Category: Glossary of Byzantine Terms

Danishmend: Turkoman dynasty that ruled over Cappadocia, Sebasteia and Melitene from late elevent...

Romania: ‘land of the Romans’ (i.e. Byzantines); by the seventh century, a term for the Christian...

despot (despot ¯ es) ‘lord, master’: High imperial title in the Palaiologan period, generally res...

Normans: people from north-west France, originally of Scandinavian origin; in the eleventh centur...

Eunuch: Castrated male who could occupy any position in the imperial system; some offi ces were r...

Iconoclasm: Rejection of the honoring of sacred images as a form of idolatry. Condemned as a here...

Monothelitism: (from monos and thelein ‘to will’) doctrine recognising the existence of one ‘will...

Ostrogoths: (eastern Goths) groupings of Goths, who adopted Arian Christianity and conquered Ital...

Praetorian Prefecture: The largest administrative unit of the empire from the time of Constantine...

Ecloga: “Selections” from Roman law, interpreted in the light of its own time and codifi ed as a ...

Ecumenical councils: (from oikoumenikos, ‘worldwide’) conferences of the bishops of the whole chu...

Thelematarioi: “Volunteers,” soldiers/watchmen who served on the basis of grants of land given by...

Christian sacrament in which the body and the blood of Christ are conveyed to believers in the fo...

Pronouncements on Christ’s nature of Patriarch Cyril of Alexandria, endorsed by the council of Ch...

Ekklesiarches: The sacristan of a church, responsible for preparing for services by setting out t...

Sasanians: Persian ruling dynasty which overthrew the Parthian Arsacid dynasty in the early third...

Typikon: Document setting out the rules and regulations for the administration of a monastic comm...

Franks: A Germanic grouping from the lower Rhine, frequently recruited into the Roman army; unite...

Rus: People of Scandinavian origin who formed a political structure in eastern Europe, between th...

Laura: A type of monastery in which monks lived as solitaries during the week, but assembled on w...