1.
Pintoricchio
–
Pintoricchio or Pinturicchio whose formal name was Bernardino di Betto, also known as Benetto di Biagio or Sordicchio, was an Italian painter of the Renaissance. Born in Perugia in 1454 and dying in Siena in 1513, Pintoricchio acquired his nickname, meaning and he also used it to sign some of his 14th and 15th century artworks. Pinturicchio was born the son of Benedetto or Betto di Blagio, in his career, he may have trained under lesser known Perugian painters such as Bonfigli and Fiorenzo di Lorenzo. According to Vasari, Pinturicchio was an assistant of Perugino. The works of the Perugian Renaissance school are very similar, and paintings by Perugino, Pinturicchio, Lo Spagna, the Sistine Chapel was also where it is believed that Pinturicchio was collaborating with Perugino to some extent. Would be, if it had left with all its original decorations. A great deal still remains, but much has been swept away, the earliest of his works is an altarpiece of the Adoration of the Shepherds, in the Della Rovere Chapel, the first chapel on the south, built by Cardinal Domenico della Rovere. The old fresco of the Virgin and the Child by Pinturicchio was detached from the wall, the fragment was re-used as the altarpiece of the Ducal Chapel of the Cathedral of Massa. The third chapel on the south is that of Girolamo Basso della Rovere, nephew of Pope Sixtus IV, and bishop of Recanati. The Basso Della Rovere Chapel contains an altarpiece of the Madonna enthroned between Four Saints, and on the east side a very nobly composed fresco of the Assumption of the Virgin. In the Costa Chapel, Pinturicchio or one of his helpers painted the Four Latin Doctors in the lunettes of the vault, most of these frescoes are considerably injured by moisture and have suffered little from restoration. In the centre is a panel of the Coronation of the Virgin. The spaces between them are filled by reclining figures of the Four Sibyls, on each pendentive is a figure of one of the Four Doctors enthroned under a niched canopy. No finer specimen of the decoration of a quadripartite vault can be seen anywhere. In 1492, Pinturicchio was summoned to Orvieto Cathedral and he was employed by Pope Alexander VI to decorate a recently completed suite of six rooms, the Borgia Apartments in the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican. These rooms now form part of the Vatican Library, and five still retain a series of Pinturicchio frescoes, the Umbrian painter worked in these rooms till around 1494, assisted by his pupils, and not without interruption. It was not until Pope Alexander VI died that Pinturicchio left Rome for Umbria, leaving much of the work in Rome to be completed by Michelangelo, Raphael, and company. His other chief frescoes in Rome, still existing in good condition, are in the Bufalini Chapel in the southwest sector of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli, probably executed around 1484-1486
Pintoricchio
–
Self-portrait in the
Baglioni Chapel.
Pintoricchio
–
The Crucifixion with Sts. Jerome and Christopher, 1471, oil on wood, 59 × 40 cm,
Galleria Borghese, Rome.
Pintoricchio
–
Fresco at
Siena Cathedral depicting
Pope Pius II.
Pintoricchio
–
Bernard of Clairvaux between
Louis of Toulouse and
Anthony of Padua,
Bufalini Chapel,
Santa Maria in Aracoeli, Rome.
2.
Ancona
–
Ancona is a city and a seaport in the Marche region in central Italy, with a population of c.101,997 as of 2015. Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region, the city is located 280 km northeast of Rome, on the Adriatic Sea, between the slopes of the two extremities of the promontory of Monte Conero, Monte Astagno and Monte Guasco. Ancona is one of the ports on the Adriatic Sea, especially for passenger traffic. Greek merchants established a Tyrian purple dye factory here, in Roman times it kept its own coinage with the punning device of the bent arm holding a palm branch, and the head of Aphrodite on the reverse, and continued the use of the Greek language. When it became a Roman colony is uncertain and it was occupied as a naval station in the Illyrian War of 178 BC. Julius Caesar took possession of it immediately after crossing the Rubicon and its harbour was of considerable importance in imperial times, as the nearest to Dalmatia, and was enlarged by Trajan, who constructed the north quay with his Syrian architect Apollodorus of Damascus. At the beginning of it stands the marble triumphal arch with a single archway, Ancona was successively attacked by the Goths, Lombards and Saracens between the 3rd and 5th centuries, but recovered its strength and importance. It was one of the cities of the Pentapolis of the Roman Exarchate of Ravenna in the 7th and 8th centuries, in 840, Saracen raiders sacked and burned the city. After Charlemagnes conquest of northern Italy, it became the capital of the Marca di Ancona, after 1000, Ancona became increasingly independent, eventually turning into an important maritime republic, often clashing against the nearby power of Venice. An oligarchic republic, Ancona was ruled by six Elders, elected by the three terzieri into which the city was divided, S. Pietro, Porto and Capodimonte. It had a coin of its own, the agontano, Ancona was usually allied with Ragusa and the Byzantine Empire. In 1137,1167 and 1174 it was enough to push back the forces of the Holy Roman Empire. Anconitan ships took part in the Crusades, and their navigators included Cyriac of Ancona, in the struggle between the Popes and the Holy Roman Emperors that troubled Italy from the 12th century onwards, Ancona sided with the Guelphs. Differently from other cities of northern Italy, Ancona never became a seignory, the sole exception was the rule of the Malatesta, who took the city in 1348 taking advantage of the black death and of a fire that had destroyed many of its important buildings. The Malatesta were ousted in 1383, in 1532 it definitively lost its freedom and became part of the Papal States, under Pope Clement VII. Symbol of the authority was the massive Citadel. Together with Rome, and Avignon in southern France, Ancona was the city in the Papal States in which the Jews were allowed to stay after 1569. The southern quay was built in 1880, and the harbour was protected by forts on the heights, from 1797 onwards, when the French took it, it frequently appears in history as an important fortress
Ancona
–
Aerial view of Ancona
Ancona
–
The Vanvitelli's Lazzaretto.
Ancona
–
The portal of the church of San Francesco.
Ancona
–
A cannon situated near the Arch of Trajan, with the Cattedrale San Ciriaco visible in the background.
3.
Siena Cathedral
–
Siena Cathedral is a medieval church in Siena, Italy, dedicated from its earliest days as a Roman Catholic Marian church, and now dedicated to the Assumption of Mary. Previously the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Siena, from the 15th century the Archdiocese of Siena, the cathedral itself was originally designed and completed between 1215 and 1263 on the site of an earlier structure. It has the form of a Latin cross with a slightly projecting transept, a dome, the dome rises from a hexagonal base with supporting columns. The lantern atop the dome was added by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the nave is separated from the two aisles by semicircular arches. The exterior and interior are constructed of white and greenish-black marble in alternating stripes, Black and white are the symbolic colors of Siena, etiologically linked to black and white horses of the legendary citys founders, Senius and Aschius. The origins of the first structure are obscure and shrouded in legend, there was a 9th-century church with bishops palace at the present location. In December 1058 a synod was held in this resulting in the election of pope Nicholas II. In 1196 the cathedral masons’ guild, the Opera di Santa Maria, was put in charge of the construction of a new cathedral. Works were started with the north - south transept and it was planned to add the main, larger body of the cathedral later, by 1215 there were already daily masses said in the new church. There are records from 1226 onwards of the transport of black and white marble, probably for the construction of the façade, the vaults and the transept were constructed in 1259-1260. In 1259 Manuello di Ranieri and his son Parri carved some wooden choir stalls, in 1264, Rosso Padellaio was paid for the copper sphere on top of the dome. A second massive addition of the body of the cathedral was planned in 1339. It would have more than doubled the size of the structure by means of a new nave. The construction was begun under the direction of Giovanni di Agostino, construction was halted by the Black Death in 1348. Basic errors in the construction were already evident by then, however, the outer walls, remains of this extension, can now be seen to the south of the Duomo. The floor of the nave now serves as a parking lot and museum, and, though unfinished, the remains are testament to Sienese power, ambition. Underneath the choir of the Duomo, a narthex containing important late 13th-century frescoes was found, the frescoes depict scenes from the Old Testament and the life of Christ. This was part of the entrance of an earlier church, but when the baptistry was built, this under-church was filled with rubble
Siena Cathedral
–
Siena Cathedral
Siena Cathedral
–
Upper façade mosaic - Coronation of the Virgin.
Siena Cathedral
–
Gargoyles and Saints on façade.
Siena Cathedral
–
Siena Cathedral façade
4.
Constantine XI Palaiologos
–
Following his death, he became a legendary figure in Greek folklore as the Marble Emperor who would awaken and recover the Empire and Constantinople from the Ottomans. His death marked the end of the Roman Empire, which had continued in the East for 977 years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Constantine was born in Constantinople, as the eighth of ten children to Manuel II Palaiologos and Helena Dragaš and he was extremely fond of his mother and added her surname next to his own dynastic one when he ascended the imperial throne. He spent most of his childhood in Constantinople under the supervision of his parents and he was governor of Selymbria for a time, until surrendering the role to his brother Theodore in 1443. During the absence of his older brother John at the Council of Florence in Italy, Constantine became the Despotes of the Morea in October 1443. He ruled from the fortress and palace in Mistra, a town also called Sparta or Lacedaemon due to its proximity to the ancient city. Mistra was a center of arts and culture rivalling Constantinople, in summer 1444, Constantine marched out of the Morea, invading the Latin Duchy of Athens. He swiftly conquered Thebes and Athens, forcing its Florentine duke, Nerio II Acciaioli, a vassal of the Ottoman Sultan, to pay him tribute. Two years later, the Sultan Murad II, who had out of retirement, led an army of 50. His purpose was not to conquer Morea but rather to teach the Greeks, the Ottoman army reached the Hexamilion on 27 November 1446. Constantine and his brother Thomas braced for the attack at the Hexamilion, while the wall could hold against medieval attacks, Sultan Murad used bombards to supplement the usual siege engines and scaling ladders, the bombards breached the wall on 10 December 1446. Murads janissaries poured through the opening, and the panicked and fled. Constantine and Thomas attempted to rally their soldiers, and failing, Murad split his forces, giving one part to his advisor Turahan while leading the other part along the southern shore of the Gulf of Corinth, plundering and destroying as his troops advanced. While neither Patras or Mistra fell to the Ottoman troops, the province was devastated, Constantine and his brother Thomas were forced to make themselves vassals of the Ottoman sultan and pay tribute. The first time was on 1 July 1428 to Theodora Tocco and she died while giving birth to a stillborn daughter in November 1429. His second marriage was on 27 July 1441 to Caterina Gattilusio, daughter of Dorino of Lesbos and he had no children by either marriage. By then Mara was the widow of Murad II, she had allowed to return to her parents in Serbia after the death of Murad. Accordingly, the failed and Sphrantzes took steps to arrange for a marriage with a princess either from the Empire of Trebizond or the Kingdom of Georgia
Constantine XI Palaiologos
–
Constantine XI Palaiologos
Constantine XI Palaiologos
–
Marble relief of a
double-headed eagle in the Church of St Demetrios in
Mystras, marking the spot where Constantine XI was crowned.
Constantine XI Palaiologos
–
A popular depiction of Constantine XI.
Constantine XI Palaiologos
–
Statue of Constantine XI in Athens,
Mitropoleos square.
5.
Sophia Paleologue
–
Through her eldest son Vasili III, she was also the grandmother of Ivan the Terrible, the first Tsar of All Russia. Zoes father was Thomas Palaiologos, Despot of Morea and younger brother of the last Byzantine Emperor and her mother was Catherine, the only legitimate daughter and heiress of Centurione II Zaccaria, the last independent Prince of Achaea and Baron of Arcadia. The marriage between Thomas Palaiologos and Catherine Zaccaria produced four children, Helena, later wife of Lazar Branković, Despot of Serbia, Zoe, Andreas, the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 was a turning point in Zoes fate. Thomas and his family escaped to Corfu and, then to Rome, Catherine, who remained in Corfu with her children, died there on 16 August 1462. Zoe and her brothers remained in Corfu until 1465, when their father recalled them to Rome. Thomas Palaiologos died on 12 May 1465, adopted by the Papacy after her fathers death together with her brothers, her Greek name Zoe was changed to Sophia. Born into the Orthodox religion, its possible that she was raised as a Catholic in Rome and she spent the next years in the court of Pope Sixtus IV. The care of the Imperial children was assigned to a famous scientist, surviving letters of the Cardinal show the Pope followed the evolution and welfare of Sophia and her brothers, they received the amount of 3,600 crowns. After the death of Thomas Palaeologus, his eldest son Andreas became the de jure Byzantine Emperor but sold his rights to several European monarchs, in 1466 the Venetian Republic invited King James II of Cyprus to ask for the hand of Sophia in marriage, but he refused. Around 1467, Pope Paul II offered Sophias hand to a Prince Caracciolo and they were solemnly betrothed, but the marriage never took place. Maria of Tver, the first wife of Grand Prince Ivan III of Moscow and this marriage only produced a son, Ivan the Young, born in 1458. The motives of Ivan III for pursue this union were probably connected with the status, the idea of this marriage perhaps was born in the mind of Cardinal Bessarion. The negotiations lasted for three years, Ivan III, who consulted his mother Maria of Borovsk, the Metropolitan Philip and his boyars, and received a positive decision. In 1469 Ivan Fryazin was sent to the Roman court to make the negotiations for the match. According to the chronicles, he was sent back to Moscow with a portrait of the princess, the Pope received the Russian Ambassador with great honors. On 16 January 1472 Fryazin was sent again to Rome, this time with the purpose to bring the bride of his master and he arrived there on 23 May. On 1 June 1472 at St. Peters Basilica was performed the marriage by proxy, among the guests in the ceremony was Clarice Orsini and Queen Catherine of Bosnia. As a dowry, Sophia received the amount of 6,000 ducats, on 24 June 1472 Sophia and Fryazin, with a grand entourage, left Rome
Sophia Paleologue
–
Reconstruction by Sergey Nikitin, 1994.
Sophia Paleologue
–
Ivan Fryazin showed to
Ivan III the portrait of Sophia Palaiologina, by
Viktor Muizhel.
Sophia Paleologue
–
Destruction of Sophia Palaiologina grave in 1929.
6.
Dynasty
–
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system but sometimes also appearing in elective republics. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a house, historians periodize the histories of many sovereign states, such as Ancient Egypt, the Carolingian Empire and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties. As such, the dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which the family reigned and to describe events, trends. The word dynasty itself is often dropped from such adjectival references, until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty, that is, to increase the territory, wealth, and power of his family members. The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. Succession through a daughter when permitted was considered to establish a new dynasty in her husbands ruling house, however, some states in Africa, determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mothers dynasty when coming into her inheritance. It is also extended to unrelated people such as poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team. The word dynasty derives via Latin dynastia from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to power, dominion and it was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, power or ability, from dýnamai, to be able. A ruler in a dynasty is referred to as a dynast. For example, following his abdication, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ceased to be a member of the House of Windsor. A dynastic marriage is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, the marriage of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, to Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, for example, and their eldest child is expected to inherit the Dutch crown eventually. But the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso to Mabel Wisse Smit in 2003 lacked government support, thus Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession, lost his title as a Prince of the Netherlands, and left his children without dynastic rights. In historical and monarchist references to formerly reigning families, a dynast is a member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchys rules still in force. Even since abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Max and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position. The term dynast is sometimes used only to refer to descendants of a realms monarchs. The term can therefore describe overlapping but distinct sets of people, yet he is not a male-line member of the royal family, and is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor. Thus, in 1999 he requested and obtained permission from Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco. Yet a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time and that exclusion, too, ceased to apply on 26 March 2015, with retroactive effect for those who had been dynasts prior to triggering it by marriage to a Catholic
Dynasty
–
Charles I of England and his son, the future
James II
7.
Palaiologos
–
Founded by the 11th-century general Nikephoros Palaiologos and his son George, the family rose to the highest aristocratic circles through its marriage into the Doukas and Komnenos dynasties. A branch of the Palaiologos became the lords of Montferrat. This inheritance was eventually incorporated by marriage to the Gonzaga family, rulers of the Duchy of Mantua, the origins of the Palaiologoi are unknown. Later traditions sometimes tied them to the Italian city of Viterbo or to the Romans who immigrated east with Constantine the Great during the founding of his new capital, both were probably fabrications created to help legitimize the dynasty. The family are first attested as local lords in Asia Minor, particularly Anatolikon and he supported the revolt of Nikephoros Botaneiates, while his son George married Anna Doukaina and therefore supported his sister-in-laws husband Alexios Komnenos during his rise to power. As commander of Dyrrhachium, George faced the Norman Duke Robert Guiscard in battle, the Palaiologoi held military offices and further united their family to the Doukai and Komnenoi during the 12th century. They followed Theodore Laskaris to Nicaea and began to assume high-ranking political offices as well, Alexios Palaiologos, whose wife was a granddaughter of Zoe Doukaina and her husband Adrianos Komnenos. Another Alexios Palaiologos married Irene Angelina, eldest daughter of Alexios III Angelos, the latter couples daughter Theodora Palaiologina married her cousin Andronikos Palaiologos, who was descended from Zoe. The couple were the progenitors of the imperial dynasty and their son was Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos. Michael VIIIs son Andronikos II Palaiologos married Anne of Hungary and fathered Michael Palaiologos, Michael IX married Rita of Armenia. Their son, the grandson of Andronikos II, was Andronikos III Palaiologos, Andronikos III married Anna of Savoy. Their son was John V Palaiologos, John V married Helena Kantakouzene, a daughter of his co-ruler John VI Kantakuzenos. Their sons included Andronikos IV Palaiologos and Manuel II Palaiologos and they were the parents of John VIII Palaiologos and Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last Byzantine emperor, as well as the despots of Morea Demetrios Palaiologos and Thomas Palaiologos. Demetrios, after giving Mehmed II a pretext to invade Morea, was kept from his throne and his daughter Helen was a member of the sultans harem for a time. Thomas, in exile in Venice, sold the title to Charles VIII of France. Thomas daughter Zoe married Ivan III of Russia and, on rejoining the Orthodox faith and her influence on the court curtailed the power of the boyars and eventually led to the proclamation of the Grand Prince of Muscovy as the Tsar of all the Russias. Though Thomass male-line descendants soon became extinct, his descent lives on through a daughter, one such female descendant, Princess dArenberg, married at the beginning of the 19th century a Pfalzgraf of Zweibrücken, whereby the Dukes of Bavaria descend from Byzantine emperors. Also Queen Anne, consort of former king Michael of Romania descends from these Arenbergs, reportedly Herina, the first wife of Emperor Isaac II Angelos who reigned from 1185 to 1195, was of the Palaiologos family
Palaiologos
–
The
double-headed eagle was adopted as a symbol for high-ranking members of the imperial family (including the Emperor), during the Palaiologos dynasty period.
Palaiologos
–
Medal of John VIII Palaeologus, on a
Renaissance medal by
Pisanello who saw the Emperor at
Ferrara.
8.
Manuel II Palaiologos
–
Manuel II Palaiologos or Palaeologus was Byzantine Emperor from 1391 to 1425. Shortly before his death he was tonsured a monk and received the name Matthew and he is commemorated on July 21. Manuel II Palaiologos was the son of Emperor John V Palaiologos. His maternal grandparents were Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos and Irene Asanina, granted the title of despotēs by his father, the future Manuel II traveled west to seek support for the Byzantine Empire in 1365 and in 1370, serving as governor in Thessalonica from 1369. The failed attempt at usurpation by his older brother Andronikos IV Palaiologos in 1373 led to Manuels being proclaimed heir and co-emperor of his father. In 1376–1379 and again in 1390 they were supplanted by Andronikos IV and then his son John VII, although John V had been restored, Manuel was forced to go as an honorary hostage to the court of the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I at Prousa. During his stay, Manuel was forced to participate in the Ottoman campaign that reduced Philadelpheia, hearing of his fathers death in February 1391, Manuel II Palaiologos fled the Ottoman court and secured the capital against any potential claim by his nephew John VII. Although relations with John VII improved, Sultan Bayezid I besieged Constantinople from 1394 to 1402, Manuel II had sent 10 ships to help in the Crusade of Nicopolis. When Manuel II returned home in 1403, his nephew duly surrendered control of Constantinople, Manuel also regained from the Ottomans Nesebar, Varna, and the Marmara coast from Scutari to Nicomedia between 1403–1421. Here Manuel supervised the building of the Hexamilion across the Isthmus of Corinth, sigismund never rejected the possibility of fighting against the Ottoman Empire. However, with the Hussite wars in Bohemia, it was impossible to count on the Czech or German armies, Manuel II died on 21 July 1425. This mirror of prince has special value, because it is the last sample of this literary genre bequeathed to us by Byzantines, by his wife Helena Dragas, the daughter of the Serbian prince Constantine Dragas, Manuel II Palaiologos had several children, including, A daughter. Mentioned as the eldest daughter but not named, possibly confused with Isabella Palaiologina, an illegitimate daughter of Manuel II known to have married Ilario Doria. 1393/8, died before 1405 in Monemvasia, also not named in the text. Theodore II Palaiologos, Lord of Morea, born 1406/7, died 1409/10 of the plague. Despotēs in the Morea and subsequently the last Byzantine emperor, 1448–1453, many Muslims were offended by this denigration of Muhammad, and many protested against it. For others it may simply have been false indignation or the assumption of offence by non-Muslims, in his book, Manuel II then continues, claiming that, God is not pleased by blood – and not acting reasonably is contrary to Gods nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body, whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats
Manuel II Palaiologos
–
Manuel II Palaiologos
Manuel II Palaiologos
–
The coat of arms attributed to the Palaiologoi.
Manuel II Palaiologos
–
Half
stavraton coin by Manuel. On the reverse, Manuel's bust.
9.
Greek language
–
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
Greek language
–
Idealized portrayal of
Homer
Greek language
–
regions where Greek is the official language
Greek language
–
Greek language road sign, A27 Motorway, Greece
10.
Despotate of Morea
–
The Despotate of the Morea or Despotate of Mystras was a province of the Byzantine Empire which existed between the mid-14th and mid-15th centuries. The territory was ruled by one or more sons of the current Byzantine emperor. Its capital was the city of Mystras, near ancient Sparta. The Despotate of the Morea was created out of territory seized from the Frankish Principality of Achaea and this had been organized from former Byzantine territory after the Fourth Crusade. In 1259, the Principalitys ruler William II Villehardouin lost the Battle of Pelagonia against the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus, William was forced to ransom himself by surrendering most of the eastern part of Morea and his newly built strongholds. The surrendered territory became the nucleus of the Despotate of Morea, a later Byzantine emperor, John VI Kantakouzenos, reorganized the territory during the mid-14th century to establish it as an appanage for his son, the Despot Manuel Kantakouzenos. The rival Palaiologos dynasty seized the Morea after Manuels death in 1380, Theodore ruled until 1407, consolidating Byzantine rule and coming to terms with his more powerful neighbours—particularly the expansionist Ottoman Empire, whose suzerainty he recognised. He also sought to reinvigorate the economy by inviting Albanians to settle in the territory. Subsequent despots were the sons of the Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos, brother of the despot Theodore, Constantine, Demetrios, however, in 1446 the Ottoman Sultan Murad II destroyed the Byzantine defences—the Hexamilion wall at the Isthmus of Corinth. His attack opened the peninsula to invasion, though Murad died before he could exploit this and his successor Mehmed II the Conqueror captured the Byzantine capital Constantinople in 1453. The despots, Demetrios Palaiologos and Thomas Palaiologos, brothers of the last emperor, failed to send him any aid and their own incompetence resulted in an Albanian–Greek revolt against them, during which they invited in Ottoman troops to help them put down the revolt. At this time, a number of influential Moreote Greeks and Albanians made private peace with Mehmed, Demetrios ended up a prisoner of the Ottomans and his younger brother Thomas fled. By the end of the summer the Ottomans had achieved the submission of all cities possessed by the Greeks. A few holdouts remained for a time, the rocky peninsula of Monemvasia refused to surrender and it was first ruled for a brief time by a Catalan corsair. When the population drove him out they obtained the consent of Thomas to submit to the Popes protection before the end of 1460, the Mani Peninsula, on the Moreas south end, resisted under a loose coalition of the local clans and then that area came under Venices rule. The very last holdout was Salmeniko, in the Moreas northwest, Graitzas Palaiologos was the military commander there, stationed at Salmeniko Castle. While the town surrendered, Graitzas and his garrison and some town residents held out in the castle until July 1461. Thus ended the last of the Byzantine Empire proper, after 1461 the only non-Ottoman territories were possessed by Venice, the port cities of Modon and Koroni at the southern end of the Morea, the Argolid with Argos, and the port of Nafplion
Despotate of Morea
–
The Byzantine Empire and the Latin and other states resulting from the Fourth Crusade, as they were in 1265. The Byzantine province of the Morea is also shown. (William R. Shepherd, Historical Atlas, 1911).
Despotate of Morea
–
The Despotate of the Morea in 1450, divided between the two brothers,
Thomas and
Demetrios Palaiologos
11.
Ottoman Empire
–
After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
Ottoman Empire
–
Battle of Nicopolis in 1396. Painting from 1523.
Ottoman Empire
–
Flag (1844–1923)
Ottoman Empire
–
Battle of Mohács in 1526
Ottoman Empire
–
Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha defeats the
Holy League of
Charles V under the command of
Andrea Doria at the
Battle of Preveza in 1538.
12.
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.
13.
Byzantine Emperor
–
This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Emperors listed below up to Theodosius I in 395 were sole or joint rulers of the entire Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire was the direct legal continuation of the eastern half of the Roman Empire following the division of the Roman Empire in 395. All Byzantine emperors considered themselves to be the rightful Roman emperor in direct succession from Augustus, the title of all Emperors preceding Heraclius was officially Augustus, although other titles such as Dominus were also used. Their names were preceded by Imperator Caesar and followed by Augustus, following Heraclius, the title commonly became the Greek Basileus, which had formerly meant sovereign but was then used in place of Augustus. Following the establishment of the rival Holy Roman Empire in Western Europe, in later centuries, the Emperor could be referred to by Western Christians as the Emperor of the Greeks. Towards the end of the Empire, the standard formula of the Byzantine ruler was in Christ, Emperor. For Roman emperors before Constantine I, see List of Roman emperors, family tree of the Byzantine emperors List of Roman emperors List of Roman usurpers List of Byzantine usurpers List of Roman and Byzantine empresses
Byzantine Emperor
–
Constantine XI
Byzantine Emperor
–
Imperial insignia used by the
Palaiologos dynasty
Byzantine Emperor
–
Constantine I "the Great" (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Α' ὁ Μέγας, Latin: Gaius Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus)
Byzantine Emperor
–
Constantius II (Κωνστάντιος [Β'], Flavius Iulius Constantius)
14.
John VIII Palaiologos
–
John VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus was the penultimate reigning Byzantine Emperor, ruling from 1425 to 1448. John VIII Palaiologos was the eldest son of Manuel II Palaiologos and Helena Dragaš and he was associated as co-emperor with his father before 1416 and became sole emperor in 1425. To secure protection against the Ottomans, he visited Pope Eugene IV and consented to the union of the Greek, the Union failed due to opposition in Constantinople, but through his prudent conduct towards the Ottoman Empire he succeeded in holding possession of the city. John VIII Palaiologos named his brother Constantine XI, who had served as regent in Constantinople in 1437–1439, despite the machinations of his younger brother Demetrios Palaiologos his mother Helena was able to secure Constantine XIs succession in 1448. John VIII died at Constantinople in 1448, John VIII Palaiologos was married three times. His first marriage was in 1414 to Anna of Moscow, daughter of Grand Prince Basil I of Moscow and she died in August 1417 of plague. The second marriage, arranged by his father Manuel II and Pope Martin V, was to Sophia of Montferrat in 1421 and she was a daughter of Theodore II, Marquess of Montferrat, and his second wife Joanna of Bar. Joanna was a daughter of Robert I, Duke of Bar and her maternal grandparents were John II of France and Bonne of Bohemia. His third marriage, arranged by the cardinal, Bessarion, was to Maria of Trebizond in 1427. She was a daughter of Alexios IV of Trebizond and Theodora Kantakouzene and she died in the winter of 1439, also from plague. None of the marriages produced any children, John VIII Palaiologos was famously depicted by several painters on the occasion of his visit to Italy. Perhaps the most famous of his portraits is the one by Benozzo Gozzoli, on the wall of the Magi Chapel, at the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi. According to some interpretations, John VIII would be portrayed in Piero della Francescas Flagellation. A portrait of John appears in a manuscript at the Saint Catherines Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula, list of Byzantine emperors Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium,1991. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh. Harris, Jonathan, The End of Byzantium, new Haven and London, Yale University Press,2010. ISBN 978-0-300-11786-8 Kolditz, Sebastian, Johannes VIII, Palaiologos und das Konzil von Ferrara-Florenz. 2 Vol. Stuttgart, Anton Hiersemann Verlag 2013-2014, ISBN 978-3-7772-1319-4, lazaris, Stavros, L’empereur Jean VIII Paléologue vu par Pisanello lors du concile de Ferrare – Florence, Byzantinische Forschungen,29,2007, p. 293-324 Nicol, Donald M
John VIII Palaiologos
–
John VIII Palaiologos, by
Benozzo Gozzoli
John VIII Palaiologos
–
Medal of the Emperor John VIII Palaiologos during his visit to Florence, by
Pisanello (1438). The legend reads, in Greek: “John the Palaiologos,
basileus and
autokrator of the Romans”.
John VIII Palaiologos
–
Sketches of John VIII Palaiologos during his visit at the
Council of Florence in 1438, by
Pisanello.
John VIII Palaiologos
–
John VIII as
Pontius Pilatus in
Piero della Francesca's Flagellation.
15.
Theodore II Palaiologos
–
Theodore II Palaiologos or Palaeologus was Despot in the Morea from 1407 to 1443 and in Selymbria from then until his death. Theodore II Palaiologos was a son of the Eastern Roman Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos and his maternal grandfather was the Serb prince Constantine Dragaš. When Theodore was a little over ten years old, his father proclaimed him a despot, the nobleman Nicholas Eudaimonoioannes was appointed as his tutor and regent until he came of age. The first period of his rule was a time of war against the Latin states in Greece for the unification of Morea, Theodore IIs enemies in that period included the Republic of Venice, which sent troops to impede his attempt to conquer Patras. During Theodores minority, his father Emperor Manuel II stayed in Morea and supervised its administration and defense, rebuilding the Hexamilion wall across the Isthmus of Corinth. A moment of change in policy was his marriage to the Latin noblewoman Cleofa Malatesta, arranged with the help of her uncle Pope Martin V. In a letter from around the time of Manuel IIs death, Pope Martin V called Theodore II emperor of Constantinople but the crown actually passed to his older brother John VIII. The war in Morea had started to go against the Byzantines and, under pressure from Carlo I Tocco, the Count of Kefalonia and ruler of Epirus, the Despot demanded help from his brother John VIII. That help came in the form of reinforcements led by their brother Constantine, the united efforts of the brothers contributed to the naval victory at the Echinades in 1427 and the conquest of Patras in 1430. The next several years were marred by disputes with Constantine over the succession to the childless John VIII, by his marriage to Cleofa Malatesta, an Italian aristocrat, Theodore II Palaiologos had at least one daughter, Helena Palaiologina. She married King John II of Cyprus, by a wet nurse, Theodore II Palaiologos had at least one illegitimate and protect son, Thomas Emanuele Pietro Palaiologos, migrated with his sister Helena Palaiologina to Cyprus. Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press,1991, joseph Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches Edward Gibbon The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire George Sphrantzes, The Fall of the Byzantine Empire
Theodore II Palaiologos
–
Theodore (third from left) as a youth with his parents and brothers
16.
Demetrios Palaiologos
–
Demetrios Palaiologos or Demetrius Palaeologus was a Byzantine prince and Despot. He ruled over Mesembria and Lemnos, before becoming Despot in the Morea in 1449 and he remained co-ruler of the Morea along with his brother Thomas Palaiologos until he surrendered Mistras to the Ottomans in 1460. He was given lands in Thrace as an appanage by Sultan Mehmed II, shortly after he was allowed to retire to Adrianople with his wife. He became a monk with the monastic name David after the death of his daughter Helena Palaiologina in 1469, Demetrios Palaiologos was born in ca.1407 as the fifth son of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos and his wife Helena Dragaš. His maternal grandfather was Constantine Dragaš, as a younger son Demetrios was not expected to rule, but was granted the court title of despot in accordance with standard practice. His ambition apparently led to conflict in the imperial family and he returned to Constantinople by 1427. He returned to Constantinople in January 1440, via Venice, forced to surrender Lemnos as penalty for returning home without the Emperors consent, Demetrios was compensated with a more distant appanage at Mesembria on the Black Sea in 1441. On 23 April 1442 he launched an attack on Constantinople with the support of the Ottomans, but it failed, the appanage of Selymbria, which he had sought, was turned over first to Constantine Palaiologos and then to Theodore II Palaiologos. On 31 October 1448 John VIII died, while his designated heir Constantine was in the Morea, exploiting his location nearer Constantinople, Demetrios tried to stage a coup détat and secure the throne for himself. His attempt failed, mostly due to the intervention of their mother, in 1449, the new emperor, Constantine XI, gave Demetrios half of the Morea in order to remove him from the vicinity of Constantinople. The following year the forces of the Palaiologos brothers, with Ottoman aid, not long after this victory, civil war erupted between Demetrios and his younger brother Thomas, who had ruled in the Morea alongside Constantine from 1428. As Thomas was threatening to dislodge Demetrios, the latter called on the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II for support, irritated by the brothers antics, in mid-May 1460, Mehmed arrived at Corinth and demanded that Demetrios, his vassal, come and meet him. The latter was afraid, and sent his brother-in-law Matthew Palaiologos Asen instead, the Sultan was known to respect Matthew, but Demetrios failure to appear enraged him, and he was not mollified by the sumptuous gifts that Matthew brought with him. Matthew was placed under arrest, and Mehmed marched against Mistras, Demetrios surrendered the city on 29 May. On the Sultans demand, he brought his wife and daughter from their refuge in Monemvasia, in recompense, Demetrios was given the town of Ainos in Thrace, as well as parts of the islands of Thasos and Samothrace, as an appanage. Along with his wife and her brother, Demetrios spent the seven years at Ainos. At that point, they fell from the Sultans favour and were dispossessed. According to Sphrantzes, admittedly a hostile source, that was because Matthew, Demetrios, Theodora, and Matthew left Ainos for Didymoteicho, where they lived in great poverty, and where Matthew died
Demetrios Palaiologos
–
Signature
Demetrios Palaiologos
–
The division of the
Despotate of the Morea between Thomas and Demetrios in 1450
17.
Andronikos Palaiologos (son of Manuel II)
–
Andronikos Palaiologos or Andronicus Palaeologus was a Byzantine prince and the last Byzantine governor of Thessalonica with the title of despot, from 1408 to 1423. Andronikos Palaiologos was a son of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos and his maternal grandfather was the Serb prince Constantine Dragaš. His brothers included emperors John VIII Palaiologos and Constantine XI Palaiologos, as well as Theodore II Palaiologos, Demetrios Palaiologos and Thomas Palaiologos, in childhood Andronikos survived the sickness which killed his older brother Constantine and two sisters. He never recovered in full, remaining in poor health for the rest of his life, when he was only eight years old his father made him a despot and appointed him imperial representative in Thessalonica, where he succeeded his deceased cousin John VII Palaiologos. As he was still a minor, for the first years of his rule there, 1415/1416, he was under the tutorship of the general Demetrios Laskaris Leontares. After John VIII assumed control of the government in 1421. Constantinople was attacked by the Ottomans in 1422, and Thessalonica was subject to a blockade in 1422–1423. Under siege, and increasingly unwell, Andronikos began diplomatic initiatives for the surrender of the city to the Republic of Venice and these negotiations resulted, in a Venetian force entering the city in 1423. The handing over of Thessalonica to Venice contributed to the outbreak of the first in a series of wars between Venice and the Ottoman Empire, the Ottomans conquered Thessalonica in 1430. His fate after the surrender of Thessalonica is obscure, with conflicting accounts in the sources, the contemporary Venetian Morosini Codex mentions a conspiracy led by Andronikos to surrender Thessalonica to the Turks. The plot was discovered in November 1423, and Andronikos and his supporters were exiled, with the Despot sent to Nauplia in the Morea, and his supporters to Siteia in Crete, Andros, and other places. The four men were exiled, first to Crete, and then to Venice itself, byzantium between the Ottomans and the Latins, Politics and Society in the Late Empire. The Papacy and the Levant, Volume II, The Fifteenth Century
Andronikos Palaiologos (son of Manuel II)
–
Andronikos (second from right) as a youth with his parents and brothers
18.
Thessalonica
–
Its nickname is η Συμπρωτεύουσα, literally the co-capital, a reference to its historical status as the Συμβασιλεύουσα or co-reigning city of the Eastern Roman Empire, alongside Constantinople. The city is renowned for its festivals, events and vibrant cultural life in general, Thessaloniki was the 2014 European Youth Capital. The city of Thessaloniki was founded in 315 BC by Cassander of Macedon, an important metropolis by the Roman period, Thessaloniki was the second largest and wealthiest city of the Byzantine Empire. It was conquered by the Ottomans in 1430, and passed from the Ottoman Empire to modern Greece on November 8,1912, the citys main university, Aristotle University, is the largest in Greece and the Balkans. Thessaloniki is a popular tourist destination in Greece, among street photographers, the center of Thessaloniki is also considered the most popular destination for street photography in Greece. All variations of the name derive from the original appellation in Ancient Greek, i. e. Θεσσαλονίκη. The alternative name Salonica derives from the variant form Σαλονίκη in colloquial Greek speech, in local speech, the citys name is typically pronounced with a dark and deep L characteristic of Macedonian Greek accent. The name often appears in writing in the abbreviated form Θεσ/νίκη, the city was founded around 315 BC by the King Cassander of Macedon, on or near the site of the ancient town of Therma and 26 other local villages. He named it after his wife Thessalonike, a half-sister of Alexander the Great, under the kingdom of Macedon the city retained its own autonomy and parliament and evolved to become the most important city in Macedon. After the fall of the kingdom of Macedon in 168 BC, the city later became the capital of one of the four Roman districts of Macedonia. Later it became the capital of all the Greek provinces of the Roman Empire because of the importance in the Balkan peninsula. At the time of the Roman Empire, about 50 A. D. Later, Paul wrote two letters to the new church at Thessaloniki, preserved in the Biblical canon as First and Second Thessalonians. Some scholars hold that the First Epistle to the Thessalonians is the first written book of the New Testament, in 306 AD, Thessaloniki acquired a patron saint, St. Demetrius, a native of Thessalonica whom Galerius put to death. A basilical church was first built in the 5th century AD dedicated to St. Demetrius, in 379, when the Roman Prefecture of Illyricum was divided between the East and West Roman Empires, Thessaloniki became the capital of the new Prefecture of Illyricum. In 390, Gothic troops under the Roman Emperor Theodosius I, led a massacre against the inhabitants of Thessalonica, by the time of the Fall of Rome in 476, Thessaloniki was the second-largest city of the Eastern Roman Empire. From the first years of the Byzantine Empire, Thessaloniki was considered the city in the Empire after Constantinople. With a population of 150,000 in the mid-12th century, the city held this status until its transfer to Venetian control in 1423. In the 14th century, the population exceeded 100,000 to 150,000
Thessalonica
–
The 4th-century AD
Rotunda of Galerius, one of several Roman monuments in the city and a
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Thessalonica
–
The
White Tower of Thessaloniki
Thessalonica
–
Hagia Sophia church was erected in the 8th century AD based on the
Hagia Sophia in
Constantinople. Hagia Sophia is one of 15
UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the city.
Thessalonica
–
Section of the
Walls of Thessaloniki
19.
Latin Empire
–
It was established after the capture of Constantinople in 1204 and lasted until 1261. Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders, was crowned the first Latin emperor as Baldwin I on 16 May 1204, the last Latin emperor, Baldwin II, went into exile, but the imperial title survived, with several pretenders to it, until the 14th century. The original name of state in the Latin language was Imperium Romaniae. This name was used based on the fact that the name for the Eastern Roman Empire in this period had been Romania. The names Byzantine and Latin were not contemporaneous terms, the term Latin has been used because the crusaders were Roman Catholic and used Latin as their liturgical and scholarly language. It is used in contrast to the Eastern Orthodox locals who used Greek in both liturgy and common speech, after the fall of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade, the crusaders agreed to divide up Byzantine territory. In the Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae, signed on 1 October 1204, none of these polities actually controlled the city of Rome, which remained under the temporal authority of the Pope. The initial campaigns of the crusaders in Asia Minor resulted in the capture of most of Bithynia by 1205, with the defeat of the forces of Theodore I Laskaris at Poemanenum and Prusa. Latin successes continued, and in 1207 a truce was signed with Theodore, the Latins inflicted a further defeat on Nicaean forces at the Rhyndakos river in October 1211, and three years later the Treaty of Nymphaeum recognized their control of most of Bithynia and Mysia. The peace was maintained until 1222, when the resurgent power of Nicaea felt sufficiently strong to challenge the Latin Empire, Nicaea turned also to the Aegean, capturing the islands awarded to the empire. In 1235, finally, the last Latin possessions fell to Nicaea, unlike in Asia, where the Latin Empire faced only an initially weak Nicaea, in Europe it was immediately confronted with a powerful enemy, the Bulgarian tsar Kaloyan. When Baldwin campaigned against the Byzantine lords of Thrace, they called upon Kaloyan for help, at the Battle of Adrianople on 14 April 1205, the Latin heavy cavalry and knights were crushed by Kaloyans troops and Cuman allies, and Emperor Baldwin was captured. He was imprisoned in the Bulgarian capital Tarnovo until his later in 1205. At the same time, another Greek successor state, the Despotate of Epirus, under Michael I Komnenos Doukas, posed a threat to the vassals in Thessalonica. Henry demanded his submission, which Michael provided, giving off his daughter to Henrys brother Eustace in the summer of 1209 and this alliance allowed Henry to launch a campaign in Macedonia, Thessaly and Central Greece against the rebellious Lombard lords of Thessalonica. However, Michaels attack on the Kingdom of Thessalonica in 1210 forced him to north to relieve the city. In 1214 however, Michael died, and was succeeded by Theodore Komnenos Doukas, on 11 June 1216, while supervising repairs to the walls of Thessalonica, Henry died, and was succeeded by Peter of Courtenay, who himself was captured and executed by Theodore the following year. A regency was set up in Constantinople, headed by Peters widow, Yolanda of Flanders, epirote armies then conquered Thrace in 1225–26, appearing before Constantinople itself
Latin Empire
–
Capture of Constantinople during the
Fourth Crusade in 1204.
Latin Empire
–
The Latin Empire with its vassals (in yellow) and the Greek successor states of the Byzantine Empire (in red) after the
Treaty of Nymphaeum in 1214. The borders are very uncertain.
20.
Principality of Achaea
–
The Principality of Achaea or of the Morea was one of the three vassal states of the Latin Empire which replaced the Byzantine Empire after the capture of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. It became a vassal of the Kingdom of Thessalonica, along with the Duchy of Athens, until Thessalonica was captured by Theodore, after this, Achaea became for a while the dominant power in Greece. Achaea was founded in 1205 by William of Champlitte and Geoffrey I of Villehardouin, the victory was decisive, and after the battle all resistance from the locals was limited to a few forts, that continued to hold out. The fort of Araklovon in Elis, was defended by Doxapatres Boutsaras and withstood the attacks until 1213, the fort of Monemvasia, and the castles of Argos, Nauplia and Corinth under Leo Sgouros held out until his suicide in 1208. By 1212, these too had conquered, and organized as the lordship of Argos and Nauplia. William of Champlitte ruled Achaea until he departed for France to assume an inheritance and he was succeeded by Geoffrey I of Villehardouin, who ruled until his own death in 1219. Achaea was rather small, consisting of the Peloponnese peninsula, but it was fairly wealthy, exporting wine, raisins, wax, honey, oil, the capital of the principality was originally at Andravida. It was bordered on the north by Epirus and the Duchy of Athens and surrounded by Venetian-held territories in the Aegean Sea, the twelve temporal barons were joined by seven ecclesiastic lords, headed by the Latin Archbishop of Patras. The twelve secular baronies were, Shortly after 1260, a barony, that of Arcadia was established. When Tsakonia and the mountainous regions of the southeast were subdued in the late 1240s. The twelve barons retained considerable powers and privileges, so that the Prince was not an absolute sovereign, thus they had the right to construct a castle without the Princes permission, or to decree capital punishment. Since Salic Law was not adopted in Achaea, women could inherit the fiefs. In addition, a Lower Court is mentioned, which abjudicated in matters of common law. On the other hand, all vassals owed the Prince four months service in the field and four months garrison duty every year, retiring after the age of sixty and this put the principality on constant war footing. Indeed, the knights of Achaea enjoyed a reputation both in the Levant and in Western Europe. The most important secular and ecclesiastical lords participated in the council of the Grand Court, the council had great authority, and its decisions were binding for the Prince. The Principality also produced a set of laws, the Assizes of Romania, which combined aspects of Byzantine and French law. Several Byzantine titles such as logothetes and protovestarius continued in use, the Frankish barons were subjected to heavy military obligations
Principality of Achaea
–
Achaean
tornese from Glarentza (Clarentia)
Principality of Achaea
–
The Latin Empire with its vassals and the Greek successor states after the partition of the Byzantine Empire, c. 1204. The borders are very uncertain.
Principality of Achaea
–
Map of the Greek and Latin states in southern Greece ca. 1278
21.
Centurione II Zaccaria
–
Centurione was the son of Andronikos Asen Zaccaria and grandson of Centurione I Zaccaria. He succeeded his father in the barony of Arkadia in 1402, though young, he was ambitious and he overthrew his aunt, Maria II Zaccaria, in Achaea in 1404, a move which was approved by his overlord, the king of Naples. Centurione then made his brother Stephen the Latin Archbishop of Patras, however, Centurione was quickly at war with his alienated relatives. His brother Stephen, however, abandoned the diocese of Patras to the Venetians on loan for five years, Centurione himself was forced to ally with the Venetians and Justinian, Lord of Chios, and to hire Albanian mercenaries to retake the port on 12 July 1414. In return for protection, he granted the ports of Glarentza. Thereafter, for three years, Centurione could obtain no help from Genoa, pressed by the Duke of Milan on land, in 1417, the imperial army of Constantinople, led by the despot Theodore II Palaeologus and Emperor John VIII, invaded Achaea. They took Messenia and Elis and holed up Centurione in Glarentza, a little later, Patras too fell. Only by the mediation of the Venetians occupying Navarino was the able to secure a truce. All that was left of the principality that once dominated Greece were a few fortresses, such as the ancestral castle, Centurione was allowed to keep his inheritance, the barony of Arcadia. Centurione retired to Arcadia in 1430, after the marriage was finalised and he died there two years later. His domains passed to the despotate of Morea and into Byzantine hands, Centurione left one illegitimate son, John Asen Zaccaria, who was the centre of later revolts against Greek authority. A History of the Crusades, Volume III, The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, cawley, Charles, Medieval Lands Project, Latin Lordships in Greece. Medieval Lands database, Foundation for Medieval Genealogy, Storia dell’isola di Scio prima dei Giustiniani e principali vicende della famiglia Zaccaria
Centurione II Zaccaria
–
Coat of arms of the Zaccaria family.
22.
Despotate of the Morea
–
The Despotate of the Morea or Despotate of Mystras was a province of the Byzantine Empire which existed between the mid-14th and mid-15th centuries. The territory was ruled by one or more sons of the current Byzantine emperor. Its capital was the city of Mystras, near ancient Sparta. The Despotate of the Morea was created out of territory seized from the Frankish Principality of Achaea and this had been organized from former Byzantine territory after the Fourth Crusade. In 1259, the Principalitys ruler William II Villehardouin lost the Battle of Pelagonia against the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus, William was forced to ransom himself by surrendering most of the eastern part of Morea and his newly built strongholds. The surrendered territory became the nucleus of the Despotate of Morea, a later Byzantine emperor, John VI Kantakouzenos, reorganized the territory during the mid-14th century to establish it as an appanage for his son, the Despot Manuel Kantakouzenos. The rival Palaiologos dynasty seized the Morea after Manuels death in 1380, Theodore ruled until 1407, consolidating Byzantine rule and coming to terms with his more powerful neighbours—particularly the expansionist Ottoman Empire, whose suzerainty he recognised. He also sought to reinvigorate the economy by inviting Albanians to settle in the territory. Subsequent despots were the sons of the Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos, brother of the despot Theodore, Constantine, Demetrios, however, in 1446 the Ottoman Sultan Murad II destroyed the Byzantine defences—the Hexamilion wall at the Isthmus of Corinth. His attack opened the peninsula to invasion, though Murad died before he could exploit this and his successor Mehmed II the Conqueror captured the Byzantine capital Constantinople in 1453. The despots, Demetrios Palaiologos and Thomas Palaiologos, brothers of the last emperor, failed to send him any aid and their own incompetence resulted in an Albanian–Greek revolt against them, during which they invited in Ottoman troops to help them put down the revolt. At this time, a number of influential Moreote Greeks and Albanians made private peace with Mehmed, Demetrios ended up a prisoner of the Ottomans and his younger brother Thomas fled. By the end of the summer the Ottomans had achieved the submission of all cities possessed by the Greeks. A few holdouts remained for a time, the rocky peninsula of Monemvasia refused to surrender and it was first ruled for a brief time by a Catalan corsair. When the population drove him out they obtained the consent of Thomas to submit to the Popes protection before the end of 1460, the Mani Peninsula, on the Moreas south end, resisted under a loose coalition of the local clans and then that area came under Venices rule. The very last holdout was Salmeniko, in the Moreas northwest, Graitzas Palaiologos was the military commander there, stationed at Salmeniko Castle. While the town surrendered, Graitzas and his garrison and some town residents held out in the castle until July 1461. Thus ended the last of the Byzantine Empire proper, after 1461 the only non-Ottoman territories were possessed by Venice, the port cities of Modon and Koroni at the southern end of the Morea, the Argolid with Argos, and the port of Nafplion
Despotate of the Morea
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The Byzantine Empire and the Latin and other states resulting from the Fourth Crusade, as they were in 1265. The Byzantine province of the Morea is also shown. (William R. Shepherd, Historical Atlas, 1911).
Despotate of the Morea
–
The Despotate of the Morea in 1450, divided between the two brothers,
Thomas and
Demetrios Palaiologos
23.
Mehmed II
–
Mehmed II, commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror, was an Ottoman sultan who ruled first for a short time from August 1444 to September 1446, and later from February 1451 to May 1481. At the age of 21, he conquered Constantinople and brought an end to the Eastern Roman Empire, Mehmed continued his conquests in Anatolia with its reunification and in Southeast Europe as far west as Bosnia. Mehmed is considered a hero in modern-day Turkey and parts of the wider Muslim world, among other things, Istanbuls Fatih district, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge and Fatih Mosque are named after him. Mehmed II was born on 30 March 1432, in Edirne and his father was Sultan Murad II and his mother Hüma Valide Hatun, born in the town of Devrekani, Kastamonu. When Mehmed II was eleven years old he was sent to Amasya to govern and thus gain experience, Sultan Murad II also sent a number of teachers for him to study under. This Islamic education had an impact in molding Mehmeds mindset. He was influenced in his practice of Islamic epistemology by practitioners of science - particularly by his mentor, Molla Gürani -, after Murad II made peace with the Karamanids in Anatolia in August 1444, he abdicated the throne to his 12-year-old son Mehmed II. In Mehmed IIs first reign, he defeated the crusade led by János Hunyadi after the Hungarian incursions into his country broke the conditions of the truce Peace of Szeged. Cardinal Julian Cesarini, the representative of the pope, had convinced the king of Hungary that breaking the truce with Muslims was not a betrayal, at this time Mehmed II asked his father Murad II to reclaim the throne, but Murad II refused. Angry at his father, who had long retired to a contemplative life in southwestern Anatolia, Mehmed II wrote, If you are the Sultan, come. If I am the Sultan I hereby order you to come and it was only after receiving this letter that Murad II led the Ottoman army and won the Battle of Varna in 1444. When Mehmed II ascended the throne again in 1451 he devoted himself to strengthening the Ottoman navy, having completed his fortresses, Mehmed proceeded to levy a toll on ships passing within reach of their cannon. Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, the companion and standard bearer of Muhammad, had died during the first Siege of Constantinople, as Mehmed IIs army approached Constantinople, Mehmeds sheikh Akshamsaddin discovered the tomb of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari. After the conquest, Mehmed built Eyüp Sultan Mosque at the site to emphasize the importance of the conquest to the Islamic world, in early April, the Siege of Constantinople began. At first, the walls held off the Turks, even though Mehmeds army used the new bombard designed by Orban. The harbor of the Golden Horn was blocked by a boom chain, thus the Byzantines stretched their troops over a longer portion of the walls. About a month later, Constantinople fell, on 29 May, after this conquest, Mehmed moved the Ottoman capital from Adrianople to Constantinople. The contemporary scholar George of Trebizond supported his claim, the claim was recognized by the Eastern Orthodox Church, but not by the Catholic Church and most of, if not all, Western Europe
Mehmed II
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Sultan Mehmed II smelling a rose, from the Sarayı Albums, c. 1480 CE
Mehmed II
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Accession of Mehmed II in
Edirne, 1451
Mehmed II
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Sultan Mehmed II's entry into
Constantinople, painting by
Fausto Zonaro (1854-1929)
Mehmed II
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Roumeli Hissar Castle built by the Sultan Mehmed II between 1451 and 1452, before the
conquered Constantinople
24.
Republic of Genoa
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It began when Genoa became a self-governing commune within the Regnum Italicum, and ended when it was conquered by the French First Republic under Napoleon and replaced with the Ligurian Republic. Corsica was ceded to France in the Treaty of Versailles of 1768, before 1100, Genoa emerged as an independent city-state, one of a number of Italian city-states during this period. Nominally, the Holy Roman Emperor was overlord and the Bishop of Genoa was president of the city, however, actual power was wielded by a number of consuls annually elected by popular assembly. The Adorno, Campofregoso, and other merchant families all fought for power in this Republic, as the power of the consuls allowed each family faction to gain wealth. The Republic of Genoa extended over modern Liguria and Piedmont, Sardinia, Corsica, through Genoese participation on the Crusades, Genoese colonies were established in the Middle East, in the Aegean, in Sicily and Northern Africa. The collapse of the Crusader States was offset by Genoa’s alliance with the Byzantine Empire, as Venices relations with the Byzantine Empire were temporarily disrupted by the Fourth Crusade and its aftermath, Genoa was able to improve its position. Genoa took advantage of opportunity to expand into the Black Sea and Crimea. Internal feuds between the families, the Grimaldi and Fieschi, the Doria, Spinola, and others caused much disruption. However, this prosperity did not last, the Black Death was imported into Europe in 1347 from the Genoese trading post at Caffa in Crimea, on the Black Sea. Following the economic and population collapse, Genoa adopted the Venetian model of government, the wars with Venice continued, and the War of Chioggia -- where Genoa almost managed to decisively subdue Venice—ended with Venices recovery of dominance in the Adriatic. In 1390 Genoa initiated a crusade against the Barbary pirates with help from the French, though it has not been well-studied, the fifteenth century seems to have been a tumultuous time for Genoa. After a period of French domination from 1394–1409, Genoa came under rule by the Visconti of Milan, Genoa lost Sardinia to Aragon, Corsica to internal revolt and its Middle Eastern, Eastern European and Asia Minor colonies to the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Under the ensuing economic recovery, many aristocratic Genoese families, such as the Balbi, Doria, Grimaldi, Pallavicini, according to Felipe Fernandez-Armesto and others, the practices Genoa developed in the Mediterranean were crucial in the exploration and exploitation of the New World. At the time of Genoa’s peak in the 16th century, the city attracted many artists, including Rubens, Caravaggio and Van Dyck. The architect Galeazzo Alessi designed many of the city’s splendid palazzi, as did in the decades that followed by fifty years Bartolomeo Bianco, a number of Genoese Baroque and Rococo artists settled elsewhere and a number of local artists became prominent. At the time of its founding in the early 11th century the Republic of Genoa consisted of the city of Genoa, as the commerce of the city increased, so did the territory of the Republic. By 1015 all of Liguria fell under the Republic of Genoa, after the First Crusade in 1098 Genoa gained settlements in Syria. In 1261 the city of Smyrna in Asia Minor became Genoese territory, in 1255 Genoa established the colony of Caffa in Crimea
Republic of Genoa
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View of Genoa and its fleet by Christoforo de Grassi (1597 copy, after a drawing of 1481); Galata Museo del Mare, Genoa.
Republic of Genoa
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Flag
Republic of Genoa
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Siege of
Antioch, 1098
Republic of Genoa
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Galata Tower (1348) in
Galata,
Istanbul.
25.
Pope
–
The pope is the Bishop of Rome and, therefore, the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church. The current pope is Francis, who was elected on 13 March 2013, the office of the pope is the papacy. The pope is considered one of the worlds most powerful people because of his diplomatic and he is also head of state of Vatican City, a sovereign city-state entirely enclaved within the Italian capital city of Rome. The papacy is one of the most enduring institutions in the world and has had a prominent part in world history, the popes in ancient times helped in the spread of Christianity and the resolution of various doctrinal disputes. In the Middle Ages, they played a role of importance in Western Europe. Currently, in addition to the expansion of the Christian faith and doctrine, the popes are involved in ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, charitable work, Popes, who originally had no temporal powers, in some periods of history accrued wide powers similar to those of temporal rulers. In recent centuries, popes were gradually forced to give up temporal power, the word pope derives from Greek πάππας meaning father. The earliest record of the use of title was in regard to the by then deceased Patriarch of Alexandria. Some historians have argued that the notion that Peter was the first bishop of Rome, the writings of the Church Father Irenaeus who wrote around AD180 reflect a belief that Peter founded and organised the Church at Rome. Moreover, Irenaeus was not the first to write of Peters presence in the early Roman Church, Clement of Rome wrote in a letter to the Corinthians, c. 96, about the persecution of Christians in Rome as the struggles in our time and presented to the Corinthians its heroes, first, the greatest and most just columns, the good apostles Peter and Paul. St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote shortly after Clement and in his letter from the city of Smyrna to the Romans he said he would not command them as Peter and Paul did. Given this and other evidence, many agree that Peter was martyred in Rome under Nero. Protestants contend that the New Testament offers no proof that Jesus established the papacy nor even that he established Peter as the first bishop of Rome, others, using Peters own words, argue that Christ intended himself as the foundation of the church and not Peter. First-century Christian communities would have had a group of presbyter-bishops functioning as leaders of their local churches, gradually, episcopacies were established in metropolitan areas. Antioch may have developed such a structure before Rome, some writers claim that the emergence of a single bishop in Rome probably did not occur until the middle of the 2nd century. In their view, Linus, Cletus and Clement were possibly prominent presbyter-bishops, documents of the 1st century and early 2nd century indicate that the Holy See had some kind of pre-eminence and prominence in the Church as a whole, though the detail of what this meant is unclear. It seems that at first the terms episcopos and presbyter were used interchangeably, the consensus among scholars has been that, at the turn of the 1st and 2nd centuries, local congregations were led by bishops and presbyters whose offices were overlapping or indistinguishable
Pope
Pope
–
Bishop of
Rome
Pope
–
Saint Peter
Pope
–
St. Peter's Basilica,
Vatican City
26.
Hexamilion wall
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The Hexamilion wall is a defensive wall constructed across the Isthmus of Corinth guarding the only land route into the Peloponnese peninsula from mainland Greece. The Hexamilion stands at the end of a series of attempts to fortify the Isthmus stretching back to perhaps the Mycenean period. Many of the Peloponnesian cities wanted to back and fortify the Isthmus instead of making a stand at Thermopylae when Xerxes invaded in 480 BC. The issue arose again before the Battle of Salamis, although the concept of a fortress Peloponnese was repeatedly appealing, fortification of the Isthmus was of no utility without control of the ocean, as Herodotos notes. The wall was constructed in the period between 408 AD and 450 AD, in the reign of Theodosius II during the time of the great Barbarian invasions into the Roman Empire. The attack of Alaric on Greece in 396 AD or the sack of Rome in 410 AD by the Visigoths may have motivated the construction, which included towers, sea bastions, and at minimum one fortress. The one known fortress contained two gates, of which the northern gate functioned as the entrance to the Peloponessos. The wall was constructed with a rubble and mortar core faced with squared stones and it is not certain how long it took to complete, but the importance given to the task is apparent from the scale of the construction, the Hexamilion is the largest archaeological structure in Greece. In the reign of Justinian, the wall was fortified with additional towers, military use appears to have fallen off after the 7th century AD, and by the 11th AD domestic structures were being built into the wall. In 1415, the Byzantine emperor Manuel II personally supervised repairs over a period of forty days, the high cost of this effort caused unrest among the local elite. The wall was breached in 1423 and again in 1431 by the Ottomans under the command of Turahan Bey, despot Constantine Palaiologos restored the wall again in 1444, but the Turks breached it again in 1446 and in October 1452. After the Ottoman conquest of the Peloponnese in 1460, the wall was abandoned, during its history, the wall never succeeded in fulfilling the function for which it was constructed, unless it acted as a deterrent. Elements of the wall are preserved south of the Corinth Canal, official website Excavations on the Hexamilion, by the Ohio State University
Hexamilion wall
–
A preserved portion of the wall with the base of a tower.
27.
Isthmus of Corinth
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The Isthmus of Corinth is the narrow land bridge which connects the Peloponnese peninsula with the rest of the mainland of Greece, near the city of Corinth. The word isthmus comes from the Ancient Greek word for neck, the Isthmus was known in the ancient world as the landmark separating the Peloponnese from mainland Greece. In the first century CE the geographer Strabo noted a stele on the Isthmus of Corinth, to the west of the Isthmus is the Gulf of Corinth, to the east the Saronic Gulf. Since 1893 the Corinth Canal has run through the 6.3 km wide isthmus, today, two road bridges, two railway bridges and two submersible bridges at both ends of the canal connect the mainland side of the isthmus with the Peloponnese side. Also a military emergency bridge is located at the west end of the canal, the idea for a shortcut to save boats sailing all round the Peloponnese was long considered by the Ancient Greeks. The first attempt to build a canal there was carried out by the tyrant Periander in the 7th century BC and he abandoned the project owing to technical difficulties, and instead constructed a simpler and less costly overland stone ramp, named Diolkos, as a portage road. Remnants of Diolkos still exist today next to the modern canal, when the Romans took control of Greece, a number of different solutions were tried. Julius Caesar foresaw the advantages of a link for his newly built Colonia Laus Iulia Corinthiensis, by the reign of Tiberius, engineers tried to dig a canal, but were defeated by lack of modern equipment. Instead they built an Ancient Egyptian device, boats were rolled across the isthmus on logs and this was in use by AD32. In AD67, the philhellene Roman emperor Nero ordered 6,000 slaves to dig a canal with spades, historian Flavius Josephus writes that the 6000 slaves were Jewish pirates, taken captive by Vespasian during the Jewish wars. According to Pliny the Elder, the work advanced four stadia, the following year Nero died, and his successor Galba abandoned the project as being too expensive. In the modern era, the idea was first seriously proposed in 1830, soon after Greeces independence from the Ottoman Empire, near the canal runs an ancient stone trackway, the Diolkos, once used for dragging ships overland. There are major concerns about preservation of this path, Greek campaigners are calling for greater effort by the Greek government to protect this archaeological site. The Hexamilion wall is a Roman defensive wall constructed across the Isthmus of Corinth guarding the land route into the Peloponnese peninsula from mainland Greece
Isthmus of Corinth
–
Aerial photography of the isthmus of Corinth.
Isthmus of Corinth
–
Sailing through the isthmus of Corinth, using the
Corinth Canal.
Isthmus of Corinth
–
The submersible bridge at the Aegean side of canal
Isthmus of Corinth
–
The Peloponnese seen from space, with the Isthmus of Corinth at upper right
28.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
Italy
–
The
Colosseum in Rome, built c. 70 – 80 AD, is considered one of the greatest works of
architecture and
engineering of ancient history.
Italy
–
Flag
Italy
–
The
Iron Crown of Lombardy, for centuries symbol of the
Kings of Italy.
Italy
–
Castel del Monte, built by German Emperor
Frederick II,
UNESCO World Heritage site
29.
Morea
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The Morea was the name of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The name was used for the Byzantine province known as the Despotate of the Morea, by the Ottoman Empire for the Morea Eyalet, there is some uncertainty over the origin of the medieval name Morea, which is first recorded only in the 10th century in the Byzantine chronicles. The British Byzantinist Steven Runciman suggested that the name comes from the likeness of its shape to that of a mulberry leaf, after the conquest of Constantinople by the forces of the Fourth Crusade, two groups of Franks undertook the occupation of the Morea. They created the Principality of Achaea, a largely Greek-inhabited statelet ruled by a Latin autocrat, in referring to the Peloponnese, they followed local practice and used the name Morea. The most important prince in the Morea was Guillaume II de Villehardouin, an initial Byzantine drive to reconquer the entire peninsula failed in the battles of Prinitza and Makryplagi, and the Byzantines and Franks settled to an uneasy coexistence. In the mid-14th century, the later Byzantine Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos reorganized Morea into the Despotate of the Morea, sons of the emperor with the rank of despotes were usually sent to rule the province as an appanage. By 1430, the Byzantines eventually recovered the remainder of the Frankish part of the Morea, in July 1461 the last holdout, Salmeniko Castle, was taken. The peninsula was captured for the Republic of Venice by Francesco Morosini during the Morean War of 1684–99, venetian rule proved unpopular, and the Ottomans recaptured the Morea in a lightning campaign in 1714. Under renewed Ottoman rule, centered at Tripolitsa, the region enjoyed relative prosperity, the latter 18th century was marked by renewed dissatisfaction. Armed bands of the klephts emerged, undeterred by the repression of the Orlov Revolt. They waged guerrilla war against the Turks, aided both by the decay of Ottoman power and the emergence of Greek national consciousness, ultimately, the Morea and its inhabitants provided the cradle and backbone of the Greek Revolution. The anonymous 14th century Chronicle of the Morea relates events of the Franks establishment of feudalism in mainland Greece following the Fourth Crusade, despite its unreliability about historical events, the Chronicle is famous for its lively portrayal of life in the feudal community. The language in Greek versions is notable as it reflects the transition from Medieval to Modern Greek. The original language of the Chronicle is disputed, but recent scholarship prefers the Greek version in MS Havniensis 57, other manuscripts include the Ms Parisinus graecus 2898. The difference of one century in the texts shows a considerable number of linguistic differences due to the rapid evolution of the Greek language. List of traditional Greek place names Bon, Antoine, recherches historiques, topographiques et archéologiques sur la principauté d’Achaïe. M. J. Jeffreys, The Chronicle of Morea, Priority of the Greek Version, teresa Shawcross, The Chronicle of Morea, Historiography in Crusader Greece
Morea
–
The Morea ca. 1265 in its international context: the
Byzantine Empire and the
Frankish states of Greece. Map from William R. Shepherd's Historical Atlas (1911)
Morea
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Map of the medieval Peloponnese with its principal localities
