The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the
Roman Empire centered in
Constantinople during
Late Antiquity and the
Middle Ages. The eastern half of the Empire survived the conditions that caused the
fall of the West in the 5th century AD, and continued to exist 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 the
Mediterranean world. The term "Byzantine Empire" was only coined following the empire's demise; its citizens referred to the polity as the "Roman Empire" and to themselves as "Romans". Due to the imperial seat's move from Rome to
Byzantium, the
adoption of state Christianity, and the predominance of
Greek instead of
Latin, modern historians continue to make a distinction between the earlier "Roman Empire" and the later "Byzantine Empire".
The
Muslim conquest of
Sicily began in June 827 and lasted until 902, when the last major
Byzantine stronghold on the island,
Taormina, fell. Isolated fortresses remained in Byzantine hands until 965, but the island was henceforth under Muslim rule until
conquered in turn by the
Normans in the 11th century.
Although Sicily had been raided by the Muslims since the mid-7th century, these raids did not threaten
Byzantine control over the island, which remained a largely peaceful backwater. The opportunity for the
Aghlabid emirs of
Ifriqiya came in 827, when the commander of the island's fleet,
Euphemius, rose in revolt against the
Byzantine EmperorMichael II. Defeated by loyalist forces and driven from the island, Euphemius sought the aid of the Aghlabids. The latter regarded this as an opportunity for expansion and for diverting the energies of their own fractious military establishment and alleviating the criticism of the Islamic scholars by championing jihad, and dispatched an army to aid him. Following the Arab landing on the island, Euphemius was quickly sidelined. An initial assault on the island's capital,
Syracuse, failed, but the Muslims were able to weather the subsequent Byzantine counter-attack and hold on to a few fortresses. With the aid of reinforcements from Ifriqiya and
al-Andalus, in 831 they took
Palermo, which became the capital of the new Muslim province. (Full article...)
The Despotate was centred on the region of
Epirus, encompassing also
Albania and the western portion of
Greek Macedonia and also included
Thessaly and western Greece as far south as
Nafpaktos. Through a policy of aggressive expansion under
Theodore Komnenos Doukas the Despotate of Epirus also briefly came to incorporate central
Macedonia, with the establishment of the
Empire of Thessalonica in 1224, and
Thrace as far east as
Didymoteicho and
Adrianople, and was on the verge of recapturing Constantinople and restoring the Byzantine Empire before the
Battle of Klokotnitsa in 1230 where he was defeated by the
Bulgarian Empire. After that, the Epirote state contracted to its core in Epirus and Thessaly, and was forced into vassalage to other regional powers. It nevertheless managed to retain its autonomy until being conquered by the restored
PalaiologanByzantine Empire in ca. 1337. In the 1410s, the
Count palatine of Cephalonia and ZakynthosCarlo I Tocco managed to reunite the core of the Epirote state, but his successors gradually lost it to the advancing
Ottoman Empire, with the last stronghold,
Vonitsa, falling to the Ottomans in 1479. (Full article...)
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The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is the
second-largest Christian church, with approximately 230 million
baptised members. It operates as a
communion of
autocephalous churches, each governed by its
bishops via local
synods. The church has no central doctrinal or governmental authority analogous to the head of the
Catholic Church (the
pope). Nevertheless, the
Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is recognised by them as primus inter pares ("first among equals"), a title formerly given to the patriarch of Rome. As one of the oldest surviving religious institutions in the world, the Eastern Orthodox Church has played an especially prominent role in the history and culture of
Eastern and
Southeastern Europe.
From the start, the regime faced numerous problems. The
Turks of
Asia Minor had begun conducting raids and expanding into Byzantine territory in Asia Minor by 1263, just two years after the enthronement 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 the Mongols after the disastrous
Battle of Köse Dağ in 1243. The Palaiologoi were engaged on several fronts, often continually, while the empire's supply of food and manpower dwindled. In this period, the Byzantine Empire found itself continually at war, both civil and interstate, with most interstate conflicts being with other Christian empires. Most commonly, these comprised the
Second Bulgarian Empire, the
Serbian Empire, the remnants of the
Latin Empire and even the
Knights Hospitaller. (Full article...)
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The second Arab siege of Constantinople was a combined land and sea offensive in 717–718 by the Muslim Arabs of the
Umayyad Caliphate against the capital city of the
Byzantine Empire,
Constantinople. The campaign marked the culmination of twenty years of attacks and progressive Arab occupation of the Byzantine borderlands, while Byzantine strength was sapped by
prolonged internal turmoil. In 716, after years of preparations, the Arabs, led by
Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik, invaded Byzantine
Asia Minor. The Arabs initially hoped to exploit Byzantine civil strife and made common cause with the general
Leo III the Isaurian, who had risen up against Emperor
Theodosius III. Leo, however,
tricked them and secured the Byzantine throne for himself.
After wintering in the western coastlands of Asia Minor, the Arab army crossed into
Thrace in early summer 717 and built
siege lines to blockade the city, which was protected by the massive
Theodosian Walls. The Arab fleet, which accompanied the land army and was meant to complete the city's blockade by sea, was neutralized soon after its arrival by the
Byzantine navy through the use of
Greek fire. This allowed Constantinople to be resupplied by sea, while the Arab army was crippled by
famine and
disease during the unusually hard winter that followed. In spring 718, two Arab fleets sent as reinforcements were destroyed by the Byzantines after their Christian crews defected, and an additional army sent overland through Asia Minor was ambushed and defeated. Coupled with attacks by the
Bulgars on their rear, the Arabs were forced to lift the siege on 15 August 718. On its return journey, the Arab fleet was almost completely destroyed by natural disasters. (Full article...)
The first action that would lead to a formal schism was taken in 1053: the Greek churches in southern Italy were required to conform to Latin practices, under threat of closure. In retaliation, Patriarch
Michael I Cerularius of Constantinople ordered the closure of all Latin churches in
Constantinople. In 1054, the
papal legate sent by
Leo IX travelled to Constantinople in order, among other things, to deny Cerularius the title of "
ecumenical patriarch" and insist that he recognize the pope's claim to be the head of all of the churches. The main purposes of the papal legation were to seek help from the
Byzantine emperor,
Constantine IX Monomachos, in view of the
Norman conquest of southern Italy, and to respond to
Leo of Ohrid's attacks on the use of unleavened bread and other Western customs, attacks that had the support of Cerularius. The historian Axel Bayer says that the legation was sent in response to two letters, one from the emperor seeking help to organize a joint military campaign by the
eastern and
western empires against the
Normans, and the other from Cerularius. When the leader of the legation, Cardinal
Humbert of Silva Candida,
O.S.B., learned that Cerularius had refused to accept the demand, he
excommunicated him, and in response Cerularius
excommunicated Humbert and the other legates. According to Ware, "Even after 1054 friendly relations between East and West continued. The two parts of Christendom were not yet conscious of a great gulf of separation between them. ... The dispute remained something of which ordinary Christians in East and West were largely unaware". (Full article...)
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The sack of Amorium by the
Abbasid Caliphate in mid-August 838 was one of the major events in the long history of the
Arab–Byzantine Wars. The Abbasid campaign was led personally by the Caliph
al-Mu'tasim (
r. 833–842), in retaliation to a virtually unopposed expedition launched by the
Byzantine emperorTheophilos (r. 829–842) into the
Caliphate's borderlands the previous year. Mu'tasim targeted
Amorium, an
Eastern Roman city in western
Asia Minor, because it was the birthplace of the
ruling Byzantine dynasty and, at the time, one of Byzantium's largest and most important cities. The caliph gathered an exceptionally large army, which he divided in two parts, which invaded from the northeast and the south. The northeastern army defeated the Byzantine forces under Theophilos
at Anzen, allowing the Abbasids to penetrate deep into Byzantine Asia Minor and converge upon
Ancyra, which they found abandoned. After sacking the city, they turned south to Amorium, where they arrived on 1 August. Faced with intrigues at Constantinople and the rebellion of the large
Khurramite contingent of his army, Theophilos was unable to aid the city.
Amorium was strongly fortified and garrisoned, but a local inhabitant revealed a weak spot in the wall, where the Abbasids concentrated their attack, effecting a breach. Unable to break through the besieging army, Boiditzes, the commander of the breached section, privately attempted to negotiate with the Caliph without notifying his superiors. He concluded a local truce and left his post, which allowed the Arabs to take advantage, enter the city, and capture it. Amorium was systematically destroyed, never to recover its former prosperity. Many of its inhabitants were slaughtered, and the remainder driven off as slaves. Most of the survivors were released after a truce in 841, but prominent officials were taken to the caliph's capital of
Samarra and executed years later after refusing to convert to
Islam, becoming known as the
42 Martyrs of Amorium. (Full article...)
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Byzantine music (
Greek: Βυζαντινή μουσική,
romanized: Vyzantiné mousiké) originally consisted of the songs and hymns composed for the courtly and religious ceremonial of the
Byzantine Empire and continued, after the fall of
Constantinople in 1453, in the traditions of the sung Byzantine chant of
Eastern Orthodox liturgy. The ecclesiastical forms of Byzantine music are the best known forms today, because different Orthodox traditions still identify with the heritage of Byzantine music, when their cantors sing monodic chant out of the traditional chant books such as the
Sticherarion, which in fact consisted of five books, and the
Irmologion.
The Empire of Nicaea (
Greek: Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων) or the Nicene Empire was the largest of the three
Byzantine Greekrump states founded by the aristocracy of the
Byzantine Empire that fled when
Constantinople was occupied by
Western European and
Venetian armed forces during the
Fourth Crusade, a military event known as the
Sack of Constantinople. Like the other Byzantine rump states that formed due to the 1204 fracturing of the empire, such as the
Empire of Trebizond and the
Despotate of Epirus, it was a continuation of the eastern half of the Roman Empire that survived well into the medieval period. A fourth state, known in historiography as the
Latin Empire, was established by an army of Crusaders and the Republic of Venice after the capture of Constantinople and the surrounding environs.
Founded by the
Laskaris family, it lasted from 1204 to 1261, when the Nicenes restored the Byzantine Empire in Constantinople after its
recapture. Thus, the Nicene Empire is seen to be a direct continuation of the Byzantine Empire, as it had fully assumed the traditional titles and government of the Byzantines in 1205. (Full article...)
Mount Athos has been inhabited since ancient times and is known for its long Christian presence and historical monastic traditions, which date back to at least 800 AD during the
Byzantine era. Because of its long history of religious importance, the well-preserved agrarian architecture within the monasteries, and the preservation of the flora and fauna around the mountain, the
monastic community of Mount Athos was added to the
UNESCOWorld Heritage List in 1988. (Full article...)
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Greek fire was an
incendiarychemical weapon manufactured in and used by the
Eastern Roman Empire from the seventh through the fourteenth centuries. The recipe for Greek fire was a closely-guarded
state secret, but historians speculate it may have been made by combining
pine resin,
naphtha,
quicklime,
calcium phosphide,
sulfur, or
niter. Roman sailors would toss
grenades loaded with Greek fire onto enemy ships or spray it from tubes. Its ability to burn on water made it an effective and destructive naval incendiary weapon, and rival powers tried unsuccessfully to copy the material. (Full article...)
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A Hodegetria, or Virgin Hodegetria, is an
iconographic depiction of the
Theotokos (
Virgin Mary) holding the
Child Jesus at her side while pointing to him as the source of salvation for humankind. The Virgin's head usually inclines towards the child, who raises his hand in a blessing gesture. Metals are often used to draw attention to young Christ, reflecting light and shining in a way to embody divinity. In the
Western Church this type of icon is sometimes called Our Lady of the Way.
The most venerated
icon of the Hodegetria type, regarded as the original, was displayed in the
Monastery of the Panaghia Hodegetria in
Constantinople, which was built specially to contain it. Unlike most later copies it showed the Theotokos standing full-length. It was said to have been brought back from the
Holy Land by
Eudocia, the wife of emperor
Theodosius II (408–450), and to have been painted by
Saint Luke the evangelist, the attributed author of the
Gospel of Luke. The icon was double-sided, with a
crucifixion on the other side, and was "perhaps the most prominent cult object in Byzantium". (Full article...)
The work as planned had three parts: the Code (Codex) is a compilation, by selection and extraction, of imperial enactments to date; the Digest or Pandects (the Latin title contains both Digesta and Pandectae) is an encyclopedia composed of mostly brief extracts from the writings of Roman jurists; and the Institutes (Institutiones) is a student textbook, mainly introducing the Code, although it has important conceptual elements that are less developed in the Code or the Digest. All three parts, even the textbook, were given force of law. They were intended to be, together, the sole source of law; reference to any other source, including the original texts from which the Code and the Digest had been taken, was forbidden. Nonetheless, Justinian found himself having to enact further laws; today these are counted as a fourth part of the Corpus, the Novellae Constitutiones (Novels, literally New Laws). (Full article...)
The Arab–Byzantine wars were a series of wars between a number of
MuslimArab dynasties and the
Byzantine Empire from the 7th to the 11th century. Conflict started during the initial
Muslim conquests, under the expansionist
Rashidun and
Umayyadcaliphs, in the 7th century and continued by their successors until the mid-11th century.
The emergence of Muslim Arabs from
Arabia in the 630s resulted in the rapid loss of Byzantium's southern provinces (
Syria and
Egypt) to the
Arab Caliphate. Over the next fifty years, under the Umayyad caliphs, the Arabs would launch repeated raids into still-Byzantine
Asia Minor, twice besiege the Byzantine capital of
Constantinople, and conquer the Byzantine
Exarchate of Africa. The situation did not stabilize until after the failure of the
Second Arab Siege of Constantinople in 718, when the
Taurus Mountains on the eastern rim of Asia Minor became established as the mutual, heavily fortified and largely depopulated frontier. Under the
Abbasid Empire, relations became more normal, with embassies exchanged and even periods of truce, but conflict remained the norm, with almost annual raids and counter-raids, sponsored either by the Abbasid government or by local rulers, well into the 10th century. (Full article...)
A group of
Andalusian exiles led by
Abu Hafs Umar al-Iqritishi conquered Crete in either 824 or 827/828, and established an independent Islamic state. The Byzantines launched a campaign that took most of the island back in 842-43 under
Theoktistos, but the reconquest was not completed and would soon be reversed. Later attempts by the Byzantine Empire to recover the island failed, and for the approximately 135 years of its existence, the emirate was one of the major foes of Byzantium. Crete commanded the sea lanes of the Eastern Mediterranean and functioned as a forward base and haven for Muslim corsair fleets that ravaged the Byzantine-controlled shores of the
Aegean Sea. The emirate's internal history is less well known, but all accounts point to considerable prosperity deriving not only from piracy but also from extensive trade and agriculture. The emirate was brought to an end by
Nikephoros Phokas, who
successfully campaigned against it in 960–961, re-annexing the island to the Byzantine Empire. (Full article...)
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Byzantine medicine encompasses the common
medical practices of the
Byzantine Empire from c. 400 AD to 1453 AD. Byzantine medicine was notable for building upon the knowledge base developed by its Greco-Roman predecessors. In preserving medical practices from antiquity, Byzantine medicine influenced
Islamic medicine and fostered the Western rebirth of medicine during the Renaissance.
Byzantine physicians often compiled and standardized medical knowledge into
textbooks. Their records tended to include both diagnostic explanations and technical drawings. The
Medical Compendium in Seven Books, written by the leading physician
Paul of Aegina, survived as a particularly thorough source of medical knowledge. This compendium, written in the late seventh century, remained in use as a standard textbook for the following 800 years. This tradition of compilation continued from around the tenth century into the twentieth through the genre of medical writings known as iatrosophia. (Full article...)
Byzantine art comprises the body of artistic products of the
Eastern Roman Empire, as well as the nations and states that inherited culturally from the empire. Though the empire itself emerged from the
decline of western Rome and lasted until the
Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the start date of the Byzantine period is rather clearer in art history than in political history, if still imprecise. Many
Eastern Orthodox states in Eastern Europe, as well as to some degree the
Islamic states of the eastern
Mediterranean, preserved many aspects of the empire's culture and art for centuries afterward.
A number of contemporary states with the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire were culturally influenced by it without actually being part of it (the "
Byzantine commonwealth"). These included
Kievan Rus', as well as some non-Orthodox states like the
Republic of Venice, which separated from the Byzantine Empire in the 10th century, and the
Kingdom of Sicily, which had close ties to the Byzantine Empire and had also been a Byzantine territory until the 10th century with a large Greek-speaking population persisting into the 12th century. Other states having a Byzantine artistic tradition, had oscillated throughout the Middle Ages between being part of the Byzantine Empire and having periods of independence, such as
Serbia and
Bulgaria. After the
fall of the Byzantine capital of Constantinople in 1453, art produced by Eastern Orthodox Christians living in the
Ottoman Empire was often called "post-Byzantine." Certain artistic traditions that originated in the Byzantine Empire, particularly in regard to icon painting and church architecture, are maintained in
Greece,
Cyprus,
Serbia,
Bulgaria,
Romania,
Russia and other Eastern Orthodox countries to the present day. (Full article...)
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The Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite or the Rite of Constantinople, is a
liturgical rite that is identified with the wide range of cultural, devotional, and canonical practices that developed in the
Eastern Christian church of
Constantinople.
The
canonical hours are extended and complex, lasting about eight hours (longer during
Great Lent) but are abridged outside of large
monasteries. An
iconostasis, a partition covered with
icons, separates
the area around the altar from the
nave. The
sign of the cross, accompanied by bowing, is made very frequently, e.g., more than a hundred times during the
divine liturgy, and there is prominent veneration of icons, a general acceptance of the congregants freely moving within the church and interacting with each other, and distinctive traditions of liturgical chanting. (Full article...)
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The Byzantine economy was among the most robust economies in the Mediterranean for many centuries.
Constantinople was a prime hub in a trading network that at various times extended across nearly all of
Eurasia and North Africa. Some scholars argue that, up until the arrival of the Arabs in the 7th century, the
Eastern Roman Empire had the most powerful economy in the world. The Arab conquests, however, would represent a substantial reversal of fortunes contributing to a period of decline and stagnation.
Constantine V's reforms (c. 765) marked the beginning of a revival that continued until 1204. From the 10th century until the end of the 12th, the Byzantine Empire projected an image of luxury, and the travelers were impressed by the wealth accumulated in the capital. All this changed with the arrival of the
Fourth Crusade, which was an economic catastrophe. The
Palaiologoi tried to revive the economy, but the late Byzantine state would not gain full control of either the foreign or domestic economic forces.
One of the economic foundations of the empire was trade. The state strictly controlled both the internal and the international trade, and retained the monopoly of issuing
coinage. Constantinople remained the single most important commercial centre of Europe for much of the
Medieval era, which it held until the
Republic of Venice slowly began to overtake Byzantine merchants in trade; first through tax exemption under the
Komnenoi, then under the
Latin Empire. (Full article...)
Taking advantage of the situation, the
SeljukSultanate of Rum began seizing territory in western
Anatolia, until the
Nicaean Empire was able to
repulse the Seljuk Turks from the remaining territories still under Byzantine rule. Eventually Constantinople was
re-taken from the
Latin Empire in 1261 by the Nicaean Empire. The position of the Byzantine Empire in Europe remained uncertain due to the presence of the rivals in
Epirus,
Serbia and
Bulgaria. This, combined with the declining power of the
Sultanate of Rum (Byzantium's chief rival in Asia Minor) led to the removal of troops from Anatolia to maintain Byzantium's grip on
Thrace. (Full article...)
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The
Byzantine Empire was ruled by emperors of the dynasty of
Heraclius between 610 and 711. The Heraclians presided over a period of cataclysmic events that were a watershed in the history of the Empire and the world. Heraclius, the founder of his dynasty, was of
Armenian and
Cappadocian (Greek) origin. At the beginning of the dynasty, the Empire's culture was still essentially
Ancient Roman, dominating the
Mediterranean and harbouring a prosperous
Late Antique urban civilization. This world was shattered by successive invasions, which resulted in extensive territorial losses, financial collapse and plagues that depopulated the cities, while religious controversies and rebellions further weakened the Empire.
By the dynasty's end, the Empire had been transformed into a different state structure: now known in historiography as medieval Byzantine rather than (Ancient) Roman, a chiefly agrarian, military-dominated society that was engaged in a lengthy struggle with the
MuslimRashidun Caliphate and successor
Umayyad Caliphate. However, the Empire during this period became also far more homogeneous, being reduced to its mostly
Greek-speaking and firmly
Chalcedonian core territories, which enabled it to weather these storms and enter a period of stability under the successor
Isaurian dynasty. (Full article...)
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The first Arab siege of Constantinople in 674–678 was a major conflict of the
Arab–Byzantine wars, and the first culmination of the
Umayyad Caliphate's expansionist strategy towards the
Byzantine Empire, led by Caliph
Mu'awiya I. Mu'awiya, who had emerged in 661 as the ruler of the Muslim Arab empire following a
civil war, renewed aggressive warfare against Byzantium after a lapse of some years and hoped to deliver a lethal blow by capturing the Byzantine capital of
Constantinople.
As reported by the Byzantine chronicler
Theophanes the Confessor, the Arab attack was methodical: in 672–673 Arab fleets secured bases along the coasts of
Asia Minor, and then proceeded to install a loose blockade around Constantinople. They used the peninsula of
Cyzicus near the city as a base to spend the winter, and returned every spring to launch attacks against the
city's fortifications. Finally, the Byzantines, under Emperor
Constantine IV, managed to destroy the Arab navy using a new invention, the liquid incendiary substance known as
Greek fire. The Byzantines also defeated the Arab land army in Asia Minor, forcing them to lift the siege. The Byzantine victory was of major importance for the survival of the Byzantine state, as the Arab threat receded for a time. A peace treaty was signed soon after, and following the outbreak of
another Muslim civil war, the Byzantines even experienced a brief period of ascendancy over the Caliphate. The siege was the first major Arab defeat in 50 years of expansion and temporarily stabilized the Byzantine Empire after decades of war and defeats. (Full article...)
Selected biographies
Image 1
Anna Dalassene (
Greek: Ἄννα Δαλασσηνή; ca. 1025/30 – 1 November 1100/02) was an important
Byzantine noblewoman who played a significant role in the rise to power of the
Komnenoi in the eleventh century. She exercised great influence over her son, the Emperor
Alexios I Komnenos, who gave her the title Augusta. She also administered the empire as regent during his many absences from Constantinople on long military campaigns during the early part of his reign. As empress-mother, she exerted more influence and power than the empress-consort,
Irene Doukaina, a woman whom she hated because of past intrigues with the
Doukai. (Full article...)
Married to a
Thessalian Vlach woman, John first appears leading Vlach troops alongside his father in the lead-up to the
Battle of Pelagonia in 1259. His defection to the camp of Emperor
Michael VIII Palaiologos was crucial in the battle, which ended with the crushing defeat of the Epirotes'
Latin allies and opened the way for the recovery of
Constantinople and the re-establishment of the
Byzantine Empire under Palaiologos in 1261. John quickly returned to the side of his father and brother,
Nikephoros, and assisted them in recovering
Epirus and
Thessaly. After Michael II died, John Doukas became ruler of Thessaly with his seat at
Neopatras, whence Western chroniclers often erroneously called him "Duke of Neopatras". (Full article...)
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Gold solidus struck during the revolt of the Heraclii, depicting Heraclius the Elder and his son, the future Emperor
Heraclius, wearing consular robes.
Heraclius the Elder (
Greek: Ἡράκλειος, Herákleios; died 610) was a
Byzantine general and the father of Byzantine emperor
Heraclius (r. 610–641). Generally considered to be of
Armenian origin, Heraclius the Elder distinguished himself in the
war against the
Sassanid Persians in the 580s. As a subordinate general (or hypostrategos), Heraclius served under the command of
Philippicus during the
Battle of Solachon and possibly served under
Comentiolus during the Battle of Sisarbanon. Circa 595, Heraclius the Elder is mentioned as a magister militum per
Armeniam sent by
Emperor Maurice (r. 582–602) to quell an Armenian rebellion led by Samuel Vahewuni and Atat Khorkhoruni. Circa 600, he was appointed as the
Exarch of
Africa and in 608, he rebelled with his son against the usurper
Phocas (r. 602–610). Using
North Africa as a base, the younger Heraclius managed to overthrow Phocas, beginning the
Heraclian dynasty, which would rule Byzantium for a century. Heraclius the Elder died soon after receiving news of his son's accession to the Byzantine throne. (Full article...)
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Gold tetarteron of Isaac I Komnenos, showing the Emperor wielding a
globus cruciger and holding a sheathed sword
The son of the general
Manuel Erotikos Komnenos, he was orphaned at an early age, and was raised under the care of Emperor
Basil II. He made his name as a successful military commander, serving as commander-in-chief of the eastern armies between
c. 1042 and 1054. In 1057 he became the head of a conspiracy of the dissatisfied eastern generals against the newly crowned
Michael VI Bringas. Proclaimed emperor by his followers on 8 June 1057, he rallied sufficient military forces to defeat the loyalist army at the
Battle of Hades. While Isaac was willing to accept a compromise solution by being appointed Michael's heir, a powerful faction in
Constantinople, led by the ambitious
Patriarch of Constantinople,
Michael Keroularios, pressured Michael to abdicate. After Michael abdicated on 30 August 1057, Isaac was crowned emperor in the
Hagia Sophia on 1 September. (Full article...)
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Coin of Harald as the sole Norwegian king, "ARALD[us] REX NAR[vegiae]". Imitation of a type of
Edward the Confessor.
Harald Sigurdsson (
Old Norse: Haraldr Sigurðarson;
c. 1015 – 25 September 1066), also known as Harald III of Norway and given the epithet Hardrada (harðráði; modern
Norwegian: Hardråde, roughly translated as "stern counsel" or "hard ruler") in the
sagas, was
King of Norway from 1046 to 1066. Additionally, he unsuccessfully claimed both the
Danish throne until 1064 and the
English throne in 1066. Before becoming king, Harald had spent around fifteen years in exile as a mercenary and military commander in
Kievan Rus' and as a chief of the
Varangian Guard in the
Byzantine Empire. In his
chronicle,
Adam of Bremen called him the "Thunderbolt of the North".
In 1030 aged fifteen, Harald fought in the
Battle of Stiklestad together with his half-brother
Olaf Haraldsson (later Saint Olaf). Olaf sought to reclaim the Norwegian throne, which he had lost to the Danish king
Cnut the Great two years prior. In the battle, Olaf and Harald were defeated by forces loyal to Cnut, and Harald was forced into exile to Kievan Rus' (the sagas' Garðaríki). Thereafter, he was in the army of Grand Prince
Yaroslav the Wise, becoming captain, until he moved on to
Constantinople with his companions around 1034. In Constantinople, he rose quickly to become the commander of the Byzantine Varangian Guard, seeing action on the
Mediterranean Sea, in
Asia Minor, Sicily, possibly in the
Holy Land,
Bulgaria and in Constantinople itself, where he became involved in the imperial dynastic disputes. Harald amassed considerable wealth during his time in the Byzantine Empire, which he shipped to Yaroslav in Kievan Rus' for safekeeping. In 1042, he left the Byzantine Empire, returning to Kievan Rus' in order to prepare to reclaim the Norwegian throne. Possibly to Harald's knowledge, in his absence the Norwegian throne had been restored from the Danes to Olaf's illegitimate son
Magnus the Good. (Full article...)
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Manuel the Armenian (
Greek: Μανουήλ ὁ Ἀρμένιος), was a prominent
Byzantine general of
Armenian origin, active from
c. 810 until his death. After reaching the highest military ranks, a palace
conspiracy forced him to seek refuge in the
Abbasid court in 829. He returned to Byzantine service the next year, receiving the position of
Domestic of the Schools from Emperor
Theophilos, who had married his niece
Theodora. Manuel remained in the post throughout Theophilos's reign, and reportedly saved the emperor's life in the
Battle of Anzen in 838. According to one report, he died on 27 July 838 of wounds received during the battle, but other sources record his survival past this date, ascribing him a major role in the regency that governed the empire after Theophilos's death, and report that he died some time around 860. (Full article...)
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Alexios I Megas Komnenos (
Greek: Αλέξιος Κομνηνός;
Georgian: ალექსი კომნენოსი; c. 1182 – 1 February 1222) or Alexius I Megas Comnenus was, with his brother
David, the founder of the
Empire of Trebizond and its ruler from 1204 until his death in 1222. The two brothers were the only male descendants of the
Byzantine EmperorAndronikos I, who had been dethroned and killed in 1185, and thus claimed to represent the legitimate government of the Empire following the
conquest of
Constantinople by the
Fourth Crusade in 1204. Although his rivals governing the
Nicaean Empire succeeded in becoming the de facto successors, and rendered his dynastic claims to the imperial throne moot, Alexios' descendants continued to emphasize both their heritage and connection to the
Komnenian dynasty by later referring to themselves as Megas Komnenos ("grand Komnenos").
While his brother David conquered a number of Byzantine provinces in northwestern
Anatolia, Alexios defended his capital
Trebizond from an
unsuccessful siege by the
Seljuk Turks around the year 1205. Further details of his reign are sparse. Muslim chroniclers record how, in 1214, Alexios was captured by the Turks in the field while defending
Sinope; despite sending an envoy to seek their surrender the city refused to capitulate to Sultan
Kaykaus I, and Alexios was tortured in sight of the Sinopians. The city submitted to Kaykaus and Alexios was freed after becoming Kaykaus' vassal. Alexios died at the age of forty. (Full article...)
Alexios III Megas Komnenos (
Greek: Αλέξιος Μέγας Κομνηνός; 5 October 1338 – 20 March 1390), or Alexius III, was
Emperor of
Trebizond from December 1349 until his death. He is perhaps the best-documented ruler of that country, and his reign is distinguished by a number of religious grants and literary creations.
He was the son of Emperor
Basil of Trebizond and his second (and bigamous) wife,
Irene of Trebizond. Alexios III was originally named John (Ιωάννης, Iōannēs), and took the name Alexios either in memory of his older brother who had died prematurely or of his paternal grandfather, Emperor
Alexios II of Trebizond. (Full article...)
Born in Naissus,
Dacia Mediterranea (now
Niš, Serbia), he was the son of
Flavius Constantius, a Roman army officer of
Illyrian origin who had been one of the four rulers of the
Tetrarchy. His mother,
Helena, was a
Greek woman of low birth, probably from
Asia Minor in modern
Turkey. Later canonised as a
saint, she is traditionally credited for the conversion of her son. Constantine served with distinction under the Roman emperors
Diocletian and
Galerius. He began his career by campaigning in the eastern provinces (against the
Persians) before being recalled in the west (in AD 305) to fight alongside his father in the
province of
Britannia. After his father's death in 306, Constantine was acclaimed as augustus (emperor) by his army at
Eboracum (
York, England). He eventually emerged victorious in
the civil wars against emperors
Maxentius and
Licinius to become the sole ruler of the
Roman Empire by 324. (Full article...)
Theodosius I (
Greek: ΘεοδόσιοςTheodosios; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also called Theodosius the Great, was a
Roman emperor from 379 to 395. During his reign, he succeeded in a crucial
war against the Goths, as well as in two civil wars, and was instrumental in establishing the
creed of Nicaea as the orthodox doctrine for
Christianity. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule the entire
Roman Empire before its administration was permanently split between the
West and
East.
Born in
Hispania, Theodosius was the son of a high-ranking general,
Theodosius the Elder, under whose guidance he rose through the ranks of the
Roman army. Theodosius held independent command in
Moesia in 374, where he had some success against the invading
Sarmatians. Not long afterwards, he was forced into retirement, and his father was executed under obscure circumstances. Theodosius soon regained his position following a series of intrigues and executions at Emperor
Gratian's court. In 379, after the eastern Roman emperor
Valens perished at the
Battle of Adrianople against the
Goths, Gratian appointed Theodosius as a successor with orders to take charge of the current military emergency. The new emperor's resources, and depleted armies, were not sufficient to drive the invaders out; in 382 the Goths were allowed to settle south of the
Danube as autonomous allies of the empire. In 386, Theodosius signed a treaty with the
Sasanian Empire which partitioned the long-disputed
Kingdom of Armenia and secured a durable peace between the two powers. (Full article...)
Andronikos II Palaiologos (
Greek: Ἀνδρόνικος Δούκας Ἄγγελος Κομνηνὸς Παλαιολόγος,
romanized: Andrónikos Doúkās Ángelos Komnēnós Palaiologos; 25 March 1259 – 13 February 1332),
Latinized as Andronicus II Palaeologus, reigned as
Byzantine emperor from 1282 to 1328. His reign marked the beginning of the recently-restored empire's final decline. The Turks conquered most of Byzantium's remaining Anatolian territories, and Andronikos spent the last years of his reign fighting his
own grandson in the
First Palaiologan Civil War. The war ended in Andronikos' forced abdication in 1328, after which he retired to a monastery for the remainder of his life. (Full article...)
Alexios V Doukas (
Greek: Ἀλέξιος Δούκας; died December 1204),
Latinized as Alexius V Ducas, was
Byzantine emperor from February to April 1204, just prior to the
sack of Constantinople by the participants of the
Fourth Crusade. His family name was
Doukas, but he was also known by the nickname Mourtzouphlos or Murtzuphlus (Μούρτζουφλος), referring to either bushy, overhanging eyebrows or a sullen, gloomy character. He achieved power through a
palace coup, killing his predecessors in the process. Though he made vigorous attempts to defend Constantinople from the crusader army, his military efforts proved ineffective. His actions won the support of the mass of the populace, but he alienated the elite of the city. Following the fall, sack, and occupation of the city, Alexios V was
blinded by his father-in-law, the ex-emperor
Alexios III, and later executed by the new
Latin regime. He was the last Byzantine emperor to rule in Constantinople until the Byzantine
recapture of Constantinople in 1261. (Full article...)
Constantine V (
Greek: Κωνσταντῖνος,
translit.Kōnstantīnos;
Latin: Constantinus; July 718 – 14 September 775) was
Byzantine emperor from 741 to 775. His reign saw a consolidation of Byzantine security from external threats. As an able military leader, Constantine took advantage of
civil war in the Muslim world to make limited offensives on the
Arab frontier. With this eastern frontier secure, he undertook repeated campaigns against the
Bulgars in the
Balkans. His military activity, and policy of settling Christian populations from the Arab frontier in
Thrace, made Byzantium's hold on its Balkan territories more secure.
Religious strife and controversy was a prominent feature of his reign. His fervent support of
Iconoclasm and opposition to
monasticism led to his vilification by later Byzantine historians and writers, who denigrated him with the nicknames "the Dung-Named" (
Greek: Κοπρώνυμος,
translit.Koprónimos;
Latin: Copronymus), because he allegedly defaecated during his baptism, similarly "Anointed with Urine" (
Greek: Οὐραλύφιος,
translit.Ouralýphios;
Latin: Uralyphius), and "the Equestrian" (
Greek: Καβαλλινος,
translit.Kaballinos;
Latin: Caballinus), referencing the excrement of horses. (Full article...)
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Underdrawing of Basil I in the
Paris Gregory,
c. 879–883
Basil I, nicknamed "the Macedonian" (
Greek: Βασίλειος ὁ Μακεδών,
translit.Basíleios ō Makedṓn; 811 – 29 August 886), was
Byzantine emperor from 867 to 886. Born a lowly peasant in the
theme of
Macedonia, he rose to prominence in the imperial court after entering into the service of Theophilitzes, a relative of Emperor
Michael III (r. 842–867). He was given a fortune by the wealthy
Danielis and gained Michael's favour, whose
mistress he married on his emperor's orders. In 866, Michael proclaimed him co-emperor, but Basil ordered his assassination the next year, thus installing himself as sole ruler of the empire. Despite his humble origins, he showed great ability in running the affairs of state, and founded the
Macedonian dynasty. He was succeeded upon his death by his son (perhaps actually Michael III's son)
Leo VI. (Full article...)
Basil II
Porphyrogenitus (
Greek: Βασίλειος ΠορφυρογέννητοςBasileios Porphyrogennetos; 958 – 15 December 1025), nicknamed the Bulgar Slayer (
Greek: ὁ Βουλγαροκτόνος, ho Boulgaroktónos), 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 Phokas (
r. 963–969) and
John Tzimiskes (r. 969–976) before Basil became senior emperor, though his influential great-uncle
Basil Lekapenos remained as the de facto ruler until 985. His reign of 49 years and 11 months was the longest of any
Roman emperor.
In his early life, Maximus was a civil servant, and an aide to the
Byzantine EmperorHeraclius. He gave up this life in the political sphere to enter the monastic life. Maximus had studied diverse schools of philosophy, and certainly what was common for his time, the Platonic dialogues, the works of Aristotle, and numerous later Platonic commentators on Aristotle and Plato, like
Plotinus,
Porphyry,
Iamblichus, and
Proclus. When one of his friends began espousing the
Christological position known as
Monothelitism, Maximus was drawn into the controversy, in which he supported an interpretation of the
Chalcedonian formula on the basis of which it was asserted that
Jesus had both a human and a divine
will. Maximus is
venerated in both the
Catholic and
Eastern Orthodox Churches. He was eventually persecuted for his Christological positions; following a trial, his tongue and right hand were mutilated. (Full article...)
Michael I Komnenos Doukas,
Latinized as Comnenus Ducas (
Greek: Μιχαήλ Κομνηνός Δούκας,
romanized: Mikhaēl Komnēnos Doukas), and in modern sources often recorded as Michael I Angelos, a name he never used, was the founder and first
ruler of the
Despotate of Epirus from
c. 1205 until his assassination in 1214/15.
Born
c. 1170, Michael was a descendant of
Alexios I Komnenos and a cousin of emperors
Isaac II Angelos and
Alexios III Angelos. He began his public career in 1190, as a hostage to the
Third Crusade, and went on to serve as governor of the province of
Mylasa and Melanoudion in the 1190s and again in
c. 1200/01. During the latter tenure he rebelled against Alexios III but was defeated and forced to flee to the
Seljuk Turks. In the aftermath of the
sack of
Constantinople by the
Fourth Crusade in 1204, he attached himself to
Boniface of Montferrat. Soon, however, he abandoned the Crusader leader and went to
Epirus, where he established himself as ruler, apparently through marriage with the daughter or widow of a local magnate. (Full article...)
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Alexios I Komnenos (
Greek: Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός,
translit.Aléxios Komnēnós, 1057 – 15 August 1118),
LatinizedAlexius I Comnenus, was
Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. Although he was not the first emperor of the
Komnenian dynasty, it was during his reign that the Komnenos family came to full power and initiated a hereditary succession to the throne. Inheriting a collapsing empire and faced with constant warfare during his reign against both the
Seljuq Turks in
Asia Minor and the
Normans in the western
Balkans, Alexios was able to curb the Byzantine decline and begin the military, financial, and territorial recovery known as the
Komnenian restoration. His appeals to Western Europe for help against the Turks was the catalyst that sparked the
First Crusade. (Full article...)
Donor portrait of the megas doux Alexios Apokaukos, from a collection of the "Works of
Hippocrates" commissioned by him in the early 1340s. Alexios is depicted in the garb of his office, wearing a richly decorated kabbadion and the skaranikon, a ceremonial headdress depicting the reigning emperor.
Leo Sgouros (
Greek: Λέων Σγουρός),
Latinized as Leo Sgurus, was a
Greek independent lord in the northeastern
Peloponnese in the early 13th century. The scion of the magnate
Sgouros family, he succeeded his father as hereditary lord in the region of Nauplia. Taking advantage of the disruption caused by the
Fourth Crusade, he made himself independent, one of several local rulers that appeared throughout the
Byzantine Empire during the final years of the
Angeloi dynasty. He expanded his domain into
Corinthia and
Central Greece, eventually marrying the daughter of former
Byzantine emperorAlexios III Angelos (r. 1195–1203). His conquests, however, were short-lived, as the Crusaders forced him back into the Peloponnese. Blockaded in his stronghold on the
Acrocorinth, he committed
suicide in 1208. (Full article...)
Justinian II (
Latin: Iustinianus;
Greek: Ἰουστινιανός,
romanized: Ioustinianós; 668/69 – 4 November 711), nicknamed "the Slit-Nosed" (
Latin: Rhinotmetus;
Greek: ὁ Ῥινότμητος,
romanized: ho Rhīnótmētos), was the last
Byzantine emperor of the
Heraclian dynasty, reigning from 685 to 695 and again from 705 to 711. Like his namesake,
Justinian I, Justinian II was an ambitious and passionate ruler who was keen to restore the Roman Empire to its former glories. However, he responded brutally to any opposition to his will and lacked the finesse of his father,
Constantine IV. Consequently, he generated enormous opposition to his reign, resulting in his deposition in 695 in a popular uprising. He only returned to the throne in 705 with the help of a
Bulgar and
Slav army. His second reign was even more despotic than the first, and in 711 he was killed by mutinous soldiers. (Full article...)
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the
Roman Empire centered in
Constantinople during
Late Antiquity and the
Middle Ages. The eastern half of the Empire survived the conditions that caused the
fall of the West in the 5th century AD, and continued to exist 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 the
Mediterranean world. The term "Byzantine Empire" was only coined following the empire's demise; its citizens referred to the polity as the "Roman Empire" and to themselves as "Romans". Due to the imperial seat's move from Rome to
Byzantium, the
adoption of state Christianity, and the predominance of
Greek instead of
Latin, modern historians continue to make a distinction between the earlier "Roman Empire" and the later "Byzantine Empire".
The
Muslim conquest of
Sicily began in June 827 and lasted until 902, when the last major
Byzantine stronghold on the island,
Taormina, fell. Isolated fortresses remained in Byzantine hands until 965, but the island was henceforth under Muslim rule until
conquered in turn by the
Normans in the 11th century.
Although Sicily had been raided by the Muslims since the mid-7th century, these raids did not threaten
Byzantine control over the island, which remained a largely peaceful backwater. The opportunity for the
Aghlabid emirs of
Ifriqiya came in 827, when the commander of the island's fleet,
Euphemius, rose in revolt against the
Byzantine EmperorMichael II. Defeated by loyalist forces and driven from the island, Euphemius sought the aid of the Aghlabids. The latter regarded this as an opportunity for expansion and for diverting the energies of their own fractious military establishment and alleviating the criticism of the Islamic scholars by championing jihad, and dispatched an army to aid him. Following the Arab landing on the island, Euphemius was quickly sidelined. An initial assault on the island's capital,
Syracuse, failed, but the Muslims were able to weather the subsequent Byzantine counter-attack and hold on to a few fortresses. With the aid of reinforcements from Ifriqiya and
al-Andalus, in 831 they took
Palermo, which became the capital of the new Muslim province. (Full article...)
The Despotate was centred on the region of
Epirus, encompassing also
Albania and the western portion of
Greek Macedonia and also included
Thessaly and western Greece as far south as
Nafpaktos. Through a policy of aggressive expansion under
Theodore Komnenos Doukas the Despotate of Epirus also briefly came to incorporate central
Macedonia, with the establishment of the
Empire of Thessalonica in 1224, and
Thrace as far east as
Didymoteicho and
Adrianople, and was on the verge of recapturing Constantinople and restoring the Byzantine Empire before the
Battle of Klokotnitsa in 1230 where he was defeated by the
Bulgarian Empire. After that, the Epirote state contracted to its core in Epirus and Thessaly, and was forced into vassalage to other regional powers. It nevertheless managed to retain its autonomy until being conquered by the restored
PalaiologanByzantine Empire in ca. 1337. In the 1410s, the
Count palatine of Cephalonia and ZakynthosCarlo I Tocco managed to reunite the core of the Epirote state, but his successors gradually lost it to the advancing
Ottoman Empire, with the last stronghold,
Vonitsa, falling to the Ottomans in 1479. (Full article...)
Image 4
The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is the
second-largest Christian church, with approximately 230 million
baptised members. It operates as a
communion of
autocephalous churches, each governed by its
bishops via local
synods. The church has no central doctrinal or governmental authority analogous to the head of the
Catholic Church (the
pope). Nevertheless, the
Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is recognised by them as primus inter pares ("first among equals"), a title formerly given to the patriarch of Rome. As one of the oldest surviving religious institutions in the world, the Eastern Orthodox Church has played an especially prominent role in the history and culture of
Eastern and
Southeastern Europe.
From the start, the regime faced numerous problems. The
Turks of
Asia Minor had begun conducting raids and expanding into Byzantine territory in Asia Minor by 1263, just two years after the enthronement 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 the Mongols after the disastrous
Battle of Köse Dağ in 1243. The Palaiologoi were engaged on several fronts, often continually, while the empire's supply of food and manpower dwindled. In this period, the Byzantine Empire found itself continually at war, both civil and interstate, with most interstate conflicts being with other Christian empires. Most commonly, these comprised the
Second Bulgarian Empire, the
Serbian Empire, the remnants of the
Latin Empire and even the
Knights Hospitaller. (Full article...)
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The second Arab siege of Constantinople was a combined land and sea offensive in 717–718 by the Muslim Arabs of the
Umayyad Caliphate against the capital city of the
Byzantine Empire,
Constantinople. The campaign marked the culmination of twenty years of attacks and progressive Arab occupation of the Byzantine borderlands, while Byzantine strength was sapped by
prolonged internal turmoil. In 716, after years of preparations, the Arabs, led by
Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik, invaded Byzantine
Asia Minor. The Arabs initially hoped to exploit Byzantine civil strife and made common cause with the general
Leo III the Isaurian, who had risen up against Emperor
Theodosius III. Leo, however,
tricked them and secured the Byzantine throne for himself.
After wintering in the western coastlands of Asia Minor, the Arab army crossed into
Thrace in early summer 717 and built
siege lines to blockade the city, which was protected by the massive
Theodosian Walls. The Arab fleet, which accompanied the land army and was meant to complete the city's blockade by sea, was neutralized soon after its arrival by the
Byzantine navy through the use of
Greek fire. This allowed Constantinople to be resupplied by sea, while the Arab army was crippled by
famine and
disease during the unusually hard winter that followed. In spring 718, two Arab fleets sent as reinforcements were destroyed by the Byzantines after their Christian crews defected, and an additional army sent overland through Asia Minor was ambushed and defeated. Coupled with attacks by the
Bulgars on their rear, the Arabs were forced to lift the siege on 15 August 718. On its return journey, the Arab fleet was almost completely destroyed by natural disasters. (Full article...)
The first action that would lead to a formal schism was taken in 1053: the Greek churches in southern Italy were required to conform to Latin practices, under threat of closure. In retaliation, Patriarch
Michael I Cerularius of Constantinople ordered the closure of all Latin churches in
Constantinople. In 1054, the
papal legate sent by
Leo IX travelled to Constantinople in order, among other things, to deny Cerularius the title of "
ecumenical patriarch" and insist that he recognize the pope's claim to be the head of all of the churches. The main purposes of the papal legation were to seek help from the
Byzantine emperor,
Constantine IX Monomachos, in view of the
Norman conquest of southern Italy, and to respond to
Leo of Ohrid's attacks on the use of unleavened bread and other Western customs, attacks that had the support of Cerularius. The historian Axel Bayer says that the legation was sent in response to two letters, one from the emperor seeking help to organize a joint military campaign by the
eastern and
western empires against the
Normans, and the other from Cerularius. When the leader of the legation, Cardinal
Humbert of Silva Candida,
O.S.B., learned that Cerularius had refused to accept the demand, he
excommunicated him, and in response Cerularius
excommunicated Humbert and the other legates. According to Ware, "Even after 1054 friendly relations between East and West continued. The two parts of Christendom were not yet conscious of a great gulf of separation between them. ... The dispute remained something of which ordinary Christians in East and West were largely unaware". (Full article...)
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The sack of Amorium by the
Abbasid Caliphate in mid-August 838 was one of the major events in the long history of the
Arab–Byzantine Wars. The Abbasid campaign was led personally by the Caliph
al-Mu'tasim (
r. 833–842), in retaliation to a virtually unopposed expedition launched by the
Byzantine emperorTheophilos (r. 829–842) into the
Caliphate's borderlands the previous year. Mu'tasim targeted
Amorium, an
Eastern Roman city in western
Asia Minor, because it was the birthplace of the
ruling Byzantine dynasty and, at the time, one of Byzantium's largest and most important cities. The caliph gathered an exceptionally large army, which he divided in two parts, which invaded from the northeast and the south. The northeastern army defeated the Byzantine forces under Theophilos
at Anzen, allowing the Abbasids to penetrate deep into Byzantine Asia Minor and converge upon
Ancyra, which they found abandoned. After sacking the city, they turned south to Amorium, where they arrived on 1 August. Faced with intrigues at Constantinople and the rebellion of the large
Khurramite contingent of his army, Theophilos was unable to aid the city.
Amorium was strongly fortified and garrisoned, but a local inhabitant revealed a weak spot in the wall, where the Abbasids concentrated their attack, effecting a breach. Unable to break through the besieging army, Boiditzes, the commander of the breached section, privately attempted to negotiate with the Caliph without notifying his superiors. He concluded a local truce and left his post, which allowed the Arabs to take advantage, enter the city, and capture it. Amorium was systematically destroyed, never to recover its former prosperity. Many of its inhabitants were slaughtered, and the remainder driven off as slaves. Most of the survivors were released after a truce in 841, but prominent officials were taken to the caliph's capital of
Samarra and executed years later after refusing to convert to
Islam, becoming known as the
42 Martyrs of Amorium. (Full article...)
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Byzantine music (
Greek: Βυζαντινή μουσική,
romanized: Vyzantiné mousiké) originally consisted of the songs and hymns composed for the courtly and religious ceremonial of the
Byzantine Empire and continued, after the fall of
Constantinople in 1453, in the traditions of the sung Byzantine chant of
Eastern Orthodox liturgy. The ecclesiastical forms of Byzantine music are the best known forms today, because different Orthodox traditions still identify with the heritage of Byzantine music, when their cantors sing monodic chant out of the traditional chant books such as the
Sticherarion, which in fact consisted of five books, and the
Irmologion.
The Empire of Nicaea (
Greek: Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων) or the Nicene Empire was the largest of the three
Byzantine Greekrump states founded by the aristocracy of the
Byzantine Empire that fled when
Constantinople was occupied by
Western European and
Venetian armed forces during the
Fourth Crusade, a military event known as the
Sack of Constantinople. Like the other Byzantine rump states that formed due to the 1204 fracturing of the empire, such as the
Empire of Trebizond and the
Despotate of Epirus, it was a continuation of the eastern half of the Roman Empire that survived well into the medieval period. A fourth state, known in historiography as the
Latin Empire, was established by an army of Crusaders and the Republic of Venice after the capture of Constantinople and the surrounding environs.
Founded by the
Laskaris family, it lasted from 1204 to 1261, when the Nicenes restored the Byzantine Empire in Constantinople after its
recapture. Thus, the Nicene Empire is seen to be a direct continuation of the Byzantine Empire, as it had fully assumed the traditional titles and government of the Byzantines in 1205. (Full article...)
Mount Athos has been inhabited since ancient times and is known for its long Christian presence and historical monastic traditions, which date back to at least 800 AD during the
Byzantine era. Because of its long history of religious importance, the well-preserved agrarian architecture within the monasteries, and the preservation of the flora and fauna around the mountain, the
monastic community of Mount Athos was added to the
UNESCOWorld Heritage List in 1988. (Full article...)
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Greek fire was an
incendiarychemical weapon manufactured in and used by the
Eastern Roman Empire from the seventh through the fourteenth centuries. The recipe for Greek fire was a closely-guarded
state secret, but historians speculate it may have been made by combining
pine resin,
naphtha,
quicklime,
calcium phosphide,
sulfur, or
niter. Roman sailors would toss
grenades loaded with Greek fire onto enemy ships or spray it from tubes. Its ability to burn on water made it an effective and destructive naval incendiary weapon, and rival powers tried unsuccessfully to copy the material. (Full article...)
Image 13
A Hodegetria, or Virgin Hodegetria, is an
iconographic depiction of the
Theotokos (
Virgin Mary) holding the
Child Jesus at her side while pointing to him as the source of salvation for humankind. The Virgin's head usually inclines towards the child, who raises his hand in a blessing gesture. Metals are often used to draw attention to young Christ, reflecting light and shining in a way to embody divinity. In the
Western Church this type of icon is sometimes called Our Lady of the Way.
The most venerated
icon of the Hodegetria type, regarded as the original, was displayed in the
Monastery of the Panaghia Hodegetria in
Constantinople, which was built specially to contain it. Unlike most later copies it showed the Theotokos standing full-length. It was said to have been brought back from the
Holy Land by
Eudocia, the wife of emperor
Theodosius II (408–450), and to have been painted by
Saint Luke the evangelist, the attributed author of the
Gospel of Luke. The icon was double-sided, with a
crucifixion on the other side, and was "perhaps the most prominent cult object in Byzantium". (Full article...)
The work as planned had three parts: the Code (Codex) is a compilation, by selection and extraction, of imperial enactments to date; the Digest or Pandects (the Latin title contains both Digesta and Pandectae) is an encyclopedia composed of mostly brief extracts from the writings of Roman jurists; and the Institutes (Institutiones) is a student textbook, mainly introducing the Code, although it has important conceptual elements that are less developed in the Code or the Digest. All three parts, even the textbook, were given force of law. They were intended to be, together, the sole source of law; reference to any other source, including the original texts from which the Code and the Digest had been taken, was forbidden. Nonetheless, Justinian found himself having to enact further laws; today these are counted as a fourth part of the Corpus, the Novellae Constitutiones (Novels, literally New Laws). (Full article...)
The Arab–Byzantine wars were a series of wars between a number of
MuslimArab dynasties and the
Byzantine Empire from the 7th to the 11th century. Conflict started during the initial
Muslim conquests, under the expansionist
Rashidun and
Umayyadcaliphs, in the 7th century and continued by their successors until the mid-11th century.
The emergence of Muslim Arabs from
Arabia in the 630s resulted in the rapid loss of Byzantium's southern provinces (
Syria and
Egypt) to the
Arab Caliphate. Over the next fifty years, under the Umayyad caliphs, the Arabs would launch repeated raids into still-Byzantine
Asia Minor, twice besiege the Byzantine capital of
Constantinople, and conquer the Byzantine
Exarchate of Africa. The situation did not stabilize until after the failure of the
Second Arab Siege of Constantinople in 718, when the
Taurus Mountains on the eastern rim of Asia Minor became established as the mutual, heavily fortified and largely depopulated frontier. Under the
Abbasid Empire, relations became more normal, with embassies exchanged and even periods of truce, but conflict remained the norm, with almost annual raids and counter-raids, sponsored either by the Abbasid government or by local rulers, well into the 10th century. (Full article...)
A group of
Andalusian exiles led by
Abu Hafs Umar al-Iqritishi conquered Crete in either 824 or 827/828, and established an independent Islamic state. The Byzantines launched a campaign that took most of the island back in 842-43 under
Theoktistos, but the reconquest was not completed and would soon be reversed. Later attempts by the Byzantine Empire to recover the island failed, and for the approximately 135 years of its existence, the emirate was one of the major foes of Byzantium. Crete commanded the sea lanes of the Eastern Mediterranean and functioned as a forward base and haven for Muslim corsair fleets that ravaged the Byzantine-controlled shores of the
Aegean Sea. The emirate's internal history is less well known, but all accounts point to considerable prosperity deriving not only from piracy but also from extensive trade and agriculture. The emirate was brought to an end by
Nikephoros Phokas, who
successfully campaigned against it in 960–961, re-annexing the island to the Byzantine Empire. (Full article...)
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Byzantine medicine encompasses the common
medical practices of the
Byzantine Empire from c. 400 AD to 1453 AD. Byzantine medicine was notable for building upon the knowledge base developed by its Greco-Roman predecessors. In preserving medical practices from antiquity, Byzantine medicine influenced
Islamic medicine and fostered the Western rebirth of medicine during the Renaissance.
Byzantine physicians often compiled and standardized medical knowledge into
textbooks. Their records tended to include both diagnostic explanations and technical drawings. The
Medical Compendium in Seven Books, written by the leading physician
Paul of Aegina, survived as a particularly thorough source of medical knowledge. This compendium, written in the late seventh century, remained in use as a standard textbook for the following 800 years. This tradition of compilation continued from around the tenth century into the twentieth through the genre of medical writings known as iatrosophia. (Full article...)
Byzantine art comprises the body of artistic products of the
Eastern Roman Empire, as well as the nations and states that inherited culturally from the empire. Though the empire itself emerged from the
decline of western Rome and lasted until the
Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the start date of the Byzantine period is rather clearer in art history than in political history, if still imprecise. Many
Eastern Orthodox states in Eastern Europe, as well as to some degree the
Islamic states of the eastern
Mediterranean, preserved many aspects of the empire's culture and art for centuries afterward.
A number of contemporary states with the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire were culturally influenced by it without actually being part of it (the "
Byzantine commonwealth"). These included
Kievan Rus', as well as some non-Orthodox states like the
Republic of Venice, which separated from the Byzantine Empire in the 10th century, and the
Kingdom of Sicily, which had close ties to the Byzantine Empire and had also been a Byzantine territory until the 10th century with a large Greek-speaking population persisting into the 12th century. Other states having a Byzantine artistic tradition, had oscillated throughout the Middle Ages between being part of the Byzantine Empire and having periods of independence, such as
Serbia and
Bulgaria. After the
fall of the Byzantine capital of Constantinople in 1453, art produced by Eastern Orthodox Christians living in the
Ottoman Empire was often called "post-Byzantine." Certain artistic traditions that originated in the Byzantine Empire, particularly in regard to icon painting and church architecture, are maintained in
Greece,
Cyprus,
Serbia,
Bulgaria,
Romania,
Russia and other Eastern Orthodox countries to the present day. (Full article...)
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The Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite or the Rite of Constantinople, is a
liturgical rite that is identified with the wide range of cultural, devotional, and canonical practices that developed in the
Eastern Christian church of
Constantinople.
The
canonical hours are extended and complex, lasting about eight hours (longer during
Great Lent) but are abridged outside of large
monasteries. An
iconostasis, a partition covered with
icons, separates
the area around the altar from the
nave. The
sign of the cross, accompanied by bowing, is made very frequently, e.g., more than a hundred times during the
divine liturgy, and there is prominent veneration of icons, a general acceptance of the congregants freely moving within the church and interacting with each other, and distinctive traditions of liturgical chanting. (Full article...)
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The Byzantine economy was among the most robust economies in the Mediterranean for many centuries.
Constantinople was a prime hub in a trading network that at various times extended across nearly all of
Eurasia and North Africa. Some scholars argue that, up until the arrival of the Arabs in the 7th century, the
Eastern Roman Empire had the most powerful economy in the world. The Arab conquests, however, would represent a substantial reversal of fortunes contributing to a period of decline and stagnation.
Constantine V's reforms (c. 765) marked the beginning of a revival that continued until 1204. From the 10th century until the end of the 12th, the Byzantine Empire projected an image of luxury, and the travelers were impressed by the wealth accumulated in the capital. All this changed with the arrival of the
Fourth Crusade, which was an economic catastrophe. The
Palaiologoi tried to revive the economy, but the late Byzantine state would not gain full control of either the foreign or domestic economic forces.
One of the economic foundations of the empire was trade. The state strictly controlled both the internal and the international trade, and retained the monopoly of issuing
coinage. Constantinople remained the single most important commercial centre of Europe for much of the
Medieval era, which it held until the
Republic of Venice slowly began to overtake Byzantine merchants in trade; first through tax exemption under the
Komnenoi, then under the
Latin Empire. (Full article...)
Taking advantage of the situation, the
SeljukSultanate of Rum began seizing territory in western
Anatolia, until the
Nicaean Empire was able to
repulse the Seljuk Turks from the remaining territories still under Byzantine rule. Eventually Constantinople was
re-taken from the
Latin Empire in 1261 by the Nicaean Empire. The position of the Byzantine Empire in Europe remained uncertain due to the presence of the rivals in
Epirus,
Serbia and
Bulgaria. This, combined with the declining power of the
Sultanate of Rum (Byzantium's chief rival in Asia Minor) led to the removal of troops from Anatolia to maintain Byzantium's grip on
Thrace. (Full article...)
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The
Byzantine Empire was ruled by emperors of the dynasty of
Heraclius between 610 and 711. The Heraclians presided over a period of cataclysmic events that were a watershed in the history of the Empire and the world. Heraclius, the founder of his dynasty, was of
Armenian and
Cappadocian (Greek) origin. At the beginning of the dynasty, the Empire's culture was still essentially
Ancient Roman, dominating the
Mediterranean and harbouring a prosperous
Late Antique urban civilization. This world was shattered by successive invasions, which resulted in extensive territorial losses, financial collapse and plagues that depopulated the cities, while religious controversies and rebellions further weakened the Empire.
By the dynasty's end, the Empire had been transformed into a different state structure: now known in historiography as medieval Byzantine rather than (Ancient) Roman, a chiefly agrarian, military-dominated society that was engaged in a lengthy struggle with the
MuslimRashidun Caliphate and successor
Umayyad Caliphate. However, the Empire during this period became also far more homogeneous, being reduced to its mostly
Greek-speaking and firmly
Chalcedonian core territories, which enabled it to weather these storms and enter a period of stability under the successor
Isaurian dynasty. (Full article...)
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The first Arab siege of Constantinople in 674–678 was a major conflict of the
Arab–Byzantine wars, and the first culmination of the
Umayyad Caliphate's expansionist strategy towards the
Byzantine Empire, led by Caliph
Mu'awiya I. Mu'awiya, who had emerged in 661 as the ruler of the Muslim Arab empire following a
civil war, renewed aggressive warfare against Byzantium after a lapse of some years and hoped to deliver a lethal blow by capturing the Byzantine capital of
Constantinople.
As reported by the Byzantine chronicler
Theophanes the Confessor, the Arab attack was methodical: in 672–673 Arab fleets secured bases along the coasts of
Asia Minor, and then proceeded to install a loose blockade around Constantinople. They used the peninsula of
Cyzicus near the city as a base to spend the winter, and returned every spring to launch attacks against the
city's fortifications. Finally, the Byzantines, under Emperor
Constantine IV, managed to destroy the Arab navy using a new invention, the liquid incendiary substance known as
Greek fire. The Byzantines also defeated the Arab land army in Asia Minor, forcing them to lift the siege. The Byzantine victory was of major importance for the survival of the Byzantine state, as the Arab threat receded for a time. A peace treaty was signed soon after, and following the outbreak of
another Muslim civil war, the Byzantines even experienced a brief period of ascendancy over the Caliphate. The siege was the first major Arab defeat in 50 years of expansion and temporarily stabilized the Byzantine Empire after decades of war and defeats. (Full article...)
Selected biographies
Image 1
Anna Dalassene (
Greek: Ἄννα Δαλασσηνή; ca. 1025/30 – 1 November 1100/02) was an important
Byzantine noblewoman who played a significant role in the rise to power of the
Komnenoi in the eleventh century. She exercised great influence over her son, the Emperor
Alexios I Komnenos, who gave her the title Augusta. She also administered the empire as regent during his many absences from Constantinople on long military campaigns during the early part of his reign. As empress-mother, she exerted more influence and power than the empress-consort,
Irene Doukaina, a woman whom she hated because of past intrigues with the
Doukai. (Full article...)
Married to a
Thessalian Vlach woman, John first appears leading Vlach troops alongside his father in the lead-up to the
Battle of Pelagonia in 1259. His defection to the camp of Emperor
Michael VIII Palaiologos was crucial in the battle, which ended with the crushing defeat of the Epirotes'
Latin allies and opened the way for the recovery of
Constantinople and the re-establishment of the
Byzantine Empire under Palaiologos in 1261. John quickly returned to the side of his father and brother,
Nikephoros, and assisted them in recovering
Epirus and
Thessaly. After Michael II died, John Doukas became ruler of Thessaly with his seat at
Neopatras, whence Western chroniclers often erroneously called him "Duke of Neopatras". (Full article...)
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Gold solidus struck during the revolt of the Heraclii, depicting Heraclius the Elder and his son, the future Emperor
Heraclius, wearing consular robes.
Heraclius the Elder (
Greek: Ἡράκλειος, Herákleios; died 610) was a
Byzantine general and the father of Byzantine emperor
Heraclius (r. 610–641). Generally considered to be of
Armenian origin, Heraclius the Elder distinguished himself in the
war against the
Sassanid Persians in the 580s. As a subordinate general (or hypostrategos), Heraclius served under the command of
Philippicus during the
Battle of Solachon and possibly served under
Comentiolus during the Battle of Sisarbanon. Circa 595, Heraclius the Elder is mentioned as a magister militum per
Armeniam sent by
Emperor Maurice (r. 582–602) to quell an Armenian rebellion led by Samuel Vahewuni and Atat Khorkhoruni. Circa 600, he was appointed as the
Exarch of
Africa and in 608, he rebelled with his son against the usurper
Phocas (r. 602–610). Using
North Africa as a base, the younger Heraclius managed to overthrow Phocas, beginning the
Heraclian dynasty, which would rule Byzantium for a century. Heraclius the Elder died soon after receiving news of his son's accession to the Byzantine throne. (Full article...)
Image 5
Gold tetarteron of Isaac I Komnenos, showing the Emperor wielding a
globus cruciger and holding a sheathed sword
The son of the general
Manuel Erotikos Komnenos, he was orphaned at an early age, and was raised under the care of Emperor
Basil II. He made his name as a successful military commander, serving as commander-in-chief of the eastern armies between
c. 1042 and 1054. In 1057 he became the head of a conspiracy of the dissatisfied eastern generals against the newly crowned
Michael VI Bringas. Proclaimed emperor by his followers on 8 June 1057, he rallied sufficient military forces to defeat the loyalist army at the
Battle of Hades. While Isaac was willing to accept a compromise solution by being appointed Michael's heir, a powerful faction in
Constantinople, led by the ambitious
Patriarch of Constantinople,
Michael Keroularios, pressured Michael to abdicate. After Michael abdicated on 30 August 1057, Isaac was crowned emperor in the
Hagia Sophia on 1 September. (Full article...)
Image 6
Coin of Harald as the sole Norwegian king, "ARALD[us] REX NAR[vegiae]". Imitation of a type of
Edward the Confessor.
Harald Sigurdsson (
Old Norse: Haraldr Sigurðarson;
c. 1015 – 25 September 1066), also known as Harald III of Norway and given the epithet Hardrada (harðráði; modern
Norwegian: Hardråde, roughly translated as "stern counsel" or "hard ruler") in the
sagas, was
King of Norway from 1046 to 1066. Additionally, he unsuccessfully claimed both the
Danish throne until 1064 and the
English throne in 1066. Before becoming king, Harald had spent around fifteen years in exile as a mercenary and military commander in
Kievan Rus' and as a chief of the
Varangian Guard in the
Byzantine Empire. In his
chronicle,
Adam of Bremen called him the "Thunderbolt of the North".
In 1030 aged fifteen, Harald fought in the
Battle of Stiklestad together with his half-brother
Olaf Haraldsson (later Saint Olaf). Olaf sought to reclaim the Norwegian throne, which he had lost to the Danish king
Cnut the Great two years prior. In the battle, Olaf and Harald were defeated by forces loyal to Cnut, and Harald was forced into exile to Kievan Rus' (the sagas' Garðaríki). Thereafter, he was in the army of Grand Prince
Yaroslav the Wise, becoming captain, until he moved on to
Constantinople with his companions around 1034. In Constantinople, he rose quickly to become the commander of the Byzantine Varangian Guard, seeing action on the
Mediterranean Sea, in
Asia Minor, Sicily, possibly in the
Holy Land,
Bulgaria and in Constantinople itself, where he became involved in the imperial dynastic disputes. Harald amassed considerable wealth during his time in the Byzantine Empire, which he shipped to Yaroslav in Kievan Rus' for safekeeping. In 1042, he left the Byzantine Empire, returning to Kievan Rus' in order to prepare to reclaim the Norwegian throne. Possibly to Harald's knowledge, in his absence the Norwegian throne had been restored from the Danes to Olaf's illegitimate son
Magnus the Good. (Full article...)
Image 7
Manuel the Armenian (
Greek: Μανουήλ ὁ Ἀρμένιος), was a prominent
Byzantine general of
Armenian origin, active from
c. 810 until his death. After reaching the highest military ranks, a palace
conspiracy forced him to seek refuge in the
Abbasid court in 829. He returned to Byzantine service the next year, receiving the position of
Domestic of the Schools from Emperor
Theophilos, who had married his niece
Theodora. Manuel remained in the post throughout Theophilos's reign, and reportedly saved the emperor's life in the
Battle of Anzen in 838. According to one report, he died on 27 July 838 of wounds received during the battle, but other sources record his survival past this date, ascribing him a major role in the regency that governed the empire after Theophilos's death, and report that he died some time around 860. (Full article...)
Image 8
Alexios I Megas Komnenos (
Greek: Αλέξιος Κομνηνός;
Georgian: ალექსი კომნენოსი; c. 1182 – 1 February 1222) or Alexius I Megas Comnenus was, with his brother
David, the founder of the
Empire of Trebizond and its ruler from 1204 until his death in 1222. The two brothers were the only male descendants of the
Byzantine EmperorAndronikos I, who had been dethroned and killed in 1185, and thus claimed to represent the legitimate government of the Empire following the
conquest of
Constantinople by the
Fourth Crusade in 1204. Although his rivals governing the
Nicaean Empire succeeded in becoming the de facto successors, and rendered his dynastic claims to the imperial throne moot, Alexios' descendants continued to emphasize both their heritage and connection to the
Komnenian dynasty by later referring to themselves as Megas Komnenos ("grand Komnenos").
While his brother David conquered a number of Byzantine provinces in northwestern
Anatolia, Alexios defended his capital
Trebizond from an
unsuccessful siege by the
Seljuk Turks around the year 1205. Further details of his reign are sparse. Muslim chroniclers record how, in 1214, Alexios was captured by the Turks in the field while defending
Sinope; despite sending an envoy to seek their surrender the city refused to capitulate to Sultan
Kaykaus I, and Alexios was tortured in sight of the Sinopians. The city submitted to Kaykaus and Alexios was freed after becoming Kaykaus' vassal. Alexios died at the age of forty. (Full article...)
Alexios III Megas Komnenos (
Greek: Αλέξιος Μέγας Κομνηνός; 5 October 1338 – 20 March 1390), or Alexius III, was
Emperor of
Trebizond from December 1349 until his death. He is perhaps the best-documented ruler of that country, and his reign is distinguished by a number of religious grants and literary creations.
He was the son of Emperor
Basil of Trebizond and his second (and bigamous) wife,
Irene of Trebizond. Alexios III was originally named John (Ιωάννης, Iōannēs), and took the name Alexios either in memory of his older brother who had died prematurely or of his paternal grandfather, Emperor
Alexios II of Trebizond. (Full article...)
Born in Naissus,
Dacia Mediterranea (now
Niš, Serbia), he was the son of
Flavius Constantius, a Roman army officer of
Illyrian origin who had been one of the four rulers of the
Tetrarchy. His mother,
Helena, was a
Greek woman of low birth, probably from
Asia Minor in modern
Turkey. Later canonised as a
saint, she is traditionally credited for the conversion of her son. Constantine served with distinction under the Roman emperors
Diocletian and
Galerius. He began his career by campaigning in the eastern provinces (against the
Persians) before being recalled in the west (in AD 305) to fight alongside his father in the
province of
Britannia. After his father's death in 306, Constantine was acclaimed as augustus (emperor) by his army at
Eboracum (
York, England). He eventually emerged victorious in
the civil wars against emperors
Maxentius and
Licinius to become the sole ruler of the
Roman Empire by 324. (Full article...)
Theodosius I (
Greek: ΘεοδόσιοςTheodosios; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also called Theodosius the Great, was a
Roman emperor from 379 to 395. During his reign, he succeeded in a crucial
war against the Goths, as well as in two civil wars, and was instrumental in establishing the
creed of Nicaea as the orthodox doctrine for
Christianity. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule the entire
Roman Empire before its administration was permanently split between the
West and
East.
Born in
Hispania, Theodosius was the son of a high-ranking general,
Theodosius the Elder, under whose guidance he rose through the ranks of the
Roman army. Theodosius held independent command in
Moesia in 374, where he had some success against the invading
Sarmatians. Not long afterwards, he was forced into retirement, and his father was executed under obscure circumstances. Theodosius soon regained his position following a series of intrigues and executions at Emperor
Gratian's court. In 379, after the eastern Roman emperor
Valens perished at the
Battle of Adrianople against the
Goths, Gratian appointed Theodosius as a successor with orders to take charge of the current military emergency. The new emperor's resources, and depleted armies, were not sufficient to drive the invaders out; in 382 the Goths were allowed to settle south of the
Danube as autonomous allies of the empire. In 386, Theodosius signed a treaty with the
Sasanian Empire which partitioned the long-disputed
Kingdom of Armenia and secured a durable peace between the two powers. (Full article...)
Andronikos II Palaiologos (
Greek: Ἀνδρόνικος Δούκας Ἄγγελος Κομνηνὸς Παλαιολόγος,
romanized: Andrónikos Doúkās Ángelos Komnēnós Palaiologos; 25 March 1259 – 13 February 1332),
Latinized as Andronicus II Palaeologus, reigned as
Byzantine emperor from 1282 to 1328. His reign marked the beginning of the recently-restored empire's final decline. The Turks conquered most of Byzantium's remaining Anatolian territories, and Andronikos spent the last years of his reign fighting his
own grandson in the
First Palaiologan Civil War. The war ended in Andronikos' forced abdication in 1328, after which he retired to a monastery for the remainder of his life. (Full article...)
Alexios V Doukas (
Greek: Ἀλέξιος Δούκας; died December 1204),
Latinized as Alexius V Ducas, was
Byzantine emperor from February to April 1204, just prior to the
sack of Constantinople by the participants of the
Fourth Crusade. His family name was
Doukas, but he was also known by the nickname Mourtzouphlos or Murtzuphlus (Μούρτζουφλος), referring to either bushy, overhanging eyebrows or a sullen, gloomy character. He achieved power through a
palace coup, killing his predecessors in the process. Though he made vigorous attempts to defend Constantinople from the crusader army, his military efforts proved ineffective. His actions won the support of the mass of the populace, but he alienated the elite of the city. Following the fall, sack, and occupation of the city, Alexios V was
blinded by his father-in-law, the ex-emperor
Alexios III, and later executed by the new
Latin regime. He was the last Byzantine emperor to rule in Constantinople until the Byzantine
recapture of Constantinople in 1261. (Full article...)
Constantine V (
Greek: Κωνσταντῖνος,
translit.Kōnstantīnos;
Latin: Constantinus; July 718 – 14 September 775) was
Byzantine emperor from 741 to 775. His reign saw a consolidation of Byzantine security from external threats. As an able military leader, Constantine took advantage of
civil war in the Muslim world to make limited offensives on the
Arab frontier. With this eastern frontier secure, he undertook repeated campaigns against the
Bulgars in the
Balkans. His military activity, and policy of settling Christian populations from the Arab frontier in
Thrace, made Byzantium's hold on its Balkan territories more secure.
Religious strife and controversy was a prominent feature of his reign. His fervent support of
Iconoclasm and opposition to
monasticism led to his vilification by later Byzantine historians and writers, who denigrated him with the nicknames "the Dung-Named" (
Greek: Κοπρώνυμος,
translit.Koprónimos;
Latin: Copronymus), because he allegedly defaecated during his baptism, similarly "Anointed with Urine" (
Greek: Οὐραλύφιος,
translit.Ouralýphios;
Latin: Uralyphius), and "the Equestrian" (
Greek: Καβαλλινος,
translit.Kaballinos;
Latin: Caballinus), referencing the excrement of horses. (Full article...)
Image 16
Underdrawing of Basil I in the
Paris Gregory,
c. 879–883
Basil I, nicknamed "the Macedonian" (
Greek: Βασίλειος ὁ Μακεδών,
translit.Basíleios ō Makedṓn; 811 – 29 August 886), was
Byzantine emperor from 867 to 886. Born a lowly peasant in the
theme of
Macedonia, he rose to prominence in the imperial court after entering into the service of Theophilitzes, a relative of Emperor
Michael III (r. 842–867). He was given a fortune by the wealthy
Danielis and gained Michael's favour, whose
mistress he married on his emperor's orders. In 866, Michael proclaimed him co-emperor, but Basil ordered his assassination the next year, thus installing himself as sole ruler of the empire. Despite his humble origins, he showed great ability in running the affairs of state, and founded the
Macedonian dynasty. He was succeeded upon his death by his son (perhaps actually Michael III's son)
Leo VI. (Full article...)
Basil II
Porphyrogenitus (
Greek: Βασίλειος ΠορφυρογέννητοςBasileios Porphyrogennetos; 958 – 15 December 1025), nicknamed the Bulgar Slayer (
Greek: ὁ Βουλγαροκτόνος, ho Boulgaroktónos), 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 Phokas (
r. 963–969) and
John Tzimiskes (r. 969–976) before Basil became senior emperor, though his influential great-uncle
Basil Lekapenos remained as the de facto ruler until 985. His reign of 49 years and 11 months was the longest of any
Roman emperor.
In his early life, Maximus was a civil servant, and an aide to the
Byzantine EmperorHeraclius. He gave up this life in the political sphere to enter the monastic life. Maximus had studied diverse schools of philosophy, and certainly what was common for his time, the Platonic dialogues, the works of Aristotle, and numerous later Platonic commentators on Aristotle and Plato, like
Plotinus,
Porphyry,
Iamblichus, and
Proclus. When one of his friends began espousing the
Christological position known as
Monothelitism, Maximus was drawn into the controversy, in which he supported an interpretation of the
Chalcedonian formula on the basis of which it was asserted that
Jesus had both a human and a divine
will. Maximus is
venerated in both the
Catholic and
Eastern Orthodox Churches. He was eventually persecuted for his Christological positions; following a trial, his tongue and right hand were mutilated. (Full article...)
Michael I Komnenos Doukas,
Latinized as Comnenus Ducas (
Greek: Μιχαήλ Κομνηνός Δούκας,
romanized: Mikhaēl Komnēnos Doukas), and in modern sources often recorded as Michael I Angelos, a name he never used, was the founder and first
ruler of the
Despotate of Epirus from
c. 1205 until his assassination in 1214/15.
Born
c. 1170, Michael was a descendant of
Alexios I Komnenos and a cousin of emperors
Isaac II Angelos and
Alexios III Angelos. He began his public career in 1190, as a hostage to the
Third Crusade, and went on to serve as governor of the province of
Mylasa and Melanoudion in the 1190s and again in
c. 1200/01. During the latter tenure he rebelled against Alexios III but was defeated and forced to flee to the
Seljuk Turks. In the aftermath of the
sack of
Constantinople by the
Fourth Crusade in 1204, he attached himself to
Boniface of Montferrat. Soon, however, he abandoned the Crusader leader and went to
Epirus, where he established himself as ruler, apparently through marriage with the daughter or widow of a local magnate. (Full article...)
Image 20
Alexios I Komnenos (
Greek: Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός,
translit.Aléxios Komnēnós, 1057 – 15 August 1118),
LatinizedAlexius I Comnenus, was
Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. Although he was not the first emperor of the
Komnenian dynasty, it was during his reign that the Komnenos family came to full power and initiated a hereditary succession to the throne. Inheriting a collapsing empire and faced with constant warfare during his reign against both the
Seljuq Turks in
Asia Minor and the
Normans in the western
Balkans, Alexios was able to curb the Byzantine decline and begin the military, financial, and territorial recovery known as the
Komnenian restoration. His appeals to Western Europe for help against the Turks was the catalyst that sparked the
First Crusade. (Full article...)
Donor portrait of the megas doux Alexios Apokaukos, from a collection of the "Works of
Hippocrates" commissioned by him in the early 1340s. Alexios is depicted in the garb of his office, wearing a richly decorated kabbadion and the skaranikon, a ceremonial headdress depicting the reigning emperor.
Leo Sgouros (
Greek: Λέων Σγουρός),
Latinized as Leo Sgurus, was a
Greek independent lord in the northeastern
Peloponnese in the early 13th century. The scion of the magnate
Sgouros family, he succeeded his father as hereditary lord in the region of Nauplia. Taking advantage of the disruption caused by the
Fourth Crusade, he made himself independent, one of several local rulers that appeared throughout the
Byzantine Empire during the final years of the
Angeloi dynasty. He expanded his domain into
Corinthia and
Central Greece, eventually marrying the daughter of former
Byzantine emperorAlexios III Angelos (r. 1195–1203). His conquests, however, were short-lived, as the Crusaders forced him back into the Peloponnese. Blockaded in his stronghold on the
Acrocorinth, he committed
suicide in 1208. (Full article...)
Justinian II (
Latin: Iustinianus;
Greek: Ἰουστινιανός,
romanized: Ioustinianós; 668/69 – 4 November 711), nicknamed "the Slit-Nosed" (
Latin: Rhinotmetus;
Greek: ὁ Ῥινότμητος,
romanized: ho Rhīnótmētos), was the last
Byzantine emperor of the
Heraclian dynasty, reigning from 685 to 695 and again from 705 to 711. Like his namesake,
Justinian I, Justinian II was an ambitious and passionate ruler who was keen to restore the Roman Empire to its former glories. However, he responded brutally to any opposition to his will and lacked the finesse of his father,
Constantine IV. Consequently, he generated enormous opposition to his reign, resulting in his deposition in 695 in a popular uprising. He only returned to the throne in 705 with the help of a
Bulgar and
Slav army. His second reign was even more despotic than the first, and in 711 he was killed by mutinous soldiers. (Full article...)