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Skouterios
The ''skouterios'' ( el, σκουτέριος, "shield-bearer") was a Byzantine court office in the 13th–14th centuries, whose role was to carry the emperor's personal standard, the ''divellion''. History and functions The office is very obscure, and is rarely mentioned in the sources. Although it is attested from the 13th century on in the Empire of Nicaea, most of what is known about it comes from the ''Book of Offices'', written by pseudo-Kodinos in the middle of the 14th century. According to pseudo-Kodinos, the ''skouterios'' was responsible for bearing the emperor's banner, the so-called ''divellion'' (διβέλλιον) and the emperor's shield (σκουτάριον, ''skoutarion''), not only in ceremonial processions, but whenever the emperor went about in public, including on campaign. The ''skouterios'' preceded the emperor, and the Varangian Guard followed behind the ''divellion''. In imperial ceremonies, a number of other standards were also used, but the ''skouteri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Divellion
The ''divellion'' or ''dibellion'' ( gr, διβέλλιον) was a symbol of the Byzantine Empire under the Palaiologos dynasty, late Byzantine Empire, the Emperor's personal banner. It was carried by the ''skouterios'' ("shield-bearer"), alongside the Imperial shield, on official events. Emperor Stefan Dušan of Serbian Empire, Serbia (r. 1331–55) also adopted the Imperial ''divellion'', which was purple and had a golden cross in the center. See also *Byzantine flags and insignia *Labarum References Sources *{{cite book, last=Hendry, first=Michael F., title=Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection, volume=4, issue=1, chapter=Imperial Insignia, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NN1xNdYH6n0C&pg=PA175, year=1966, publisher=Dumbarton Oaks, isbn=978-0-88402-233-6, pages=175– 2nd millennium in the Byzantine Empire Byzantine regalia Serbian Empire Historical flags ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byzantine Flags And Insignia
For most of its history, the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire did not know or use heraldry in the Western European sense of permanent motifs transmitted through hereditary right. Various large aristocratic families employed certain symbols to identify themselves; the use of the cross, and of icons of Christ, the Theotokos and various saints is also attested on seals of officials, but these were often personal rather than family emblems. . Likewise, various emblems ( el, σημεῖα, ''sēmeia''; ''σημεῖον'', ''sēmeion'') were used in official occasions and for military purposes, such as banners or shields displaying various motifs such as the cross or the '' labarum''.. Despite the abundance of pre-heraldic symbols in Byzantine society from the 10th century, only through contact with the Crusaders in the 12th century (when heraldry was becoming systematized in Western Europe), and particularly following the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) and the establishment of Fra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protokynegos
The ''prōtokynēgos'' ( el, πρωτοκυνηγός, "first huntsman") was a Byzantine court office and honorific title in the 13th–15th centuries, who was the chief huntsman of the Byzantine emperors. History and functions The office first appears in the 13th-century Empire of Nicaea, although it clearly had earlier antecedents; possibly the ''komēs tou kynēgiou'' (κόμης τοῡ κυνηγίου. "Count of the Hunt") attested in an undated seal. In the ''Book of Offices'' written by pseudo-Kodinos in the middle of the 14th century, the post occupies the 41st place in the imperial hierarchy, between the '' megas logariastēs'' and the '' skouterios''. Rodolphe Guilland suggested that it was closely associated with the '' prōtoierakarios'' ("first falconer"), who was in the 48th place, and that holders of the latter office were promoted to the former. Hunting was a particular passion of Byzantine emperors; in the 14th century, Andronikos III Palaiologos () is said to h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capital city, capital of the geographic regions of Greece, geographic region of Macedonia (Greece), Macedonia, the administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Central Macedonia and the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace. It is also known in Greek language, Greek as (), literally "the co-capital", a reference to its historical status as the () or "co-reigning" city of the Byzantine Empire alongside Constantinople. Thessaloniki is located on the Thermaic Gulf, at the northwest corner of the Aegean Sea. It is bounded on the west by the delta of the Vardar, Axios. The Thessaloniki (municipality), municipality of Thessaloniki, the historical center, had a population of 317,778 in 2021, while the Thessaloniki metro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angelos Sennachereim
The House of Angelos (; gr, Ἄγγελος), feminine form Angelina (), plural Angeloi (), was a Byzantine Greek noble lineage which rose to prominence through the marriage of its founder, Constantine Angelos, with Theodora Komnene, the youngest daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. As imperial relatives, the Angeloi held various high titles and military commands under Emperor Manuel I Komnenos. In 1185, following a revolt against Andronikos I Komnenos, Isaac II Angelos rose to the throne, the first of three Angeloi emperors who ruled until 1204. The period was marked by the decline and fragmentation of the Byzantine Empire, culminating in its dissolution by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. After the Fourth Crusade, another branch of the family managed to establish an independent state in Epirus. The members of this branch largely eschewed the use of the 'Angelos' surname in favour of the more prestigious 'Doukas' and 'Komnenos', and are collectively known as the Komnenodoukai () ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adrianople
Edirne (, ), formerly known as Adrianople or Hadrianopolis (Greek: Άδριανούπολις), is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, Edirne was the second capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1369 to 1453, before Constantinople became its capital. The city is a commercial centre for woven textiles, silks, carpets and agricultural products and has a growing tourism industry. In 2019 its estimated population was 185,408. Edirne has an attractive location on the rivers Meriç and Tunca and has managed to withstand some of the unattractive development that mars the outskirts of many Turkish cities. The town is famous in Turkey for its liver. ''Ciğer tava'' (breaded and deep-fried liver) is often served with a side of cacık, a dish of diluted strained yogurt with chopped cucumber. Names and etymology The city was founded and named after the Roman emperor Hadr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Catalan Company
The Catalan Company or the Great Catalan Company (Spanish: ''Compañía Catalana'', Catalan: ''Gran Companyia Catalana'', Latin: ''Exercitus francorum'', ''Societas exercitus catalanorum'', ''Societas cathalanorum'', ''Magna Societas Catalanorum'') was a company of mercenaries led by Roger de Flor in the early 14th century and hired by the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos to combat the increasing power of the Anatolian beyliks. It was formed by '' almogavar'' veterans of the War of the Sicilian Vespers, who had remained unemployed after the signing in 1302 of the Peace of Caltabellotta between the Crown of Aragon and the French dynasty of the Angevins. Origin The military demands of the Reconquista stimulated the formation of the elite light infantry known as the ''almogavars'' on the Iberian peninsula during the 13th century. These troops were used quite effectively by the Crown of Aragon for other imperial ventures in the Mediterranean, particularly the War of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manuel Philes
Manuel Philes (c. 1275–1345, gr, Μανουήλ Φιλής), of Ephesus, Byzantine poet. Biography At an early age, he moved to Constantinople, where he was the pupil of Georgius Pachymeres, in whose honour he composed a memorial poem. Philes appears to have travelled extensively, and his writings contain much information concerning the imperial court and distinguished Byzantines. He participated in an embassy to the "Tauroscythians" (Tatars) in 1293 to arrange the marriage of Maria, daughter of Andronikos II Palaiologos, to Toqta, the khan of the Golden Horde. He then was on a mission to recruit Georgian archers in 1305 and 1306. Having offended one of the emperors, probably Andronikos II, by indiscreet remarks published in a chronography, he was briefly thrown into prison and only released after an abject apology. Philes is the counterpart of Theodorus Prodromus in the time of the Comneni; his character, as shown in his poems, is that of a begging poet, always pleading pov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Death
The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causing the deaths of people, peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351. Bubonic plague is caused by the bacterium ''Yersinia pestis'' spread by fleas, but it can also take a secondary form where it is spread by person-to-person contact via aerosols causing septicaemic or pneumonic plagues. The Black Death was the beginning of the second plague pandemic. The plague created religious, social and economic upheavals, with profound effects on the course of European history. The origin of the Black Death is disputed. The pandemic originated either in Central Asia or East Asia before spreading to Crimea with the Golden Horde army of Jani Beg as he was besieging the Genoese trading port of Kaffa in Crimea (1347). From Crimea, it was most likely carried ... [...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] |
Sarcophagus
A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek σάρξ ' meaning "flesh", and φαγεῖν ' meaning "to eat"; hence ''sarcophagus'' means "flesh-eating", from the phrase ''lithos sarkophagos'' ( λίθος σαρκοφάγος), "flesh-eating stone". The word also came to refer to a particular kind of limestone that was thought to rapidly facilitate the decomposition of the flesh of corpses contained within it due to the chemical properties of the limestone itself. History of the sarcophagus Sarcophagi were most often designed to remain above ground. The earliest stone sarcophagi were used by Egyptian pharaohs of the 3rd dynasty, which reigned from about 2686 to 2613 B.C. The Hagia Triada sarcophagus is a stone sarcophagus elaborately painted in fresco; one style of later A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pinkernes
''Pinkernes'' ( grc, πιγκέρνης, pinkernēs), sometimes also ''epinkernes'' (, ''epinkernēs''), was a high Byzantine court position. The term derives from the Greek verb (''epikeránnymi'', "to mix ine), and was used to denote the cup-bearer of the Byzantine emperor. In addition, descriptive terms such as (''ho tou basileōs oinochoos'', "the emperor's wine-pourer"), (''archioinochoos'', "chief wine-pourer"), κυλικιφόρος (''kylikiphoros'', "bearer of the '' kylix''"), and, particularly at the court of the Empire of Nicaea, (''ho epi tou kerasmatos'', "the one in charge of the drink") were often used instead. The position is attested already in the ''Klētorologion'' of 899, where a ''pinkernēs'' of the emperor (, ''pinkernēs tou despotou'') and of the '' Augusta'' (, ''pinkernēs tēs Augoustēs'') are listed among the eunuchs of the palace staff. As the name suggests, the principal charge of the ''pinkernēs'' was the pouring of wine for the emperor; he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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