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Kourtikios Family
Kourtikios ( el, Κουρτίκιος) or Kourtikes (Κουρτίκης) was the name of a Byzantine aristocratic family of Armenian origin. The family's eponymous founder, K'urdik, was an Armenian nobleman who went over to the Byzantine Empire and surrendered his domain, the town of Lokana, to Emperor Basil I the Macedonian (), settling with his family in Byzantine territory. His descendants counted among the senior members of the military aristocracy in the next two centuries. Several members supported the rebellions of various military aristocrats from Constantine Doukas ( Kourtikios the Armenian) to Bardas Skleros (Michael Kourtikios), and in the 11th century, they intermarried with the leading aristocratic families of the time, including the imperial dynasties of the Komnenoi and the Doukai. The family's fortunes declined abruptly in the 12th century, when a single member is known, occupying a modest provincial post. At the same time, a branch of the family became active in Arm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byzantine
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 R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Armenians
Armenians ( hy, հայեր, '' hayer'' ) are an ethnic group native to the Armenian highlands of Western Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and the ''de facto'' independent Artsakh. There is a wide-ranging diaspora of around five million people of full or partial Armenian ancestry living outside modern Armenia. The largest Armenian populations today exist in Russia, the United States, France, Georgia, Iran, Germany, Ukraine, Lebanon, Brazil, and Syria. With the exceptions of Iran and the former Soviet states, the present-day Armenian diaspora was formed mainly as a result of the Armenian genocide.Richard G. Hovannisian, ''The Armenian people from ancient to modern times: the fifteenth century to the twentieth century'', Volume 2, p. 421, Palgrave Macmillan, 1997. Armenian is an Indo-European language. It has two mutually intelligible spoken and written forms: Eastern Armenian, today spoken mainly in Armenia, Artsakh, Iran, and the former ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basil I The Macedonian
Basil I, called the Macedonian ( el, Βασίλειος ὁ Μακεδών, ''Basíleios ō Makedṓn'', 811 – 29 August 886), was a Byzantine Emperor who reigned from 867 to 886. Born a lowly peasant in the theme of Macedonia, he rose in the Imperial court. He entered into the service of Theophilitzes, a relative of Emperor Michael III (r. 842–867), and was given a fortune by the wealthy Danielis. He gained the favour of Michael III, whose mistress he married on the emperor's orders, and was proclaimed co-emperor in 866. He ordered the assassination of Michael the next year. Despite his humble origins, he showed great ability in running the affairs of state. He was the founder of the Macedonian dynasty. He was succeeded upon his death by his son (perhaps actually Michael III's son) Leo VI. From peasant to emperor Basil was born to peasant parents in late 811 (or sometime in the 830s in the estimation of some scholars) at Chariopolis in the Byzantine theme of Macedonia (a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constantine Doukas (usurper)
Constantine Doukas (or Doux) ( gr, Κωνσταντίνος Δούκας/Δούξ; died 913) was a prominent Byzantine general. In 904, he stopped the influential eunuch court official Samonas from defecting to the Arabs. In return, Samonas manipulated his father, Andronikos Doukas, into rebelling and fleeing to the Abbasid court in 906/7. Constantine followed his father to Baghdad, but soon escaped and returned to Byzantium, where he was restored by Leo VI the Wise to favour and entrusted with high military offices. Upon the death of the Emperor Alexander, Constantine with the support of several aristocrats unsuccessfully tried to usurp the throne from the young Constantine VII, but was killed in a clash with supporters of the legitimate emperor. Life Early life and career Constantine Doukas was the son of Andronikos Doukas, a prominent general under Emperor Leo VI the Wise () and the first prominent member of the Doukas family. Constantine first appears in the sources in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kourtikios The Armenian
Kourtikios ( el, Κουρτίκιος) or Kourtikes (Κουρτίκης) was the name of a Byzantine aristocratic family of Armenian origin. The family's eponymous founder, K'urdik, was an Armenian nobleman who went over to the Byzantine Empire and surrendered his domain, the town of Lokana, to Emperor Basil I the Macedonian (), settling with his family in Byzantine territory. His descendants counted among the senior members of the military aristocracy in the next two centuries. Several members supported the rebellions of various military aristocrats from Constantine Doukas ( Kourtikios the Armenian) to Bardas Skleros (Michael Kourtikios), and in the 11th century, they intermarried with the leading aristocratic families of the time, including the imperial dynasties of the Komnenoi and the Doukai. The family's fortunes declined abruptly in the 12th century, when a single member is known, occupying a modest provincial post. At the same time, a branch of the family became active in Arm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bardas Skleros
Bardas Skleros ( Greek: Βάρδας Σκληρός) or Sclerus was a Byzantine general who led a wide-scale Asian rebellion against Emperor Basil II during the years 976 to 979. Background Bardas belonged to the great family of the Skleroi, which owned enormous estates at the eastern outskirts of Asia Minor. His mother Gregoria descended from Basil I's brother Bardas. The greatest coup of his early career was a brilliant defense of Constantinople against the army of Svyatoslav I of Kiev in 970. During the Battle of Arcadiopolis, he reportedly managed to inflict as many as 20,000 casualties on the Rus, while the campaign claimed the lives of merely 25 Greek soldiers. After he had shown himself equal to dealing with the fiercest enemies of Byzantium, Bardas became a trusted advisor to John I Tzimiskes, who was his brother-in-law and a fellow Armenian. Upon John's death, Skleros aspired to replace him as an acting emperor. The eunuch Basil Lekapenos, who actually led the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Kourtikios
Michael Kourtikios ( el, Μιχαήλ Κουρτίκιος) was a senior Byzantine military commander and a partisan of Bardas Skleros during the latter's rebellion against Basil II. Biography The Kourtikios or Kourtikes family was Armenian in origin and entered Byzantine service under Basil I the Macedonian (r. 867–886), when its eponymous founder, K'urdik, ceded his fortress of Lokana to the Empire. Nothing is known of Michael Kourtikios' early life and career, although a seal of his attests his holding the post of '' topoteretes'' of Thrace. In 976, the general Bardas Skleros rebelled against Basil II (r. 976–1025) with the backing of the eastern themes. In late 976 or early 977 he crossed the Anti-Taurus Mountains and defeated a loyalist army at Lapara. This event strengthened Skleros' position and led to the defection of several high-ranking officers. According to the account of the late 11th-century historian John Skylitzes, following Skleros' victory at Lapara, in Atta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Komnenoi
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 cent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doukai
The House of Doukas, Latinized as Ducas ( el, Δούκας; feminine: Doukaina/Ducaena, Δούκαινα; plural: Doukai/Ducae, Δοῦκαι), from the Latin title ''dux'' ("leader", "general", Hellenized as 'ðouks'', is the name of a Byzantine Greek noble family, whose branches provided several notable generals and rulers to the Byzantine Empire in the 9th–11th centuries. A maternally-descended line, the Komnenodoukai, founded the Despotate of Epirus in the 13th century, with another branch ruling over Thessaly. The continuity of descent amongst the various branches of the original, middle Byzantine family is not clear, and historians generally recognize several distinct groups of Doukai based on their occurrence in the contemporary sources. Polemis, who compiled the only overview work on the bearers of the Doukas name, in view of this lack of genealogical continuity "it would be a mistake to view the groups of people designated by the ''cognomen'' of Doukas as forming on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Armenian Cilicia
The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (Middle Armenian: , '), also known as Cilician Armenia ( hy, Կիլիկեան Հայաստան, '), Lesser Armenia, Little Armenia or New Armenia, and formerly known as the Armenian Principality of Cilicia ( hy, Կիլիկիայի հայկական իշխանութիւն), was an Armenian state formed during the High Middle Ages by Armenian refugees fleeing the Seljuk invasion of Armenia., pp. 630–631. Located outside the Armenian Highlands and distinct from the Kingdom of Armenia of antiquity, it was centered in the Cilicia region northwest of the Gulf of Alexandretta. The kingdom had its origins in the principality founded c. 1080 by the Rubenid dynasty, an alleged offshoot of the larger Bagratuni dynasty, which at various times had held the throne of Armenia. Their capital was originally at Tarsus, and later became Sis. Cilicia was a strong ally of the European Crusaders, and saw itself as a bastion of Christendom in the East. It also s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Empire Of Nicaea
The Empire of Nicaea or the Nicene Empire is the conventional historiographic name for the largest of the three Byzantine Greek''A Short history of Greece from early times to 1964'' by 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/Roman Empire that fled after Constantinople was occupied by Western European and Venetian armed forces during the Fourth Crusade, a military event known as the Sack of Constantinople. Like other Byzantine rump states that formed after the 1204 fracturing of the empire, such as the Empire of Trebizond and the Empire of Thessalonica, 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palaiologan Period
The Byzantine Empire was ruled by the Palaiologos dynasty in the period between 1261 and 1453, from the restoration of Byzantine rule to Constantinople by the usurper Michael VIII Palaiologos following its recapture from the Latin Empire, founded after the Fourth Crusade (1204), up to the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire. Together with the preceding Nicaean Empire and the contemporary '' Frankokratia'', this period is known as the late Byzantine Empire. From the start, the regime faced numerous problems.Mango, p. 255 The Turks of Asia Minor had begun conducting raids and expanding into Byzantine territory in Asia Minor by 1263, just two years after the enthronment 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
