1.
Medieval Greek
–
From the 7th century onwards, Greek was the only language of administration and government in the Byzantine Empire. This stage of language is described as Byzantine Greek. The study of the Medieval Greek language and literature is a branch of Byzantine Studies, or Byzantinology, however, this approach is rather arbitrary as it is more an assumption of political as opposed to cultural and linguistic developments. Indeed, by time the spoken language, particularly pronunciation, had already shifted towards modern forms. Medieval Greek is the link between this vernacular, known as Koine Greek, and the Modern Greek language. With the transfer of the Roman imperial court to Byzantium between 324 and 330, the centre of the Roman Empire was moved into an area where Greek was the dominant language. At first, Latin remained the language of both the court and the army and it was used for documents, but its influence soon waned. From the beginning of the 6th century, amendments to the law were written in Greek. Furthermore, parts of the Roman Corpus Iuris Civilis were gradually translated into Greek, under the rule of Emperor Heraclius, who also assumed the Greek title Basileus in 629, Greek became the official language of the Eastern Roman Empire. This was in spite of the fact that the inhabitants of the empire still considered themselves Romaioi until its end in 1453, the number of those who were able to communicate in Greek may have been far higher. In any case, all cities of the Eastern Roman Empire were strongly influenced by the Greek language, alexandria, a center of Greek culture and language, fell to the Arabs in 642. During the seventh and eighth centuries, Greek was replaced by Arabic as a language in conquered territories such as Egypt. Thus, the use of Greek declined early on in Syria, Egypt, from the late 11th century onwards, the interior of Anatolia was invaded by Seljuq Turks, who advanced westwards. Language varieties after 1453 are referred to as Modern Greek, as early as in the Hellenistic period, there was a tendency towards a state of diglossia between the Attic literary language and the constantly developing vernacular Koiné. By late antiquity, the gap had become impossible to ignore, written literature reflecting this demotic Greek begins to appear around 1100. Among the preserved literature in the Attic literary language, various forms of historiography take a prominent place and they comprise chronicles as well as classicist, contemporary works of historiography, theological documents, and saints lives. Poetry can be found in the form of hymns and ecclesiastical poetry, many of the Byzantine emperors were active writers themselves and wrote chronicles or works on the running of the Byzantine state and strategic or philological works. Furthermore, letters, legal texts, and numerous registers and lists in Medieval Greek exist and these are influenced by the vernacular language of their time in choice of words and idiom, but largely follow the models of written Koine in their morphology and syntax
Medieval Greek
–
Manuscript of the
Anthology of Planudes (c.1300)
Medieval Greek
–
Evolution of Greek dialects from the late Byzantine Empire through to the early 20th century.
Demotic in yellow.
Pontic in orange.
Cappadocian in green. (Green dots indicate Cappadocian Greek speaking villages in 1910.)
2.
Latin language
–
Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
Latin language
–
Latin inscription, in the
Colosseum
Latin language
–
Julius Caesar 's
Commentarii de Bello Gallico is one of the most famous classical Latin texts of the Golden Age of Latin. The unvarnished, journalistic style of this
patrician general has long been taught as a model of the urbane Latin officially spoken and written in the floruit of the
Roman republic.
Latin language
–
A multi-volume Latin dictionary in the
University Library of Graz
Latin language
–
Latin and Ancient Greek Language - Culture - Linguistics at
Duke University in 2014.
3.
Byzantine Empire
–
It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
Byzantine Empire
–
Tremissis with the image of
Justinian the Great (r. 527–565) (see
Byzantine insignia)
Byzantine Empire
–
Byzantine
lamellar armour klivanium (Κλιβάνιον) - a predecessor of Ottoman krug
mirror armour
Byzantine Empire
–
The Baptism of Constantine painted by
Raphael 's pupils (1520–1524,
fresco, Vatican City,
Apostolic Palace);
Eusebius of Caesarea records that (as
was common among converts of early Christianity) Constantine delayed receiving
baptism until shortly before his death
Byzantine Empire
–
Restored section of the Theodosian Walls.
4.
Encyclopedia
–
An encyclopedia or encyclopaedia is a type of reference work or compendium holding a comprehensive summary of information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge. Encyclopedias are divided into articles or entries, which are usually accessed alphabetically by article name, Encyclopedia entries are longer and more detailed than those in most dictionaries. Encyclopedias have existed for around 2,000 years, the oldest still in existence, AD77 by Pliny the Elder and was not fully revised at the time of his death in AD79. The modern encyclopedia evolved out of dictionaries around the 17th century, some modern encyclopedias, such as Wikipedia, are often electronic and freely available. Together, the phrase literally translates as complete instruction or complete knowledge, one of the oldest vernacular uses was by François Rabelais in his Pantagruel in 1532. Several encyclopedias have names that include the suffix -pedia, e. g. Banglapedia, in British usage, the spellings encyclopedia and encyclopaedia are both current. In American usage, only the former is commonly used, the spelling encyclopædia—with the æ ligature—was frequently used in the 19th century and is increasingly rare, although it is retained in product titles such as Encyclopædia Britannica and others. The Oxford English Dictionary records encyclopædia and encyclopaedia as equal alternatives, websters Third New International Dictionary features encyclopedia as the main headword and encyclopaedia as a minor variant. In addition, cyclopedia and cyclopaedia are now rarely used shortened forms of the word originating in the 17th century, the modern encyclopedia was developed from the dictionary in the 18th century. Historically, both encyclopedias and dictionaries have been researched and written by well-educated, well-informed content experts, a dictionary is a linguistic work which primarily focuses on alphabetical listing of words and their definitions. Synonymous words and those related by the matter are to be found scattered around the dictionary. Thus, a dictionary typically provides limited information, analysis or background for the word defined. While it may offer a definition, it may leave the reader lacking in understanding the meaning, significance or limitations of a term, and how the term relates to a broader field of knowledge. An encyclopedia is, allegedly, not written in order to convince, an encyclopedia article also often includes many maps and illustrations, as well as bibliography and statistics. General encyclopedias often contain guides on how to do a variety of things, as well as embedded dictionaries and gazetteers. There are also encyclopedias that cover a variety of topics but from a particular cultural, ethnic, or national perspective. Works of encyclopedic scope aim to convey the important accumulated knowledge for their domain, such as an encyclopedia of medicine, philosophy. Works vary in the breadth of material and the depth of discussion, some systematic method of organization is essential to making an encyclopedia usable as a work of reference
Encyclopedia
–
Brockhaus Enzyklopädie
Encyclopedia
–
Title page of " Lucubrationes..." 1541 edition, the first book to use the word encyclopedia in the title
Encyclopedia
–
Title page of
Skalich's Encyclopaedia, seu orbis disciplinarum, tam sacrarum quam prophanarum, epistemon from 1559, first to use the word encyclopaedia as a noun in the title
Encyclopedia
–
Naturalis Historiæ, 1669 edition, title page
5.
History of the Mediterranean region
–
The Mediterranean Sea was the central superhighway of transport, trade and cultural exchange between diverse peoples encompassing three continents, Western Asia, North Africa, and Southern Europe. There is evidence of tools on Crete,130,000 years BCE. The cultural stage of civilization first arises in Southwest Asia, as an extension of the Neolithic trend, from as early as the 8th millennium BCE, urban civilizations proper begin to emerge in the Chalcolithic, in 5th to 4th millennium Egypt and in Mesopotamia. The Bronze Age arises in this region during the centuries of the 4th millennium. The urban civilizations of the Fertile Crescent now have writing systems and develop bureaucracy, in the 2nd millennium, the eastern coastlines of the Mediterranean are dominated by the Hittite and Egyptian empires, competing for control over the city states in the Levant. Some have gone so far as to call the catalyst that ended the Bronze Age a catastrophe, in the first phase of this period, almost every city between Troy and Gaza was violently destroyed, and often left unoccupied thereafter. The gradual end of the Dark Age that ensued saw the rise of settled Neo-Hittite Aramaean kingdoms of the mid-10th century BCE, fernand Braudel remarked in The Perspective of the World that Phoenicia was an early example of a world-economy surrounded by empires. The high point of Phoenician culture and sea power is usually placed ca, many of the most important Phoenician settlements had been established long before this, Byblos, Tyre, Sidon, Simyra, Arwad, and Berytus, all appear in the Amarna tablets. Two of the most notable Mediterranean civilizations in antiquity were the Greek city states. The Greeks expanded throughout the Black Sea and south through the Red Sea, the Phoenicians spread through the western Mediterranean reaching North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. From the 6th century BCE up to including the 5th century BCE, many of the significant Mediterranean peoples were under Persian rule, both the Phoenicians and some of the Greek city states in Asia Minor provided the naval forces of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Persian dominance ended after the Greco-Persian War in the 5th century BCE, Darius the Great is to be credited as the first Achaemenid king to invest in a Persian fleet. Even by then no true imperial navy had existed either in Greece or Egypt, Persia would become the first empire, under Darius, to inaugurate and deploy the first regular imperial navy. Both the Phoenicians and the Greeks provided the bulk of the forces of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, alongside the Cypriots. In the northernmost part of ancient Greece, in the ancient kingdom of Macedonia, the hetairoi was considered the strongest of their time. Under Alexander the Great, this force turned east, and in a series of battles, it routed the Persian forces. Their Macedonia empire included present-day Greece, Bulgaria, Egypt, the Phoenician lands and many other regions of the Mediterranean. The major centres of the Mediterranean at the time part of Alexanders empire as a result
History of the Mediterranean region
–
Bacino del Mediterraneo, dall’Atlante manoscritto del 1582–1584 ca.
Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Vittorio Emanuele II,
Rome (cart. naut. 2 – cart. naut 6/1-2).
History of the Mediterranean region
–
Greatest extent of Italian control of the Mediterranean littoral and seas (within green line & dots) in summer/fall 1942. Allied-controlled areas in red.
6.
Eustathius of Thessalonica
–
Eustathius of Thessalonica was a Greek scholar and Archbishop of Thessalonica. He was officially canonized on June 10,1988, and his feast day is on September 20, a pupil of Nicholas Kataphloron, Eustathius was appointed to the offices of superintendent of petitions, professor of rhetoric, and was ordained a deacon in Constantinople. He was ordained bishop of Myra, around the year 1178, he was appointed to the archbishopric of Thessalonica, where he remained until his death around 1195/1196. Accounts of his life and work are given in the orations by Euthymius. Niketas Choniates praised him as the most learned man of his age and he wrote commentaries on ancient Greek poets, theological treatises, addresses, letters, and an important account of the sack of Thessalonica by William II of Sicily in 1185. Of his works, his commentaries on Homer are the most widely referred to, other works exhibit impressive character, and oratorical power, which earned him the esteem of the Komnenoi emperors. Politically, Eustathios was a supporter of emperor Manuel I, an original thinker, Eustathios sometimes praised such secular values as military prowess. He decried slavery, and believed in the concept of progress of civilization from a primitive to a more advanced state. His most important works are the following, On the Capture of Thessalonica, the Greek text was edited by Kyriakidis, with an Italian translation by V. Rotolo, there is an English translation by J. Melville-Jones, and a German translation by H. Hunger. A number of orations, some of which have been edited by P. Wirth, in 2013 a translation of six of the earliest of these speeches was published with a commentary by Andrew F. Stone. Commentaries on Homers Iliad and Odyssey and these address questions of grammar, etymology, mythology, history and geography. They are not so much original commentaries as extracts from earlier commentators - there are many correspondences with Homeric scholia and this is a great tribute to the state of the libraries of Constantinople and of classical scholarship there in the 12th century. He was also a reader of the Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus. Some of the etymological and grammatical comments by Eustathioss Alexandrian predecessors are full of errors, the first printed edition, by Majoranus, was published in Rome in 1542-1550, an inaccurate reprint being later published in Basel in 1559-1560. A. Potitus edition, contains only the commentary on the first five books of the Iliad with a Latin translation and these were superseded by the edition of M. van der Valk,1971 onwards. Extracts from the commentaries are quoted in editions of the Homeric poems. This is as diffuse as the commentary on Homer, but includes numerous valuable extracts from earlier writers, no manuscript of this has come to light, but the introduction survives. (The introduction was first published by Tafel in his Eustathii Thessalonicensis Opuscula, from which it was reprinted separately by Schneidewin, some were first published by Tafel in the 1832 Opuscula just mentioned, some appeared later, as by P. Wirth for the Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae series
Eustathius of Thessalonica
–
Icon of Eustathios of Thessalonike (
Vatopedi Monastery, 1312).
7.
Philology
–
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources, it is a combination of literary criticism, history, and linguistics. It is more defined as the study of literary texts and written records, the establishment of their authenticity and their original form. A person who pursues this kind of study is known as a philologist, in older usage, especially British, philology is more general, covering comparative and historical linguistics. Indo-European studies involves the comparative philology of all Indo-European languages, Philology, with its focus on historical development, is contrasted with linguistics due to Ferdinand de Saussures insistence on the importance of synchronic analysis. The contrast continued with the emergence of structuralism and Chomskyan linguistics alongside its emphasis on syntax, the term changed little with the Latin philologia, and later entered the English language in the 16th century, from the Middle French philologie, in the sense of love of literature. The adjective φιλόλογος meant fond of discussion or argument, talkative, in Hellenistic Greek also implying an excessive preference of argument over the love of true wisdom, as an allegory of literary erudition, Philologia appears in 5th-century post-classical literature, an idea revived in Late Medieval literature. The meaning of love of learning and literature was narrowed to the study of the development of languages in 19th-century usage of the term. Most continental European countries still maintain the term to designate departments, colleges, position titles, J. R. R. Tolkien opposed the nationalist reaction against philological practices, claiming that the philological instinct was universal as is the use of language. Based on the critique of Friedrich Nietzsche, US scholars since the 1980s have viewed philology as responsible for a narrowly scientistic study of language. The comparative linguistics branch of philology studies the relationship between languages, similarities between Sanskrit and European languages were first noted in the early 16th century and led to speculation of a common ancestor language from which all these descended. Philology also includes the study of texts and their history and it includes elements of textual criticism, trying to reconstruct an authors original text based on variant copies of manuscripts. Since that time, the principles of textual criticism have been improved and applied to other widely distributed texts such as the Bible. Scholars have tried to reconstruct the original readings of the Bible from the manuscript variants and this method was applied to Classical Studies and to medieval texts as a way to reconstruct the authors original work. A related study method known as higher criticism studies the authorship, date, as these philological issues are often inseparable from issues of interpretation, there is no clear-cut boundary between philology and hermeneutics. When text has a significant political or religious influence, scholars have difficulty reaching objective conclusions, some scholars avoid all critical methods of textual philology, especially in historical linguistics, where it is important to study the actual recorded materials. Supporters of New Philology insist on a diplomatic approach, a faithful rendering of the text exactly as found in the manuscript. Another branch of philology, cognitive philology, studies written and oral texts and this science compares the results of textual science with the results of experimental research of both psychology and artificial intelligence production systems. In the case of Bronze Age literature, philology includes the prior decipherment of the language under study and this has notably been the case with the Egyptian, Sumerian, Assyrian, Hittite, Ugaritic and Luwian languages
Philology
–
Cover of Indo-European philology historical and comparative by
William Burley Lockwood
8.
Homer
–
Homer is the name ascribed by the ancient Greeks to the semi-legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems which are the central works of Greek literature. The Odyssey focuses on the home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca. Many accounts of Homers life circulated in classical antiquity, the most widespread being that he was a bard from Ionia. The modern scholarly consensus is that these traditions do not have any historical value, the Homeric question - by whom, when, where and under what circumstances were the Iliad and Odyssey composed - continues to be debated. Broadly speaking, modern scholarly opinion on the authorship question falls into two camps, one group holds that most of the Iliad and the Odyssey is the work of a single poet of genius. The other considers the Homeric poems to be the crystallization of a process of working and re-working by many contributors and it is generally accepted that the poems were composed at some point around the late eighth or early seventh century B. C. Most researchers believe that the poems were transmitted orally. The Homeric epics were the greatest influence on ancient Greek culture and education, to Plato, the chronological period of Homer depends on the meaning to be assigned to the word Homer. Was Homer a single person, an imaginary person representing a group of poets and this information is often called the world of Homer. The Homeric period would in that cover a number of historical periods, especially the Mycenaean Age. Considered word-for-word, the texts as we know them are the product of the scholars of the last three centuries. Each edition of the Iliad or Odyssey is a different, as the editors rely on different manuscripts and fragments. The term accuracy reveals a belief in an original uniform text. The manuscripts of the work currently available date to no earlier than the 10th century. These are at the end of a missing thousand-year chain of copies made as each generation of manuscripts disintegrated or were lost or destroyed and these numerous manuscripts are so similar that a single original can be postulated. The time gap in the chain is bridged by the scholia, or notes, on the existing manuscripts, librarian of the Library of Alexandria, he had noticed a wide divergence in the works attributed to Homer, and was trying to restore a more authentic copy. He had collected several manuscripts, which he named, the Sinopic, the one he selected for correction was the koine, which Murray translates as the Vulgate. Aristarchus was known for his selection of material
Homer
–
Idealized portrayal of Homer dating to the
Hellenistic period.
British Museum.
Homer
–
Part of an 11th-century manuscript, "the Townley Homer". The writing on the top and right side are
scholia.
Homer
–
Homer and His Guide, by
William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905), portraying Homer on
Mount Ida, beset by dogs and guided by the goatherder Glaucus (as told in
Pseudo-Herodotus)
Homer
–
Raphael 's inspired Homer on
Mount Parnassus.
9.
Thucydides
–
Thucydides was an Athenian historian and general. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC and his text is still studied at both universities and military colleges worldwide. The Melian dialogue remains a work of international relations theory while Pericles Funeral Oration is widely studied in political theory, history. More generally, Thucydides showed an interest in developing an understanding of nature to explain behaviour in such crises as plague, massacres, as in that of the Melians. In spite of his stature as a historian, modern historians know relatively little about Thucydidess life, the most reliable information comes from his own History of the Peloponnesian War, which expounds his nationality, paternity and native locality. Thucydides informs us that he fought in the war, contracted the plague and was exiled by the democracy and he may have also been involved in quelling the Samian Revolt. Thucydides identifies himself as an Athenian, telling us that his fathers name was Olorus and he survived the Plague of Athens that killed Pericles and many other Athenians. He also records that he owned gold mines at Scapte Hyle, because of his influence in the Thracian region, Thucydides wrote, he was sent as a strategos to Thasos in 424 BC. During the winter of 424–423 BC, the Spartan general Brasidas attacked Amphipolis, eucles, the Athenian commander at Amphipolis, sent to Thucydides for help. Thus, when Thucydides arrived, Amphipolis was already under Spartan control, Amphipolis was of considerable strategic importance, and news of its fall caused great consternation in Athens. It was blamed on Thucydides, although he claimed that it was not his fault, using his status as an exile from Athens to travel freely among the Peloponnesian allies, he was able to view the war from the perspective of both sides. During his exile from Athens, Thucydides wrote his most famous work History of the Peloponnesian War, because he was in exile during this time, he was free to speak his mind. This is all that Thucydides wrote about his own life, but a few facts are available from reliable contemporary sources. Herodotus wrote that the name Olorus, Thucydidess fathers name, was connected with Thrace, Thucydides was probably connected through family to the Athenian statesman and general Miltiades, and his son Cimon, leaders of the old aristocracy supplanted by the Radical Democrats. Cimons maternal grandfathers name was also Olorus, making the connection exceedingly likely, another Thucydides lived before the historian and was also linked with Thrace, making a family connection between them very likely as well. Finally, Herodotus confirms the connection of Thucydidess family with the mines at Scapté Hýlē, in essence, he was a well-connected gentleman of considerable resources who, by then retired from the political and military spheres, decided to fund his own historical project. The remaining evidence for Thucydidess life comes from rather less reliable later ancient sources, pausanias goes on to say that Thucydides was murdered on his way back to Athens. Many doubt this account, seeing evidence to suggest he lived as late as 397 BC, Plutarch claims that his remains were returned to Athens and placed in Cimons family vault
Thucydides
–
Plaster cast bust of Thucydides (in the
Pushkin Museum). From a Roman copy (located at
Holkham Hall) of an early 4th Century BC Greek original.
Thucydides
–
The ruins of Amphipolis as envisaged by E. Cousinéry in 1831: the bridge over the Strymon, the city fortifications, and the acropolis
Thucydides
–
Bust of Pericles
Thucydides
–
The Acropolis in Athens
10.
Sophocles
–
Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were later than those of Aeschylus. He competed in 30 competitions, won 18, and was never judged lower than second place, Aeschylus won 14 competitions, and was sometimes defeated by Sophocles, while Euripides won 5 competitions. Sophocles influenced the development of drama, most importantly by adding a third actor and he also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights such as Aeschylus. Sophocles, the son of Sophilus, was a member of the rural deme of Hippeios Colonus in Attica, which was to become a setting for one of his plays. Sophocles was born a few years before the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, Sophocles was born into a wealthy family and was highly educated. Sophocles first artistic triumph was in 468 BC, when he took first prize in the Dionysia theatre competition over the master of Athenian drama. According to Plutarch, the victory came under unusual circumstances, instead of following the usual custom of choosing judges by lot, the archon asked Cimon and the other strategoi present to decide the victor of the contest. Plutarch further contends that following this loss Aeschylus soon left for Sicily, although Plutarch says that this was Sophocles first production, it is now thought that his first production was probably in 470 BC. Triptolemus was probably one of the plays that Sophocles presented at this festival, in 480 BC Sophocles was chosen to lead the paean, celebrating the Greek victory over the Persians at the Battle of Salamis. Early in his career, the politician Cimon might have one of his patrons, although if he was, there was no ill will borne by Pericles, Cimons rival. In 443/2 he served as one of the Hellenotamiai, or treasurers of Athena, in 420 BC, he welcomed and set up an altar for the image of Asclepius at his house, when the deity was introduced to Athens. For this, he was given the posthumous epithet Dexion by the Athenians and he was also elected, in 413 BC, one of the commissioners who responded to the catastrophic destruction of the Athenian expeditionary force in Sicily during the Peloponnesian War. Sophocles died at the age of ninety or ninety-one in the winter of 406/5 BC, as with many famous men in classical antiquity, his death inspired a number of apocryphal stories. The most famous is the suggestion that he died from the strain of trying to recite a long sentence from his Antigone without pausing to take a breath, another account suggests he choked while eating grapes at the Anthesteria festival in Athens. A third holds that he died of happiness after winning his final victory at the City Dionysia, one of his sons, Iophon, and a grandson, also called Sophocles, also became playwrights. Several ancient sources mention Sophocles homosexuality or bisexuality, Athenaios reported that Sophocles loved boys like Euripides loved women. The poet Ion of Chios relates an anecdote involving Sophocles seducing a serving boy at a symposium, Aeschylus, who dominated Athenian playwriting during Sophocles early career, followed suit and adopted the third character into his own work towards the end of his life
Sophocles
–
Sophocles
Sophocles
–
A marble relief of a poet, perhaps Sophocles
Sophocles
–
Portrait of the
Greek actor Euiaon in Sophocles' Andromeda, c. 430 BC.
Sophocles
–
Naples Museum, Naples, Italy. Statue of Sophocles
11.
Polybius
–
Polybius was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period noted for his work, The Histories, which covered the period of 264–146 BC in detail. The work describes the rise of the Roman Republic to the status of dominance in the ancient Mediterranean world, Polybius was born around 200 BC in Megalopolis, Arcadia, when it was an active member of the Achaean League. His father, Lycortas, was a prominent, land-owning politician, consequently, Polybius was able to observe first hand the political and military affairs of Megalopolis. He developed an interest in riding and hunting, diversions that later commended him to his Roman captors. In 182 BC, he was quite an honor when he was chosen to carry the funeral urn of Philopoemen. In either 169 BC or 170 BC, Polybius was elected hipparchus and his early political career was devoted largely towards maintaining the independence of Megalopolis. Polybius’ father, Lycortas, was a prominent advocate of neutrality during the Roman war against Perseus of Macedon. Lycortas attracted the suspicion of the Romans, and Polybius subsequently was one of the 1,000 Achaean nobles who were transported to Rome as hostages in 167 BC, Polybius remained on cordial terms with his former pupil Scipio Aemilianus and was among the members of the Scipionic Circle. Polybius remained a counselor to Scipio when he defeated the Carthaginians in the Third Punic War, following the destruction of Carthage, Polybius likely journeyed along the Atlantic coast of Africa, as well as Spain. After the destruction of Corinth in the year, Polybius returned to Greece. Polybius was charged with the task of organizing the new form of government in the Greek cities. He apparently interviewed veterans to clarify details of the events he was recording and was given access to archival material. Little is known of Polybius later life, he most likely accompanied Scipio to Spain and he later wrote about this war in a lost monograph. Polybius probably returned to Greece later in his life, as evidenced by the many existent inscriptions, polybius’ Histories cover the period from 264 BC to 146 BC. Its main focus is the period from 220 BC to 167 BC, describing Romes efforts in subduing its arch-enemy, Carthage, in Book VI, Polybius describes the political, military, and moral institutions that allowed the Romans to succeed. He describes the First and Second Punic Wars, in Book XII, Polybius discusses the worth of Timaeus’ account of the same period of history. He asserts Timaeus point of view is inaccurate, invalid, therefore, Polybiuss Histories is also useful in analyzing the different Hellenistic versions of history and of use as a credible illustration of actual events during the Hellenistic period. In the seventh volume of his Histories, Polybius defines the historians job as the analysis of documentation, the review of relevant geographical information, and political experience
Polybius
–
The Stele of Polybius, possible representation of the man
Polybius
–
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Polybius
–
Montesquieu
12.
Josephus
–
Josephus claimed the Jewish Messianic prophecies that initiated the First Roman-Jewish War made reference to Vespasian becoming Emperor of Rome. In response Vespasian decided to keep Josephus as a slave and interpreter, after Vespasian became Emperor in 69 CE, he granted Josephus his freedom, at which time Josephus assumed the emperors family name of Flavius. Flavius Josephus fully defected to the Roman side and was granted Roman citizenship and he became an advisor and friend of Vespasians son Titus, serving as his translator when Titus led the Siege of Jerusalem. Since the siege proved ineffective at stopping the Jewish revolt, the citys destruction, Josephus recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the first century CE and the First Jewish–Roman War, including the Siege of Masada. His most important works were The Jewish War and Antiquities of the Jews, the Jewish War recounts the Jewish revolt against Roman occupation. Antiquities of the Jews recounts the history of the world from a Jewish perspective for an ostensibly Roman audience and these works provide valuable insight into first century Judaism and the background of Early Christianity. Josephus introduces himself in Greek as Iōsēpos, son of Matthias and he was the second-born son of Matthias. His older full-blooded brother was also called Matthias and their mother was an aristocratic woman who descended from the royal and formerly ruling Hasmonean dynasty. Josephuss paternal grandparents were Josephus and his wife—an unnamed Hebrew noblewoman, distant relatives of each other and he descended through his father from the priestly order of the Jehoiarib, which was the first of the 24 orders of priests in the Temple in Jerusalem. Josephus was a descendant of the high priest Jonathon, born and raised in Jerusalem, Josephus was educated alongside his brother. In his early twenties, he traveled to negotiate with Emperor Nero for the release of 12 Jewish priests, Josephus successfully fought the Roman army in Galilee, until he was captured by the Romans during the height of the war. After the Jewish garrison of Yodfat fell under siege, the Romans invaded, killing thousands, according to Josephus, he was trapped in a cave with 40 of his companions in July 67 CE. The Romans asked the group to surrender, but they refused, Josephus suggested a method of collective suicide, they drew lots and killed each other, one by one, counting to every third person. Two men were left, who surrendered to the Roman forces, in 69 CE, Josephus was released. According to his account, he acted as a negotiator with the defenders during the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE, in which his parents and first wife died. While being confined at Yodfat, Josephus claimed to have experienced a divine revelation, after the prediction came true, he was released by Vespasian, who considered his gift of prophecy to be divine. In 71 CE, he went to Rome in the entourage of Titus, becoming a Roman citizen, in addition to Roman citizenship, he was granted accommodation in conquered Judaea and a decent, if not extravagant, pension. While in Rome and under Flavian patronage, Josephus wrote all of his known works, although he uses Josephus, he appears to have taken the Roman praenomen Titus and nomen Flavius from his patrons
Josephus
–
Photography of a Roman
portrait bust said to be of Josephus,
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Josephus
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Galilee, site of Josephus's governorship, before the First Jewish-Roman War
Josephus
–
The
romanticized engraving of Flavius Josephus appearing in
William Whiston 's translation of his works
Josephus
–
The works of Josephus translated by
Thomas Lodge (1602).
13.
George Hamartolus
–
George Hamartolos or Hamartolus was a monk at Constantinople under Michael III and the author of a chronicle of some importance. It is a common form among Byzantine monks, krumbacher protests against the use of this epithet as a name and proposes the form Georgios Monachos. Nothing is known about him except from the evidence of his work. The chronicle consists of four books, the chronicle is the only original contemporary authority for the years 813–842, and therefore so far indispensable. As usually in the case of medieval chronicles, the only part to be taken seriously is the account of more or less contemporary events. The rest is interesting as an example of Byzantine ideas on the subjects, George describes his ideal and principles in the preface. But of so great a mass of material he has chosen only what is most useful, in effect, the questions that seemed most useful and necessary to ecclesiastical persons at Constantinople in the ninth century are those that are discussed. There are copious pious reflections and theological excursuses and he writes of how idols were invented, the origin of monks, the religion of the Saracens, and especially of the Iconoclast controversy that had just ended. Like all monks he hates iconoclasts, the violence with which he speaks of them shows how recent the storm had been and how the memory of iconoclast persecutions was still fresh when he wrote. He writes out long extracts from Greek Fathers, the first book treats of an astonishingly miscellaneous collection of persons — Adam, Nimrod, the Persians, Chaldees, Brahmins, Amazons, etc. In the second book, too, although it professes to deal with Bible history only, he has much to say about Plato, Hamartolus ended his chronicle with the year 842, as a colophon in most manuscripts attests. In these additions, religious questions are relegated to the background, more attention is devoted to history. Still further continuations of little value go down to 1143 and it was soon translated into Church Slavonic and also in Georgian by Arsen of Iqalto. In these versions it became a sort of fountain-head for all early Slavonic historians, in Maxima bibliotheca Paris,1685, reprinted, Venice,1729. The last part of Book IV of the chronicle and the continuation, georgii monachi, dicti Hamartoli, Chronicon ab orbe condito ad annum p. chr.842 et a diversis scriptoribus usq. ad ann.1143 continuatum. The first edition of the whole work and it does not represent the original text, but one of the many modified versions, and is in many ways deficient and misleading. Reprint of the edition, with a Latin translation. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles
George Hamartolus
–
"George the Monk at work", an early 14th-century miniature from
Tver
14.
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus
–
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
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus
–
Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus
–
Constantine and Simeon dining
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus
–
Christ Crowning Constantine VII (945)
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus
–
The
Madrid Skylitzes ' depiction of Constantine on his deathbed
15.
Krumbacher
–
Karl Krumbacher was a German scholar who was an expert on Byzantine Greek language, literature, history and culture. He was one of the founders of Byzantine Studies as an independent academic discipline in modern universities. Krumbacher was born at Kürnach im Allgäu in the Kingdom of Bavaria and he studied Classical Philology and Indo-European linguistics at the Universities of Munich and Leipzig. In 1879 he passed the State Exam and was active as a school teacher until 1891. In 1883 he gain his doctorate and in 1885 his Habilitation in Medieval, Krumbacher founded the Byzantinische Zeitschrift, the oldest academic journal of Byzantine Studies, and the Byzantinisches Archiv. His collaborator at the time was Božidar Prokić, the renowned Belgrade Byzantinist and he died in Munich in 1909. His successor as Professor of Byzantine Studies was August Heisenberg, father of physicist Werner Heisenberg and his most important work is Geschichte der byzantinischen Literatur von Justinian bis zum Ende des oströmischen Reiches in 1891. A second edition was published in 1897, with the collaboration of Albert Ehrhard, the value of the work was greatly enhanced by its lengthy bibliographies and it remained a standard textbook for decades. Krumbachers extensive travels in Greece and the Ottoman Empire became the basis of his Griechische Reise and his notable works include studies of the poetry of Michael Glykas and Kassia and Populäre Aufsätze. In Das Problem der neugriechischen Schriftsprache he strongly opposed the efforts of the Katharevousa purists to introduce the style into modern Greek language. A full list of his works was published in the edition of Byzantinische Zeitschrift. Alexander Kazhdan K. Dieterich, Zum Gedächtnis an Karl Krumbacher, Neue Jahrbücher für das klassische Altertum, a. Heisenberg, Karl Krumbacher, Allgäuer Geschichtsfreund NF24 1–26. F. Dölger, Karl Krumbacher in Chalikes, festgabe für die Teilnehmer am XI. Festgabe für die Teilnehmer am XI, P. Wirth, Krumbacher, Karl in M. Bernath and K. Nehring Biographisches Lexikon zur Geschichte Südosteuropas. Zum Gründungsjahr des Münchner Seminars für Mittel- und Neugriechische Philologie in H. Lamm,40 Jahre Deutsch-Griechische Gesellschaft, Germano-Helleniko Syllogos, P. Schreiner and E. Vogt, Karl Krumbacher. Works written by or about Karl Krumbacher at Wikisource Literature by and about Karl Krumbacher in the German National Library catalogue Themenportal bei Propylaeum
Krumbacher
–
Karl Krumbacher
16.
Digraph (orthography)
–
Digraphs are often used for phonemes that cannot be represented using a single character, like the English sh in ship and fish. In other cases they may be relics from a period of the language when they had a different pronunciation, or represent a distinction which is made only in certain dialects. They may also be used for purely etymological reasons, like rh in English, digraphs are used in some Romanization schemes, like the zh often used to represent the Russian letter ж. As an alternative to digraphs, orthographies and Romanization schemes sometimes use letters with diacritics, like the Czech š, examples are found in Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, Albanian and Gajs Latin Alphabet. In Dutch, when the digraph ij is capitalized, both letters are capitalized, digraphs may develop into ligatures, but these are distinct concepts – a ligature involves a graphical combination of two characters, as when a and e are fused into æ. Digraphs may consist of two different characters or two instances of the same character, in the latter case, they are generally called double letters. Doubled vowel letters are used to indicate a long vowel sound. This is the case in Finnish and Estonian, for instance, where represents a longer version of the vowel denoted by ⟨u⟩, ⟨ää⟩ represents a longer version of the vowel denoted by ⟨ä⟩. Doubled consonant letters can also be used to indicate a long or geminated consonant sound, in Italian, for example, consonants written double are pronounced longer than single ones. In modern English, for example, the ⟨pp⟩ of tapping differentiates the first vowel sound from that of taping, in Spanish and Catalan, ⟨rr⟩ is used between vowels for the alveolar trill /r/, since an ⟨r⟩ alone between vowels represents an alveolar flap /ɾ/. In Spanish the digraph ⟨nn⟩ formerly indicated /ɲ/, it developed into the letter ñ, in Basque, double consonant letters generally mark palatalized versions of the single consonant letter, as in ⟨dd⟩, ⟨ll⟩, ⟨tt⟩. However, ⟨rr⟩ is a trill, contrasting with the flap, as in Spanish. In several European writing systems, including the English one, the doubling of the letter ⟨c⟩ or ⟨k⟩ is represented as the heterogeneous digraph ⟨ck⟩ instead of ⟨cc⟩ or ⟨kk⟩ respectively. In native German words, the doubling of ⟨z⟩, which corresponds to /ts/, is replaced by the digraph ⟨tz⟩, some languages have a unified orthography with digraphs that represent distinct pronunciations in different dialects. For example, in Breton there is a digraph ⟨zh⟩ that is pronounced in most dialects, similarly, the Saintongeais dialect of French has a digraph ⟨jh⟩ that is pronounced in words that correspond to in standard French. Similarly, Catalan has a digraph ⟨ix⟩ that is pronounced in Eastern Catalan, the pair of letters making up a phoneme are not always adjacent. This is the case with English silent e, for example, the sequence a. e has the sound /eɪ/ in English cake. Later still, the vowel /aː/ became /eɪ/, however, alphabets may also be designed with discontinuous digraphs
Digraph (orthography)
–
In Welsh, the
digraph ⟨Ll⟩, ⟨ll⟩ fused for a time into a
ligature.
17.
Diphthong
–
A diphthong, also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets, that is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel, in many dialects of English, the phrase no highway cowboys /ˌnoʊ ˈhaɪweɪ ˈkaʊbɔɪz/ has five distinct diphthongs, one in every syllable. Diphthongs contrast with monophthongs, where the tongue or other organs do not move. For instance, in English, the word ah is spoken as a monophthong, where two adjacent vowel sounds occur in different syllables—for example, in the English word re-elect—the result is described as hiatus, not as a diphthong. Diphthongs often form when separate vowels are run together in rapid speech during a conversation, however, there are also unitary diphthongs, as in the English examples above, which are heard by listeners as single-vowel sounds. Diphthongs use two vowel sounds in one syllable to make a speech sound, in the International Phonetic Alphabet, monophthongs are transcribed with one symbol, as in English sun, in which ⟨ʌ⟩ represents a monophthong. Diphthongs are transcribed with two symbols, as in English high or cow, in which ⟨aɪ⟩ and ⟨aʊ⟩ represent diphthongs, diphthongs may be transcribed with two vowel symbols or with a vowel symbol and a semivowel symbol. Transcribing the diphthongs as ⟨aɪ̯ aʊ̯⟩ is a precise or narrower transcription. The non-syllabic diacritic, the inverted breve below ⟨◌̯⟩, is placed under the prominent part of a diphthong to show that it is part of a diphthong rather than a vowel in a separate syllable. When there is no contrastive vowel sequence in the language, the diacritic may be omitted, other common indications that the two letters are not separate vowels are a superscript, ⟨aᶦ aᶷ⟩, or a tie bar, ⟨a͡ɪ a͡ʊ⟩ or ⟨a͜ɪ a͜ʊ⟩. The tie bar can be useful when its not clear which letter represents the syllable nucleus, superscripts are especially used when an on- or off-glide is particularly fleeting. The period ⟨. ⟩ is the opposite of the non-syllabic diacritic, if two vowels next to each other belong to two different syllables, meaning that they do not form a diphthong, they can be transcribed with two vowel symbols with a period in between. Thus, lower can be transcribed ⟨ˈloʊ. ər⟩, with a period separating the first syllable, /loʊ/, from the second syllable, the non-syllabic diacritic is only used when necessary. It is typically omitted when there is no ambiguity, as in ⟨haɪ kaʊ⟩, no words in English have the vowel sequences *, so the non-syllabic diacritic is unnecessary. The less prominent component in the diphthong may also be transcribed as an approximant, thus in eye, however, when the diphthong is analysed as a single phoneme, both elements are often transcribed with vowel letters. There are many languages that contrast one or more rising diphthongs with similar sequences of a glide, in closing diphthongs, the second element is more close than the first, in opening diphthongs, the second element is more open. Closing diphthongs tend to be falling, and opening diphthongs are rising, as open vowels are more sonorous. However, exceptions to this rule are not rare in the worlds languages, in Finnish, for instance, the opening diphthongs /ie̯/ and /uo̯/ are true falling diphthongs, since they begin louder and with higher pitch and fall in prominence during the diphthong
Diphthong
–
German diphthongs ending in [ɐ̯] (part 1), from Kohler (1999:88)
18.
Modern Greek phonology
–
This article deals with the phonology and phonetics of Standard Modern Greek. For phonological characteristics of other varieties, see varieties of Modern Greek, Greek linguists do not agree on which consonants to count as phonemes in their own right, and which to count as conditional allophones. The table below is adapted from Arvaniti, who does away with the palatal series. The alveolar nasal /n/ is assimilated to following obstruents, it can be labiodental, dental, retracted alveolar, alveolo-palatal, voiceless stops are unaspirated and with a very short voice onset time. They may be voiced in rapid speech, especially when intervocalic. /t/s exact place of articulation ranges from alveolar to denti-alveolar, to dental and it may be fricated in rapid speech, and very rarely, in function words, it is deleted. /p/ and /k/ are reduced to lesser degrees in rapid speech, voiced stops are prenasalised as reflected in the orthography to varying extents, or not at all. Word-initially and after /r/ or /l/, they are rarely, if ever. In rapid and casual speech, prenasalisation is generally rarer, /s/ and /z/ are somewhat retracted, they are produced in between English alveolars /s, z/ and postalveolars /ʃ, ʒ/. /s/ is variably fronted or further retracted depending on environment, and, in some cases, the only Greek rhotic /r/ is prototypically an alveolar tap, often retracted. It may be an alveolar approximant intervocalically, and is usually a trill in clusters, all palatals may be analysed in the same way. The palatal stops and fricatives are somewhat retracted, and and are somewhat fronted. is best described as a postalveolar, finally, Greek has two phonetically affricate clusters, and. Arvaniti is reluctant to treat these as phonemes on the grounds of inconclusive research into their phonological behaviour, the table below, adapted from Arvaniti, displays a near-full array of consonant phones in Standard Modern Greek. Some assimilatory processes mentioned above also occur across word boundaries, if these words are followed by a voiceless stop, /n/ either assimilates for place of articulation to the stop, or is altogether deleted, and the stop becomes voiced. This results in such as τον πατέρα or δεν πειράζει. The precise extent of assimilation may vary according to dialect, speed, Greek has a simple system of five vowels /i, u, e, o, a/, The close vowels /i, u/ have qualities approaching their respective cardinal vowels. The mid vowels /e, o/ are true-mid, the open vowel /a/ is has been described variously as near-open central and open central. There is no phonemic distinction, but vowels in stressed syllables are pronounced somewhat longer than in unstressed syllables
Modern Greek phonology
–
The vowels of Standard Modern Greek on a
vowel chart. Adapted from Arvaniti (2007, p. 28).
19.
Immanuel Bekker
–
August Immanuel Bekker was a German philologist and critic. Born in Berlin, Bekker completed his education at the University of Halle under Friedrich August Wolf. In 1810 he was appointed professor of philosophy in the University of Berlin, for several years, between 1810 and 1821, he travelled in France, Italy, England and parts of Germany, examining classical manuscripts and gathering materials for his great editorial labours. Some of the fruits of his researches were published in the Anecdota Graeca and his best known editions are those of Plato, Oratores Attici, Aristotle, Aristophanes, and twenty-five volumes of the Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae. The only Latin authors edited by him were Livy and Tacitus, Bekker confined himself entirely to manuscript investigations and textual criticism, he contributed little to the extension of other types of scholarship. Bekker numbers have become the way of referring to the works of Aristotle. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and he died in Berlin aged 86. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Bekker. Endnotes, Sauppe, Zur Erinnerung an Meineke und Bekker, Haupt, “Gedächtnisrede auf Meineke und Bekker, ” in his Opuscula, Bekker, “Zur Erinnerung an meinen Vater, ” in the Preussisches Jahrbuch, xxix. Apollonii Dyscoli de Pronomine liber, ed. I, apollonii Alexandrini de Constructione Orationis libri quatuor ex rec. I. Aristotelis Opera edidit Academia Regia Borussica, Berlin, 1831–1870
Immanuel Bekker
–
August Immanuel Bekker.
20.
Eustathios (archbishop of Thessalonike)
–
Eustathius of Thessalonica was a Greek scholar and Archbishop of Thessalonica. He was officially canonized on June 10,1988, and his feast day is on September 20, a pupil of Nicholas Kataphloron, Eustathius was appointed to the offices of superintendent of petitions, professor of rhetoric, and was ordained a deacon in Constantinople. He was ordained bishop of Myra, around the year 1178, he was appointed to the archbishopric of Thessalonica, where he remained until his death around 1195/1196. Accounts of his life and work are given in the orations by Euthymius. Niketas Choniates praised him as the most learned man of his age and he wrote commentaries on ancient Greek poets, theological treatises, addresses, letters, and an important account of the sack of Thessalonica by William II of Sicily in 1185. Of his works, his commentaries on Homer are the most widely referred to, other works exhibit impressive character, and oratorical power, which earned him the esteem of the Komnenoi emperors. Politically, Eustathios was a supporter of emperor Manuel I, an original thinker, Eustathios sometimes praised such secular values as military prowess. He decried slavery, and believed in the concept of progress of civilization from a primitive to a more advanced state. His most important works are the following, On the Capture of Thessalonica, the Greek text was edited by Kyriakidis, with an Italian translation by V. Rotolo, there is an English translation by J. Melville-Jones, and a German translation by H. Hunger. A number of orations, some of which have been edited by P. Wirth, in 2013 a translation of six of the earliest of these speeches was published with a commentary by Andrew F. Stone. Commentaries on Homers Iliad and Odyssey and these address questions of grammar, etymology, mythology, history and geography. They are not so much original commentaries as extracts from earlier commentators - there are many correspondences with Homeric scholia and this is a great tribute to the state of the libraries of Constantinople and of classical scholarship there in the 12th century. He was also a reader of the Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus. Some of the etymological and grammatical comments by Eustathioss Alexandrian predecessors are full of errors, the first printed edition, by Majoranus, was published in Rome in 1542-1550, an inaccurate reprint being later published in Basel in 1559-1560. A. Potitus edition, contains only the commentary on the first five books of the Iliad with a Latin translation and these were superseded by the edition of M. van der Valk,1971 onwards. Extracts from the commentaries are quoted in editions of the Homeric poems. This is as diffuse as the commentary on Homer, but includes numerous valuable extracts from earlier writers, no manuscript of this has come to light, but the introduction survives. (The introduction was first published by Tafel in his Eustathii Thessalonicensis Opuscula, from which it was reprinted separately by Schneidewin, some were first published by Tafel in the 1832 Opuscula just mentioned, some appeared later, as by P. Wirth for the Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae series
Eustathios (archbishop of Thessalonike)
–
Icon of Eustathios of Thessalonike (
Vatopedi Monastery, 1312).
21.
Adam (Bible)
–
Adam is a figure from the Book of Genesis who is also mentioned in the New Testament, the deuterocanonical books, the Quran, the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Iqan. According to the myth of the Abrahamic religions, he was the first human. In the Genesis creation narratives, he was created by God, Christian churches differ on how they view Adams subsequent behavior of disobeying God, and to the consequences that those actions had on the rest of humanity. Christian and Jewish teachings sometimes hold Adam and Eve to a different level of responsibility for the Fall, in addition, Islam holds that Adam was eventually forgiven, while Christianity holds that redemption occurred only later through the sacrifice of Jesus. The Baháí Faith, Islam and some Christian denominations consider Adam to be the first prophet, Adam as a proper name, predates its generic use in Semitic languages. Its earliest known use as a name in historicity is Adamu. Its use as a word in the Hebrew language is ׳āḏām. Coupled with the article, it becomes the human. Its root is not attributed to the Semitic root for man --sh, rather, ׳āḏām is linked to its triliteral root אָדָם, meaning red, fair, handsome. As a masculine noun, adam means man, mankind usually in a context as in humankind. The noun adam is also the form of the word adamah which means ground or earth. It is related to the words, adom, admoni, according to a number of observers, the word Adam derives from Sanskrit word Adima, meaning progenitor, first, primitive in Sanskrit. In the Book of Genesis, the Hebrew word ׳āḏām is often rendered mankind in the most generic sense, the use of mankind in Genesis, gives the reflection that Adam was the ancestor of all men. Kabbalistic works indicate that Adam also comes from the Hebrew word Adame, in the first five chapters of Genesis the word אָדָם is used in all of its senses, collectively, individually, gender nonspecific, and male. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, its use in Genesis 1 is generic, while in Genesis 2 and Genesis 3 the generic and personal usages are mixed. In Genesis 1,27 adam is used in the sense, whereby not only the individual Adam. Genesis 2,7 is the first verse where Adam takes on the sense of an individual man, the gender distinction of adam is then reiterated in Genesis 5, 1–2 by defining male and female. A recurring literary motif that occurs, is the bond between Adam and the earth, Gods cursing of Adam also results in the ground being cursed, causing him to have to labour for food, and Adam returns to the earth from which he was taken
Adam (Bible)
–
Detail from
Michelangelo 's
The Creation of Adam,
Sistine Chapel ceiling
Adam (Bible)
–
And Elohim Created Adam by
William Blake
Adam (Bible)
–
Adam naming the animals, depicted in stained glass, north aisle
Dublin Cathedral
Adam (Bible)
–
William Blake 's color printing of God Judging Adam original composed in 1795. This print is currently held by the
Tate Collection
22.
Chronology
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Chronology is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time. Consider, for example, the use of a timeline or sequence of events and it is also the determination of the actual temporal sequence of past events. It is also part of the discipline of history, including history, the earth sciences. Chronology is the science of locating historical events in time and it relies upon chronometry, which is also known as timekeeping, and historiography, which examines the writing of history and the use of historical methods. Radiocarbon dating estimates the age of living things by measuring the proportion of carbon-14 isotope in their carbon content. Dendrochronology is used in turn as a reference for radiocarbon dating curves. The familiar terms calendar and era concern two complementary concepts of chronology. Dionysius Exiguus was the founder of that era, which is nowadays the most widespread dating system on earth, an epoch is the date when an era begins. Ab Urbe condita is Latin for from the founding of the City and it was used to identify the Roman year by a few Roman historians. Modern historians use it more frequently than the Romans themselves did. Before the advent of the critical edition of historical Roman works, AUC was indiscriminately added to them by earlier editors. It was used systematically for the first time only about the year 400, pope Boniface IV, in about the year 600, seems to have been the first who made a connection between these this era and Anno Domini. Dionysius Exiguus’ Anno Domini era was extended by Bede to the complete Christian era, while of critical importance to the historian, methods of determining chronology are used in most disciplines of science, especially astronomy, geology, paleontology and archaeology. In the absence of written history, with its chronicles and king lists and this method of dating is known as seriation. Known wares discovered at strata in sometimes quite distant sites, the product of trade, laboratory techniques developed particularly after mid-20th century helped constantly revise and refine the chronologies developed for specific cultural areas. Unrelated dating methods help reinforce a chronology, an axiom of corroborative evidence, ideally, archaeological materials used for dating a site should complement each other and provide a means of cross-checking. Conclusions drawn from just one unsupported technique are usually regarded as unreliable, the fundamental problem of chronology is to synchronize events. By synchronizing an event it becomes possible to relate it to the current time, among historians, a typical need to is to synchronize the reigns of kings and leaders in order to relate the history of one country or region to that of another
Chronology
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Joseph Scaliger 's De emendatione temporum (1583) began the modern science of chronology
Chronology
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Key concepts
23.
John I Tzimiskes
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John I Tzimiskes was the senior Byzantine Emperor from 11 December 969 to 10 January 976. An intuitive and successful general, he strengthened the Empire and expanded its borders during his short reign, John I Tzimiskes was born into the Kourkouas clan, a family of Armenian origin. Scholars have speculated that his nickname Tzimiskes was derived either from the Armenian Chmushkik, meaning red boot, or from an Armenian word for short stature. A more favorable explanation is offered by the medieval Armenian historian Matthew of Edessa, Khozan was located in the region of Paghnatun, in the Byzantine province of Fourth Armenia. Tzimiskes was born sometime in 925 to a member of the Kourkouas family. Both the Kourkouai and the Phokadai were distinguished Cappadocian families, several of their members had served as prominent army generals, most notably the great John Kourkouas, who conquered Melitene and much of Armenia. Contemporary sources describe Tzimiskes as a short but well-built man, with reddish blonde hair and beard. He seems to have joined the army at an early age, the latter is also considered his instructor in the art of war. Partly because of his connections and partly because of his personal abilities, Tzimiskes quickly rose through the ranks. He was given the political and military command of the theme of Armenia before he turned twenty-five years old and his marriage to Maria Skleraina, daughter of Pantherios Skleros and sister of Bardas Skleros, linked him to the influential family of the Skleroi. Little is known about her, she died before his rise to the throne, the contemporary historian Leo the Deacon remarks that she excelled in both beauty and wisdom. The Byzantine Empire was at war with its neighbors, the various autonomous and semi-autonomous emirates emerging from the break-up of the Abbasid Caliphate. The most prominent among them was the Hamdanid Emirate of Aleppo, Armenia served as the borderland between the two Empires, and Tzimiskes successfully defended his province. He and his troops joined the part of the army. Nikephoros justified his name with a series of victories, moving the borders further east with the capture of about 60 border cities including Aleppo, by 962 the Hamdanids had sued for peace with favorable terms for the Byzantines, securing the eastern border of the Empire for some years. Tzimiskes distinguished himself during the war both at the side of his uncle and at leading parts of the army to battle under his personal command and he was rather popular with his troops and gained a reputation for taking the initiative during battles, turning their course. On the death of Emperor Romanos II in 963, Tzimiskes urged his uncle to seize the throne, to solidify his position, Tzimiskes married Theodora, a daughter of Emperor Constantine VII. He proceeded to justify his usurpation by repelling the invaders of the Empire
John I Tzimiskes
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Gold
histamenon of John Tzimiskes, showing him crowned by the Virgin Mary.
John I Tzimiskes
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The
Bamberger Gunthertuch, a Byzantine silk tapestry depicting the return of John Tzimiskes from a successful campaign.
John I Tzimiskes
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The coronation of John Tzimiskes, from the
Madrid Skylitzes
John I Tzimiskes
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Meeting of
Svyatoslav I with Emperor John Tzimiskes
24.
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
Constantinople
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Constantinople in the Byzantine era
Constantinople
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Map of Byzantine Constantinople
Constantinople
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Emperor
Constantine I presents a representation of the city of Constantinople as tribute to an enthroned Mary and Christ Child in this church mosaic.
Hagia Sophia, c. 1000
Constantinople
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Coin struck by Constantine I to commemorate the founding of Constantinople
25.
Basil II
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Basil II was a Byzantine Emperor from the Macedonian dynasty who reigned from 10 January 976 to 15 December 1025. He was known in his time as Basil the Porphyrogenitus and Basil the Young to distinguish him from his supposed ancestor, the early years of his long reign were dominated by civil war against powerful generals from the Anatolian aristocracy. For this he was nicknamed the Bulgar Slayer, by which he is popularly known and his reign is therefore often seen as the medieval apogee of the Empire. She originated from the Peloponnese, possibly from the city of Sparta, Basils paternal ancestry is of uncertain origins, his putative ancestor Basil I, the founder of the dynasty, being variously ascribed Armenian, Slavic, or Greek origins. Indeed the biological father of Leo VI the Wise was possibly not Basil I, the family of Michael III were Anatolian Greeks from Phrygia, though originally of the Melchisedechian heretical faith. In 960, Basil was associated on the throne by his father, who died in 963. Nikephoros was murdered in 969 by his nephew John I Tzimisces, when Tzimisces died on 10 January 976, Basil II finally took the throne as senior emperor. Basil was a soldier and a superb horseman, and he would prove himself as an able general. Basil waited and watched without interfering, devoting himself to learning the details of administrative business, even though Nikephoros II Phokas and John I Tzimiskes were brilliant military commanders, both had proven to be lax administrators. Skleros was allowed to live, but he ended his days blind, perhaps through disease and these rebellions had a profound effect on Basils outlook and methods of governance. The historian Psellus describes the defeated Bardas Skleros giving Basil the following advice, let no generals on campaign have too many resources. Exhaust them with unjust exactions, to keep them busied with their own affairs, admit no woman to the imperial councils. Share with few your most intimate plans, Basil, it would appear, took this advice to heart. In order to defeat these dangerous revolts, Basil formed an alliance with Prince Vladimir I of Kiev, who in 988 had captured Chersonesos, Vladimir offered to evacuate Chersonesos and to supply 6,000 of his soldiers as reinforcements to Basil. In exchange he demanded to be married to Basils younger sister Anna, the Byzantines viewed all the nations of Northern Europe, be they Franks or Slavs, as barbarians. Anna herself objected to marrying a barbarian ruler, as such a marriage would have no precedence in imperial annals, Vladimir had conducted long-running research into different religions, including sending delegates to various countries. Marriage was not his primary reason for choosing the Orthodox religion, when Vladimir promised to baptize himself and to convert his people to Christianity, Basil finally agreed. Vladimir and Anna were married in the Crimea in 989, the Rus recruitments were instrumental in ending the rebellion, and they were later organized into the Varangian Guard
Basil II
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Basil II (Βασίλειος Β' ο Βουλγαροκτόνος)
Basil II
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Basil II and
Constantine VIII, holding cross.
Nomisma histamenon.
Basil II
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Basil II and his step-father, Emperor Nikephoros II
Basil II
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Triumph of Basil II through the
Forum of Constantine, from the
Madrid Skylitzes
26.
Constantine VIII
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Constantine VIII was reigning Byzantine Emperor from 15 December 1025 until his death in 1028. He was the son of the Emperor Romanos II and Theophano, and the brother of the eminent Basil II. As a youth, Constantine VIII had been engaged to a daughter of Emperor Boris II of Bulgaria, by her he had three daughters, Eudokia, who became a nun, Zoe and Theodora of Byzantium. Constantine VIII had been crowned with his brother by their father in 962, however, for some 63 out of the 68 years of his life he was eclipsed by other emperors, including Nikephoros II Phokas, John I Tzimiskes, and Basil II. Even when his brother became senior emperor, Constantine was perfectly content to enjoy all the privileges of Imperial status without concerning himself with state affairs. On occasion Constantine participated in his brothers campaigns against rebel nobles, in 989, he acted as mediator between Basil II and Bardas Skleros. Otherwise he spent his life in the search of pleasure and entertainment, including spectator sports at the Hippodrome of Constantinople, when Basil II died on 15 December 1025, Constantine finally became sole emperor, ruling for less than three years before his own death on 11 November 1028. Physically Constantine was tall and graceful, where Basil had been short, by the time he became emperor, he had chronic gout and could hardly walk. His reign was a disaster because he lacked courage and political savvy and he reacted to every challenge with impulsive cruelty, persecuting uppity nobles and allegedly ordering the execution or mutilation of hundreds of innocent men. Constantine carried on as he always had – hunting, feasting and he was poor at appointing officials. Within months, the laws of Basil II were dropped under pressure from the Anatolian aristocracy. Like his brother, Constantine died without a male heir, the Empire thus passed to his daughter Zoe, whom he had married to Romanos Argyros. List of Byzantine emperors Michael Psellus, Chronographia, the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press,1991
Constantine VIII
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Constantine VIII on the reverse of this
histamenon coin, with crown, pelled
labarum and
akakia.
Constantine VIII
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Basil II and Constantine VIII, holding cross.
Nomisma histamenon.
27.
Michael Psellus
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This article is about the 11th-century Byzantine historian and philosopher. For the 9th-century Byzantine Emperor with the byname Psellus, see Michael II, Michael Psellus the Elder redirects here and is covered below under Pseudo-Psellus. Michael Psellos or Psellus was a Byzantine Greek monk, writer, philosopher and he was born in 1017 or 1018, and is believed to have died in 1078, although it has also been maintained that he remained alive until 1096. The main source of information about Psellos life comes from his own works, Michael Psellos was probably born in Constantinople. His family hailed from Nicomedia and, according to his own testimony, counted members of the consular and his baptismal name was Constantine, Michael was the monastic name he chose when he entered a monastery later in life. Psellos probably was a personal by-name referring to a speech defect, Michael Psellos was educated in Constantinople. At around the age of ten, he was sent to work outside the capital as a secretary of a provincial judge, when his sister died, he gave up that position and returned to Constantinople to resume his studies. While studying under John Mauropus, he met the later Patriarchs Constantine Leichoudes and John Xiphilinos, for some time, he worked in the provinces again, now serving as a judge himself. Some time before 1042 he returned again to Constantinople, where he got a position at court as a secretary in the imperial chancellery. From there he began a rapid court career and he became an influential political advisor to emperor Constantine IX Monomachos. During the same time, he became the professor at the University of Constantinople. After Monomachos death, however, he was recalled to court by his successor. Throughout the following years, he remained active in politics, serving as a political advisor to several successive emperors. However, Michael seems to have been inclined towards protecting Psellos. As his own autobiographic accounts cease at this point, there is little information about his later years. Some scholars believe that Psellos had to retreat into a monastery again at some time during the 1070s and it is a history of the Byzantine emperors during the century leading up to Psellos own time. It covers the reigns of fourteen emperors and empresses, beginning with the almost 50-year-long reign of Basil II, the Bulgar-Slayer and it is structured mainly as a series of biographies. Unlike most other works of the period, it places much more emphasis on the description of characters than on details of political
Michael Psellus
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Michael Psellos (left) with his student, Byzantine Emperor,
Michael VII Doukas.
Michael Psellus
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Rulers of the Byzantine Empire in the 11th century. Based on Chronographia
Michael Psellus
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Compendium mathematicum, 1647
28.
Aristophanes
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Aristophanes, son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete and these, together with fragments of some of his other plays, provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy, and are used to define it. Also known as the Father of Comedy and the Prince of Ancient Comedy and his second play, The Babylonians, was denounced by the demagogue Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. In my opinion, he says through the Chorus in that play, less is known about Aristophanes than about his plays. In fact, his plays are the source of information about him. It was conventional in Old Comedy for the Chorus to speak on behalf of the author during a called the parabasis. However, these facts relate almost entirely to his career as a dramatist, Aristophanes claimed to be writing for a clever and discerning audience, yet he also declared that other times would judge the audience according to its reception of his plays. He sometimes boasts of his originality as a dramatist yet his plays consistently espouse opposition to new influences in Athenian society. He caricatured leading figures in the arts, in politics, such caricatures seem to imply that Aristophanes was an old-fashioned conservative, yet that view of him leads to contradictions. It has been argued that Aristophanes produced plays mainly to entertain the audience, an elaborate series of lotteries, designed to prevent prejudice and corruption, reduced the voting judges at the City Dionysia to just five in number. These judges probably reflected the mood of the audiences yet there is uncertainty about the composition of those audiences. The theatres were certainly huge, with seating for at least 10000 at the Theatre of Dionysus, the conservative views expressed in the plays might therefore reflect the attitudes of the dominant group in an unrepresentative audience. The production process might also have influenced the views expressed in the plays, throughout most of Aristophanes career, the Chorus was essential to a plays success and it was recruited and funded by a choregus, a wealthy citizen appointed to the task by one of the archons. Thus the political conservatism of the plays may reflect the views of the wealthiest section of Athenian society, when Aristophanes first play The Banqueters was produced, Athens was an ambitious, imperial power and the Peloponnesian War was only in its fourth year. His plays often express pride in the achievement of the older generation yet they are not jingoistic, the plays are particularly scathing in criticism of war profiteers, among whom populists such as Cleon figure prominently. However it is whether he led or merely responded to changes in audience expectations. Aristophanes won second prize at the City Dionysia in 427 BC with his first play The Banqueters and he won first prize there with his next play, The Babylonians. Some influential citizens, notably Cleon, reviled the play as slander against the polis, Cleon also seems to have had no real power to limit or control Aristophanes, the caricatures of him continued up to and even beyond his death
Aristophanes
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Theatre of Dionysus, Athens — in Aristophanes' time, the audience probably sat on wooden benches with earth foundations.
Aristophanes
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Illustration from a bust found near Tusculum†.
Aristophanes
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Muse reading, Louvre
Aristophanes
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Thalia,
muse of comedy, gazing upon a comic mask (detail from Muses' Sarcophagus)
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
Constantine VII
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Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos
Constantine VII
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Constantine and Simeon dining
Constantine VII
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Christ Crowning Constantine VII (945)
Constantine VII
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The
Madrid Skylitzes ' depiction of Constantine on his deathbed
30.
Georgius Monachus
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George Hamartolos or Hamartolus was a monk at Constantinople under Michael III and the author of a chronicle of some importance. It is a common form among Byzantine monks, krumbacher protests against the use of this epithet as a name and proposes the form Georgios Monachos. Nothing is known about him except from the evidence of his work. The chronicle consists of four books, the chronicle is the only original contemporary authority for the years 813–842, and therefore so far indispensable. As usually in the case of medieval chronicles, the only part to be taken seriously is the account of more or less contemporary events. The rest is interesting as an example of Byzantine ideas on the subjects, George describes his ideal and principles in the preface. But of so great a mass of material he has chosen only what is most useful, in effect, the questions that seemed most useful and necessary to ecclesiastical persons at Constantinople in the ninth century are those that are discussed. There are copious pious reflections and theological excursuses and he writes of how idols were invented, the origin of monks, the religion of the Saracens, and especially of the Iconoclast controversy that had just ended. Like all monks he hates iconoclasts, the violence with which he speaks of them shows how recent the storm had been and how the memory of iconoclast persecutions was still fresh when he wrote. He writes out long extracts from Greek Fathers, the first book treats of an astonishingly miscellaneous collection of persons — Adam, Nimrod, the Persians, Chaldees, Brahmins, Amazons, etc. In the second book, too, although it professes to deal with Bible history only, he has much to say about Plato, Hamartolus ended his chronicle with the year 842, as a colophon in most manuscripts attests. In these additions, religious questions are relegated to the background, more attention is devoted to history. Still further continuations of little value go down to 1143 and it was soon translated into Church Slavonic and also in Georgian by Arsen of Iqalto. In these versions it became a sort of fountain-head for all early Slavonic historians, in Maxima bibliotheca Paris,1685, reprinted, Venice,1729. The last part of Book IV of the chronicle and the continuation, georgii monachi, dicti Hamartoli, Chronicon ab orbe condito ad annum p. chr.842 et a diversis scriptoribus usq. ad ann.1143 continuatum. The first edition of the whole work and it does not represent the original text, but one of the many modified versions, and is in many ways deficient and misleading. Reprint of the edition, with a Latin translation. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles
Georgius Monachus
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"George the Monk at work", an early 14th-century miniature from
Tver
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Sūïdas". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
