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Aegean Sea (theme)
The Theme of the Aegean Sea ( el, θέμα τοῦ Αἰγαίου Πελάγους, ''thema tou Aigaiou Pelagous'') was a Byzantine province in the northern Aegean Sea, established in the mid-9th century. As one of the Byzantine Empire's three dedicated naval themes (Greek: ), it served chiefly to provide ships and troops for the Byzantine navy, but also served as a civil administrative circumscription. Origins The theme has its origins in the late antique civil province of the "Islands" ( la, Insulae; el, Nήσοι, Nēsoi), which encompassed the islands of the southeastern and eastern Aegean up to Tenedos. The term "''Aigaion Pelagos''" appears for the first time as an administrative circumscription in the early 8th century, when seals of several of its '' kommerkiarioi'' (customs officials) are attested. One seal, dated to 721/722, even refers to an official in charge of all the Greek islands, possibly implying an extension of the old province over the islands of the northern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theme (country Subdivision)
The themes or ( el, θέματα, , singular: , ) were the main military/administrative divisions of the middle Byzantine Empire. They were established in the mid-7th century in the aftermath of the Slavic migrations to the Balkans, Slavic invasion of the Balkans and Muslim conquests of parts of Byzantine territory, and replaced the earlier Roman province#Diocletian's reforms, provincial system established by Diocletian and Constantine the Great. In their origin, the first themes were created from the areas of encampment of the field armies of the East Roman army, and their names corresponded to the military units that had existed in those areas. The theme system reached its apogee in the 9th and 10th centuries, as older themes were split up and the conquest of territory resulted in the creation of new ones. The original theme system underwent significant changes in the 11th and 12th centuries, but the term remained in use as a provincial and financial circumscription until the v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Droungarios
A ''droungarios'', also spelled ''drungarios'' ( el, δρουγγάριος, la, drungarius) and sometimes anglicized as Drungary, was a military rank of the late Roman and Byzantine empires, signifying the commander of a formation known as ''droungos''. Late Roman and Byzantine army Latin-speakers adopted the word ''drungus'' - first attested in the early 4th century - either from Gaulish or from a Germanic language. In the late 6th century, the Emperor Maurice (r. 582–602) in his '' Strategikon'' used ''droungos'' to refer to a specific tactical deployment, usually of cavalry, although still in the general sense of "grouping, division". The term ''droungarios'' (Greek: δρουγγάριος) is not documented before the early 7th century but might have been used as an informal or unofficial designation before that date. The office and the corresponding unit appear to have initially referred to ''ad hoc'' arrangements, but during the early 7th century these were formalized, l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lemnos
Lemnos or Limnos ( el, Λήμνος; grc, Λῆμνος) is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within the Lemnos regional unit, which is part of the North Aegean region. The principal town of the island and seat of the municipality is Myrina. At , it is the 8th-largest island of Greece. Geography Lemnos is mostly flat, but the west, and especially the northwest part, is rough and mountainous. The highest point is Mount Skopia at the altitude of 430 m. The chief towns are Myrina, on the western coast, and Moudros on the eastern shore of a large bay in the middle of the island. Myrina (also called Kastro, meaning "castle") possesses a good harbour. It is the seat of all trade carried on with the mainland. The hillsides afford pasture for sheep, and Lemnos has a strong husbandry tradition, being famous for its Kalathaki Limnou ( PDO), a cheese made from sheep and goat milk and melipasto cheese, and for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959) was the fourth Emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe Karbonopsina, and the nephew of his predecessor Alexander. Most of his reign was dominated by co-regents: from 913 until 919 he was under the regency of his mother, while from 920 until 945 he shared the throne with Romanos Lekapenos, whose daughter Helena he married, and his sons. Constantine VII is best known for the ''Geoponika'' (τά γεοπονικά), an important agronomic treatise compiled during his reign, and three, perhaps four, books; '' De Administrando Imperio'' (bearing in Greek the heading Πρὸς τὸν ἴδιον υἱὸν Ῥωμανόν), '' De Ceremoniis'' (Περὶ τῆς Βασιλείου Τάξεως), '' De Thematibus'' (Περὶ θεμάτων Άνατολῆς καὶ Δύσεως), and ''Vita Basilii'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marines (military)
Marines, or naval infantry, are typically a military force trained to operate in littoral zones in support of naval operations. Historically, tasks undertaken by marines have included helping maintain discipline and order aboard the ship (reflecting the pressed nature of the ship's company and the risk of mutiny), the boarding of vessels during combat or capture of prize ships, and providing manpower for raiding ashore in support of the naval objectives. In most countries, the marines are an integral part of that state's navy. The exact term "marine" does not exist in many languages other than English. In French-speaking countries, two terms exist which could be translated as "marine", but do not translate exactly: and ; similar pseudo-translations exist elsewhere, e.g. in Portuguese (). The word ''marine'' means "navy" in many European languages such as Dutch, French, German, Italian and Norwegian. History In the earliest day of naval warfare, there was little dist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asia Minor Slavs
The Asia Minor Slavs were the historical South Slav communities relocated by the Byzantine Empire from the Balkans to Asia Minor (Anatolia). After Maurice's Balkan campaigns (582–602) and during the subduing of the Slavs in the Balkans in the 7th and the 8th centuries, large communities were forcefully relocated to Anatolia as military units to fight the Umayyad Caliphate. History 7th century The earliest evidence for a relocation of Slavs from the Balkans may be a seal dated to 650. In 658 and 688/9 the Byzantines invited groups of Slavic settlers to Bithynia. Constans II settled captured Slavs in Asia Minor, and 5,000 of these joined Abdulreman ibn Khalid in 664-665. There was a town in Bithynia known as Gordoservon, mentioned in 680–81, whose name possibly derived from the Serbs resettled there from the areas "around river Vardar" by Byzantine Emperor Constans II (r. 641–668), in the mid-7th century (in ca. 649 or 667). Justinian II (685-695) also settled as many as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opsician Theme
The Opsician Theme ( gr, θέμα Ὀψικίου, ''thema Opsikiou'') or simply Opsikion (Greek: , from la, Obsequium) was a Byzantine theme (a military-civilian province) located in northwestern Asia Minor (modern Turkey). Created from the imperial retinue army, the ''Opsikion'' was the largest and most prestigious of the early themes, being located closest to Constantinople. Involved in several revolts in the 8th century, it was split in three after ca. 750, and lost its former pre-eminence. It survived as a middle-tier theme until after the Fourth Crusade. History The Opsician theme was one of the first four themes, and has its origin in the praesential armies of the East Roman army. The term ''Opsikion'' derives from the Latin term ''Obsequium'' ("retinue"), which by the early 7th century came to refer to the units escorting the emperor on campaign. It is possible that at an early stage, the ''Opsikion'' was garrisoned inside Constantinople itself. In the 640s, however, foll ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bandon (Byzantine Empire)
The ''bandon'' ( el, βάνδον) was the basic military unit and administrative territorial entity of the middle Byzantine Empire. Its name, like the Latin and ("ensign, banner"), had a Germanic origin. It derived from the Gothic , which is proof of foreign influence in the army at the time this type of unit evolved. Origin The term was used already in the 6th century, mentioned by Procopius, as a term for a battle standard, and soon came to be applied to the unit bearing such a standard itself. From the reign of Nikephoros I (802–811) it was the name for a subdistrict of the Byzantine . Organization In the Byzantine army of the 8th–11th centuries, the formed the basic unit, with five to seven forming a , the major subdivision of a , a combined military-civilian province. Each was commanded by a ("count"), with infantry 200–400 strong and cavalry 50–100 strong. It is considered that the in the (9th century) previously in the (6th century) was alternatively wr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tourma
A ''turma'' (Latin for "swarm, squadron", plural ''turmae''), (Greek: τούρμα) was a cavalry unit in the Roman army of the Republic and Empire. In the Byzantine Empire, it became applied to the larger, regiment-sized military-administrative divisions of a '' thema''. The word is often translated as "squadron" but so is the term ''ala'', a unit that was made up of several ''turmae''. Roman army Republic In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, the time of the Punic Wars and Rome's expansion into Spain and Greece, the core of the Roman army was formed by citizens, augmented by contingents from Rome's allies (''socii''). The organization of the Roman legion of the period is described by the Greek historian Polybius (cf. the so-called " Polybian army"), who writes that each 4,200-strong infantry legion was accompanied by 300 citizen cavalry (''equites''). This contingent was divided into ten ''turmae''.. According to Polybius, the squadron members would elect as their officers three ''dec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lesbos
Lesbos or Lesvos ( el, Λέσβος, Lésvos ) is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of with approximately of coastline, making it the third largest island in Greece. It is separated from Anatolia, Asia Minor by the narrow Mytilini Strait. On the southeastern coast lies the island's capital and largest city, Mytilene, whose name is also used as a moniker for the island. The regional units of Greece, regional unit of Lesbos, with the seat in Mytilene, comprises the islands of Lesbos, Chios, Ikaria, Lemnos, and Samos. Mytilene is also the capital of the larger North Aegean region. The population of the island is 83,068, a third of whom live in the capital, while the remainder is distributed in small towns and villages. The largest are Plomari, Kalloni, the Gera Villages, Agiassos, Eresos, and Molyvos (the ancient Mythimna). According to later Greek writers, Mytilene was founded in the 11th century BC by the family Penthilidae, who arrived from T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taktikon Uspensky
The ''Taktikon Uspensky'' or ''Uspenskij'' is the conventional name of a mid-9th century Greek list of the civil, military and ecclesiastical offices of the Byzantine Empire and their precedence at the imperial court. Nicolas Oikonomides has dated it to 842/843, making it the first of a series of such documents ('' taktika'') extant from the 9th and 10th centuries. The document is named after the Russian Byzantinist Fyodor Uspensky, who discovered it in the late 19th century in a 12th/13th-century manuscript (''codex Hierosolymitanus gr. 39'') in the library of the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which also contained a portion of the ''Kletorologion The ''Klētorologion'' of Philotheos ( el, Κλητορολόγιον), is the longest and most important of the Byzantine lists of offices and court precedence ('' Taktika'').. It was published in September 899 during the reign of Emperor Leo VI t ...'' of Philotheos, a later ''taktikon''.Bury (1911), pp. 10, 12 Editions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strategos
''Strategos'', plural ''strategoi'', Linguistic Latinisation, Latinized ''strategus'', ( el, στρατηγός, pl. στρατηγοί; Doric Greek: στραταγός, ''stratagos''; meaning "army leader") is used in Greek language, Greek to mean military General officer, general. In the Hellenistic world and the Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire the term was also used to describe a military governor. In the modern Hellenic Army, it is the highest officer rank. Etymology ''Strategos'' is a compound of two Greek words: ''stratos'' and ''agos''. ''Stratos'' (στρατός) means "army", literally "that which is spread out", coming from the proto-Indo-European root *stere- "to spread". ''Agos'' (ἀγός) means "leader", from ''agein'' (ἄγειν) "to lead", from the proto-Ιndo-Εuropean root *ag- "to drive, draw out or forth, move”. Classical Greece Athens In its most famous attestation, in Classical Athens, the office of ''strategos'' existed already in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
