Mesazon
High dignitary and official during the last centuries of the Byzantine Empire
The mesazon ( Greek : μεσάζων , romanized : mesazōn , lit. ' intermediary ' ) was a high dignitary and official during the last centuries of the Byzantine Empire , who acted as the chief minister and principal aide of the Byzantine emperor .
History and functions
The term's origins lie in the 10th century, when senior ministers were sometimes referred to as the mesiteuontes ( μεσιτεύοντες ), i.e. 'mediators' between the emperor and his subjects (cf. paradynasteuon ). The title first became official in the mid-11th century, when it was conferred to Constantine Leichoudes , the future Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople . [1] In the Komnenian period , it was awarded to senior government officials who functioned as de facto prime ministers, such as the epi tou kanikleiou and the logothetes ton sekreton , but had not yet acquired a permanent and specific function, nor the power that would characterize it in later years. [1] [2] Rather, it was a title bestowed on the principal imperial secretary of the moment, who acted precisely as an "intermediary" between the emperor and other officials. [3] [4] This reflected the shift of the Byzantine government under the Komnenoi from the old Roman-style bureaucracy to a more restricted, aristocratic ruling class, where government was exercised within the imperial household, as in feudal Western Europe . [5]
The office of mesazon became formally institutionalized in the Empire of Nicaea , [6] where the holder of the mesastikion (as the function had become known), served as the Empire's chief minister, coordinating the other ministers. [5] As the emperor and historian John VI Kantakouzenos ( r. 1347–1354 ) records, the mesazon was "needed by the emperor day and night". [1] This arrangement was inherited by the restored Palaiologan-era Empire and continued in use until the Fall of Constantinople in May 1453. The office was also used in the same function in the Byzantine courts of Epirus , Morea , and Trebizond . In the latter case, it acquired the epithet megas ('great'). [1]
List of mesazontes
- Constantine Leichoudes , until 1050.
- Theodore Styppeiotes , under Emperor Manuel I Komnenos ( r. 1143–1180 ).
- John Kamateros , under Emperor Manuel I Komnenos.
- Michael Hagiotheodorites , under Emperor Manuel I Komnenos.
- Theodore Maurozomes , under Emperor Manuel I Komnenos.
- Demetrios Komnenos Tornikes , under Emperor John III Vatatzes ( r. 1221–1254 ).
- Theodore Mouzalon , until 1294.
- Nikephoros Choumnos , 1294–1305, under Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos ( r. 1282–1328 ).
- Theodore Metochites , 1305–1328, under Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos.
- Alexios Apokaukos , 1328–1345, under Emperors Andronikos III Palaiologos ( r. 1328–1341 ) and John V Palaiologos (r. 1341–1391).
- Demetrios Kydones , 1347–1354, under Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos ( r. 1347–1354 ); 1369–1383 under Emperor John V Palaiologos; 1391–1396 under Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos ( r. 1391–1425 ).
- Demetrios Palaiologos Goudeles , from the late reign of John V Palaiologos to c. 1416 under Manuel II Palaiologos [7]
- Hilario Doria , 1390s– c. 1423, under Manuel II Palaiologos [8] [9]
- Demetrios Chrysoloras , 1403–1408 in Thessalonica under Emperor John VII Palaiologos .
- John Phrangopoulos , 1428/9 in Morea under despot Theodore II Palaiologos
- George Doukas Philanthropenos , 1430–1439.
- Demetrios Palaiologos Kantakouzenos , 1434/5–1448 under Emperor John VIII Palaiologos ( r. 1425–1448 ).
- George Doukas Philanthropenos and Manuel Iagaris Palaiologos , 1438–1439, while accompanying Emperor John VIII Palaiologos to Italy.
- Loukas Notaras , 1434–1453, last mesazōn of the Byzantine Empire under Emperors John VIII Palaiologos and Constantine XI Palaiologos ( r. 1449–1453 ).
References
- 1 2 3 4 ODB , "Mesazon" (A. Kazhdan), p. 1346 .
- ↑ Magdalino 2002 , pp. 252, 258.
- ↑ Angold 1975 , p. 147.
- ↑ Haldon 2009 , p. 544.
- 1 2 Haldon 2009 , p. 545.
- ↑ Angold 1975 , p. 149.
- ↑ Andriopoulou, Vera (2016-09-17). "The Logistics of a Union: Diplomatic Communication through the Eyes of Sylvester Syropoulos". Sylvester Syropoulos on Politics and Culture in the Fifteenth-Century Mediterranean: Themes and Problems in the Memoirs, Section IV . Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-04731-5 .
- ↑ Çelik, Siren (2021). Manuel II Palaiologos (1350–1425) . Cambridge University Press. pp. xxii. ISBN 978-1-108-83659-3 .
- ↑ Virgilio, Carlo (2015). Florence, Byzantium and the Ottomans (1439-1481). Politics and Economics (PhD thesis). University of Birmingham. pp. 51, 53, 56
Sources
- Angold, Michael (1975). A Byzantine Government in Exile: Government and Society under the Laskarids of Nicaea, 1204–1261 . Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-821854-8 .
- Bartusis, Mark C. (1997). The Late Byzantine Army: Arms and Society 1204–1453 . Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-1620-2 .
- Beck, Hans-Georg (1955). "Der byzantinische "Ministerpräsident" " [ The Byzantine 'Prime Minister' ] . Byzantinische Zeitschrift (in German). 48 (2): 309–338. doi : 10.1515/byzs.1955.48.2.309 . S2CID 191483710 .
- Haldon, John F. (2009). "The State – 1. Structures and Administration". In Jeffreys, Elizabeth ; Haldon, John; Cormack, Robin (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies . Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-925246-6 .
- Kazhdan, Alexander , ed. (1991). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504652-8 .
- Loenertz, Raymond-Joseph (1960). "Le chancelier impérial à Byzance au XIVe et au XIIIe siècle" [ The imperial chancellor in Byzantium in the 14th and 15th century ] . Orientalia Christiana Periodica (in French). 26 : 275–300.
- Magdalino, Paul (2002) [1993]. The Empire of Manuel I Komnenos, 1143–1180 . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-52653-1 .
- Oikonomidès, Nicolas (1985). "La chancellerie impériale de Byzance du 13e au 15e siècle" [ The Imperial Chancery of Byzantium from the 13th to the 15th Centuries ] . Revue des études byzantines (in French). 43 : 167–195. doi : 10.3406/rebyz.1985.2171 .
- Raybaud, Léon-Pierre (1968). Le gouvernement et l'administration centrale de l'empire byzantin sous les premiers Paléologues (1258-1354) [ The government and central administration of the Byzantine Empire under the first Palaiologoi (1258-1354) ] (in French). Éditions Sirey.
- Trapp, Erich; Beyer, Hans-Veit; Walther, Rainer; Sturm-Schnabl, Katja; Kislinger, Ewald; Leontiadis, Ioannis; Kaplaneres, Sokrates (1976–1996). Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit (in German). Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. ISBN 3-7001-3003-1 .
- Verpeaux, Jean (1955). "Contribution a l'étude de l'administration byzantine: ὁ μεσάζων" [ Contribution to the study of Byzantine administration: ὁ μεσάζων ] . Byzantinoslavica (in French). 16 : 270–296.
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