1.
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
2.
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
3.
Grand duke
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He was defeated by the royal armies but nevertheless obtained a remarkable autonomy as a Magnus Dux, leading ultimately to Portuguese independence from the Spanish Kingdom of Castille-León. Another example was the line of self-proclaimed grand dukes of Burgundy in the 15th century and they tried -ultimately without success- to create from these territories under their control a new unified country between the Kingdom of France in the west and the Holy Roman Empire in the east. His son and successor Charles the Bold continued to use the style and title. The title magnus dux or grand duke has been used by the rulers of Lithuania, the first monarchs ever officially titled grand duke were the Medici sovereigns of Tuscany, starting from the late 16th century. This official title was granted by Pope Pius V in 1569, thus the 19th century saw a new group of monarchs titled Grand Duke in central Europe, especially in present-day Germany. A list of these is available in the grand duchy. In the same century, the ceremonial version of the title grand duke in Russia expanded massively because of the large number of progeny of the ruling House of Romanov during those decades. After the Russian conquests, the continued to be used by the Russian Emperors in their role as rulers of both Lithuania and the autonomous Finland. The Holy Roman Empire under the House of Habsburg instituted a similar non-sovereign Großfürstentum Siebenbürgen in 1765, Grand princes were medieval monarchs who usually ruled over several tribes and/or were feudal overlords of other princes. At the time, the title was translated as king. However, Grand Princes did not have the same precedence as later Western European kings. Grand Princes reigned in Central and Eastern Europe, notably among Slavs, the title Grand Prince translates to Velikiy Knjaz in Russian. The Slavic word knjaz and the Lithuanian kunigas are cognates of the word King in its meaning of Ruler. Thus, the meaning of Veliki Knjaz and Didysis Kunigas was more like Great Ruler than Grand Duke. Grand Prince Ivan IV of Muscovy was the last monarch to reign without claiming any higher title, the rulers of the Turkish vassal state of Transylvania used the title of Grand Prince, this title was later assumed by the Habsburgs after their conquest of Hungary. The Polish Kings of the Swedish House of Vasa also used the title for their non-Polish territories. The Latin title dux, which was phonetically rendered doux in Greek, was a title for imperial generals in the Late Roman Empires. Under the latter, exclusively Byzantine theme system, the commander of a theme was often styled a doux instead of the earlier strategos from the 10th century on
4.
Byzantine bureaucracy and 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
5.
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
6.
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
7.
Latinisation of names
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Latinisation is the practice of rendering a non-Latin name in a Latin style. It is commonly found with personal names, with toponyms. It goes further than romanisation, which is the transliteration of a word to the Latin alphabet from another script and this was often done in the classical era for much the same reason as English-speaking cultures produce English versions of some foreign names. In the case of names in the post-Roman era this may be done to emulate Latin authors. In a scientific context, the purpose of Latinisation may be to produce a name which is internationally consistent. Humanist names, assumed by Renaissance humanists, were very largely Latinised names, Latinisation in humanist names may consist of translation from vernacular European languages, sometimes involving a playful element of punning. Such names could be a cover for social origins. Latinisation is a practice for scientific names. For example, Livistona, the name of a genus of trees, is a Latinisation of Livingstone. In English, place names appear in Latinised form. This is a result of many text books mentioning the places being written in Latin. Because of this, the English language often uses Latinised forms of place names instead of anglicised forms or the original names. Examples of Latinised names for countries or regions are, Estonia Ingria Livonia During the age of the Roman Empire, additionally, Latinised versions of Greek substantives, particularly proper nouns, could easily be declined by Latin speakers with minimal modification of the original word. During the medieval period, following the collapse of the Empire in Western Europe, in the early medieval period, most European scholars were priests and most educated people spoke Latin, and as a result, Latin became firmly established as the scholarly language for the West. Though during modern times Europe has largely abandoned Latin as a scholarly language, by tradition, it is still common in some fields to name new discoveries in Latin. Romanization, conversion of a text in Latin letters Nicolson, Dan H, orthography of Names and Epithets, Latinization of Personal Names
8.
Hellenization
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In modern times, Hellenization has been associated with the adoption of modern Greek culture and the ethnic and cultural homogenization of Greece. Other tribes that underwent varying degrees of Hellenization included Thracians, Dardanians, Paeonians and Illyrians south of the Jireček Line, Hellenization during the Hellenistic period, however, had its limitations. For example, areas of southern Syria that were affected by Greek culture mostly entailed Seleucid urban centers where Greek was commonly spoken, the countryside, on the other hand, was largely unaffected since most of its inhabitants spoke Syriac and continued to maintain their native traditions. Moreover, Hellenization did not necessarily involve assimilation of ethnic groups since Hellenistic Greeks in regions such as Asia Minor were conscious of their ancestral lineages. Hellenization can also refer to the medieval Byzantine Empire and Constantines founding of Constantinople, moreover, it can refer to the primacy of Greek culture and the Greek language after the reign of Emperor Heraclius in the 7th century AD. Hellenization during the period of Ottoman imperial rule entailed the higher status which Greek culture, in 1909, a commission appointed by the Greek government reported that one third of the villages of Greece should have their names changed, often because of their non-Greek origin. In other instances, names were changed from a name of Greek origin to the ancient Greek toponym. Some village names were formed from a Greek root word with a foreign suffix, the majority of the name changes took place in areas populated by ethnic Greeks, where a strata of foreign, or divergent, toponyms had accumulated over the centuries. However, in parts of northern Greece the population was not Greek-speaking. The process of the change of toponyms in modern Greece has been described as a process of Hellenization and this led to the diminution of the community of Corfiot Italians, resident in Corfu since the Middle Ages, by the 1940s there were only four hundred Corfiot Italians left. The twentieth century witnessed a debate over the extent of Hellenization in the Levant. Rudolf Bultmann thus argued that Christianity arose almost completely within those Hellenistic confines, in his Introduction to the 1964 book Meditations, the Anglican priest Maxwell Staniforth discussed the profound influence of Stoic philosophy on Christianity. In particular, Again in the doctrine of the Trinity, the conception of Father, Word
9.
Latin
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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
10.
Alexios I Komnenos
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Alexios I Komnenos, was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. Although he was not the founder of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during his reign that the Komnenos family came to full power, the basis for this recovery were various reforms initiated by Alexios. His appeals to Western Europe for help against the Turks were also the catalyst that contributed to the convoking of the Crusades. Alexios was the son of the Domestic of the Schools John Komnenos and Anna Dalassena, Alexios father declined the throne on the abdication of Isaac, who was thus succeeded by four emperors of other families between 1059 and 1081. Under one of these emperors, Romanos IV Diogenes, Alexios served with distinction against the Seljuq Turks. Under Michael VII Doukas Parapinakes and Nikephoros III Botaneiates, he was employed, along with his elder brother Isaac, against rebels in Asia Minor, Thrace. In 1074, western mercenaries led by Roussel de Bailleul rebelled in Asia Minor, in 1078, he was appointed commander of the field army in the West by Nikephoros III. Alexios was ordered to march against his brother-in-law Nikephoros Melissenos in Asia Minor and this did not, however, lead to a demotion, as Alexios was needed to counter the expected invasion of the Normans of Southern Italy, led by Robert Guiscard. While Byzantine troops were assembling for the expedition, the Doukas faction at court approached Alexios, the mother of Alexios, Anna Dalassena, was to play a prominent role in this coup détat of 1081, along with the current empress, Maria of Alania. First married to Michael VII Doukas and secondly to Nikephoros III Botaneiates, she was preoccupied with the future of her son by Michael VII, furthermore, to aid the conspiracy Maria had adopted Alexios as her son, though she was only five years older than he. Maria was persuaded to do so on the advice of her own Alans and her eunuchs, given Annas tight hold on her family, Alexios must have been adopted with her implicit approval. As a result, Alexios and Constantine, Marias son, were now adoptive brothers, by secretly giving inside information to the Komnenoi, Maria was an invaluable ally. As stated in the Alexiad, Isaac and Alexios left Constantinople in mid-February 1081 to raise an army against Botaneiates, however, when the time came, Anna quickly and surreptitiously mobilized the remainder of the family and took refuge in the Hagia Sophia. From there she negotiated with the emperor for the safety of family members left in the capital, the tutor discovered they were missing and eventually found them on the palace grounds, but Anna was able to convince him that they would return to the palace shortly. However, before they were to gain entry into the sanctuary, Straboromanos and she refused to go with them and demanded that they allow her to pray to the Mother of God for protection. This request was granted and Anna then manifested her true theatrical and manipulative capabilities, Nikephoros III Botaneiates was forced into a public vow that he would grant protection to the family. Straboromanos tried to give Anna his cross, but for her it was not sufficiently enough for all bystanders to witness the oath. She also demanded that the cross be personally sent by Botaneiates as a vow of his good faith and he obliged, sending a complete assurance for the family with his own cross
11.
John Doukas (megas doux)
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John Doukas was a member of the Doukas family, a relative of Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos and a senior military figure of his reign. As governor of Dyrrhachium, he secured the imperial possessions in the western Balkans against the Serbs, John was thus the brother-in-law of Alexios I Komnenos, who had married his sister Irene Doukaina. In 1074, during the rebellion of the Norman mercenary Roussel de Bailleul, John, Roussel demanded that the Caesar give up the two as hostages in return for releasing their wounded father, whom he held captive. After his father died in 1077, John remained in his grandfathers estates in Thrace and it was there that he learned of the rebellion of Alexios Komnenos against Nikephoros III Botaneiates in 1081, and it was he who informed the Caesar of it. Together, they departed and joined Alexioss forces at Schiza, where the latter was proclaimed emperor. John remained there until 1092, when he was replaced by John Komnenos, the son of the emperors brother and his tenure was apparently very successful. Thus John managed to order in the region of Albania and Dalmatia. After being recalled to Constantinople in 1092, John was appointed to the post of megas doux, i. e. commander-in-chief of the Byzantine navy. Although he is the first known megas doux and hence usually credited as the first to hold the post, there is evidence of its already in late 1085. As megas doux, John was tasked with countering the threat posed by the Turkish emir Tzachas of Smyrna. Tzachas, formerly a Byzantine vassal, had built a fleet of his own and had seized several Aegean islands, raided others, after participating in a synod that condemned Leo of Chalcedon, John set forth to take back the island of Mytilene. His troops marched along the Anatolian coast to the point opposite the island, the fleet, which under Constantine Dalassenos had already recovered Chios, was to meet him there. The combined Byzantine force laid siege to Mytilene for three months, when Tzachas offered to cede the island in exchange for passage back to Smyrna. John agreed, but as the Turks set sail, Dalassenos, Tzachas managed to escape, but most of his fleet was captured or sunk. After this victory, John Doukas reinforced the defences of Mytilene and then led his fleet to recover the islands Tzachas had conquered, before returning to Constantinople. Upon his return to Constantinople, he was tasked, along with Manuel Boutoumites, with the suppression of the revolts in Crete by Karykes, the rebellion of Karykes was subdued easily, as the news of the imperial fleets approach caused a counter-coup that overthrew him. At Cyprus, Rhapsomatess initial resistance was overcome, and he himself was captured soon after, eumathios Philokales was installed as the islands new governor, and the fleet returned to Constantinople. In 1097, after the surrender of Nicaea to the Byzantines, Alexios named John as commander-in-chief of the Byzantine army in Anatolia, John gave command of the fleet to Kaspax, and marched against Smyrna
12.
Tzachas
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Tzachas, also known as Chaka Bey was an 11th-century Seljuk Turkish military commander who ruled an independent state based in Smyrna. Originally in Byzantine service, he rebelled and seized Smyrna, much of the Aegean coastlands of Asia Minor, at the peak of his power, he even declared himself Byzantine emperor, and sought to assault Constantinople in conjunction with the Pechenegs. In 1092, a Byzantine naval expedition under John Doukas inflicted a defeat on him and retook Lesbos. Smyrna and the rest of Tzachas former domain were recovered by the Byzantines a few years later, very little is known about his life, and that mostly from only one source, the Alexiad of the Byzantine princess Anna Komnene, daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. He is also mentioned in the 13th-century Danishmendname, but it is not a reliable source due to the semi-legendary nature of its material. According to the Alexiad, Tzachas was originally a raider, who was taken as a prisoner by the Byzantines during the reign of Nikephoros III Botaneiates, Tzachas entered Byzantine service and advanced rapidly through imperial favour, receiving the title of protonobilissimus and rich gifts. However, when Alexios I Komnenos deposed Botaneiates in 1081, Tzachas lost his position, from ca.1088 on, he used his base at Smyrna to wage war against the Byzantines. Employing Christian craftsmen, he built a fleet, with which he captured Phocaea, a Byzantine fleet under Niketas Kastamonites was sent against him, but Tzachas defeated it in battle. In 1090/91, the Byzantines under Constantine Dalassenos recovered Chios, in 1092, Dalassenos and the new megas doux, John Doukas, were sent against Tzachas, and attacked the fortress of Mytilene on Lesbos. Tzachas resisted for three months, but finally had to negotiate a surrender of the fortress, during his return to Smyrna, Dalassenos attacked the Turkish fleet, which was almost destroyed. In spring 1093, Tzachas attacked the port of Abydos in the Sea of Marmara, Alexios I called upon the Sultan of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum Kilij Arslan I, who was married to Tzachass daughter and was thus his son-in-law, to attack Tzachas from the rear. The Sultan advanced to Abydos, where, at the pretext of inviting Tzachas to a banquet, however, in ca.1097 a Tzachas—possibly the original Tzachas son—is reported as still holding Smyrna when the Byzantine army under John Doukas recaptured the city. Seljuk campaigns in the Aegean Brand, Charles M. Tzachas, Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press. London, England, Routledge & Kegan Paul, in Fleet, Kate, Krämer, Gudrun, Matringe, Denis, Nawas, John, Rowson, Everett
13.
Manuel Boutoumites
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Manuel Boutoumites or Butumites was a leading Byzantine general and diplomat during the reign of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, and one of the emperors most trusted aides. He was instrumental in the Byzantine recovery of Nicaea from the Seljuk Turks, in the reconquest of Cilicia, Abul Qasim was preparing to launch a fleet into the Sea of Marmara to challenge the Byzantine navy. Alexios, determined to prevent this, sent against him Boutoumites with the fleet, the two generals successfully destroyed the Seljuk fleet and forced Abul Qasim to withdraw to Nicaea, whence he concluded a truce with Byzantium. Soon after, Doukas and Boutoumites were sent against the rebellions of Karykes at Crete, after subduing Karykess revolt, they headed to Cyprus, where Kyrenia fell quickly. Rhapsomates came out to them and occupied the heights above the city, but Boutoumites enticed many of his men to desert. Boutoumites pursued and caught up with him at the church of the Holy Cross, promising to spare his life, he captured him and brought him back to Doukas. According to tradition, while in Cyprus, he founded the Kykkos Monastery there, Boutoumites was highly regarded and trusted by Alexios, Anna Komnene calls him Alexios sole confidant. The first great obstacle on the Crusaders path was Nicaea, the Seljuk capital, Boutoumites had been instructed by Alexios to secure the surrender of the city to imperial forces, and not to the Crusaders. The Turks had entered negotiations, allowing Boutoumites to enter the city, two days later, at the news of the approach of a relief force under Sultan Kilij Arslan I, they forced him to leave. Boutoumites, however, kept the deal a secret, and arranged with Tatikios for an assault by the Crusaders and Tatikioss men. Although by and large the Crusaders accepted the outcome, the event soured relations, in the aftermath of the citys fall, Boutoumites was named by Alexios as doux of Nicaea. He also persuaded some of the Crusaders to enroll in the Byzantine army and they were then employed in garrisoning Nicaea and repairing its walls. In 1099, he was sent by the Byzantine commanders at Cyprus as an envoy to Bohemond I of Antioch, but he was detained by him for a fortnight before being released. A few years later, Boutoumites was placed at the head of an army sent to secure Cilicia against Bohemund. After taking Attaleia, the Byzantines took Maraş and its surrounding region, Boutoumites left behind a large force under Monastras to garrison the province, and returned to Constantinople. From Cyprus, Boutoumites first sailed to Tripoli, next the Byzantine envoys set out to meet with the King of Jerusalem, Baldwin I, who was besieging Tyre. Baldwin, however, advised of the untruth of Boutoumitess claims and he feigned willingness to attack Tancred provided that he received the promised subsidies beforehand. Boutoumites, however, perceived the kings intentions, and refused to do so, thus the mission ended in failure, and Boutoumites left Jerusalem, returning to Constantinople via Tripoli
14.
Aegean Sea
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The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the Greek and Anatolian peninsulas, i. e. between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles, the Aegean Islands are within the sea and some bound it on its southern periphery, including Crete and Rhodes. The sea was known as Archipelago, but in English this words meaning has changed to refer to the Aegean Islands and, generally. In ancient times, there were various explanations for the name Aegean, a possible etymology is a derivation from the Greek word αἶγες – aiges = waves, hence wavy sea, cf. also αἰγιαλός, hence meaning sea-shore. The Venetians, who ruled many Greek islands in the High and Late Middle Ages, popularized the name Archipelago, in some South Slavic languages the Aegean is often called White Sea. The Aegean Sea covers about 214,000 square kilometres in area, the seas maximum depth is 3,543 metres, east of Crete. The Aegean Islands are found within its waters, with the following islands delimiting the sea on the south, Kythera, Antikythera, Crete, Kasos, Karpathos, many of the Aegean Islands, or chains of islands, are actually extensions of the mountains on the mainland. One chain extends across the sea to Chios, another extends across Euboea to Samos, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Aegean Sea as follows, On the South. In the Dardanelles. A line joining Kum Kale and Cape Helles, the dense Mediterranean water sinks below the Black Sea inflow to a depth of 23–30 metres, then flows through the Dardanelles Strait and into the Sea of Marmara at velocities of 5–15 cm/s. The Black Sea outflow moves westward along the northern Aegean Sea, Aegean Sea Intermediate Water – Aegean Sea Intermediate Water extends from 40–50 m to 200–300 metres with temperatures ranging from 11–18 °C. Aegean Sea Bottom Water – occurring at depths below 500–1000 m with a uniform temperature. The current coastline dates back to about 4000 BC, before that time, at the peak of the last ice age sea levels everywhere were 130 metres lower, and there were large well-watered coastal plains instead of much of the northern Aegean. When they were first occupied, the islands including Milos with its important obsidian production were probably still connected to the mainland. The present coastal arrangement appeared c.7000 BC, with post-ice age sea levels continuing to rise for another 3,000 years after that, the subsequent Bronze Age civilizations of Greece and the Aegean Sea have given rise to the general term Aegean civilization. In ancient times, the sea was the birthplace of two ancient civilizations – the Minoans of Crete and the Mycenean Civilization of the Peloponnese, later arose the city-states of Athens and Sparta among many others that constituted the Athenian Empire and Hellenic Civilization. Plato described the Greeks living round the Aegean like frogs around a pond, the Aegean Sea was later invaded by the Persians and the Romans, and inhabited by the Byzantine Empire, the Bulgarians, the Venetians, the Genoese, the Seljuq Turks, and the Ottoman Empire. The Aegean was the site of the democracies, and its seaways were the means of contact among several diverse civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean. Many of the islands in the Aegean have safe harbours and bays, in ancient times, navigation through the sea was easier than travelling across the rough terrain of the Greek mainland
15.
Crete
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Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, 88th-largest island in the world and the fifth-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and Corsica. Crete and a number of surrounding islands and islets constitute the region of Crete, the capital and the largest city is Heraklion. As of 2011, the region had a population of 623,065, Crete forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece, while retaining its own local cultural traits. It was once the centre of the Minoan civilization, which is regarded as the earliest recorded civilization in Europe. The island is first referred to as Kaptara in texts from the Syrian city of Mari dating from the 18th century BC, repeated later in Neo-Assyrian records and it was also known in ancient Egyptian as Keftiu, strongly suggesting a similar Minoan name for the island. The current name of Crete is thought to be first attested in Mycenaean Greek texts written in Linear B, through the words
16.
Cyprus
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Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean and the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean. It is located south of Turkey, west of Syria and Lebanon, northwest of Israel and Palestine, north of Egypt, the earliest known human activity on the island dates to around the 10th millennium BC. Archaeological remains from this include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia. Cyprus was settled by Mycenaean Greeks in two waves in the 2nd millennium BC, Cyprus was placed under British administration based on Cyprus Convention in 1878 and formally annexed by Britain in 1914. While Turkish Cypriots made up 18% of the population, the partition of Cyprus and creation of a Turkish state in the north became a policy of Turkish Cypriot leaders, following nationalist violence in the 1950s, Cyprus was granted independence in 1960. On 15 July 1974, a coup détat was staged by Greek Cypriot nationalists and elements of the Greek military junta in an attempt at enosis and these events and the resulting political situation are matters of a continuing dispute. The Cyprus Republic has de jure sovereignty over the island of Cyprus, as well as its territorial sea and exclusive economic area, another nearly 4% of the islands area is covered by the UN buffer zone. The international community considers the part of the island as territory of the Republic of Cyprus occupied by Turkish forces. The occupation is viewed as illegal under law, amounting to illegal occupation of EU territory since Cyprus became a member of the European Union. Cyprus is a major tourist destination in the Mediterranean, on 1 January 2008, the Republic of Cyprus joined the eurozone. The earliest attested reference to Cyprus is the 15th century BC Mycenaean Greek
17.
Anatolia
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Anatolia, in geography known as Asia Minor, Asian Turkey, Anatolian peninsula, or Anatolian plateau, is the westernmost protrusion of Asia, which makes up the majority of modern-day Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Sea of Marmara forms a connection between the Black and Aegean Seas through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits and separates Anatolia from Thrace on the European mainland. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to a line between the Gulf of Alexandretta and the Black Sea to the Armenian Highlands, thus, traditionally Anatolia is the territory that comprises approximately the western two-thirds of the Asian part of Turkey. The Turkification of Anatolia began under the Seljuk Empire in the late 11th century, however, various non-Turkic languages continue to be spoken by minorities in Anatolia today, including Kurdish, Assyrian, Armenian, Arabic, Laz, Georgian, and Greek. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to a line running from the Gulf of Alexandretta to the Black Sea. This traditional geographical definition is used, for example, in the latest edition of Merriam-Websters Geographical Dictionary, under this definition, Anatolia is bounded to the east by the Armenian Highlands, and the Euphrates before that river bends to the southeast to enter Mesopotamia. To the southeast, it is bounded by the ranges that separate it from the Orontes valley in Syria, the first name the Greeks used for the Anatolian peninsula was Ἀσία, presumably after the name of the Assuwa league in western Anatolia. As the name of Asia came to be extended to areas east of the Mediterranean. The name Anatolia derives from the Greek ἀνατολή meaning “the East” or more literally “sunrise”, the precise reference of this term has varied over time, perhaps originally referring to the Aeolian, Ionian and Dorian colonies on the west coast of Asia Minor. In the Byzantine Empire, the Anatolic Theme was a theme covering the western, the modern Turkish form of Anatolia is Anadolu, which again derives from the Greek name Aνατολή. The Russian male name Anatoly and the French Anatole share the same linguistic origin, in English the name of Turkey for ancient Anatolia first appeared c. It is derived from the Medieval Latin Turchia, which was used by the Europeans to define the Seljuk controlled parts of Anatolia after the Battle of Manzikert. Human habitation in Anatolia dates back to the Paleolithic, neolithic Anatolia has been proposed as the homeland of the Indo-European language family, although linguists tend to favour a later origin in the steppes north of the Black Sea. However, it is clear that the Anatolian languages, the oldest branch of Indo-European, have spoken in Anatolia since at least the 19th century BC. The earliest historical records of Anatolia stem from the southeast of the region and are from the Mesopotamian-based Akkadian Empire during the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 24th century BC, scholars generally believe the earliest indigenous populations of Anatolia were the Hattians and Hurrians. The region was famous for exporting raw materials, and areas of Hattian-, one of the numerous cuneiform records dated circa 20th century BC, found in Anatolia at the Assyrian colony of Kanesh, uses an advanced system of trading computations and credit lines. They were speakers of an Indo-European language, the Hittite language, originating from Nesa, they conquered Hattusa in the 18th century BC, imposing themselves over Hattian- and Hurrian-speaking populations. According to the most widely accepted Kurgan theory on the Proto-Indo-European homeland, however, the Hittites adopted the cuneiform script, invented in Mesopotamia
18.
Hellas (theme)
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The Theme of Hellas was a Byzantine military-civilian province located in southern Greece. The theme encompassed parts of Central Greece, Thessaly and, until c and it was established in the late 7th century, and survived until the late 11th/12th century. Hellas was already in use in the 6th century to designate southern Greece in an administrative context, during the late 6th and early 7th centuries, the final collapse of the Danube frontier allowed large-scale Slavic invasions and settlements to occur all over the Balkan peninsula. From 578, Slavic raids reached Thessaly and southern Greece, aided by the Byzantine Empires preoccupation with the long and bloody wars with Sassanid Persia in the east, and with the Avar Khaganate in the north, the Slavs raided and settled almost at will. Some of the native Greek population fled to the cities, to off-shore islands. The creation of the theme of Hellas is dated to sometime between 687 and 695, during the first reign of Emperor Justinian II, probably as a result of his anti-Slavic campaign of 688/689. It is unclear whether Athens or Thebes was the original capital, most likely Thebes. In the second half of the 10th century, however, the seat was transferred to Larissa. Given its lack of depth into the hinterland, the theme was originally probably oriented mostly towards the sea, thus Justinian II settled several thousand Mardaites in Hellas, who provided garrisons and crews for local naval squadrons. The number of troops on the other hand remained rather low throughout the themes existence, numbering perhaps 2,000. The fleet of Hellas played a prominent role during the anti-iconoclast revolt of 726/7, during the course of the 8th century, however, imperial authority was gradually extended to the interior. The local Slavic inhabitants were Christianized and subjected to Byzantine authority and this process was interrupted but not halted by another wave of Slavic settlement in ca. The anti-Slavic expedition of the minister Staurakios in 783 restored and extended imperial control again, especially in the Peloponnese. During the 9th and early 10th centuries, Hellas suffered from Saracen raids, especially after the conquest of Crete by the Arabs in the 820s and the establishment of the Emirate of Crete. Among the major events, in the 880s the Arab emir of Tarsus attacked Euripos but was defeated. Ten ships from Hellas also participated in the attempt to recover Crete under Himerios in 911/2. In 918 and again in 923, the area was subjected to Bulgarian raids under Tsar Simeon that reached even into the Peloponnese and may have destroyed Thebes. Thessaly appears to have detached from Hellas and joined to the theme of Thessalonica from the early 11th century—the Spercheios valley remained under Hellas—until sometime in the 12th century
19.
Peloponnese (theme)
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The Theme of the Peloponnese was a Byzantine military-civilian province encompassing the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece. 800, and its capital was Corinth, from 27 BC until the end of the 6th century, the Peloponnese formed part of the province of Achaea, which during Late Antiquity comprised also the eastern parts of Central Greece. The literary evidence is confirmed by several buried coin hoards from the 570s/580s and early 7th century. 587, the date provided by the Chronicle, and one that peaked in the far larger crisis of the reign of Heraclius, the formation of the new province is directly linked to the re-imposition of the Byzantine governments control over the Slavic tribes at this time. This was achieved by the victories of the strategos Skleros in 805, as reported by the Chronicle of Monemvasia, emperor Nikephoros I followed up these successes with an extensive colonization and Christianization programme, which included the regions resettlement with Greeks from Italy and Asia Minor. The first known strategos of the Peloponnese is Leo Skleros, attested for 811, the strategos of the Peloponnese ranked first in the hierarchy of the western thematic governors. After the Byzantine reconquest of Crete in 961 put an end to the piratical emirate there, the joint theme of Hellas-Peloponnese was subdivided further during the 12th century into a series of smaller fiscal districts variously termed oria, chartoularata and episkepseis. The Peloponnese remained under Byzantine control until the early 13th century, when, in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade, the Latin Principality of Achaea was established there
20.
Byzantine Crete
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Under Roman rule, Crete had formed a joint province with Cyrenaica, that of Creta et Cyrenaica. Few contemporary sources mention Crete during the period from the 4th century to the Muslim conquest in the 820s, during this time, the island was very much a quiet provincial backwater in the periphery of the Greco-Roman world. Its bishops are even absent from the First Council of Nicaea in 325, in the 6th-century Synecdemus, Crete is marked as being governed by a consularis, with capital at Gortyn, and as many as 22 cities. The population in this period is estimated as high as 250,000 and this peace was broken in the 7th century. Thereafter the island remained relatively safe, under the rule of an appointed by Constantinople. 732, the emperor Leo III the Isaurian transferred the island from the jurisdiction of the Pope to that of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, a strategos of Crete is attested in 767, and a seal of a tourmarches of Crete is known. This has led to suggestions that the island was constituted as a theme in the 8th century, most scholars however do not consider the evidence conclusive enough and think it unlikely that the island was a theme at the time. Byzantine rule lasted until the late 820s, when a group of exiles from Muslim Spain landed on the island. The Byzantines launched repeated expeditions to drive back, and seem to have appointed a strategos to administer what parts of the island they still controlled. The fall of Crete to the Arabs posed a major headache for Byzantium, as it opened the coasts, however Theoktistos had to abandon the campaign, and the troops left behind were quickly defeated by the Saracens. After reconquest, the island was organized as a regular theme, extensive efforts at conversion of the populace were undertaken, led by John Xenos and Nikon the Metanoeite. A regiment of 1,000 men was raised as the garrison, under a separate taxiarches. Under Alexios I Komnenos, the island was ruled by a doux or katepano, by the early 12th century, it came, along with southern Greece under the overall control of the megas doux, the commander-in-chief of the Byzantine navy. Aside from the revolt of its governor, Karykes, in 1092/1093, during the Crusade, Crete appears to have been granted to Boniface of Montferrat as a pronoia by the emperor Alexios IV Angelos. Boniface however, unable to extend his control to the island, in the event, the island was seized by the Venetians rivals, Genoa, and it took Venice until 1212 to secure her control over the island and establish it as a Venetian colony. Ancient episcopal sees of the late Roman province of Crete listed in the Annuario Pontificio as titular sees, Detorakis, Theocharis E. Ιστορία της Κρήτης, Athens Hetherington, Paul, 825–949, Graeco-Arabica, 347–362 Nesbitt, John W. Oikonomides, Nicolas, eds. A History of the Byzantine State and Society, Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, ISBN 0-8047-2630-2
21.
Praitor
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Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities, the commander of an army, or, an elected magistratus, assigned various duties. The prefix prae is an indication that the title-holder was prior, in some way. Livy mentions that the Latini were led and governed in warfare by two of them and the Samnites by one, a dictator was called the praetor maximus. The use of the adjectives in a number of circumstances testify to a general sense. The leadership functions of any body at Rome might be termed praetorial. The praetoria potestas in Republican Rome was at first held by the consuls and these two officials, elected on a yearly basis, inherited the power of the king. Very likely, the king himself was the first praetor, Let there be two with the authority of the king, and let them be called praetors, judges and consuls from their going before, judging and consulting. Let them have the right of command of the military. This etymology of praetor became and remains the standard, cicero considers the word to contain the same elemental parts as the verb praeire. In exactly what way he goes before did not survive, livy explains that in the year 366 BC the praetura was created to relieve the consuls of their judicial duties. The praetor was, in an English sense, the chief justice, the consuls were his peers, he was elected by the same electorate and sworn in on the same day with the same oath. Until 337 BC the praetor was chosen only from the patricians, from then on, praetors appear frequently in Roman history, first as generals and judges, then as provincial governors. Beginning in the late Republic, a former Praetor could serve as a Propraetor, the elected praetor was a magistratus curulis, exercised imperium, and consequently was one of the magistrati majores. He had the right to sit in the sella curulis and wear the toga praetexta and he was attended by six lictors. A praetor was a magistrate with imperium within his own sphere, the potestas and imperium of the consuls and the praetors under the Republic should not be exaggerated. They did not use independent judgment in resolving matters of state, unlike todays executive branches, they were assigned high-level tasks directly by senatorial decree under the authority of the SPQR. Livy describes the assignments given to consuls or praetors in some detail. As magistrates, they had standing duties to perform, especone principle that limited what could be assigned to them was that their duties must not concern them with minima and they were by definition doers of maxima
22.
Andronikos Kontostephanos
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Andronikos had two older brothers, John and Alexios, and a sister, Irene. Andronikos himself is believed to have married, ca,1150, an unnamed member of the Doukas family, another clan with imperial connections. The couple had at least five sons, and possibly daughters, Andronikos was the leading Byzantine military figure during the reign of his uncle, Emperor Manuel I Komnenos. Like his father he was appointed to the office of megas doux, the commander-in-chief of the Byzantine navy and governor of the provinces of Hellas, however, his greatest success was as a general rather than as an admiral. At some point, Andronikos was also appointed commander of the Varangian Guard, Andronikos is first mentioned during the siege of Corfu in the winter of 1148/49. The Byzantine forces, led by his father Stephen, were attempting to expel the Normans of the Kingdom of Sicily who held the city, Andronikos father was killed during the siege in early 1149, dying in his sons arms. Manuel supported his brothers, Ladislaus II and later Stephen IV, as his successors and this was opposed by Gézas eldest son, Stephen III, who in 1162 expelled Stephen IV from the country. A prolonged conflict ensued, not only over the succession, but also over possession of Dalmatia, in 1164, Stephen IV invaded Hungary on his own account, but had to be rescued by an army under Andronikos. Soon after, he was poisoned by agents of his nephew, the Hungarian army, commanded by the palatine Denis, met the Byzantine army near Zemun on the feast day of St. Procopius,8 July 1167. As the battle was about to begin, according to Niketas Choniates Andronikos received a message from Manuel, Andronikos ignored the order and kept it secret from his officers. The ensuing Battle of Sirmium resulted in the most spectacular military victory during Manuels reign, the victory sealed Byzantine control over the region around Sirmium, plus all of Bosnia, Dalmatia and the area south of the Krka River. Following the victory Manuel celebrated a triumphal entry into Constantinople with Andronikos Kontostephanos riding by his side, the fleet set sail from the port of Melibotos in the Dardanelles on 8 July 1169. After defeating a small Egyptian scouting squadron near Cyprus, Kontostephanos arrived at Tyre and Acre in late September to find that Amalric had undertaken no preparations whatsoever, the delays on the part of the Crusaders infuriated Kontostephanos and sow mistrust among the ostensible allies. It was not until mid-October that the armies and fleets set forth. The Christians delayed three days in attacking the city, allowing Saladin to hastily move in troops and supplies, as the Byzantines were about to storm the walls, Amalric stopped them by announcing that a negotiated surrender of Damietta had just taken place. Venice retaliated by outfitting a fleet of 120 ships under Doge Vitale II Michele, the Venetians sent envoys to negotiate, but Manuel allowed them to drag on until his own counterstroke,150 ships under Kontostephanos command, was ready. In the meantime, the Venetians suffered of disease on Chios, in April 1172, Kontostephanos set sail, but the Venetians were forewarned by the astrologer Aaron Isaakios, one of Manuels confidantes, and hastily abandoned Chios. Kontostephanos pursued them, but while the Venetians sailed north, raiding the islands of Thasos, Lesbos and Skyros, he assumed they would sail back westwards, and directed his fleet to Cape Malea
23.
Manuel I Komnenos
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Manuel I Komnenos was a Byzantine Emperor of the 12th century who reigned over a crucial turning point in the history of Byzantium and the Mediterranean. His reign saw the last flowering of the Komnenian restoration, during which the Byzantine Empire had seen a resurgence of its military and economic power, and had enjoyed a cultural revival. Eager to restore his empire to its past glories as the superpower of the Mediterranean world, Manuel pursued an energetic, in the process he made alliances with the Pope and the resurgent West. He invaded the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, although unsuccessfully, the passage of the potentially dangerous Second Crusade was adroitly managed through his empire. Manuel established a Byzantine protectorate over the Crusader states of Outremer, facing Muslim advances in the Holy Land, he made common cause with the Kingdom of Jerusalem and participated in a combined invasion of Fatimid Egypt. Called ho Megas by the Greeks, Manuel is known to have inspired loyalty in those who served him. He also appears as the hero of a written by his secretary, John Kinnamos. Manuel, who was influenced by his contact with western Crusaders, modern historians, however, have been less enthusiastic about him. Manuel Komnenos was the son of John II Komnenos and Piroska of Hungary. His maternal grandfather was St. Ladislaus, having distinguished himself in his fathers war against the Seljuk Turks, in 1143 Manuel was chosen as his successor by John, in preference to his elder surviving brother Isaac. After John died on 8 April 1143, his son, Manuel, was acclaimed emperor by the armies and he still had to take care of his fathers funeral, and tradition demanded he organise the foundation of a monastery on the spot where his father died. Axouch arrived in the capital even before news of the death had reached it. He quickly secured the loyalty of the city, and when Manuel entered the capital in August 1143, he was crowned by the new Patriarch, Michael Kourkouas. A few days later, with nothing more to fear as his position as emperor was now secure, then he ordered 2 golden pieces to be given to every householder in Constantinople and 200 pounds of gold to be given to the Byzantine Church. The empire that Manuel inherited from his father had undergone great changes since its foundation by Constantine, in the time of his predecessor Justinian I, parts of the former Western Roman Empire had been recovered including Italy, Africa and part of Spain. They had then swept on westwards into what in the time of Constantine had been the provinces of the Roman Empire, in North Africa. In the centuries since, the emperors had ruled over a realm that largely consisted of Asia Minor in the east, yet the empire that Manuel inherited was a polity facing formidable challenges. At the end of the 11th century, the Normans of Sicily had removed Italy from the control of the Byzantine Emperor, the Seljuk Turks had done the same with central Anatolia
24.
Fourth Crusade
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The Fourth Crusade was a Western European armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III, originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, a sequence of events culminated in the Crusaders sacking the city of Constantinople, the intention of the crusaders was then to continue to the Holy Land with promised Byzantine financial and military assistance. On 23 June 1203 the main fleet reached Constantinople. In August 1203, following clashes outside Constantinople, Alexios Angelos was crowned co-Emperor with crusader support, however, in January 1204, he was deposed by a popular uprising in Constantinople. In April 1204, they captured and brutally sacked the city, Byzantine resistance based in unconquered sections of the empire such as Nicaea, Trebizond, and Epirus ultimately recovered Constantinople in 1261. Ayyubid Sultan Saladin had conquered most of the Frankish, Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, including the ancient city itself, the Kingdom had been established 88 years before, after the capture and sack of Jerusalem in the First Crusade. The city was sacred to Christians, Muslims and Jews, Saladin led a Muslim dynasty, and his incorporation of Jerusalem into his domains shocked and dismayed the Catholic countries of Western Europe. Legend has it that Pope Urban III literally died of the shock, the crusader states had been reduced to three cities along the sea coast, Tyre, Tripoli, and Antioch. The Third Crusade reclaimed an extensive amount of territory for the Kingdom of Jerusalem, including the key towns of Acre and Jaffa, but had failed to retake Jerusalem. The crusade had also marked by a significant escalation in long standing tensions between the feudal states of western Europe and the Byzantine Empire, centred in Constantinople. The experiences of the first two crusades had thrown into relief the vast cultural differences between the two Christian civilisations. For their part, the educated and wealthy Byzantines maintained a sense of cultural, organizational. Constantinople had been in existence for 874 years at the time of the Fourth Crusade and was the largest and most sophisticated city in Christendom. Almost alone amongst major medieval urban centres, it had retained the civic structures, public baths, forums, monuments, at its height, the city held an estimated population of about half a million people behind thirteen miles of triple walls. As a result, it was both a rival and a target for the aggressive new states of the west, notably the Republic of Venice. Crusaders also seized the breakaway Byzantine province of Cyprus, rather than return it to the Empire, barbarossa died on crusade, and his army quickly disintegrated, leaving the English and French, who had come by sea, to fight Saladin. There they captured Sidon and Beirut, but at the news of Henrys death in Messina along the way, many of the nobles, deserted by much of their leadership, the rank and file crusaders panicked before an Egyptian army and fled to their ships in Tyre. Also in 1195, the Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelos was deposed in favour of his brother by a palace coup, ascending as Alexios III Angelos, the new emperor had his brother blinded and exiled
25.
Empire of Nicaea
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Founded by the Laskaris family, it lasted from 1204 to 1261, when the Nicaeans restored the Byzantine Empire in Constantinople. In 1204, Byzantine emperor Alexios V Ducas Murtzouphlos fled Constantinople after crusaders invaded the city. Theodore I Lascaris, the son-in-law of Emperor Alexios III Angelos, was proclaimed emperor but he too, realizing the situation in Constantinople was hopeless, fled to the city of Nicaea in Bithynia. The Latin Empire, established by the Crusaders in Constantinople, had control over former Byzantine territory, and Byzantine successor states sprang up in Epirus, Trebizond. Trebizond had broken away as an independent state a few weeks before the fall of Constantinople, Nicaea, however, was the closest to the Latin Empire and was in the best position to attempt to re-establish the Byzantine Empire. Theodore also defeated an army from Trebizond, as well as minor rivals. In 1206, Theodore proclaimed himself emperor at Nicaea, numerous truces and alliances were formed and broken over the next few years, as the Byzantine successor states, the Latin Empire, the Bulgarians, and the Seljuks of Iconium fought each other. In 1211, at Antioch on the Meander, Theodore defeated an invasion by the Seljuks. The Nicaeans were compensated for this loss when, in 1212. Theodore consolidated his claim to the throne by naming a new Patriarch of Constantinople in Nicaea. In 1219, he married the daughter of Latin Empress Yolanda of Flanders, the accession of Vatatzes was initially challenged by the Laskarids, with the sebastokratores Isaac and Alexios, brothers of Theodore I, seeking the aid of the Latin Empire. Vatatzes prevailed over their forces, however, in the Battle of Poimanenon, securing his throne. It proved short-lived, as it came under Bulgarian control after the Battle of Klokotnitsa in 1230, with Trebizond lacking any real power, Nicaea was the only Byzantine state left, and John III expanded his territory across the Aegean Sea. In 1235, he allied with Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria, allowing him to extend his influence over Thessalonica and Epirus. In 1242, the Mongols invaded Seljuk territory to the east of Nicaea, in 1245, John allied with the Holy Roman Empire by marrying Constance II of Hohenstaufen, daughter of Frederick II. In 1246, John attacked Bulgaria and recovered most of Thrace and Macedonia, by 1248, John had defeated the Bulgarians and surrounded the Latin Empire. He continued to land from the Latins until his death in 1254. Theodore II Lascaris, John IIIs son, faced invasions from the Bulgarians in Thrace, a conflict between Nicaea and Epirus broke out in 1257
26.
Michael VIII Palaiologos
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Michael VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus reigned as Byzantine Emperor 1259–1282. Michael VIII was the founder of the Palaiologan dynasty that would rule the Byzantine Empire until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 and he recovered Constantinople from the Latin Empire in 1261 and transformed the Empire of Nicaea into a restored Byzantine Empire. Michael rose to distinction at an age, serving as the governor of the Thracian towns of Melnik. However, in the fall of 1253 Michael was accused before the Emperor John III Vatatzes of plotting against the throne, the only way Michael was allowed to prove his innocence was through trial by ordeal, holding a red-hot iron. Following the death of John Vatatzes, Michael crossed the Sangarios River with a few close friends, Michael was invested with the titles of megas doux and, in November 1258, of despotēs. On 1 January 1259 Michael VIII Palaiologos was proclaimed co-emperor at Nymphaion, in 1259 Michael VIII defeated the alliance of William II Villehardouin, Prince of Achaea, and Michael II Komnenos Doukas of Epirus at the Battle of Pelagonia. According to Geanakoplos, n the period preceding the Nicene reconquest of Constantinople in 1261 no event was of greater importance than Michael Palaeologus victory at Pelagonia. Despite this brilliant victory, only one event could remove the stigma of usurper completely from the eyes of his subjects — recovery of Constantinople itself, in 1260 Michael personally led an unsuccessful attempt to capture the city. Rumors of reinforcements for the city forced Michael to sign a one-year truce with the Latin Emperor Baldwin II that August. Realizing that he needed a navy to effectively besiege Constantinople, Michael concluded the Treaty of Nymphaeum with Genoa in March of the following year, Genoese help proved to be unneeded when Michael VIIIs general Alexios Strategopoulos captured Constantinople from Baldwin II through treachery on 25 July 1261. News of the city first reached Michaels sister Eulogia, who awoke her brother at dawn. He was not convinced until a messenger arrived from Strategopoulos bearing the crown, Michael VIII entered the city on 15 August and had himself crowned together with his infant son Andronikos II Palaiologos. Once in control of Constantinople, Michael abolished all Latin customs and reinstated most Byzantine ceremonies and institutions as they had existed before the Fourth Crusade. He repopulated the capital, building its population from 35,000 when he took power to 70,000 by the end of his reign, and restored damaged churches, monasteries, and public buildings. In December John IV, who had left behind at Nicaea, was blinded and relegated to a monastery. Although Michael tried to keep the blinding of John a secret and this ban was not lifted until six years later on the appointment of patriarch Joseph I. In the words of Geanaklopos, With the fall of Constantinople, for the Greeks had now effectively reasserted their right to a church divorced from Rome. Thus it became the task of each of the six successive popes of Michaels reign to accomplish the return of the schismatics to the Roman fold, Michael also approached Manfred of Sicily to achieve some kind of accord
27.
John IV Laskaris
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John IV Doukas Laskaris was emperor of Nicaea from August 18,1258 to December 25,1261. This empire was one of the Greek states formed from the fragments of the Byzantine Empire. John was a son of Theodore II Doukas Laskaris and Elena of Bulgaria and his maternal grandparents were Emperor Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria and his second wife Anna Maria of Hungary. Anna was originally named Mária and was the eldest daughter of Andrew II of Hungary, John IV was only seven years old when he inherited the throne on the death of his father. The young monarch was the last member of the Laskarid dynasty and his regent was originally the bureaucrat George Mouzalon, but Mouzalon was murdered by the nobility, and the nobles leader Michael Palaiologos usurped the post. Soon, on January 1,1259, Palaiologos made himself co-emperor as Michael VIII, Michael was, in fact, Johns second cousin once removed, since they were both descended from Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera. This made him ineligible for the throne, and he was exiled and imprisoned in a fortress in Bithynia and this action led to the excommunication of Michael VIII Palaiologos by the Patriarch Arsenius Autoreianus, and a later revolt led by a Pseudo-John IV near Nicaea. John IV spent the remainder of his life as monk in Dacibyza, there is a rescript of Charles of Anjou, dated 9 May 1273, which refers to a report that John escaped from his imprisonment and invites him to come to his court. Further documents attest to his arrival and receiving a pension from the Angevin arch-enemy of Michael Palailogos, however, this contradicts the evidence of the historians George Pachymeres and Nikephoros Gregoras, who record that John remained in Dacbyza until long after Michaels death. In 1290 John was visited by Michael VIIIs son and successor Andronikos II Palaiologos, as Donald Nicol notes, The occasion must have been embarrassing for both parties, but especial for Andronikos who, after all, was the beneficiary of his fathers crimes against John Laskaris. The deposed emperor died about 1305 and was recognized as a saint. List of Byzantine emperors Notes References Hackel, Sergei, - Total pages,245 The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press,1991
28.
Latin Empire
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It was established after the capture of Constantinople in 1204 and lasted until 1261. Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders, was crowned the first Latin emperor as Baldwin I on 16 May 1204, the last Latin emperor, Baldwin II, went into exile, but the imperial title survived, with several pretenders to it, until the 14th century. The original name of state in the Latin language was Imperium Romaniae. This name was used based on the fact that the name for the Eastern Roman Empire in this period had been Romania. The names Byzantine and Latin were not contemporaneous terms, the term Latin has been used because the crusaders were Roman Catholic and used Latin as their liturgical and scholarly language. It is used in contrast to the Eastern Orthodox locals who used Greek in both liturgy and common speech, after the fall of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade, the crusaders agreed to divide up Byzantine territory. In the Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae, signed on 1 October 1204, none of these polities actually controlled the city of Rome, which remained under the temporal authority of the Pope. The initial campaigns of the crusaders in Asia Minor resulted in the capture of most of Bithynia by 1205, with the defeat of the forces of Theodore I Laskaris at Poemanenum and Prusa. Latin successes continued, and in 1207 a truce was signed with Theodore, the Latins inflicted a further defeat on Nicaean forces at the Rhyndakos river in October 1211, and three years later the Treaty of Nymphaeum recognized their control of most of Bithynia and Mysia. The peace was maintained until 1222, when the resurgent power of Nicaea felt sufficiently strong to challenge the Latin Empire, Nicaea turned also to the Aegean, capturing the islands awarded to the empire. In 1235, finally, the last Latin possessions fell to Nicaea, unlike in Asia, where the Latin Empire faced only an initially weak Nicaea, in Europe it was immediately confronted with a powerful enemy, the Bulgarian tsar Kaloyan. When Baldwin campaigned against the Byzantine lords of Thrace, they called upon Kaloyan for help, at the Battle of Adrianople on 14 April 1205, the Latin heavy cavalry and knights were crushed by Kaloyans troops and Cuman allies, and Emperor Baldwin was captured. He was imprisoned in the Bulgarian capital Tarnovo until his later in 1205. At the same time, another Greek successor state, the Despotate of Epirus, under Michael I Komnenos Doukas, posed a threat to the vassals in Thessalonica. Henry demanded his submission, which Michael provided, giving off his daughter to Henrys brother Eustace in the summer of 1209 and this alliance allowed Henry to launch a campaign in Macedonia, Thessaly and Central Greece against the rebellious Lombard lords of Thessalonica. However, Michaels attack on the Kingdom of Thessalonica in 1210 forced him to north to relieve the city. In 1214 however, Michael died, and was succeeded by Theodore Komnenos Doukas, on 11 June 1216, while supervising repairs to the walls of Thessalonica, Henry died, and was succeeded by Peter of Courtenay, who himself was captured and executed by Theodore the following year. A regency was set up in Constantinople, headed by Peters widow, Yolanda of Flanders, epirote armies then conquered Thrace in 1225–26, appearing before Constantinople itself
29.
Lemnos
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Lemnos is an island of Greece in the northern part of the Aegean Sea. Administratively the island forms a municipality within the Lemnos regional unit. The principal town of the island and seat of the municipality is Myrina, at 477.583 square kilometres, it is the 8th-largest island of Greece. Lemnos is mostly flat, but the west, and especially the northwest part, is rough, the highest point is Mount Skopia at the altitude of 430 m. The chief towns are Myrina, on the western coast, Myrina possesses a good harbour, which is in the process of being upgraded through construction of a west-facing sea wall. It is the seat of all carried on with the mainland. Fruit and vegetables that grow on the island include almonds, figs, melons, watermelons, tomatoes, pumpkins, the main crops are wheat, barley, sesame, in fact Lemnos was Constantinoples granary during Byzantine times. Lemnos also produces honey, but, as is the case with most products of a nature in Greece. Muscat grapes are widely, and are used to produce an unusual table wine that is dry yet has a strong Muscat flavor. Since 1985 the variety and quality of Lemnos wines have increased greatly, the climate in Lemnos is mainly Mediterranean. Winters are generally mild, but there will be a snowfall occasionally, strong winds are a feature of the island, especially in August and in winter time, hence its nickname the wind-ridden one. The temperature is typically 2 to 5 degrees Celsius less than in Athens, for ancient Greeks, the island was sacred to Hephaestus, god of metallurgy, who—as he tells himself in Iliad I. 590ff—fell on Lemnos when Zeus hurled him headlong out of Olympus. There, he was cared for by the Sinties, according to Iliad or by Thetis, sacred initiatory rites dedicated to them were performed in the island. Hephaestus forge, which was located on Lemnos, as well as the name Aethaleia, sometimes applied to it and it is said that fire occasionally blazed forth from Mosychlos, one of its mountains. The ancient geographer Pausanias relates that an island called Chryse. All volcanic action is now extinct, the earliest inhabitants are said to have been a Thracian tribe, whom the Greeks called Sintians, robbers. The name Lemnos is said by Hecataeus to have applied in the form of a title to Cybele among the Thracians. The worship of Cybele was characteristic of Thrace, where it had spread from Asia Minor at an early period
30.
Protostrator
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Prōtostratōr was a Byzantine court office, originating as the imperial stable master. From the mid-11th century, the post rose in importance, becoming more an honorific dignity for senior members of the court, from the 13th century on, the post could be held by several persons, and ranked eighth in the overall hierarchy of the court. Throughout its history, it was a title borne by senior military commanders. The female form of the title, given to the wives of the prōtostratores, was prōtostratorissa, a domestikos tōn stratorōn appears under Justinian II and a prōtostratōr of the Opsikion named Rouphos in 712. The spatharios Constantine is also the first known holder of the post of imperial prōtostratōr, in the Klētorologion of 899 he is recorded as one of the special dignities and ranked 48th among the sixty most senior palace officials. Holders of the post could aspire to some of the highest court ranks, the imperial prōtostratōr had a prominent place in imperial ceremonies, riding beside the Byzantine emperor on processions or during the hunt. During campaigns, he and the Count of the Stable stood by near the imperial tent, on certain occasions, he even had the task of introducing foreign envoys at imperial audiences. In the 9th–11th centuries, his subordinates included the stratores, the armophylakes, by the mid-11th century, however, the post seems to have risen in importance, and was now awarded as an honorific court dignity to distinguished members of the court. The office continued to exist during the Palaiologan period until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 and it remained one of the highest dignities of state, ranking eighth overall in the hierarchy, although from the late 13th century on, multiple persons could hold it. In the mid-14th century Book of Offices of Pseudo-Kodinos, the prōtostratōr is the fifth highest non-imperial office, coming after the megas doux and its insignia of office were similar to those of the megas doux, i. e. Only his staff of office differed, with only the topmost carved knots in gold, the knobs in the staff remained gold, bordered with silver braid. In war, the prōtostratōr was responsible for the irregulars and scouts who preceded the army, the title is also attested in the medieval Kingdom of Georgia, where it was held by the duke of Svaneti, Iovane Vardanisdze, under King David IV. A variant of the title, stratoros, was used in the Kingdom of Cyprus in the 15th century. Note, the list does not include holders known only through their seals, the Imperial Administrative System of the Ninth Century - With a Revised Text of the Kletorologion of Philotheos. Recherches sur les institutions byzantines, Tome I, new York and Oxford, Oxford University Press. Kyrris, Costas P. Στράτορος = τράτωρ, or Strator, a Military Institution in XVth Century Cyprus. Lilie, Ralph-Johannes, Ludwig, Claudia, Zielke, Beate, Pratsch, Thomas, george Akropolites, The History – Introduction, Translation and Commentary. The Making of the Georgian Nation, vienna, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
31.
Licario
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Licario, called Ikarios by the Greek chroniclers, was a Byzantine admiral of Italian origin in the 13th century. At odds with the Latin barons of his native Euboea, he entered the service of the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, and reconquered many of the Aegean islands for him in the 1270s. For his exploits, he was rewarded with Euboea as a fief and rose to the rank of megas konostaulos and megas doux, Licario was born in Karystos in Latin-held Euboea, from a Vicentian father and a local woman. He was of humble origin, but able and ambitious, serving as a knight under the Latin triarch Giberto II da Verona, he managed to win the heart of Felisa, sister of Giberto and widow of another triarch, Narzotto dalle Carceri. The match was met with disapproval by Felisas family and they secretly married, but the marriage was cancelled by her relatives. Fleeing from their wrath, Licario sought refuge in the fort of Anemopylae near Cavo DOro and he repaired the strong fortress, assembled a small group of followers, and began raiding the surrounding estates, belonging to the islands nobles. Furthermore, along with the Principality of Achaea it presented the major obstacle to his recovery of Greece. Already in 1269/1270, a Byzantine fleet under Alexios Doukas Philanthropenos had attacked and captured many Latin nobles, facing the persistent refusal of the islands barons to treat with him, desiring vengeance and eager for glory and wealth, Licario presented himself to Philanthropenos, offering his services. He, in turn, took him to the Emperor, who was eager to use the services of talented Westerners whenever he could, Licario became the Emperors vassal according to Western feudal rules, and in turn was strengthened with imperial troops. Under the leadership of Licario, the Byzantines could now mount an attempt to conquer the island. The Byzantine forces, under Licarios command, now launched a campaign took the fortresses of Larmena, La Cuppa, Clisura. The Lombard triarchs then appealed to their liege-lord, Prince William II of Achaea, William was able to recover La Cuppa, but de Beaumont was defeated in a pitched battle and was subsequently recalled by Charles of Anjou. Between then and 1275, according to the Venetian chronicler Marino Sanudo, Licario himself served in the Byzantine army in Asia Minor, in 1276, following their great victory over the Lombard triarchs of Negroponte at the Battle of Demetrias, the Byzantines renewed their offensive in Euboea. Licario attacked his native Karystos, seat of the southern triarchy, for this success, he was rewarded by Michael VIII with the whole island as a fief, and a noble Greek wife with a rich dowry. In turn, Licario pledged to provide 200 knights to the Emperor, gradually, Licario reduced the Latin strongholds on the island, until, by 1278, he had seized almost all of it except for the capital, the city of Negroponte. For his successes, Licario was rewarded with the post of megas konostaulos, head of the Latin mercenaries,1296, the first foreigner to be thus honoured. He commanded the Byzantine navy in a series of expeditions against the Latin-held Aegean islands, the first to fall was Skopelos, whose fortress was believed to be impregnable. Licario, however, knew that it lacked water supplies, thus, he attacked it during the hot and dry summer of 1277 and forced its surrender
32.
Catalan Company
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De Flor recruited soldiers left unemployed with the Peace of Caltabellotta in 1302 by the Crown of Aragon, who opposed the French dynasty of Anjou. In 1303 de Flor offered the services of his Company to the Byzantine emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus, the Orthodox Byzantine Empire was under threat by the Turks, who were invading Anatolia and established the mighty Sultanate of Rum, whose name expressed succeeding to the Roman empire. Roger de Flors offer was accepted by both Byzantium and by the Crown of Aragon, rulers in Sicily and southern Italy, who were eager to rid themselves of unemployed. Roger de Flor arrived in Constantinople with the help of king Frederick III of Sicily in 1303, and married the niece of Andronicus, daughter of the Tsar of Bulgaria, and was named Megas Doux. Roger de Flor campaigned with his Company in Anatolia, defeating the Turks but also engaging in widespread violence, by this point, the Catalans, who had recruited nearly 3000 Turkic horse into their ranks, were considered by the Byzantines to be little better than brigands and freebooters. The successes had inflated the already arrogant De Flor, leading him to entertain plans of establishing his own dominion in Anatolia and this put him at odds with the Byzantine Emperor, and the indiscipline of the Almogavars marked the end of Roger de Flor. On 30 April 1305, he was slain along with 300 cavalry and 1,000 infantry by the Alans, Roger had been in Adrianopolis attending a banquet offered by Emperor Michael. The emperor later attacked Gallipoli attempting to conquer the city from the remnants of the Company under the command of Berenguer dEntença who had arrived with 9 Catalan galleys, the attack was unsuccessful, but it largely decimated the Company. Berenguer dEntença was captured by the Genoese shortly after, and later liberated, until recently no Catalans were allowed on the Athos peninsula by the Athonite monks. However, in the past few years and following the payment of reparations by the Catalan government this situation has changed, harassed by the Byzantine army under the general Chandrenos, the Catalans eventually left Macedonia, and in spring 1309 invaded Thessaly. The Company was an asset in the political arena and Frederick III of Sicily tried to gain control over it. He assigned the Infante Ferdinand of Majorca to Gallipoli to become its Captain, however one of the leaders of the Company, Bernat de Rocafort, opposed this move, and faced Berenguer dEntença, Ferran Ximenis dArenós, and others who had accepted the Infante. The struggle ended with the departure of both the Infante and Ferran, and with Bernat de Rocafort becoming leader of the Company, the administrator, Ramon Muntaner also left and later wrote a chronicle about exploits of the Company. In 1309, Charles of Valois deputy Thibault de Chepoy ended the leadership of Rocafort, arresting him, the Company avenged itself, defeating and killing Brienne in the Battle of Halmyros on 15 March 1311, taking control of the duchy of Athens. Around this time, the Company also conquered the city of Thebes, in 1318 the Company expanded its power into Thessaly, taking control of the Duchy of Neopatria. His descendants controlled them until 1456 when they were conquered by the Ottoman Empire, by that time, like many military enterprises, the Great Company had faded out of history. The early history of the Catalan Company was chronicled by Ramon Muntaner, a History of the Crusades, Volume III — The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison,1975, setton, Kenneth M. Catalan Domination of Athens 1311–1380
33.
Kabbadion
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The kabbadion was a caftan-like garment, of oriental origin, which became a standard part of court costume in the last centuries of the Byzantine Empire. The first known reference to the kabbadion occurs in the Kletorologion of 899, where it is mentioned as the dress of the members of the Emperors bodyguard. It re-appears in the century in the Book of Offices of pseudo-Kodinos as the standard ceremonial dress for almost all court members. Kodinos describes it as an Assyrian garment adopted by the Persians and it is therefore usually equated with the long, caftan-like and full-sleeved tunic worn by various Byzantine officials in depictions of the 13th–15th centuries. It fastened down the front and was worn with a belt, parani, Maria G. Reconstructing the Reality of Images, Byzantine Material Culture and Religious Iconography. New York and Oxford, Oxford University Press
34.
Byzantine flags and insignia
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For most of its history, the Eastern Roman Empire did not know or use heraldry in the West European sense. Various emblems were used in official occasions and for military purposes, the use of the cross, and of icons of Christ, the Theotokos and various saints is also attested on seals of officials, but these were often personal rather than family emblems. The single-headed Roman imperial eagle continued to be used in Byzantium, on coins, the eagle ceases to appear after the early 7th century, but it is still occasionally found on seals of officials and on stone reliefs. In the last centuries of the Empire it is recorded as being sewn on imperial garments, the emblem mostly associated with the Byzantine Empire, however, is the double-headed eagle. It is not of Byzantine invention, but a traditional Anatolian motif dating to Hittite times, the adoption of the double-headed eagle has sometimes been dated to the mid-11th century, when the Komnenoi supposedly adopted it from Hittite rock-carvings in their native Paphlagonia. The Palaiologan emperors used the eagle as a symbol of the senior members of the imperial family. It was mostly used on clothes and other accoutrements, as recorded in the century by pseudo-Kodinos in his Book of Offices. Similarly, the sebastokrator wore blue boots with golden wire-embroidered eagles on a red background, within the Byzantine world, the eagle was also used by the semi-autonomous Despots of the Morea and by the Gattilusi of Lesbos, who were Palaiologan vassals. The double-headed eagle was used in the breakaway Empire of Trebizond as well, being attested imperial clothes, indeed, Western portolans of the 14th–15th centuries use the double-headed eagle as the symbol of Trebizond rather than Constantinople. Single-headed eagles are also attested in Trapezuntine coins, and a 1421 source depicts the Trapezuntine flag as yellow with a red single-headed eagle, apparently, just as in the metropolitan Byzantine state, the use of both motifs continued side by side. In Western Europe, the Holy Roman Empire likewise adopted the eagle in the mid-13th century, under Frederick II Hohenstaufen. As an insigne, the cross was already in frequent use in Byzantium since Late Antiquity, images of flags with crosses quartered with golden discs survive from the 10th century, and a depiction of a flag almost identical to the Palaiologan design is known from the early 13th century. On coins, the Bs were often accompanied by circles or stars up to the end of the Empire, while Western sources sometimes depict the Byzantine flag as a gold cross on red. The symbol was adopted by Byzantine vassals, like the Gattilusi who ruled Lesbos after 1355, or the Latin lords of Rhodes Vignolo dei Vignoli. It was placed on the walls of Galata, apparently as a sign of the Byzantine emperors—largely theoretical—suzerainty over the Genoese colony. Along with the eagle, the tetragrammic cross was also adopted as part of their family coat of arms by the cadet line of the Palaiologos dynasty ruling in Montferrat. Tipaldos rejected Svoronos reading and suggested that they represented a repetition of the motto Σταυρέ, unlike the Western feudal lords, Byzantine aristocratic families did not, as far as is known, use specific symbols to designate themselves and their followers. Only from the 12th century onwards, when the Empire came in increased contact with Westerners because of the Crusades, even then however, the thematology was largely derived from the symbols employed in earlier ages, and its use was limited to the major families of the Empire
35.
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
36.
Voivode
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Voivode is an Eastern European title that originally denoted the principal commander of a military force. It derives from the word vojevoda, which in early Slavic meant the bellidux, i. e. the military commander of an area, in Byzantine times it referred to mainly military commanders of Slavic populations, especially in the Balkans. In medieval Serbia it meant an official and - before the Ottoman conquest in the 15th century - the commander of a military area. During Ottoman times, Voivode was the title borne by the ruler of a province, whose powers included the administration, security, the same title was borne by the Ottoman official who oversaw the “Chora Metzovo” each time. The word gradually came to denote the governor of a province, the territory ruled or administered by a voivode is known in English as a voivodeship. In the English language, the title is translated as duke or prince. In Eastern European terminology, the rank of a voivode is considered equal of that of a German Herzog, a voivode was often considered to be an assistant of the Knyaz. During military actions the voivode was in charge of an army that consisted of the local population, the voj, while the knyaz had its own regular military formation. As of 2016 in Poland the term means the centrally-appointed governor of a Polish province or voivodeship. The Polish title is rendered in English as palatine or prince palatine. Other similar titles include Margrave, Governor-General, and others, with the expansion of the Russian Empire the title of voivode was superseded by namestnik. Later, voivode denoted the highest military rank in the principalities of Montenegro and Serbia, in the Romanian medieval principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, voievode became part of the official titulature of the sovereign prince, showing his right to lead the entire army. Voivode or vajda was also the title of the Hungarian governors of Transylvania in the Middle Ages, baida was a title of a Ruthenian nobleman and Cossack leader Dmytro Vyshnevetsky. Similarly, the leaders in the Balkans were called voivodes. The term derives from Slavic voi or vojsko + vodi, the word has developed to take various forms in the modern Slavic languages, such as vojvoda, wojewoda, воевода, войвода or воевода, воєвода, vévoda and војвода. It has also borrowed into some non-Slavic languages, taking such forms as voievod, vajda. Voivode is also related to state such as Vojvodina, Polish provinces voivodeship. For this reason, the Slavic terms are translated as duke
37.
Jovan Oliver
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Oliver supported Dušan in the succession war against his father, and was one of the supreme generals in the southern military expeditions. His province included Ovče Pole and the bank of the Vardar. After the death of Emperor Dušan, there are no mentions of Oliver. During the fall of the Serbian Empire, his lands were held by the Dejanovići, Jovan was the son a vlastelin Grčin who had lands in some part of the Serbian Kingdom. Jovan is referred to in a Ragusan source as Oliver Grčinić and he ruled his domain, in the modern-day Republic of Macedonia, as a semi-independent prince, acknowledging Dušans suzerainty but not subordinate to him. He probably had supported Dušans overthrow of his father, King Uroš III, in 1331, and after the death of his first wife, Karavida, in 1336, he married Maria Palaiologina, Dušans stepmother. With the death of Hrelja in late 1342, when the domain was split between Jovan Oliver and Dušan, he was able to further expand his lands, including the important towns of Štip. In 1341, imitating the Serbian kings, he built the Eastern Orthodox Lesnovo monastery as his endowment, the Byzantine titles of Jovan Oliver, A contribution to the issues of their origin and chronology
38.
Dyrrhachium (theme)
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The Theme of Dyrrhachium or Dyrrhachion was a Byzantine military-civilian province located in modern Albania, covering the Adriatic coast of the country. It was established in the early 9th century and named after its capital, the exact date of the themes establishment is unclear, a strategos of Dyrrhachium is attested in the Taktikon Uspensky of c. 842, but several seals of strategoi dating from the previous decades survive, during the Byzantine–Bulgarian wars of the late 10th and early 11th centuries, the city seems to have been autonomous or at times under Bulgarian suzerainty. From the mid-11th century on, its held the title of doux or katepano. In 1040–1041, the troops of the theme, under their leader Tihomir, during the late 11th and the 12th centuries, the city of Dyrrhachium and its province were of great importance to the Byzantine Empire. The city was the key of Albania and the point of entry for trade but also for invaders from Italy. Thus the doux of Dyrrhachium became the senior-most Byzantine authority throughout the western Balkan provinces, two successive governors, Nikephoros Bryennios the Elder and Nikephoros Basilakes, used this post as a launchpad for their imperial ambitions in the late 1070s. The region also played a role in the Byzantine–Norman Wars. After its recovery, Emperor Alexios I Komnenos entrusted the command of the theme to some of his closest relatives
39.
Bohemond I of Antioch
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Bohemond I was the Prince of Taranto from 1089 to 1111 and the Prince of Antioch from 1098 to 1111. He was a leader of the First Crusade, which was governed by a committee of nobles, the Norman monarchy he founded in Antioch arguably outlasted those of England and of Sicily. Bohemond was the son of Robert Guiscard, Count of Apulia and Calabria and he was born between 1050 and 1058—in 1054 according to historian John Julius Norwich. He was baptised Mark, possibly because he was born at his fathers castle at San Marco Argentano in Calabria and he was nicknamed Bohemond after a legendary giant. His parents were related within the degree of kinship that made their marriage invalid under canon law, with the annulment of his parents marriage, Bohemond became a bastard. Before long, Alberada married Robert Guiscards nephew, Richard of Hauteville and she arranged for a knightly education for Bohemond. Robert Guiscard was taken ill in early 1073. Fearing that he was dying, Sikelgaita held an assembly in Bari, Roberts nephew, Abelard of Hauteville, was the only baron to protest, because he regarded himself Roberts lawful heir. Bohemond fought in his fathers army during the rebellion of Jordan I of Capua, Geoffrey of Conversano and his father dispatched him at the head of an advance guard against the Byzantine Empire in early 1081 and he captured Valona. He sailed to Corfu, but did not invade the island since the local garrison outnumbered his army and he withdrew to Butrinto to await the arrival of his fathers forces. After Robert Guiscard arrived in the half of May, they laid siege to Durazzo. The Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos came to the rescue of the town but, on 18 October, Bohemond commanded the left flank, which defeated the Emperors largely Anglo-Saxon Varangian Guard. The Normans captured Durazzo on 21 February 1082 and they marched along the Via Egnatia as far as Kastoria, but Alexioss agents stirred up a rebellion in Southern Italy, forcing Robert Guiscard to return to his realm in April. He charged Bohemond with the command of his army in the Balkans, Bohemond defeated the Byzantines at Ioannina and at Arta, taking control of most of Macedonia and Thessaly, however, the six-month siege of Larissa was unsuccessful. Supply and pay problems undermined the morale of the Norman army, during his absence, most of the Norman commanders deserted to the Byzantines and a Venetian fleet recaptured Durazzo and Corfu. Bohemond accompanied his father to the Byzantine Empire again in 1084, an epidemic decimated the Normans and Bohemond, who was taken seriously ill, was forced to return to Italy in December 1084. Robert Guiscard died at Cephalonia on 17 July 1085 and she persuaded the army to acclaim Roger Borsa his fathers successor and they hurried back to Southern Italy. Two months later, the assembly of the Norman barons confirmed the succession and he made an alliance with Jordan of Capua, and captured Oria and Otranto
