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Melissenos
Melissenos ( el, Μελισσηνός), latinized Melissenus, feminine form Melissene (Μελισσηνή), latinized Melissena, was the name of a noble Byzantine family that flourished from the late 8th century on until the end of the Byzantine Empire and beyond. The Melissenoi are one of the oldest known aristocratic Greek families of the middle Byzantine period. Genealogies from the 16th and 17th centuries trace the family to a ''patrikios'' Michael, relative of Michael I Rhangabe (reigned 811–813) and his son the ''magistros'' Leo, but the family stretches back another half-century to the general Michael Melissenos, a favourite of Emperor Constantine V (r. 741–775). This Michael married a sister of Constantine's wife, Eudokia, and their son, Theodore Kassiteras Melissenos, became Patriarch of Constantinople in 815–821. In the 9th–11th centuries, they were mostly active in Asia Minor, serving as generals and governors of the local themes. In the late 11th century, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nikephoros Melissenos
Nikephoros Melissenos ( el, Νικηφόρος Μελισσηνός, – 17 November 1104), Latinized as Nicephorus Melissenus, was a Byzantine general and aristocrat. Of distinguished lineage, he served as a governor and general in the Balkans and Asia Minor in the 1060s. In the turbulent period after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, when several generals tried to seize the throne for themselves, Melissenos remained loyal to Michael VII Doukas and was exiled by his successor Nikephoros III Botaneiates. In 1080–1081, with Turkish aid, he seized control of what remained of Byzantine Asia Minor and proclaimed himself emperor against Botaneiates. After the revolt of his brother-in-law Alexios I Komnenos, however, which succeeded in taking Constantinople, he submitted to him, accepting the rank of '' Caesar'' and the governance of Thessalonica. He remained loyal to Alexios thereafter, participating in most Byzantine campaigns of the period 1081–1095 in the Balkans at the emper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Melissenos
Michael Melissenos ( el, ) was a notable Byzantine aristocrat and general during the reign of Emperor Constantine V (). Biography Michael is the first attested member of the noble Melissenos family. A favourite of Constantine V, he was given an unnamed sister of Eudokia, Constantine V's third wife, in marriage. Becoming thus a relative of the Emperor, Michael secured a prominent position in the imperial hierarchy. The couple had at least one son, Theodotos Kassiteras Melissenos, who became Patriarch of Constantinople in 815–821 as Theodotos I. In 766/767, as part of a major reshuffle intended to place reliable and pro-iconoclast people in positions of authority, Constantine V appointed Michael as the '' strategos'' of the Anatolic Theme, at the time the Byzantine Empire's most important and powerful military post. Possibly at this time he received the dignity of ''patrikios'', with which he is designated in the ''Chronicle'' of Theophanes the Confessor. In 771, Michael took p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nikephoros III Botaneiates
Nikephoros III Botaneiates, Latinized as Nicephorus III Botaniates ( el, Νικηφόρος Βοτανειάτης, 1002–1081), was Byzantine emperor from 7 January 1078 to 1 April 1081. He was born in 1002, and became a general during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos, serving in the Pecheneg revolt of 1048–1053. His actions in guiding his forces away from the Pechenegs following the Battle of Zygos Pass, in which they suffered eleven days of harassment before finally reaching the Byzantine city of Adrianople, attracted the attention of fellow officers, and he received the title of '' magistros'' as a reward. Nikephoros served in the revolt of Isaac I Komnenos against the Byzantine Emperor Michael VI Bringas, leading forces at the decisive Battle of Petroe. Under the Emperor Constantine X Doukas he was made '' doux'' of Thessalonica, where he remained until 1065, when he was reassigned as ''doux'' of Antioch. While ''doux'' of Antioc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theodotos I Of Constantinople
Theodotos I Kassiteras, Latinized as Theodotus I Cassiteras ( el, Θεόδοτος Α΄ Κασσιτερᾶς or Κασσιτηρᾶς; died January 821) Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 1 April 815 to January 821.. Theodotos was born in Nakoleia, as the son of the ''patrikios'' Michael Melissenos by the sister of Eudokia, the last wife of Emperor Constantine V. Theodotos had become attached to the court bureaucracy and was a confidant of Emperor Michael I Rangabe. By the time Michael I was deposed by Leo V the Armenian in 813, Theodotos was an elderly ''spatharokandidatos'', whom the near-contemporary Scriptor Incertus describes as "meek" and "uneducated". On 14 March 815, Leo forced the resignation of Patriarch Nikephoros I, and appointed the pro-iconoclast Theodotos Melissenos in his place. Later in 815, the new patriarch presided over a Church council in Constantinople, which overturned the Second Council of Nicaea and reinstated the ban on the veneration of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael I Komnenos Doukas
Michael I Komnenos Doukas, Latinized as Comnenus Ducas ( el, Μιχαήλ Κομνηνός Δούκας, 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 until his assassination in 1214/15. Born , 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 . 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zoste Patrikia
''Zōstē patrikía'' ( gr, ζωστὴ πατρικία) was a Byzantine court title reserved exclusively for the woman who was the chief attendant and assistant to the Empress. A very high title, its holder ranked as the first woman after the Empress herself in the imperial court. The title is attested from the 9th century until the 12th century, but only a handful of its holders are known. History The title means "girded lady-patrician", often translated into English as "Mistress of the Robes", and was used for high-ranking court ladies who were attached to the Byzantine empresses as their ladies of honour. Its origin or date of institution are unclear. Disregarding a clearly anachronistic reference to Antonina, the wife of the great 6th-century general Belisarius, as being a ''zostē patrikia'', the title is first attested in for Theoktiste, the mother of Empress Theodora. The title is last attested in literary sources (the '' Skylitzes Chronicle'') in 1018, when it was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Komnenos
Komnenos ( gr, Κομνηνός; Latinized Comnenus; plural Komnenoi or Comneni (Κομνηνοί, )) was a Byzantine Greek noble family who ruled the Byzantine Empire from 1081 to 1185, and later, as the Grand Komnenoi (Μεγαλοκομνηνοί, ''Megalokomnenoi'') founded and ruled the Empire of Trebizond (1204–1461). Through intermarriages with other noble families, notably the Doukai, Angeloi, and Palaiologoi, the Komnenos name appears among most of the major noble houses of the late Byzantine world. Origins The 11th-century Byzantine historian Michael Psellos reported that the Komnenos family originated from the village of Komne in Thrace—usually identified with the "Fields of Komnene" () mentioned in the 14th century by John Kantakouzenos—a view commonly accepted by modern scholarship. The first known member of the family, Manuel Erotikos Komnenos, acquired extensive estates at Kastamon in Paphlagonia, which became the stronghold of the family in the 11th centu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eudokia, Wife Of Constantine V
Eudokia (Greek: Εὐδοκία) was the third Empress consort of Constantine V of the Byzantine Empire. According to the chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor, Eudokia was a sister-in-law of Michael Melissenos, ''strategos'' of the Anatolikon Theme. Her sister and brother-in-law were parents to Theodotus I of Constantinople. Empress Constantine V was Emperor since 741. His first wife Tzitzak gave birth to their only known son, Leo IV the Khazar, on 25 January 750. There is no further mention of her and by the following year, Constantine was already married to his second wife Maria. Lynda Garland has suggested Tzitzak died in childbirth. Maria died childless not long after her own marriage. Though the year of the marriage of Constantine and Eudokia is not known, it can be placed between late 751 and 769. According to Theophanes, on 1 April 769, Constantine named her an Augusta. The following day two of her sons were named Caesars and a third made ''nobilissimus'', which would ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexios I Komnenos
Alexios I Komnenos ( grc-gre, Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός, 1057 – 15 August 1118; Latinized Alexius 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. Biography Alexios was the son of John Komnenos and Anna Dalassene,Kazhdan 1991, p. 63 and the nephew of Isaac I Komnenos (emperor 1057–1059). Alexios' father declined the throne on the abdication of Isaac, who was t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caesar (title)
Caesar ( English Caesars; Latin ''Caesares''; in Greek: ''Kaîsar'') is a title of imperial character. It derives from the ''cognomen'' of Julius Caesar, a Roman dictator. The change from being a familial name to a title adopted by the Roman emperors can be traced to AD 68, following the fall of the Julio–Claudian dynasty. Origins The first known individual to bear the ''cognomen'' of "Caesar" was Sextus Julius Caesar, who is likewise believed to be the common ancestor of all subsequent Julii Caesares. Sextus' great-grandson was the dictator Gaius Julius Caesar. After he seized control of the Roman Republic following his war against the Senate, he adopted the title of ''dictator perpetuo'' ("dictator in perpetuity"), a title he only held for about a month before he was assassinated in 44 BC. Julius Caesar's death did not lead to the restoration of the Republic, and instead led to the rise of the Second Triumvirate, composed by three dictators including Ju ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople. It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire remained the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. The terms "Byzantine Empire" and "Eastern Roman Empire" were coined after the end of the realm; its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the Roman Empire, and to themselves as Romans—a term which Greeks continued to use for themselves into Ottoman times. Although the Roman state continued and its traditions were maintained, modern historians prefer to differentiate the Byzantine Empire from Ancient Rome a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thessalonica
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of Macedonia, the administrative region of Central Macedonia and the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace. It is also known in Greek as (), literally "the co-capital", a reference to its historical status as the () or "co-reigning" city of the Byzantine Empire alongside Constantinople. Thessaloniki is located on the Thermaic Gulf, at the northwest corner of the Aegean Sea. It is bounded on the west by the delta of the Axios. The municipality of Thessaloniki, the historical center, had a population of 317,778 in 2021, while the Thessaloniki metropolitan area had 1,091,424 inhabitants in 2021. It is Greece's second major economic, industrial, commercial and political centre, and a major transportation hub for Greece and s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
