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Katepanikion
A ''katepanikion'' ( el, κατεπανίκιον) was a Byzantine term for an area under the control of a ''katepano''. It was used to describe two different types of administrative divisions: * From ca. 971 until the late 11th century, it referred to large circumscriptions comprising several themes and commanded by a '' doux'' ("duke") or ''katepano'' ("catepan"). In English, the divisions are usually termed "duchy" (in Greek ''doukaton'') or "catepanate" (''katepanikion''). * In the Palaiologan period, the ''katepanikion'' became a much smaller province comprising a fortified town and its surroundings or an island, under a '' kephale'' and also termed a ''kephalatikion''. See also *Catepanate of Italy *Catepanate of Ras The Catepanate of Ras (Byzantine Greek: ) was a province ( catepanate) of the Byzantine Empire, established around 971 in central regions of early medieval Serbia, during the rule of Byzantine Emperor John Tzimiskes (969–976). The catepanate ... Sub ...
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Catepanate Of Italy
The Catepanate (or Catapanate) of Italy ( el, ''Katepaníkion Italías'') was a province of the Byzantine Empire from 965 until 1071. At its greatest extent, it comprised mainland Italy south of a line drawn from Monte Gargano to the Gulf of Salerno. North of that line, Amalfi and Naples also maintained allegiance to Constantinople through the catepan. The Italian region of ''Capitanata'' derives its name from '' katepanikion''. History Following the fall of the Exarchate of Ravenna in 751, Byzantium had been absent from the affairs of southern Italy for almost a century, but the accession of Basil I (reigned 867–886) to the throne of Constantinople changed this: from 868 on, the imperial fleet and Byzantine diplomats were employed in an effort to secure the Adriatic Sea from Saracen raids, re-establish Byzantine dominance over Dalmatia, and extend Byzantine control once more over parts of Italy. As a result of these efforts, Otranto was taken from the Saracens in 873, and ...
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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 ...
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Katepano
The ''katepánō'' ( el, κατεπάνω, lit. "he oneplaced at the top", or " the topmost") was a senior Byzantine military rank and office. The word was Latinized as ''capetanus/catepan'', and its meaning seems to have merged with that of the Italian "capitaneus" (which derives from the Latin word "caput", meaning head). This hybridized term gave rise to the English language term ''captain'' and its equivalents in other languages (Capitan, Kapitan, Kapitän, El Capitán, Il Capitano, Kapudan Pasha etc.) History The ''katepáno'' first appears in the 9th century, when it was used in the generic sense of "the one in charge" by two officials: the head of the ''basilikoi anthrōpoi'' ("imperial men"), a class of low-level court functionaries, and the head of the Mardaites marine detachments of the Byzantine naval theme of the Cibyrrhaeots in southern Asia Minor. On the eve of the great eastern conquests of the 960s, however, the title acquired a more specific meaning. The reconq ...
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Theme (Byzantine District)
The themes or ( el, θέματα, , singular: , ) were the main military/administrative divisions of the middle Byzantine Empire. They were established in the mid-7th century in the aftermath of the Slavic invasion of the Balkans and Muslim conquests of parts of Byzantine territory, and replaced the earlier provincial system established by Diocletian and Constantine the Great. In their origin, the first themes were created from the areas of encampment of the field armies of the East Roman army, and their names corresponded to the military units that had existed in those areas. The theme system reached its apogee in the 9th and 10th centuries, as older themes were split up and the conquest of territory resulted in the creation of new ones. The original theme system underwent significant changes in the 11th and 12th centuries, but the term remained in use as a provincial and financial circumscription until the very end of the Empire. History Background During the late 6th and e ...
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Palaiologan Period
The Byzantine Empire was ruled by the Palaiologos dynasty in the period between 1261 and 1453, from the restoration of Byzantine rule to Constantinople by the usurper Michael VIII Palaiologos following its recapture from the Latin Empire, founded after the Fourth Crusade (1204), up to the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire. Together with the preceding Nicaean Empire and the contemporary ''Frankokratia'', this period is known as the late Byzantine Empire. From the start, the regime faced numerous problems.Mango, p. 255 The Turks of Asia Minor had begun conducting raids and expanding into Byzantine territory in Asia Minor by 1263, just two years after the enthronment of the first Palaiologos emperor Michael VIII. Anatolia, which had formed the very heart of the shrinking empire, was systematically lost to numerous Turkic ''ghazis'', whose raids evolved into conquering expeditions inspired by Islamic zeal, the prospect of economic gain, and the desire to seek refuge from th ...
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Kephale (Byzantine Empire)
In the late Byzantine Empire, the term ''kephale'' ( gr, κεφαλή, kephalē, head) was used to denote local and provincial governors. It entered use in the second half of the 13th century, and was derived from the colloquial language. Consequently, it never became an established title or rank of the Byzantine aristocracy and bureaucracy, Byzantine imperial hierarchy, but remained a descriptive term.. In essence, the ''kephalē'' replaced the Komnenian period, Komnenian-era ''dux, doux'' as the civil and military governor of a territorial administrative unit, known as a ''katepanikion'' (κατεπανίκιον, ''katepaníkion''),Not to be confused with the very different katepano, katepanates of the 10th-11th centuries. but also termed a ''kephalatikion'' (κεφαλατίκιον, ''kephalatíkion''). In size, these provinces were small compared to the earlier ''Theme (Byzantine district), themata'', and could range from a few villages surrounding the ''kephales seat (a ''kast ...
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Catepanate Of Ras
The Catepanate of Ras (Byzantine Greek: ) was a province ( catepanate) of the Byzantine Empire, established around 971 in central regions of early medieval Serbia, during the rule of Byzantine Emperor John Tzimiskes (969–976). The catepanate was named after the fortified town of Ras, eponymous for the historical region of Raška ( la, Rascia). The province was short-lived, and collapsed soon after 976, following the Byzantine retreat from the region after the restoration of the Bulgarian Empire. History In the middle of the 6th century, during the reign of Byzantine emperor Justinian I (d. 565), a fortress of ''Arsa'' ( gr, Ἄρσα) in the province of Dardania was refortified, as attested by historian Procopius. At the beginning of the 7th century, Byzantine rule collapsed, and the region was settled by Serbs. Up to the middle of the 10th century, the fortress of Ras was a stronghold of the early medieval Principality of Serbia, as attested by the Byzantine emperor and h ...
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Subdivisions Of The Byzantine Empire
Subdivisions of the Byzantine Empire were administrative units of the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire (330–1453). The Empire had a developed administrative system, which can be divided into three major periods: the late Roman/early Byzantine, which was a continuation and evolution of the system begun by the emperors Diocletian and Constantine the Great, which gradually evolved into the middle Byzantine, where the theme system predominated alongside a restructured central bureaucracy, and the late Byzantine, where the structure was more varied and decentralized and where feudal elements appeared. Early period: 4th–7th centuries The classical administrative model, as exemplified by the ''Notitia Dignitatum'', divided the late Roman Empire into provinces, which in turn were grouped into dioceses and then into praetorian prefectures. The late Roman administrative system remained intact until the 530s, when Justinian I (r. 527–565) undertook his administrative reforms. He ef ...
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