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Battle Of Kopidnadon
The Battle of Kopidnadon or Kopidnados took place in September 788 between the armies of the Abbasid Caliphate and the Byzantine Empire. The Abbasid army launched an invasion of Byzantine Asia Minor, and was confronted by a Byzantine force at Kopidnadon. The resulting battle was an Abbasid victory. Among the Byzantine losses was a certain Diogenes, who is identified by some scholars with the probable original source for the literary hero Digenes Akritas. Background Ever since the failure of the last Arab attempt to conquer the Byzantine capital Constantinople, regular, almost annual raids were undertaken by the Caliphate's forces into Byzantine Asia Minor. In 782, a major invasion led by the Abbasid heir apparent, the future Harun al-Rashid (), resulted in a humiliating settlement for Byzantium, which was forced to sue for a truce in exchange for an annual payment of 160,000 gold ''nomismata''. In 785, Empress-regent Irene of Athens resolved to cease the payment of the tribute, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arab–Byzantine Wars
The Arab–Byzantine wars were a series of wars between a number of Muslim Arab dynasties and the Byzantine Empire between the 7th and 11th centuries AD. Conflict started during the initial Muslim conquests, under the expansionist Rashidun and Umayyad caliphs, in the 7th century and continued by their successors until the mid-11th century. The emergence of Muslim Arabs from Arabia in the 630s resulted in the rapid loss of Byzantium's southern provinces ( Syria and Egypt) to the Arab Caliphate. Over the next fifty years, under the Umayyad caliphs, the Arabs would launch repeated raids into still-Byzantine Asia Minor, twice besiege the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, and conquer the Byzantine Exarchate of Africa. The situation did not stabilize until after the failure of the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople in 718, when the Taurus Mountains on the eastern rim of Asia Minor became established as the mutual, heavily fortified and largely depopulated frontier. Under the Ab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cilician Gates
The Cilician Gates or Gülek Pass is a pass through the Taurus Mountains connecting the low plains of Cilicia to the Anatolian Plateau, by way of the narrow gorge of the Gökoluk River. Its highest elevation is about 1000m. The Cilician Gates have been a major commercial and military artery for millennia. In the early 20th century, a narrow-gauge railway was built through them, and today, the Tarsus-Ankara Highway ( E90, O-21) passes through them. The southern end of the Cilician gates is about 44 km north of Tarsus and the northern end leads to Cappadocia. History Yumuktepe (modern Mersin), which guards the Adana side of the gateway, with 23 layers of occupation, is at 4,500 BCE, one of the oldest fortified settlements in the world. The ancient pathway was a track for mule caravans, not wheeled vehicles. The Hittites, Greeks, Alexander the Great, the Romans, Byzantines, Sasanians, Mongols, and the Crusaders have all traveled this route during their campaigns. The Bible t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Cambridge Medieval History
''The Cambridge Medieval History'' is a history of medieval Europe in eight volumes published by Cambridge University Press and Macmillan between 1911 and 1936. Publication was delayed by the First World War and changes in the editorial team. Origins The work was planned by John Bagnell Bury, Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge University, along lines developed by his predecessor, Lord Acton, for ''The Cambridge Modern History''. The first editors appointed were Henry Melvill Gwatkin, Mary Bateson, and G.T. Lapsley. James Pounder Whitney replaced Mary Bateson following her death in 1906. When G.T. Lapsley retired due to ill health, his place was not filled so that the editors of the first two volumes were Gwatkin and Whitney."General Preface" in ''The Cambridge Medieval History Volume I The Christian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Archetype
The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that other statements, patterns of behavior, and objects copy, emulate, or "merge" into. Informal synonyms frequently used for this definition include "standard example", "basic example", and the longer-form "archetypal example"; mathematical archetypes often appear as "canonical examples". # the Platonic concept of ''pure form'', believed to embody the fundamental characteristics of a thing. # a collectively-inherited unconscious idea, a pattern of thought, image, etc., that is universally present, in individual psyches, as in Jungian psychology # a constantly-recurring symbol or motif in literature, painting, or mythology. This definition refers to the recurrence of characters or ideas sharing similar traits throughout various, seemingly unrel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fourth Fitna
The Fourth Fitna or Great Abbasid Civil War resulted from the conflict between the brothers al-Amin and al-Ma'mun over the succession to the throne of the Abbasid Caliphate. Their father, Caliph Harun al-Rashid, had named al-Amin as the first successor, but had also named al-Ma'mun as the second, with Khurasan granted to him as an appanage. Later a third son, al-Qasim, had been designated as third successor. After Harun died in 809, al-Amin succeeded him in Baghdad. Encouraged by the Baghdad court, al-Amin began trying to subvert the autonomous status of Khurasan, and al-Qasim was quickly sidelined. In response, al-Ma'mun sought the support of the provincial élites of Khurasan and made moves to assert his own autonomy. As the rift between the two brothers and their respective camps widened, al-Amin declared his own son Musa as his heir and assembled a large army. In 811, al-Amin's troops marched against Khurasan, but al-Ma'mun's general Tahir ibn Husayn defeated them in the Battle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tourmarches
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] |
Byzantine Iconoclasm
The Byzantine Iconoclasm ( gr, Εικονομαχία, Eikonomachía, lit=image struggle', 'war on icons) were two periods in the history of the Byzantine Empire when the use of religious images or icons was opposed by religious and imperial authorities within the Orthodox Church and the temporal imperial hierarchy. The First Iconoclasm, as it is sometimes called, occurred between about 726 and 787, while the Second Iconoclasm occurred between 814 and 842. According to the traditional view, Byzantine Iconoclasm was started by a ban on religious images promulgated by the Byzantine Emperor Leo III the Isaurian, and continued under his successors. It was accompanied by widespread destruction of religious images and persecution of supporters of the veneration of images. The Papacy remained firmly in support of the use of religious images throughout the period, and the whole episode widened the growing divergence between the Byzantine and Carolingian traditions in what was still ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scholai
The ''Scholae Palatinae'' (literally "Palatine Schools", in gr, Σχολαί, Scholai) were an elite military guard unit, usually ascribed to the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great as a replacement for the ''equites singulares Augusti'', the cavalry arm of the Praetorian Guard. The ''Scholae'' survived in Roman and later Byzantine service until they disappeared in the late 11th century, during the reign of Alexios I Komnenos. 4th–7th centuries: imperial guards History and structure During the early 4th century, ''Caesar'' Flavius Valerius Severus attempted to disband the remaining units of the Praetorian Guard on the orders of Galerius. In response, the Praetorians turned to Maxentius, the son of the retired emperor Maximian, and proclaimed him their emperor on 28 October 306. When Constantine the Great (), launching an invasion of Italy in 312, forced a final confrontation at the Milvian Bridge, the Praetorian cohorts made up the most prominent element of Maxentius' ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tagma (military)
The tagma ( el, τάγμα, ) is a military unit of battalion or regiment size, especially the elite regiments formed by Byzantine emperor Constantine V and comprising the central army of the Byzantine Empire in the 8th–11th centuries. History and role In its original sense, the term "tagma" (from the Greek τάσσειν, "to set in order") is attested from the 4th century and was used to refer to an infantry battalion of 200–400 men (also termed ''bandum'' or ''numerus'' in Latin, ''arithmos'' in Greek) in the contemporary East Roman army.Kazhdan (1991), p. 2007 In this sense, the term continues in use in the current Hellenic Armed Forces (''cf.'' Greek military ranks). Imperial guards, 8th–10th centuries In later usage, the term came to refer exclusively to the professional, standing troops, garrisoned in and around the capital of Constantinople.Bury (1911), p. 47 Most of them traced their origins to the Imperial guard units of the late antique Roman Empire. By the 7t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Podandos
Padyandus or Podyandos (), also Paduandus, Podandos or Podandus (Πόδανδος), and appearing corrupted in ancient sources as Opodanda, Opodandum, and Rhegepodandos (Ῥεγεποδανδός) was an ancient town in Cataonia, the southernmost part of Cappadocia, in what is today Turkey. The town was located about 40 km to the southeast of Faustinopolis, near the pass of Mount Taurus known by the name of the Cilician Gates ( Ptol. v. 7. § 7.). Extended by the emperor Valens (364-378), the town is mentioned in the ''itineraria'', but its name assumes different forms; as Paduandus ( Tab. Peut.), Podandos ( It. Ant. p. 145), Mansio Opodanda ( It. Hieros. p. 578), and Rhegepodandos ( Hierocl. p 699). The place is described by Basilius (''Epist.'' 74) as one of the most wretched holes on earth. It is said to have derived its name from a small stream in the neighborhood. (Const. Porphyr. ''Vit. Basil.'' 36; comp. Cedren. p. 575; Jo. Scylitz. ''Hist.'' pp. 829, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henri Grégoire (historian)
Henri Grégoire (; Huy, Belgium, 21 March 1881 – 28 September 1964, Brussels, Belgium) was an eminent scholar of the Byzantine Empire, virtually the founder of Byzantine studies in Belgium. Grégoire spent most of his teaching career at the Université libre de Bruxelles. In 1938, he taught at the New School for Social Research and during the Second World War, joined the École libre des hautes études at the New School. He was the editor of four journals—''Byzantion'', ''Nouvelle Clio'', ''Annuaire de l'Institut de Philologie et d'Histoire Orientales et Slaves'', and ''Flambeau''—and published prolifically: by 1953 he had 575 titles in his bibliography. Grégoire is especially remembered for his work on medieval epic poetry, notably Digenis Akritas ''Digenes Akritas'', ) is a variant of ''Akritas''. Sometimes it is further latinized as ''Acritis'' or ''Acritas''. ( el, Διγενῆς Ἀκρίτας, ) is the most famous of the Acritic songs and is often regarded as th ... [...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] |
