1.
List of Byzantine emperors
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This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Emperors listed below up to Theodosius I in 395 were sole or joint rulers of the entire Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire was the direct legal continuation of the eastern half of the Roman Empire following the division of the Roman Empire in 395. All Byzantine emperors considered themselves to be the rightful Roman emperor in direct succession from Augustus, the title of all Emperors preceding Heraclius was officially Augustus, although other titles such as Dominus were also used. Their names were preceded by Imperator Caesar and followed by Augustus, following Heraclius, the title commonly became the Greek Basileus, which had formerly meant sovereign but was then used in place of Augustus. Following the establishment of the rival Holy Roman Empire in Western Europe, in later centuries, the Emperor could be referred to by Western Christians as the Emperor of the Greeks. Towards the end of the Empire, the standard formula of the Byzantine ruler was in Christ, Emperor. For Roman emperors before Constantine I, see List of Roman emperors, family tree of the Byzantine emperors List of Roman emperors List of Roman usurpers List of Byzantine usurpers List of Roman and Byzantine empresses
2.
Byzantine Empire
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It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
3.
Theophilos (emperor)
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Theophilos was the Byzantine Emperor from 829 until his death in 842. He was the emperor of the Amorian dynasty and the last emperor to support iconoclasm. Theophilos personally led the armies in his war against the Arabs. Theophilos was the son of the Byzantine Emperor Michael II and his wife Thekla, Michael II crowned Theophilos co-emperor in 822, shortly after his own accession. Unlike his father, Theophilos received an education from John Hylilas, the grammarian. On 2 October 829, Theophilos succeeded his father as sole emperor, Theophilos continued in his predecessors iconoclasm, though without his fathers more conciliatory tone, issuing an edict in 832 forbidding the veneration of icons. He also saw himself as the champion of justice, which he served most ostentatiously by executing his fathers co-conspirators against Leo V immediately after his accession. His reputation as a judge endured, and in the literary composition Timarion Theophilos is featured as one of the judges in the Netherworld, at the time of his accession, Theophilos was obliged to wage wars against the Arabs on two fronts. Sicily was once invaded by the Arabs, who took Palermo after a year-long siege in 831, established the Emirate of Sicily. The invasion of Anatolia by the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mamun in 830 was led by the Emperor himself, in 831 Theophilos retaliated by leading a large army into Cilicia and capturing Tarsus. The Emperor returned to Constantinople in triumph, but in the autumn he was defeated in Cappadocia, another defeat in the same province in 833 forced Theophilos to sue for peace, which he obtained the next year, after the death of Al-Mamun. During the respite from the war against the Abbasids, Theophilos arranged for the abduction of the Byzantine captives settled north of the Danube by Krum of Bulgaria, the rescue operation was carried out with success in c. 836, and the peace between Bulgaria and the Byzantine Empire was quickly restored, however, it proved impossible to maintain peace in the East. Theophilos had given asylum to a number of refugees from the east in 834, including Nasr and he baptized Theophobos, who married the Emperors aunt Irene and became one of his generals. As relations with the Abbasids deteriorated, Theophilos prepared for a new war, in 837 Theophilos led a vast army of 70,000 men towards Mesopotamia and captured Melitene and Arsamosata. The Emperor also took and destroyed Zapetra, which some sources claim as the birthplace of Caliph al-Mutasim, Theophilos returned to Constantinople in triumph. Eager for revenge, Al-Mutasim assembled a vast army and launched an invasion of Anatolia in 838. Theophilos decided to strike one division of the army before they could combine
4.
Basil I the Macedonian
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Basil I, called the Macedonian was a Byzantine Emperor who reigned from 867 to 886. Born a simple peasant in the Byzantine theme of Macedonia, he rose in the Imperial court, despite his humble origins, he showed great ability in running the affairs of state, leading to a revival of Imperial power and a renaissance of Byzantine art. Basil was born to peasant parents in late 811 at Charioupolis in the Byzantine theme of Macedonia, the name of his father is unknown, but the name of his grandfather was Maïktes, his mother was named Pankalo, and her father was called Leo. His ethnic origin is unknown, and has been a subject of debate, the Armenian historians Samuel of Ani and Stephen of Taron record that he hailed from the village of Thil in Taron. Claims have therefore been made for an Armenian, Slavic, or indeed Armeno-Slavonic origin for Basil I, the name of his mother, Pankalo, points to a Greek origin on the maternal side. The general scholarly consensus is that Basils father was probably of Armenian origin, one story asserts that he had spent a part of his childhood in captivity in Bulgaria, where his family had, allegedly, been carried off as captives of the Khan Krum in 813. Basil lived there until 836, when he and several others escaped to Byzantine-held territory in Thrace, Basil was ultimately lucky enough to enter the service of Theophilitzes, a relative of the Caesar Bardas, as a groom. While serving Theophilitzes, he visited the city of Patras, where he gained the favour of Danielis, on Emperor Michaels orders, Basil divorced his wife Maria and married Eudokia Ingerina, Michaels favourite mistress, in around 865. During an expedition against the Arabs, Basil convinced Michael III that his uncle Bardas coveted the Byzantine throne, Basil then became the leading personality at court and was invested in the now vacant dignity of kaisar, before being crowned co-emperor on May 26,866. This promotion may have included Basils adoption by Michael III, himself a younger man. It was commonly believed that Leo VI, Basils successor and reputed son, was really the son of Michael. It is notable that when Leo was born, Michael III celebrated the event with public chariot races, when Michael III started to favour another courtier, Basiliskianos, Basil decided that his position was being undermined. Michael threatened to invest Basiliskianos with the Imperial title and this induced Basil to pre-empt events by organizing the assassination of Michael on the night of September 23/24,867. Michael and Basiliskianos were insensibly drunk following a banquet at the palace of Anthimos when Basil, with a group of companions. The locks to the doors had been tampered with and the chamberlain had not posted guards. On Michael IIIs death, Basil, as an already acclaimed co-emperor, Basil I inaugurated a new age in the history of the Byzantine Empire, associated with the dynasty which he founded, the so-called Macedonian dynasty. This dynasty oversaw a period of expansion, during which Byzantium was the strongest power in Europe. It is remarkable that Basil I became an effective and respected monarch, ruling for 19 years, despite being a man with no formal education, moreover, he had been the boon companion of a debauched monarch and had achieved power through a series of calculated murders
5.
Constantinople
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Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman/Byzantine Empire, and also of the brief Latin, and the later Ottoman empires. It was reinaugurated in 324 AD from ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great, after whom it was named, Constantinople was famed for its massive and complex defences. The first wall of the city was erected by Constantine I, Constantinople never truly recovered from the devastation of the Fourth Crusade and the decades of misrule by the Latins. The origins of the name of Byzantion, more known by the later Latin Byzantium, are not entirely clear. The founding myth of the city has it told that the settlement was named after the leader of the Megarian colonists, Byzas. The later Byzantines of Constantinople themselves would maintain that the city was named in honour of two men, Byzas and Antes, though this was likely just a play on the word Byzantion. During this time, the city was also called Second Rome, Eastern Rome, and Roma Constantinopolitana. As the city became the remaining capital of the Roman Empire after the fall of the West, and its wealth, population, and influence grew. In the language of other peoples, Constantinople was referred to just as reverently, the medieval Vikings, who had contacts with the empire through their expansion in eastern Europe used the Old Norse name Miklagarðr, and later Miklagard and Miklagarth. In Arabic, the city was sometimes called Rūmiyyat al-kubra and in Persian as Takht-e Rum, in East and South Slavic languages, including in medieval Russia, Constantinople was referred to as Tsargrad or Carigrad, City of the Caesar, from the Slavonic words tsar and grad. This was presumably a calque on a Greek phrase such as Βασιλέως Πόλις, the modern Turkish name for the city, İstanbul, derives from the Greek phrase eis tin polin, meaning into the city or to the city. In 1928, the Turkish alphabet was changed from Arabic script to Latin script, in time the city came to be known as Istanbul and its variations in most world languages. In Greece today, the city is still called Konstantinoúpolis/Konstantinoúpoli or simply just the City, apart from this, little is known about this initial settlement, except that it was abandoned by the time the Megarian colonists settled the site anew. A farsighted treaty with the emergent power of Rome in c.150 BC which stipulated tribute in exchange for independent status allowed it to enter Roman rule unscathed. The site lay astride the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and had in the Golden Horn an excellent and spacious harbour. He would later rebuild Byzantium towards the end of his reign, in which it would be briefly renamed Augusta Antonina, fortifying it with a new city wall in his name, Constantine had altogether more colourful plans. Rome was too far from the frontiers, and hence from the armies and the imperial courts, yet it had been the capital of the state for over a thousand years, and it might have seemed unthinkable to suggest that the capital be moved to a different location. Constantinople was built over 6 years, and consecrated on 11 May 330, Constantine divided the expanded city, like Rome, into 14 regions, and ornamented it with public works worthy of an imperial metropolis
6.
Eudokia Ingerina
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Eudokia was the daughter of Ingr, a Varangian guard in the emperors service. Her mother was a Martiniake and a distant relative to the family, as a close niece of Michael II. According to a version by Christian Settipani, she would be the daughter of Inger Martinakios, Logothete, son of Anastasios Martinakios. Because her family was iconoclastic, the Empress Mother Theodora strongly disapproved of them, about 855 Eudokia became the mistress of Theodoras son, Michael III, who thus incurred the anger of his mother and the powerful minister Theoktistos. Unable to risk a major scandal by leaving his wife, Michael married Eudokia to his friend Basil, Basil was compensated with the emperors sister Thekla as his own mistress. Eudokia gave birth to a son, Leo, in September 866 and another, Stephen and they were officially Basils children, but this paternity was questioned, apparently even by Basil himself. The strange promotion of Basil to co-emperor in May 867 lends some support to the possibility that at least Leo was actually Michael IIIs illegitimate son, the parentage of Eudokias younger children is not a subject of dispute, as Michael III was murdered in September 867. A decade into Basils reign, Eudokia became involved with another man, in 882, she selected Theophano as wife for her son Leo, and died shortly afterwards. Eudokia and Basil officially had six children, Leo VI, who succeeded as emperor, Stephen I, patriarch of Constantinople, who may also have been a son of Michael III. Alexander, who succeeded as emperor in 912, a nun the convent of St Euphemia, Petron. A nun the convent of St Euphemia, Petron, a nun the convent of St Euphemia, Petron. The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press,1991, cyril Mango, Eudocia Ingerina, the Normans, and the Macedonian Dynasty, Zbornik Radova Vizantološkog Instituta, XIV-XV,1973, 17-27. List of Byzantine emperors List of Roman and Byzantine Empresses Her listing along with her husband in Medieval lands by Charles Cawley, the project involves extracting and analysing detailed information from primary sources, including contemporary chronicles, cartularies, necrologies and testaments
7.
Dynasty
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A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system but sometimes also appearing in elective republics. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a house, historians periodize the histories of many sovereign states, such as Ancient Egypt, the Carolingian Empire and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties. As such, the dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which the family reigned and to describe events, trends. The word dynasty itself is often dropped from such adjectival references, until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty, that is, to increase the territory, wealth, and power of his family members. The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. Succession through a daughter when permitted was considered to establish a new dynasty in her husbands ruling house, however, some states in Africa, determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mothers dynasty when coming into her inheritance. It is also extended to unrelated people such as poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team. The word dynasty derives via Latin dynastia from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to power, dominion and it was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, power or ability, from dýnamai, to be able. A ruler in a dynasty is referred to as a dynast. For example, following his abdication, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ceased to be a member of the House of Windsor. A dynastic marriage is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, the marriage of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, to Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, for example, and their eldest child is expected to inherit the Dutch crown eventually. But the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso to Mabel Wisse Smit in 2003 lacked government support, thus Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession, lost his title as a Prince of the Netherlands, and left his children without dynastic rights. In historical and monarchist references to formerly reigning families, a dynast is a member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchys rules still in force. Even since abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Max and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position. The term dynast is sometimes used only to refer to descendants of a realms monarchs. The term can therefore describe overlapping but distinct sets of people, yet he is not a male-line member of the royal family, and is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor. Thus, in 1999 he requested and obtained permission from Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco. Yet a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time and that exclusion, too, ceased to apply on 26 March 2015, with retroactive effect for those who had been dynasts prior to triggering it by marriage to a Catholic
8.
History of the Byzantine Empire
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This history of the Byzantine Empire covers the history of the Eastern Roman Empire from late antiquity until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 AD. Several events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period during which the Roman Empires east and west divided. In 285, the emperor Diocletian partitioned the Roman Empires administration into eastern and western halves, between 324 and 330, Constantine I transferred the main capital from Rome to Byzantium, later known as Constantinople and Nova Roma. Under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion, and finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military and administration were restructured and adopted Greek for official use instead of Latin. The borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through cycles of decline. 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 as a homeland, the final centuries of the Empire exhibited a general trend of decline. 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 Roman Empire, during the 3rd century, three crises threatened the Roman Empire, external invasions, internal civil wars and an economy riddled with weaknesses and problems. The city of Rome gradually became important as an administrative centre. The crisis of the 3rd century displayed the defects of the system of government that Augustus had established to administer his immense dominion. His successors had introduced some modifications, but events made it clearer that a new, more centralized, Diocletian was responsible for creating a new administrative system. He associated himself with a co-emperor, or Augustus, each Augustus was then to adopt a young colleague, or Caesar, to share in the rule and eventually to succeed the senior partner. After the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian, however, the tetrachy collapsed, Constantine moved the seat of the Empire, and introduced important changes into its civil and religious constitution. Constantine also began the building of the fortified walls, which were expanded. Constantine built upon the administrative reforms introduced by Diocletian and he stabilized the coinage, and made changes to the structure of the army. Under Constantine, the Empire had recovered much of its military strength and he also reconquered southern parts of Dacia, after defeating the Visigoths in 332, and he was planning a campaign against Sassanid Persia as well. In the course of the 4th century, four great sections emerged from these Constantinian beginnings, Constantine established the principle that emperors should not settle questions of doctrine, but should summon general ecclesiastical councils for that purpose
9.
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
10.
Byzantine Emperor
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This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Emperors listed below up to Theodosius I in 395 were sole or joint rulers of the entire Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire was the direct legal continuation of the eastern half of the Roman Empire following the division of the Roman Empire in 395. All Byzantine emperors considered themselves to be the rightful Roman emperor in direct succession from Augustus, the title of all Emperors preceding Heraclius was officially Augustus, although other titles such as Dominus were also used. Their names were preceded by Imperator Caesar and followed by Augustus, following Heraclius, the title commonly became the Greek Basileus, which had formerly meant sovereign but was then used in place of Augustus. Following the establishment of the rival Holy Roman Empire in Western Europe, in later centuries, the Emperor could be referred to by Western Christians as the Emperor of the Greeks. Towards the end of the Empire, the standard formula of the Byzantine ruler was in Christ, Emperor. For Roman emperors before Constantine I, see List of Roman emperors, family tree of the Byzantine emperors List of Roman emperors List of Roman usurpers List of Byzantine usurpers List of Roman and Byzantine empresses
11.
Amorian Dynasty
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This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Emperors listed below up to Theodosius I in 395 were sole or joint rulers of the entire Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire was the direct legal continuation of the eastern half of the Roman Empire following the division of the Roman Empire in 395. All Byzantine emperors considered themselves to be the rightful Roman emperor in direct succession from Augustus, the title of all Emperors preceding Heraclius was officially Augustus, although other titles such as Dominus were also used. Their names were preceded by Imperator Caesar and followed by Augustus, following Heraclius, the title commonly became the Greek Basileus, which had formerly meant sovereign but was then used in place of Augustus. Following the establishment of the rival Holy Roman Empire in Western Europe, in later centuries, the Emperor could be referred to by Western Christians as the Emperor of the Greeks. Towards the end of the Empire, the standard formula of the Byzantine ruler was in Christ, Emperor. For Roman emperors before Constantine I, see List of Roman emperors, family tree of the Byzantine emperors List of Roman emperors List of Roman usurpers List of Byzantine usurpers List of Roman and Byzantine empresses
12.
Theodora (wife of Theophilos)
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Theodora was a Byzantine Empress as the spouse of the Byzantine emperor Theophilos, and regent of her son, Michael III, from Theophilos death in 842 to 855. For her restoration of the veneration of icons, which ended the Byzantine Iconoclasm, she is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, several churches hold her as their patron saint. Originally from Paphlagonia, Theodora was of Armenian aristocratic descent, the names of her parents were preserved in Theophanes Continuatus, the continuation of the chronicle started by Theophanes the Confessor. They were Marinos, a drungarios, and Theoktiste Phlorina, some modern genealogists, including Cyril Toumanoff and Nicholas Adontz, have suggested a link of Theodoras family with the Armenian noble clan of the Mamikonian. According to Nina Garsoïan in the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, however, ttractive though it is, thus genealogists attribute Mamikonian ancestry to Marinos, he is an alleged son of Artavazd Mamikonian, who was head of the House in the 770s. Manuel the Armenian, a general of Theophilos, was her uncle. Theodora was a sister of Bardas and Petronas, Theophanes also records three sisters, Kalomaria, Sophia and Irene. Irene reportedly married Sergios, brother of Patriarch Photios I of Constantinople, in 829, Theophilos succeeded to the throne. The following year his stepmother, Euphrosyne, proclaimed a bride-show, potential brides from every theme travelled from their homelands to Constantinople, Theodora among them. The poet Kassia was said to have taken part, the bride-show took place in May,830, and Theodora was chosen to become empress, probably by her new mother-in-law. The marriage took place on 5 June 830, in Hagia Sophia, Euphrosyne soon retired to a convent and Theodora remained the only Augusta. The family of Theodora seems to have followed her to court and her brothers became officials and her sisters married into the court aristocracy. During her own marriage she bore Theophilus five daughters and two sons, the younger of whom became the future Michael III, despite the fact that Theophilus was an iconoclast, Theodora held fast to the veneration of icons which she kept in her chambers in the imperial palace. One story holds that a servant witnessed her venerating her icons, when her husband confronted her about the incident she stated that she had merely been playing with dolls. Two of her icons are kept at the monastery of Vatopedi on Mount Athos to this day and are referred to as Theodoras Dolls and they are displayed annually on the Sunday of Orthodoxy. Theodora is said to have intervened to save Lazarus Zographos from further torture under her husband, whether their opposing religious beliefs strained their relationship is unclear. Theophilus health however eventually failed and he died on 20 January 842 and he was about twenty-nine years old. Following the death of her husband, Theodora served as regent for her son Michael and she carried on the government with a firm and judicious hand, she replenished the treasury and deterred the Bulgarians from an attempt at invasion
13.
Minor (law)
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In law, a minor is a person under a certain age—usually the age of majority—which legally demarcates childhood from adulthood. The age of majority depends upon jurisdiction and application, but is generally 18, minor may also be used in contexts unconnected to the overall age of majority. For example, the age in the United States is usually 21. These age limits are different from the age of majority. The concept of minor is not sharply defined in most jurisdictions, in many countries, including Australia, India, Philippines, Brazil, Croatia, and Colombia, a minor is defined as a person under the age of 18. In Japan, Taiwan and Thailand, a minor is a person under 20 years of age, for all provincial laws, the provincial and territorial governments have the power to set the age of majority in their respective province or territory, and the age varies across Canada. In Saskatchewan, the legal gaming age and the drinking age are both 19. For Federal Law, the age of majority is 18, in Italy, law nr.39 of March 8,1975, states that a minor is a person under the age of 18. Citizens under the age of 18 may not vote, be elected, crimes committed in Italy by minors are tried in a juvenile court. In all 31 states, a minor is referred to as someone under the age of 18, minors aged 16 or 17 who are charged with crimes could sometimes be treated as an adult. A minor is restricted from doing juristic acts—for example, sign contracts, when a minor wishes to do a juristic act, he has to obtain the consent from his legal representative, usually the parents and otherwise the act is voidable. A minor can make a will at the age of fifteen, in England and Wales and in Northern Ireland a minor is a person under the age of 18, in Scotland, under the age of 16. The age of responsibility in England and Wales and in Northern Ireland is 10, and 12 in Scotland, formerly 8. In England and Wales, cases of breaking the law are often dealt with by the Youth Offending Team. If they are incarcerated, they are sent to a Young Offender Institution, driving certain large vehicles, acting as personal license holder for licensed premises, and adopting a child are only permitted after the age of 21. The minimum age to drive a HGV1 vehicle was reduced to 18, however, certain vehicles, e. g. steamrollers, require that someone be 21 years of age to obtain an operating license. In the United States as of 1995, minor is generally defined as a person under the age of 18. Although in the context of alcohol or gambling laws, people under the age of 21 may also sometimes be referred to as minors, however, not all minors are considered juveniles in terms of criminal responsibility
14.
Regency
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A regent is a person appointed to administer a state because the monarch is a minor, is absent or is incapacitated. The rule of a regent or regents is called a regency, a regent or regency council may be formed ad hoc or in accordance with a constitutional rule. Regent is sometimes a formal title, if the formally appointed regent is unavailable or cannot serve on a temporary basis, a Regent ad interim may be appointed to fill the gap. In a monarchy, a regent usually governs due to one of these reasons and this was the case in the Kingdom of Finland and the Kingdom of Hungary, where the royal line was considered extinct in the aftermath of World War I. In Iceland, the regent represented the King of Denmark as sovereign of Iceland until the country became a republic in 1944, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, kings were elective, which often led to a fairly long interregnum. In the interim, it was the Roman Catholic Primate who served as the regent, in the small republic of San Marino, the two Captains Regent, or Capitani Reggenti, are elected semi-annually as joint heads of state and of government. Famous regency periods include that of the Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, giving rise to terms such as Regency era. Strictly this period lasted from 1811 to 1820, when his father George III was insane, as of 1 December 2016, Liechtenstein is the only country with an active regency. The term regent may refer to lower than the ruler of a country. The term may be used in the governance of organisations, typically as an equivalent of director, some university managers in North America are called regents and a management board for a college or university may be titled the Board of Regents. The term regent is used for members of governing bodies of institutions such as the national banks of France. This type of group portrait was popular in Dutch Golden Age painting during the 17th century, in the Dutch East Indies, a regent was a native prince allowed to rule de facto colonized state as a regentschap. Consequently, in the state of Indonesia, the term regent is used in English to mean a bupati. Again in Belgium and France, Regent is the title of a teacher in a lower secondary school. In the Philippines, specifically, the University of Santo Tomas, the Father Regent and they also form the Council of Regents that serves as the highest administrative council of the university. In the Society of Jesus, a regent is a training to be a Jesuit. A regent in the Jesuits is often assigned to teach in a school or some other academic institution as part of the formation toward final vows, list of regents Viceroy, an individual who, in a colony or province, exercised the power of a monarch on his behalf
15.
Theoktistos
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A eunuch, he assisted in the ascent of Michael II to the throne in 822, and was rewarded with the titles of patrikios and later magistros. He held the posts of chartoularios tou kanikleiou and logothetēs tou dromou under Michael. After Theophilos death in 842, Theoktistos became member of the regency council, noted for his administrative and political competence, Theoktistos played a major role in ending the Byzantine Iconoclasm, and fostered the ongoing renaissance in education within the Empire. He also continued the persecution of the Paulicians, but had mixed success in the wars against the Arabs, nothing is known of Theoktistos early life. By 820 he held a position at the court of Emperor Leo V the Armenian. Following Theophilos death, the council took over the conduct of affairs of state. Theodoras brothers Bardas and Petronas and her relative Sergios Niketiates also played an important role in the days of the regency. The regency moved quickly to end Byzantine Iconoclasm, which had dominated Byzantine religious, in early 843, an assembly of selected officials and clerics convened in the house of Theoktistos. The synod repudiated iconoclasm, re-affirmed the decisions of the 787 Second Council of Nicaea, in his stead was elected Methodios I, who had been imprisoned by Theophilos for his iconophile beliefs. This event is commemorated as the Triumph of Orthodoxy by the Eastern Orthodox Church ever since, Theoktistos played a major role in these events. He is commemorated as a saint by the Orthodox Church on 20 October, a week after that, Theoktistos and Sergios Niketiates were sent on a campaign to recover Crete, which had been conquered in the 820s by Andalusian exiles. The expedition at first went well, as the Byzantine army landed and took control over most of the island, confining the Andalusians to their capital, Chandax. At this juncture, Theoktistos heard a rumour that in his absence and he hastily abandoned the army under Niketiates and returned to Constantinople, only to find the rumours false. Once in Constantinople, news arrived of an invasion of Asia Minor by Umar al-Aqta, Theoktistos was sent at the head of an army to confront him, but the resulting Battle of Mauropotamos ended in a Byzantine defeat. At the same time, the corps left in Crete was defeated and almost annihilated by the Andalusians. Theoktistos continued the persecution of the Paulicians, which had been initiated by Theodora in 843, many fled to Arab territory, where with Umar al-Aqtas aid they established a state of their own at Tephrike under their leader Karbeas. Theoktistos concluded a truce with the Abbasid Caliphate and arranged an exchange of prisoners took place on 16 September 845. Nevertheless, in the year, the execution of the surviving Byzantine prisoners from the Arab Sack of Amorium in 842 took place in the Abbasid capital
16.
Iconodule
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The term is usually used in relation to the iconoclastic controversy in the Byzantine Empire, the most famous iconodules of that time being the Saints Theodore the Studite and John of Damascus. The controversy was instigated by Byzantine Emperor Leo III in 726, a wider prohibition of icons followed in 730. St. John of Damascus argued successfully that to prohibit the use of icons was tantamount to denying the incarnation, icons reminded the church of the physicality of God as manifested in Jesus Christ. Veneration of icons was restored by the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, however this was met with opposition, in particular of Charlemagne. The last outburst of iconoclasm in the Byzantine Empire was overcome in 843, Byzantine iconoclasm Iconoclasm Iconography Idolatry Iconolatry References Sources Barnard, Leslie William. The Graeco-Roman and oriental background of the iconoclastic controversy
17.
Patriarch John VII of Constantinople
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John VII, surnamed Grammatikos or Grammaticus, i. e. the Grammarian, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from January 21,837 to March 4,843, died before 867. He is not to be confused with the earlier philosopher John Philoponos. John was born to a family of Armenian origin. His father was Pankratios Morocharzanios and he had a brother, Arsaber, warren Treadgold identifies the latter with the Arsaber who married a sister of the Empress Theodora. Johns sister was the mother of the later Patriarch Photios, beginning his clerical career in c. 811, John was also an painter of icons and a correspondent of Theodore of Stoudios, John was rewarded for his troubles by being appointed abbot of the prestigious Sergios and Bakchos monastery, where recalcitrant Iconodules were being re-educated. John was renowned for his learning, and for his rhetoric in the endless debates that are a favorite subject of hagiographic sources reflecting the second period of Iconoclasm. John was also charged with tutoring the future Emperor Theophilos during the reign of his father Michael II, on the accession of Theophilos, John was appointed synkellos, a position that made him a likely heir to the patriarchate. 830, John was dispatched on an embassy to the Caliph al-Mamun and he did, however, bring back a plan of the Abbasid palace at Baghdad for the amusement of his emperor and supervised the building of a similar structure in Bithynia. The circumstances of John VIIs patriarchate are obscure and he was appointed patriarch, in 837, by his student Theophilos and may have been responsible for the slight intensification of the persecution of Iconodules. He was deposed by Theophilos widow Theodora as a preliminary towards the ending of Iconoclasm in 843, the deposed patriarch survived into the 860s. The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press,1991, J. B. Bury, A History of the Eastern Roman Empire from the Fall of Irene to the Accession of Basil I, London,1912. Smith, Jason Domonick John Grammatikos, An Oblique History of a Damned Patriarch, Thesis, California State University, Sacramento,2010
18.
Patriarch Methodius I of Constantinople
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St. Methodios I or Methodius I, was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from March 4,843 to June 14,847. He was born in Syracuse and died in Constantinople and his feast day is celebrated on June 14 in both the East and the West. Born to wealthy parents, Methodios was sent as a man to Constantinople to continue his education. But instead he entered a monastery in Bithynia, eventually becoming abbot, under the Emperor Leo V the Armenian the Iconoclast persecution broke out for the second time. In 815 Methodios went to Rome, perhaps as an envoy of the deposed Patriarch Niκephorοs, upon his return in 821 he was arrested and exiled as an iconodule by the Iconoclast regime of Emperor Michael II. Ironically, Methodios was released in 829 and assumed a position of importance at the court of the more fervently iconoclast Emperor Theophilos. He then deposed the iconoclast Patriarch John VII Grammatikos and secured the appointment of Methodios as his successor, bringing about the end of the iconoclast controversy. This heralded the restoration of Orthodoxy, and became a holiday in the Eastern Orthodox Church, celebrated every year on the First Sunday of Great Lent, throughout his short patriarchate, Methodios tried to pursue a moderate line of accommodation with members of the clergy who were formerly Iconoclasts. This policy was opposed by extremists, primarily the monks of the Stoudios monastery, to rein in the extremists, Methodios was forced to excommunicate and arrest some of the more persevering monks. Methodios was indeed well-educated, engaged in copying and writing of manuscripts. His individual works included polemica, hagiographical and liturgical works, sermons, the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press,1991. Methodius I article in the Catholic Encyclopedia St Methodius the Patriarch of Constantinople Orthodox Icon and Synaxarion
19.
Iconoclasm
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Iconoclasm is the destruction of religious icons and other images or monuments for religious or political motives. Over time, the word, usually in the form, has also come to refer to aggressive statements or actions against any well-established status quo. It is a frequent component of political or religious changes. The term does not generally encompass the destruction of images of a ruler after his death or overthrow. Conversely, one who reveres or venerates religious images is called an iconolater, in a Byzantine context, Iconoclasm may be carried out by people of a different religion, but is often the result of sectarian disputes between factions of the same religion. The Church Fathers identified Jews and Judaism with heresy and they saw deviations from orthodox Christianity and opposition to the veneration of images as heresies that were essentially Jewish in spirit. The degree of iconoclasm among Christian branches greatly varies, Islam, in general, tends to be more iconoclastic than Christianity, with Sunni Islam being more iconoclastic than Shia Islam. Akhenatens actions are described thusly, In rebellion against the old religion, public references to Akhenaten were destroyed soon after his death. Comparing the ancient Egyptians with the Israelites, Jan Assmann writes, For Egypt, in the eyes of the Israelites, the erection of images meant the destruction of divine presence, in the eyes of the Egyptians, this same effect was attained by the destruction of images. In Egypt, iconoclasm was the most terrible crime, in Israel. It is more probable that these traditions evolved under mutual influence. In this respect, Moses and Akhenaten became, after all, the period after the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian evidently saw a huge increase in the use of images, both in volume and quality, and a gathering aniconic reaction. In the Eastern Roman Empire, government-led iconoclasm began with Byzantine Emperor Leo III, the religious conflict created political and economic divisions in Byzantine society. It was generally supported by the Eastern, poorer, non-Greek peoples of the Empire who had to frequently with raids from the new Muslim Empire. On the other hand, the wealthier Greeks of Constantinople, and also the peoples of the Balkan and Italian provinces, within the Byzantine Empire the government had probably been adopting Christian images more frequently. One notable change came in 695, when Justinian IIs government added an image of Christ on the obverse of imperial gold coins. The change caused the Caliph Abd al-Malik to stop his earlier adoption of Byzantine coin types and he started a purely Islamic coinage with lettering only. As a result, individuals attacked statues and images, however, in most cases, civil authorities removed images in an orderly manner in the newly reformed Protestant cities and territories of Europe
20.
Bardas
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Bardas was a Byzantine noble and high-ranking minister. As the brother of Empress Theodora, he rose to office under Theophilos. Although sidelined after Theophiloss death by Theodora and Theoktistos, in 855 he engineered Theoktistoss murder and became the de facto regent for his nephew, Michael III. Bardas was born to the droungarios Marinos and Theoktiste, and was the brother of Empress Theodora, the wife of Emperor Theophilos. Three other sisters, Maria, Sophia, and Irene, are recorded by Theophanes Continuatus, the family was of Armenian origin and had settled in Paphlagonia. Some modern genealogists, including Cyril Toumanoff and Nicholas Adontz, have suggested a link of Bardas family with the Armenian noble clan of the Mamikonian. According to Nina Garsoïan in the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, however, ttractive though it is, in 837, Theophilos raised him to the rank of patrikios and sent him together with the general Theophobos in a campaign against the Abasgians, but the Byzantines were defeated. With the death of Theophilos, the young Michael III ascended the throne, as he was only two years old, a regency council was set up headed by Theodora. Bardas and his brother Petronas, as well as their relative Sergios Niketiates, were also members, following Bardass exile and the death of Sergios, Theoktistos ruled supreme alongside Theodora for a decade. In 855, Michael III turned fifteen and thus came nominally of age and his mother and Theoktistos arranged a bride show and selected Eudokia Dekapolitissa as his bride, disregarding Michaels attachment to his mistress, Eudokia Ingerina. Bardas used Michaels resentment for the manner in which he was treated. With Michaels backing, Bardas was allowed to return to the capital and this was possibly done at the emperors behest, for Bardas is said to have favoured a more elegant removal of his rival. With the death of Theoktistos, the regency was at an end, in early 856, Michael proclaimed his assumption of imperial power. Nevertheless, as Michael was more interested in his pleasures and his affair with Eudokia Ingerina. Petronas also emerged from obscurity at the time, becoming strategos of the Thracesian Theme. Although later sources are critical of his character, describing him as vain, avaricious and power-hungry and he also scored a number of successes against the Arabs in the East, culminating in the decisive Battle of Lalakaon in 863, and enforced the Christianization of Bulgaria by Byzantine missionaries. In 858, Bardas deposed patriarch Ignatios and appointed Photios, well-educated but a layman, the irregular elevation of Photios, however, riled with Pope Nicholas I, who refused to recognize it. Coupled with competition between Rome and Constantinople over their activities in and jurisdiction over Moravia and Bulgaria, relations with the papacy remained tense
21.
Caesar (title)
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Caesar is a title of imperial character. It derives from the cognomen of Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator, the change from being a familial name to a title adopted by the Roman Emperors can be dated to about AD 68/69, the so-called Year of the Four Emperors. For political and personal reasons Octavian chose to emphasize his relationship with Caesar by styling himself simply Imperator Caesar, without any of the other elements of his full name. His successor as emperor, his stepson Tiberius, also bore the name as a matter of course, born Tiberius Claudius Nero, he was adopted by Caesar Augustus on June 26,4 AD, as Tiberius Julius Caesar. The precedent was set, the Emperor designated his successor by adopting him, Claudius in turn adopted his stepson and grand-nephew Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, giving him the name Caesar in the traditional way, his stepson would rule as the Emperor Nero. Galba helped solidify Caesar as the title of the heir by giving it to his own adopted heir. Galbas reign did not last long and he was deposed by Marcus Otho. Otho did not at first use the title Caesar and occasionally used the title Nero as emperor, Otho was then defeated by Aulus Vitellius who acceded with the name Aulus Vitellius Germanicus Imperator Augustus. Vitellius did not adopt the cognomen Caesar as part of his name, vespasians son, Titus Flavius Vespasianus became Titus Flavius Caesar Vespasianus. By this point the status of Caesar had been regularised into that of a given to the Emperor-designate. After some variation among the earliest emperors, the style of the Emperor-designate on coins was usually Nobilissimus Caesar Most Noble Caesar, on March 1,293, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus established the Tetrarchy, a system of rule by two senior Emperors and two junior sub-Emperors. The two coequal senior emperors were styled identically to previous Emperors, as Imperator Caesar NN, pius Felix Invictus Augustus, and were called the Augusti, while the two junior sub-Emperors were styled identically to previous Emperors-designate, as Nobilissimus Caesar. Likewise, the junior sub-Emperors retained the title Caesar upon accession to the senior position, an exceptional case was the conferment of the dignity and its insignia to the Bulgarian khan Tervel by Justinian II who had helped him regain his throne in 705. The title was awarded to the brother of Empress Maria of Alania, according to the Klētorologion of 899, the Byzantine Caesars insignia were a crown without a cross, and the ceremony of a Caesars creation, is included in De Ceremoniis I.43. The title remained the highest in the hierarchy until the introduction of the sebastokratōr by Alexios I Komnenos. The title remained in existence through the last centuries of the Empire, in the late Byzantine hierarchy, as recorded in the mid-14th century Book of Offices of pseudo-Kodinos, the rank continued to come after the sebastokratōr. Pseudo-Kodinos writes that the forms of another form of hat, the domed skaranikon, and of the mantle. In the Middle East, the Persians and the Arabs continued to refer to the Roman and Byzantine emperors as Caesar
22.
Petronas (general)
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Petronas was a notable Byzantine general and leading aristocrat during the mid-9th century. Petronas was a brother of Empress Theodora and hence brother-in-law of Emperor Theophilos, under whom he advanced to the rank of patrikios and the post of droungarios of the Vigla regiment. In 863, he scored a victory at the Battle of Lalakaon. Promoted to magistros and domestikos ton scholon, he died in 865, Petronas was born to the droungarios Marinos and Theoktiste, and was the younger brother of Bardas and Empress Theodora, the wife of Emperor Theophilos. Three other sisters, Kalomaria, Sophia, and Irene, are recorded by Theophanes Continuatus, under Theophilos, he was appointed commander of the guard regiment of the Vigla, and raised to the rank of patrikios. The palace itself was torn down, and both the building materials and the plot were left to the widow. When Theophilos died in 842, Theodora was left as regent to her infant son, a regency council was set up headed by Theodora, along with Petronas and Bardas and their relative Sergios Niketiates. In 855, however, Michael III turned fifteen and thus came nominally of age, supported by his uncles Bardas and Petronas, Emperor Michael had Theoktistos seized and killed in late 855, while Petronas undertook the confinement of the empress and her daughters into a monastery. Bardas was now raised to the rank of Caesar and became the governor of the Byzantine Empire. In this position, he displayed remarkable energy and ability, consequently, Petronas was appointed strategos of the powerful Thracesian Theme. On his first campaign, against the Paulicians of Tephrike in 856, he plundered his way through the emirate of Melitene, after penetrating deeper into Arab territory than any Byzantine commander since the beginning of the Muslim conquests, he returned victorious with many captives. In 863, an Arab army, led by the emir of Melitene, Umar al-Aqta, raided deep into Byzantine territory, Petronas carried his defeated enemys head to Constantinople, where he was honored with a triumphal entrance by his nephew. Soon after, he was raised to the rank of magistros, the defeat of the Arabs and their Paulician allies became a turning point in the Arab–Byzantine Wars. With this victory, Petronas and Bardas were able to secure their borders, strengthen the Byzantine state. The Byzantine chroniclers add that the general did not survive for long after his victory. A hagiography, written by a contemporary, claims that Petronas died on the day as his spiritual father Saint Anthony the Younger. He was buried in the Gastria Monastery, where his sarcophagus was placed opposite those of his sister, the Empress Theodora
23.
Pamphylia
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Pamphylia was a former region in the south of Asia Minor, between Lycia and Cilicia, extending from the Mediterranean to Mount Taurus. It was bounded on the north by Pisidia and was therefore a country of small extent, having a coast-line of only about 120 km with a breadth of about 50 km. The name Pamphylia comes from the Greek Παμφυλία, itself from πάμφυλος, literally of mingled tribes or races, herodotus derived its etymology from a Dorian tribe, the Pamphyloi, who were said to have colonized the region. The tribe, in turn, was said to be named after Pamphylos, the Pamphylians were a mixture of aboriginal inhabitants, immigrant Cilicians and Greeks who migrated there from Arcadia and Peloponnese in the 12th century BC. But the distinction between the two seems to have established at an early period. A treaty between the Hittite Great King Tudhaliya IV and his vassal, the king of Tarhuntassa, defined the western border at the city Parha. The river is assumed to be the classical Kestros, Parha, west of Parha were the Lukka Lands. This region, at time, likely spoke a late Luwian dialect like Lycian. When the region returns to history its population is Pamphylian, that is Greek-speaking, on Cyruss defeat of Croesus, Pamphylia passed to the Persian Empire. Darius included it in his first tax-district alongside Lycia, Magnesia, Ionia, Aeolia, Mysia, at some point 468-465 BCE, the Athenians under Cimon fought the Persians at the Eurymedon, and won, thus adding Pamphylia to their Delian League empire. Toward the end of the Peloponnesian War, the Athenians were weakened enough that the Persians were able to retake it, upon Alexanders defeat of Darius III, Pamphylia passed back to Greek rule, now Macedonians. Pamphylia was for a time included in the dominions of Amyntas, king of Galatia. Archdiocese Leontopolis in Pamphylia Myth of Er Pamphylian Greek This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh. Livius. org, Pamphylia Asia Minor Coins, Pamphylia ancient Greek and Roman coins from Pamphylia
24.
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
25.
Syria
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Syrias capital and largest city is Damascus. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Sunni Arabs make up the largest religious group in Syria. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, in the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a number of military coups. In 1958, Syria entered a union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000. Mainstream modern academic opinion strongly favours the argument that the Greek word is related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, in the past, others believed that it was derived from Siryon, the name that the Sidonians gave to Mount Hermon. However, the discovery of the inscription in 2000 seems to support the theory that the term Syria derives from Assyria. The area designated by the word has changed over time, since approximately 10,000 BC, Syria was one of centers of Neolithic culture where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. The following Neolithic period is represented by houses of Mureybet culture. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gyps, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations. Cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic, archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria was one of the most ancient on earth, perhaps preceded by only those of Mesopotamia. The earliest recorded indigenous civilisation in the region was the Kingdom of Ebla near present-day Idlib, gifts from Pharaohs, found during excavations, confirm Eblas contact with Egypt. One of the earliest written texts from Syria is an agreement between Vizier Ibrium of Ebla and an ambiguous kingdom called Abarsal c.2300 BC. The Northwest Semitic language of the Amorites is the earliest attested of the Canaanite languages, Mari reemerged during this period, and saw renewed prosperity until conquered by Hammurabi of Babylon. Ugarit also arose during this time, circa 1800 BC, close to modern Latakia, Ugaritic was a Semitic language loosely related to the Canaanite languages, and developed the Ugaritic alphabet. The Ugarites kingdom survived until its destruction at the hands of the marauding Indo-European Sea Peoples in the 12th century BC, Yamhad was described in the tablets of Mari as the mightiest state in the near east and as having more vassals than Hammurabi of Babylon. Yamhad imposed its authority over Alalakh, Qatna, the Hurrians states, the army of Yamhad campaigned as far away as Dēr on the border of Elam
26.
Arab
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Arabs are an ethnic group inhabiting the Arab world. They primarily live in the Arab states in Western Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Arabs are first mentioned in the mid-ninth century BCE as a tribal people dwelling in the central Arabian Peninsula. The Arabs appear to have been under the vassalage of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, tradition holds that Arabs descend from Ishmael, the son of Abraham. The Arabian Desert is the birthplace of Arab, there are other Arab groups as well that spread in the land and existed for millennia. Before the expansion of the Caliphate, Arab referred to any of the largely nomadic Semitic people from the northern to the central Arabian Peninsula and Syrian Desert. Presently, Arab refers to a number of people whose native regions form the Arab world due to spread of Arabs throughout the region during the early Arab conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries. The Arabs forged the Rashidun, Umayyad and the Abbasid caliphates, whose borders reached southern France in the west, China in the east, Anatolia in the north, and this was one of the largest land empires in history. The Great Arab Revolt has had as big an impact on the modern Middle East as the World War I, the war signaled the end of the Ottoman Empire. They are modern states and became significant as distinct political entities after the fall and defeat, following adoption of the Alexandria Protocol in 1944, the Arab League was founded on 22 March 1945. The Charter of the Arab League endorsed the principle of an Arab homeland whilst respecting the sovereignty of its member states. Beyond the boundaries of the League of Arab States, Arabs can also be found in the global diaspora, the ties that bind Arabs are ethnic, linguistic, cultural, historical, identical, nationalist, geographical and political. The Arabs have their own customs, language, architecture, art, literature, music, dance, media, cuisine, dress, society, sports, the total number of Arabs are an estimated 450 million. This makes them the second largest ethnic group after the Han Chinese. Arabs are a group in terms of religious affiliations and practices. In the pre-Islamic era, most Arabs followed polytheistic religions, some tribes had adopted Christianity or Judaism, and a few individuals, the hanifs, apparently observed monotheism. Today, Arabs are mainly adherents of Islam, with sizable Christian minorities, Arab Muslims primarily belong to the Sunni, Shiite, Ibadi, Alawite, Druze and Ismaili denominations. Arab Christians generally follow one of the Eastern Christian Churches, such as the Maronite, Coptic Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, or Chaldean churches. Listed among the booty captured by the army of king Shalmaneser III of Assyria in the Battle of Qarqar are 1000 camels of Gi-in-di-buu the ar-ba-a-a or Gindibu belonging to the Arab
27.
Paulicianism
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Paulicians were a Christian sect, also accused by medieval sources of being Adoptionist, Gnostic, and quasi-Manichaean Christian. They flourished between 650 and 872 in Armenia and the eastern themata of the Byzantine Empire, according to medieval Byzantine sources, the groups name was derived from the 3rd century Bishop of Antioch, Paul of Samosata. The sources show that most Paulician leaders were Armenians, the founder of the sect is said to have been an Armenian by the name of Constantine, who hailed from Mananalis, a community near Samosata. He studied the Gospels and Epistles, combined dualistic and Christian doctrines and, upon the basis of the former, vigorously opposed the formalism of the church. Upon reading the same, he came to know about salvation in Christ, upon sharing said good news with others, he formed a group of sincere believers that became known as Paulicians. Regarding himself as called to restore the pure Christianity of Paul, he adopted the name Silvanus, twenty-seven years later, he was arrested by the Imperial authorities, tried for heresy and stoned to death. Simeon, the official who executed the order, was himself converted. He was burned to death in 690, the adherents of the sect fled, with Paul at their head, to Episparis. He died in 715, leaving two sons, Gegnaesius and Theodore, the latter, giving out that he had received the Holy Ghost, rose against Gegnaesius but was unsuccessful. Gegnaesius was taken to Constantinople, appeared before Leo the Isaurian, was declared innocent of heresy, returned to Episparis and his death was the occasion of a division in the sect, Zacharias and Joseph being the leaders of the two parties. The latter had the following and was succeeded by Baanies in 775. The sect grew in spite of persecution, receiving additions from some of the iconoclasts, the Paulicians were now divided into the Baanites and the Sergites. Sergius, as the leader, was a zealous and effective converter for his sect, he boasted that he had spread his Gospel from East to West. At the same time the Sergites fought against their rivals and nearly exterminated them, baanes was supplanted by Sergius-Tychicus in 801, who was very active for thirty-four years. His activity was the occasion of renewed persecutions on the part of Leo the Armenian, obliged to flee, Sergius and his followers settled at Argaun, in that part of Armenia which was under the control of the Saracens. At the death of Sergius, the control of the sect was divided between several leaders, Paulicians under their new leader, Karbeas, fled to new areas. They built two cities, Amara and Tephrike, by 844, at the height of its power, the Paulicians established a State of the Paulicians at Tephrike. In 856, Karbeas and his people took refuge with the Arabs in the territory around Tephrike and joined forces with Umar al-Aqta, Karbeas was killed in 863 in Michael IIIs campaign against the Paulicians and was possibly with Umar at Malakopea before the battle of Lalakaon
28.
Thrace
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It comprises southeastern Bulgaria, northeastern Greece, and the European part of Turkey. In antiquity, it was referred to as Europe, prior to the extension of the term to describe the whole continent. The name Thrace comes from the Thracians, an ancient Indo-European people inhabiting Southeastern Europe, the word itself was established by the Greeks for referring to the Thracian tribes, from Ancient Greek Thrake, descending from Thrāix. The name of the continent Europe first referred to Thrace proper, the region obviously took the name of the principal river there, Hebros, probably from the Indo-European arg white river, according to an alternative theory, Hebros means goat in Thracian. In Turkey, it is referred to as Rumeli, Land of the Romans. The name appears to derive from an ancient heroine and sorceress Thrace, who was the daughter of Oceanus and Parthenope, the historical boundaries of Thrace have varied. In one ancient Greek source, the very Earth is divided into Asia, Libya, Europa and this largely coincided with the Thracian Odrysian kingdom, whose borders varied over time. After the Macedonian conquest, this regions former border with Macedonia was shifted from the Struma River to the Mesta River and this usage lasted until the Roman conquest. Henceforth, Thrace referred only to the tract of land covering the same extent of space as the modern geographical region. The medieval Byzantine theme of Thrace contained only what today is Eastern Thrace, the largest cities of Thrace are, İstanbul, Plovdiv, Burgas, Stara Zagora, Haskovo, Yambol, Komotini, Alexandroupoli, Xanthi, Edirne, Çorlu and Tekirdağ. Most of the Bulgarian and Greek population are Christians, while most of the Turkish inhabitants of Thrace are Muslims, Ancient Greek mythology provides them with a mythical ancestor, named Thrax, son of the war-god Ares, who was said to reside in Thrace. The Thracians appear in Homers Iliad as Trojan allies, led by Acamas, later in the Iliad, Rhesus, another Thracian king, makes an appearance. Cisseus, father-in-law to the Trojan elder Antenor, is given as a Thracian king. Homeric Thrace was vaguely defined, and stretched from the River Axios in the west to the Hellespont, Greek mythology is replete with Thracian kings, including Diomedes, Tereus, Lycurgus, Phineus, Tegyrius, Eumolpus, Polymnestor, Poltys, and Oeagrus. In addition to the tribe that Homer calls Thracians, ancient Thrace was home to other tribes, such as the Edones, Bisaltae, Cicones. Thrace is also mentioned in Ovids Metamorphoses in the episode of Philomela, Procne, Tereus, the King of Thrace, lusts after his sister-in-law, Philomela. He kidnaps her, holds her captive, rapes her, Philomela manages to get free, however. She and her sister, Procne, plot to get revenge, by killing Itys, at the end of the myth, all three turn into birds – Procne, a swallow, Philomela, a nightingale, and Tereus, a hoopoe
29.
Constantine VII
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Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos or Porphyrogenitus, the Purple-born, was the fourth Emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, reigning from 913 to 959. He was the son of the emperor Leo VI and his wife, Zoe Karbonopsina, and the nephew of his predecessor. Constantine VII is best known for his four books, De Administrando Imperio, De Ceremoniis, De Thematibus and his nickname alludes to the Purple Room of the imperial palace, decorated with porphyry, where legitimate children of reigning emperors were normally born. Constantine was also born in this room, although his mother Zoe had not been married to Leo at that time, nevertheless, the epithet allowed him to underline his position as the legitimized son, as opposed to all others who claimed the throne during his lifetime. Sons born to a reigning Emperor held precedence in the Eastern Roman line of succession over elder sons not born in the purple, Constantine was born at Constantinople, an illegitimate son born before an uncanonical fourth marriage. To help legitimize him, his mother gave birth to him in the Purple Room of the palace, hence his nickname Porphyrogennetos. He was symbolically elevated to the throne as a child by his father. In June 913, as his uncle Alexander lay dying, he appointed a regency council for Constantine. Following Alexanders death, the new and shaky regime survived the attempted usurpation of Constantine Doukas, Patriarch Nicholas was presently forced to make peace with Tsar Simeon of Bulgaria, whom he reluctantly recognized as Bulgarian emperor. Because of this concession, Patriarch Nicholas was driven out of the regency by Constantines mother Zoe. She was no more successful with the Bulgarians, who defeated her main supporter, in 919 she was replaced as regent by the admiral Romanos Lekapenos, who married his daughter Helena Lekapene to Constantine. Romanos used his position to advance to the ranks of basileopatōr in May 919, to kaisar in September 920, thus, just short of reaching nominal majority, Constantine was eclipsed by a senior emperor. Nevertheless, he was an intelligent young man with a large range of interests. Romanos kept and maintained power until 944, when he was deposed by his sons, Romanos spent the last years of his life in exile on the Island of Prote as a monk and died on June 15,948. With the help of his wife, Constantine VII succeeded in removing his brothers-in-law, several months later, Constantine VII crowned his own son Romanos II co-emperor. In 949 Constantine launched a new fleet of 100 ships against the Arab corsairs hiding in Crete, but like his fathers attempt to retake the island in 911, on the Eastern frontier things went better, even if with alternate success. In 949 the Byzantines conquered Germanicea, repeatedly defeated the enemy armies, but in 953 the Hamdanid amir Sayf al-Daula retook Germanicea and entered the imperial territory. An Arab fleet was destroyed by Greek fire in 957
30.
Peloponnese
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The Peloponnese or Peloponnesus is a peninsula and geographic region in southern Greece. It is separated from the part of the country by the Gulf of Corinth. During the late Middle Ages and the Ottoman era, the peninsula was known as the Morea, the peninsula is divided among three administrative regions, most belongs to the Peloponnese region, with smaller parts belonging to the West Greece and Attica regions. In 2016, Lonely Planet voted the Peloponnese the top spot of their Best in Europe list, the Peloponnese is a peninsula that covers an area of some 21,549.6 square kilometres and constitutes the southernmost part of mainland Greece. It has two connections with the rest of Greece, a natural one at the Isthmus of Corinth. The peninsula has an interior and deeply indented coasts. The Peloponnese possesses four south-pointing peninsulas, the Messenian, the Mani, the Cape Malea, mount Taygetus in the south is the highest mountain in the Peloponnese, at 2,407 metres. Οther important mountains include Cyllene in the northeast, Aroania in the north, Erymanthos and Panachaikon in the northwest, Mainalon in the center, the entire peninsula is earthquake prone and has been the site of many earthquakes in the past. The longest river is the Alfeios in the west, followed by the Evrotas in the south, extensive lowlands are found only in the west, with the exception of the Evrotas valley in the south and in the Argolid in the northeast. The Peloponnese is home to spectacular beaches, which are a major tourist draw. Two groups of islands lie off the Peloponnesian coast, the Argo-Saronic Islands to the east, the island of Kythera, off the Epidaurus Limera peninsula to the south of the Peloponnese, is considered to be part of the Ionian Islands. The island of Elafonissos used to be part of the peninsula but was separated following the quake of 365 AD. Since antiquity, and continuing to the present day, the Peloponnese has been divided into seven regions, Achaia, Corinthia, Argolid, Arcadia, Laconia, Messinia. Each of these regions is headed by a city, the largest city is Patras in Achaia, followed by Kalamata in Messinia. The peninsula has been inhabited since prehistoric times and its modern name derives from ancient Greek mythology, specifically the legend of the hero Pelops, who was said to have conquered the entire region. The name Peloponnesos means Island of Pelops, the Mycenaean civilization, mainland Greeces first major civilization, dominated the Peloponnese in the Bronze Age from its stronghold at Mycenae in the north-east of the peninsula. The Mycenean civilization collapsed suddenly at the end of the 2nd millennium BC, archeological research has found that many of its cities and palaces show signs of destruction. The subsequent period, known as the Greek Dark Ages, is marked by an absence of written records
31.
Bulgarian Empire
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The two Bulgarian Empires are not treated as separate entities, but rather as one state restored after a period of Byzantine rule over its territory. Under Ivan Asen II in the first half of the 13th century the country gradually recovered much of its power, though this did not last long due to internal problems. The Empire became tributary to the Golden Horde, a state of the Mongol Empire in the 13-14th century. After the death of Emperor Ivan Alexander in 1371 Bulgaria was split into three countries and in the following decades fell under the domination of the Ottomans, first Bulgarian Empire Second Bulgarian Empire Kingdom of Bulgaria History of Bulgaria Zlatarski, Vasil N. Medieval History of the Bulgarian State, sofia, Science and Arts Publishers, 2nd Edition, Zahari Stoyanov Publishers, 4th Edition,2006. Електронна издание – История на България, Делев, Петър, Валери Кацунов, Пламен Митев, Евгения Калинова, Искра Баева, Боян Добрев. Министерство на външните работи на България, Труд, Сирма, ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press
32.
Plovdiv
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Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, with a population of 341,567 inhabitants as of 2015, while 544,628 live in its urban area. It is an important economic, transport, cultural, and educational center, Plovdiv has evidence of habitation since the 6th millennium BC when the first Neolithic settlements were established. It is said to be one of the oldest cities in the world, Plovdiv was known in the West for most of its recorded history by the name Philippopolis as Philip II of Macedon conquered it in the 4th century BC and gave his name to it. The city was originally a Thracian settlement, later being invaded by Persians, Greeks, Celts, Romans, Goths, Huns, Bulgarians, Slav-Vikings, Crusaders, on 4 January 1878, Plovdiv was liberated from Ottoman rule by the Russian army. It remained within the borders of Bulgaria until July of the same year, in 1885, Plovdiv and Eastern Rumelia joined Bulgaria. Plovdiv is situated in a region of south-central Bulgaria on the two banks of the Maritsa River. The city has developed on seven syenite hills, some of which are 250 metres high. Because of these hills, Plovdiv is often referred to in Bulgaria as The City of the Seven Hills, Plovdiv is host to cultural events such as the International Fair Plovdiv, the international theatrical festival A stage on a crossroad, and the TV festival The golden chest. There are many remains preserved from antiquity such as the ancient Plovdiv Roman theatre, Roman odeon, Roman aqueduct, Roman Stadium, the archaeological complex Eirene, and others. The oldest American educational institution outside the United States was founded in Plovdiv in 1860, on 5 September 2014, Plovdiv was selected as the Bulgarian host of the European Capital of Culture 2019. This happened with the help of the Municipal Foundation Plovdiv 2019″ - a non-government organization which was established in 2011 by Plovdivs City Council, the main objectives were to develop and to prepare Plovdivs bid book for European Capital of Culture in 2019. The organization has a board of directors, which consists of 9 members, the foundation also has a Public Council, chaired by the mayor of the city, and a Control Board supervises the organizations activities. The main objective of the foundation is strategic development and implementation of the bid book, Plovdiv was given various names throughout its long history. The Odrysian capital Odryssa is suggested to have been modern Plovdiv by numismatic research or Odrin, Philippopolis was identified later by Plutarch and Pliny as the former Poneropolis. Strabo identified Philip IIs settlement of most evil, wicked as Calybe, kendrisia was an old name of the city. An assumed name is the 1st century Tiberias in honor of the Roman emperor Tiberius, after the Romans had taken control of the area, the city was named in Latin, TRIMONTIUM, meaning The Three Hills, mentioned in the 1st century by Pliny. At times the name was Ulpia, Flavia, Julia after the Roman families, Ammianus Marcellinus wrote in the 4th century that the then city had been the old Eumolpias/Eumolpiada, i. e. the earliest name in chronological terms. In the 6th century Jordanes wrote that the name of the city was Pulpudeva
33.
Franks
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Some Franks raided Roman territory, while other Frankish tribes joined the Roman troops of Gaul. In later times, Franks became the rulers of the northern part of Roman Gaul. The Salian Franks lived on Roman-held soil between the Rhine, Scheldt, Meuse, and Somme rivers in what is now Northern France, Belgium, the kingdom was acknowledged by the Romans after 357 CE. Following the collapse of Rome in the West, the Frankish tribes were united under the Merovingians, who succeeded in conquering most of Gaul in the 6th century, which greatly increased their power. The Merovingian dynasty, descendants of the Salians, founded one of the Germanic monarchies that would absorb large parts of the Western Roman Empire, the Frankish state consolidated its hold over the majority of western Europe by the end of the 8th century, developing into the Carolingian Empire. This empire would gradually evolve into the state of France and the Holy Roman Empire, in the Middle Ages, the term Frank was used in the east as a synonym for western European, as the Franks were then rulers of most of Western Europe. The Franks in the east kept their Germanic language and became part of the Germans, Dutch, Flemings, the Franconian languages, which are called Frankisch in Dutch or Fränkisch in German, originated at least partly in the Old Frankish language of the Franks. Nowadays, the German and Dutch names for France are Frankreich and Frankrijk, respectively, the name Franci was originally socio-political. To the Romans, Celts, and Suebi, the Franks must have seemed alike, they looked the same and spoke the same language, so that Franci became the name by which the people were known. Within a few centuries it had eclipsed the names of the tribes, though the older names have survived in some place-names, such as Hesse. Following the precedents of Edward Gibbon and Jacob Grimm, the name of the Franks has been linked with the word frank in English and it has been suggested that the meaning of free was adopted because, after the conquest of Gaul, only Franks were free of taxation. It is traditionally assumed that Frank comes from the Germanic word for javelin, there is also another theory that suggests that Frank comes from the Latin word francisca meaning. Words in other Germanic languages meaning fierce, bold or insolent, eumenius addressed the Franks in the matter of the execution of Frankish prisoners in the circus at Trier by Constantine I in 306 and certain other measures, Ubi nunc est illa ferocia. Feroces was used often to describe the Franks, contemporary definitions of Frankish ethnicity vary both by period and point of view. According to their law and their custom, writing in 2009, Professor Christopher Wickham pointed out that the word Frankish quickly ceased to have an exclusive ethnic connotation. North of the River Loire everyone seems to have considered a Frank by the mid-7th century at the latest. Two early sources describe the origin of the Franks are a 7th-century work known as the Chronicle of Fredegar. Neither of these works are accepted by historians as trustworthy, compared with Gregory of Tourss Historia Francorum, the chronicle describes Priam as a Frankish king whose people migrated to Macedonia after the fall of Troy
34.
Louis the German
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Louis the German, also known as Louis II, was the first king of East Francia. His early years were spent at the court of his grandfather, Charlemagne. Louis ruled from Regensburg, the old capital of the Bavarii, in 825 he became involved in wars with the Wends and Sorbs on his eastern frontier. In 827 he married Hemma, sister of his stepmother Judith of Bavaria, Louis soon began to interfere in the quarrels arising from Judiths efforts to secure a kingdom for her son Charles the Bald and the consequent struggles of his brothers with their father. In 832 he led an army of Slavs into Alamannia and completely subjugated it, Louis the Pious disinherited him, but to no effect, the emperor was soon captured by his own rebellious sons and deposed. Upon his swift reinstatement, however, the emperor Louis made peace with his son Louis, Louis was the instigator of the third civil war, which began in 839. A strip of his land having been given to the young haf-brother Charles and this time emperor Louis responded quickly, and soon the younger Louis was forced into the far southeastern corner of his realm, the March of Pannonia. Peace was then made by force of arms, in June 842 the three brothers met on an island in the river Saône to negotiate a peace, and each appointed forty representatives to arrange the boundaries of their respective kingdoms. His territories included Bavaria, Thuringia, Franconia, and Saxony, Louis may be called the founder of the German kingdom, though his attempts to maintain the unity of the Empire proved futile. Having in 842 crushed the Stellinga rising in Saxony, in 844 he compelled the Obotrites to own his authority and put their prince, Gozzmovil, to death. Thachulf, Duke of Thuringia, then undertook campaigns against the Bohemians, Moravians, and other tribes, in 852 Louis sent his son Louis the Younger to Aquitaine, where nobles had grown resentful of Charles the Balds rule. The younger Louis did not set out until 854, and returned the following year, encouraged by his nephews Pepin of Herstal and Charles of Provence, Louis invaded in West Francia in 858. Charles the Bald could not even raise an army to resist the invasion, later that year Louis issued a charter dated the first year of the reign in West Francia. In 868 at Metz Louis and Charles agreed to partition Lotharingia, when Lothair II died in 869, Louis was lying seriously ill, and his armies were engaged in a war with the Moravians. The later years of Louis the German were troubled by rebellions of his sons, the eldest, Carloman of Bavaria, revolted in 861 and again two years later. This was followed by the second son Louis the Younger, who was joined by his brother Charles the Fat, in 864 Louis was forced to grant Carloman the kingdom of Bavaria, which he himself had once held under his father. In 865 he divided the remainder of his lands - Saxony with Franconia and Thuringia went to Louis the Younger and Swabia with Raetia to Charles the Fat. A report that the emperor Louis II of Italy had died led to a peace between father and sons and attempts by Louis the German to gain the crown for his oldest son Carloman
35.
Croatians
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Croats are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group at the crossroads of Central Europe, Southeast Europe, and the Mediterranean Sea. Croats mainly live in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, but are a recognized minority in Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have migrated throughout Europe, evidence is rather scarce for the period between the 7th and 8th centuries, CE. Archaeological evidence shows population continuity in coastal Dalmatia and Istria, in contrast, much of the Dinaric hinterland appears to have been depopulated, as virtually all hilltop settlements, from Noricum to Dardania, were abandoned in the early 7th century. Although the dating of the earliest Slavic settlements is still disputed, the origin, timing and nature of the Slavic migrations remain controversial, however, all available evidence points to the nearby Danubian and Carpathian regions. Much uncertainty revolves around the circumstances of their appearance given the scarcity of literary sources during the 7th and 8th century Dark Ages. Traditionally, scholarship has placed the arrival of the Croats in the 7th century, as such, the arrival of the Croats was seen as a second wave of Slavic migrations, which liberated Dalmatia from Avar hegemony. However, as early as the 1970s, scholars questioned the reliability of Porphyrogenitus work, rather than being an accurate historical account, De Administrando Imperio more accurately reflects the political situation during the 10th century. The major basis for this connection was the similarity between Hrvat and inscriptions from the Tanais dated to the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, mentioning the name Khoroathos. Similar arguments have been made for an alleged Gothic-Croat link and they appear to have been based around Nin and Klis, down to the Cetina and south of Liburnia. Here, concentrations of the Old Croat culture abound, marked by very wealthy warrior burials dating to the 9th century CE. Other, distinct polities also existed near the Croat duchy and these included the Guduscans, the Narentines and the Sorabi who ruled some other eastern parts of ex-Roman Dalmatia. Also prominent in the territory of future Croatia was the polity of Prince Liutevid, however, soon, the Croats became the dominant local power in northern Dalmatia, absorbing Liburnia and expanding their name by conquest and prestige. In the south, while having periods of independence, the Naretines also merged with Croats later under control of Croatian Kings, with such expansion, Croatia soon became dominant power and absorb other polities between Frankish, Bulgarian and Byzantine empire. Each vied for control of the Northwest Balkan regions, nevertheless, two independent Slavic dukedoms emerged sometime during the 9th century, the Croat Duchy and Principality of Lower Pannonia. Having been under Avar control, lower Pannonia became a march of the Carolingian Empire around 800, aided by Vojnomir in 796, the first named Slavic Duke of Pannonia, the Franks wrested control of the region from the Avars before totally destroying the Avar realm in 803. After the death of Charlemagne in 814, Frankish influence decreased on the region, the Frankish margraves sent armies in 820,821 and 822, but each time they failed to crush the rebels. Aided by Borna the Guduscan, the Franks eventually defeated Ljudevit, for much of the subsequent period, Savia was probably directly ruled by the Carinthian Duke Arnulf, the future East Frankish King and Emperor
36.
Emir
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An Emir, sometimes transliterated Amir, Amier, or Ameer, is an aristocratic or noble title of high office used in a variety of places in the Arab countries and Afghanistan. It means commander, general, or prince, when translated as prince, the word emirate is analogous to a sovereign principality. Amir, meaning Lord or commander-in-chief, is derived from the Arabic root a-m-r, the word entered English in 1593, from the French émir. It was one of the titles or names of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the monarchs of UAE, Qatar and Kuwait are currently titled Emirs. All members of the House of Saud have the title of Emir, the caliphs first used the title Amir al-Muminin or Commander of the Faithful, stressing their leadership over the Islamic Empire, especially over the militia. The title has been assumed by various other Muslim rulers, including Sultans, for Shia Muslims, they still give this title to the Caliph Ali as Amir al Muminin. Note that the title was held by Christians as well, the word Emir is also used less formally for leaders in certain contexts. For example, the leader of a group of pilgrims to Mecca is called an Emir hadji, where an adjectival form is necessary, Emiral suffices. Amirzade, the son of a prince, hence the Persian princely title Mirza, the temporal leader of the Yazidi people is known as an Emir or Prince. From the start, Emir has been a military title, in certain decimally-organized Muslim armies, Amir was an officer rank. For example, in Mughal India Amirs commanded 1000 horsemen, ten of them under one Malik, Muhammad Amin Bughra, Nur Ahmad Jan Bughra, and Abdullah Bughra declared themselves Emirs of the First East Turkestan Republic. Amir is a name in the Persian language and a prefix name for many masculine names such as Amir Ali. Amir-i-Iel designates the head of an Il in imperial Persia, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the female name Emira, often interpreted as princess, is a derivative of the male name Emir. Abdul Abulbul Amir, both character and song, wat Tambor in Star Wars, Episode II – Attack of the Clones took the title of Emir. In the Star Wars universe the title may relate to Tambors military command, Emir Karim, a character in Wild At Heart, a Latin American drama. Specific emirates of note List of emirs of Harar List of emirs of Kuwait List of emirs of Qatar List of Emirs of Mosul Emirate of Afghanistan
37.
Umar al-Aqta
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During this time, he was one of the greatest threats to the Byzantine Empire on its eastern frontier, and became a prominent figure in later Arabic and Turkish epic literature. ʿUmar himself probably became emir of Malatya in the 830s, and first appears in 838, during the Amorium campaign, ʿUmar took part with his men in the great Arab victory over Theophilos himself at the Battle of Dazimon in July 838. In 844, ʿUmars forces participated in a raid that inflicted a heavy defeat upon an army led by the Byzantine chief minister, Theoktistos. In the late 840s, he was engaged in warfare against a neighbouring Armenian lord named Skleros. In the 850s, ʿUmar is recorded as having defeated an expedition led by the Byzantine emperor Michael III against Samosata, one of them swept through the themes of Thrakesion and Opsikion and reached up to the great Byzantine army base of Malagina in Bithynia. He was unable, however, to stop a retaliatory expedition launched in 856 by Petronas against Melitene and Tephrike, which raided all the way to Amida, taking many prisoners before returning home. In 860, along with Karbeas, ʿUmar launched a raid into Anatolia which reached the Black Sea port of Sinope. Three years later, he was part of a major Abbasid force that invaded Anatolia through the Cilician Gates. After splitting off from the force and repulsing a Byzantine army under Emperor Michael III at Mardj al-Usquf in Cappadocia. On his return, however, he was encircled by the Byzantines, only a splinter of his army escaped under his son, but was then defeated and captured by the commander of the Charsianon district. Indeed, ʿUmars death marked the end of Malatya as a threat to Byzantium. ʿUmar himself was succeeded by his son, Abu Abdallah, and grandson, Abu Hafs, like many other protagonists of the Arab–Byzantine Wars, ʿUmar figures in both Arab and Byzantine legend. Veloudis suggested him as the origin of the hero of the Song of Armouris. The German scholar Hans-Georg Beck finds this identification unlikely, but points out the reference to a short-armed Arab leader in the same tale, finally, the 10th-century scholar al-Masudi reports that ʿUmar was among the illustrious Muslims whose portraits were displayed in Byzantine churches in recognition of their valour
38.
Melitene
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Malatya is a large city in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey and the capital of Malatya Province. The city has been a settlement for thousands of years. The Assyrians called the city Meliddu, Strabo says that the city was known to the ancients as Melitene, a name adopted by the Romans following Roman expansion into the east. According to Strabo, the inhabitants of Melitene shared with the nearby Cappadocians and Cataonians the same language, the site of ancient Melitene lies a few kilometres from the modern city in what is now the village of Arslantepe and near the dependant district center of Battalgazi. Present-day Battalgazi was the location of the city of Malatya until the 19th century, battalgazis official name was Eskimalatya, until recently, it was a name used locally. Arslantepe has been inhabited since the development of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent, from the Bronze Age, the site became an administrative center of a larger region in the kingdom of Isuwa. The city was fortified, probably due to the Hittite menace from the west. The Hittites conquered the city in the fourteenth century B. C, in Hittite, melid or milit means honey, offering a possible etymology for the name, which was mentioned in the contemporary sources of the time under several variations. After the end of the Hittite empire, the city became the center of the Neo-Hittite state of Kammanu, the city continued old Hittite traditions and styles. Researchers have discovered a palace inside the city walls with statues, the people erected a palace, accompanied by monumental stone sculptures of lions and the ruler. Kammanu was vassal state of Urartu between 804 and 743, the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser I forced the kingdom of Malidiya to pay tribute to Assyria. Malidiya continued to prosper until the Assyrian king Sargon II sacked the city in 712 BC, at the same time, the Cimmerians and Scythians invaded Asia Minor and the city declined. Some occupation continued on the site into the Hellenistic and Roman periods — a smithy with four ovens has been excavated from the Roman period, there was a long gap in occupation between the mid-7th century and renewed use of the site in the late 12th or early 13th century. Archeologists first began to excavate the site of Arslantepe in the 1930s, since 1961, an Italian team of archaeologists, today led by Marcella Frangipane, has been working at the site. The Kingdom of Cappadocia, ruled by the House of Ariobarzanes, after the Kingdoms annexation by the Roman Empire in 17 AD, the settlement was re-established as Melitene in 72 AD on a different site, as the base camp of Legio XII Fulminata. The legionary base of Melitene controlled access to southern Armenia and the upper Tigris and it was the end point of the important highway running east from Caesarea. The camp attracted a population and was probably granted city status by Trajan in the early 2nd century AD. It is known for being a source of imperial coins minted from the 3rd to the early 5th centuries
39.
Samosata
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Even though the city had a predominantly Syriac-speaking population, Hellenistic culture played an important role there. The city is sometimes confused with Arsamosata, the founder of the city was Sames, a king of Armenia. Located in southeast Turkey on the upper Euphrates River, it was fortified so as to protect a major crossing point of the river on the east-west trade route. It also served as a station on another running from Damascus, Palmyra, and Sura up to Armenia. For a time, the city was called Antiochia in Commagene, as Antiochia in Commagene, it served as the capital for the Hellenistic kingdom of Commagene from c.160 BC until it was surrendered to Rome in 72. A civil metropolis from the days of Emperor Hadrian, Samosata was the home of the Legio VI Ferrata and later Legio XVI Flavia Firma, and the terminus of several military roads. It was at Samosata that Julian II had ships made in his expedition against Sapor, in February 1098, the emir Baldoukh of the Turkish Artukid or Ortoqid dynasty, attacked by Baudouin of Antioch, cut his army to pieces there. In 1114 it was one of the quarters of the Muslims hostile to the Count of Edessa, to whom it succumbed. Samosata was the birthplace of renowned people from antiquities such as Lucian. Saint Daniel the Stylite was born in a village near Samosata, Saint Rabbulas, venerated on 19 February, as in 586 the titular of Amida bears only this title, it must be concluded that the union took place between the 7th and the 9th centuries. Chabot gives a list of twenty-eight Syrian Miaphysite bishops, the Syrian bishopric probably lapsed in the 12th century. Samosata is included in the Catholic Churchs list of titular sees, ancient Samosata continues to the present day as the Turkish town of Samsat. The old town of Samsat was submerged in 1989 under the Ataturk Dam, a new town bearing the same name was built for the population dislocated by the sinking of the old town. Modern Samsat is a town of approximately 2000 inhabitants and it is the capital of the district of the same name in the Turkish province of Adıyaman. Samosata in the Catholic Encyclopedia Historical information about Samosata Martyrs of Samosata 1911 encyclopedia entry on Samosata
40.
Rus'-Byzantine War (860)
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The Siege of Constantinople of 860 was the only major military expedition of the Rus Khaganate recorded in Byzantine and Western European sources. The cause of the siege was the construction of the fortress Sarkel by Byzantine engineers, accounts vary regarding the events, with discrepancies between contemporary and later sources. It is known from Byzantine sources that the Rus caught Constantinople unprepared, while the empire was preoccupied by the ongoing Byzantine-Arab Wars and unable to deal with the Rus threat. After pillaging the suburbs of the Byzantine capital, the Rus retreated, although the nature of this withdrawal, the event gave rise to a later Orthodox Christian tradition, which ascribed the deliverance of Constantinople to a miraculous intervention by the Theotokos. The first mention of the Rus near the Byzantine Empire comes from Life of St. George of Amastris, the Byzantines had come into contact with the Rus in 839. The exceptional timing of the attack suggests the Rus had been informed of the weakness, demonstrating that the lines of trade. Nevertheless, the threat from the Rus in 860 came as a surprise, it was as sudden and unexpected as a swarm of wasps, the empire was struggling to repel the Abbasid advance in Asia Minor. In March 860, the garrison of the key fortress Loulon unexpectedly surrendered to the Arabs, on June 18,860, at sunset, a fleet of about 200 Rus vessels sailed into the Bosporus and started pillaging the suburbs of Constantinople. The attackers were setting homes on fire and drowning and stabbing the residents, unable to do anything to repel the invaders, Patriarch Photius urged his flock to implore the Theotokos to save the city. Having devastated the suburbs, the Rus passed into the Sea of Marmora and fell upon the Isles of the Princes, the Rus plundered the dwellings and the monasteries, slaughtering the captives. They took twenty-two of the patriarchs servants aboard ship and cut them into pieces with axes, the attack took the Byzantines by surprise, like a thunderbolt from heaven, as it was put by Patriarch Photius in his famous oration written on the occasion. Emperor Michael III was absent from the city, as was his navy dreaded for its skill in using Greek fire, the Imperial army was fighting the Arabs in Asia Minor. The citys land defences were weakened by the absence of these garrisons, the Byzantine Navy was occupied fighting both Arabs and Normans in the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. These simultaneous deployments left the coasts and islands of the Black Sea, the Bosporus, the invasion continued until August 4, when, in another of his sermons, Photius thanked heaven for miraculously relieving the city from such a dire threat. The patriarch reported that they had no supreme ruler and lived in some distant northern lands, Photius called them έθνος άγνωστον, unknown people, although some historians prefer to translate the phrase as obscure people, pointing out the earlier contacts between Byzantines and the Rus. The sermons of Photius offer no clue as to the outcome of the invasion or the reasons why the Rus withdrew to their own country, later sources attribute their retreat to the Emperors speedy return to the capital. As the story goes, after Michael and Photius put the veil of the Theotokos into the sea, in later centuries, it was said that the Emperor hurried to the church at Blachernae and had the robe of the Theotokos carried in procession along the Theodosian Walls. This precious Byzantine relic was dipped symbolically into the sea and a great wind immediately arose, the pious legend was recorded by George Hamartolus, whose manuscript was an important source for the Primary Chronicle
41.
Kievan Rus'
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Kievan Rus was a loose federation of East Slavic tribes in Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century, under the reign of the Rurik dynasty. The modern peoples of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia all claim Kievan Rus as their cultural ancestors, according to Russian historiography the first ruler to start uniting East Slavic lands into what has become known as Kievan Rus was Prince Oleg. He extended his control from Novgorod south along the Dnieper river valley to protect trade from Khazar incursions from the east, Sviatoslav I achieved the first major expansion of Kievan Rus territorial control, fighting a war of conquest against the Khazars. Vladimir the Great introduced Christianity with his own baptism and, by decree, extended it to all inhabitants of Kiev and beyond. Kievan Rus reached its greatest extent under Yaroslav the Wise, his sons assembled and issued its first written legal code, the state declined beginning in the late 11th century and during the 12th century, disintegrating into various rival regional powers. The state finally fell to the Mongol invasion of the 1240s. During its existence, Kievan Rus was known as the land of the Rus, in Greek as Ῥωσία, in Old French as Russie, Rossie, in Latin as Russia, and from the 12th century also Ruthenia. Various etymologies have been proposed, including Ruotsi, the Finnish designation for Sweden, and Ros, the term Kievan Rus was coined in the 19th century in Russian historiography to refer to the period when the centre was in Kiev. Later, the Russian term was rendered into Belarusian and Ukrainian as Кіеўская Русь Kijeŭskaja Rus’ and Ки́ївська Русь Kyivska Rus’, prior to the emergence of Kievan Rus in the 9th century AD, the lands between the Baltic Sea and Black Sea were primarily populated by eastern Slavic tribes. In the northern region around Novgorod were the Ilmen Slavs and neighboring Krivichi, who occupied territories surrounding the headwaters of the West Dvina, Dnieper, to their north, in the Ladoga and Karelia regions, were the Finnic Chud tribe. In the south, in the area around Kiev, were the Poliane, a group of Slavicized tribes with Iranian origins, the Drevliane to the west of the Dnieper, and the Severiane to the east. To their north and east were the Vyatichi, and to their south was forested land settled by Slav farmers, controversy persists over whether the Rus’ were Varangians or Slavs. This uncertainty is due largely to a paucity of contemporary sources, attempts to address this question instead rely on archaeological evidence, the accounts of foreign observers, legends and literature from centuries later. To some extent the controversy is related to the myths of modern states in the region. According to the Normanist view, the Rus were Scandinavians, while Russian and Ukrainian nationalist historians generally argue that the Rus were themselves Slavs. Normanist theories focus on the earliest written source for the East Slavs, nevertheless, archaeological evidence from the area suggests that a Scandinavian population was present during the 10th century at the latest. On balance, it likely that the Rus proper were a small minority of Scandinavians who formed an elite ruling class. Liutprand of Cremona, who was twice an envoy to the Byzantine court, identifies the Russi with the Norse, leo the Deacon, a 10th-century Byzantine historian and chronicler, refers to the Rus as Scythians and notes that they tended to adopt Greek rituals and customs
42.
Battle of Lalakaon
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The Battle of Lalakaon or the Battle of Poson was fought in 863 between the Byzantine Empire and an invading Arab army in Paphlagonia. Umar al-Aqta was able to overcome the initial Byzantine resistance against his invasion, the Byzantines then mobilized all their forces, and the Arab army was encircled near the River Lalakaon. The subsequent battle ended in a complete Byzantine victory and the death of the Emir on the field, the Bulgarians were pressured into accepting the Byzantine form of Christianity, thus beginning this nations absorption into the Byzantine cultural sphere. Following the rapid Muslim conquests of the 7th century, the Byzantine Empire found itself confined to Asia Minor, the coasts of the Balkans. As Byzantium remained the Caliphates major infidel enemy, Arab raids into Asia Minor continued throughout the 8th and 9th centuries. Over time, these expeditions, launched from bases in the Arab frontier zone on an almost annual basis, acquired a quasi-ritualized character as part of the Muslim jihad. During that period, the Byzantines were generally on the defensive, and suffered some catastrophic defeats such as the razing of Amorium, the home city of the reigning Byzantine dynasty, in 838. Melitene, in particular, was a threat to Byzantium as its location on the western side of the Anti-Taurus range allowed direct access to the Anatolian plateau. In the summer of 863, Umar struck again, joining forces with the Abbasid general Jafar ibn Dinar al-Khayyat for a raid into Cappadocia. The Arabs crossed the Cilician Gates into Byzantine territory, plundering as they went, there, the Tarsian army returned home, but Umar obtained Jafars leave to press on into Asia Minor. The Byzantinist John Haldon considers the number to be closer to reality. It is likely that a Paulician contingent under Karbeas was present as well, the battle was bloody with many casualties on both sides, according to the Persian historian al-Tabari, only a thousand of Umars army survived. Nevertheless, the Arabs managed to escape the Byzantines and continue their raid north into the Armeniac Theme, eventually reaching the Black Sea and sacking the port city of Amisos. The Byzantine historians report that Umar, enraged at the sea blocking his advance, ordered it to be lashed, but this is most likely inspired by the similar account of Xerxes during the Persian Wars. As soon as Michael learned of the fall of Amisos, he ordered a force to be assembled under his uncle Petronas, the Domestic of the Schools, and Nasar. Al-Tabari records that the Emperor himself assumed command of these forces, given the bias against Michael by the historians writing during the Macedonian dynasty, this may be a deliberate omission. The forces assembled came from all over the Byzantine Empire, the exact location of the river and the battle site have not been identified, but most scholars agree that they lay near the river Halys, some 130 kilometres southeast of Amisos. With the approach of the Byzantine armies, the only escape route left to the Emir
43.
Christianisation of Bulgaria
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Because of Bulgarias strategic position, the churches of both Rome and Constantinople each wanted Bulgaria in their sphere of influence. They regarded Christianization as a means of integrating Slavs into their region, after some overtures to each side, the knyaz adopted Christianity from Constantinople in 870. As a result, he achieved his goal of gaining an independent Bulgarian national church, when Tsar Boris began his reign in 852, the international situation was very complicated. The conflict with the Byzantine Empire for domination over the Slavic tribes in modern-day Macedonia, in the middle Danube region, Bulgarias interests crossed with those of the emerging kingdom of the East Franks and the principality of Great Moravia. It was about that period when Croatia emerged on the scene, carrying its own ambitions. On a larger scale, the tensions between Constantinople and Rome were tightening, both centres were competing to lead the Christianization that would integrate the Slavs in South and Central Europe. The Bulgarian Empire and the Kingdom of the East Franks had established diplomatic relations as soon as the 20s and 30s of the 9th century. In 852, at the beginning of the reign of Knyaz Boris, a Bulgarian embassy was sent to Mainz to tell Louis II of the change in Pliska, most probably the embassy also worked to renew the Bulgarian-German alliance. Some time later, Tsar Boris concluded an alliance with Rastislav of Moravia instigated by the King of the West Franks, the German Kingdom responded by attacking and defeating Bulgaria, forcing Knyaz Boris to re-establish an alliance with the German king directed against Great Moravia, a Byzantine ally. The situation held great risk for the Bulgarian state, war finally broke out between 855-856. The Empire wanted to control over some fortresses on the Diagonal Road that went from Constantinople, through Philippopolis, to Naissus. The Byzantine Empire was victorious and reconquered a number of cities and this renewed alliance threatened Great Moravia, which sought help from Byzantium. This was at the time when a Byzantine mission to Great Moravia was taking place. Cyril and his brother Methodius intended to draw Great Moravia closer to Constantinople circle, Tsar Boris was more interested in that Cyril and Methodius brought him the first Slavonic alphabet they created for Knyaz Rostislav. Bulgaria wanted to implement a Slavonic alphabet as well as a means to stop the influence of the Byzantine Empire. A Rome-dependent Bulgaria in the hinterland of Constantinople was a threat to the Byzantine Empires immediate interests, Byzantium did not demand territories but the conversion to Eastern Christianity of Bulgarian representatives and leaders, followed by conversion by the rest of the Bulgarian people. Such a demand would be unacceptable in other circumstances, the two sides concluded a deep peace for a 30-year period. In the late autumn of 863, a mission from the Patriarch of Constantinople Photios came to Pliska and converted the tsar, his family and they were all baptized as Christians
44.
Amorian dynasty
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This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Emperors listed below up to Theodosius I in 395 were sole or joint rulers of the entire Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire was the direct legal continuation of the eastern half of the Roman Empire following the division of the Roman Empire in 395. All Byzantine emperors considered themselves to be the rightful Roman emperor in direct succession from Augustus, the title of all Emperors preceding Heraclius was officially Augustus, although other titles such as Dominus were also used. Their names were preceded by Imperator Caesar and followed by Augustus, following Heraclius, the title commonly became the Greek Basileus, which had formerly meant sovereign but was then used in place of Augustus. Following the establishment of the rival Holy Roman Empire in Western Europe, in later centuries, the Emperor could be referred to by Western Christians as the Emperor of the Greeks. Towards the end of the Empire, the standard formula of the Byzantine ruler was in Christ, Emperor. For Roman emperors before Constantine I, see List of Roman emperors, family tree of the Byzantine emperors List of Roman emperors List of Roman usurpers List of Byzantine usurpers List of Roman and Byzantine empresses
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Michael (emperors)". Encyclopædia Britannica. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 359–360.
