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500-570/80. Greece. Petros Patrikios, a high-ranking official as well as a man of letters of the sixth century, was born in Thessalonica. After a schooling in rhetoric he spent some years as lawyer at Constantinople, then from 534 he served Emperor Justinian I (527-65) several times on foreign diplomatic missions. Returning in 537 from Italy, where he had been held in captivity for three years, he was appointed to the office of the magister militum, which at that time was connected with the honorary title patricius. During the next three decades Justinian regularly called on him…

ca 1130 - after 1159. Byzantium. Michael Glykas is one of those Byzantine authors of the 12th century who attempted to compose a traditional universal chronicle. There is some evidence to identify him with Michael Sikidites, who is mentioned in the History of Niketas Choniates although modern scholars still have some doubts in equating the two characters. Glykas was probably born on the Island of Corfu, and served as a grammatikos (secretary) at the court of Emperor Manuel I Komnenus (1143-80) in Constantinople. Because of his participation in the revolt of Theodoros Styppeio…

[Epirotica; Chronicle of Epirus] 15th century. Greece. A chronicle of the Epirus region in Northern Greece. About five fragments of this work survive, though it must once have been considerably more extensive. The first fragment incorporates the beginning of the chronicle of Ephraem of Ainus. The second, entitled Ἱστορία Πρελούμπου καὶ τῶν ἄλλων Δεσπότων τῶν Ἰωαννίνων, ἀπὸ τῆς ἁλώσεως αὐτῶν παρὰ τῶν Σερβῶν ἕως τῆς παραδόσεως εἰς Τούρκους (The history of Preljubović and of the other Despots of Ioannina from the Serbian capture of the city up to its capitulation in the fac…

ca 1155 - 1216/17. Byzantium. The chronicle of Niketas Choniates should be hailed as one of the most significant and perfect productions of the Byzantine, if not of the entire medieval historiographical tradition. It bears the title: Χρονικὴ διήγησις τοῦ κὺρ Χωνιάτου Νικήτα ἀρχομένη ἀπὸ τῆς βασιλείας Ἰωάννου τοῦ Κομνηνοῦ καὶ λήγουσα μέχρι τῆς ἁλώσεως τῆς Κωνσταντινουπόλεως (Chronicle narration of Niketas Choniates beginning with the reign of Ioannes Komnenus up to the sack of Constantinople).Niketas was born about 1155, probably at Constantinople. His family originate…

ca 1295 – ca 1360. Byzantium. A famous Byzantine erudite, born at Heraclea Pontice (now Karadeniz Ereğli in Turkey). Orphaned as child Nikephoros Gregoras was educated by his uncle Ioannes, who became metropolitan of his home town and sent him about 1314 to Constantinople. On his uncle's recommendation he was instructed in rhetoric, astronomy and philosophy by the patriarch Ioannes Glykys and the later "prime minister" Theodorus Metochites. The young Gregoras enjoyed a successful political career, and was sent by the Emperor in a diplom…

ca 1400 - after 1462. Byzantium. A member of the influential Doukas family, and grandson of Michael Doukas, who was important in the Civil War of the 1340s. Neither his first name nor precise dates are known.Doukas composed a kind of universal chronicle with the title Ἀριθμοὶ ἐτῶν ἀπὸ τοῦ πρώτου ἀνθρώπου ἕως τῆς ἡμετέρας γενεᾶς (The total of all years beginning from the first man up to our generation), which is commonly and rightly seen by modern scholars as a history of the relations between Ottomans and Byzantines between the ye…

[Βραχέα Χρονικά (Short chronicles)] 10th-18th centuries. Byzantium and Post-Byzantium. Short lists of chronographical notes can often be found in Greek manuscripts of other texts, inserted by the scribes or by the owners of the manuscripts on free pages, on the end papers or in the margins. Taken together their contents span the years 313-1771. The term Short Chronicle (Βραχέα Χρονικά or Σημείωμα Χρονικό) was first coined about 1910 by the Greek Byzantonologist Sp. Lampros, who became aware of them and began to collect the texts systematically. This work was continued by R.-J. Loenertz…

ca 500 – ca 565. Palestine. Procopius, who takes his cognomen from his native city of Caesaraea Maritima, was a historian par excellence, of enormous importance for the Byzantine traditions of historiography and chronography. Procopius was born about the end of the fifth century as member of the upper-class. Around 530, after completing studies in rhetoric and law, he assumed a position as lawyer (assessor) to General Belisarius, the magister militum in the east of the Roman Empire. When Belisarius was recalled by the Emperor Justinian I (527-65) in 542, Procopius disappeared fr…

fl. early 14th century. Byzantium. All that is known of his person is that he was a monk. He was author of a scarce universal chronicle which modern historians seldom consult because it contains little information not available from other historical sources.In manuscript tradition the text is entitled Χρονογραφία ἐν συνόψει (Summarised chronicle). In form it is a long list of human generations from Creation to the kingdom of Israel and to Jesus Christ as well as of the Roman Emperors up to the year 1204, with no distinction made betwee…

[Pseudo-Kodinos] 10th century. Byzantium. A group of works on the history and topography of Constantinople. Two of these texts in particular are designated as Patria Constantinoupoleos. The first, with the title Πάτρια Κωνσταντινουπόλεως κατὰ Ἡσύχιον Ἰλλούστριον (The origin and the history of Constantinople according to the illustrious Hesychius) was taken from the lost world chronicle of the 6th-century pagan Hesychius of Miletus and describes the history of the city of Byzantium from its foundation up to the time when it was renamed as Constantinople (3…

[Malchos] 5th century. Byzantium. All we can definitely say of the life of Malchus is that he originated from Syria (perhaps the Philadelphia located near to modern Amman in Jordan) andlater lived in Constantinople. He is known as author of a History in seven books, bearing the title Βυζαντιακά (Byzantiaka) which began at the end of the reign of Emperor Leo I (457-74) in the year 473 and ran to the death of the Western Emperor Iulius Nepos in 480. The text should be regarded as a History of Emperors, continuing the work of Priscus of Panium.Today the Byzantiaka are lost except for twenty-eig…

[Χρονικὸν τῶν Τόκκων τῆς Κεφαλληνίας] pre-1429. Northern Greece (Ionian Islands of the Epirus region). A verse chronicle in vernacular Greek covering the years 1375/76 and 1422, and providing the main source for the events in Northern Greece and Southern Albania during this period.In the centre of the text, which has come down to us in about 3920 lines of verse, we find the history and the reign of Charles I Tocco. From ca 1376 his political influence in Northern Greece increased rapidly, so that in 1415 he was appointed by the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus (1391-1425) to be D…

[Melissenus] d. 1585. Greece. Archbishop of Monembasia and author of a counterfeited Chronicon maius in vernacular Greek prose, which was long ascribed to the 15th-century chronicler Georgios Sphrantzes.The view that Sphrantzes composed this chronicle originates with Melisourogos himself, and is rooted in the manuscripts, which give the work the title Χρονικὸν τοῦ Γεωργίου Φραντῆ τοῦ χρηματίσαντος πρωτοβεστιαρίτου καὶ μετέπειτα Μεγάλου Λογοθέτου, διὰ δὲ τοῦ θείου καὶ ἀγγελικοῦ σχήματος μετονομασθέντος Γρηγορίου μοναχοῦ (C…

1062-1137. Byzanitum. Nikephoros Bryennios was born close to Adrianople (Edirne, modern Turkey) and lived and died at Constantinople. He was a member of a noble and powerful family of the Byzantine capital whose personal merits in military affairs allowed him to approach rapidly the inner circle of the emperor Alexios I Komnenos, who married him to his daughter Anna Komnene. After Alexios' death in 1081, Anna incited her husband to play an active role in an insurrection against her brother John, who was the legitimate successor of her father, but Nikeph…

[John of Lydia] 6th century. Byzantium. Administrator and author of works on divination and on history. Ioannes was born ca 490 at Philadelphia in Lydia (today Alasehir in Turkey). Apparently he came to Constantinople around 510, and there he began his official career as a high functionary of the Early Byzantine State during the reign of Emperors Anastasius (490-518) and Justinian I (527-65). He retired in 552 and, like many Roman nobleman, he became a writer and took particular pride in teaching Latin. We do not know when he died.Two of his works deal with history. The first, on th…

13th-14th century. Byzantium. The son of the historian Georgius Akropolites. Little is known of his biography. He followed his father, who was tutor to the Emperor Theodoros II Doukas Laskaris (1254-58), in a series of high positions in the civil administration of the Byzantine Empire. From 1282 to 1294 he was finance minister ( logothetes tou genikou) and from 1305 to 1321 "prime minister" ( megas logothetes). Apparently he must have been died after 1324/25.Besides his rhetorical and hagiographical writings Konstantinos began to compile a Roman and Byzantine history …

[Byzantine Emperor John VI] ca 1292-1383 (reigned 1347-54). Byzantium. The reign of Ioannes VI marks the beginning of the gradual mortal agony which started in the Byzantine Empire about 1350 and would last about 100 years. The first half of the 14th century had been characterised by long civil wars, and the hatred between noble families and different social groups. Ioannes Kantakouzenos was born in Constantinople and his family was closely related to the ruling dynasty of the Palaeologues. During the war between the Emperors Andronicus II (1272-1328) and Andronicus III (1322/28-134…

mid-7th century. Egypt. John was a Coptic bishop of Nikiû, a former city in the south-western part of the Nile delta, and author of a chronicle that extends from Creation to the 640s. In 689 he took part in the election of the Coptic pope Isaac (689-92) at Alexandria, and in the same year he was sent in an official mission of his church to the Arab governor at Cairo. Under pope Simeon I (692-700) he was general supervisor of Coptic monasteries. But after indirectly causing the death of a monk in the 690s, John was deposed from his bishopric and from his office as supervisor. He may have died around 700.J…

9th century. Byzantium. The text with the title Συγγραφὴ χρονογραφίου τὰ κατὰ Λέοντα υἱὸν Βάρδα τοῦ Ἀρμενίου περιέχουσα (Compiled chronicle containing what happened to Leo, the son of Bardas the Armenian) is a record on the reigns of the Byzantine Emperors Michael I (811-13) and Leo V (813-20). Leo himself was a son of the Byzantine patricius Bardas, whose family originated from Armenia. Modern scholars are not sure if the text was composed as an independent chronicle or if it was intended to continue Ioannes Malalas or Theophanes Confessor. The author fiercely criticises Leo V for…

second half of the 5th century. Byzantium. On record as a notary or clerk in the service of certain noble families of his native Isauria, Candidus was the author of a History (Λόγοι ἱστορίας, Logoi historias), which according to the information supplied by the patriarch Photios I (9th century), originally consisted of three volumes ( l ogoi). From the whole text only a short summary in the so-called Bibliotheke of Photios has come down to us. Photios reports some autobiographical comments from Candidus's work, recording that he was born at Tracheia in Cilicia (A…

early 14th century. Byzantium. Author of a verse chronicle of Roman and Byzantine Emperors, written in iambic trimeters and in highest level of Greek language. Unfortunately we have little exact information about Ephraem, though he was probably born at Ainus (now Ezes in European Turkey). This assumption is based on the old library catalogue of the Vatican, which has listed the work since the 16th century as Ἐφραὶμ Αἰνίου χρονικὴ ἱστορία (Chronicle of Ephraem from Ainos); presumably this must have been taken from earlier catalogues or from the manuscript it…

[Agathias Scholastikos] 6th century. Byzantium (Asia Minor). Author of a History (Ἱστορία) of Byzantine affairs 552-59. Agathias, whose biography we know quite well from the preface of his History and from his poetry in the famous Palatine Anthology, was from Myrina (now Sandarlik) in Mysia, Asia Minor (approx. 40 km from Pergamon). There he was born about the year 532. Like many of his contemporaries he completed a rhetorical education which allowed him to take over a higher function in the administration of Smyrna (İzmir). Later on he moved to Constantinople where he worked as lawy…

ca 1028 - after 1085. Byzantium. Michael Attaleiates is one of those figures in the Byzantine society of the 11th century who were beneficiaries of the dynastic change from the Macedonian Emperors to the family Commenus, he was able to gain not only high official rank, but also extensive lands for his own use. Attaleitates was born in Constantinople. As his family name reveals, his forefathers migrated to the Byzantine capital from Attaleia (now Antalya, Asia Minor). After his training in rhetoric and law he made his fortune rapidly. About 1059 we can find him in the …

[Χρονογραφικὸν σύντομον (Concise chronicle)] end of the 10th century or later. Byzantium. A short universal chronicle from the Creation to the death of the EmperorKonstantinos VII Porphyrogennitos in 959. Late 19th-century scholarship judged it to be a falsification by the 16th-century writer and librarian Andreas Darmarius, but this view has been refuted with good reason by the modern editor.The manuscript tradition ascribes the Chronographicon syntomon implausibly to the patriarch Cyril of Alexandria (375/80-444), but the long title of the work states that it w…

1242- post-1308. Byzantium. Georgios Pachymeres was born in Nicaea (today Iznik, Turkey), which after the Fourth Crusade had gradually replaced Constantinople as the most important local centre of the Byzantine Empire. He received a thorough rhetorical and literary education which found its expression in his observable preference for linguistic and verbal archaisms. One of his teachers may have been Georgios Akropolites. After the Byzantines recaptured Constantinople in 1261, Pachymeres soon became deacon and also lawyer ( dikaiophylax) at the Hagia Sophia.Besides numerous …

[Ἔκθεσις χρονική (Chronological consideration)] early or mid-16th century. Byzantium. An anonymous chronicle of the years 1392-1517. We do not know where it was composed, but it is written in a quite low level of style particularly close to the vernacular language. A later version was continued up to 1543.The chronicle records the last decades of Byzantium, as well as the Ottoman conquests in the Balkans and the social interaction of Christians and Ottomans after the fall of Constantinople (1453). Sources include Doukas and Georgios Sphrantzes. The text was later incorporated a…

1217-82. Byzantium. Born at Constantinople, he was sent by his parents in 1233 to Nicaea to study rhetoric and philosophy. One of his teachers was Nikephoros Blemmydes who introduced him to the circle of Emperor Ioannes III Doukas Vatatzes (1222-54). About 1246 Akropolites was made teacher of the Emperor's son Theodoros and also began his career as Byzantine functionary which continued under the reign of Michael VIII Palaeologos. From ca 1240 as megas logariastes Georgios was responsible for the finances of the Nicaean army, and from 1255 to 1282 he held the office …

11th century. Byzantium. This anonymous Greek-language chronicle, apparently compiled after the year 1033 probably at Constantinople, has been known by the modern title Chronicon Bruxellense (from the location of the manuscript, in Brussels) since the 19th-century edition. It is in fact an annotated list of Roman and Byzantine emperors from Julius Caesar up to Romanos III Argyros (1028-33), with expansive historical notes assigned to the reign of every emperor, often containing unique information. For the classical Roman period one can find especia…

[Τὸ περὶ τῆς κτίσεως τῆς Μονεμβασίας χρονικόν (Chronicle about the foundation of Monemvasia)] 9th century. Greece. A local chronicle in Greek prose dealing with the historical events on the Byzantine Peloponnese from the foundation of Monemvasia in 559 till the year 806. It provides scarce information about villages, wars and foreign peoples, although the city of Patras receives special attention. As a historical source the text is particularly valuable for the settlement of Avars and Slavs in Southern Greece and the gradual consolidation of the Byza…

Introduction: Historiography and ChronographyIn Byzantine historical writing we find two main text types which are also known in the literature of other cultures: on the one hand the narrative history which deals with a particular sequence of historical events, and on the other, the traditional annalistic chronicle, be it universal or more limited in scope. Both models can, of course, be traced back to precursors of the classical period or late antiquity; as we might expect, the Byzantine tradition…

[Χρονικὸν τοῦ Μορέως; Livre de la conqueste e de la prince de l'Amorée] 14th century. Crusader states. A chronicle the history of southern Greece under the period of French rule, existing in five versions, two in Greek verse and one each in French, Italian and Aragonese prose. The Chronicle of the Morea uniquely straddles Medieval Greek and French literature, composed as it was in the Greek world, but with content which rather belongs to the Romance cultural area. This is reflected in the complicated transmission of the text.Following the capture of Constantinople by crusader troops i…

9th century. Byzantium. A Greek-language chronicle, originally part of a more comprehensive work which is now lost. The surviving chapter bears the title Περὶ Νικηφόρου τοῦ βασιλέως καὶ πῶς ἀφίησιν τὰ κῶλα ἐν Βουλγαρία (About the Emperor Nicephorus I and for what reason he left his bones in Bulgaria). The text records the unfortunate campaign of Emperor Nikephoros I (802-11) with a more critical eye than other Byzantine sources, and provides us with valuable information about the military tactics of the Bulgarians. After Nicephorus bought peace in the…

[Ἐκλογὴ ἱστοριῶν (Selections from history)] 9th and 12th century. Byzantium. An anonymous universal chronicle in Greek, surviving in two versions. Version (a) must have been composed under the reign of the Emperor Basileios I (867-86). Presumably it originally ran from Creation to Emperor Anastasius I (491-518), but now it ends with the Old Testament king Uzziah of Judah. Version (b) is identical with (a), but it continues to the year 1118. The author claims to have used the chronicles of Sextus Iulius Africanus and of Eusebius of Caesarea, though no borrowing can be verified. Lon…

fl. 448-71. Byzantium. Priscus was one of the most important Roman historians of the 5th century. According to the Suda, a Byzantine encyclopedia of the 10th century, he originated from the city of Panium in Thrace (today European Turkey). Some historical sources call him rhetor or sophistes suggesting that he has received a rhetorical education as was customary in his time.The first definitively-dated event of his life is his diplomatic mission of the year 448. In the service of the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II (408-50), Priscus travelled together with his patron and f…

before 1143 - after 1180. Byzantium. Author of a history covering the period from 1118 to 1176, and obviously composed after the death of his personal hero, the Emperor Manuel.The 12th century can be thought of as a golden age of Byzantine literature, and it therefore comes as no surprise that this period also produced high-quality historical writing. Two authors in particular contended for the leading position, Ioannes Kinnamus and Niketas Choniates, and the question of the relationship between their two texts remains unanswered. In comparison, Kinnamus has certai…

6th-9th century. Greece. Author of a universal chronicle (Χρονικόν) in Greek prose, which survives only in fragments. The only clues to the date of composition are doctrinal information apparently known to the author, which places him not earlier than the sixth century, and the manuscript tradition, which begins in the ninth. As he apparently was not familiar with Egyptian geography, we conclude that the Thebes in his toponym is Thebes in Greece (Boeotia).The passages which have survived concern the lives of Mary and Jesus Christ, but even these show some chronologi…

[Kritopoulos] ca 1400 - after 1467. Byzantine, then Ottoman Empire. Kritoboulos whose Christian or monastic name Michael was taken from the sphere of legends, was born on the Island of Imbros (today Gökçeade) in the Aegean Sea. Any information we have about him is taken from his Greek-language history dedicated by a special letter to the sultan Mehmet II Fatih (1444-46 and 1451-81). Apparently Kritoboulos received a rhetorical education at Constantinople. In 1456 or 1457 he was in the service of the Despotes Demetrius Palaeologus, brother of the last Byzantine Emp…

10th century. Byzantium. Pseudo-Symeon is an anonymous universal chronicle apparently based on Symeon Magistros & Logothete. The text runs from Creation to 963, but often it is sparser than its model. For the years to 812, sources include Theophanes Confessor and Georgios monachos. Thereafter the author obviously made use of the so-called Scriptor Incertus de Leone Armenio and of Ioseph Genesios, but he also has some information, for example on the character of emperor Leo V (813-20) or on building activities at Constantinople, which we do not get from other sources, as Markopoulos has…

[Chronicle of Cambridge] 11th century. Sicily. A short text in Greekabout the history of Arab Sicily, which remarkably is known also in an Arabic translation.From the manuscript tradition we can tentatively reconstruct the Greek title, Χρονογράφιον ἀφ᾽ οὗ εἰσῆλθον οἱ Σαρακηνοὶ ἐν Σικελίᾳ (Chronicle beginning at the point when the Saracens had entered Sicily). The misleading title Chronicle of Cambridge refers to the location of the Arabic manuscript, as this was known to scholarship before the Greek original.The text consists of 64 brief notes on the Arab rule in Sicily …

[Anonymus Sathas, Synopsis Sathas] 13th century. Byzantium. A high Byzantine cleric and confident of the Emperors Theodorus II Doucas Lascaris (1254-58) and Michael VIII Palaeologus (1259-82), and author of a universal chronicle in Greek prose. After Constantinople was recaptured in 1261, Skoutariotes was appointed counsellor ( dikaiophylax) and economist ( tou sakelliou) of the patriarchate. In the 1270s he became metropolitan of Cyzicus (now in the Turkish province Balıkesir). During the negations of church unification between Latins and Greeks which were instigated by Micha…

ca 950/1013. Byzantium. A high-ranking bureaucrat in the position of a logothetes bearing the title of a magistros. Beyond his name, rank and office there is little certainty in what we know about the author. Earlier scholars identified him with Symeon Metaphrastes, but this no longer finds support. Since Symeon Logothetes in his original text seems to offer an encomiastic description of the regency of Romanos I Lekapenos it is commonly assumed that he held office at Romanos's court and was commissioned to assemble an official history of that emperor's reign,…

1401 - post-1476/77. Byzantium. Greek imperial official and ambassador, and author of the so-called Chronicon minus in medieval Greek prose. George Sphrantzes was born in Constantinople on 30th August 1401. He originated from a distinguished and prosperous family from Lemnos. In 1424, after the death of his parents (1416/17), he entered the service of the emperor Manuel II, on whose behalf he undertook negotiations with the Ottoman Sultan Murad II. After Manuel's death his son and successor John VIII wanted to keep him in Constantinople, but Sphrantzes chose instead the …

9th century. Byzantine Sicily. Author of a letter recounting siege of Syracuse. Theodosius must have been a member of the Byzantine upper-class of Syracuse. He was a g rammaticus, which should be understood as a kind of notary, and a monk and clergyman. The letter is entitled Θεοδοσίου μοναχοῦ τοῦ καὶ γραμματικοῦ ἐπιστολὴ πρὸς Λέοντα ἀρχιδιάκονον περὶ τῆς ἁλώσεως Συρακούσης (The letter of the monk and grammaticus Theodosius to the archdeacon Leon about the sack of Syracuse); the addressee Leo is otherwise unknown.Syracuse was besieged in 878 by the Aghlabid Arabs from Tunis. …

[German Version] (also Cosmas of Maiuma, Cosmas Hagiopolites, Cosmas the Melodist, Cosmas the Younger; 2nd half of the 8th cent. – c. 760), ¶ one of the most important hymnographers of the Byzantine church. His Vita displays markedly legendary elements and the typical hagiographical topoi. According to it, he was adopted by the father of John of Damascus, was educated in rhetoric by a Sicilian monk named Cosmas before entering, along with his adoptive brother, into the famed Great Laura of St. Sabas (Bethlehem). Ther…

(Τιμόθεος; Timótheos). [German version] [1] T. of Metapontum Greek physician, c. 400 BC Greek physician, fl. c. 400 BC. According to the Anonymus Londiniensis (8,8), T. believed that disease was the result of the blockage of passages through which residues would have been excreted. Residues that have risen up from the entire body are forced to remain in the head until they are transformed into a saline, acrid fluid. They then break out and cause a wide variety of disease, whose character is determined by the place or places to which they flow.. Humoral theory Nutton, Vivian (London) …

Hoffmann, Lars [German version] A. Founding of the City: Legend and History (CT) In comparison with most other urban centres in Italy, which exist in a clearly identifiable historical and cultural context linked with Roman or even Greek Antiquity that is also a part of their inhabitants' lore, Venice (V.) occupies a special place insofar as it can be drawn on both on behalf of  a continuity as well as discontinuity with Classical Antiquity. This becomes apparent when one considers the historically documented…

I. Mesopotamia [German version] A. Concept According to lexical texts (1st half of the 2nd millennium BC), the Sumerian term for proverbs was i-bi-lu. The Akkadian tēltu(m) is known primarily from the epistolary literature of Assyria and the city of Mari (1st half of the 2nd millennium BC) [7]. Both terms refer not only to proverbs in the modern sense, but also to the fable and anecdotes, riddles and witty sayings. Böck, Barbara (Madrid) [German version] B. Sources The earliest Sumerian sources of proverbs are collections of proverbs and so-called 'proverb-poems'. The pro…

[German version] (πατριάρχης/ patriárchēs). It is impossible to determine precisely when the term patriarch, originally an honorific, became an official title in the Christian Eastern Orthodox Church. It is first documented in the acts of the Synod of Constantinople (Concilium Constantinopolitanum 381, Canon 2). The concept was introduced into the administrative language of the church through the Greek church fathers (cf. Greg. Naz. Or. 43,37 = PG 36, 545C) and their exegesis of the Old Testament. In the ecclesiastical usage of Late Antiquity, patriárchēs referred to the honor…

I. Mesopotamia [German version] A. Concept and sources The is no accurate or systematic, zoological or botanical classification of the animal and plant kingdoms from the Ancient Orient. The main source is one of the most voluminous Mesopotamian lexical texts with 24 chapters, known from its initial line as ḪAR-ra =  ḫubullu ('(rate of) interest'). It is a catalogue of objects and living creatures, ordered acrographically (i.e. by the first cuneiform sign) according to semantic aspects (Science). This principle represented a mnemotechnic aid; th…

(Τιμόθεος). [English version] [1] T. von Metapontion griech. Arzt, um 400 v. Chr. Griech. Arzt um 400 v. Chr. Dem Anonymus Londiniensis zufolge (8,8) hielt T. Krankheiten für die Folge einer Verstopfung von Durchgängen, durch die normalerweise Ablagerungen ausgeschieden würden. Solche Überschüsse stiegen aus dem gesamten Körper zum Kopf auf, blieben dort, solange sie keinen Ausweg fänden, bis sie zu salziger und scharfer Flüssigkeit verwandelt seien. Dann brächen sie durch und verursachten die unterschiedlichsten Krankheiten, je nach ihrer Abflußrichtung. Säftelehre Nutton…

[English version] Bischof von Gabala (h. Ǧabla) in Syrien, trat ab 401 n. Chr. als Prediger in Konstantinopolis auf. Sein Name ist v. a. mit dem erbitterten Streit mit Iohannes [4] Chrysostomos nach dessen Ernennung zum ökumenischen Patriarchen verbunden. Beide galten als begnadete Prediger, wobei ihre durch gegenseitige Kränkungen und offenes Buhlen um die Gunst der Kaiserin Aelia [4] Eudoxia gekennzeichnete Rivalität letztlich zur Absetzung und Verbannung des Chrysostomos führte. Aufgrund der da…

[English version] (πατριάρχης). Historisch läßt sich nicht genau nachvollziehen, wann aus dem urspr. Würdetitel des P. ein Amtstitel der christl. Ostkirche wurde. Erstmals belegt ist er in den Akten der Synode von Konstantinopolis (Concilium Constantinopolitanum 381, Canon 2), wobei dieser Begriff über die griech. Kirchenväter (vgl. Greg. Naz. or. 43,37 = PG 36, 545C) und deren alttestamentarische Exegese in die kirchliche Verwaltungssprache eingeführt wurde. Im spätant.-kirchlichen Sprachgebrauch bezeichnete patriárchēs den Ehrenrang des Funktionärs, der an der…

Hoffmann, Lars [English version] A. Stadtgründung: Legende und Historie (RWG) Im Vergleich zu den meisten anderen städtischen Zentren Italiens, die in einem eindeutig erkennbaren, auch im Wissen ihrer Bewohner fest verankerten kulturgeschichtlichen Zusammenhang mit der röm. oder gar der griech. Ant. stehen, nimmt V. eine Sonderstellung ein, da es sowohl für eine Kontinuität als auch für eine Diskontinuität zur Ant. in Anspruch genommen werden kann. Dies ergibt sich bereits aus dem Datum für eine histor. …