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Tagmata

Tagmata

:This article is about the Byzantine military unit. For the biological term, see tagma (biology). A Tagma (plural tagmata) was a military unit in the Byzantine Empire. The term is used in the modern Greek military for a battalion (cf. Greek military ranks).

History

In the year 743, the Byzantine emperor Constantine V retook Constantinople from the rebellious Count of the Opsician thema, Artabasdus. Soon after, Constantine broke up the rebellious Opsician theme. Apparently, roughly half of the soldiers assigned to the theme were used to create six new military units known as the Tagmata (brigades). In order to ensure their loyalty, the commanders were directly responsible to the emperor. These new units were assigned to the capital, the former Opsician theme, and the theme of Thrace. The four most prestigious tagmata, in order, were the Scholae (Gr. Σχολαι, "Scholars"), the Excubitors (Gr. Εξκουβιτοι); the Aritmoi (Gr. Αριτμοι, "Numbers") or Vigiles (Gr. υιγλα, "Watch"), and the Hikanatoi (Gr. Ικανατοι, "Worthies"). All of these, and the Phoideratoi (Gr. Φοιδηρατοι "Allies"), were cavalry units consisting of from 1-6,000 men each. The Numeroi (Gr. Νουμηροι, "Bathhouse boys"), Optimatoi (Gr. Οπτιματοι, "Best"), and Wall regiment were infantry tagmata. Some of the tagmata (especially the Scholae) began as an honorary post for well-connected citizens (δυνατοι). One emperor even amused himself by placing it on the active duty roster for an upcoming campaign only to see the panicked reaction of its senators, aristocrats, and merchants. Other units, such as the Vigiles, were used basically as policemen and firefighters for the capital Constantinople. Eventually, however, the tagmata all became practical, crack units. Despite the main purpose of supressing military rebellion, the tagmata turned out to have practical uses. For one, they were more mobile than the theme troops. While they still held land in return for military service, the tagmata tended to sublet their estates and were primarily used for offensive action rather than garrison duty. This made them a good supplement to the theme troops, who were more concerned with local defense.

References and Sources

- Warren Treadgold, The Struggle for Survival, edited by Cyril Mango, published in The Oxford History of Byzantium. (Oxford University Press, 2002)
- Stephen McCotter, Byzantine army, edited by Richard Holmes, published in The Oxford Companion to Military History. (Oxford University Press, 2001) McCotter's sources listed as:
- Bartusis, M.C., The Late Byzantine Army: Arms and Society 1204-1453 (Philadelphia, 1992).
- Haldon, J., State, Army and Society in Byzantium (Aldershot, 1995).
- Treadgold, W., The Byzantine Army 284-1081 (Stanford, 1995).

External links

- [http://byzantium.seashell.net.nz/articlemain.php?artid=mtp_military Explore Byzantium] Category:Byzantine Empire Category:Types of forces

Tagma (biology)

:This article is about biology; for the Byzantine military grouping, see tagma (military). In invertebrate biology, a tagma (plural tagmata) is a specialized grouping of arthropodan segments, such as head, body, and tail. The arthropodan body is divided into numerous segments, also called somites or metameres, that are primarily alike. These segments are grouped into specialized divisions called tagmata. The segments of a tagma may either be fused or moveable. Tagma divisions vary among superclasses. For example, in trilobites the tagmata are the cephalon (head), thorax (body), and pygidium (tail). However, in hexapods, these same divisions are called head (head), thorax (body), and abdomen (tail). The evolutionary process which creates tagmata by fusing and modifying segments is called tagmosis.

Military of Greece

The armed forces of Greece consist of the
- Hellenic Army
- Hellenic Navy
- Hellenic Air Force
- Hellenic Coast Guard The civilian authority for the Greek military is the Ministry of National Defence. Greece currently has universal compulsory military service for males; however, this system is likely to be changed soon. See Conscription in Greece for more information. Women may serve in the Greek military, but cannot be conscripted.

Component forces and their organizaton

The Greek military is overseen by the Greek National Defense General Staff — Γενικό Επιτελείο Εθνικής Άμυνας.

Hellenic Army — Ελληνικός Στρατός

Conscription in Greece
- Hellenic Army General Staff — Γενικό Επιτελείο Στρατού (ΓΕΣ)
- Strength
- Active Duty : 109,266
- Mobilization Strength: 365,000 For more information see the main article on the Hellenic Army.

Hellenic Navy — Ελληνικό Πολεμικό Ναυτικό

Hellenic Army
- Hellenic Admiralty — Γενικό Επιτελείο Ναυτικού (ΓΕΝ)
- Chief of Naval Operations — Αρχηγός Γενικού Επιτελείου Ναύτικου (Α/ΓΕΝ)
- Admiralty Board — Ανώτατο Ναυτικό Συμβούλιο (ΑΝΣ)
- Deputy Chief of Naval Operations — Υπαρχηγός ΓΕΝ (Υ/ΓΕΝ) For more information, see the main article on the Hellenic Navy.

Hellenic Air Force — Ελληνική Πολεμική Αεροπορία

Hellenic Navy
- Hellenic Air Force General Staff — Γενικό Επιτελείο Αεροπορίας (ΓΕΑ) For more information, see the main article on the Hellenic Air Force.

Hellenic Coast Guard — Ελληνικό Λιμενικό Σώμα

Administered by the Ministry of Mercantile Marine (Υπουργείο Εμπορικής Ναυτιλίας) For more information, see the article Hellenic Coast Guard.

References and links

External links

- [http://www.army.gr/ Hellenic Army General Staff]
- [http://www.hellenicnavy.gr/ Hellenic Navy General Staff]
- [http://www.haf.gr/ Hellenic Air Force General Staff]
- [http://www.stratologia.gr/ Greek Selective Service Administration Website]
- [http://www.mod.gr/ Greek Ministry of Defense]
- [http://www.army.gr/html/GR_Army/dieuthinseis/401/index.html Official Web Site of 401 GSNA Military Hospital in Greek]
- [http://www.omhroi.gr/ Greek anti-conscription/conscientious objector website] Greece

Greek military ranks

Modern Greek military ranks are based on Ancient Greek & Byzantine terminology, even though the ranks correspond to those of other Western armies. For example, ancient hoplite unit of approximately 100 men, the lokhos, is today the name for a company of soldiers; its commander, as in ancient times, is a lokhagos, while his lieutenants are called ipolokhagoi - literally, "sub-captains" - a modern neologism. A sergeant is known as a lokhias. A tagmatarkhis (major) commands a tagma (battalion) and so forth. Thus, every officer or noncommissioned officer is in the land and air forces is generally named after the type of unit he commands.

Officer ranks

Air Force

- The United States Air Force uses the same terms to designate its officers as the Army, as given below.

Army

Navy

Enlisted ranks

Air Force

Army

Navy

Constantine V

Constantine V Copronymus ("The Dung-named") (718-September 14, 775) was Byzantine emperor from 741 to 775. Constantine was the son and successor of Leo III the Isaurian. Constantine was opposed by his father's chamberlain Artabasdus, who attacked his army while they were on campaign against the Arabs in Anatolia. Artabasdus declared that Constantine had been killed in battle and seized power in Constantinople. Constantine, however, fled to Isauria, rallied his supporters, and besieged the capital in 742. By the end of 743 he had retaken the city and had Artabasdus blinded. After this he reorganized the themes, the military districts of the empire, and created new divisions called tagmata. He organized these so that they would be more difficult to use in conspiracies. With this reorganized army he recaptured land from the Arabs in 751, who were involved in a civil war of their own. He also defeated the Bulgars at Anchialus in 763. Constantine continued the iconoclasm of his father Leo III, actively persecuting iconophiles and monasteries. In 753 he called a council of iconoclast bishops and clergy, one of the smallest councils ever, to proclaim the veneration of icons a heresy. This was very unpopular among the general population. In 766 he persecuted iconophile monks and nuns by forcing them to hold hands together in the Hippodrome, and had a mob lynch an iconophile hermit named Stephen. He also proclaimed that relics and prayers to the saints were heretical. Constantine died on September 14, 775 while on campaign against the Bulgars. Iconophiles considered his death a divine punishment. They spread the rumour that he had defecated in his baptismal font as a baby, and began to use the "Copronymus" nickname. In the 9th century he was disinterred and his remains thrown into the sea.

External links

Category:Byzantine emperors Category:Isaurian dynasty Category:718 births Category:775 deaths ja:コンスタンティノス5世

Constantinople

:This article details the history of Constantinople before the Turkish Conquest of 1453. For details on the city since 1453, see İstanbul. İstanbul Constantinople (Greek: Κωνσταντινούπολις) was the original and best known name of the modern city of İstanbul in Turkey in its role over more than a millennium as capital, first of the Eastern Roman Empire, subsequently of the Byzantine Empire. The last imperial designation reveals the city's even more ancient Greek name: Byzantium. Constantinople was located strategically between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe met Asia, and was highly significant as the successor to ancient Rome and the largest and wealthiest city in Europe throughout the Middle Ages.

Names

The name of Constantinople is an honorific eponym referencing its founder, the Roman emperor Constantine the Great. Constantine established the Greek city of Byzantium as the second capital of the Roman Empire on May 11, AD 330, naming the city Nova Roma (New Rome). That particular name, however, enjoyed little common use, and it was as the 'City of Constantine' (Constantinopolis) that it lived through the subsequent centuries. A historical Slavic name for the city was Tsargrad. The word is an Old Church Slavonic translation of the Greek, presumably of Βασιλεως Πόλις, "the city of the emperor [king]": combining the Slavonic words tsar for "Caesar" and grad for "city", it stood for "the City of the Emperor [Caesar]". As fashions have changed the term has faded, and the word Tsargrad is now an archaic term in Russian, but is still used occasionally in Bulgarian. The Ottoman Turks called the city Stamboul or İstanbul, adopting a usage in Greek "eis tin Poli" (to or at the City). But they still used "Konstantiniyye" ("Constantine's City", or Constantinople) as the official name. When the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923, the capital was moved to Ankara. Constantinople was officially renamed İstanbul by the Republic of Turkey in 1930.

Byzantium

Constantine's foundation of New Rome on this site reflected its strategic and commercial importance from the earliest times, lying as it does astride both the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black or Euxine Sea to the Mediterranean, whilst also being possessed of an excellent and spacious harbour in the Golden Horn. No doubt for these reasons, a city was first founded on the site in the early days of Greek colonial expansion, when in 667 BC the legendary Byzas established it with a group of citizens from the town of Megara. This city was named Byzantium (Greek: Βυζάντιον), after its founder.

Constantine's Foundation

Byzantium, ca. 1000)]] Constantine had altogether more ambitious plans. Having restored the unity of the empire, now overseeing the progress of major governmental reforms and sponsoring the consolidation of the Christian church, Constantine was well aware that Rome had become an unsatisfactory capital for several reasons. Located in central Italy, Rome lay too far from the eastern imperial frontiers, and hence also from the legions and the Imperial courts.Moreover, Rome offered an undesirable playground for disaffected politicians; it also suffered regularly from flooding and from malaria. It seemed impossible to many that the capital could be moved. Nevertheless, Constantine identified the site of Byzantium as the correct place: a city where an emperor could sit, readily defended, with easy access to the Danube or the Euphrates frontiers, his court supplied from the rich gardens and sophisticated workshops of Roman Asia, his treasuries filled by the wealthiest provinces of the empire. Constantine laid out the expanded city, dividing it into 14 regions, and ornamenting it with great public works worthy of a great imperial city. Yet initially Constantinople did not have all the dignities of Rome, possessing a proconsul, rather than a prefect of the city. Furthermore, it had no praetors, tribunes or quaestors. Although Constantinople did have senators, they held the title clarus, not clarissimus, like those of Rome. Nor did it have the panoply of other administrative offices regulating the food-supply, the police, the statues, the temples, the sewers, the aqueducts and other public works. The new program of building was carried out in great haste: columns, marbles, doors and tiles were taken wholesale from the temples of the empire and removed to the new city. By the same token, however, many of the greatest works of Greek and Roman art were soon to be seen in its squares and streets. The emperor stimulated private building by promising householders gifts of land from the imperial estates in Asiana and Pontica, and on 18 May 332 he announced that, as in Rome, free distributions of food would be made to citizens. At the time the amount is said to have been 80,000 rations a day, doled out from 117 distribution points around the city.

Public buildings

332 Constantinople was a Christian city, lying in the most Christianised part of the Empire. Justinian made the temples of Byzantium into ruins, and erected the splendid Church of the Holy Wisdom, Sancta Sophia (also known as Hagia Sophia in Greek), as the centrepiece of his Christian capital. He oversaw also the building of the Church of the Holy Apostles, and that of St Irene. Constantine laid out anew the square at the centre of old Byzantium, naming it the Augusteum in honour of his mother, Helena. Sancta Sophia lay on the north side of the Augusteum. The new senate-house (or Curia) was housed in a basilica on the east side. On the south side of the great square was erected the Great Palace of the emperor with its imposing entrance, the Chalke, and its ceremonial suite known as the Palace of Daphne. Located immediately nearby was the vast Hippodrome for chariot-races, seating over 80,000 spectators, and the Baths of Zeuxippus (both originally built in the time of Severus). At the entrance at the western end of the Augusteum was the Milestone, a vaulted monument from which distances were measured across the Eastern Empire. From the Augusteum a great street, the Mese, led, lined with colonnades. As it descended the First Hill of the city and climbed the Second Hill, it passed on the left the Praetorium or law-court. Then it passed through the oval Forum of Constantine where there was a second senate-house, then on and through the Forum of Taurus and then the Forum of Bous, and finally up the Sixth Hill and through to the Golden Gate on the Propontis. The Mese would be seven Roman miles long to the Golden Gate of the Walls of Theodosius. Constantine erected a high column in the centre of the Forum, on the Second Hill, with a statue of himself at the top, crowned with a halo of seven rays and looking towards the rising sun.

Constantinople in the Divided Empire

Walls of Theodosius, on a contemporary silver plate (Royal Academy of History, Madrid)]] The first known Prefect of the City of Constantinople was Honoratus, who took office on 11 December 359 and held it until 361. The emperor Valens built the Palace of Hebdomon on the shore of the Propontis near the Golden Gate, probably for use when reviewing troops. All the emperors, up to Zeno and Basiliscus, who were elevated at Constantinople, were crowned and acclaimed at the Hebdomon. Theodosius I founded the church of John the Baptist to house a relic of the saint, put up a memorial pillar to himself in the Forum of Taurus, and turned the ruined temple of Aphrodite into a coachhouse for the Praetorian Prefect; Arcadius built a new forum named after himself on the Mese, near the walls of Constantine. Gradually the importance of the city increased. Following the shock of the Battle of Adrianople in 376, when the emperor Valens with the flower of the Roman armies was destroyed by the Goths within a few days' march of the city, Constantinople looked to its defences, and Theodosius II built in 413-414 the 60-foot tall walls which were never to be breached until the coming of gunpowder. Theodosius also founded a University at the Capitolium near the Forum of Taurus, on 27 February 425. In the 5th century, when the barbarians overran the Western Empire, its emperors retreated to Ravenna before it collapsed altogether. Thereafter, Constantinople became in truth the greatest city of the Empire, and the greatest in the world. Emperors were no longer peripatetic between various court capitals and palaces. They remained in their palace in the Great City, and sent generals to command their armies. The wealth of the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia flowed into Constantinople.

The City under Justinian

The emperor Justinian (527-565) was known for his successes in war, for his legal reforms and for his public works. It was from Constantinople that his expedition for the reconquest of Africa set sail on or about 21 June 533. Before their departure the ship of the commander, Belisarius, anchored in front of the Imperial palace, and the Patriarch offered prayers for the success of the enterprise. Chariot-racing had been important in Rome for centuries. In Constantinople, the hippodrome became over time increasingly a place of political significance. It was where (as a shadow of the popular elections of old Rome) the people by acclamation showed their approval of a new emperor; and also where they openly criticised the government, or clamoured for the removal of unpopular ministers. In the time of Justinian, public order in Constantinople became a critical political issue. The entire late Roman and early Byzantine period was one where Christianity was resolving fundamental questions of identity, and the dispute between the orthodox and the monophysites became the cause of serious disorder, expressed through allegiance to the horse-racing parties of the Blues and the Greens, and in the form of a major rebellion in the capital of 532 AD, known as the "Nika" riots (from the battle-cry of "Victory!" of those involved). "Nika" riots Fires started by the Nika rioters consumed the basilica of St Sophia, the city's principal church. Justinian commissioned Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus to replace it with the incomparable St Sophia, the great cathedral of the Orthodox Church, whose dome was said to be held aloft by God alone, and which was directly connected to the palace so that the imperial family could attend services without passing through the streets (St Sophia was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of the city, and is now a museum). The dedication took place on Christmas Day of 537 AD in the presence of the Emperor, who exclaimed, "O Solomon, I have outdone thee!" Justinian also had Anthemius and Isidore demolish and replace the original Church of the Holy Apostles, built by Constantine, with a new church under the same dedication. This was designed in the form of an equally-armed cross with five domes, and ornamented with beautiful mosaics. This church was to remain the burial place of the emperors from Constantine himself until the eleventh century. When the city fell to the Turks in 1453, the church was demolished to make room for the tomb of Mehmet II the Conqueror.

The City after Justinian

Justinian was succeeded in turn by Justin II, Tiberius II and Maurice, able emperors who had to deal with a deteriorating military situation, especially on the eastern frontier. Subsequently there was a period of near-anarchy, which was exploited by the enemies of the Empire. After the Avars came to threaten Constantinople from the west and simultaneously the Persians from the East, Heraclius, the exarch of Africa, set sail for the city and assumed the purple. He found the situation so dire that at first he contemplated moving the imperial capital to Carthage, but with military genius he succeeded in expelling the invaders. No sooner had he carried war into their own territories, however, and achieved an advantageous peace with Persia, than he was faced with the Arab expansion. Constantinople was besieged twice by the Arabs, once in a long blockade between 674 and 678, and once again in 717.

Importance of the City in its prime

Constantinople was historically important for a number of reasons. 717 Byzantium, later Constantinople, was one of the larger and richer urban centers in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Hellenic period and later during the Roman Empire, mostly due to its strategic position commanding the trade routes between the Aegean and the Black Sea. During the Fourth Century AD the Emperor Constantine relocated his eastern capital to Byzantium, hence the name Constantinople (Constantine's City), in an attempt to reinvigorate the Empire. It would remain the capital of the eastern, Greek speaking empire, short several interregnums, for over a thousand years. As the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire (now commonly known as the Byzantine Empire), the Greeks called Constantinople simply "the City", while throughout Europe it was known as the "Queen of Cities." In its heyday, roughly corresponding to what is now known as the Middle Ages, it was the richest and largest European city, exerting a powerful cultural pull and dominating economic life in the Mediterranean. Visitors and merchants were especially struck by the beautiful monasteries and churches of the city, particularly the Hagia Sophia, or the Church of Holy Wisdom. A Russian 14th-century traveller, Stephen of Novgorod, wrote, "As for St Sofia, the human mind can neither tell it nor make description of it". The influence of Byzantine architecture and art can be seen in its extensive copying throughout Europe, particular examples include St. Mark's in Venice, the basilica of Ravenna and many churches throughout the Slavic East. Also, alone in Europe until the 13th century Italian florin, the Empire continued to produce sound gold coinage, the solidus of Diocletian becoming the bezant prized throughout the Middle Ages. Its city walls (the Theodosian Walls) and urban infrastructure was moreover a marvel throughout the Middle Ages, keeping a memory alive of the skill and technical expertise of the Roman Empire. The city, also provided a defence for the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire against the invasions of the 5th century, for Europe against the Arabs, and for European Christendom against Islam. Constantine assured the position of the Bishop or Patriarch of Constantinople as pre-eminent in the Eastern Empire. This action placed Constantinople at the religious heart of Orthodoxy. The Patriarch of Constantinople is still considered first among equals in the Orthodox Church along with the Patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, and the later Slavic Patriarchs. This position is largely ceremonial but still carries emotional weight.

The Isaurians

In the eighth and ninth centuries the iconoclast movement caused serious political unrest throughout the Empire. The emperor Leo III issued a decree in 726 against images, and ordered the destruction of a statue of Christ over one of the doors of the Chalke, an act which was fiercely resisted by the citizens. Constantine V convoked a church council in 754 which condemned the worship of images, after which many treasures were broken, burned, or painted over. Following the death of his son Leo IV in 780, the empress Irene restored the veneration of images through the agency of the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.

The Comneni and Palaeologi

787, 1840]] Following the catastrophic defeat in 1071 of the emperor Romanus IV Diogenes by the Seljuk Turks at Manzikert in Armenia, his successor Michael VII pleaded for assistance from the West. In due course this was to lead to the First Crusade, which assembled at Constantinople in 1096 in the reign of Alexius I Comnenus, and moved on towards Jerusalem. Much of this is documented by the writer and historian Anna Comnena in her work The Alexiad. The Crusades were, however, to lead in time to the disastrous capture and sack of Constantinople by soldiers of the Fourth Crusade on April 12 1204. For the subsequent half-century or more, Constantinople remained the centre of the Roman Catholic crusader state, set up after the city's capture under Baldwin IX, and which became known as the Latin Kingdom. During this time, the Byzantine emperors made their capital at nearby Nicaea, which acted as the capital of the temporary, short-lived Empire of Nicaea and a refuge for refugees from the sacked city of Constantinople. From this base, Constantinople was eventually recaptured from its last Latin ruler, Baldwin II, by Byzantine forces under Michael VIII Palaeologus in 1261. The Palaeologi founded a beautiful new imperial palace at Blachernae in the north-west of the city, the Great Palace subsequently falling into disuse.

The Ottomans

Blachernae (painted 1499)]] Constantinople and the Empire finally fell to the Ottoman Empire on Tuesday May 29, 1453, during the reign of Constantine XI Paleologus (see Fall of Constantinople). Although the Turks overthrew the Byzantines, Fatih Sultan Mehmed the Second (the Ottaman Sultan at the time) let Orthodox Patriarchy to continue its affairs, having stated that they did not want to join the Vatican.

Constantinople in popular culture

- Constantinople appears as a dusty faded capital, shorn of its glories, in William Butler Yeats' 1926 poem Sailing to Byzantium.
- Constantinople's change of name was the theme for a song by The Four Lads later covered by They Might Be Giants entitled Istanbul (Not Constantinople) [http://www.lyricsdepot.com/they-might-be-giants/istanbul-not-constantinople.html]. "Constantinople" was also the title of the opening track of The Residents' EP Duck Stab!, released in 1978.
- Constantinople under Justinian is the scene of "A Flame in Byzantium" by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro released in 1987.

Notes

- Constantinople is derived from the Greek Κωνσταντινούπολη. Other names for the city:
- Turkish name: İstanbul.
- Modern Greek name: Κωνσταντινούπολη, older name: Κωνσταντινούπολις (Konstantinoupolis; see also List of traditional Greek place names)
- Roman name: Constantinopolis;
- Latin name: Constantinopolis, Nova Roma
- Arabic name: قسطنطينية (Kostantiniyya)
- Armenian name: Konstaninopolis / Gonstantinobolis
- Swedish viking name: Miklagård
- Ottoman Turkish name: Konstantiniyye.
- Slavonic name: Tsargrad (Царьград).
- Stamboul (used by British and other diplomatic corps in "The City")
- The Sublime Porte - the Ottoman Foreign Ministry, so-called for its gate-location within the Topkapi and often used as a synonym for "Constantinople" in diplomatic notes (the same way "Whitehall" would be used in the case of the British Foreign Office, or "No. 10 Downing" to refer to the PMO)
- Source for quote: Scriptores originum Constantinopolitanarum, ed T Preger I 105 (see A A Vasiliev, History of the Byzantine Empire, 1952, vol I p 188).

External links

- [http://www.sephardicstudies.org/istanbul.html Info on the name change] from the Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture
- [http://www2.arch.uiuc.edu/research/rgouster Welcome to Constantinople], documenting the monuments of Byzantine Constantinople, compiled by Robert Ousterhout, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
- [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/BURLAT/3
- .html#1 Constantinople], from History of the Later Roman Empire, by J.B. Bury
- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04301a.htm History of Constantinople] from the "New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia."
- [http://www.byzantium1200.com/ Byzantium 1200], A project aimed at creating computer reconstructions of the Byzantine Monuments located in Istanbul, Turkey as of year 1200 AD. Category:Byzantine Empire Category:Cities along the Silk Road Category:Holy cities Category:Ottoman Empire Category:Roman sites in Turkey Category:Roman colonies ko:콘스탄티노폴리스 ja:コンスタンティノポリス

Thema

Themata (singular thema) were administrative units of land in the Byzantine Empire, established by a reform promulgated by Emperor Heraclius in 7th century AD.

Description of themata

A thema was a plot of land given to the soldiers to farm. The soldiers were still technically a military unit, under the command of a strategos, a military and civil authority, and they did not own the land they worked as it was still controlled by the state. Therefore for its use the soldiers' pay was reduced. By accepting this proposition, the participants agreed that their descendants would also serve in the military and work in a thema, thus simultaneously reducing the need for unpopular drafts as well as cheaply expanding the military. It also allowed for the settling of conquered lands because these themata could be rapidly formed into military units and there was always a substantial addition made to public lands during a conquest.

Reasons for Heraclius reforms

During the late sixth and early seventh centuries AD, the Byzantine Empire was under assault. The Persian Empire was pressing it from the south and east, assaulting Syria, Egypt, and Anatolia. Slavs and Avars raided Greece and disputed the Balkan holdings of the Eastern Roman Empire. The Lombards freely raided northern Italy, completely unopposed. The treasury of the Empire was drained and its generals were in open rebellion. Under such circumstances, Heraclius ascended to the throne and instituted the reforms that would serve as the backbone of the Empire for generations to come. The reorganizations of Heraclius were sorely needed. With wars being waged simultaneously in the east and the west, the public coffers were all but empty. The problem of increased military expenditures was compounded by peasantry abandoning their lands due to invasions or increased taxes. Population and agricultural production was shrinking in Asia Minor, the empire's power base. Most larger cities were shrinking, with droves of people returning to agriculture in the countryside out of necessity. Furthermore, the empire was relying substantially on mercenaries to fight its wars, a sure sign of weakness. The basic objective of Heraclius’ alterations was to return the military to the republican system of landed citizen armies that had served so well during the initial creation of the Roman Empire. In order to do this, Heraclius began distributing land to the armies and the individual soldiers in exchange for hereditary military duty at a reduced expense to the state.

Outcome of the reforms

This system of transplanting military units into unsettled lands and creating an inherent loyalty to the state, something every government has struggled with, greatly strengthened the Byzantine Empire. Over the next several decades, the Persians were routed and their empire ceased to exist, the Slavs and Avars were reduced and rebellions within the empire became far less common. The themeata military structure rescued the Eastern Roman Empire from destruction and gave it a durability that would last for centuries to come. The price to be paid for this was a general miltarization of the society and a decline of civil institutions and civil culture; for this reason, the introduction of themata is seen as marking the end of Late Antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages for the Byzantine Empire. However it should be noted that unlike Western Europe, the Byzantine Empire never reduced its farmers to the status of serfs. Thema system, in time, created aristocratic families such as the Phokas family deeply entrenched in some part of the empire, with what amounted to private armies. These families, having troops loyal to them instead of the emperor and being financially autonomous, often challenged or even usurped imperial authority.

Organization of themata

Heraclius originally divided the existent holdings of the empire into five themata. These were the Armeniac (in 667), the Anatolic (in 669), the Opsician, the Carabisiani and the Thracian (all in 680). The Armeniac thema was originally composed of Pontus and Cappadocia, stretching from Sinope to Trebizond on the Black Sea and extending as far inland as Caesarea (in present-day terms it would comprise the majority of the northeastern quarter of Asiatic Turkey). The Thracian thema was originally composed of a band of territory hugging the coast from Dyrrhachium into Thrace, comprising most of modern Greece, Albania and European Turkey, including Constantinople. The Opsician thema was originally composed of all of Bithynia and Paphlagonia, stretching from Abydos on the Dardanelles to Sinope on the Black Sea and inland to Ancyra (i.e. most of the northwestern quarter of what is now Asiatic Turkey). The southwestern quarter of what is now Turkey was divided between the Anatolic and Carabisiani themata. The Carabisiani thema was narrow band of territory that was comprised of the coastal province of Pamphylia and the isle of Rhodes. The Anatolic thema made a crescent shape arching around Carabisiani, and was originally composed of Lydia, Phrygia, Pisidia and parts of Galatia and Isauria (i.e. an arch of land from Izmir to Konya, and then down to the Mediterranean almost as far east as Mersin). These original five themata were later subdivided and new themata were added as the empire pushed outward in the 9th and 10th centuries.

Origins of themata

Each of the original five themata was formed from the Empire's earlier mobile field armies. As the empire had shrunk, most of the armies had retreated to newer stations in the interior. Heraclius assigned each mobile army a part of Anatolia. Because the language of the empire was also being changed from Latin to Greek, the themes acquired Hellenized names. The Opsician theme was formed from the armies in the Emperor's presence, which had lately been known as the Obsequim (retinue). The armies in the Emperor's presence had been stationed in southern Thrace and northwestern Anatolia, near the capital of Constantinople, and this was where the Opsician Theme was formed. The Army of Armenia became the Armeniac theme, stationed in most of its original territory in eastern Anatolia, to the west of the Armenian protectorate. The Army of the East, which had formerly defended Roman Syria and Palestine, retreated when those areas were lost first to the Persians and later to the Arabs. They were settled in central Anatolia and became the Anatolic theme. The Army of Thrace became the Thracesian theme, settled in western Anatolia where Heraclius had withdrawn it. Emperor Constans also created a corps of marines, the Carabisian theme, named after a Greek word for ship (karabis) and based in Greece, in the Aegean islands and on the southern shore of Anatolia. This appears to have been formed from the remains of the Army of Illyricum, whose territory had included Greece.

Sources

- Warren Treadgold, [http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~fisher/hst372/readings/treadgold1.html A History of the Byzantine State and society] Category:Byzantine Empire Category:Subnational entities

Artabasdus

Artabasdus was a chamberlain and son-in-law of the Byzantine emperor Leo III the Isaurian and briefly seized power in Constantinople soon after the accession of Leo's son, Constantine V Copronymus, in 741. He was supported by strong iconodule (i.e. supporters of holy images) factions among the clergy and common people. Constantine however took refuge in the Isaurian mountains whence his dynasty originated, and with support of the Asian part of the Byzantine army, who were iconoclasts to a man, had Artabasdus defeated and executed in 743. ----- Category:Byzantine emperors Category:Isaurian dynasty Category:743 deaths

Category:Byzantine Empire

Category:Roman Empire Category:Late Antiquity Category:Middle Ages Category:Former monarchies ja:Category:東ローマ帝国 ko:분류:비잔티움 제국

Category:Types of forces

Category:Military Category:Warfare

Al(OH)3

Das Aluminiumhydroxid, Summenformel Al(OH)₃ wird nach seinen Erscheinungsformen unterschieden und hat amphoteren Charakter.

Modifikationen

Vom Aluminiumorthohydroxid Al(OH)₃ sind drei Modifikationen bekannt:
- monokliner Hydrargillit (α-Al(OH)₃)
- hexagonaler Bayerit (β-Al(OH)₃)
- Nordstrandit Weiterhin existiert das wasserärmere Aluminiummetahydroxid (Aluminiumoxidhydroxid) AlO(OH) von dem folgende Variationen existieren:
- orthorhombischer Böhmit (α-AlO(OH))
- rhombischer Diaspor (β-AlO(OH))

Vorkommen

Die Aluminiumhydroxidmodifikationen Hydrargillit und Bayerit kommen in der Natur als Bestandteile des Bauxit vor.

Synthese

Durch Fällung von Aluminiumhydroxid mit Ammoniak in wäßriger Aluminiumsalzlösung erhält man eine als Aluminiumoxidhydrat bezeichnet amorphe und voluminöse Form, die sich über die Zeit langsam über Bayerit und Böhmit in den thermodynamisch stabilen Hydrargillit wandelt. Wird Kohlendioxid in eine Natriumaluminatlösung eingeleitet bildet sich bei 80 °C kristallines α-Al(OH)₃. Bei geringerer Temperatur würde zunächst Bayerit entstehen, der allmählich in α-Al(OH)₃ übergeht. Durch Erhitzung von Hydrargillit auf 300 °C wird eine teilweise Entwässerung zu kristallisiertem Böhmit erwirkt. Diaspor wird dargestellt in dem Böhmit in wäßriger Natronlauge unter Druck (50 MPa) auf 380 °C erhitzt wird. Werden die verschiedenen Aluminiumhydroxidformen durch starkes erhitzen dehydriert, erhält man schließlich Aluminiumoxid Al₂O₃.

Reaktionsverhalten

Unter Einwirkung von Basen wird Aluminiumhydroxid in Aluminate überführt:

Al(OH)_3 + OH^- \to [Al(OH)_4]^-

In Säuren reagiert es zu den entsprechenden Aluminiumsalzlösungen. Die Reaktionsgeschwindigkeit ist dabei abhängig von der beteiligten Modifikation, so ist die Löslichkeit in Säuren bei amorpher Struktur wesentlich größer als bei kristalliner Form.

Verwendung

Bayerit und Hydrargillit treten als Zwischenprodukte bei der Aluminiumgewinnung in Erscheinung.

Wiki-/Weblinks

Siehe auch:
- Chemikalienliste
- WikiProjekt Chemikalien
- Portal:Chemie Kategorie:Chemische Verbindung th:อะลูมิเนียมไฮดรอกไซด์

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Tagmata

History

References and Sources

External links

Tagma (biology)

Military of Greece

Component forces and their organizaton

Hellenic Army — Ελληνικός Στρατός

Hellenic Navy — Ελληνικό Πολεμικό Ναυτικό

Hellenic Air Force — Ελληνική Πολεμική Αεροπορία

Hellenic Coast Guard — Ελληνικό Λιμενικό Σώμα

References and links

See also

External links

Greek military ranks

Officer ranks

Air Force

Army

Navy

Enlisted ranks

Air Force

Army

Navy

See also

Related articles

External links

Constantine V

External links

Constantinople

Names

Byzantium

Constantine's Foundation

Public buildings

Constantinople in the Divided Empire

The City under Justinian

The City after Justinian

Importance of the City in its prime

The Isaurians

The Comneni and Palaeologi

The Ottomans

Constantinople in popular culture

Further reading

Notes

See also

External links

Thema

Description of themata

Reasons for Heraclius reforms

Outcome of the reforms

Organization of themata

Origins of themata

Sources

Artabasdus

Category:Byzantine Empire

Category:Types of forces

Al(OH)3

Modifikationen

Vorkommen

Synthese

Reaktionsverhalten

Verwendung

Wiki-/Weblinks

Illegaal