Category: Glossary of Byzantine Terms

Sallarid: 10th.- to 11th.-century Muslim dynasty which ruled in the eastern Caucasus and north-we...

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

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

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

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

Khazars: Turkic-speaking people who were the major power in the Black Sea steppes, with centres o...

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

Armeniakoi: one of the earliest themes; based in northern Anatolia with headquarters at Euchaita.

Opsikion: one of the earliest themes to emerge; based in north-west Asia Minor, closest to Consta...

Alloy containing silver and gold in a Byzantine coin.

Confraternity: A group of laymen, clerics, and monks linked to monasteries and formed to honor pa...

Diadem: originally a head-band, then imperial Roman symbol of majesty from the fourth century on;...

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

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

A type of annuity administered by monasteries which provided (elderly) laity with a regular allot...

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

Codex Justinianus: Codification of Roman law produced at the beginning of the reign of Justinian ...

Arians: followers of a heresy (named after its main proponent, the third century theologian Arius...

Stratiotes: A soldier; by derivation from the 10th century a holder of “military” land, subject t...

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