Discussion Pages

Doux: Originally in the later Roman period a commander of a military unit; commander of a unit of...

Gastald: Lombard royal official in Italy in charge of a gastaldate, with civil and military power...

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

Scyths: Classical name for Iranian-speaking nomads of Black Sea steppes; used by Byzantines of se...

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

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

True Cross: wooden cross on which Christ was crucified, or fragments – relics – supposedly from it.

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

Uzes:A branch of the Oghuz confederation of Turkic-speaking peoples; ousted the Pechenegs from th...

Turkmen (Turkoman, Turcoman): Turkish nomadic tribesmen from Central Asia who streamed into Anato...

Alloy containing silver and gold in a Byzantine coin.

Psychika: Gifts made to monasteries in exchange for the monks’ commemoration of the donors and/or...

Caesaropapism: system whereby the monarch exercised unfettered control over the church in his dom...

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

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

Dioiketes: Fiscal administrator responsible for the land-tax, usually in a single diocese, from t...

Thrakesioi: one of the earliest themes, based in western Anatolia with headquarters at Chonai.

Davidic of or pertaining to David, king of Israel, or to his family

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

Zealots: strongly iconophile monks in the late eighth to tenth century; midfourteenth century gro...