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Laonikos Chalkokondyles
Laonikos Chalkokondyles, Latinized as Laonicus Chalcocondyles ( el, Λαόνικος Χαλκοκονδύλης, from λαός "people", νικᾶν "to be victorious", an anagram of Nikolaos which bears the same meaning; c. 1430 – c. 1470; The family name 'Chalcokondyles' is from χαλκος "brass",and κονδυλος "knuckle".) was a Byzantine Greek historian from Athens. He is known for his '' Demonstrations of Histories'' in ten books, which record the last 150 years of the Byzantine Empire. Life The Chalkokondyles were one of the oldest native families in Athens and had gained great prominence. At the time of Laonikos it was ruled by the Florentine Acciaioli family. His father George was a kinsman of Maria Melissene, the wife of Duke Antonio I Acciaioli. When Antonio died in 1435, Maria attempted to secure control of the Duchy of Athens and sent George on a mission to the Ottoman Sultan Murad II, asking that the government of Athens might be entrusted to herself a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates and is the capital of the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, with its recorded history spanning over 3,400 years and its earliest human presence beginning somewhere between the 11th and 7th millennia BC. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state. It was a centre for the arts, learning and philosophy, and the home of Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum. It is widely referred to as the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy, largely because of its cultural and political influence on the European continent—particularly Ancient Rome. In modern times, Athens is a large cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime, political and cultural life in Gre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peloponnese
The Peloponnese (), Peloponnesus (; el, Πελοπόννησος, Pelopónnēsos,(), or Morea is a peninsula and geographic regions of Greece, geographic region in southern Greece. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridge which separates the Gulf of Corinth from the Saronic Gulf. From the late Middle Ages until the 19th century the peninsula was known as the Morea ( grc-x-byzant, Μωρέας), (Morèas) a name still in colloquial use in its demotic Greek, demotic form ( el, Μωριάς, links=no), (Moriàs). The peninsula is divided among three administrative regions of Greece, administrative regions: most belongs to the Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese region, with smaller parts belonging to the West Greece and Attica (region), Attica regions. Geography The Peloponnese is a peninsula located at the southern tip of the mainland, in area, and constitutes the southernmost part of mainland Greece. It is connected to the mainlan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mistra
Mystras or Mistras ( el, Μυστρᾶς/Μιστρᾶς), also known in the ''Chronicle of the Morea'' as Myzithras (Μυζηθρᾶς), is a fortified town and a former municipality in Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece. Situated on Mt. Taygetus, near ancient Sparta, it served as the capital of the Byzantine Despotate of the Morea in the 14th and 15th centuries, experiencing a period of prosperity and cultural flowering during the Palaeologan Renaissance, including the teachings of Gemistos Plethon. The city also attracted artists and architects of the highest quality. The site remained inhabited throughout the Ottoman period, when Western travellers mistook it for ancient Sparta. In the 1830s, it was abandoned and the new town of Sparti was built, approximately eight kilometres to the east. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the Sparti municipality. As an exceptionally well-preserved example of a Byzantine city and because of its testimony to the development of Late ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ciriaco De' Pizzicolli
Cyriacus of Ancona or Ciriaco de' Pizzicolli (31 July 1391 – 1453/55) was a restlessly itinerant Italian Renaissance humanism, humanist and antiquarian who came from a prominent family of merchants in Republic of Ancona, Ancona, a maritime republics, maritime republic on the Adriatic. He has been called the Father of Archaeology: ''"Cyriac of Ancona was the most enterprising and prolific recorder of Greek and Roman antiquities, particularly inscriptions, in the fifteenth century, and the general accuracy of his records entitles him to be called the founding father of modern classical archeology."'' Life Unlike many library antiquarians, Cyriacus traveled at first for his family's venturesHis first voyage was made at the age of nine, in the ''sept, familia'' of his mother's brother. then to satisfy his own curiosity, all around the Eastern Mediterranean, noting down his archaeological discoveries in his day-book, ''Commentaria,'' that eventually filled seven volumes. He made ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Varna
The Battle of Varna took place on 10 November 1444 near Varna in eastern Bulgaria. The Ottoman Army under Sultan Murad II (who did not actually rule the sultanate at the time) defeated the Hungarian–Polish and Wallachian armies commanded by Władysław III of Poland (also King of Hungary), John Hunyadi (acting as commander of the combined Christian forces) and Mircea II of Wallachia. It was the final battle of the Crusade of Varna. Background The Hungarian Kingdom fell into crisis after the death of King Sigismund in 1437. His son-in-law and successor, King Albert, ruled for only two years and died in 1439, leaving his widow Elizabeth with an unborn child, Ladislaus the Posthumous. The Hungarian noblemen then called the young King Władysław III of Poland to the throne of Hungary, expecting his aid in defense against the Ottomans. After his Hungarian coronation, he never went back to his homeland again, assuming rule of the Hungarian Kingdom next to the influential noblem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theodore Spandounes
Theodore Spandounes ( el, Θεόδωρος Σπανδούνης, it, Teodoro Spandugino) was an early 16th-century Greek historian of noble Byzantine extraction, the son of exiles fleeing the Ottoman conquest of Byzantium who had settled in Venice in Italy. As a youth he stayed with relatives in Ottoman-ruled Macedonia and visited the Ottoman capital at Constantinople, acquiring a knowledge of their history and culture. In later life he served successive Popes as a counsellor and repeatedly advocated the dispatch of a new Crusade against the Ottomans. His chief legacy is his Italian-language history on the origins of the Ottoman state and its history up to that time, whose first version was published in 1509 in Italian and was soon translated into French. Spandounes continued working on it, with the final version appearing in 1538. The work is disorganized and contains errors, but is extremely valuable as a historical source for its wealth of information. Family and origin Theod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ralph Manheim
Ralph Frederick Manheim (April 4, 1907 – September 26, 1992) was an American translator of German and French literature, as well as occasional works from Dutch, Polish and Hungarian. He was one of the most acclaimed translators of the 20th century, and likened translation to acting, the role being "to impersonate his author".Bruce Lamber"Ralph Manheim, 85, Translator Of Major Works to English, Dies" ''New York Times'', September 28, 1992. Retrieved on March 25, 2009. Early life Manheim was born in New York City. He lived for a year in Germany and Austria as an adolescent, graduated from Harvard at the age of 19,John Calde"Obituary: Ralph Manheim" ''The Independent'', September 28, 1992 and spent time in Munich and Vienna (studying at the universities) before Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. He also undertook post-graduate study at Yale and Columbia universities. Career His career as a translator began with Hitler's ''Mein Kampf'', commissioned by Houghton Mifflin and published ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Franz Babinger
Franz Babinger (15 January 1891 – 23 June 1967) was a well-known German orientalist and historian of the Ottoman Empire, best known for his biography of the great Ottoman emperor Mehmed II, known as "the Conqueror", originally published as ''Mehmed der Eroberer und seine Zeit''. An English translation by Ralph Manheim is available from Princeton University Press under the title ''Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time''. His many doctrines were speculative and not supported with evidence. Life Babinger was born in Weiden in der Oberpfalz, Bavaria, as the eldest of four children into a middle-class family, the father a Roman Catholic, the mother of Jewish background. He was already an accomplished academic and linguist by the time he had completed his secondary school studies. Prior to starting University, he had already learned both Persian and Hebrew. Babinger completed his doctoral studies at the University of Munich on the eve of the First World War; after the war started, he join ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isthmus Of Corinth
The Isthmus of Corinth (Greek: Ισθμός της Κορίνθου) is the narrow land bridge which connects the Peloponnese peninsula with the rest of the mainland of Greece, near the city of Corinth. The word "isthmus" comes from the Ancient Greek word for "neck" and refers to the narrowness of the land. The Isthmus was known in the ancient world as the landmark separating the Peloponnese from mainland Greece. In the first century AD the geographer Strabo noted a stele on the Isthmus of Corinth, which bore two inscriptions. One towards the East, i.e. towards Megara, reading: "''Here is not Peloponnesus, but Ionia''" () and the one towards the West, i.e. towards the Peloponnese: "''Here is Peloponnesus, not Ionia''" (); Plutarch ascribed the erection of the stele to the Attic hero Theseus, on his way to Athens. To the west of the Isthmus is the Gulf of Corinth, to the east the Saronic Gulf. Since 1893 the Corinth Canal has run through the 6.3 km wide isthmus, effect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hexamilion Wall
The Hexamilion wall ( el, Εξαμίλιον τείχος, "six-mile wall") was a defensive wall constructed across the Isthmus of Corinth, guarding the only land route onto the Peloponnese peninsula from mainland Greece. History Early fortifications The ''Hexamilion'' stands at the end of a long series of attempts to fortify the isthmus stretching back to perhaps the Mycenean period. Many of the Peloponnesian cities wanted to pull back and fortify the isthmus instead of making a stand at Thermopylae when Xerxes invaded in 480 BC ( Herodotus' Histories 7.206). The issue arose again before the Battle of Salamis (Herodotos 8.40, 49, 56). Although the concept of a "Fortress Peloponnese" had been repeatedly suggested, fortification of the isthmus was of no utility without control of the sea, as Herodotus notes (7.138). The Hexamilion and its history The wall was constructed in the period between 408 AD and 450 AD, in the reign of Theodosius II during the ti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thermopylae
Thermopylae (; Ancient Greek and Katharevousa: (''Thermopylai'') , Demotic Greek (Greek): , (''Thermopyles'') ; "hot gates") is a place in Greece where a narrow coastal passage existed in antiquity. It derives its name from its hot sulphur springs."Thermopylae" in: S. Hornblower & A. Spawforth (eds.) ''The Oxford Classical Dictionary'', 3rd ed. (Oxford, 1996). In Greek mythology the Hot Gates is one of the entrances to Hades. Thermopylae is the site of a battle between the Greek forces (including Spartans, Thebans and Thespians) and the invading Persian forces, commemorated by Simonides of Ceos in the epitaph, "Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, That here obedient to their laws we lie." Thermopylae is the only land route large enough to bear any significant traffic between Lokris and Thessaly. To go from north to south along the east coast of the Balkans requires use of the pass. In ancient times it was called Malis, named after the Malians ( grc, Μαλιεῖς), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Despot (court Title)
Despot or ''despotes'' ( grc-gre, δεσπότης, despótēs, lord, master) was a senior Byzantine court title that was bestowed on the sons or sons-in-law of reigning emperors, and initially denoted the heir-apparent of the Byzantine emperor. From Byzantium it spread throughout the late medieval Balkans and was also granted in the states under Byzantine cultural influence, such as the Latin Empire, the Second Bulgarian Empire, the Serbian Empire and its successor states (Bulgarian and sr, деспот, despót), and the Empire of Trebizond. With the political fragmentation of the period, the term gave rise to several principalities termed "despotates" which were ruled either as independent states or as appanages by princes bearing the title of despot; most notably the Despotate of Epirus, the Despotate of the Morea, the Despotate of Dobruja and the Serbian Despotate. In modern usage, the word has taken a different meaning: "despotism" is a form of government in which a single ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
