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Bryennios Family
Bryennios or Bryennius ( el, Βρυέννιος), feminine form Bryennissa (Βρυέννισσα), was the name of a noble Byzantine family which rose to prominence in the 11th and 12th centuries, mostly as military commanders. The etymology of the name is uncertain. The first members of the family appear in the 9th century, with the '' strategos'' Theoktistos Bryennios. None are known for the 10th, but they reappear in the latter half of the 11th century, when they rose to high military commands and became associated with the Komnenian dynasty. Members of the family retained high positions through the 12th century, and are documented up to the 15th century. Notable members * Alexios Bryennios, '' megas doux'' in 1156 * Joseph Bryennios (c. 1350 – 1430), Byzantine monk and writer * Manuel Bryennios (fl. 1300), Byzantine scholar * Nikephoros Bryennios (ethnarch) (fl. 1050s), Byzantine general * Nikephoros Bryennios the Elder (fl. 1070s), Byzantine general, son of the ethnarch, ... [...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] |
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] |
Theoktistos Bryennios
Theoktistos Bryennios ( el, Θεόκτιστος Βρυέννιος, ) was a Greek nobleman and a Byzantine general who quelled a Slavic rebellion in the Peloponnese in 842. Theoktistos Bryennios is the first known member of the aristocratic Bryennios family, which survived until the end of the Byzantine Empire and reached its apogee in the 11th–12th centuries, when it provided several senior military commanders and contended for the throne. He is known only from the 10th-century ''De administrando imperio'' of Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (reigned 913–959), which records that at the beginning of the regency of Empress Theodora, i.e. in 842, the ''protospatharios'' Bryennios was appointed military governor (''strategos'') of the Peloponnese theme, and sent with a large army, comprising troops from all of Byzantium's western provinces, against a large-scale revolt of the local Slavs that had broken out in the last years of Theodora's husband, Emperor Theophilos (r. 8 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Komnenian Dynasty
Komnenos ( gr, Κομνηνός; Latinized Comnenus; plural Komnenoi or Comneni (Κομνηνοί, )) was a Byzantine Greek noble family who ruled the Byzantine Empire from 1081 to 1185, and later, as the Grand Komnenoi (Μεγαλοκομνηνοί, ''Megalokomnenoi'') founded and ruled the Empire of Trebizond (1204–1461). Through intermarriages with other noble families, notably the Doukai, Angeloi, and Palaiologoi, the Komnenos name appears among most of the major noble houses of the late Byzantine world. Origins The 11th-century Byzantine historian Michael Psellos reported that the Komnenos family originated from the village of Komne in Thrace—usually identified with the "Fields of Komnene" () mentioned in the 14th century by John Kantakouzenos—a view commonly accepted by modern scholarship. The first known member of the family, Manuel Erotikos Komnenos, acquired extensive estates at Kastamon in Paphlagonia, which became the stronghold of the family in the 11th century ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexios Bryennios
Alexius is the Latinized form of the given name Alexios ( el, Αλέξιος, polytonic , "defender", cf. Alexander), especially common in the later Byzantine Empire. The female form is Alexia ( el, Αλεξία) and its variants such as Alessia (the masculine form of which is Alessio) in Italian. The name belongs to the most ancient attested Greek names (a-re-ke-se-u in the Linear B tablets KN Df 1229 and MY Fu 718). Rulers * Alexios I Komnenos (1048–1118), Byzantine emperor * Alexios II Komnenos (1167–1183), Byzantine emperor * Alexios III, Byzantine emperor * Alexios IV, Byzantine emperor * Alexios V Doukas, Byzantine emperor * Alexios I of Trebizond, Emperor of Trebizond * Alexios II of Trebizond, Emperor of Trebizond * Alexios III of Trebizond, Emperor of Trebizond * Alexios IV of Trebizond, Emperor of Trebizond * Alexios V of Trebizond, Emperor of Trebizond * Alexius Mikhailovich (1629–1676), Tsar of Russia * Alexius Petrovich (1690–1718), Russian tsarevich Re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Bryennios
Joseph Bryennios ( el, Ἰωσήφ Βρυέννιος; 1350 – 1431/38)) was a learned Byzantine monk of the 15th century. He was a monk at the Monastery of Stoudios. He wrote many important works of scholarship in support of Orthodoxy, and against the Union of Churches. He died sometime between 1431 and 1438. References Bibliography * N. V. Tomadakis, «Ἁγιορειτικοὶ κώδικες τῶν ἔργων Ἰωσὴφ Βρυεννίου» Επ.Επ.Ετ.Βυζ.Σπ. Vol.32(1963), pp. 26–39. * Konstantinos Dyovouniotis, «Τὸ δήθεν διπλωματικὸν απόρρητον του Ἰωσὴφ Βρυεννίου», Πρακτικὰ τῆς Ἀκαδημίας Ἀθηνῶν, Vol.4 (1923), pp. 117–184. * N. V. Tomadakis, Ο Ιωσήφ Βρυέννιος και η Κρήτη κατά το 1400. Μελέτη φιλολογική και ιστορική. Athens 1947 * Nikolaos Ioannidis, Ἰωσὴφ Βρυεννίου περὶ μνημοσύν ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manuel Bryennios
Manuel Bryennios or Bryennius ( el, Μανουήλ Βρυέννιος; c. 1275 – c. 1340). was a Byzantine Empire, Byzantine scholar who flourished in Constantinople about 1300 teaching astronomy, mathematics and musical theory.. His only surviving work is the ''Harmonika'' (Greek: Ἁρμονικά), which is a three-volume codification of Byzantine musical scholarship based on the classical Greek works of Ptolemy, Nicomachus, and the Neopythagoreanism, Neopythagorean authors on the Pythagorean tuning, numerological theory of music. One of Bryennios's students was Theodore Metochites, the grand logothete during the reign of Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos (r. 1272–1328). Metochites studied astronomy under Bryennios. References Citations Sources * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bryennios, Manuel Byzantine astronomers Music theorists Byzantine music Bryennios family, Manuel 1275 births 1340 deaths 13th-century Byzantine people 14th-century Byzantine people 13th-century scholars 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nikephoros Bryennios (ethnarch)
Nikephoros Bryennios ( el, Νικηφόρος Βρυέννιος), Latinized as Nicephorus Bryennius, was an important Byzantine general who was involved in rebellions against the empress Theodora and later the emperor Michael VI Stratiotikos. Career Nikephoros Bryennios hailed from Adrianople and by the middle of the 11th century had risen to become the ethnarch responsible for commanding foreign mercenaries in the Macedonian Theme.Kazhdan (1991), p. 329 He first appears in 1050, when he inflicted a heavy defeat on the Pechenegs, who had been raiding the Empire's Balkan provinces for years. This victory put an end to these raids for some time. In early 1055, as Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos (r. 1042–1055) lay dying, he was persuaded by his councillors, chiefly the ''logothetes tou dromou'' John, to pass the throne to the '' doux'' of Bulgaria, Nikephoros Proteuon. However, their plans were preempted by Constantine's aged sister-in-law Theodora, the last descendant of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nikephoros Bryennios The Elder
Nikephoros Bryennios the Elder ( el, Νικηφόρος Βρυέννιος ο πρεσβύτερος), Latinized as Nicephorus Bryennius, was a Byzantine Greek general who tried to establish himself as Emperor in the late eleventh century. His contemporaries considered him the best tactician in the empire. Early career Nikephoros had steadily risen through the ranks of the military, to the point that he was given an important command by Romanos IV at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. Commanding the left wing of the Byzantine forces, he was one of the very few generals who performed well at that battle.Norwich, ''Byzantium: The Decline and Fall'', pg. 3 In 1072–1073, he served as '' doux'' of Bulgaria, where he reimposed Byzantine control after a series of uprisings, and was afterwards elevated to the important position of ''doux'' of Dyrrhachium. In about 1077 Nikephoros, by now the former governor of Dyrrhachium, became disgusted with Michael VII's treaty with the Seljuk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael VII Doukas
Michael VII Doukas or Ducas ( gr, Μιχαήλ Δούκας), nicknamed Parapinakes ( gr, Παραπινάκης, lit. "minus a quarter", with reference to the devaluation of the Byzantine currency under his rule), was the senior Byzantine emperor from 1071 to 1078. He was known as incompetent as an emperor and reliant on court officials, especially of his finance minister Nikephoritzes, who increased taxation and luxury spending while not properly financing their army (which later mutinied). Under his reign, Bari was lost and his empire faced open revolt in the Balkans. Along with the advancing Seljuk Turks in the eastern front, Michael also had to contend with his mercenaries openly going against the empire. Michael stepped down as emperor in 1078 where he later retired to a monastery. Life Michael VII was born 1050 in Constantinople, the eldest son of Constantine X Doukas and Eudokia Makrembolitissa. He was probably associated with the throne around the end of 1059 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nikephoros Bryennios The Younger
Nikephoros Bryennios (or Nicephorus Bryennius; Greek: Νικηφόρος Βρυέννιος, ''Nikēphoros Bryennios; ''1062–1137) was a Byzantine general, statesman and historian. He was born at Orestias (Adrianople) in the theme of Macedonia.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology By William George SmitGoogle Books/ref> Life His father (or possibly grandfather), of the same name, the governor of the theme of Dyrrhachium, had revolted against the feeble Michael VII, but had been defeated by the future Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and was blinded. The son, who was distinguished for his learning, personal beauty, and engaging qualities, gained the favour of Alexios I and the hand of his daughter Anna Komnene, receiving the titles of ''Caesar'' and ''panhypersebastos'' (one of the new dignities introduced by Alexios). Bryennios successfully defended the walls of Constantinople against the attacks of Godfrey of Bouillon during the First Crusade (1097); conducted the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
