|
Blinding (punishment)
Blinding is a type of physical punishment which results in complete or nearly complete loss of vision. It was used as an act of revenge and torture. The punishment has been used since Antiquity; Greek mythology makes several references to blinding as divine punishment, which reflects human practice. In the Byzantine Empire and many other historical societies, blinding was accomplished by gouging out the eyes, sometimes using a hot poker, and by pouring a boiling substance, such as vinegar, on them. In mythology and religious law Oedipus gouged out his own eyes after accidentally fulfilling the prophecy that he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother. In the Bible, Samson was blinded upon his capture by the Philistines. Early Christians were often blinded as a penalty for their beliefs. For example, Saint Lucy's torturers tore out her eyes. In history In the Middle Ages, blinding was used as a penalty for treason or as a means of rendering a political oppone ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Blinding Of Samson (SM 1383)
''The Blinding of Samson'' is a 1636 painting by Rembrandt, now in the Städel (in Frankfurt). The painting is the first of its kind in pictorial tradition. No other artist at the time had painted this specific narrative moment. This painting was a gift to the House of Orange, Rembrandt's current patron of a few commissioned paintings, via its secretary Constantijn Huygens, as an excuse for the delay of the commissioned Passion paintings. Later it was acquired by Friedrich Karl von Schönborn and remained in the Palais Schönborn-Batthyány in Vienna until it was acquired by the Städel in 1905. Description ''The Blinding of Samson'' shows an episode from the biblical story of Judge Samson. Samson was a Nazarite, which gave him special strength when he kept three conditions, such as not cutting his beard and hair. The scene depicted follows the cutting of Samson's hair by Delilah, who betrayed him to the Philistines. This aspect of the plot is repeated in this painting, since ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emperor Justinian
Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was expressed by the partial recovery of the territories of the defunct Western Roman Empire. His general, Belisarius, swiftly conquered the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa. Subsequently, Belisarius, Narses, and other generals conquered the Ostrogothic kingdom, restoring Dalmatia, Sicily, Italy, and Rome to the empire after more than half a century of rule by the Ostrogoths. The praetorian prefect Liberius reclaimed the south of the Iberian peninsula, establishing the province of Spania. These campaigns re-established Roman control over the western Mediterranean, increasing the Empire's annual revenue by over a million ''solidi''. During his reign, Justinian also subdued the ''Tz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hart (deer)
A hart is a male red deer, synonymous with ''stag'' and used in contrast to the female hind; its use may now be considered mostly poetic or archaic. The word comes from Middle English ''hert'', from Old English ''heorot''; compare Frisian ''hart'', Dutch ''hert'', German ''Hirsch'', and Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish ''hjort'', all meaning "deer". Heorot is given as the name of Hrothgar's mead hall in the Old English epic ''Beowulf''. Historically, ''hart'' has also been used generically to mean "deer, antelope", as in the royal antelope, which Willem Bosman called "the king of the harts". The word ''hart'' was also sometimes used in the past specifically to describe a stag of more than five years. In deer classification In medieval hunting terms, a stag in its first year was called a "calf" or "calfe", in its second a "brocket", in its third a "spayed", "spade", or "spayard", in its fourth a "staggerd" or "staggard", and in its fifth a "stag", or a "great stag". To be a "hart" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingdom Of England
The Kingdom of England (, ) was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from 12 July 927, when it emerged from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. On 12 July 927, the various Anglo-Saxon kings swore their allegiance to Æthelstan of Wessex (), unifying most of modern England under a single king. In 1016, the kingdom became part of the North Sea Empire of Cnut the Great, a personal union between England, Denmark and Norway. The Norman conquest of England in 1066 led to the transfer of the English capital city and chief royal residence from the Anglo-Saxon one at Winchester to Westminster, and the City of London quickly established itself as England's largest and principal commercial centre. Histories of the kingdom of England from the Norman conquest of 1066 conventionally distinguish periods named after successive ruling dynasties: Norman (1066–1154), Plantagenet (1154–1485), Tudor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William The Conqueror
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Normandy, king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087. A descendant of Rollo, he was Duke of Normandy from 1035 onward. By 1060, following a long struggle to establish his throne, his hold on Normandy was secure. In 1066, following the death of Edward the Confessor, William invaded England, leading an army of Normans to victory over the Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon forces of Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings, and suppressed subsequent English revolts in what has become known as the Norman Conquest. The rest of his life was marked by struggles to consolidate his hold over England and his continental lands, and by difficulties with his eldest son, Robert Curthose. William was the son of the unmarried Duke Robert I of Normandy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Of Bulgaria
Samuel (also Samuil; bg, Самуил, ; mk, Самоил/Самуил, ; Old Church Slavonic: Самоилъ; died October 6, 1014) was the Tsar (''Emperor'') of the First Bulgarian Empire from 997 to 6 October 1014. From 977 to 997, he was a general under Roman I of Bulgaria, the second surviving son of Emperor Peter I of Bulgaria, and co-ruled with him, as Roman bestowed upon him the command of the army and the effective royal authority. As Samuel struggled to preserve his country's independence from the Byzantine Empire, his rule was characterized by constant warfare against the Byzantines and their equally ambitious ruler Basil II. In his early years Samuel managed to inflict several major defeats on the Byzantines and to launch offensive campaigns into their territory. In the late 10th century, the Bulgarian armies conquered the Serb principality of Duklja and led campaigns against the Kingdoms of Kingdom of Croatia (Medieval), Croatia and Kingdom of Hungary in the Middle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Bulgarian Monarchs
The monarchs of Bulgaria ruled the country during three periods of Bulgaria's history as an independent country: from the establishment of the First Bulgarian Empire in 681 to the Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria in 1018; from the Uprising of Asen and Peter that established the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1185 to the annexation of the rump Bulgarian state into the Ottoman Empire in 1396; and from the re-establishment of an independent Principality of Bulgaria in 1878 to the abolition of monarchy in a referendum held on 15 September 1946. This list does not include the mythical Bulgar rulers and the rulers of Old Great Bulgaria listed in the Nominalia of the Bulgarian rulers, as well as unsuccessful claimants to the throne who are not generally listed among the Bulgarian monarchs, neither rulers of Volga Bulgaria, or other famous Bulgarian rulers as Kuber or Alcek. Early Bulgarian rulers possibly used the title ''Kanasubigi'' (possibly related to Knyaz, Khan) before the 7th ce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bulgarian Empire
In the medieval history of Europe, Bulgaria's status as the Bulgarian Empire ( bg, Българско царство, ''Balgarsko tsarstvo'' ) occurred in two distinct periods: between the seventh and the eleventh centuries and again between the twelfth and the fourteenth centuries. The two "Bulgarian Empires" are treated not as separate entities but rather as one state that was restored after a period of Byzantine rule over its territory. First Bulgarian Empire Moesia was repeatedly invaded by both Slavs and Bulgars during the 5th, 6th and 7th centuries. In 499, the Bulgars crossed Danube and reached Thrace where on the banks of the river Tzurta (considered a tributary of Maritsa) defeated 15,000 men strong Roman army led by magister militum Aristus. In the 670s under the rule of Asparukh the Bulgars settled further south on territories of the Eastern Roman Empire in Scythia Minor near the Danube Delta in a region called Ongal and allied with the local Slavs. Their ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basil II
Basil II Porphyrogenitus ( gr, Βασίλειος Πορφυρογέννητος ;) and, most often, the Purple-born ( gr, ὁ πορφυρογέννητος, translit=ho porphyrogennetos).. 958 – 15 December 1025), nicknamed the Bulgar Slayer ( gr, ὁ Βουλγαροκτόνος, ),). and believe the epithet to have entered common usage among the Byzantines at the end of the 12th century, when the Second Bulgarian Empire broke away from Byzantine rule and Basil's martial exploits became a theme of Imperial propaganda. It was used by the historian Niketas Choniates and the writer Nicholas Mesarites, and consciously inverted by the Bulgarian ruler Kaloyan, who called himself "Roman-slayer" ( gr, Ρωμαιοκτόνος, translit=Rhomaioktonos). was the senior Byzantine emperor from 976 to 1025. He and his brother Constantine VIII were crowned before their father Romanos II died in 963, but they were too young to rule. The throne thus went to two generals, Nikephoros ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Byzantine Emperors
This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised sovereign authority are included, to the exclusion of junior co-emperors (''symbasileis'') who never attained the status of sole or senior ruler, as well as of the various usurpers or rebels who claimed the imperial title. The following list starts with Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, who rebuilt the city of Byzantium as an imperial capital, Constantinople, and who was regarded by the later emperors as the model ruler. It was under Constantine that the major characteristics of what is considered the Byzantine state emerged: a Roman polity centered at Constantinople and culturally dominated by the Greek East, with Christianity as the state religion. The Byzantine Empire was the direct lega ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Kleidion
The Battle of Kleidion ( grc-gre, Κλειδίον; or Clidium, after the medieval name of the village of Klyuch, "(the) key"; also known as the Battle of Belasitsa) took place on July 29, 1014, between the Byzantine Empire and the Bulgarian Empire. It was the culmination of the nearly half-century struggle between the Byzantine Emperor Basil II and the Bulgarian Emperor Samuel in the late 10th and early 11th centuries. The result was a decisive Byzantine victory. The battle took place in the valley between the mountains of Belasitsa and Ograzhden, near the modern Bulgarian village of Klyuch. The decisive encounter occurred on July 29 with an attack in the rear by a force under the Byzantine general Nikephoros Xiphias, who had infiltrated the Bulgarian positions. The ensuing battle was a major defeat for the Bulgarians. Bulgarian soldiers were captured and reputedly blinded by order of Basil II, who would subsequently be known as the "Bulgar-Slayer". Samuel survived the ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gisela Of Hungary
Gisela of Hungary (or Gisele, Gizella and of Bavaria; 985 – 7 May 1065) was the first queen consort of Hungary by marriage to Stephen I of Hungary, and the sister of Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor. She has been beatified by the Catholic Church. Biography Gisela was a daughter of Henry II, Duke of Bavaria and Gisela of Burgundy. Gisela was raised very devout, most likely with bishop Wolfgang of Regensburg as her mentor and governor. She married King Stephen I of Hungary in 996 as a part of Hungary's policy of opening up to the West. The couple had a son, Saint Emeric, who died on 2 September 1031, while hunting boar.Ott, Michael. "St. Stephen." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 12 April 2013 The wedding of Stephen and Gisela marked a turning point in Hungary's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.png "Click for more on -> Blinding (punishment)")
.png "Click for more on -> Battle Of Kleidion")