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[1] M., Theodosius Writer of the Saturnalia, c. 400 [German version] A. Identification There are three Latin works extant under the name Ambrosius Theodosius M., vir clarissimus and illustris (sometimes listed in reverse order): 7 bks. of Saturnalia( Sat.), 2 bks. of Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis ( Somn.) and excerpts from De differentiis et societatibus Graeci Latinique verbi. Otherwise the author is unknown. However, the persons that appear in Sat. (Vettius Agorius Praetextatus, Q. Aurelius Symmachus and several Albini) are well-known Roman aristocrats from …

[German version] (λογαριαστής, λογαριαστεύων, λογιστής; logariastḗs, logariasteúōn, logistḗs). From the 11th cent. AD the financial official responsible for the control of public expenditure in several departments of the central and provincial administration of the Byzantine empire. Alexios I (1081-1118) introduced a mégas logariastḗs as the top supervisor of the state expenses who initially acted with the sakellarios and later acted in his place. Tinnefeld, Franz (Munich) Bibliography ODB 2, 1244f. R. Guilland, Titres et fonctions de l'Empire byzantin, 1976, XXI (1969).

[German version] I. Mesopotamia Income needed to finance tasks of state and general social functions (administration, the military, irrigation, prestige buildings, the court, cults, etc.) did not come from an all-embracing system of taxation levied on individuals, transactions or property, but on a general duty of service and labour on the part of subjects. Under the oikos economy (3rd millennium BC), the palace’s income came predominantly from the domestic operation of the institutional economies of temple and palace. In the tribute-based economy da…

[German version] [1] Apostle (Πέτρος/ Pétros, literally 'the rock'). Apostle, leading figure in the group of disciples called by Jesus of Nazareth and in the original Christian community. Frank, Karl Suso (Freiburg) [German version] A. General comments Sources documenting his life include: (1) the NT writings: the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, Paul's letters (1 Corinthians, Galatians), the 1st and 2nd letter of P. (biographical analysis needs to take into account the special character of these writings); (2) early Church writi…

(Middle Persian Narseh, Armenian Nersēh, Greek Ναρσῆς/ Narsȇs, also Ναρσαῖος/ Narsaȋos). [German version] [1] Brother of Sapor I, died in AD 302 Brother of Sapor I, when he was prince-governor of (Persian) Armenia in AD 293 he overthrew his great-nephew Wahram III from the Persian throne and documented his success in the Paikuli inscription (cf. [1]). In about 296, N. renewed the conflict with Rome by invading (Roman) Armenia. The emperor Galerius [5] suffered a defeat at Carrhae (Ḥarran) in 297, but was able to besi…

(Ἡράκλειος; Hērákleios). Two prominent Sicilians known from the trial of  Verres in 70 BC: [German version] [1] Citizen of Syracuse, 1st cent. BC The son of a certain Hieron, a wealthy citizen of Syracuse. In 73 BC he inherited from a homonymous relative a magnificent house including furnishings and 3 million sesterces (Cic. Verr. 2,14,35). Because of the machinations of Verres, who contested the will, H. lost his wealth and the inheritance. The real estate was returned to him by L. Caecilius [I 13] Metellus, the successor of Verres (Cic. Verr. 2,19,47-50; 25,62). Meister, Klaus (Berlin) …

[German version] [1] Bishop of Laodicea Bishop of  Laodicea (died c. AD 360). The Alexandrine presbyter G., dismissed by his local bishop Alexander in c. 320 because of his radical  Arianism, became bishop of Syrian Laodicea c. 330 following his stay in Antioch. In persistent animosity to  Athanasius, he and Basilius of Ancyra gathered the Trinitarian Church Party of the Homoeousians (slogan: ‘The father resembles the son in essence’ ὅμοιος κατ' οὐσίαν) in 358/9. Also, he played a role in drafting the 4th Sirman Creed (22 May 359)…

[German version] I. General The states of antiquity had no executive PA independent of government and legislature in the sense of the modern separation of powers. The triple division of constitutions, indicated in Aristot. Pol. 1297b 35-1301a 15 ( tría mória, 1297b 37), into a decision-making, legislating organ ( tò bouleuómenon), an executive element ('on the offices': tò perì tàs archás) and judicature ( tò dikázon) owes more to the schematically working mind of the author than to a political concept as such, especially since the fields defined show conside…

[German version] Chancellery officials in the first division of the sacra scrinia, the imperial offices, who are attested in the Roman Empire from the latter part of the 3rd cent. AD. From c. 310, these were led by the magister officiorum and later by the quaestor sacri palatii. It was generally the task of the three scrinia ( memoria, epistolarum and libellorum) to manage communication between the Empire's central administration and the provinces. The memoriales under the magister memoriae, attested in the eastern part of the Empire in particular, were, on the evidence o…

[German version] [1] Imperator Caesar M. Aurelius Probus Augustus Roman emperor AD 276-282 Roman emperor 276-282 AD. Born on 19 August 232 AD in Sirmium; the information about his father in SHA Probus 3,2 and in [Aur. Vict.] epit. Caes. 37,1 is probably fictitious. P.'s career prior to his elevation to emperor in the East in the summer of 276 (Zos. 1,64) (in SHA Probus he is confused with a dux Tenagino P.) is unknown. During his six-year reign ( cos. I-III 277-279, cos. IV 281, cos. V 282) he fought first on the Rhine against the Alamanni, then against the Franci, Burgundiones an…

Name of an old patrician family. The tribus Sergia was named after it. The family is attested to have attained consulship in the 5th cent. BC (S. [I 5]) but did not achieve lasting importance in the historical period. The attempt of its best-known member, L.S. Catilina, to attain the consulship once more failed with the Catilinarian Conspiracy. I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] S., M. The brother of L.S. Catilina (?) According to Plutarch (Sulla 32,3; Cicero 10,3), the brother of L.S. Catilina, killed by him in 81 and posthumously put on the proscriptions…

[German version] Mounted guard troops in the service of the Roman emperor from the time of Constantine onwards, according to the Notitia dignitatum five regiments in the West and seven in the East of the empire, each of 500 men, initially mostly of Germanic origin, which on the whole were not part of the imperial army but were subordinate to the magister officiorum and were each commanded by a tribune [2]. However, by the time of the emperor Zeno the SP were used only as parade troops in court ceremonial, and their role as a defensive guard for the emperor had in fact been …

(Ἡρωδιανός; Hērōdianós). [German version] [1] Aelius H. Greek grammarian, 2nd cent. AD (Αἴλιος Ἡρωδιανός; Aílios Hērōdianós), of Alexandria, one of the most important Greek grammarians, lived in the 2nd cent. AD; son of  Apollonius [11] Dyscolus and his worthy student and successor. For a time he lived in Rome and dedicated his main work, the Καθολικὴ προσῳδία ( Katholikḕ prosōidía) to the emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-180). He is justifiably not seen as a brilliant but as a careful and precise grammarian, the great heir and systematician of the Alexandr…

[German version] Byzantine dynasty from AD 717 to 802 (Leo III, Constantinus [7] V, Leo IV, Irene and Constantinus [8] VI). According to an unreliable source on its origin, its founder Leo III came from Isauria, but in fact, as has long been known, he came from Germanicaea in Syria. Nevertheless, the dynasty has regrettably - because there had been an Isaurian on the imperial throne in the person of emperor Zeno (474-91) - retained its traditional name. The first two representatives of the dynasty…

[German version] Byzantine dynasty AD 867-1056, founded by Basilius [5] I, who hailed from the province ( théma) of Macedonia, after the murder of Michael III ( Amorian dynasty). Basilius was succeeded in 886 by his second son Leo [9] VI (until 912), who was in turn first succeeded by his brother Alexander [20] (until 913), then his son Constantinus [9] VII (913-959; b. 905). Initially, various regents reigned in place of the young Constantine, then, from 920 onwards, his father-in-law Romanus I; only from Janua…

[German version] I. Greek (Μαρκέλλος; Markéllos). [German version] [I 1] From Pergamum, orator, 2nd cent. AD, [1] Rhetor from Pergamum known solely from a brief reference in the Suda; he is said to have written a book (or several books) entitled Ἀδριανὸς ἢ περὶ βασιλείας/ Adrianòs ḕ perì basileías (‘Hadrian, or On Monarchy’). He would thus have lived in the first half of the 2nd cent.; whether Dio's [I 3] speeches perì basileías, addressed to Trajan, served as a model is uncertain. Weißenberger, Michael (Greifswald) [German version] [I 2] From Side, physician and poet, 2nd cent. AD M. from …

(Θεοφανώ; Theophanṓ). [German version] [1] T. Anastaso (Θ. Ἀναστάσω; T. Anastásō). Byzantine empress ( c. 941 until after 976 AD), wife of Romanus [3] II (959-963); the later emperors Basileius [6] II and Constantinus [10] VIII were their children; in 963 she became the wife of Nicephorus [3] II, and in 969 she instigated his assassination. Tinnefeld, Franz (Munich) Bibliography A. Kazhdan, s. v. T., ODB 3, 2064 f. [German version] [2] Wife of Otto II, c. 1000 AD (also Theophanou, c. 960-991 AD). wife of the Western emperor Otto II from 972 onwards, niece of the Byzantine…

(Θεόφιλος; Theóphilos). [German version] [1] Comic poet, 4th cent. BC Comic poet of the 4th cent. BC; victor at the Dionysia of 329 [1. test.2], fourth there in 311 with his Pankratiastḗs [2.190, 200]. T. was of the declining Middle and the incipient New Comedy [I G]. Of the nine known titles, two - Νεοπτόλεμος ( Neoptólemos, 'Neoptolemus'), Προιτίδες ( Proitídes, 'The daughters of Proitus') - are mythological plays, the others deal with everyday material. In the Ἐπίδημοι ( Epídēmoi, 'The Pilgrims'), a slave considers whether to run away from his kind master (fr. 1); in the Φίλαυλος ( Phílaul…

[German version] (Σπαθάριος/ Spathários, ‘sword-bearer’). From the 5th to the 12th cent. AD a member of a body of chamberlains (eunuchs) at the Roman-Byzantine Imperial Court, from about the 8th cent. subordinate to a prōtospathários im Senatorenrang of senatorial rank. From the 10th cent. there is also evidence of non-eunuchs as prōtospathárioi. Tinnefeld, Franz (Munich) Bibliography A. Kazhdan, s. v. Proto-S., ODB 3, 1748; s. v. S., 1935 f.

[German version] (Οὐρβίκιος; Ourbíkios). Recorded as an Eastern Roman praepositus sacri cubiculi under Theodosius [3] II from AD 434 and again under Leo [4] I and Zeno. He did encourage the usurper Basiliscus against Zeno in 475, but in 476 contributed to his overthrow. He was close to Verina, the widow of Leo I, and in 481 probably also supported a conspiracy against Illus, who had arrested her. He is last recorded as an advocate of the election of the emperor Anastasius [1] I in 491 and as a sponsor of pious foundations in Edessa [2] and in the Holy Land in 504/5. PLRE 2, 1188-1190. Tinnefeld, Fr…