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Rapsomates
Rhapsomates (or Rapsomates) ( gr, Ῥαψομάτης) was a Byzantine official who led a revolt on Cyprus in the early 1090s. He was defeated by the '' megas doux'' John Doukas and taken captive. The main narrative sources for his revolt are Anna Komnene and John Zonaras. Background Rhapsomates is the name of an obscure family. The given name of the rebel leader is not known. A Basil Rhapsomates is known from a seal dated to the 12th century. It is just possible that this Basil was the same person as the rebel leader. There was an '' ergasterion'' (workshop) belonging to a John Rhapsomates located in Galata, the Genoese quarter of Constantinople, in the 12th century. Rhapsomates held office on Cyprus before the revolt, but which office is unknown. It does not appear to have been a military one, since he is described as having never held a sword or rode a horse. He was most probably a judge (''krites'') or '' kourator'' (imperial estate manager). It is possible, but unlikely, that ...
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Tzachas
Tzachas ( gr, Τζαχᾶς, Tzachás), also known as Chaka Bey ( tr, Çaka Bey)"Tzachas" is the Hellenized form of a Turkish name which does not appear in any historical documents, but was likely "Chaka", "Chagha", or "Chaqan". The name "Chaka", in the modern Turkish alphabet "Çaka", prevailed especially in modern Turkey, after Akdes Nimet Kurat used it in his work ''Çaka: Orta Zamanda İzmir ve Yakınındaki Adaların Türk Hakimi'', Istanbul, 1936, ''... yüksek siyasî ve askerî görüş sahibi olarak büyük önem taşıyan bu bey'in adının gerçek söylenişi henüz tamamen kesinliğe kavuşmuş değildir. Bu hususta şimdiye kadar üç ihtimal ileri sürülmüştür: Çaka, Çağa, Çakan. AN Kurat'ın bunu "Çaka" kabûl ederek eserini de "Çaka Bey" diye adlandırması, özellikle memleketimizde Çaka şeklinin yaygınlaşmasına yol açmıştır denebilir.'' (''Tarih Dergisi'', Cilt 20, İstanbul Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi, İbrahim Horoz Basımevi, 1983p. ...
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Karykes
Karykes ( el, Καρύκης, Latinised Caryces) was the Byzantine governor of Crete who led a rebellion that began in 1090 or 1091 and lasted into 1092 or 1093 during the reign of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. The principal narrative sources for the revolt are Anna Komnene and Joannes Zonaras, but they provide few details. The historian Michael Glykas confuses this revolt with the contemporary revolt of Rhapsomates in Cyprus. That Karykes is known only by his family name in contemporary chronicles suggests that he was well known, but of his family connections nothing is known. It has been hypothesised that he was the same person as the Niketas Karykes who was the Byzantine '' doux'' of Bulgaria between 1070 and 1090. A couple of other Karykai are known from the 11th and 12th centuries, including a Basil Karykes. Revolt Causes The cause of the revolt is not known from contemporary sources, which provide few details. Ferdinand Chalandon and Judith Herrin both suppose it to have ...
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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 ...
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John The Oxite
John the Oxite or John Oxeites was the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch (as John IV or V) from c. 1089 until 1100, when he was exiled by Prince Bohemond I of Antioch. He fled to the Byzantine Empire and continued to govern those parts of the patriarchate that were under Byzantine rule. He was a prominent writer of religious texts, and reformer of religious and charitable foundations. Prior to his patriarchate, John was a monk. In 1085 or 1092, he wrote a treatise on the practice of '' charistikion'', whereby the emperor could grant a monastery to a private person for a specified period. He was critical of the practice, which he blamed for a decline in monasticism. John took office as patriarch before September 1089, when the city of Antioch was still under Muslim rule. He did not leave Constantinople for Antioch until 1091. At the time of the Siege of Antioch in 1097 by the Christian armies of the First Crusade, he was imprisoned by the Seljuk governor Yağısıyan, who suspe ...
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Byzantine Rebels
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 ...
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Byzantine Cyprus
The Theme of Cyprus ( el, θέμα Κύπρου, ''thema Kyprou'') was a Byzantine military-civilian province, located in the island of Cyprus, established in the 960s after the reconquest of Cyprus by the Byzantine navy. Prior to this the island had been a Byzantine-Arab condominium for three centuries, except occasional short periods where it was occupied by either power. A rebellion by governor Theophilos Erotikos in 1042, and another in 1092 by Rhapsomates, failed as they were quickly subdued by imperial forces. At the end of the 12th century there were again separatist tendencies in Cyprus: Isaac Komnenos of Cyprus proclaimed himself as "'' basileus''" (emperor) in 1185. Cyprus remained under his command until its conquest in 1191 during the Third Crusade by Richard I of England, who sold it to the Knights Templars. Sources * Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the ...
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Exisotes
''Exisōtēs'' ( el, ἐξισώτης) was a fiscal official in the last centuries of the Byzantine Empire. Its functions were similar to those of the earlier '' epoptes'', along with whom it is often mentioned in the 11th centuries: the ''exisōsis'' (ἐξίσωσις, "equalization"), i.e. the fiscal survey and revision of the amount of tax owed by individuals. The distinction between the ''exisōtēs'' and the ''apographeus'' is likewise unclear, although the two functions are often documented as being held in tandem, and tax officials are recorded as carrying out both ''exisōsis'' and ''apographē''. References Sources * {{cite encyclopedia , editor-last=Kazhdan , editor-first=Alexander , editor-link=Alexander Kazhdan , encyclopedia=The 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 informa ...
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Stratopedarches
''Stratopedarchēs'' ( el, στρατοπεδάρχης, , master of the camp), sometimes Anglicized as Stratopedarch, was a Greek term used with regard to high-ranking military commanders from the 1st century BC on, becoming a proper office in the 10th-century Byzantine Empire. It continued to be employed as a designation, and a proper title, of commanders-in-chief until the 13th century, when the title of (μέγας στρατοπεδάρχης) or Grand Stratopedarch appeared. This title was awarded to senior commanders and officials, while the ordinary ''stratopedarchai'' were henceforth low-ranking military officials. History Origin and early use The term first appears in the late 1st century BC in the Hellenistic Near East. Its origin is unclear, but it is used as a translation, in some inscriptions, for the contemporary Roman legionary post of (). Josephus (''De Bello Judaico'', VI.238) uses the term to refer to the quartermaster-general of all camps, while Dionysius o ...
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Eumathios Philokales
Eumathios Philokales ( el, ) was a high-ranking Byzantine military leader and administrator during the reign of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118), most notably as governor of Cyprus for twenty years, from 1093 to ca. 1112. He also served as governor of southern Greece, ambassador to Hungary and '' megas doux'' (commander-in-chief of the Byzantine navy). History Philokales' career is known both through his mention in the ''Alexiad'' and through his surviving seals of office. These trace his ascent from a ''protospatharios epi tou Chrysotriklinou'' to judge of the joint themes of Hellas and the Peloponnese, and eventually, sometime around 1090, to ''praetor'' of the latter.Guilland (1967), p. 543 In about the same time, he was sent by Emperor Alexios to a mission to Hungary to arrange matters relating to the marriage of Alexios' son and heir, John II Komnenos, to Irene of Hungary.Skoulatos (1980), p. 80 In 1093, Alexios appointed Philokales as ''stratopedarches'' and gov ...
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Manuel Boutoumites
Manuel Boutoumites or Butumites ( el, Μανουὴλ Βουτουμίτης, ''fl.'' 1086–1112) was a leading Byzantine general and diplomat during the reign of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118), and one of the emperor's most trusted aides. He was instrumental in the Byzantine recovery of Nicaea from the Seljuk Turks, in the reconquest of Cilicia, and acted as the emperor's envoy in several missions to Crusader princes. Early campaigns against the Seljuks Boutoumites appears in Anna Komnene's ''Alexiad'' in 1086, when he was appointed as the '' doux'' of the Byzantine fleet by Alexios, and sent against Abu'l Qasim, the semi-independent Seljuk Turkish governor of Nicaea.A. Kazhdan, "Boutoumites", .. Abu'l Qasim was preparing to launch a fleet into the Sea of Marmara to challenge the Byzantine navy. Alexios, determined to prevent this, sent against him Boutoumites with the fleet, while Tatikios would move against his base by land. The two generals successfully destr ...
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Immortals (Byzantine Empire)
The Immortals ( el, Ἀθάνατοι, ''Athanatoi'') were one of the elite '' tagmata'' military units of the Byzantine Empire, first raised during the late 10th century. The name derives from ''a-'' ("without") + ''thanatos'' ("death"). History The ''Athanatoi'' were a body of young men of noble status that was originally raised by John I Tzimiskes (r. 969-976) in 970 for his war with the Rus', where they played a decisive role in the battles before Preslav and during the Siege of Dorostolon. The unit was commanded by a ''domestikos'', as with most of the other '' tagmata'' (the professional standing regiments), and on campaign camped near the imperial bodyguard, the '' Hetaireia''. The contemporary historian Leo the Deacon describes the ''Athanatoi'' as heavily armoured shock cavalry, "sheathed in armour" or as "armed horsemen adorned with gold". Tzimiskes' unit was probably disbanded shortly after his death, since it does not appear again in the sources. The name of the ''A ...
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Tagma (military)
The tagma ( el, τάγμα, ) is a military unit of battalion or regiment size, especially the elite regiments formed by Byzantine emperor Constantine V and comprising the central army of the Byzantine Empire in the 8th–11th centuries. History and role In its original sense, the term "tagma" (from the Greek τάσσειν, "to set in order") is attested from the 4th century and was used to refer to an infantry battalion of 200–400 men (also termed ''bandum'' or ''numerus'' in Latin, ''arithmos'' in Greek) in the contemporary East Roman army.Kazhdan (1991), p. 2007 In this sense, the term continues in use in the current Hellenic Armed Forces (''cf.'' Greek military ranks). Imperial guards, 8th–10th centuries In later usage, the term came to refer exclusively to the professional, standing troops, garrisoned in and around the capital of Constantinople.Bury (1911), p. 47 Most of them traced their origins to the Imperial guard units of the late antique Roman Empire. By the ...
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