Abbasid dynasty: The Arabic family, descended from 'Abbas (uncle of Muhammad), which ruled the Arab empire from 749 to 1258 and had its capital at Baghdad. Rival Muslim leaders helped to weaken the power of the Abbasid, who fled to Egypt after they were finally overthrown in 1258 by the Mongols.
Anastasis: (Greek, "resurrection") This is the representation of Christ bursting the gates of hell and releasing Old Testament figures said to have believed in him. One of the festival icons, it is also the Easter image of the Orthodox Church.
Apocrypha: (Greek, "hidden things") These are works that in their title, form, and contents resemble books of the Old and New Testaments, but that are not accepted as true biblical books.
Apse: A part of a building projecting outward, usually semicircular in shape. When it is part of a church, it is located at the eastern end.
Ascension: Part of the Festival icons, this is the image of Christ going up to heaven with the apostles as witnesses. It follows the account of the Ascension in Acts 1:11.
Augustus (Augusta): Title of the Roman emperor (empress), used first by Julius Caesar (27 b.c.-a.d. 14)
Bagdatikos: a name for a paper book. The paper used by the Byzantines is imported from Muslim countries, thus the name.
Baldachin: Architectural canopy supported by slender columns marking and enclosing a specific spot in the church, usually the altar.
Basileus: A Greek term for king which under the Byzantines came to signify emperor, and was used in the title of the Byzantine emperor.
Battle of the Milvian Bridge: Constantine's crucial victory over his rival for the Roman Empire, Maxentius, in 312, won under the sign of the Christian cross, which paved the way for the Roman Empire to become Christianized.
Bogomilism: A heretical current arising in Bulgaria in the mid-tenth century, believing in two principles (i.e. dualistic) which spread beyond Bulgaria into the Byzantine Empire and from there along the Mediterranean to the south of Western Europe.
Caesar: The second title (after emperor) in the Byzantine Empire until the late eleventh century, frequently given to the heir to the throne.
Chasuble: A long sleeveless outer garment, worn by the celebrant at the Mass. Its color varies with the season or occasion.
Chi Rho: First two Greek letters in the name Christ, used as a monogram.
Cyrillic: The alphabet used for the slavic languages of the Orthodox Slavs (e.g. Bulgarians, Serbs [including Montenegrins], Macedonians, and Russians). It was named for Saint Cyril (Constantine), one of the first apostles to the Slavs who worked out the first Slavic language (what we now call Old Church Slavonic).
Deesis: (Greek, "entreaty") The representation of Christ flanked by the intercessory figures of the Virgin and Saint John the Baptist.
Despot: An honorary court title of the Byzantine Empire, introduced in the twelfth century ot the second highest title (after that of basileus).
Doge: The title for the ruler of Venice.
Dualist: Religiously, one who believes in two opposing goals or principles: generally good vs. Evil (or spirit vs. Matter). Under this heading we find the Manichess, Gnostics, the medieval Bogomils and their western offshoots.
Dux: A Roman military commander. In the Byzantine period the title was given to the military commander of a small theme such as Durazzo or a frontier duchy in the east, such as Antioch.
Emir: A prince or governor of an Islamic territory.
Emirate: The territory ruled by an Emir.
Emperor of the Romans: The Byzantine's emperor's title, and believed to be the only true and rightful emperor on earth.
Eparch: A Greek title used for a governor, and in the church for a bishop.
Exarch: A high military commander, generally standing over a large province, an exarchate; e.g., Ravenna (Byzantine Italy), Carthage (Byzantine North Africa). Also occassionally used in Byzantine sources for a tribal military leader.
Festival icons: Based on the Twelve Great Feasts or other holy days of the litugical year of the Orthodox church, these images recorded episodes from the lives of Christ and the Virgin. From the eleventh century onward the Great Feasts included six feasts with a fixed date in the calendar: the Annunciation (whose icon showed Gabriel approaching Mary to announce that she would bear a child), the Nativity (whose icon showed Mary, Joseph, and Christ in a manger, while below Christ is bathed by midwives), Epiphany (whose icon showed the baptism of Christ by John the Baptist), Hypapante (whose icon showed Mary and Joseph presenting Christ in the Temple, with Simeon nearby), the Transfiguration (whose icon showed Christ in a halo of glory between Elijah and Moses, with the apostles Peter, James, and John crouching below), and the Dormition of the Virgin (whose icon showed the Koimesis, that is, Mary on a bed surrounded by mourning apostles with Christ holding her soul). There were also six feasts that moved in date from year to year: Lazarus Saturday (whose icon showed the raising of Lazarus), Palm Sunday (whose icon showed Christ on a donkey entering Jerusalem), Good Friday (whose icon showed the crucifixion of Christ), Easter (whose icon showed the Anastasis, or Christ bursting into hell), Ascension Sunday (whose icon showed Christ surrounded by angels and apostles), and Pentecost (whose icon showed Mary and the Apostles gathered for the coming of the Holy Spirit).
Filioque: "And the Son," an addition to the Nicene Creed making the Holy Spirit descend from the Father and the Son. Arising in Spain in the sixth century, by the ninth it had become regular usage in the Western church. After the 1054 break it became the major theological point of difference between the Orthodox and Catholic churches.
Hellene: A Greek; however, since the term connoted a pagan, the Greeks did not call themselves Hellenes in the Middle Ages, but Romans since they consider themselves citizens of the Roman Empire.
Holy Spirit: According to the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit, sent by God, is the divine principle of activity in the world. For Christians the Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity, which is three aspects of God, consisting of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Able to bestow gifts on individuals, especially the gift of prophecy, the Holy Spirit aided in the conception of Jesus (Matt. 1:18-20); descended to Jesus at his baptism (Matt. 3:16; Mark 1:10; John 1:32); and came down to Mary and the apostles at Pentecost and enabled them to speak in foreign languages (Acts 2).
Icon: (Greek, "image") This is any image of a sacred personage or sacred scene; the term now is usually used to refer to a representation on a portable panel.
Iconoclasm: The belief that there should not be religious pictures, generally seeing them as a form of idolatry. The term literraly means icon-breaking. This view was state policy in the Byzantine Empire from 730 to 878 and from 815 to 843.
Iconoclast: One practicing Iconoclasm, an opponent of icons.
Immunities: Exemptions, usually attached to an estate. They could be financial (from certain taxes) or judicial (alowing the landlord to judge his tenants for certain types of crimes or law suits).
Khagan: Turkish title for a supreme chief.
Koimesis: (Greek, "falling asleep") A scene not found in the Bible that shows Mary asleep in death on a bed, surrounded by the Apostles, her soul in the form of a baby being held by Christ. It became one of the festival icons in the eleventh century.
Liturgy: In Byzantium this term referred specifically to the Eucharistic rite, often called the Divine Liturgy, of which there were two Constantinopolitan formulas - one ascribed to John Chrysostom, the other to Basil the Great.
Logothete: A high Byzantine court secretary standing at the head of a bureaucratic office.
Loros (pl. loroi): A long scarf, especially the jeweled one worn on festive occasions by the emperor or empress and, rarely, by certain dignitaries; archangels attending Christ are often shown wearing loroi.
Metropolitan: A major bishop, standing over a major diocese, ranking below the patriarch and above the archbishops.
Nicaea, Council of: The first ecumenical (universal) church council held at Nicaea in 325 to condemn Arius. It passed the Nicene Creed.
Old Church Slavonic: The name recently given by scholars to the Slavic language devised by Constantine (Cyril) and Methodius in the middle of the ninth century. The first written Slavic language, they translated the Bible into it and it became the language of church services for the Orthodox Slavic Churches. It was based upon a spoken Macedonian dialect to which various Greek features were added.
Orthodox: Correct belief. A term used for the mainstream church in East and West until the Church split. Subsequently the term came to refer to the Eastern churches in communion with Constantinople. While the term Catholic, also originally used to refer to the church both in the East and West, came to refer solely to the Roman Catholic Church.
Pallium: A cloak worn by a bishop which is considered a major symbol of his office.
Pantokrator: (Greek, "all-sovereign") The best-known image of this is that of Christ, bearded and represented frontally, blessing with his right hand while he holds the Gospels in his left; a bust of Christ Pantokrator often formed the center of Byzantine dome decoration.
Patriarch: A major bishop who was the independent head of a major diocese. In the early church there were five recognized patriarchates: Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem. The other Orthodox churches sought (and at times unilaterally assumed) this title for the heads of their various churches, sometimes even achieving recognition of this title from the Constantinopolitan patriarch.
Patrician: Member of an order of high nobility in Byzantium appointed by the emperor; on occasions foreign princes were honored with this rank by the Byzantine emperor.
Proedros: "First," used in titles of officials of the empire.
Pronoia: In the Byzantine empire, a grant of a source of income (usually land) given in exchange for service (usually military) to the state. The grant was temporary and reverted back to the state when the holder died or ceased to carry out the duties by which it was given.
Protostrater: A high Byzantine court title which occassionally was granted to foreign leaders.
Protovestijar: A palace official in charge of the imperial wardrobe.
Solidus: A Byzantine coin. 72 to a Roman pound of gold (12 American ounces).
Stefanos: The wreath-shaped crown worn by a Byzantine caesar.
Stemma: The crown worn by a Byzantine emperor.
Strategos (pl. strategoi): A Greek term for "general"; from the seventh century used, however, specifically for the military commander of a theme. He not only commanded the local troops but was also more or less the governor of the province.
Suffragan bishopric: A lesser bishopric subordinate to a greater one.
Synod: A Church council.
Synodik: A text presenting the decisions of a synod.
Tablion: Badge of office in the form of a richly woven or embroidered patch of cloth applied to garments.
Theme: Originally a Greek term for an army corps, it came in the seventh century also to refer to a Byzantine military province defended by that corps. Soon after the whole Byzantine Empire was divided into those themes each under the direction of a strategos.
Toponym: A place name.
Tourma: A military district within a theme, Each theme was divided into two to four such districts, each commanded by a tourmarch.
Virgin Hodegetria: This image shows the Virgin holding the Christ child, usually in her left arm, while she points to him with her right hand. Christ makes a blessing gesture. By legend this image was supposed to have come from Palestine, where it came to be the image of choice in Byzantium's most elite circles. It also came to stand for the divine protection of the emperor and his capital city, and had much the same meaning to the Tuscan city-states in Italy. A famous icon of the Virgin Hodegetria was kept in the Hodegon Monastery in Constantinople and was paraded out in times of danger to protect the city.
N.B.: When a people is referred to below as, e.g. Indo-Euorpoean or Turkic, it refers to language spoken rather than to race or ethnicity.
Armenians: An Indo-European people living in the Caucasus and in parts of eastern Anatolia. In the course of the Middle Ages many migrated or were transferred to other regions of Anatolia and the Balkans. They have their own church which, owing to an interpretation of how the human and divine were mixed in Christ which differs from that of the Orthodox Church, is considered heretical by the Byzantines.
Avars: A Turkic people who migrated into what is now Hungary in the latesixth century and established through their dominance of other peoples (including Bulgars ad Slavs) a huge empire that included most of what is the moderm Ukraine, Rumania, Hungary, former Yugoslavia and Czeck and Slovak. Their empire began declining after successful rebellions by various subject people in the second quarter of the seventh century. Their independent power was destroyed by Charlemagne in the 790's.
Croats: A people, probably of Iranian origin, who migrated into the western Balkans in the seventh century and subjected the Slavs settled there. In time they became slavicized but gave their name to the Slavic people (and its language) of what is now Croatia, Dalmatia and part of Bosnia. From the ninth century, if not earlier, they are clearly a Slavic people.
Cumans: A Turkic people who appeared in the Steppes in the eleventh century after the decline of the Pechenegs. They were a problem for the eastern Balkans for the next two centuries owing to their raids. However, others settled in Bulgaria and proved a valuable portion of the armies of the Second Bulgarian Empire.
Ezeritae: A slavic tribe in the mountains of the Peloponnesus which unlike most of the other Slavs of Greece did not become hellenized but reatined its idenity and remained Slavic-speaking throughout the Middle Ages.
Franks: A Germanic tribe which conqured most of Gaul and eventually established a powerful state centered in what is modern France and Germany, but whose borders extended well beyind At times the Franks were active in the northwestern Balkans, and for a while were overlords over most of the Croatians.
Greeks: The ancient settlers of Greece who also lived along the Thracian coast and existed in large numbers in Anatolia. They became the dominant people f the Roman Empire in the period after Constantine moved its center to the east.
Hungarians (or Magyars): A Finno-Ugric nomadic people who moved into modern Hungary at the end of the ninth century. They established a powerful state.
Illyrians: An ancient Indo-European people dominating the western Balkans, though conquewred by Rome, until the Slavic invasions. They have survived in a much more restricted area as the Albanians.
Melingi: A Slavic tribe in the mountains of the Peloponessus which unlike most of the Slavs of Greece did not become helleinzed but retained its identity and remained Slavic-speaking throughout the Middle Ages.
Pechenegs (also Patzinaks): A Turkic tribe which dominated the Stepes from the ed of the ninth to the end of the eleventh centuries.
Seljuks: A Turkish dynasty which established itself in Baghdad in the middle of the elevnth century as protectors of the caliph, Their tribesmen (with other loyal Turkish tribes) expanded to control most of Anatolia by the 1080s.
Turkomen (or Turcomen): Turkic nomadic tribesman who began pouring into Anatolia in the eleventh century. Many were associated with the Seljuks.
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Last modified: Thurs Dec 10, 1998