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Theodore Styppeiotes
Theodore Styppeiotes or Stypeiotes () was a high-ranking bureaucrat of the Byzantine Empire and a member of the court of Emperor Manuel I Komnenos (). A well-educated and capable man, he advanced rapidly in the imperial hierarchy from imperial secretary (''grammatikos'') to the influential post of ''kanikleios'', keeper of the imperial inkstand. In he engineered the downfall of John Hagiotheodorites, and succeeded him as ''mesazon'', the ''de facto'' chief minister of the Empire. He long enjoyed the favour and trust of Manuel, who even wed him with his niece Eudokia. However, in 1158/59, Styppeiotes abruptly fell from power and was imprisoned and political mutilation in Byzantine culture, blinded. The sources provide different reasons, from Styppeiotes conspiring to deprive the Emperor of power to the machinations of his rival, John Kamateros (logothetes tou dromou), John Kamateros, and scholars still dispute the true background of this event. Life The origin and early life of Theod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th centuryAD, it endured until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. The term 'Byzantine Empire' was coined only after its demise; its citizens used the term 'Roman Empire' and called themselves 'Romans'. During the early centuries of the Roman Empire, the western provinces were Romanization (cultural), Latinised, but the eastern parts kept their Hellenistic culture. Constantine the Great, Constantine I () legalised Christianity and moved the capital to Constantinople. Theodosius I, Theodosius I () made Christianity the state religion and Greek gradually replaced Latin for official use. The empire adopted a defensive strategy and, throughout its remaining history, expe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peloponnese (theme)
The Theme of the Peloponnese () was a Byzantine military-civilian province (''thema'', theme) encompassing the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece. It was established in c. 800, and its capital was Corinth. History Slavic invasions and settlements From 27 BC until the end of the 6th century, the Peloponnese formed part of the province of Achaea, which during Late Antiquity comprised also the eastern parts of Central Greece. Its capital was Corinth. From the 580s on, as attested in the '' Chronicle of Monemvasia'', the Slavic invasions which affected the wider Balkans reached the peninsula, and led to the abandonment of the urban centres of Antiquity in favour of either remote or offshore locations like Monemvasia, while the inhabitants of several cities such as Patras are claimed by the ''Chronicle'' to have emigrated to Italy altogether. Along with statements by medieval chroniclers like Isidore of Seville and Constantine Porphyrogennetos that southern Greece had comple ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Logothetes Tou Dromou
The (), in English usually rendered as Logothete of the Course/Drome/ or Postal Logothete, was the head of the department of the Public Post (, , or simply , ), and one of the most senior fiscal ministers (logothetes) of the Byzantine Empire. History and functions The office of the is explicitly attested for the first time in circa 762, but traces its origins to the officials supervising the Public Post in Late Antiquity. Until the late 4th century, the administration of the Roman Empire's Public Post was a responsibility of the praetorian prefectures. Due to the abuse of the Post and its privileges by the officials of the praetorian prefecture, in the late 4th century the oversight over the Post passed to the , while the day-to-day administration remained in the hands of the praetorian prefecture. As a result, an official known as the , the inspector of the Public Post, is attested in the late 4th-century ''Notitia Dignitatum'' (''Pars Orientalis'', XI.50) as one of the princ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Magdalino
Paul Magdalino (born 10 May 1948) is a British Byzantinist who is Bishop Wardlaw Professor (Emeritus) of Byzantine History at the University of St Andrews. He received the 1993 Runciman Award for his monograph on the reign of Manuel I Komnenos (1143–1180), which challenged Niketas Choniates' negative appraisal of the ruler. Biography Magdalino was educated at the University of Oxford ( BA 1970, DPhil 1976). He has worked as a lecturer and reader in mediaeval history at the University of St Andrews (1977–1999), where he became Professor of Byzantine History (1999–2002) and Bishop Wardlaw Professor of Byzantine History (2002–2009, later Emeritus), and as a professor of Byzantine history at Koç University, Istanbul (2006–2008, 2010–2014). He is a fellow of the Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in Early Christian Humanism, Catholic University of America, the Alexander-von-Humboldt Stipendium at Frankfurt and Munich, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rahewin
Rahewin was an important German chronicler at the abbey of Freising Freising () is a university town in Bavaria, Germany, and the capital of the Freising (district), with a population of about 50,000. Location Freising is the oldest town between Regensburg and Bolzano, and is located on the Isar river in ... in Bavaria. He was secretary and chaplain to Otto von Freising; he also continued the work of his master Otto von Freising, ''Gesta Friderici,'' books 3 and 4, between 1157 and 1160. Rahewin was also a poet. His style makes use of the ''cursus tardus'' in which the stress falls on the third and sixth syllables from the end. He died between 1170 and 1177. References Sources * . Chroniclers from the Holy Roman Empire German male non-fiction writers 1170s deaths Year of birth unknown {{Germany-historian-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Kinnamos
John Kinnamos or ''Joannes Kinnamos'' or ''John Cinnamus'' ( or Κίναμος; born shortly after 1143, died after 1185), was a Byzantine historian. He was imperial secretary (Greek "grammatikos", most likely a post connected with the military administration) to Emperor Manuel I (1143–1180), whom he accompanied on his campaigns in Europe and Asia Minor. It appears that Kinnamos outlived Andronikos I, who died in 1185. Kinnamos was the author of a history that covered the years 1118–1176, thereby continuing the '' Alexiad'' of Anna Komnene, and covering the reigns of John II and Manuel I, until Manuel's unsuccessful campaign against the Turks, which ended in defeat at the Battle of Myriokephalon. Kinnamos's work breaks off abruptly, though it is highly likely that the original continued to the death of Manuel. There are also indications that the present work is an abridgment of a significantly larger work. The hero of the history is Manuel, and throughout the history Kin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Political Mutilation In Byzantine Culture
Mutilation was a common method of punishment for criminals in the Byzantine Empire, but it also had a role in the empire's political life. By blinding a rival, one would not only restrict his mobility but also make it almost impossible for him to lead an army into battle, then an important part of taking control of the empire. Castration was also used to eliminate potential opponents. In the Byzantine Empire, for a man to be castrated meant that he was no longer a man—half-dead, "life that was half death". Castration also eliminated any chance of heirs being born to threaten either the emperor's or the emperor's children's place at the throne. Other mutilations were the severing of the nose ( rhinotomy), or the amputating of limbs. Rationale The mutilation of political rivals by the emperor was deemed an effective way of side-lining from the line of succession a person who was seen as a threat. Castrated men were not seen as a threat, as no matter how much power they gained t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cilicia
Cilicia () is a geographical region in southern Anatolia, extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Cilicia has a population ranging over six million, concentrated mostly at the Cilician plain (). The region includes the provinces of Mersin, Adana, Osmaniye and Hatay. Name The name of Cilicia () was derived from (), which was the name used by the Neo-Assyrian Empire to designate the western part of what would become Cilicia. The English spelling is the same as the Latin, as it was transliterated directly from the Greek form Κιλικία. The palatalization of c occurring in Western Europe in later Vulgar Latin () accounts for its modern pronunciation in English. Geography Cilicia extends along the Mediterranean coast east from Pamphylia to the Nur Mountains, which separate it from Syria. North and east of Cilicia stand the rugged Taurus Mountains, which separate it from the high central plateau of Anatolia, and which are pierced by a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Tornikes
George may refer to: Names * George (given name) * George (surname) People * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Papagheorghe, also known as Jorge / GEØRGE * George, stage name of Giorgio Moroder * George, son of Andrew I of Hungary Places South Africa * George, South Africa, a city ** George Airport United States * George, Iowa, a city * George, Missouri, a ghost town * George, Washington, a city * George County, Mississippi * George Air Force Base, a former U.S. Air Force base located in California Computing * George (algebraic compiler) also known as 'Laning and Zierler system', an algebraic compiler by Laning and Zierler in 1952 * GEORGE (computer), early computer built by Argonne National Laboratory in 1957 * GEORGE (operating system), a range of operating systems (George 1–4) for the ICT 1900 range of computers in the 1960s * GEORGE (programming language), an autocode system invented by Charles Leo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metropolitan Of Ephesus
The Metropolis of Ephesus () was an ecclesiastical territory (diocese, metropolis) of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in western Asia Minor, modern Turkey. Christianity was introduced already in the city of Ephesus in the 1st century AD by Paul the Apostle. The local Christian community comprised one of the seven churches of Asia mentioned in the Book of Revelation. The metropolis remained active until 1922–1923. History Early Christianity There had been a Jewish community at Ephesus for over three hundred years when Paul the Apostle visited Ephesus around 53 AD. Paul set out on his third missionary journey in 54 AD. He spent three months teaching in a synagogue in an effort to bring the Jews to accept union with the gentiles in Christianity, but without success. For the next two years he stayed in Ephesus seeking to convert Hellenized Jews and gentiles, and appears to have made many converts. The Apostle John (4 BC - 100 AD) was traditionally ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Niketas Choniates
Niketas or Nicetas Choniates (; – 1217), whose actual surname was Akominatos (), was a Byzantine Greek historian and politician. He accompanied his brother Michael Akominatos to Constantinople from their birthplace Chonae (from which came his nickname, "Choniates" meaning "person from Chonae"). Nicetas wrote a history of the Eastern Roman Empire from 1118 to 1207. Life Nicetas Akominatos was born to wealthy parents around 1150 in Phrygia in the city of Chonae (near the modern Honaz in Turkey). Bishop Nicetas of Chonae baptized and named the infant; later he was called "Choniates" after his birthplace. When he was nine, his father dispatched him with his brother Michael to Constantinople to receive an education. Niketas' older brother greatly influenced him during the early stages of his life. He initially secured a post in the civil service, and held important appointments under the Angelos emperors (among them that of Grand Logothete or Chancellor) and was governor of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
