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Twenty Years' Anarchy
The Twenty Years' Anarchy is a historiographic term used by some modern scholarsBellinger & Grierson (1992), p. 5 for the period of acute internal instability in the Byzantine Empire marked by the rapid succession of several emperors to the throne between the first deposition of Justinian II in 695 and the ascent of Leo III the Isaurian to the throne in 717, marking the beginning of the Isaurian dynasty. Justinian II and the usurpers - 685–711 The reign of Justinian II (685–711) became increasingly despotic and violent, and his policies met with considerable opposition. He was eventually deposed and exiled by Leontius (695–698) in 695, precipitating a prolonged period of instability and anarchy, with seven emperors in twenty-two years.Jenkins, Romilly (1966); Byzantium The Imperial centuries AD 610–1071, p. 56 Leontius was popular at first, though the loss of Carthage soon ruined his reputation. John the Patrician led a navy to Carthage, losing in 698. The army fe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solidus (coin)
The ''solidus'' (Latin 'solid'; : ''solidi'') or ''nomisma'' () was a highly pure gold coin issued in the Later Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire. It was introduced in the early 4th century, replacing the aureus, and its weight of about 4.45 grams remained relatively constant for seven centuries. In the Byzantine Empire, the solidus or nomisma remained a highly pure gold coin until the 11th century, when several Byzantine emperors began to strike the coin with debasement, less and less gold. The nomisma was finally abolished by Alexios I Komnenos in 1092, who replaced it with the hyperpyron, which also came to be known as a "bezant". The Byzantine solidus also inspired the zolotnik in the Kievan Rus' and the originally slightly less pure gold dinar first issued by the Umayyad Caliphate beginning in 697. In Western Europe, the solidus was the main gold coin of commerce from late Roman times to the Early Middle Ages. In Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the solidus also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carthage
Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classical world. It became the capital city of the civilization of Ancient Carthage and later Roman Carthage. The city developed from a Phoenician colony into the capital of a Punic people, Punic empire which dominated large parts of the Southwest Mediterranean during the first millennium BC. The legendary Queen Elissa, Alyssa or Dido, originally from Tyre, Lebanon, Tyre, is regarded as the founder of the city, though her historicity has been questioned. In the myth, Dido asked for land from a local tribe, which told her that she could get as much land as an oxhide could cover. She cut the oxhide into strips and laid out the perimeter of the new city. As Carthage prospered at home, the polity sent colonists abroad as well as magistrates to rule t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opsikion
The Opsician Theme (, ''thema Opsikiou'') or simply Opsikion (Greek: , from ) was a Byzantine theme (a military-civilian province) located in northwestern Asia Minor (modern Turkey). Created from the imperial retinue army, the ''Opsikion'' was the largest and most prestigious of the early themes, being located closest to Constantinople. Involved in several revolts in the 8th century, it was split in three after ca. 750, and lost its former pre-eminence. It survived as a middle-tier theme until after the Fourth Crusade. History The Opsician theme was one of the first four themes, and has its origin in the praesential armies of the East Roman army. The term ''Opsikion'' derives from the Latin term ''Obsequium'' ("retinue"), which by the early 7th century came to refer to the units escorting the emperor on campaign. It is possible that at an early stage, the ''Opsikion'' was garrisoned inside Constantinople itself. In the 640s, however, following the disastrous defeats suffered dur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Galatia
Galatia (; , ''Galatía'') was an ancient area in the highlands of central Anatolia, roughly corresponding to the provinces of Ankara and Eskişehir in modern Turkey. Galatia was named after the Gauls from Thrace (cf. Tylis), who settled here and became a small transient foreign tribe in the 3rd century BC, following the Gallic invasion of the Balkans in 279 BC. It has been called the "Gallia" of the East. Geography Galatia was bounded to the north by Bithynia and Paphlagonia, to the east by Pontus and Cappadocia, to the south by Cilicia and Lycaonia, and to the west by Phrygia. Its capital was Ancyra (i.e. Ankara, today the capital of modern Turkey). Celtic Galatia The terms "Galatians" came to be used by the Greeks for the three Celtic peoples of Anatolia: the Tectosages, the Trocmii, and the Tolistobogii. By the 1st century BC, the Celts had become so Hellenized that some Greek writers called them ''Hellenogalatai'' (Ἑλληνογαλάται). The Romans cal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Umayyad Caliphate
The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a member of the clan. The family established dynastic, hereditary rule with Mu'awiya I, the long-time governor of Bilad al-Sham, Greater Syria, who became caliph after the end of the First Fitna in 661. After Mu'awiya's death in 680, conflicts over the succession resulted in the Second Fitna, and power eventually fell to Marwan I, from another branch of the clan. Syria remained the Umayyads' main power base thereafter, with Damascus as their capital. The Umayyads continued the Early Muslim conquests, Muslim conquests, conquering Ifriqiya, Transoxiana, Sind (caliphal province), Sind, the Maghreb and Hispania (al-Andalus). At its greatest extent (661–750), the Umayyad Caliphate covered , making it one of the largest empires in history in terms of ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walls Of Constantinople
The Walls of Constantinople (; ) are a series of defensive wall, defensive stone walls that have surrounded and protected the city of Constantinople (modern Fatih district of Istanbul) since its founding as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Constantine the Great. With numerous additions and modifications during their history, they were the last great fortification system of ancient history, antiquity, and one of the most complex and elaborate systems ever built. They were also the largest and strongest fortification in both the ancient and medieval world. Initially built by Constantine the Great, the walls surrounded the new city on all sides, protecting it against attack from both sea and land. As the city grew, the famous double line of the Theodosian Walls was built in the 5th century. Although the other sections of the walls were less elaborate, they were, when well-manned, almost impregnable for any medieval besieger. They saved the city, and the Byzantine Empire with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2,746,984 residents in , Rome is the list of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, third most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. The Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, with a population of 4,223,885 residents, is the most populous metropolitan cities of Italy, metropolitan city in Italy. Rome metropolitan area, Its metropolitan area is the third-most populous within Italy. Rome is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio (Latium), along the shores of the Tiber Valley. Vatican City (the smallest country in the world and headquarters of the worldwide Catholic Church under the governance of the Holy See) is an independent country inside the city boun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sixth Ecumenical Council
The Third Council of Constantinople, counted as the Sixth Ecumenical Council by the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches, and by certain other Western Churches, met in 680–681 and condemned monoenergism and monothelitism as heretical and defined Jesus Christ as having two energies and two wills (divine and human).George Ostrogorsky, ''History of the Byzantine State'' (Rutgers University Press, 1995), 127. Background The council settled a set of theological controversies that went back to the sixth century but had intensified under the emperors Heraclius () and Constans II (). Heraclius had set out to recover much of the part of his empire lost to the Persians and had attempted to bridge the controversy with monophysitism, which was particularly strong in Syria and Egypt, by proposing a moderate theological position that had as good support in the tradition as any other. The result was first monoenergism, i.e., that Christ, though existing in two natures (divine and hu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monothelitism
Monothelitism, or monotheletism was a theological doctrine in Christianity that was proposed in the 7th century, but was ultimately rejected by the sixth ecumenical council. It held Christ as having only one will and was thus contrary to dyothelitism, the Christological doctrine accepted by most Christian denominations, which holds Christ as having two wills (divine and human). Historically, ''monothelitism'' was closely related to monoenergism, a theological doctrine that holds Jesus Christ as having only one energy. Both doctrines were at the center of Christological disputes during the 7th century. Monothelitism is from . Theological notions related to the ''oneness'' of Christ's will emerged as a result of some earlier Christological controversies that were related to monophysitism as formulated by Eutyches (d. 456) and miaphysitism as formulated by non-Chalcedonian followers of Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444). Since the notion of Christ's ''one nature'' implied the ''onenes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kyros Of Constantinople
Kyros of Constantinople (; died 8 January 712) was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 705 to 711. He is regarded as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Catholic Church, which had set his feast for 7 January in Catholic Church and 8 January (21) in Orthodox Church. Kyros was placed on the patriarchal throne in 705 by Emperor Justinian II, as a replacement for the deposed Patriarch Callinicus I of Constantinople. Soon after Justinian II's decline and eventual fall in December 711, Kyros was replaced by the new Emperor Philippicus with Patriarch John VI of Constantinople, who shared Philippicus' Monothelite sympathies. Notes and references Bibliography * ''Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium'', Oxford University Press, 1991. See also * Eastern Orthodoxy Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Cat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Ecumenical Patriarchs Of Constantinople
The following is a chronological list of Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, bishops and ecumenical patriarchs of Constantinople. The historical data on the first 25 bishops is limited with modern scholars debating their authenticity. The Foundation of the See by Andrew the Apostle is met with similar amounts of skepticism with scholars believing it to be a later tradition. The list is mostly based on the compilation made by Demetrius Kiminas, but there is no single "official" numbering of bishops. The official website of the patriarchate has a list of holders but gives them no numeral. Bishops of Byzantium (until 330 AD) *1. St. Andrew the Apostle, Andrew the Apostle (36–38), founder *2. St. Stachys the Apostle, Stachys the Apostle (38–54) *3. St. Onesimus (54–68) *4. Polycarpus I of Byzantium, Polycarpus I (69–89) *5. Plutarch of Byzantium, Plutarch (89–105) *6. Sedecion of Byzantium, Sedecion (105–114) *7. Diogenes of Byzantium, Diogenes (114–129) *8. Ele ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basileus
''Basileus'' () is a Greek term and title that has signified various types of monarchs throughout history. In the English language, English-speaking world, it is perhaps most widely understood to mean , referring to either a or an . The title was used by sovereigns and other persons of authority in ancient Greece (especially during the Hellenistic period), the Byzantine emperors, and the List of kings of Greece, kings of modern Greece. The name Vassilios, Basileios (Basil (name), Basil), deriving from the term ''basileus'', is a common given name in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Syriac Orthodox Church for the Maphrian. The feminine forms are ''basileia'' (), ''basilissa'' (), ''basillis'' (), or the archaic ''basilinna'' (), meaning or . The related term ''basileia'' () has meanings such as 'sovereignty', 'royalty', 'kingdom', 'reign', 'dominion' and 'authority'. Etymology The etymology of ''basileus'' is uncertain. The Mycenean Greek, Mycenaean form was *''gʷasileus'' (L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
