Exousiastes
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Exousiastes ( Greek : εξουσιαστής , literally, "one who executes authority") was a style applied in the Byzantine Empire to some sovereign foreign rulers, considered higher in rank than an ordinary archon . The term was in currency in the 10th and 11th centuries because, at that time, the term basileus ("king") was reserved for the Byzantine monarch only. [1]
A chapter from De Ceremoniis of Constantine VII ( r. 913–959 ), a Byzantine book of court protocols, lists a "renowned exousiastes of Abasgia " and a "most respected and noble exousiastes of the Muslims ". [2] The ruler of Alania is afforded a variant title, exousiokrator . [3] The address exousiastes of Abasgia is also found multiple times in De Administrando Imperio of Constantine VII and the correspondence of Nicholas I Mystikos . [2]
Further, examples of occasional usage of the term include " exousiastes of Babylon" for the Caliph of Baghdad by Anna Komnene , "Pankratios, exousiastes of Abasgia" for Bagrat IV of Georgia by John Skylitzes , [2] also for Simeon I of Bulgaria in the letters of Theodore Daphnopates , "Constantine, exousiastes of Diokleia and Serbia" on a seal belonging to Constantine Bodin of Duklja , [4] and "Theophobos, exousiastes of Persians" on a seal of the Khurramite leader Theophobos . [2]
See also
References
- ↑ Toumanoff, Cyril (1963). Studies in Christian Caucasian history . Washington: Georgetown University Press. p. 107 n. 165.
- 1 2 3 4 Codoñer, Juan Signes (2016). The Emperor Theophilos and the East, 829–842: Court and Frontier in Byzantium during the Last Phase of Iconoclasm . Routledge. pp. 169–170. ISBN 9781317034278 .
- ↑ Toynbee, Arnold Joseph (1973). Constantine Porphyrogenitus and his world . Oxford University Press. p. 409. ISBN 9780192152534 .
- ↑ Komatina, Predrag (2011). "Vizantijska titula Konstantina Bodina" [ Byzantine title of Constantine Bodin ] . Zbornik radova Vizantoloskog instituta (in Serbian and English). 48 (48): 61–76. doi : 10.2298/ZRVI1148061K . hdl : 21.15107/rcub_dais_7166 .