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Basilikoi Anthropoi
The term ''basilikoi anthropoi'' ( el, βασιλικοί ἄνθρωποι, "the imperial men") appears in Byzantine documents of the 9th–10th centuries and has two distinct meanings: * as a generic term, it is used by the manuals on court ceremony like the ''Kletorologion'' of 899 to indicate the highest-ranking imperial functionaries * as a more technical term, it referred to a rather lowly class of imperial servants which possibly constituted a special military detachment. The latter group included holders of minor dignities like ''stratores'' and '' spatharokandidatoi'' and was headed by the ''protospatharios'' of the ''basilikoi anthropoi'', later (in the '' De Ceremoniis'' and the ''Escorial Taktikon'') also called the ''katepano'' of the ''basilikoi''. He was aided by a ''domestikos'' and his staff included "'' kandidatoi'' of the Hippodrome", ''basilikoi mandatores'' and '' spatharioi'', the latter of whom sometimes appear to participate in military actions, which led Nic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basileus
''Basileus'' ( el, ) is a Greek term and title that has signified various types of monarchs in history. In the English-speaking world it is perhaps most widely understood to mean "monarch", referring to either a "king" or an "emperor" and also by bishops of the Eastern orthodox church and Eastern Catholic Churches. The title was used by sovereigns and other persons of authority in ancient Greece, the Byzantine emperors, and the kings of modern Greece. The feminine forms are ''basileia'' (), ''basilis'' (), ''basilissa'' (), or the archaic '' basilinna'' (), meaning "queen" or "empress". Etymology The etymology of ''basileus'' is uncertain. The Mycenaean form was *''gʷasileus'' ( Linear B: , ''qa-si-re-u''), denoting some sort of court official or local chieftain, but not an actual king. Its hypothetical earlier Proto-Greek form would be *''gʷatileus''. Some linguists assume that it is a non-Greek word that was adopted by Bronze Age Greeks from a pre-existing linguistic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byzantine Titles And Offices
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople. 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 the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire remained the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. The terms "Byzantine Empire" and "Eastern Roman Empire" were coined after the end of the realm; its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the Roman Empire, and to themselves as Romans—a term which Greeks continued to use for themselves into Ottoman times. Although the Roman state continued and its traditions were maintained, modern historians prefer to differentiate the Byzantine Empire from Ancient Rome ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Oxford Dictionary Of Byzantium
The ''Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium'' (ODB) is a three-volume historical dictionary published by the English Oxford University Press. With more than 5,000 entries, it contains comprehensive information in English on topics relating to the Byzantine Empire. It was edited by Alexander Kazhdan, and was first published in 1991.''The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium'', Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford, 1991. Kazhdan was a professor at Princeton University who became a Senior Research Associate at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, before his death. He contributed to many of the articles in the Dictionary and always signed his initials ''A.K.'' at the end of the article to indicate his contribution. Description The dictionary is available in printed and e-reference text versions from Oxford Reference Online. It covers the main historical events of Byzantium, as well as important social and religious events. It also includes biographies of eminent political and literary personal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Franks
The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, Weapons and Ornaments: Germanic Material Culture in Pre-Carolingian Central Europe, 400-750. BRILL, 2001, p.42. Later the term was associated with Romanized Germanic dynasties within the collapsing Western Roman Empire, who eventually commanded the whole region between the rivers Loire and Rhine. They imposed power over many other post-Roman kingdoms and Germanic peoples. Beginning with Charlemagne in 800, Frankish rulers were given recognition by the Catholic Church as successors to the old rulers of the Western Roman Empire. Although the Frankish name does not appear until the 3rd century, at least some of the original Frankish tribes had long been known to the Romans under their own names, both as allies providing soldiers, and as e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Khazars
The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, and Kazakhstan. They created what for its duration was the most powerful polity to emerge from the break-up of the Western Turkic Khaganate. Astride a major artery of commerce between Eastern Europe and Western Asia, Southwestern Asia, Khazaria became one of the foremost trading empires of the Early Middle Ages, early medieval world, commanding the western March (territory), marches of the Silk Road and playing a key commercial role as a crossroad between China, the Middle East and Kievan Rus'. For some three centuries (c. 650–965) the Khazars dominated the vast area extending from the Volga-Don steppes to the eastern Crimea and the northern Caucasus. Khazari ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicolas Oikonomides
Nikolaos or Nikos Oikonomides ( el, Νικόλαος Οικονομίδης, 14 February 1934 – 31 May 2000) was a Greek Byzantinist, and one of the leading experts in the field of Byzantine administration. Biography Oikonomides was born in Athens. He studied in the University of Athens from 1951 to 1956, under the tutelage of Byzantinist Dionysios Zakythinos. After obtaining his degree, in 1958 he went to Paris to pursue doctoral studies under Paul Lemerle. His studies in Paris also introduced him to sigillography, and led to the discovery of the so-called ''Escorial Taktikon'' or ''Taktikon Oikonomides''. The outcome of his work on ''Escorial Taktikon'' and the other '' Taktika'' (seating lists in Byzantine imperial banquets) was published in 1972, as the ''Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècle'', containing a translation and commentary on the ''Taktika''. Oikonomides returned to Greece, but the establishment of the dictatorial Regime of the Colonels in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spatharios
The ''spatharii'' or ''spatharioi'' (singular: la, spatharius; el, σπαθάριος, literally "spatha-bearer") were a class of Late Roman imperial bodyguards in the court in Constantinople in the 5th–6th centuries, later becoming a purely honorary dignity in the Byzantine Empire. History Originally, the term was probably applied to both private and imperial bodyguards.. The original imperial ''spatharioi'' were probably or later became also the eunuch '' cubicularii'' (Greek: ''koubikoularioi''), members of the ''sacrum cubiculum'' (the imperial "sacred chamber") charged with military duties. They are attested from the reign of Emperor Theodosius II (r. 408–450), where the eunuch Chrysaphius held the post. The existence of the specific title of ''spatharokoubikoularios'' for eunuchs in 532 probably suggests the existence by then of other, non-eunuch, ''spatharioi'' in imperial service. The various generals and provincial governors also maintained military attendants calle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mandator
The ''mandatōr'' ( el, μανδάτωρ), deriving from the Latin word for "messenger", was a subaltern official in the middle Byzantine Empire. History and functions The ''mandatores'' were a corps of messengers for special duties attached to the bureaux of all senior civil and military officials, such as the thematic '' stratēgoi'', the commanders of the '' tagmata'', the logothetes and others. They were then headed by a ''prōtomandatōr'' (πρωτομανδάτωρ, "first ''mandatōr''"), a mid-level official.. These officials must be distinguished from the honorary dignity of ''basilikos mandatōr'' (βασιλικὸς μανδάτωρ, "imperial ''mandatōr''"), which was one of the lower court titles (fourth from the bottom, between the '' vestētōr'' and the '' kandidatos'') intended for "bearded men" (i.e. non-eunuchs). According to the '' Klētorologion'' of 899, its insigne was a red wand. Together with the other lower rank classes, the ''basilikoi mandatores'' wer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Domestikos
''Domestikos'' (; el, δομέστικος, from the la, domesticus, , of the household), in English sometimes heDomestic, was a civil, ecclesiastic and military office in the late Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire. Military usage The ''domestikoi'' trace their ancestry to the ''protectores domestici'' guard unit of the Late Roman army, established in the late 3rd century. These were a corps of men that served as a staff to the Roman emperors, while also functioning as an officer school. These continued in existence in the Eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire until the late 6th century. In the Byzantine army, the old ''protectores domestici'' had vanished by the 7th century, and the name only remained as a title associated with certain guard units. Following the creation of the '' tagmata'' in the mid-8th century, four of them, the ''Scholai'', the ''Exkoubitoi'', the ''Hikanatoi'' and the ''Noumeroi'', as well as, uniquely, the '' thema'' of the Optimatoi, were led by a ''domest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople. 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 the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire remained the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. The terms "Byzantine Empire" and "Eastern Roman Empire" were coined after the end of the realm; its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the Roman Empire, and to themselves as Romans—a term which Greeks continued to use for themselves into Ottoman times. Although the Roman state continued and its traditions were maintained, modern historians prefer to differentiate the Byzantine Empire from Ancient Rome a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Katepano
The ''katepánō'' ( el, κατεπάνω, lit. "he oneplaced at the top", or " the topmost") was a senior Byzantine military rank and office. The word was Latinized as ''capetanus/catepan'', and its meaning seems to have merged with that of the Italian "capitaneus" (which derives from the Latin word "caput", meaning head). This hybridized term gave rise to the English language term ''captain'' and its equivalents in other languages (Capitan, Kapitan, Kapitän, El Capitán, Il Capitano, Kapudan Pasha etc.) History The ''katepáno'' first appears in the 9th century, when it was used in the generic sense of "the one in charge" by two officials: the head of the ''basilikoi anthrōpoi'' ("imperial men"), a class of low-level court functionaries, and the head of the Mardaites marine detachments of the Byzantine naval theme of the Cibyrrhaeots in southern Asia Minor. On the eve of the great eastern conquests of the 960s, however, the title acquired a more specific meaning. The reconq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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