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Kontostephanos Family
Kontostephanos ( el, Κοντοστέφανος), feminine form Kontostephanina (Κοντοστεφανίνα), was the name of an aristocratic Byzantine Greek family active in the 10th–15th centuries, which enjoyed great prominence in the 12th century through its intermarriage with the Komnenian dynasty. History The progenitor of the family was Stephen, who served under Basil II (r. 976–1025) as Domestic of the Schools of the West, and was nicknamed "Kontostephanos" ("short Stephen") due to his height. Responsible to a large degree for Basil's humiliating defeat in the Battle of the Gates of Trajan against the Bulgarians, he was later involved in intrigues and beaten by the emperor. Apogee under the Komnenoi The family then disappears until 1080, when Isaac Kontostephanos was captured by the Seljuk Turks. The ''pansebastos sebastos'' Isaac Kontostephanos went on to serve through most of the reign of Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118), until his unsuccessful appointment ... [...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] |
Stephen Kontostephanos
Stephen Kontostephanos ( el, Στέφανος Κοντοστέφανος, – 1149) was a Byzantine aristocrat and military commander. Stephen was born in , the son of the ''sebastos'' Isaac Kontostephanos, a military commander for most of the reign of Alexios I Komnenos (), culminating in his unsuccessful service as admiral (''thalassokrator'') against the Italo-Normans in 1107/8. He was the third member of the family to bear the name "Stephen" after the family's progenitor and a rather obscure paternal uncle. In , he married Anna, the second-born daughter of Emperor John II Komnenos () and Irene of Hungary, and received the title ''panhypersebastos''. The couple had four children: the sons John, Alexios, and Andronikos, as well as a daughter, Irene, who married Nikephoros Bryennios. Stephen's career under John II is unknown, but he enjoyed the favour of John's youngest son and eventual successor, Manuel I Komnenos () and is likely to have been among those who supported Manuel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexios III Angelos
Alexios III Angelos ( gkm, Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός Ἄγγελος, Alexios Komnēnos Angelos; 1211), Latinized as Alexius III Angelus, was Byzantine Emperor from March 1195 to 17/18 July 1203. He reigned under the name Alexios Komnenos ( gkm, Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός, Alexios Komnēnos), associating himself with the Komnenos dynasty (from which he was descended matrilineally). A member of the extended imperial family, Alexios came to the throne after deposing, blinding and imprisoning his younger brother Isaac II Angelos. The most significant event of his reign was the attack of the Fourth Crusade on Constantinople in 1203, on behalf of Alexios IV Angelos. Alexios III took over the defence of the city, which he mismanaged, and then fled the city at night with one of his three daughters. From Adrianople, and then Mosynopolis, he attempted unsuccessfully to rally his supporters, only to end up a captive of Marquis Boniface of Montferrat. He was ransomed and sen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constantine Manasses
Constantine Manasses ( el, Κωνσταντῖνος Μανασσῆς; c. 1130 - c. 1187) was a Byzantine chronicler who flourished in the 12th century during the reign of Manuel I Komnenos (1143-1180). He was the author of a chronicle or historical synopsis of events from the creation of the world to the end of the reign of Nikephoros Botaneiates (1081), sponsored by Irene Komnene, the emperor's sister-in-law. It consists of about 7000 lines in political verse. It obtained great popularity and appeared in a free prose translation; it was also translated into Bulgarian in the 14th century.Chronicle edition: Bekker, Bonn 1837; the Bulgarian translation, ''Cronica lui Constantin Manasses'', by Ioan Bogdan and I. Bianu, Bucharest, 1922. In 1969 Bulgaria issued two sets of stamps depicting important scenes of the chronicle, to celebrate it. Manasses also wrote the poetical romance ''Loves of Aristander and Callithea'', also in political verse. It is only known from the fragments prese ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monody
In music, monody refers to a solo vocal style distinguished by having a single melodic line and instrumental accompaniment. Although such music is found in various cultures throughout history, the term is specifically applied to Italian song of the early 17th century, particularly the period from about 1600 to 1640. The term is used both for the style and for individual songs (so one can speak both of monody as a whole as well as a particular monody). The term itself is a recent invention of scholars. No composer of the 17th century ever called a piece a monody. Compositions in monodic form might be called madrigals, motets, or even concertos (in the earlier sense of "concertato", meaning "with instruments"). In poetry, the term monody has become specialized to refer to a poem in which one person laments another's death. (In the context of ancient Greek literature, monody, , could simply refer to lyric poetry sung by a single performer, rather than by a chorus.) History Music ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dyrrhachium (theme)
The Theme of Dyrrhachium or Dyrrhachion ( el, θέμα Δυρραχίου) was a Byzantine military-civilian province (theme), covering the Adriatic coast of modern Albania, and some coastal regions of modern Montenegro. It was established in the early 9th century and named after its capital, Dyrrhachium (modern Durrës). History The exact date of the theme's establishment is unclear; a ''strategos'' of Dyrrhachium is attested in the ''Taktikon Uspensky'' of , but several seals of ''strategoi'' dating from the previous decades survive. J.B. Bury proposed its creation alongside the themes of the Peloponnese and Cephallenia in the early 9th century, with the historian Jadran Ferluga putting the date of its establishment in the reign of Emperor Nikephoros I ()... Its boundaries are not very clear. To the north, it abutted the Theme of Dalmatia and the Serbian principality of Duklja, and the Theme of Nicopolis to the south. The theme covered the coast in between, but how far inland ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isaac II Angelos
Isaac II Angelos or Angelus ( grc-gre, Ἰσαάκιος Κομνηνός Ἄγγελος, ; September 1156 – January 1204) was Byzantine Emperor from 1185 to 1195, and again from 1203 to 1204. His father Andronikos Doukas Angelos was a military leader in Asia Minor (c. 1122 – aft. 1185) who married Euphrosyne Kastamonitissa (c. 1125 – aft. 1195). Andronikos Doukas Angelos was the son of Constantine Angelos and Theodora Komnene (b. 15 January 1096/1097), the youngest daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina. Thus Isaac was a member of the extended imperial clan of the Komnenoi. Rising by revolt Niketas Choniates described Isaac's physical appearance: "He had a ruddy complexion and red hair, was of average height and robust in body". During the brief reign of Andronikos I Komnenos, Isaac was involved (alongside his father and brothers) in the revolt of Nicaea and Prousa. Atypically, the Emperor did not punish him for this disloyalty, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Kontostephanos (son Of Isaac)
John Komnenos Kontostephanos ( el, Ἰωάννης Κομνηνός Κοντοστέφανος; ca. 1128 – 1176/82) was a Byzantine aristocrat who served as provincial governor and military commander under his uncle, Emperor Manuel I Komnenos. Family Born ca. 1128, John Kontostephanos was the eldest son of Stephen Kontostephanos, who held the title ''panhypersebastos'' and the rank of '' megas doux'', and the "purple-born" princess Anna Komnene, daughter of Emperor John II Komnenos (r. 1118–43) and his empress Irene of Hungary; he was thus the nephew of Emperor Manuel I Komnenos (r. 1143–80). John had two younger brothers, Alexios and Andronikos, both prominent military commanders, and a sister, Irene. The Kontostephanoi were an aristocratic Byzantine family that rose to occupy a prominent place at the heart of Byzantine politics and power through their intermarrying with the imperial house of the Komnenoi. Andronikos himself married in ca. 1145/6 an unnamed member of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern Italy
Southern Italy ( it, Sud Italia or ) also known as ''Meridione'' or ''Mezzogiorno'' (), is a macroregion of the Italian Republic consisting of its southern half. The term ''Mezzogiorno'' today refers to regions that are associated with the people, lands or culture of the historical and cultural region that was once politically under the administration of the former Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily (officially denominated as one entity ''Regnum Siciliae citra Pharum'' and ''ultra Pharum'', i.e. "Kingdom of Sicily on the other side of the Strait" and "across the Strait") and which later shared a common organization into Italy's largest pre-unitarian state, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The island of Sardinia, which had neither been part of said region nor of the aforementioned polity and had been under the rule of the Alpine House of Savoy that would eventually annex the Bourbon-led and Southern Italian Kingdom altogether, is nonetheless often subsumed into the ''Mezzogiorno'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raymond Of Poitiers
Raymond of Poitiers (c. 1105–29 June 1149) was Prince of Antioch from 1136 to 1149. He was the younger son of William IX, Duke of Aquitaine, and his wife Philippa, Countess of Toulouse, born in the very year that his father the Duke began his infamous liaison with Dangereuse de Chatelherault. Assuming control Following the death of Prince Bohemund II of Antioch in 1130, the principality came under the regency first of King Baldwin II (1130–31), then King Fulk (1131–35), and finally Princess Alice (1135–36), Bohemond's widow. The reigning princess was Bohemond II's daughter, Constance (born 1127). Against the wishes of Alice, a marriage was arranged for Constance with Raymond, at the time staying in England, which he left only after the death of Henry I on 1 December 1135. Upon hearing word that Raymond was going to pass through his lands in order to marry the princess of Antioch, King Roger II of Sicily ordered him arrested. By a series of subterfuges, Raymond passe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adrianos Komnenos
Adrianos Komnenos ( el, )The first name is often Anglicized as Adrian, and the family name is frequently Latinized as Comnenus. was a Byzantine aristocrat and general, and a younger brother of the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos (). Biography Born in , Adrianos Komnenos was the fourth and second-to-last son (and seventh overall child) of the ''domestikos ton scholon'' John Komnenos, the younger brother of Emperor Isaac I Komnenos () and Anna Dalassene. According to the historian Nikephoros Bryennios, after John's death, Anna entrusted Adrianos and his younger brother Nikephoros to tutors, and gave them an encyclopedic education. After Alexios's rise to power in 1081, Adrianos was raised to the new dignity of ''protosebastos'', which he shared, for a time, with his brother-in-law Michael Taronites and with the Doge of Venice. According to Zonaras, he was also entrusted with military commands in the campaigns of 1082–1083 against the Normans of Robert Guiscard and B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andronikos Kontostephanos (son Of Isaac)
Andronikos Kontostephanos ( el, Ἀνδρόνικος Κοντοστέφανος, ) was a Byzantine aristocrat and military commander. Andronikos was the son of the ''pansebastos sebastos'' Isaac Kontostephanos, who served for most of the reign of Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118), culminating in his unsuccessful service as admiral (''thalassokrator'') against the Normans in 1107/8. In ca. 1125, he married Theodora, a daughter of Adrianos Komnenos (archbishop of Bulgaria between 1139/43 - 1157 under the name John IV), who was son of ''sebastokrator'' Isaac Komnenos and Irene of Alania. The couple had several children: the ''pansebastos sebastos'' John, attested in the synods of 1157 and 1166, Alexios, and at least two more anonymous children, of which one a daughter. Amdronikos began his service as a military officer under Alexios I's son and successor, John II Komnenos (r. 1118–43). Although details are not known, he was sufficiently distinguished to earn the emperor's favour ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
