asparukh. Carthage finally fell in 697 and a Byzantine recovery attempt defeated next year, finally, the Umayyad caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik began preparing another huge expedition to conquer Constantinople. The loss of the Empires richest provinces, coupled with successive invasions, reduced the economy to a relatively impoverished state. The monetary economy persisted, but the economy experienced a revival as well. At the same time, the bureaucracy in Constantinople also rose in importance. After Justinian IIs second overthrow, the Byzantine Empire spiralled into another era of chaos matched only by Phocas mishandling of the last Persian War, philippikos Bardanes, the Crimean rebel who seized the throne proved to be totally incompetent for rule. Rather than face the threat of the Bulgars or the Arabs. When King Tervel of Bulgaria invaded Thrace, Bardanes had no choice, unfortunately for the Emperor, the troops had no loyalty whatsoever to him and after the ritual blinding he was replaced in June 713 by the chief secretary of the Emperor, Artemios. Artemios was crowned as Anastasios II, every citizen was told to gather enough food for three years for if the Arabs were to reach the straits it would undoubtedly be a lengthy siege. However, Anastasios proved too good for the Empire, in an effort to avert the Arab siege of the Capital, Anastasios planned a strike against the invaders. However the Opsician Theme once more revolted and Anastasios found himself in a Thessalonika monastery by 715, the Opsicians chose Theodosios, an unwilling tax-collector, to rule the Empire. Leo III, who would become the founder of the so-called Isaurian dynasty, was born in Germanikeia in northern Syria c. 685, his origin from Isauria derives from a reference in Theophanes the Confessor
6.
Leo IV the Khazar
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Leo IV the Khazar was Byzantine Emperor from 775 to 780 AD. Leo was the son of Emperor Constantine V by his first wife, Irene of Khazaria and he was crowned co-emperor by his father in 751. Leo was betrothed to Gisela, daughter of Pepin the Short, Leo then married Irene, an Athenian from a noble family, in December 769. In 775 Constantine V died, leaving Leo as sole emperor, on 24 April 776 Leo, following the precedent set by his father and grandfather, appointed his son, Constantine VI, co-emperor. This led to an uprising of Leo’s five half-brothers, including Caesar Nikephoros, the uprising was put down quickly, with the conspirators being beaten, tonsured, and exiled to Cherson under guard. Leo IV was raised as an iconoclast under his father but was married to Irene, realizing the division in his realm he pursued a path of conciliation towards the iconodules, previously declared heretical under imperial policy. In addition to the concessionary actions Leo also appointed an iconophile sympathizer, Paul of Cyprus, at the end of his reign, Leo reversed his stance of toleration. Leo himself set out with his army against the Bulgars but died of fever while on campaign, Leo’s death on 8 September 780 resulted in the accession of his wife, Irene, to the throne. Constantine VI was the son of Leo IV and succeeded him as emperor, ruling jointly with his mother. List of Byzantine emperors Ostrogorsky, George, Garland, Lynda, Irene of Athens, at roman-emperors. org Garland, Lynda, Leo IV, at roman-emperors. org Jenkins, Romilly, Byzantium, The Imperial Centuries, Weidenfeld and Nicoloson,1966. Treadgold, Warren, The Byzantine Revival, Stanford University Press,1988, the Chronicle of Theophanes Anni Mundi 6095–6305, Tr. Harry Turtledove University of Pennsylvania Press,1982
7.
Artabasdos
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Artavasdos or Artabasdos, Latinized as Artabasdus, was a Byzantine general of Armenian descent who seized the throne from June 741 or 742 until November 743. His reign constitutes a usurpation against Constantine V, who had retained control of several themes in Asia Minor, after Anastasius fall, Artabasdos made an agreement with his colleague Leo, the governor of the Anatolic theme, to overthrow the new Emperor Theodosius III. This agreement was sealed with the engagement of Leos daughter Anna to Artabasdos, Artabasdos was awarded the rank of kouropalates and became commander of the Opsikion theme, while retaining control of his original command. While Constantine fled to Amorion, Artabasdus seized Constantinople amid popular support and was crowned emperor, Artabasdos abandoned his predecessors religious policy of Iconoclasm and restored Orthodoxy with some support, including that of Pope Zacharias. Soon after his accession, Artabasdus crowned his wife Anna as Augusta and his son Nikephoros as co-emperor, but while Artabasdus could rely also on the support of the themes of Thrace and Opsikion, Constantine secured for himself the support of the Anatolic and Thracesian themes. The inevitable clash came in May 743, when Artabasdus led the offensive against Constantine but was defeated, later the same year Constantine defeated Nicetas, and on November 2,743 Artabasdus reign came to an end as Constantine V entered Constantinople and apprehended his rival. Artabasdus and his sons were blinded and relegated to the monastery of Chora on the outskirts of Constantinople. The date of his death is unknown, by his wife Anna, the daughter of Emperor Leo III, Artabasdos had nine children, including, Nikephoros, who was co-emperor from 742 to 743. Niketas, who was strategos of the Armeniac theme from 742 to 743, list of Byzantine emperors Notes References Garland, Lynda. Byzantine women, varieties of experience 800–1200, - Total pages,226 Venetis, Evangelos. Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic World, Asia Minor
8.
Constantine VI
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Constantine VI was Byzantine Emperor from 780 to 797. Constantine VI was the child of Emperor Leo IV and Irene. Constantine was crowned co-emperor by his father in 776, and succeeded as emperor in 780. Due to his minority, Irene and her chief minister Staurakios exercised the regency for him, in 787 Constantine had signed the decrees of the Second Council of Nicaea, but he appears to have had iconoclast sympathies. By then Constantine had turned 16 years old, but his mother did not relinquish authority to him. In 788, Irene herself broke off the engagement of Constantine with Rotrude, turning against Charlemagne, the Byzantines now supported Lombard pretender Adalgis, who had been forced into exile after the Frankish invasion of Italy. After a conspiracy against Irene was suppressed in the spring of 790 she attempted to get recognition as empress. This backfired and with military support Constantine finally came to power in 790. Nevertheless, she was allowed to keep the title of Empress, once in control of the state, Constantine proved incapable of sound governance. His army was defeated by the Arabs, and Constantine himself suffered a defeat at the hands of Kardam of Bulgaria in the 792 Battle of Marcellae. A movement developed in favor of his uncle, the Caesar Nikephoros, Constantine had his uncles eyes put out and the tongues of his fathers four other half-brothers cut off. His former Armenian supporters revolted after he had blinded their general Alexios Mosele and he crushed this revolt with extreme cruelty in 793. Although the Patriarch Tarasios did not publicly speak against it, he did refuse to officiate the marriage, popular disapproval was expressed by Theodotes uncle, Plato of Sakkoudion, who even broke communion with Tarasios for his passive stance. Platos intransigence led to his own imprisonment, while his supporters were persecuted and exiled to Thessalonica. The Moechian Controversy cost Constantine what popularity he had left, especially in the church establishment and it is unknown when exactly Constantine died, it was certainly before 805, but he very likely died of his wounds shortly after being blinded. He was buried in the Monastery of St. Euphrosyne, which Irene had founded, in the early 820s, the rebel Thomas the Slav claimed to be Constantine VI in an effort to gain support against Michael II. Cutler, Anthony, Hollingsworth, Paul A. Constantine VI, Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press. Byzantine Empresses, Women and Power in Byzantium, AD 527–1204, a History of the Byzantine State and Society
9.
Irene of Athens
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Irene of Athens, also known as Irene Sarantapechaina, was Byzantine empress from 797 to 802. Before that, Irene was empress consort from 775 to 780 and she is best known for ending Iconoclasm. Irene was related to the noble Greek Sarantapechos family of Athens, although she was an orphan, her uncle or cousin Constantine Sarantapechos was a patrician and was possibly strategos of the theme of Hellas at the end of the 8th century. She was brought to Constantinople by Emperor Constantine V on 1 November 768 and was married to his son Leo IV on 17 December, on 14 January 771, Irene gave birth to a son, the future Constantine VI. When Constantine V died in September 775, Leo succeeded to the throne at the age of twenty-five years. Leo, though an iconoclast, pursued a policy of moderation towards iconodules, but his policies became much harsher in August 780, according to tradition, he discovered icons concealed among Irenes possessions and refused to share the marriage bed with her thereafter. Nevertheless, when Leo died on 8 September 780, Irene became regent for their nine-year-old son Constantine, Irene was almost immediately confronted with a conspiracy that tried to raise Caesar Nikephoros, a half-brother of Leo IV, to the throne. To overcome this challenge, she had Nikephoros and his co-conspirators ordained as priests, as early as 781, Irene began to seek a closer relationship with the Carolingian dynasty and the Papacy in Rome. She negotiated a marriage between her son Constantine and Rotrude, a daughter of Charlemagne by his third wife Hildegard, during this time Charlemagne was at war with the Saxons, and would later become the new king of the Franks. Irene went as far as to send an official to instruct the Frankish princess in Greek, however, Irene herself broke off the engagement in 787, Irene next had to subdue a rebellion led by Elpidius, the strategos of Sicily. Irene sent a fleet, which succeeded in defeating the Sicilians, Elpidius fled to Africa, where he defected to the Abbasid Caliphate. After the success of Constantine Vs general, Michael Lachanodrakon, who foiled an Abbasid attack on the eastern frontiers, Irenes most notable act was the restoration of the veneration of icons. Having chosen Tarasios, one of her partisans and her secretary, as Patriarch of Constantinople in 784. The first of these, held in 786 at Constantinople, was frustrated by the opposition of the iconoclast soldiers, the second, convened at Nicaea in 787, formally revived the veneration of icons and reunited the Eastern church with that of Rome. While this greatly improved relations with the Papacy, it did not prevent the outbreak of a war with the Franks, nevertheless, Irene was constantly harried by the Abbasids, and in 782 and 798 had to accept the terms of the respective Caliphs Al-Mahdi and Harun al-Rashid. As Constantine approached maturity he began to grow restless under her autocratic sway, an attempt to free himself by force was met and crushed by the Empress, who demanded that the oath of fidelity should thenceforward be taken in her name alone. The discontent which this occasioned swelled in 790 into open resistance, Constantine could only flee for aid to the provinces, but even there participants in the plot surrounded him. Seized by his attendants on the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus and his eyes were gouged out, and he died from his wounds several days later
10.
Twenty Years' Anarchy
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Justinian II set in motion a chain of events by embarking on a despotic and increasingly violent course. Leontios proved equally unpopular and was in turn overthrown by Tiberios III, justinian then continued to reign for a further six years. His treatment of Tiberios and his supporters had been brutal and he continued to rule in a manner that was despotic and he lost the ground regained by Tiberios in the east, and imposed his views on the Pope. However, before long he faced a rebellion led by Philippikos Bardanes, justinian was captured and executed as was his son and co-emperor, Tiberius, thus extinguishing the Heraclian line. Justinian had taken the Byzantine empire yet further from its origins and he effectively abolished the historical role of Consul, merging it with Emperor, thus strengthening the Emperors constitutional position as absolute monarch. Militarily the Bulgars reached the walls of Constantinople, and moving troops to defend the capital allowed the Arabs to make incursions in the east and his reign ended abruptly when an army rebellion deposed him and replaced him with Anastasius II. Anastasius reversed his predecessors religious policies and responded to Arab attacks by sea and land, however the very army that had placed him on the throne rose against him, proclaimed a new emperor and besieged Constantinople for six months, eventually forcing Anastasius to flee. He in turn faced rebellion from two other themata, Anatolikon and Armeniakon in 717, and chose to resign, being succeeded by Leo III bringing an end to the cycle of violence and instability. However the strength of the organization within the empire. Byzantine–Arab Wars Byzantium under the Isaurians Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars#Tervels wars Kaegi, Walter Emil, Byzantium and the Early Islamic Conquests. Cambridge, United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press, bellinger, Alfred Raymond, Grierson, Philip, eds. Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection, Phocas to Theodosius III, Byzantium The Imperial centuries AD 610-1071
11.
Nikephorian dynasty
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The empire was in a weaker and more precarious position than it had been for a long time and its finances were problematic. Nikephoros I had been the finance minister and on Irenes deposition immediately embarked on a series of fiscal reforms. His administrative reforms included re-organisation of the themata and he survived a civil war in 803 and, like most of the Byzantine emperors, found himself at war on three fronts. He suffered a defeat at the Battle of Krasos in Phrygia in 805. Nikephoros was succeeeded by his son and co-emperor, Staurakios, michael I pursued more diplomatic than military solutions. However, he engaged the Bulgar Khan Krum, the same who claimed the lives of his two predecessors, and was defeated, severely weakening his position. Aware of a revolt he chose to abdicate given the grisly fate of so many prior overthrown emperors
12.
Isauria
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In its coastal extension it bordered on Cilicia. It derives its name from the contentious Isaurian tribe and twin settlements Isaura Palaea, Isaurian marauders were fiercely independent mountain people who created havoc in neighboring districts under Macedonian and Roman occupations. The permanent nucleus of Isauria was north of the Taurus range which lies directly to south of Iconium, lycaonia had all the Iconian plain, but Isauria began as soon as the foothills were reached. Its two original towns, Isaura Nea and Isaura Palaea, lay, one among these foothills, approx N37°29 E32°12 near Bozkir. In the 4th century BC, Isauria began as it would end, and became the district about Isaura Palaea. The whole basin of the Calycadnus was reckoned Isaurian, and the cities in the valley of its southern branch formed what was known as the Isaurian Decapolis, the Isaurians were brought partially under control by the Romans. The Isaurians were afterwards placed for a time under the rule of Amyntas, king of Galatia, in the 3rd century they sheltered the rebel emperor Trebellianus. Pisidia, part of which had hitherto been included in one province with Isauria, was also detached, the coastal Metropolis of Seleucia was designated as Isauria’s provincial capital. The empire used Isaurians as soldiers, generals and at one point they formed part of the emperors personal guard. However, the population of Constantinople considered the Isaurians as barbarians, the site contains ruins of the town and its fortifications. The ruins of Isaura Palaea are mainly remarkable for their situation, fortifications. Those of Isaura Nea have disappeared, but numerous inscriptions and many sculpture stelae, built into the houses of Dorla and it was the latter, and not the former town, that Servilius reduced by cutting off the water supply. J. R. S. Sterrett explored in the highland of Isauria in 1885, the site was identified by W. M. Ramsay in 1901. Ramsay discovered there more than fifty Greek inscriptions, the greater number Christian and these monuments date from the third, fourth, and fifth centuries. The Isaurian church was originally under the authority of the Patriarch of Antioch, ancient episcopal sees of Isauria listed in the Annuario Pontificio as Catholic titular sees, Olba — Hellenistic period city in Isauria. Attribution This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles
13.
Syria
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Syrias capital and largest city is Damascus. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Sunni Arabs make up the largest religious group in Syria. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, in the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a number of military coups. In 1958, Syria entered a union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000. Mainstream modern academic opinion strongly favours the argument that the Greek word is related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, in the past, others believed that it was derived from Siryon, the name that the Sidonians gave to Mount Hermon. However, the discovery of the inscription in 2000 seems to support the theory that the term Syria derives from Assyria. The area designated by the word has changed over time, since approximately 10,000 BC, Syria was one of centers of Neolithic culture where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. The following Neolithic period is represented by houses of Mureybet culture. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gyps, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations. Cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic, archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria was one of the most ancient on earth, perhaps preceded by only those of Mesopotamia. The earliest recorded indigenous civilisation in the region was the Kingdom of Ebla near present-day Idlib, gifts from Pharaohs, found during excavations, confirm Eblas contact with Egypt. One of the earliest written texts from Syria is an agreement between Vizier Ibrium of Ebla and an ambiguous kingdom called Abarsal c.2300 BC. The Northwest Semitic language of the Amorites is the earliest attested of the Canaanite languages, Mari reemerged during this period, and saw renewed prosperity until conquered by Hammurabi of Babylon. Ugarit also arose during this time, circa 1800 BC, close to modern Latakia, Ugaritic was a Semitic language loosely related to the Canaanite languages, and developed the Ugaritic alphabet. The Ugarites kingdom survived until its destruction at the hands of the marauding Indo-European Sea Peoples in the 12th century BC, Yamhad was described in the tablets of Mari as the mightiest state in the near east and as having more vassals than Hammurabi of Babylon. Yamhad imposed its authority over Alalakh, Qatna, the Hurrians states, the army of Yamhad campaigned as far away as Dēr on the border of Elam
14.
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
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Umayyad Caliphate
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The Umayyad Caliphate, also spelled Omayyad, was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. This caliphate was centred on the Umayyad dynasty, hailing from Mecca, Syria remained the Umayyads main power base thereafter, and Damascus was their capital. The Umayyads continued the Muslim conquests, incorporating the Caucasus, Transoxiana, Sindh, the Maghreb and the Iberian Peninsula into the Muslim world. At its greatest extent, the Umayyad Caliphate covered 11,100,000 km2 and 62 million people, the Umayyad Caliphate was secular by nature. At the time, the Umayyad taxation and administrative practice were perceived as unjust by some Muslims, Muhammad had stated explicitly during his lifetime that Abrahamic religious groups, should be allowed to practice their own religion, provided that they paid the jizya taxation. The welfare state of both the Muslim and the poor started by Umar ibn al Khattab had also continued, financed by the zakat tax levied only on Muslims. Muawiyas wife Maysum was also a Christian, the relations between the Muslims and the Christians in the state were stable in this time. Prominent positions were held by Christians, some of whom belonged to families that had served in Byzantine governments, the employment of Christians was part of a broader policy of religious assimilation that was necessitated by the presence of large Christian populations in the conquered provinces, as in Syria. This policy also boosted Muawiyas popularity and solidified Syria as his power base, the rivalries between the Arab tribes had caused unrest in the provinces outside Syria, most notably in the Second Muslim Civil War of AD 680–692 and the Berber Revolt of 740–743. During the Second Civil War, leadership of the Umayyad clan shifted from the Sufyanid branch of the family to the Marwanid branch. A branch of the family fled across North Africa to Al-Andalus, where they established the Caliphate of Córdoba, according to tradition, the Umayyad family and Muhammad both descended from a common ancestor, Abd Manaf ibn Qusai, and they originally came from the city of Mecca. Muhammad descended from Abd Manāf via his son Hashim, while the Umayyads descended from Abd Manaf via a different son, Abd-Shams, the two families are therefore considered to be different clans of the same tribe. However Muslim Shia historians suspect that Umayya was a son of Abd Shams so he was not a blood relative of Abd Manaf ibn Qusai. Umayya was later discarded from the noble family, Sunni historians disagree with this and view Shia claims as nothing more than outright polemics due to their hostility to the Umayyad family in general. While the Umayyads and the Hashimites may have had bitterness between the two clans before Muhammad, the rivalry turned into a case of tribal animosity after the Battle of Badr. The battle saw three top leaders of the Umayyad clan killed by Hashimites in a three-on-three melee and this fueled the opposition of Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, the grandson of Umayya, to Muhammad and to Islam. Abu Sufyan sought to exterminate the adherents of the new religion by waging another battle with Muslims based in Medina only a year after the Battle of Badr and he did this to avenge the defeat at Badr. The Battle of Uhud is generally believed by scholars to be the first defeat for the Muslims, as they had incurred greater losses than the Meccans
16.
Byzantine Iconoclasm
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The First Iconoclasm, as it is sometimes called, lasted between about 726 and 787. The Second Iconoclasm was between 814 and 842, according to the traditional view, Byzantine Iconoclasm constituted a ban on religious images by Emperor Leo III and continued under his successors. It was accompanied by destruction of images and persecution of supporters of the veneration of images. Iconoclasm, Greek for breaker of icons, is the destruction within a culture of the cultures own religious icons and other symbols or monuments. People who engage in or support iconoclasm are called iconoclasts, a term that has come to be applied figuratively to any person who breaks or disdains established dogmata or conventions, conversely, people who revere or venerate religious images are derisively called iconolaters. They are normally known as iconodules, or iconophiles and these terms were, however, not a part of the Byzantine debate over images. They have been brought into usage by modern historians and their application to Byzantium increased considerably in the late twentieth century. The Byzantine term for the debate over religious imagery, iconomachy means struggle over images or image struggle, Iconoclasm has generally been motivated theologically by an Old Covenant interpretation of the Ten Commandments, which forbade the making and worshipping of graven images. It was a debate triggered by changes in Orthodox worship, which were generated by the major social and political upheavals of the seventh century for the Byzantine Empire. Traditional explanations for Byzantine iconoclasm have sometimes focused on the importance of Islamic prohibitions against images influencing Byzantine thought, the role of women and monks in supporting the veneration of images has also been asserted. On the other hand, the wealthier Greeks of Constantinople and also the peoples of the Balkan and Italian provinces strongly opposed Iconoclasm, Christian worship by the sixth century had developed a clear belief in the intercession of saints. A strong sacramentality and belief in the importance of physical presence also joined the belief in intercession of saints with the use of relics and holy images in early Christian practices. Believers would, therefore, make pilgrimages to places sanctified by the presence of Christ or prominent saints and martyrs. Relics, or holy objects which were a part of the remains, or had come into contact with, Christ, the Virgin or a saint, were also widely utilized in Christian practices at this time. The use and abuse of images had greatly increased during this period, in some cases it defends itself against infidels with physical force. Key artefacts to blur this boundary emerged in c.570 in the form of miraculously created acheiropoieta or images not made by human hands and these sacred images were a form of contact relic, which additionally were taken to prove divine approval of the use of icons. The two most famous were the Mandylion of Edessa and the Image of Camuliana from Cappadocia, by then in Constantinople. The latter was regarded as a palladium that had won battles and saved Constantinople from the Persian-Avar siege of 626
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Rome
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Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the Caput Mundi, due to that, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, in 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic. Rome has the status of a global city, Rome ranked in 2014 as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are among the worlds most visited tourist destinations with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics and is the seat of United Nations Food, however, it is a possibility that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternate theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago. Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence, several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the age and the beginning of the Iron age. However, none of them had yet an urban quality, nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. All these happenings, which according to the excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome has been indeed founded with an act of will as the legend suggests in the middle of the 8th century BC remains a fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth
18.
Miliaresion
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The miliaresion, was a name used for a number of Byzantine silver coins. In its most specific sense, it refers to a type of silver coin struck in the 8th–11th centuries. Originally, the name was given to a series of coins issued in the 4th century that were struck 72 to the pound and were the equivalent of 1,000 nummi. Thereafter and until the 7th century, the Byzantines did not use silver coins, only from the reign of Emperor Theophilos did the coin become regular issue, struck throughout an emperors reign. In the 10th century, Emperor Alexander introduced a bust of Christ on the obverse and this process culminated in the 11th century, when images of emperors, Christ, and the Virgin Mary began to appear. In the 11th century, 2⁄3 and 1⁄3 fractions of the miliaresion also began to be minted and it was discontinued after 1092, except as a money of account equal to 1⁄12 of the nomisma. Under the Komnenian emperors, it was replaced by a very low-grade billon trachy coin, initially worth a quarter of a miliaresion. The miliaresion was essentially revived in the form of the basilikon issued from circa 1300 onwards, the name also passed into Western European languages, where milliarès was used for various kinds of Muslim silver coins. New York and Oxford, Oxford University Press, studies in the Byzantine Monetary Economy c. The Miliaresion Poet, The Dactylic Inscription on a Silver Coin of Romanos III Argyros, media related to Miliaresion at Wikimedia Commons
19.
Commagene
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The Kingdom of Commagene was an ancient Armenian kingdom of the Hellenistic period, located in and around the ancient city of Samosata, which served as its capital. The Iron Age name of Samosata, Kummuh, probably gives its name to Commagene, Commagene has been characterized as a buffer state between Armenia, Parthia, Syria, and Rome, culturally, it seems to have been correspondingly mixed. The territory of Commagene corresponds roughly to the modern Turkish provinces of Adıyaman, little is known of the region of Commagene prior to the beginning of the 2nd century BC. However, it seems that, from what little evidence remains and this control lasted until c. 163 BC, when the local satrap, Ptolemaeus of Commagene, established himself as independent ruler following the death of the Seleucid king, Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The Kingdom of Commagene maintained its independence until 17 AD, when it was made a Roman province by Emperor Tiberius, the reemergent state lasted until 72 AD, when the Emperor Vespasian finally and definitively made it part of the Roman Empire. It is now a World Heritage Site, the cultural identity of the Kingdom of Commagene has been variously characterized. Pierre Merlat suggests that the Commagenian city of Doliche, like others in its vicinity, was half Iranianized, david M. Lang describes Commagene as a former Armenian satellite kingdom, while Blömer and Winter call it a Hellenistic kingdom. Frank McLynn denominates it a a small Hellenised Armenian kingdom in southern Anatolia, while the language used on public monuments was typically Greek, Commagenes rulers made no secret of their Persian and Armenian affinities. Over the course of first centuries BC and AD, the names given on a tomb at Sofraz Köy show a mix of typical Hellenistic dynastic names with an introduction of Latin personal names. Lang notes the vitality of Graeco-Roman culture in Commagene, Commagene was originally a small Syro-Hittite kingdom, located in modern south-central Turkey, with its capital at Samosata. It was first mentioned in Assyrian texts as Kummuhu, which was normally an ally of Assyria, the Achaemenid Empire then conquered Commagene in the 6th century BC and Alexander the Great conquered the territory in the 4th century BC. Ptolemys dynasty was related to the Parthian kings, but his descendant Mithridates I Callinicus embraced Hellenistic culture and his dynasty could thus claim ties with both Alexander the Great and the Persian kings. This marriage may also have part of a peace treaty between Commagene and the Seleucid Empire. From this point on, the kingdom of Commagene became more Greek than Persian, with Sophene, it was to serve as an important centre for the transmission of Hellenistic and Roman culture in the region. Details are sketchy, but Mithridates Callinicus is thought have accepted Armenian suzerainty during the reign of Tigranes II the Great, Mithridates and Laodice’s son was King Antiochus I Theos of Commagene. Antiochus was an ally of the Roman general Pompey during the campaigns against Mithridates VI of Pontus in 64 BC. Thanks to his skills, Antiochus was able to keep Commagene independent from the Romans. In 17 when Antiochus III of Commagene died, Emperor Tiberius annexed Commagene to the province of Syria, in 38, Caligula reinstated Antiochus IIIs son Antiochus IV and also gave him the wild areas of Cilicia to govern
20.
Theophanes the Confessor
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Saint Theophanes the Confessor was a member of the Byzantine aristocracy, who became a monk and chronicler. He is venerated on March 12 in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Theophanes was born in Constantinople of wealthy and noble iconodule parents, Isaac, imperial governor of the islands of the Black Sea, and Theodora, of whose family nothing is known. His father died when Theophanes was three years old, and the Byzantine Emperor Constantine V Copronymus subsequently saw to the boys education, Theophanes would hold several offices under this patron. He was married at the age of twelve, but convinced his wife to lead a life of virginity, in 799, after the death of his father-in-law, they separated with mutual consent to embrace the religious life. She chose a convent on an island near Constantinople, while he entered the Polychronius Monastery, located in the district of Sigiane, later, he built a monastery on his own lands on the island of Calonymus. After six years he returned to Sigriano, where he founded an abbey known by the name of the great acre and governed it as abbot. In this position of leadership, he was present at the Second General Council of Nicaea in 787, when Emperor Leo V the Armenian resumed his iconoclastic warfare, he ordered Theophanes brought to Constantinople. The Emperor tried in vain to induce him to condemn the same veneration of icons that had been sanctioned by the council, Theophanes was cast into prison and for two years suffered cruel treatment. After his release, he was banished to Samothrace in 817 and he is credited with many miracles that occurred after his death, which most likely took place on 12 March, the day he is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology. The language occupies a place midway between the ecclesiastical and the vernacular Greek. The work consists of two parts, the first giving the history, arranged according to years, the other containing chronological tables, full of inaccuracies. It seems that Theophanes had only prepared the tables, leaving vacant spaces for the proper dates, attribution, This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Mershman, Francis. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh. Endnotes, Editions of the Chronicle, Editio princeps, Jacques Goar J. P. Migne, Patrologia Graeca, J. Classen in Bonn Corpus Scriptorum Hist. Editions of the Continuation in J. P. Migne, Pair, on both works and Theophanes generally, see, C. Der Wissenschaften, Gibbons Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, who Wrote the Chronicle of Theophanes. Byzantium and its Image, London 1984, — An editions of the Chronicle with annotations and corrections. The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor, Byzantine and Near Eastern History AD 284–813, translated by Mango, Cyril, Scott, Roger
