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Apelates
The ''Akritai'' (, ''Akrites'', ) is a term used in the Byzantine Empire in the 9th–11th centuries to denote the frontier soldiers guarding the Empire's eastern border, facing the Muslim states of the Middle East. Their exploits, embellished, inspired the Byzantine "national epic" of '' Digenes Akritas'' and the cycle of the Acritic songs. History The term is derived from the Greek word ''akron'' (, in plural ''akra''), meaning or ; similar border guards, the ''limitanei'', were employed in the late Roman and early Byzantine armies to guard the frontiers (''limes''). In official Byzantine use, the term is non-technical, and used in a descriptive manner, being generally applied to the defenders as well as the inhabitants of the eastern frontier zone, including their Muslim counterparts. The popular image of the ''Akritoi'' has been heavily influenced by their portrayal in the Acritic songs, and refers to the military troops stationed along the Empire's border. In reality, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Macedonia
Western Macedonia (, ) is one of the thirteen Regions of Greece, administrative regions of Greece, consisting of the western part of Macedonia (Greece), Macedonia. Located in north-western Greece, it is divided into the regional units of Greece, regional units of Florina (regional unit), Florina, Grevena (regional unit), Grevena, Kastoria (regional unit), Kastoria, and Kozani (regional unit), Kozani. With a population of approximately 255,000 people, as of 2021, the region had one of the highest unemployment rates in the European Union. Geography The region of Western Macedonia is situated in north-western Greece, bordering with the regions of Central Macedonia (east), Thessaly (south), Epirus (region), Epirus (west), and bounded to the north at the international borders of Greece with the Republic of North Macedonia (Bitola Municipality, Bitola, Resen Municipality, Resen and Novaci Municipality, Novaci municipalities) and Albania (Korçë County). Although it covers a total su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bulgarian Language
Bulgarian (; , ) is an Eastern South Slavic, Eastern South Slavic language spoken in Southeast Europe, primarily in Bulgaria. It is the language of the Bulgarians. Along with the closely related Macedonian language (collectively forming the East South Slavic languages), it is a member of the Balkan sprachbund and South Slavic languages, South Slavic dialect continuum of the Indo-European language family. The two languages have several characteristics that set them apart from all other Slavic languages, including the elimination of grammatical case, case declension, the development of a suffixed definite article, and the lack of a verb infinitive. They retain and have further developed the Proto-Slavic language, Proto-Slavic verb system (albeit analytically). One such major development is the innovation of evidentiality, evidential verb forms to encode for the source of information: witnessed, inferred, or reported. It is the official Languages of Bulgaria, language of Bulgar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxford Dictionary Of Byzantium
The ''Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium'' (ODB) is a three-volume historical dictionary published by the English Oxford University Press. With more than 5,000 entries, it contains comprehensive information in English on topics relating to the Byzantine Empire. It was edited by Alexander Kazhdan, and was first published in 1991.''The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium'', Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford, 1991. Kazhdan was a professor at Princeton University who became a Senior Research Associate at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, before his death. He contributed to many of the articles in the Dictionary and always signed his initials ''A.K.'' at the end of the article to indicate his contribution. Description The dictionary is available in printed and e-reference text versions from Oxford Reference Online. It covers the main historical events of Byzantium, as well as important social and religious events. It also includes biographies of eminent political and literary pers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Romanos IV Diogenes
Romanos IV Diogenes (; – ) was Byzantine emperor from 1068 to 1071. Determined to halt the decline of the Byzantine military and to stop Turkish incursions into the empire, he is nevertheless best known for his defeat and capture in 1071 at the Battle of Manzikert, which played a major role in undermining Byzantine authority in Anatolia and allowed for its gradual Turkification. Son of the general Constantine Diogenes and a prominent member of the Cappadocian Greek military aristocracy, Romanos rose to fame as a successful Akritai commander, serving in Syria and on the Danubian frontier. In 1068, he was crowned Byzantine emperor following his marriage to the dowager empress Eudokia Makrembolitissa. Early in his reign, Romanos campaigned with limited success against the Seljuk Turks in Anatolia and Syria. Domestically, his rule was marked by a series of unpopular policies as well as clashes with the rival Doukas family. In 1071, Romanos undertook another major campaign aga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Song Of Armouris
The ''Song of Armouris'' or the ''Lay of Armouris'' (also ''Armoures''; ) is a medieval Greek heroic poem of the middle Byzantine period. Dating from the 11th century, it is probably one of the oldest surviving Acritic songs, narrative heroic songs or ballads celebrating the lives and exploits of the Byzantine '' Akritai.'' Written in vernacular medieval Greek, it is, along with the more famous '' Digenes Akritas'', the earliest example of Byzantine folk poetry and Greek vernacular literature. Its plot is based on the Byzantine-Arab conflict (7th–12th centuries) and describes in political verse the efforts of a young Byzantine akrite warrior to rescue his father from captivity. Date and text The ''Song of Armouris'' is written in unrhymed fifteen-syllable political verse, and consists of 197 lines. There are two surviving manuscripts of the ballad, one in St. Petersburg dating to the 15th or 16th century, and one in the Topkapi Palace collection in Istanbul dated 1461. Thus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evros (regional Unit)
Evros () is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the modern regions of Greece, region of East Macedonia and Thrace. Its name is derived from the river Maritsa, Evros, which appears to have been a Thracians, Thracian hydronym. Evros is the northernmost regional unit. It borders Turkey to the east, across the river Evros, and it borders Bulgaria to the north and the northwest. Its capital is Alexandroupolis. Together with the regional units Rhodope (regional unit), Rhodope and Xanthi (regional unit), Xanthi, it forms the geographical region of Western Thrace. The population density was 32 per km2 (2021). Geography Evros is one of the largest regional units of Greece. It forms the eastern part of the geographical region Western Thrace, and includes the island Samothrace in the northern Aegean Sea. Its length is about 150 km from north to south (excluding Samothrace). Its width ranges from 70 to 100 km from east to west. The most important rivers are the Marit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael VIII Palaiologos
Michael VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus (; 1224 – 11 December 1282) reigned as Byzantine emperor from 1261 until his death in 1282, and previously as the co-emperor of the Empire of Nicaea from 1259 to 1261. Michael VIII was the founder of the Palaiologos, Palaiologan dynasty that would rule the Byzantine Empire until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. He Reconquest of Constantinople, recovered Constantinople from the Latin Empire in 1261 and transformed the Empire of Nicaea into a Byzantine Empire under the Palaiologos dynasty, restored Byzantine Empire. His reign saw considerable recovery of Byzantine power, including the enlargement of the Byzantine army and Byzantine navy, navy. It also included the reconstruction of the city of Constantinople, and the increase of its population. His re-establishment of the University of Constantinople contributed to the Palaeologan Renaissance, a cultural flowering between the 13th and 15th centuries. It was also at this time that the fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laskaris
The House of Laskaris (; feminine form Laskarina; ), Latinized as Lascaris, was a Byzantine Greek noble family which rose to prominence during the late Byzantine period. The members of the family formed the ruling dynasty of the Empire of Nicaea, a Byzantine rump state that existed from the 1204 sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade until the restoration of the Empire under the Palaeologan dynasty in 1261. Upon the sack of the Byzantine capital by the Crusaders, Alexios V Doukas was overthrown and the Latin Empire was established in most of his former lands. Byzantine nobility would flee the Latin territories and establish the three independent Greek states that rivaled the Crusaders. After a successful resistance in Asia Minor, Theodore I Laskaris founded the Empire of Nicaea and laid claims to the Byzantine throne, along with the Angelos family of Epirus and the Komnenoi of Trebizond. The Byzantine Greek population of Asia Minor sought refuge to Theodore's empire, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Büyük Menderes River
The Büyük Menderes River ("Great Meander", historically the Maeander or Meander, from Ancient Greek: Μαίανδρος, ''Maíandros''; ), is a river in southwestern Turkey. It rises in west central Turkey near Dinar before flowing west through the Büyük Menderes graben until reaching the Aegean Sea in the proximity of the ancient Ionian city Miletus. The river was well known for its sinuous, curving pattern, and gives its name to the common term, (meander), used to describe these characteristic bends in rivers. Modern geography The river rises in a spring near Dinar and flows to Lake Işıklı. After passing the Adıgüzel Dam and the Cindere Dam, the river flows past Nazilli, Aydın and Söke before it drains into the Aegean Sea. Ancient geography The Maeander was a celebrated river of Caria in Asia Minor. It appears earliest in the Catalog of Trojans of Homer's Iliad along with Miletus and Mycale. Sources The river has its sources not far from Celaenae in Phr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Empire Of Nicaea
The Empire of Nicaea (), also known as the Nicene Empire, was the largest of the three Byzantine Greeks, Byzantine Greek''A Short history of Greece from early times to 1964'' by Walter Abel Heurtley, W. A. Heurtley, H. C. Darby, C. W. Crawley, C. M. Woodhouse (1967), p. 55: "There in the prosperous city of Nicaea, Theodoros Laskaris, the son in law of a former Byzantine Emperor, establish a court that soon become the Small but reviving Greek empire." rump states founded by the aristocracy of the Byzantine Empire that fled when Constantinople was occupied by Western European and Republic of Venice, 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 Middle Ages. A fourth state, known in histori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manuel I Komnenos
Manuel I Komnenos (; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180), Latinized as Comnenus, also called Porphyrogenitus (; " born in the purple"), was a Byzantine emperor of the 12th century who reigned over a crucial turning point in the history of Byzantium and the Mediterranean. His reign saw the last flowering of the Komnenian restoration, during which the Byzantine Empire experienced a resurgence of military and economic power and enjoyed a cultural revival. Eager to restore his empire to its past glories as the great power of the Mediterranean world, Manuel pursued an energetic and ambitious foreign policy. In the process he made alliances with Pope Adrian IV and the resurgent West. He invaded the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, although unsuccessfully, being the last Eastern Roman emperor to attempt reconquests in the western Mediterranean. The passage of the potentially dangerous Second Crusade through his empire was adroitly managed. Manuel established a Byzantine protec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asia Minor
Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean Sea to the west, the Turkish Straits to the northwest, and the Black Sea to the north. The eastern and southeastern limits have been expanded either to the entirety of Asiatic Turkey or to an imprecise line from the Black Sea to the Gulf of Alexandretta. Topographically, the Sea of Marmara connects the Black Sea with the Aegean Sea through the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, and separates Anatolia from Thrace in Southeast Europe. During the Neolithic, Anatolia was an early centre for the development of farming after it originated in the adjacent Fertile Crescent. Beginning around 9,000 years ago, there was a major migration of Anatolian Neolithic Farmers into Neolithic Europe, Europe, with their descendants coming to dominate the continent a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
