|
Maleinos
Maleinos ( el, Μαλεΐνος) was the surname of a Byzantine Greek family, first attested in the 9th century, which rose to be amongst the most important and powerful members of the Anatolian aristocracy (the '' dynatoi'') in the 10th century, providing many senior generals to the Byzantine army. After its wealth and power became the target of Byzantine emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025), it declined, although its members are still attested in Anatolia and the Balkans throughout the 11th and 12th centuries. History and members The family, of Greek origin, first appears in the second half of the 9th century. It has been suggested that the surname derives from the location of Malagina in Bithynia, however its main estates and power-base were in the theme of Charsianon in Cappadocia, which must be considered its proper homeland.. The first known member of the family was the general Nikephoros Maleinos, of whom it is only known that in 866 he suppressed the revolt of ''logothetes tou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Maleinos
Saint Michael Maleinos ( el, Μιχαήλ Μαλεΐνος, –12 July 961) was a Byzantine monk who commanded great respect among Christians of Asia Minor. He was the brother of general Constantine Maleinos and uncle of Nikephoros Phokas, who was greatly influenced by Michael and became Byzantine emperor several years after Michael's death. His feast day is July 12. Life He was born Manuel Maleinos (Μανουήλ Μαλεΐνος) about 894, into a wealthy land-owning family of Cappadocia. Both of his grandfathers had been high military officers and had risen to the rank of ''patrikios''.. His father Eudokimos was likewise a ''patrikios'', while his mother Anastaso was a relative of the emperor Romanos I Lekapenos. He had at least one brother, Constantine Maleinos, and one sister whose name is not known. She married the general Bardas Phokas the Elder, thus linking the Maleinoi with the powerful military family of the Phokades. He spent his youth at the court of Emperor Leo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constantine Maleinos
Constantine Maleinos ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Μαλεΐνος) was a prominent Byzantine general of the mid-10th century. Biography Constantine was born in the late 9th or 10th century, probably in his family's estates in Cappadocia. His father was Eudokimos Maleinos, a member of the powerful aristocratic Maleinos clan, and his mother Anastaso Adralestina, a relative to the Byzantine emperor Romanos I Lekapenos (r. 920–944). He had six siblings, amongst whom the monk and saint Michael Maleinos and an unnamed sister, who married the general Bardas Phokas the Elder and cemented close ties with the powerful Phokas clan... The sources on his career are scant, and come mostly from references in the hagiography of his brother Michael. He held the rank of ''patrikios'' and in 955 he succeeded his nephew Leo Phokas as governor ('' strategos'') of the theme of Cappadocia. Likely due to his experience, but also his connection to the Phokades (his nephew Nikephoros Phokas was emp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Marash (953)
The Battle of Marash was fought in 953 near Marash (modern Kahramanmaraş) between the forces of the Byzantine Empire under the Domestic of the Schools Bardas Phokas the Elder, and of the Hamdanid Emir of Aleppo, Sayf al-Dawla, the Byzantines' most intrepid enemy during the mid-10th century. Despite being outnumbered, the Arabs defeated the Byzantines who broke and fled. Bardas Phokas himself barely escaped through the intervention of his attendants, and suffered a serious wound on his face, while his youngest son and governor of Seleucia, Constantine Phokas, was captured and held a prisoner in Aleppo until his death of an illness some time later. This debacle, coupled with defeats in 954 and again in 955, led to Bardas Phokas' dismissal as Domestic of the Schools, and his replacement by his eldest son, Nikephoros Phokas (later emperor in 963–969). Background In the period from 945 to 967, the Hamdanid Emir of Aleppo, Sayf al-Dawla, was the Byzantines' most persistent opponent o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leo Phokas The Younger
Leo Phokas or Phocas ( el, Λέων Φωκᾶς, c. 915–920after 971) was a prominent Byzantine general who scored a number of successes in the eastern frontier in the mid-10th century alongside his older brother, the Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas. He served as chief minister during his brother's reign, but was dismissed and imprisoned by his successor, John Tzimiskes. Leo was the younger son of Bardas Phokas the Elder, a noted general and longtime commander of the eastern armies under Constantine VII, and of an unnamed lady from the Maleinos clan. Leo was first appointed as ''strategos'' of the '' thema'' of Cappadocia in 945, and about ten years later, he was promoted to the post of ''strategos'' of the prestigious Anatolic Theme. Under Romanos II, he was named Domestic of the Schools of the West, i.e. commander of the western armies in the Balkans, and raised to the rank of ''magistros''. When his older brother Nikephoros was detailed to assault the Emirate of Crete in 960 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nikephoros II Phokas
Nikephoros II Phokas (; – 11 December 969), Latinized Nicephorus II Phocas, was Byzantine emperor from 963 to 969. His career, not uniformly successful in matters of statecraft or of war, nonetheless included brilliant military exploits which contributed to the resurgence of the Byzantine Empire during the 10th century. In the east, Nikephoros completed the conquest of Cilicia and even retook the islands of Crete and Cyprus, thus opening the path for subsequent Byzantine incursions reaching as far as Upper Mesopotamia and the Levant; these campaigns earned him the sobriquet "pale death of the Saracens". Meanwhile in the west, he inflamed conflict with the Bulgarians and saw Sicily completely turn over to the Muslims, while he failed to make any serious gains in Italy following the incursions of Otto I. At home, Nikephoros' administrative policies caused controversy. He financed his wars with increased taxes both on the people and on the church, while maintaining unpopular th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Athanasius The Athonite
Athanasius the Athonite (c. 920 – c. 1003; el, Ἀθανάσιος ὁ Ἀθωνίτης), was a Byzantine monk who is considered the founder of the monastic community on the peninsula of Mount Athos; which has since evolved into the greatest centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism.Donald Nicol, Βιογραφικό Λεξικό της Βυζαντινής Αυτοκρατορίας,μτφρ.Ευγένιος Πιερρής, εκδ.Ελληνική Ευρωεκοδοτική, Αθήνα, 1993, σελ.38 Biography His parents were from Antioch. He was born in Trebizond and patronized by Michael Maleinos, he studied at Constantinople and became famous there as Abraham, a fervent preacher who held great authority with Michael's nephew, Nicephoros Phocas. By the time Phocas ascended the imperial throne, Abraham, ill at ease with the lax morals of the monks living in the capital, changed his name to Athanasios and joined the monks at Mount Kyminas in Bithynia. In 958, he reloc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charsianon
Charsianon ( el, Χαρσιανόν) was the name of a Byzantine fortress and the corresponding theme (a military-civilian province) in the region of Cappadocia in central Anatolia (modern Turkey). History The fortress of Charsianon (Greek: Χαρσιανόν κάστρον, ''Charsianon kastron''; Arabic: ''Qal'e-i Ḥarsanōs'') is first mentioned in 638, during the first wave of the Muslim conquests, and was allegedly named after a general of Justinian I named Charsios.. The fortress is now identified with the ruins of Muşali Kale in the Akdağmadeni district in Yozgat Province). The Arabs first seized it in 730, and it remained a hotly contested stronghold during the next century of Byzantine–Arab warfare. During the 8th century, it belonged to the Armeniac Theme and was the seat of a military and territorial district (''tourma''). In the early 9th century, the fortress became the centre of a '' kleisoura'', a separately administered fortified frontier district. Sometime ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cappadocia (theme)
The Theme of Cappadocia ( el, θέμα Καππαδοκίας) was a Byzantine theme (a military-civilian province) encompassing the southern portion of the namesake region from the early 9th to the late 11th centuries. Location The theme comprised most of the late antique Roman province of Cappadocia Secunda and parts of Cappadocia Prima. By the early 10th century, it was bounded to the northwest by the Bucellarian Theme, roughly along the line of the Lake Tatta and Mocissus; the Armeniac Theme and later Charsianon to the north, across the river Halys, and to the northeast near Caesarea and the fortress of Rodentos; to the south by the Taurus Mountains and the border with the Caliphate's lands and the '' Thughur'' frontier zone in Cilicia; and to the east with the Anatolic Theme, the boundary stretching across Lycaonia from the area of Heraclea Cybistra to Tatta.. History Lying directly north of the Cilician Gates, the Arabs' major invasion route into Asia Minor, the region ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byzantine Greeks
The Byzantine Greeks were the Greek-speaking Eastern Romans of Orthodox Christianity throughout Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. They were the main inhabitants of the lands of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire), of Constantinople and Asia Minor (modern Turkey), the Greek islands, Cyprus, and portions of the southern Balkans, and formed large minorities, or pluralities, in the coastal urban centres of the Levant and northern Egypt. Throughout their history, the Byzantine Greeks self-identified as ''Romans'' ( gr, Ῥωμαῖοι, Rhōmaîoi), but are referred to as "Byzantine Greeks" in modern historiography. Latin speakers identified them simply as Greeks or with the term Romei. The social structure of the Byzantine Greeks was primarily supported by a rural, agrarian base that consisted of the peasantry, and a small fraction of the poor. These peasants lived within three kinds of settlements: the ''chorion'' or village, the ''agridion'' or hamlet, and the ''proast ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Romanos I Lekapenos
Romanos I Lekapenos ( el, Ρωμανός Λεκαπηνός; 870 – 15 June 948), Latinisation of names, Latinized as Romanus I Lecapenus, was Byzantine emperor from 920 until his deposition in 944, serving as regent for the infant Constantine VII. Origin Romanos Lekapenos, born in Lakape (later Laqabin (West Syriac diocese), Laqabin) between Melitene and Samosata (hence the name), was the son of an Armenian peasant with the remarkable name of Theophylact the Unbearable (Theophylaktos Abastaktos). However, according to the Byzantinist Anthony Kaldellis, Romanos is discussed in many Byzantine sources, but none of them calls him an Armenian. His father came from humble origin and that's the reason he was assumed to have been Armenian. This alleged ethnicity has been repeated so often in literature that it has acquired the status of a known fact, even though it is based on the most tenuous of indirect connections. Nevertheless, his father Theophylact, as a soldier, had rescued the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sangarios
The Sakarya (Sakara River, tr, Sakarya Irmağı; gr, Σαγγάριος, translit=Sangarios; Latin: ''Sangarius'') is the third longest river in Turkey. It runs through the region known in ancient times as Phrygia. It was considered one of the principal rivers of Asia Minor (Anatolia) in classical antiquity, and is mentioned in the ''Iliad'' and in ''Theogony''. Its name appears in different forms as Sagraphos, Sangaris, or Sagaris. In ''Geographica'', Strabo wrote during classical antiquity that the river had its sources on Mount Adoreus, near the town of Sangia in Phrygia, not far from the border with Galatia, and flowed in a very tortuous course: first in an eastern, then toward the north, next the north-west and finally the north through Bithynia into the Euxine (Black Sea). Part of its course formed the boundary between Phrygia and Bithynia, which in early times was bounded on the east by the river. The Bithynian part of the river was navigable and was celebrated for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Claudiopolis (Bithynia)
Bithynium or Bithynion ( grc, Βιθύνιον) was a city in the interior of Bithynia, lying above Tius, as Strabo describes it, and possessing the country around Salone or Salon, which was a good feeding country for cattle, and noted for its cheese. It was the capital of Salone district. Bithynium was the birthplace of Antinous, the favourite of Hadrian, as Pausanius tells us, who adds that Bithynium is beyond, by which he probably means east of, the river Sangarius; and he adds that the remotest ancestors of the Bithynians are Arcadians and Mantineis. In this case a Greek colony settled here. Bithynium was afterwards called Claudiopolis, a name which it is conjectured it first had in the time of Tiberius; but it is strange that Pausanias does not mention this name. Dio Cassius speaks of it under the name of Bithynium and Claudiopolis also. It later bore the name Hadriana after the emperor. The names of Claudiopolis and Hadriana appear on coins minted here. The town was Christi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
