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Stephen Kontostephanos
Stephen Kontostephanos (, – 1149) was a Byzantine Empire, Byzantine aristocrat and military commander. Stephen was born in , the son of the ''sebastos'' Isaac Kontostephanos, a military commander for most of the reign of Alexios I Komnenos (), culminating in his unsuccessful service as admiral (''thalassokrator'') against the Italo-Normans in 1107/8. He was the third member of the family to bear the name "Stephen" after the family's progenitor and a rather obscure paternal uncle. In , he married Anna, the second-born daughter of Emperor John II Komnenos () and Irene of Hungary, and received the title ''panhypersebastos''. The couple had four children: the sons John Kontostephanos (son of Stephen), John, Alexios, and Andronikos Kontostephanos, Andronikos, as well as a daughter, Irene, who married Nikephoros Bryennios (sebastos), Nikephoros Bryennios. Stephen's career under John II is unknown, but he enjoyed the favour of John's youngest son and eventual successor, Manuel I Komnen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th centuryAD, it endured until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. The term 'Byzantine Empire' was coined only after its demise; its citizens used the term 'Roman Empire' and called themselves 'Romans'. During the early centuries of the Roman Empire, the western provinces were Romanization (cultural), Latinised, but the eastern parts kept their Hellenistic culture. Constantine the Great, Constantine I () legalised Christianity and moved the capital to Constantinople. Theodosius I, Theodosius I () made Christianity the state religion and Greek gradually replaced Latin for official use. The empire adopted a defensive strategy and, throughout its remaining history, expe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger II Of Sicily
Roger II or Roger the Great (, , Greek language, Greek: Ρογέριος; 22 December 1095 – 26 February 1154) was King of Kingdom of Sicily, Sicily and Kingdom of Africa, Africa, son of Roger I of Sicily and successor to his brother Simon, Count of Sicily, Simon. He began his rule as Count of Sicily in 1105, became Duke of Apulia and Calabria in 1127, then King of Sicily in 1130 and Ifriqiya#Norman kings of the Kingdom of Africa (Ifriqiya), King of Africa in 1148. Background By 999, Normans, Norman adventurers had arrived in southern Italy. By 1016, they were involved in the complex local politics, where Lombards were fighting against the Byzantine Empire. As mercenaries they fought the enemies of the Italian city-states, sometimes fighting for the Byzantines and sometimes against them, but in the following century they gradually became the rulers of the major polities south of Rome. Roger I ruled the County of Sicily at the time of the birth of his youngest son, Roger, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pechenegs
The Pechenegs () or Patzinaks, , Middle Turkic languages, Middle Turkic: , , , , , , ka, პაჭანიკი, , , ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, Pečenezi, separator=/, Печенези, also known as Pecheneg Turks were a semi-nomadic Turkic peoples, Turkic people from Central Asia who spoke the Pecheneg language. In the 9th and 10th centuries, the Pechenegs controlled much of the steppes of southeast Europe and the Crimean Peninsula. In the 9th century the Pechenegs began a period of wars against Kievan Rus', and for more than two centuries launched raids into the lands of Rus', which sometimes escalated into full-scale wars. Ethnonym The Pechenegs were mentioned as ''Bjnak'', ''Bjanak'' or ''Bajanak'' in medieval Arabic language, Arabic and Persian language, Persian texts, as ''Be-ča-nag'' in Classical Tibetan documents, and as ''Pačanak-i'' in works written in Georgian language, Georgian. Anna Komnene and other Byzantine authors referred to them as ''Patzinakoi'' or ''Patzi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cumans
The Cumans or Kumans were a Turkic people, Turkic nomadic people from Central Asia comprising the western branch of the Cumania, Cuman–Kipchak confederation who spoke the Cuman language. They are referred to as Polovtsians (''Polovtsy'') in Rus' chronicles, as "Cumans" in Western sources, and as "Kipchaks" in Eastern sources. Related to the Pecheneg, they inhabited a shifting area north of the Black Sea and along the Volga River known as Cumania, from which the Cuman–Kipchaks meddled in the politics of the Caucasus and the Khwarazmian Empire. The Cumans were fierce and formidable nomadic warriors of the Eurasian Steppe who exerted an enduring influence on the medieval Balkans. They were numerous, culturally sophisticated, and militarily powerful. Many eventually settled west of the Black Sea, influencing the politics of Kievan Rus', the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, Galicia–Volhynia Principality, the Golden Horde Khanate, the Second Bulgarian Empire, the Kingdom of Serbia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sultanate Of Rum
The Sultanate of Rum was a culturally Turco-Persian Sunni Muslim state, established over conquered Byzantine territories and peoples (Rum) of Anatolia by the Seljuk Turks following their entry into Anatolia after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. The name ''Rum'' was a synonym for the medieval Eastern Roman Empire and its peoples, as it remains in modern Turkish. The name is derived from the Aramaic () and Parthian () names for ancient Rome, via the Greek () meaning the Anatolia. The Sultanate of Rum seceded from the Seljuk Empire under Suleiman ibn Qutalmish in 1077. It had its capital first at Nicaea and then at Iconium. It reached the height of its power during the late 12th and early 13th century, when it succeeded in taking key Byzantine ports on the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts. In the east, the sultanate reached Lake Van. Trade through Anatolia from Iran and Central Asia was developed by a system of caravanserai. Especially strong trade ties with the Genoese forme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theodore Prodromos
Theodore Prodromos or Prodromus (; ), probably also the same person as the so-called Ptochoprodromos (Πτωχοπρόδρομος "Poor Prodromos"), was a Byzantine Greek writer, well known for his prose and poetry. Biography Very little is known about his life. Further developing a genre begun by Nicholas Kallikles, he wrote many occasional poems for a widespread circle of patrons at the Byzantine court. Some of the literary pieces attributed to him are unpublished, while still others may be wrongly attributed to him. Even so, there does emerge from these writings the figure of an author in reduced circumstances, with a marked inclination towards begging, who was in close touch with the court circles during the reigns of John II Komnenos (1118–1143) and Manuel I Komnenos (1143–1180). He was given a prebend by Manuel I, and he ended his life as a monk. Despite the panegyric and conventional treatment, his writings, often produced on some public occasion, provide important in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Varangian Guard
The Varangian Guard () was an elite unit of the Byzantine army from the tenth to the fourteenth century who served as personal bodyguards to the Byzantine emperors. The Varangian Guard was known for being primarily composed of recruits from Northern Europe, including mainly Norsemen from Scandinavia but also Anglo-Saxons from England. The recruitment of distant foreigners from outside Byzantium to serve as the emperor's personal guard was pursued as a deliberate policy, as they lacked local political loyalties and could be counted upon to suppress revolts by disloyal Byzantine factions. The Rus' people, Rus' provided the earliest members of the Varangian Guard. They were in Byzantine service from as early as 874. The Guard was first formally constituted under Emperor Basil II in 988, following the Christianization of Kievan Rus' by Vladimir I of Kiev. Vladimir, who had recently taken control of Kiev with an army of Varangian warriors, sent 6,000 men to Basil as part of a military ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corfu (city)
Corfu (, also ) or Kerkyra (, ; , ; ; ; ) is a city and a former municipality on the island of Corfu, Ionian Islands, Greece. Since the 2019 local government reform, it is part of the municipality Central Corfu and Diapontian Islands. It is the capital of the municipality and of the Corfu regional unit. The city also serves as a capital for the region of the Ionian Islands. The city (population in 2021: 40,047 residents and the whole island about 100,000) is a major tourist attraction and Greek regional centre and has played an important role in Greek history since antiquity. History The ancient city of Corfu, known as Korkyra, took part in the Battle of Sybota which was a catalyst for the Peloponnesian War, and, according to Thucydides, the largest naval battle between Greek city states until that time. Thucydides also reports that Korkyra was one of the three great naval powers of fifth-century-BC Greece, along with Athens and Corinth. Medieval castles punctuating strategic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constantinople
Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empires between its consecration in 330 until 1930, when it was renamed to Istanbul. Initially as New Rome, Constantinople was founded in 324 during the reign of Constantine the Great on the site of the existing settlement of Byzantium, and shortly thereafter in 330 became the capital of the Roman Empire. Following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the late 5th century, Constantinople remained the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire (also known as the Byzantine Empire; 330–1204 and 1261–1453), the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–1922). Following the Turkish War of Independence, the Turkish capital then moved to Ankara. Although the city had been known as Istanbul since 1453, it was officially renamed as Is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conrad III
Conrad III (; ; 1093 or 1094 – 15 February 1152) of the Hohenstaufen dynasty was from 1116 to 1120 Duke of Franconia, from 1127 to 1135 anti-king of his predecessor Lothair III, and from 1138 until his death in 1152 King of the Romans in the Holy Roman Empire. He was the son of Duke Frederick I of Swabia and Agnes, a daughter of Emperor Henry IV. His reign saw the start of the conflicts between the Guelphs and Ghibellines. He was involved in the failed Second Crusade with Louis VII, where he would fight and lose at Doryleum and would later fall ill and return to Constantinople. After recuperating, he went to Jerusalem but would experience a string of failed sieges. Later returning from the Crusade, he was entangled in some conflicts with Welf VI's claim to the Duchy of Bavaria. On his deathbed, he designated his nephew Frederick Barbarossa as his successor instead of his son, Frederick IV, Duke of Swabia. Descent The origin of the House of Hohenstaufen in the Du ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
