Megas archon

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The title of megas archōn (Greek : μέγας ἄρχων; "grand archon") was a Byzantine court title during the 13th–14th centuries.

Greek language language spoken in Greece, Cyprus and Southern Albania

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It has the longest documented history of any living Indo-European language, spanning more than 3000 years of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history; other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic, and many other writing systems.

Archon is a Greek word that means "ruler", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem αρχ-, meaning "to be first, to rule". Derived from the same root are words such as monarch and hierarchy.

Contents

History and functions

The title of megas archōn appears originally as a translation of foreign titles, with the meaning of "grand prince"; thus in the middle of the 10th century Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos calls the Magyar ruler Árpád as "great prince of Tourkia [Hungary]" (Greek : ὁ μέγας Τουρκίας ἄρχων) in chapter 40 of his De Administrando Imperio .

The title grand prince or great prince ranked in honour below king and emperor and above a sovereign prince. It also ranked below an Archduke, although this is debatable.

Magyar tribes

The Magyar tribes or Hungarian clans were the fundamental political units within whose framework the Hungarians (Magyars) lived, until these clans from the region of Ural Mountains invaded the Carpathian Basin and established the Principality of Hungary.

Árpád Grand Prince of the Hungarians

Árpád was the head of the confederation of the Hungarian tribes at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries. He might have been either the sacred ruler or kende of the Hungarians, or their military leader or gyula, although most details of his life are debated by historians, because different sources contain contradictory information. Despite this, many Hungarians refer to him as the "founder of our country", and Árpád's preeminent role in the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin has been emphasized by some later chronicles. The dynasty descending from Árpád ruled the Kingdom of Hungary until 1301.

The Nicaean emperor Theodore II Laskaris (r. 1254–1258) first established it as a specific court rank, originally designating the highest-ranking officer of the emperor's retinue. By the time pseudo-Kodinos wrote his Book of Offices in the mid-14th century, however, it had become a purely honorific dignity without any duties attached. [1] [2] [3] In the Book of Offices, the post is listed in the 35th place of the imperial hierarchy, between the prōtospatharios and the tatas tēs aulēs , [2] [4] but other contemporary lists of offices (e.g. the appendix to the Hexabiblos ), which reflect the usage during the late reign of Andronikos II Palaiologos (r. 1282–1328) or during the reign of Andronikos III Palaiologos (r. 1328–1341), place him in the 38th place. [5] The list of Xeropot. 191 places him in 34th in the hierarchy, [6] while in the list of office given in the 15th-century manuscript Paris. gr. 1783, the title is missing. [7] His ceremonial costume is given by pseudo-Kodinos as follows: a gold-embroidered skiadion hat, a plain silk kabbadion kaftan, and a skaranikon (domed hat) covered in golden and lemon-yellow silk and decorated with gold wire and images of the emperor in front and rear, respectively depicted enthroned and on horseback. He bore no staff of office (dikanikion). [2] [8]

Theodore II Laskaris 13th-century emperor of Nicaea

Theodore II Doukas Laskaris or Ducas Lascaris was Emperor of Nicaea from 1254 to 1258.

Prōtospatharios was one of the highest court dignities of the middle Byzantine period, awarded to senior generals and provincial governors, as well as to foreign princes.

The tatas, more formally the tatas tēs aulēs was a Byzantine court office attested in the 12th–14th centuries, whose exact functions are unclear.

Known holders

Name Tenure Appointed by Notes Refs
Constantine Margarites c. 1254–1258 Theodore II Laskaris First holder of the title, created for him by Theodore II. He had previously held the titles of tzaousios , megas tzaousios , and archōn tou allagiou . [2]
Michaelc. 1284 Andronikos II Palaiologos Mentioned only once as pansebastos , "megas archōn of the East", and kephalē (governor) of Rhodes and the Cyclades. [9]
Angelos Doukas Komnenos Tarchaneiotesc. 1295 – c. 1332 Andronikos II Palaiologos Military commander and later in life a monk; he is known from two funerary orations composed for him by Manuel Philes. [10]
Maroulesc. 1303–1305 Andronikos II Palaiologos A military commander, he was put in command of the Byzantine troops accompanying the Catalan Company in its campaign against the Turks in Asia Minor, under the overall command of Roger de Flor. Later promoted epi tou stratou , he fought against the Catalans in Thrace in 1306–1308. [11]
Alexios Raoulc. 1321 Andronikos II Palaiologos Military commander, correspondent of Michael Gabras and Manuel Philes. [12] [13]
Demetrios Angelosc. 1332 Andronikos III Palaiologos Oikeios of the emperor, attested as one of the witnesses to a peace treaty with Venice, concluded in November 1332. [14] [15]
John Parasphondylosc. 1342 John V Palaiologos Attested as one of the witnesses to the renewal of the peace treaty with Venice in March 1342. [14] [16]
Demetrios Doukas Kabasilas c. 1369 John V Palaiologos Loyalist of John VI Kantakouzenos during the Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347 and landholder in Chalcidice and megas papias , mentioned as megas archōn in an act of March 1369 about a property deed in the Zographou Monastery. [14] [16]
Kabasilasc. 1377unknownAttested as megas archōn at Serres, possibly son of Demetrios Doukas Kabasilas. [17]
[Antonios] Mandromenosc. 1383unknownAttested in a single manuscript; it either refers to the megas archōn and monk Antonios Mandromenos, or to the monk Antonios, servant of the megas archōn Mandromenos [18]

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. ↑ Bartusis 1997, p. 382.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Guilland 1960, p. 87.
  3. ↑ Verpeaux 1966, p. 182.
  4. ↑ Verpeaux 1966, p. 138.
  5. ↑ Verpeaux 1966, pp. 300, 307, 321, 335.
  6. ↑ Verpeaux 1966, p. 309.
  7. ↑ Verpeaux 1966, pp. 303–306.
  8. ↑ Verpeaux 1966, p. 161.
  9. ↑ PLP, 19060. Μιχαήλ.
  10. ↑ PLP, 27473. Ταρχανειώτης, Ἂγγελος ∆ούκας Κομνηνός.
  11. ↑ Guilland 1960, pp. 87–88.
  12. ↑ Guilland 1960, p. 89.
  13. ↑ PLP, 24108. Ῥαοὺλ Ἀλέξιος.
  14. 1 2 3 Guilland 1960, p. 88.
  15. ↑ PLP, 190. Ἂγγελος ∆ημήτριος.
  16. 1 2 PLP, 21911. Παρασφόνδυλος Ἰωάννης.
  17. ↑ PLP, (10072) → 92224. Καβάσιλας.
  18. ↑ PLP, 16621. Μανδρομηνὸς Ἀντώνιος.

Sources

International Standard Book Number Unique numeric book identifier

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier which is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.

Rodolphe Joseph Guilland was a French Byzantinist.

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