See also:

• ROMAN

Leo VI. did much for reorganizing the navy, but his reign was not fortunate; Saracen pirates plundered freely in the See also:

• AEGEAN

The See also:

• CONVERSION (Lat. conversio, from convertere, to turn or ,change)

Thus the Mahommedans definitely cut the Empire See also:

• SHORT, FRANCIS JOB (1857– )

Constantinople sustained two great sieges, which stand out as crises, for, if in either See also:

• CASE
• CASE, JOHN (d. 1600)

Some Bulgarian See also:

• NOBLE, SIR ANDREW (1832- )

One hostile expedition (1043) indeed is recorded, but-it was a failure. Much about the same time that the Russians had founded their state, the See also:

• MAGYARS

The danger was realized in the struggle which Basil II. had to sustain with the families of Sclerus and Phocas. Various kinds of legislation were at-tempted. Under Romanus I. alienation of See also:

• PROPERTY

The emperor thought to meet dangers from See also:

• EXTERNAL

Four great attempts against the Empire were made by the Normans; they were unsuccessful, but they heralded the Western conquest of 1204. (I) Expedition of See also:

• ROBERT
• ROBERT (1275—1343)
• ROBERT, HUBERT (1753-1808)
• ROBERT, LOUIS LEOPOLD (1794-1835)

The See also:

• HISTORY

In the fatal year 1204 the perils with which the eastward expansion of western Christendom (the Crusades, and the commercial predominance and ambitions of Venice) had long menaced the Empire, culminated in its conquest and See also:

• PARTITION

But he was hampered from the beginning by dependence on Venice, want of financial resources, and want of a fleet; the feudal princes, occupied with their separate interests, gave him little support in his conflict with Greeks and Bulgarians; at the end of ten years the worthless fabric began rapidly to decline, and the efforts of the popes, for whom it was the means of realizing Roman supremacy in the East, were unavailing to See also:

• SAVE, or SAVA (Ger. Sau; Hungarian Szdva; Lat. Savus)

He and his successors advanced surely and rapidly against the Latin Empire, both in Europe and Asia. It was a question whether Constantinople would fall to the Walacho-Bulgarians or to the Greeks. But an astute diplomat and general, the emperor Michael See also:

• PALAEOLOGUS

The enemies were strengthened by the domestic struggles within the Empire, first between Andronicus II. and his son, then between John VI. and the usurper Cantacuzenus. But before the See also:

• FATE

John VI. and Manuel had both visited the West in See also:

• SEARCH, or VISIT AND SEARCH

This decided the fate of the city. Constantine fell fighting heroically. Soon after sunrise (May 30) the Mahommedan army entered Constantinople (Stambul ='s Tf7v ir6Xty, " the city "), which was in their eyes the capital of Christendom. The ultimate responsibility for this disaster is generally imputed to the political adventurers who dismembered the Empire in 1204. It may indeed be said that at that time the Byzantine state seemed already stricken with See also:

• PARALYSIS, or PALSY (from Gr. aapal,6a , to relax; Wycliffe has palesy, and another old form of the word is parlesy)

When a heretical emperor sought to impose his views, champions of ecclesiastical freedom never failed to come forward. At the very beginning See also:

• ATHANASIUS (293-373)

The emperors, in their capacity as heads of the Church, did not confine themselves to controlling it by controlling the councils. They soon began to issue edicts dealing with See also:

• THEOLOGY

Another means of resistance for the Church was to invoke the support of the See also:

• BISHOP (A.S. bisceop, from Lat. episcopus, Gr. irio-Korros, " overlooker " or " overseer ")
• BISHOP, ISABELLA (1832-1904)
• BISHOP, SIR HENRY ROWLEY (1786-1855)

The former object was effected, but the theological decision of the council was fatal; it only sealed and promoted the disunion: The recalcitrant spirit of Syria and Egypt forced Zeno, See also:

• THIRTY

A new See also:

• FORMULA
• FORMULA (Lat. diminutive of forma, shape, pattern, &c., especially used of rules of judicial procedure)

Leo III., whose services as a great deliverer and reformer were obscured in the memory of posterity by the ill-fame which he won as an iconoclast, was a native of Commagene. His first edict against the veneration of pictures evoked riots in the capital and a revolt in Greece. The opposition was everywhere voiced by the monks, and it is not to be overlooked that for many. monks the See also:

• PAINTING

In this struggle the Greeks and Latins were of one mind; the image-worshippers had the support of the Roman see. When the pope resisted him, Leo III. confiscated the papal estates in Sicily and Calabria; and the See also:

• DIOCESE (formed on Fr. diocese, in place of the Eng. form diocess—current until the 19th century—from Lat. dioecesis, med. Lat. variant diocesis, from Gr. Swucio•tc, " house-keeping," " administration," &miceas, " to keep house," " to govern ")

They were doomed to futility because they were not seriously meant, and the Greek population was entirely out of sympathy with these political machinations of their emperors. The Union of Lyons (1274) was soon repudiated, and the last attempt, the Union of Florence in 1439, was equally hollow (though it permanently secured the union of the Rumanians and of the Ruthenians). Part of the See also:

• HISTORICAL

By the end of the 6th century formal paganism had practically disappeared. In Asia Minor, especially in the east, there were many dissident communities which asserted independence of the Church of Constantinople and of all ecclesiastical traditions, founding their doctrines directly on the See also:

• BIBLE
• BIBLE, ENGLISH

The See also:

• SUCCESSION (Lat. successio, from succedere, to follow after)

For the imperial elections it was constitutionally indispensable, and it was able sometimes to play a decisive part when the throne was vacant—its only opportunity for independent See also:

• ACTION

In the 6th century the factions (" demes ") of the See also:

• CIRCUS (Lat. circus, Gr. Kipeos or Kptxot, a ring or' circle; probably " circus " and " ring " are of the same origin)

Through the period of dualism, in the 4th and 5th centuries, when the administration of the Eastern provinces was generally separate from that of the Western, the imperial authority was also collegial. But after this period the system of divided authority came to an end and was never renewed. There was frequently more than one emperor, not only in the case of a father and his sons, or of two See also:

• BROTHERS, RICHARD (1757-1824)

In a See also:

• SYNOD
• SYNOD (Gr. vbvobos)

(The same spirit, it may be noted, is apparent in the usual, though by no means invariable, practice of Byzantine emperors to render dethroned rivals or members of a deposed dynasty innocuous by depriving them of eyesight or forcing them to take monastic orders, instead of putting them to death.) The Church, which had its own system of penalties, exercised a great influence on the actual operation of criminal law, especially through the privilege of See also:

• ASYLUM (from Gr. b.-, privative, arid earl, right'of seizure)
• ASYLUM, RIGHT OF (Fr. droit d'asile; Ger. Asylrecht)

Administration.—Three principles underlay the administrative reform of Diocletian: the separation of civil from military functions; the formation of small provincial See also:

• UNITS, DIMENSIONS OF
• UNITS, PHYSICAL

And so before the end of the 7th century we find the Empire divided into six great military provinces, three in Europe and three in Asia: (r) Exarchate of Africa, (2) Exarchate of Italy, (3) Strategia of Thrace, (4) See also:

• COUNTY (through Norm. Fr. comae, cf. O. Fr. cunte, conk', Mod. Fr. comae, from Lat. comitatus, cf. Ital. comitato, Prov. comtat; see COUNT)

Leo himself began the process by breaking up the Anatolic command into two themes (Anatolic and Thracesian). The principle of splitting up was carried out systematically by Leo VI. (who was also responsible for a new ecclesiastical See also:

• DIVISION (from Lat. dividere, to break up into parts, separate)

We can hardly be wrong in conjecturing that, along with his provincial reform, Leo III. made a re. arrangement of the central bureaux; the abolition of the Praetorian Prefecture of the East entailed, in itself, modifications. But minor changes were continually being made, and we may note the following tendencies: (r) Increase in the number of ministers directly responsible to the emperor, (a) subordinate offices in the bureaux being raised to the rank of independent ministries; (b) new offices being created and old ones becoming merely titular. (2) Changes in nomenclature; substitution of Greek for Latin titles. (3) Changes in the relative importance and rank of the high officials, both civil and military. The Prefect of the City (irapxos) controlled the See also:

• POLICE (Fr. police, government, civil administration, a police force, Gr. sroXumeia, constitution, condition of a state, roars, city, state)

The most important functions, pertaining to foreign affairs, were henceforward performed by the See also:

• LOGOTHETE (Med. Lat. logothela, Gr. Xo'yoBErtls, from Xdyos, word, account, calculation, and riOEvai, to set, i.e. " one who accounts, calculates or ratiocinates ")

Most of the emperors between Basil II. and Alexius Comnenus were under the influence of such ministers. The orders of rank (which must be distinguished from titles of office) were considerably increased in later times. In the 4th and 7th centuries there were the three great classes of the illustres, spectabiles and clarissimi; and above the illustres a small, higher class of patricians. In the 9th century we find an entirely different system; the number of classes being largely augmented, and thenomenclature different. Instead of epithets like illustres, the names are titles which had designated offices; patrician " alone survives. The highest rank is now (I) the magistroi; then come the patricians in two classes: (2) proconsular patricians, (3) respectable patricians; below these (4) protospatharioi; (5) dishypatoi (=bis consules); (6) spatharokandidatoi; (7) spatharioi; and other lower ranks. Particular ranks do not seem now to have been inalienably attached to particular offices. The strategos of the Anatolic Theme, e.g., might be a patrician or only a protospathar. Whoever was promoted to one of these ranks received its insignia from the emperor's hand, and had to pay fixed fees to various officials, especially to the palace eunuchs, In the provinces See also:

• ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

While the administration of justice was one of the best features of the Eastern Empire, its fiscal system, likewise inherited from the early Empire, was one of its worst. If the government had been acquainted with the principles of public See also:

• ECONOMY

The collection of the taxes was managed through the curial system, while it lasted (till 7th century?). The decurions, or municipal councillors, of the chief See also:

• TOWN

Army and Navy.—The general principle of the military defence of the Empire in the 4th century consisted in large forces stationary on the frontiers, and reserve forces, stationed in the interior provinces, which could be moved to any point that was in danger. Thus the army was composed of (1) the limitanei, frontier-troops (under daces), and (2) reserve forces (under magistri militum) of two denominations, (a) palatini and (b) comitatenses. The limitanei were the more numerous; it has been estimated that if they numbered about 350,000, the comitatenses and palatini together amounted to less than 200,000. It is to be noted that for the old See also:

• LEGION (Lat. legio)

The typical fortress had three defences: the wall flanked by square towers of three storeys; at a few yards' distance a second wall of See also:

• STONE
• STONE (0. Eng. shin; the word is common to Teutonic languages, cf. Ger. Stein, Du. steen, Dan. and Swed. sten; the root is also seen in Gr. aria, pebble)
• STONE, CHARLES POMEROY (1824-1887)
• STONE, EDWARD JAMES (1831-1897)
• STONE, FRANK (1800-1859)
• STONE, GEORGE (1708—1764)
• STONE, LUCY [BLACKWELL] (1818-1893)
• STONE, MARCUS (184o— )
• STONE, NICHOLAS (1586-1647)

In the 11th century, after the conquest of Bulgaria, there were two Domestics, one for the east and one for the west, and under Alexius Comnenus the Domestic of the west received the title Great Domestic. Under the Palaeologi the Great Domestic was See also:

• SUPERIOR

The See also:

• NEWS

The theory of military See also:

• SCIENCE (Lat. scientia, from scire; to learn, know)

And even when the Vandal power was in its decline and Belisarius set forth on his successful expedition of conquest, his fears for the safety of his See also:

• SQUADRON

There was a danger lest a commander of the whole navy should become over powerful (indicated in the political role played by the navy before Leo's accession); but apart from this, the general reform of Leo, which united civil and military powers in the same hands, naturally placed the commanders of the two branches of the navy on a new footing, by making them provincial governors. In this and the following reigns, the tendency was to neglect the fleet; the interest of the government was concentrated on the army. For a time this policy was prosecuted with impunity, since the Omayyad dynasty was growing weak, and then under the See also:

• ABBASIDS

This decline had important in-direct consequences; it led to the dependence of the Empire on the Venetian navy in the struggle with the Norman power, and for this help Venice exacted commercial privileges which injured Byzantine commerce and opened the See also:

• DOOR (corresponding to the Gr. Bbpa,. Lat. fores or valvae; the English word, with other forms common in allied languages, comes from the same Indo-European stem as the Gr. Obpa and Lat. fares)

More important potentates were invested with a costlier See also:

• DRESS (from the Fr. dresser, to set out, arrange, formed from Lat. directus, arranged, dirigere, to direct, arrange)

The missionary proved an excellent See also:

• AGENT (from Lat. agere, to act)

Less prejudiced writers than Procopius fully admit the far-sightedness and dexterity of the emperor in his See also:

• DIPLOMATIC

In the 9th century it was an object of the government to maintain the Khazars (whose army consisted mainly of mercenaries) against the Pet chenegs; and hence, if it should become necessary to hold the Khazars in check, the principle was to incite against them not the Petchenegs, but other less powerful neighbours, the Alans of the Caucasus, and the people of "See also:

• BLACK
• BLACK, ADAM (1784-1874)
• BLACK, JEREMIAH SULLIVAN (1810–1883)
• BLACK, WILLIAM (1841-1898)