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.
Basileus is a Greek term and title that has signified various types of monarchs in history. In the English-speaking world it is perhaps most widely understood to mean "king" or "emperor". The title was used by sovereigns and other persons of authority in ancient Greece, the Byzantine emperors, and the kings of modern Greece.
The Codex Theodosianus was a compilation of the laws of the Roman Empire under the Christian emperors since 312. A commission was established by Emperor Theodosius II and his co-emperor Valentinian III on 26 March 429 and the compilation was published by a constitution of 15 February 438. It went into force in the eastern and western parts of the empire on 1 January 439. The original text of the codex is also found in the Breviary of Alaric, promulgated on 2 February 506.
A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic, and ancient Romans considered the consulship the highest level of the cursus honorum.
Actuarius or actarius, rendered in Greek as aktouarios (ἀκτουάριος), was the title applied to officials of varying functions in the late Roman and Byzantine empires.
Topotērētēs was a Byzantine technical term, meaning deputy or lieutenant. As such, it was used in different ways throughout the Empire's history. In the 9th-11th centuries, the topotērētēs was the deputy of senior military commanders of the themata, the tagmata and the Byzantine navy. The topotērētēs was usually placed in command of one half of the respective unit. In the early 12th century, topotērētai are found as commanders of small regions and fortresses, while in the late Palaiologan period, the term was used for representatives of the Patriarch of Constantinople in sees that now lay outside the Byzantine Empire's borders.
The spatharii or spatharioi were a class of Late Roman imperial bodyguards in the court in Constantinople in the 5th–6th centuries, later becoming a purely honorary dignity in the Byzantine Empire.
Autokratōr is a Greek epithet applied to an individual who exercises absolute power, unrestrained by superiors. In a historical context, it has been applied to military commanders-in-chief, and to Roman and Byzantine emperors as the translation of the Latin title imperator. Its connection with Byzantine-style absolutism gave rise to the modern terms autocrat and autocracy. In modern Greek, it means "emperor", and the female form of the title is autokrateira.
In the late Byzantine Empire, the term kephale was used to denote local and provincial governors.
Stratēlatēs was a Greek term designating a general, which also became an honorary dignity in the Byzantine Empire. In the former sense, it was often applied to military saints, such as Theodore Stratelates.
Droungos or drungus is a late Roman and Byzantine term for a battalion-sized military unit, and later for a local command guarding mountain districts. Its commander was a "droungarios" or "drungarius" (δρουγγάριος), anglicized as "Drungary".
The paradynasteuōn was a term used, especially in the Byzantine Empire, to designate a ruler's favorite, often raised to the position of chief minister. Probably deriving from Thucydides, it was used in the later Roman Empire for people with great authority. It was not an official title or position, but the term was extensively used by chroniclers such as Theophanes the Confessor or Theophanes Continuatus to designate an emperor's closest aide and chief minister. It gained greater currency during the Komnenian period and continued to be used by historians of the Palaiologan period, although the more technical term of mesazōn ("mediator"), which eventually came to correspond to an actual office, had largely replaced it.
Decanus means "chief of ten" in Late Latin. The term originated in the Roman army and became used thereafter for subaltern officials in the Byzantine Empire, as well as for various positions in the Church, whence derives the English title "dean".
Scyphate is a term frequently used in numismatics to refer to the concave or "cup-shaped" Byzantine coins of the 11th–14th centuries.
The quaestor sacri palatii, in English: Quaestor of the Sacred Palace, was the senior legal authority in the late Roman Empire and early Byzantium, responsible for drafting laws. In the later Byzantine Empire, the office of the quaestor was altered and it became a senior judicial official for the imperial capital, Constantinople. The post survived until the 14th century, albeit only as an honorary title.
In the Byzantine Empire, a kleisoura was a term traditionally applied to a fortified mountain pass and the military district protecting it. By the late 7th century, it came to be applied to more extensive frontier districts, distinct from the larger themata, chiefly along the Empire's eastern border with the Caliphate along the line of the Taurus-Anti-Taurus mountains. A kleisoura or kleisourarchia was an autonomous command, under a kleisourarches. Eventually, most kleisourai were raised to full themata, and the term fell out of use after the 10th century. Its Islamic counterpart in Cilicia and Mesopotamia was the al-thughūr.
Toparchēs, anglicized as toparch, is a Greek term for a governor or ruler of a district, which in Byzantine times came to be applied to independent or semi-independent rulers in the periphery of the Byzantine world.
The tzangion, plural tzangia (τζαγγία) was a type of boot or sandal, which in the Middle Ages became an important part of the Byzantine Emperors' regalia.
The Syro-Roman law book is a compilation of secular legal texts from the eastern Roman Empire originally composed in Greek in the late 5th century, but surviving only in Syriac translation. As a work of Roman law, the original language of many of its legal texts would have been Latin.
