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ECLOGA. A legal handbook issued by Leo III in 741. It was intended as an abridged and updated substitute for the Corpus Juris Civilis of Justinian I, which was outdated and incomprehensible to those unacquainted with Latin. It was also intended to introduce Christian principles to the law, making the law more humane by substituting mutilation (e.g., cutting off the nose, tongue, or hand, and blinding) for the death penalty, a prevalent punishment in Justinian I’s Corpus Juris Civilis.

The Ecloga also served as a manual for the teaching of law, replacing Justinian I’s Institutes. Its usefulness is attested to by its revisions, an Arab adaptation, an Armenian translation, and various Slavonic translations. It was not replaced in Byzantium until the Epanagogue, and its revision, the Prochiron, issued in the following century. See also NOMOS STRATIOTIKOS.

ECONOMY. Byzantium’s economy was based chiefly on agriculture, for most citizens of the empire were peasant farmers who lived in villages. By the ninth century, farmers had become free peasants (as reflected in the Farmer’s Law), and remained such until the growth of the pronoia system in the 12th century. Most revenues from state taxation were from taxes on villages, which is why land-grabbing by wealthy aristocracy in Asia Minor, the so-called powerful (dynatoi), threatened the economic health of the state.

Taxes were paid in coinage, from tax revenues, which were then used to pay state civil and military officials, also those who held state-conferred dignities. Nevertheless, there was a parallel barter economy in the countryside, and in cities one could find some services and salaries being paid in kind. There was no systematic way to extend credit, and no guild offered such service.

Constantinople was the focal point of the Byzantine economy. The capital required large shipments of grain, its civil and military officials needed payment, its fortifications, highways and roads, aqueducts and cisterns, and public buildings needed to be maintained. The imperial court, also members of the church and aristocracy, required various luxury items. As mentioned previously, there were many salaried officials and holders of dignities. No other city in the empire was as significant to the economy. Constantinople was also an emporium of trade and commerce with imports and exports controlled by state officials.

Trade on land and at all major ports was strictly controlled and taxed. For example, Abydos collected taxes on shipping going to and from Constantinople. The state also controlled manufacturing by controlling the guilds, and by reserving certain manufacturing (e.g., in silk) for itself. The kommerkion, a 10 percent tax on trade (imports and exports) within the empire, was a reliable source of revenue for the state until Alexios I Komnenos relieved the Venetians of this tax in 1082, in return for naval help against the Normans. Private enterprise did exist, as illustrated by the story of the widow Danelis and, in the late 13th century, by the career of Goudeles Tyrannos. However, the state typically took little interest in the private economy.

In general, the health of the Byzantine economy was much dependent on the state’s ability to control its borders. Attacks on Asia Minor by Arabs, and subsequently the occupation of Asia Minor by Seljuks and Ottomans, eroded the agricultural heart of the Byzantine economy, greatly diminishing the state’s tax revenues.

Byzantine control of its maritime economy was eroded by inroads from the Italian republics, especially Venice, despite the attempt by Alexios I Komnenos to create a more flexible monetary system, one more suited to commercial markets. Venice especially made inroads into the Byzantine economy. This culminated most dramatically in the conquest of Constantinople in 1204 by the Venetian-led Fourth Crusade, and the partition of much of Byzantine territory. After 1261, when Constantinople was recovered from the Latins, the empire’s territory was much reduced, which translated into few tax revenues. By the early 14th century Asia Minor was lost to the Ottomans. Commercial privileges remained in the hands of the Venetians and Genoese.

With the fragmentation of Byzantine territory into appanages, regional economies appeared that were unable to support the needs of the state. By the middle of the 14th century the economic activity was so reduced and fragmented that the state did not have the resources to defend itself. See also INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION; KOMMERKIARIOS; PAROIKOS; PEASANTS; TRANSPORTATION; WINE; YASSI ADA SHIPWRECK.

ECUMENICAL COUNCILS. The seven ecumenical (“universal”) church councils accepted by the Byzantine church were dependent on state support. That support began with Constantine I the Great, who convened the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325. Constantine I provided funds to hold the council, and he actively worked for a doctrinal settlement.

Most Ecumenical Councils were convened to deal with attacks on Orthodoxy in the form of heresy. The First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325 condemned Arianism. The Second Ecumenical Council at Constantinople in 381 condemned the Pneumatomachoi, who believed that the Holy Spirit was a created being (a form of Arianism). The Third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus in 431 condemned Nestorianism. The Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon in 451 condemned Monophysitism. The Fifth Ecumenical Council at Constantinople in 553 condemned the Three Chapters. The Sixth Ecumenical Council at Constantinople in 680–681 condemned Monotheletism. The Seventh Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 787 condemned Iconoclasm and restored the veneration of icons.

ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH. See PATRIARCH.

EDESSA. Ancient city in upper Mesopotamia, on the edge of the Syrian desert. The legend that King Abgar V, a contemporary of Christ, converted and that Christ sent him a towel (the mandylion) with a miraculous likeness (acheiropoietos) of Christ’s face, was widely believed. Allegedly, the holy towel was accompanied by a letter promising that the city would never be captured. In reality, the Abgar who converted was a later king, Abgar IX (179–216), but the legend was accepted as truth, and it proved an inspiration to the city’s citizenry.

Those counting themselves Christians at Edessa included not only followers of the Council of Chalcedon, but adherents to Monophysitism and Nestorianism, as well as Maronites. The city was a center for Nestorianism, until its famous theological school was destroyed during the reign of Zeno. Nestorians were welcomed into Persia, where they were allowed to found a new school at Nisibis.

Edessa was the object of Persian attacks in the sixth century. Kavad besieged it unsuccessfully in 503, as did Chosroes II in 544. The Arabs captured it around 640, and it remained in Muslim hands until John Kourkouas recaptured it in 944, sending the famous mandylion back to Constantinople, where it was escorted through the capital by Romanos I Lekapenos. Edessa was occupied again in 1032 by George Maniakes, who took from the city its second relic, the (apocryphal) letter of Jesus to Abgar.

The Crusaders seized Edessa in 1098, creating the county of Edessa, the first of the Crusader states in Syria. It subsequently fell to Zangi in 1146, was recovered briefly by the Crusaders, only to be sacked by Nur al-Din, who massacred its male citizens and sold its women and children into slavery. Until these final devastations, Edessa remained a commercial and intellectual center that boasted such famous writers as Joshua the Stylite.

EDESSA. See VODENA.

EDICT OF MILAN. A modern term for an edict that was issued, allegedly, by Constantine I the Great and Licinius at a meeting in Milan in 313. It granted religious freedom to all, and ordered previously confiscated private buildings and churches of Christians to be returned. The original version does not exist. There is only a Latin rescript preserved by Lactantius, and a Greek translation of the rescript by Eusebios of Caesarea in his Ecclesiastical History.

It has been argued that there never was a specific Edict of Milan, only the edict of toleration issued by Galerius in 311. It has also been argued that it is an edict of Licinius that simply restates Galerius’s edict. In any case, since Constantine had granted such toleration in 306, and Maxentius had followed suit in 311, the Edict of Milan, if there ever was one, appears redundant for the western provinces. See also PAGANISM.

EDICT ON PRICES. Issued by Diocletian in 301, it consisted of a long list of specific goods and services, each appended with a maximum price. As an attempt to control runaway inflation, it failed. It was published in lengthy inscriptions, fragments of which survive from more than 40 cities. However, none survive from the regions governed by Maximian and Constantius Chlorus, though their names are appended to the edict. Presumably they did not publish it, for unknown reasons.

The edict failed, in part because it reveals a basic misunderstanding of inflation, attributing it solely to greed. Nonetheless, the serious consequence of inflation for the army was clearly understood. The edict’s preamble illustrates that rapid inflation was impoverishing soldiers by wiping out their purchasing power. For the modern historian the edict is an important historical source for what it reveals about goods and services, trade and commerce, prices and coinage. See also ECONOMY.

EDIRNE. See ADRIANOPLE.

EDUCATION. Until the sixth century, education in Byzantium was the traditional Greco-Roman education, which emphasized grammar and rhetoric (the ability to speak and write Greek well). Primary and secondary education, intended for boys, was accomplished by tutors who introduced classical literature, especially Homer. Higher education was available in certain cities, such as Alexandria, Athens, Constantinople (established by Theodosios II in 425), and Gaza. There was a famous law school in Berytus. The higher school at Constantinople (not a university in the western sense) was organized to train students for the state bureaucracy.

Inevitably, an education based on pagan literature created tension in a society that was increasingly Christian. This explains why Justinian I closed the Academy of Athens in 529. Amid the turmoil that followed Justinian I’s reign, cities declined and the other great centers of higher education disappeared altogether. In the West, classical education also deteriorated with the decline of Greek studies. Cassiodorus could read Greek, but he was an exception to this general rule.

Higher education resurfaced in the ninth century when caesar Bardas created a school in the Magnaura, staffed with teachers the caliber of Leo the Mathematician. Secondary education was also reorganized for the purpose of providing administrators to staff the state bureaucracy.

Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos reinvigorated higher education in the 10th century bringing students and professors together under his own patronage. In 1046–1047, Constantine IX Monomachos organized a school of law and philosophy with John VIII Xiphilinos as its president (nomophylax). Xiphilinos was part of a circle of intellectuals that included Michael Psellos, whose career as a professor of Neoplatonism demonstrates the tension that remained between secular and religious studies. Higher education for the clergy was established in 1107 when Alexios I Komnenos created the Patriarchal School. Numerous private tutors who were supervised by the state offered instruction. The capture of Constantinople in 1204 by the Fourth Crusade destroyed these institutions.

After Constantinople was recovered in 1261 Michael VIII Palaiologos created a school of philosophy headed by George Akropolites. However, most schooling during the Palaiologan Dynasty was done through private schools and tutors. Medieval Byzantium never developed a university on the western model of an independent, self-governing corporation.

EGERIA. Western nun who went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 381–384. Her account, not all of which survives, is the first known description of a pilgrimage. It includes important information on the way in which the Holy Land had been transformed by Christian piety and church construction since Constantine I the Great’s conversion. See also BASILICA; JERUSALEM; MIRACLE; PILGRIM FLASK; SAINT; WOMEN.

EGNATIA, VIA. See VIA EGNATIA.

EGYPT. One of Byzantium’s most important provinces until its occupation by the Persians from 618/619 to 629, and its subsequent conquest by the Arabs in 640–642 (described by John of Nikiu). Its vital economic importance lay in the large supply of grain it provided. The earliest Christian hermits flourished in Egypt, and the heresy of Monophysitism found fertile soil among the Copts. The see of its capital, Alexandria, was among the most powerful in the empire, as illustrated by the career of the patriarch Cyril. See also AGRICULTURE; ECONOMY; JOHN OF NIKIU; MAMLUKES; MENAS; NUBIA; TRADE AND COMMERCE.

EKTHESIS. Herakleios’s futile attempt, by edict in 638, to find a formula that would reconcile the Monophysites with those who adhered to the teachings of the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon. This had become a particularly important issue with the recovery of the eastern (chiefly Monophysite) provinces from the Persians.

Monoenergism, the doctrine that Christ had one active divine-human force (energeia), was a first attempt at compromise. Patriarch Sergios of Constantinople supported this, but Sophronios, who became patriarch of Jerusalem in 634, did not. Sergios dropped Monoenergism in favor of Monotheletism, the doctrine that the human and divine natures in Christ were united in a single will (thelema). This had been first proposed to him by Pope Honorius I (625–638).

Herakleios made Monotheletism official in 638 with the publication of his Ekthesis (Statement of Faith). However, the futility of this was quickly apparent, for both sides rejected it, including Pope Honorios I’s successor, Pope Severinus, who declared for two wills in Christ. Moreover, by 638 the Arabs conquered Syria and Palestine, and would soon conquer Egypt, the very provinces that the Ekthesis was attempting to pacify. The Typos of Constans II, issued in 648, aimed at patching up relations with the papacy by forbidding any discussion of wills and energies. See also CAESAROPAPISM; CHRIST, THEOLOGY OF; CONSTANTINOPLE, SIXTH ECUMENICAL COUNCIL AT; SCHISM; THEOLOGY; TRULLO, COUNCIL IN.

ELPIDIOS. Strategos sent by Irene to Sicily in 781. Accused of supporting a plot against her, and with the army in Sicily standing behind him, Irene was forced to dispatch a fleet to capture him. Soon after the fleet arrived, Elpidios fled to the Arabs of North Africa, where he declared himself emperor and was crowned by the Arabs. In 794 he appeared on a marauding expedition into Byzantine territory with Suleyman, son of Harun al-Rashid; this is the last that is known of him. See also NAVY.

EMESA. City in Syria (modern Homs), west of Palmyra. The Persians occupied it from 609 to 628, and it fell to the Arabs in 636, after the defeat of Herakleios at the Battle of Yarmuk. Thereafter, it remained in Muslim possession, despite a brief Byzantine reconquest in 969. Byzantine armies sacked and burned the city on two other occasions in the 10th century (in 983 and in 999). Its most famous citizen was Romanos the Melode.

EMIR. See EMIRATE.

EMIRATE. With the breakup of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum in the 13th century, various emirs (Turkish military commanders) emerged to found small states in Asia Minor. Among these emirates were those of Germiyan, Karaman, Karasi, Saruhan, and of the Ottomans.

EMPEROR. Title of the Byzantine sovereign. The precise terms used included autokrator (Greek for the Latin imperator) and, after the conquest of Persia by Herakleios, basileus (Basileus ton Rhomaion, Emperor of the Romans).

Fundamentally, the concept is Roman, for Byzantium was, in truth, the Roman Empire in the East down to the conquest of Constantinople in 1453. Once Christianity became established as the sole state religion, the emperor was viewed as God’s viceroy on earth, from whom all political and military power flowed. This concept of emperorship, and the titles associated with it, Byzantine emperors protected as a copyright against any infringement by western emperors (especially Charlemagne).

Authority was delegated to high officials who resided with the emperor, normally at the Great Palace of Constantinople but also to administrators in the provinces. For this an emperor needed basic administrative and rhetorical skills. More important than even military leadership, the management of a vast empire required, above all, the skills needed to administer a court and vast bureaucracy. See also AUGUSTUS; CAESAROPAPISM; GERMANY; RHETORIC; SENATE; THEOCRACY.

EMPRESS. A title (augusta, basilissa) bestowed by the emperor on a female member of the imperial family, typically on his wife, but occasionally on a mother or sister. The significance of the title is shown by the fact that not every wife of an emperor was crowned empress.

Until the eighth century it was granted only to imperial wives who produced a male heir to the throne. One of the most powerful empresses, Anna Dalassene, was not an imperial wife, but the mother of Alexios I Komnenos. She is much praised by Anna Komnene in the Alexiad. However, the general tendency of male historians is to disparage empresses. For example, Justinian I’s wife Theodora is attacked in virulent terms by Prokopios of Caesarea in his Anekdota. Nevertheless, today Byzantium is famous for its empresses, and this is well deserved, for no other ancient or medieval state produced so many exceptional imperial women. See also ANNA OF SAVOY; ARIADNE; ATHENAIS-EUDOKIA; BERTHA OF SULZBACH; BRIDE SHOW; DALASSENE, ANNA; EUDOKIA INGERINA; EUDOKIA MAKREMBOLITISSA; EUDOXIA; EUPHROSYNE DOUKAINA KAMATERA; GALLA PLACIDIA; IRENE; IRENE DOUKAINA; IRENE-YOLANDA OF MONTFERRAT; MARIA OF ALANIA; MARTINA; PULCHERIA; SOPHIA; THEODORA (CO-EMPRESS WITH ZOE); THEODORA (WIFE OF JUSTINIAN I); THEODORA (WIFE OF THEOPHILOS); THEOPHANO (FIRST WIFE OF LEO VI); THEOPHANO (WIFE OF ROMANOS II; ALSO WIFE OF NIKEPHOROS II PHOKAS); VERINA; WOMEN; ZOE; ZOE KARBONOPSINA.

ENAMELS. Metals with decorative glass designs, made by fusing colored glass onto metal. Enamels were one of the truly distinctive forms of Byzantine art. Designs are created using wire loops and, most famously in Byzantine art, with strips of gold, called cloisons. This cloisonné method was used to create figurative representations of Christ, the Virgin Mary, saints, and emperors, in order to decorate metal book covers, crowns, icon frames, reliquaries, and jewelry. Constantinople was the center of cloisonné production, which was a prized export item, and one often imitated outside Byzantium.

ENGLAND. See BRITAIN.

ENKOLPION. See RELIQUARY.

ENZYMA. See AZYMA.

EPANAGOGE. An introduction to the collection of laws called the Basilika, which aimed at replacing the former Ecloga. It was issued in 886, and replaced in 907 by the Prochiron. See also CORPUS JURIS CIVILIS; LAW.

EPARCH, BOOK OF THE. See BOOK OF THE EPARCH; GUILDS; TRADE AND COMMERCE.

EPARCH OF THE CITY. Governor of the city of Constantinople; a post created in 359 on the model of the urban prefect of Rome. As chief judge of the imperial tribunal, he was responsible for law and order in the capital, as well as for the maintenance of prisons. He also supervised building activity and spectacles, as well as ceremonial and commercial activity (described in the Book of the Eparch). See also BUREAUCRACY; ECONOMY.

EPARCHIUS AVITUS. See AVITUS, EPARCHIUS.

EPHESUS. One of the great coastal cities of Asia Minor in classical antiquity; capital of the Roman province of Asia. A flourishing seaport, as well as a center of finance, trade and commerce made it one of the most prosperous of the major cities along the Aegean Sea coast.

Ephesus was also among the most splendid in terms of its public monuments, including the long, colonnaded street with marble paving slabs that ran from the harbor to the theater. It had two famous churches, the Church of St. John, and the Church of the Virgin, the basilica where the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus met in 431. The “Robber” Council of Ephesus met in 449.

Around 614 the city suffered catastrophic destruction, probably by the Persians, and/or by earthquake, from which it never fully recovered; entire areas of the city had to be abandoned, and they were never reoccupied. In the eighth century its size was still considerable enough to make it the largest city (and perhaps capital) of the theme of Thrakesion, and later part of the maritime theme of Samos, perhaps indicating its role as a naval base. Its continuing commercial importance is seen in the regional fair held there in the eighth century.

By the ninth century the harbor had silted up, and the city’s population had shrunk to a settlement around the harbor and to a strongly fortified area surrounding the Church of St. John. On this reduced scale it survived, and from about the 10th century onward it revived and prospered. In the mid-13th century it attracted the great teacher and writer Nikephoros Blemmydes, whose pupils included George Akropolites and Theodore II Laskaris. In the early 14th century Ephesus was threatened by the Catalan Grand Company. The Ottomans conquered the city in 1304. See also EUGENIKOS, MARK; LYDIA; MESARITES, NICHOLAS; NESTORIANISM.

EPHESUS, ECUMENICAL COUNCIL OF. The Third Ecumenical Council called in 431 at Ephesus by Theodosios II to settle a dispute between Nestorios, patriarch of Constantinople, and Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria, over the exact relationship of Christ’s human and divine natures.

Nestorios followed the theological school at Antioch that believed that although the two natures were in contact, they were essentially independent of each other. This led him to state that the Virgin Mary was not, properly speaking, the Theotokos, or “bearer of God,” but the mother of a man, Christ. After all, Nestorios reasoned, how can one say that God, who is unchanging, was born and grew up? This attack on the Virgin Mary aroused great passions within the church.

When the council opened, the situation was chaotic, even disgraceful. Cyril borrowed 1,500 pounds of gold to bribe high officials at court. His supporters roamed the streets of Ephesus shouting and looking for trouble. Nestorios’s house had to be guarded by soldiers for his protection. John I, patriarch of Antioch, and Nestorios’s main supporter, arrived three weeks late, which allowed Cyril to engineer Nestorios’s condemnation. His beliefs (referred to as Nestorianism) were condemned as a heresy. John I quickly responded by organizing a rival council on the spot to condemn Cyril, whom they declared deposed.

At first Theodosios II let the two depositions stand, but Cyril’s money and influence at court, including the support of Theodosios II’s sister Pulcheria, won the day, and Cyril was allowed to resume his see. However, Nestorios remained in exile in Egypt. In 433 moderates on both sides agreed to accept the epithet Theotokos for the Virgin Mary, and agreed to a compromise formula stating that Christ had two natures that existed in an unconfused union. Nestorios’s followers retreated to Edessa and, after Zeno drove them from that city in 489, to Nisibis in Persia. In terms of their ecclesiastical rivalry, the see of Alexandria had humiliated the upstart see of Constantinople. See also CHRIST, THEOLOGY OF; CHURCH; SCHISM; THEOLOGY.

EPHESUS, “ROBBER” COUNCIL OF. Later declared invalid by the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon, this council met in 449 to depose Flavian, patriarch of Constantinople and to approve Monophysitism as Orthodoxy.

As with the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431, theological controversy took the form of a dispute between the sees of Alexandria and Constantinople. Dioskoros, patriarch of Alexandria, espoused the doctrine Monophysitism, the core belief of which is that after the Incarnation, Christ’s two natures were united into one nature (mono physis). Patriarch Flavian of Constantinople condemned Dioskoros and his doctrine.

It transpired that in Constantinople, Monophysitism was espoused by the monk Eutyches, who was also condemned by Patriarch Flavian. However, Eutyches was the godson of Chrysaphius, a powerful court minister, who convinced Theodosios II to call the “Robber” Council in 449, dominated by the patriarch Dioskoros. Flavian soon found himself deposed, and Eutyches’s Monophysitism was declared Orthodoxy. (Pope Leo I’s opposition to Monophysitism was expressed in a letter that the council refused to accept.) Thus, the see of Alexandria triumphed once more. However, its victory was short-lived, for two years later the Council of Chalcedon reversed its decisions, declaring Monophysitism a heresy. See also CHRIST, THEOLOGY OF; CHURCH; NESTORIANISM; THEOLOGY.

EPHREM THE SYRIAN. Syriac writer, theologian, hymnographer, saint. Born in Nisibis ca. 306, he later moved to Edessa where he spent the last decade of his life, dying there in 373. Ephrem wrote an enormous number of works, mostly in verse, on a variety of topics, including polemics against the emperor Julian “The Apostate,” Arius, and Mani. Their translation into Greek, Armenian, Latin, and Old Church Slavonic ensured their lasting effect, especially on subsequent Syriac and Byzantine hymnographers like Romanos the Melode. See also MUSIC.

EPHTHALITES. A Hunnic people (or peoples) who menaced Persia from 427 to 557. Referred to by Prokopios of Caesarea as “white” (hence the term “White Huns”), due to their fair complexion, their precise relationship to other Hunnic peoples is unclear.

Their conquests of the lands between the Caspian Sea and the Indus River were completed by about 425, after which they turned their attention to Persia. For more than a century, intermittently, the Ephthalites distracted the Persians from frontier warfare with Byzantium and disrupted Persia’s caravan trade with China, prompting the Persians to insist that Byzantium continue to pay for the defense of the Caspian Gates.

In 427 hostilities erupted that resulted in a Persian victory, but the remainder of the fifth century was less fortunate to the Persians. In 469 the Persians were defeated, and in 484 the Ephthalites killed the Persian king Peroz. However, from 496 to 498 Kavad was in exile among the Ephthalites and it was they who reinstated him on the throne in 499. From 503 to 513 they suffered a series of defeats at the hands of the Persians, who ejected them from Persian territory. In 557 an alliance of Turks and Persians destroyed them. See also BARBARIANS; STEPPE.

EPIBOLE. A term meaning “impost” or “surcharge,” referring to the state’s practice of making the owners of productive land share mutually in taxation levied on fallow land. In this way the originally estimated taxes of an entire fiscal unit (usually a village) could be fulfilled.

By the sixth century the procedures worked out to do this equitably took into account the previous assessments of all unproductive property, as well as the normal tax obligations of the fiscal unit. Only then was the tax surcharge distributed among the members of the unit. Basil II replaced the epibole with the allelengyon.

EPIPHANIOS. Bishop of Salamis (Constantia) in Cyprus from 367 to 403, writer, and authority on heresy. He was hostile to both religious art and to classical education. He is also remembered for his opposition to those defending the theology of Origen. This is illustrated by how he was drawn into a controversy that pitted John Chrysostom against a supporter of Origen, Theophilos of Alexandria. His support of Theophilos took him to Constantinople; on the return voyage he died. Among the writings is one entitled Refutation of All the Heresies.

EPIROS. A mountainous region in what is now southern Albania and northwestern Greece, separated from the rest of Greece by the Pindos mountain range. In the fourth century its administration was divided into the province of Old Epiros, with its capital at Nikopolis; and New Epiros, farther north, with its capital at Dyrrachion.

The cities on coastal plains (like the port city of Avlon) were especially affected by Vandal raids. Nikopolis was briefly captured by the Vandals in 474. The region was also affected by barbarian raids in 517 and in 539–540, prompting Justinian I to build and refurbish fortifications in the region. These seem to have withstood an invasion of Ostrogoths in 551, but not the invasions of Avars and Slavs in the 580s. By about 615 the cities were overrun and the region depopulated.

Byzantine hegemony was reestablished slowly, beginning in the ninth century with the creation of the themes of Dyrrachion and Nikopolis. The region fell under the domination of the Despotate of Epiros in 1204, and then (after 1264) by independent Greek despots until 1318. Thereafter, successive rulers included Italians (the Orsini and Tocco families), Albanians, and Serbs. For example, the Serb Thomas Preljubovic ruled over Ioannina from 1366 to 1384, defending it from Albanian attacks. The Ottomans conquered the region in the 15th century. Intermittent invasions and migrations of peoples created a diverse society that included Greeks as well as Slavs, Vlachs, Albanians, Jews, Turks, and even Armenians. See also ARTA; ETHNIC DIVERSITY; KASTORIA; LARISSA; MACEDONIA; OTRANTO.

EPIROS, DESPOTATE OF. Greek state in Epiros established after the Fourth Crusade conquered Constantinople in 1204 and divided up Byzantium. Until 1230 it appeared to have a much better chance of restoring the empire than the other two Greek states, namely the Empire of Nicaea and the Empire of Trebizond. The pedigree of its founder, Michael I Komnenos Doukas (1205–1215), was impeccable, including a connection to the Angelos Dynasty.

His half-brother Theodore Komnenos Doukas, who succeeded him, captured Ohrid in 1216, Thessalonike in 1224, and Adrianople in 1225, by which time his empire extended from the Adriatic Sea to the Aegean Sea. Crowned emperor, and refusing to recognize his rival John III Vatatzes as emperor at Nicaea, Theodore Komnenos Doukas had every reason to expect that he would recapture Constantinople. But that hope was dashed at the Battle of Klokotnitsa in 1230, where the Bulgar tsar John Asen II captured Theodore, defeated his army, then occupied Macedonia as far west as Dyrrachion.

In 1246 Thessalonike, which had eluded John Asen II, was captured by John III Vatatzes. By this time the former empire was reduced to calling itself a despotate, and its fortunes declined further after Michael II Komnenos Doukas (ca. 1230–ca. 1266) was defeated at the Battle of Pelagonia in 1259. In the 14th century, the despotate effectively ceased with its occupation by the Orsini family from 1318 to 1337, then by Serbs under Symeon Urosh in 1348. The Ottomans conquered the region piecemeal in the first half of the 15th century. Arta, the former capital of the Despotate of Epiros, fell to the Ottomans in 1449. See also ALBANIANS; CHOMATENOS, DEMETRIOS; NAUPAKTOS.

EREMITE. (In Greek, “hermit,” derived from eremia, meaning “solitude,” and eremos, meaning “desert.”) The term refers to a hermit who has withdrawn to some solitary place as an anchorite to practice rigorous asceticism, in contrast to the communal monasticism of a koinobion. The sayings of the early eremites of Egypt were compiled in anthologies that are referred to as the Apophthegmata Patrum. See also ANTONY THE GREAT.

ERTOGHRUL. See OTTOMANS.

ESONARTHEX. See NARTHEX.

ESTOIRE D’ERACLES. The name given to a collection of works about the early Crusades, the core of which is an Old French translation made in 1220–1223 of the Latin Chronicon of William of Tyre, including also the various French continuations of his work beyond where William ended (in 1184). The continuations, which are of particular importance for the years 1184–1197, include such events as the fall of Jerusalem in 1187, the conquest of Cyprus during the Third Crusade, and events leading up to the Fourth Crusade. See also HISTORY.

ETHIOPIA. See AXUM.

ETHNIC DIVERSITY. Byzantium was ethnically diverse, despite the fact that most foreign peoples were viewed as barbarians. Various groups of foreign mercenaries served in Byzantine armies, including Germanic peoples who were settled on Byzantine territory. In the late sixth century, the Slavs settled in the Balkan Peninsula in great numbers, and were gradually Christianized.

Many foreign merchants bought and sold wares in Constantinople, which was a truly cosmopolitan city. By the 12th century there were Arabs in Constantinople who even had their own mosque. Latin-rite churches existed there as well. Armenians were a significant minority within the empire. In the sixth century, Justinian I’s General Narses was Armenian. The emperor Maurice (582–602) may have been Armenian. In the ninth and 10th centuries there were several Armenian emperors, including Leo V, Basil I, Romanos I Lekapenos, and John I Tzimiskes. Theodora, the wife of Theophilos, was Armenian.

Ethnic identities were not as fixed as the Byzantines often portrayed. Many Germans were “romanized,” for example. Contact with Byzantium often changed foreign peoples who settled in Byzantium, creating hybrid identities for them. Cultural diversity existed to some extent, if only because Byzantium found a certain degree of toleration necessary. See also GERMANY.

EUBOEA. Island in the Aegean Sea located close to the mainland of eastern Greece, running almost parallel along the coast of Attica and Boeotia, separated by a strait that contracts into a narrow channel called the Euripos. The opposite (eastern) coast that faces the Aegean Sea is so rugged as to be almost inaccessible. Historically this has meant that the fate of Euboea was usually tied to control of the opposite mainland.

From the late seventh century until the conquest of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 it was part of the theme of Hellas. After 1204 Venice controlled the island, which the Venetians called Negroponte (Black Bridge), referring to the bridge across the Euripos that connected the island to the mainland. Euboea was one part of a chain of islands and mainland ports that commanded the sea route from Venice to Constantinople. The island fell to the Ottomans in 1470. See also NAVIGATION; PARTITIO ROMANIAE; TRADE AND COMMERCE.

EUCHAITA. A rural pilgrimage center in Pontos, west of Amaseia on the road to Gangra. Anastasios I enclosed it with walls in the early sixth century, and in the seventh century it became part of the theme of Armeniakon. One of the most famous commanders of the Armeniakon, the future Leo V, was exiled there for a time in the early ninth century. The cult of St. Theodore Teron provided an important source of revenue for the city, and in the 11th century, according to its metropolitan John Mauropous, the city’s annual festival for the saint coincided with a great fair that transformed the city from a wasteland to a bustling marketplace.

Much of recent scholarly discussion about the town has focused on the extent to which, despite having been burned by the Persians in 615 and occupied briefly by the Arabs in 663–664, its survival was an exception to the more general rule of urban decline in Asia Minor in the seventh century. Nevertheless, by the eighth century the city seems to have shrunk from its Anastasian walls to a fortified acropolis (kastron), becoming more of a stronghold than an actual city. See also DARK AGES; FORTIFICATIONS.

EUCHARIST. The term means “Thanksgiving” in Greek. The Eucharist is the most important of the Christian sacraments. It harkens back to Christ’s offering of bread and wine to his disciples at the Last Supper, representing the sacrifice of Christ’s death for humanity, as well as Christ’s own body and blood. Differences between the eastern and western churches over important aspects of the Eucharist (the use of azyma and the phrase filioque) contributed, along with other issues like papal primacy, to the church schism of 1054, and to subsequent failed attempts to achieve a genuine union of the churches. See also DIPTYCH; FOURTH CRUSADE; PANTEUGENOS, SOTERICHOS; PROTHESIS; TRISAGION.

EUCLID. His Elements of Geometry, written around 300 B.C., had a profound impact on Byzantine science, in part because Euclid’s work was given such practical use in Byzantine astronomy, astrology, and architecture. For example, Anthemios of Tralles, architect of Hagia Sophia, wrote a work on conical sections and was an expert on projective geometry. Leo the Mathematician, the inventor of the automata of the Magnaura, was an expert on Euclid. The Elements, revised by the astronomer Theon of Alexandria, father of Hypatia, was also of interest to Neoplatonists such as Proklos, who were attracted to the 10th book of the Elements, which deals with irrational quantities, implying a “thought world” where facts cannot be expressed in concrete terms.

EUDOKIA INGERINA. Mistress to Michael III and subsequently wife of Basil I. Michael III’s mother Theodora and the powerful minister Theoktistos forced Michael III to give her up. She was married to Basil I when he became co-emperor in 866. Her children included the future emperor Leo VI, for whom Theophano chose Eudokia Ingerina in a bride show. See also WOMEN.

EUDOKIA MAKREMBOLITISSA. Niece of Patriarch Michael I Keroularios and empress of Constantine X Doukas. After his death in 1067 she was regent for her sons Michael VII Doukas, Andronikos, and Constantine, promising Patriarch John VIII Xiphilinos that she would not marry again. However, continued inroads by the Seljuks forced the patriarch, and her chief advisors caesar John Doukas and Michael Psellos, to reconsider the need for an emperor experienced in military affairs. Xiphilinos released her from her oath, and she agreed to marry Romanos IV Diogenes.

Romanos IV achieved some success in 1068 and 1069, but he was captured at the Battle of Mantzikert in 1071, a defeat caused by the retreat of Andronikos Doukas, son of caesar John Doukas. When, after his release by Alp Arslan, Romanos IV attempted to regain his throne, caesar John Doukas forced Eudokia to enter a monastery, lest she support him. Michael VII was proclaimed sole emperor in his place. After the death of Michael VII, and no longer a political threat, she was allowed to return to Constantinople. See also WOMEN.

EUDOXIA. Empress and wife of Arkadios. Eudoxia was a beautiful, strong-willed woman who was easily offended. Her feud with Patriarch John Chrysostom produced the first major crisis in state relations with the church. In 399 when Eutropios, Arkadios’s chief minister, offended her, she engineered his removal from office. John’s references from the pulpit to Eudoxia as a Jezebel infuriated her, and she persuaded her husband to depose him, too. John’s adversaries within the church, including Theophilos, bishop of Alexandria, and Syrian bishop Severianos, assisted her in this. However, John Chrysostom’s popularity with the people produced such a crowd around Hagia Sophia that for three days imperial officials could not seize him. Finally, he surrendered, and he was exiled in 403. Recalled due to popular pressure, John was exiled again in 404. He died in 407 in a faraway place on the coast of the Black Sea.

EUGENEIANOS, NIKETAS. Author of the 12th-century romance entitled Drosilla and Charikles, and probably of an anonymous work entitled Anacharsis or Ananias. He was a pupil of Theodore Prodromos, another prominent writer of romances in the 12th century. See also LITERATURE.

EUGENIKOS, JOHN. Writer and deacon who opposed the union of the churches at the Council of Ferrara-Florence, as did his brother Mark Eugenikos. He attended the Council of Ferrara-Florence, and like his brother, he refused to sign its decree of union. For this he was exiled to the Morea. In addition to a polemic against the decree of union, he wrote hymns, sermons, and a poem of lament (threnos) commemorating the conquest of Constantinople in 1453. See also CHURCH SCHISM OF 1054; LITERATURE; MUSIC.

EUGENIKOS, MARK. Metropolitan of Ephesus and famous opponent of the union of the churches at the Council of Ferrara-Florence; brother of John Eugenikos. He attended the council, but he refused to sign the decree of union, for which he was imprisoned for two years. He was made a saint in 1456. See also CHURCH SCHISM OF 1054; LITERATURE; MUSIC.

EUGENIUS. Puppet emperor raised in 392 by Arbogast, magister militum in the West after Valentinian II died under suspicious circumstances. Eugenius appealed for the support of pagans in Italy, who saw in him another Julian “The Apostate.” Theodosios I marched against Eugenius and Arbogast in 394, defeating them near Aquileia. Arbogast committed suicide, and Eugenius was captured and put to death.

EUGENIUS III. See SECOND CRUSADE.

EUGENIUS IV. Pope from 1431 to 1447 who was architect of the Council of Ferrara-Florence in 1438–1439. He negotiated with John VIII Palaiologos and Patriarch Joseph II to obtain their agreement to the union of the churches. The pope also promoted a Crusade that ended disastrously at Varna. See also CHURCH SCHISM OF 1054.

EUNAPIOS OF SARDIS. Greek historian who wrote a history of the years 270–414, which survives only in fragments. He wrote from Sardis for an audience of eastern intellectuals whose paganism matched his own. However biased, Eunapios’s work was widely used by other historians, including Zosimus, Philostorgios, and Sozomenos. Whether Ammianus Marcellinus used Eunapios, or vice versa, is unclear. Eunapios was friends with the emperor Julian “The Apostate” and he authored a short biography of Julian’s physician Oribasios. See also LITERATURE.

EUNOMIOS. Chief proponent of a form of Arianism that taught that the Son was created as an intermediate divinity without a human nature, and with only a resemblance to God the Father. Eunomios was exiled by Constantius II, recalled by Julian “The Apostate,” and exiled again by Theodosios I. He was a disciple of the Arian theologian Aetios. See also CHRIST, THEOLOGY OF; ECUMENICAL COUNCILS; GREGORY OF NAZIZANZOS; GREGORY OF NYSSA; PHILOSTORGIOS.

EUNUCHS. Castrated males. In Byzantium, from the reign of Constantius II, they traditionally held high positions in the state civil and military administration and within the church. In theory, they were without family and totally dependent on the emperor, which explains the great confidence and authority placed in them. The staff (called koubikoularioi) of the imperial apartments were eunuchs who prepared the emperor’s bed and clothing, served his meals, and planned his personal schedule. Famous high-ranking eunuchs include Eutropios, Joseph Bringas, and John the Orphanotrophos. In the court of Alexios I Komnenos alone, for example, there were 12 high-ranking eunuchs, a host of eunuch servants, in addition to the patriarch Eustratios Garidas. Other eunuch patriarchs include Germanos I in the eighth century, as well as Methodios I and Ignatios in the ninth century.

The most famous eunuch general was Narses, who served Justinian I. Not all eunuchs were as reliable as Narses. Many plotted and intrigued, such as John the Orphanotrophos, who engineered his brother’s accession to the throne as Michael IV Autoeanos. Nikephoritzes, who administered state affairs for Michael VII Doukas, achieved great power, but also great condemnation. See also ABCHASIA; BUREAUCRACY; PARAKOIMOMENOS; PROTOSPATHARIOS; SPATHARIOS; THEOKTISTOS.

EUPHRATES RIVER. The middle Euphrates River was a heavily fortified eastern frontier that bordered Sassanid Persia until the Arab conquest of Byzantine Mesopotamia in 640. The upper Euphrates, from the seventh through the ninth centuries, was a battleground between the Arabs and Byzantium.

The fortresses of Kamacha and Keltzene formed the core of the theme of Mesopotamia in the ninth century. In the 10th century, John Kourkouas, Nikephoros II Phokas, John I Tzimiskes, and Basil II reestablished the empire’s borders at the Euphrates once more. Melitene was reconquered in 934, Hierapolis was recaptured in 974, and Samosata once more fell under Byzantine dominion. However, by the end of the 11th century, the region was again lost, this time to the Seljuks. See also TARON.

EUPHROSYNE DOUKAINA KAMATERA. Empress of Alexios III Angelos from 1195 to 1203. Her intelligence and instinctive ability in handling affairs of state enabled her to dominate her husband, whose weak mind and character made him totally unsuited to rule. She engineered the return of Constantine Mesopotamites, who became the most powerful minister of state in league with the empress. Seeing their influence decline, jealous members of the imperial family, including Euphrosyne’s own brother Basil Kamateros, conspired to overthrow Mesopotamites by weakening his chief supporter, the empress. They accused her of adultery, for which Alexios III sent her to a monastery for six months (1197). Soon after her release, Mesopotamites was exiled, and Euphrosyne’s power waned.

In 1203, when the Fourth Crusade seized Constantinople, Alexios III fled the capital, leaving Euphrosyne behind. She was arrested but subsequently fled with Alexios V Doukas in 1204, only to be ransomed by Michael I Komnenos Doukas and spend the rest of her days in Epiros at Arta. See also WOMEN.

EURIPIDES. Greek tragedian (480–406 b.c.), whose works were studied in Byzantium, though probably not performed on stage due to their strictly pagan content. In the 11th century Michael Psellos authored a comparison of Euripides and George of Pisidia, who wrote epic eulogies of Herakleio.

Interest in the work of Euripides never flagged, as seen in John Apokaukos’s appreciation of Euripides. In the 14th century there was great interest in Euripides among philologists such as Maximos Planoudes, Thomas Magistros, and Demetrios Triklinios. Triklinios prepared new editions of the Greek tragedians, including the plays (some previously not taught, and thus not studied) of Euripides and of Sophocles. After the fall of Constantinople, Greek refugee scholars used these editions to teach Euripides at Padua and Florence. At Venice, Marcus Musurus edited Euripides for the Aldine Press. In such ways, Euripides passed to the Italian Renaissance. See also LITERATURE.

EURYTANEIA. Region in central Greece noted for its Alpine scenery and relative isolation. Besides its important post-Byzantine churches it also contains the ninth-century Church of the Dormition at Episkopi.

EUSEBIOS OF CAESAREA. Church historian and apologist; bishop of Caesarea Maritima, and biographer of Constantine I the Great. His Church History is of inestimable importance for the history of early eastern Christianity. The Church History describes in great detail, for example, the impact of the Great Persecution in Palestine under Maximinus Daia. The same can be said about his Vita Constantini (Life of Constantine), which remains at the core of any attempt to understand an emperor whose reign Eusebios describes as the high point of all human history. In the Vita Constantini is found the famous story the emperor told Eusebios about a miraculous vision he saw in the sky of a luminous cross and the words “By This Conquer!”

Eusebios’s other works include the Chronicle, in which he demonstrates how deep into antiquity are the roots of Christianity, and two apologetical works, his Preparation for the Gospel and Proof of the Gospel. He tolerated Arianism, a heresy he was persuaded to renounce at the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325. He died in 339. See also EDICT OF MILAN; EXCERPTA VALESIANA; GELASIOS OF CAESAREA; JEROME; PHILOSTORGIOS.

EUSEBIOS OF NIKOMEDEIA. Arian bishop of Nikomedeia and leader of the Arian party who was exiled in 325 for refusing to sign the decrees of the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325. Recalled by Constantine I the Great in 327, he became a trusted advisor to the emperor, baptizing him on his deathbed. Constantius II made him bishop of Constantinople in 338, and it was during his tenure as bishop of the capital that he ordained Ulfilas, the so-called bishop of the Goths. He died around 342 and, thus, did not live to see the failure of Arianism or of the tutorials in the Holy Scriptures that he gave future emperor Julian “The Apostate.” See also CHRIST, THEOLOGY OF; ORTHODOXY; THEOLOGY.

EUSTATHIOS OF ANTIOCH. When he was chosen bishop of Antioch in 324 the church there was in total disorder due to the controversy over Arianism. At the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325 Eustathios was a chief opponent of Arius, but in 337 when Constantine I the Great recalled Arius from exile, Eustathios’s position was undermined.

A council of his Arian opponents in Antioch deposed Eustathios in 330, accusing him of Sabellianism, the view that God appears in different modes as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He was also accused of keeping a mistress. Constantine I sent him into exile. Despite being condemned at the Council of Gangra in 341, in 362 his supporters (called Eustathians) elected the priest Paulinos as bishop of Antioch, precipitating the second Meletian schism. See also CHRIST, THEOLOGY OF; ORTHODOXY; THEOLOGY.

EUSTATHIOS OF SEBASTEIA. See GANGRA; GANGRA, COUNCIL OF.

EUSTATHIOS OF THESSALONIKE. Scholar, writer, teacher, archbishop of Thessalonike, and the most celebrated teacher of the 12th century. For a while he taught rhetoric, grammar, and philosophy at the Patriarchal School. His extensive and detailed commentaries on the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, on Aristophanes, Pindar, and John of Damascus, illustrate how 12th-century scholars were assimilating and reflecting on classical literature.

His descriptions of contemporary life are both useful and a sheer delight to read. His style is naturalistic, immediate, like that of his predecessors Michael Psellos and Anna Komnene. His gripping account of the Norman siege and occupation of Thessalonike in 1185 is perhaps the best eyewitness account in Byzantine literature. His treatise on monasticism is scathing in its criticism of contemporary monks who swore, fornicated, engaged in trade, and acted no different from laymen. He also wrote panegyrics to Manuel I Komnenos and letters that included an enormous amount of useful details about 12th-century agriculture. When he died in 1196 Byzantium lost an intellect and writer the likes of which had not been seen since Michael Psellos. See also CHONIATES, MICHAEL; HISTORY.

EUSTRATIOS OF NICAEA. Philosopher, theologian, metropolitan of Nicaea, whose trial for heresy was the chief event in the closing years of Alexios I Komnenos’s reign. Eustratios was a pupil of John Italos, but he escaped being condemned for heresy with Italos in 1082. Like Italos, Eustratios was a commentator on Proklos and Aristotle who concluded that Christ reasoned like Aristotle. This immediately invited suspicion. He also seemed to devalue Christ’s humanity. This opened him up to further charges of heresy, and in 1117 he was condemned. See also CHRIST, THEOLOGY OF; ORTHODOXY; THEOLOGY.

EUTHYMIOS. Patriarch of Constantinople from 907 to 912 whose career became embroiled in the tetragamy controversy. He was appointed after the deposition of Patriarch Nicholas I Mystikos, who refused to recognize the tetragamy, or fourth marriage, of Leo VI. This created two parties within the church, one siding with the deposed Nicholas, the other with Euthymios. Just before his death, Leo VI recalled Nicholas and deposed Euthymios, who was sent into exile. In 920, three years after Euthymios’s death, Romanos I Lekapenos attempted to reconcile the church through his Tome of Union. Euthymios’s vita is an important historical source for the years 886–917.

EUTHYMIOS OF SARDIS. Bishop of Sardis and staunch Iconophile in the struggle over Iconoclasm. His leadership at the Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 787 did not save him from being deposed by Nikephoros I, who accused him of supporting the rebel Bardanes Tourkos. He was persecuted in the second period of Iconoclasm by Leo V, who exiled him to Thasos, and by Theophilos, who exiled him to the island of Saint Andrew in the Sea of Marmara. There he died in 831 from a flogging he received. See also CAESAROPAPISM.

EUTHYMIOS THE GREAT. Saint and famous ascetic who founded the first lavra in Palestine in 428. He was loyal to the decrees of the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon and threw his support behind Patriarch Juvenal of Jerusalem, helping him regain his episcopal see from the usurper Theodosios. He also persuaded the empress Eudokia (Athenais-Eudokia), who was living in retirement in Jerusalem, to change her support from Monophysitism to Orthodoxy, as decreed by the Council of Chalcedon in 451. After his death in 473, Euthymios’s disciple Sabas continued his work in Palestine. See also ASCETICISM; KOINOBION.

EUTHYMIOS THE YOUNGER. See ATHOS, MOUNT; OLYMPOS, MOUNT.

EUTROPIOS. Grand chamberlain (praepositus sacri cubiculi) for Arkadios. He plotted with Stilicho to have Gainas assassinate their mutual archrival Rufinus. (Claudian’s Against Rufinus, an attempt to exonerate his patron Stilicho in this matter, is sheer propaganda.) With Rufinus out of the way, and the weak-willed Arkadios totally under the influence of Eutropios, the eunuch’s powers increased enormously. He took personal command of an army in 398 that drove the Huns from Cappadocia and Pontos back across the Caucasus. Despite this success, he alienated the Gothic army commanders Tribigild and Gainas, who demanded that Arkadios depose him. The empress Eudoxia seconded this demand, and Arkadios was forced to exile Eutropios to Cyprus. Subsequently he was executed.

EUTROPIUS. Latin historian and imperial official who served in the Persian campaign of Julian “The Apostate,” as did another Latin historian, Sextus Aurelius Victor. Eutropius wrote a survey (Breviarium) of Roman history to the death of Jovian in 364 that has some importance for the events for which he was a contemporary. His narrative of Julian’s reign complements the work of Ammianus Marcellinus. Eutropius is mentioned in connection with the treason trials at Antioch in 371. See also CLAUDIAN; EUNUCH.

EUTYCHES. Archimandrite of a monastery outside Constantinople who created the theological doctrine of Monophysitism. Eutyches’s godson, Chrysaphius was influential at court, but despite this, Patriarch Flavian had Eutyches condemned and deposed in 448. Chrysaphius responded by persuading Theodosios II in 449 to call a general church council at Ephesus, the “Robber” Council of Ephesus. There, Patriarch Dioskoros of Alexandria supported Eutyches. The council reinstated Eutyches and deposed Flavian, but when Theodosios II died Eutyches was sent into exile again.

EUTYCHIOS. Patriarch of Constantinople from 552 to 565, and again from 577 to 582. Justinian I hoped that Eutychios, who had supported Justinian I’s Three Chapters, would be as loyal as the previous patriarch Menas. His immediate task was to gain a favorable outcome for Justinian I at the Fifth Ecumenical Council at Constantinople in 553, which he did, despite a condemnation (later reversed) from Pope Vigilius. However, he could not agree with Justinian I’s support of the doctrine of Aphthartodocetism, and so the emperor deposed him, exiling him to a monastery at Amasea. He was subsequently restored as patriarch during the reign of Justinian I’s successor, Justin II.

EUTYCHIOS. Last exarch of Ravenna. Sent to Italy by Leo III around 728, he tried unsuccessfully to murder Pope Gregory II, who had resisted Leo III’s Iconoclasm. Left to organize the defense of the Exarchate on his own, he ended up seeking Gregory II’s help, as well as the help of his papal successors Gregory III and Zacharias, who negotiated with the Lombards on Eutychios’s behalf. However, in 751 the Lombards captured Ravenna, putting an end to Byzantine authority north of Rome. See also CHRIST, THEOLOGY OF; THEOLOGY.

EUTYCHIOS OF ALEXANDRIA. Melkite bishop of Alexandria from 935 to 940 who wrote a world chronicle in Arabic from Adam to 938. It reports important Byzantine affairs (e.g., Byzantine Iconoclasm) and coordinates the chronology of Byzantine imperial reigns with those of the eastern patriarchs and Caliphs. See also HISTORY.

EVAGRIOS PONTIKOS. One of the most interesting monastic thinkers and writers of the fourth century. His mentors were Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzos, from whom Evagrios acquired a passion for theology and monasticism. His support of Origen led him to state that Christ was not the second person of the Trinity, but a pure intellect united to the logos. His Origenism was later condemned at the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 553. Nonetheless, his writings on monastic spirituality were enormously influential, although they were circulated under pseudonyms like Neilos of Ankyra because they were so obviously influenced by Origenism.

Evagrios conceived of monasticism as a mental prayer, as essentially contemplation, laying the basis for a mystical tradition in monasticism that Hesychasm was a later expression of. The last 16 years of his life were spent in the desert of Egypt at the great monastic centers of Nitria and Kellia, where he met Makarios the Great before he died in 399.

EVAGRIOS SCHOLASTIKOS. Church historian whose Ecclesiastical History in six books continues the ecclesiastical histories of Socrates, Theodoret of Cyrhus, and Sozomenos, beginning with the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431 and ending in 593. The work is of great value for secular history, as well as for church history. For example, Evagrios’s work is one of only a few important sources for the penetration of Greece by Slavs and Avars in the last quarter of the sixth century.

EXARCH. See EUTYCHIOS; EXARCHATES.

EXARCHATES. There were two of these new administrative units created by Maurice. The first was the Exarchate of Carthage, which defended Byzantine possessions in North Africa against the Moors. The second was the Exarchate of Ravenna, which protected Byzantine possessions in Italy against the Lombards. Their creation was an indirect admission that the remnants of Justinian I’s reconquest of the West were too far away to be governed from Constantinople. The one in North Africa fell to the Arabs in the late seventh century. The Exarchate of Ravenna fell to the Lombards in 751.

The Exarchates functioned almost autonomously, exercising both civil and military authority within their territories. They allowed the full resources of each region to be concentrated under the supreme power of the exarch, beholden only to the emperor. They exemplify the dire circumstances of imperial possessions in the West after Justinian I’s reign, which necessitated the centralization and militarization of the imperial resources.

EXCERPTA. A compilation of writings by various ancient and Byzantine authors done at the behest of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos. Since many of these works exist only in these excerpts, this compilation is particularly valuable. For example, it preserves the account of Priskos’s embassy to the court of Attila. See also LITERATURE; MACEDONIAN RENAISSANCE.

EXCERPTA VALESIANA. A short biography of Constantine I the Great written in the late fourth century by an anonymous pagan author. Compared to the fulsome praise of Eusebios of Caesarea, the view of Constantine is surprisingly objective. The author even makes occasional use of the Christian history of Orosius. The title derives from its ninth-century manuscript, published in the 17th century by Henri de Valois (Valesius). The manuscript also contains a later work about Ostrogothic Italy under Odoacer and Theodoric the Great. See also HISTORY.

EXEMPTION. Any form of immunity from taxation or other obligation to the state. Exemptions could be temporary or permanent. From the 14th century, permanent exemptions like exkousseia were granted by the emperor with increasing frequency to merchants, monasteries, and individuals. This practice was a factor in the decline of the Byzantine state.

EXKOUBITORES. Imperial guard created by Leo I, commanded by a count (comes exkoubitores, later a domestikos exkoubitores). Such commanders wielded considerable power on occasion, as seen in the example of usurper Valentinos Arsakuni, who engineered the downfall of Martina. Unlike the largely ceremonial candidatoi, the exkoubitores were one of several elite regiments (tagmata) that included the scholae palatinae and the hikanatoi. See also ARMY.

EXKOUSSEIA. Tax exemption on land, paroikoi, ships, buildings, and animals that appeared in the 10th century, taken advantage of by powerful landed magnates (the dynatoi). It is interpreted variously as the equivalent to immunity in the Latin West, and thus a complete tax exemption, or as an exemption only from certain taxes. In the 14th and 15th centuries the term appears to cover any tax exemption. See also TAXATION.

EXPOSITIO TOTIUS MUNDI. Travelogue of the mid-fourth century, probably written by a Greek merchant. It is preserved only in two Latin versions. It begins with a fictitious account of Eden, then moves westward with descriptions of India, Persia, Syria, Alexandria, Asia Minor, Thrace, Macedonia, Greece, Italy, Gaul, Spain, Africa, Cyprus, Crete, Sicily, and Britain. Its comments range from climate to commerce. Among the exports from Spain, for example, it lists oil, bacon, cloth, and mules; from Africa it notes oil, cattle, and clothing. See also GEOGRAPHY; LITERATURE; TRADE AND COMMERCE.

EZANA. King of Axum who was a contemporary of Constantine I the Great. He issued cross-inscribed gold coins at a weight equivalent to the solidus. During this same period a certain Frumentius, consecrated by Athanasios, became the first serious missionary to Axum. See also AFRICA; COINAGE.

EZERITAI. Slavic tribe situated in the Taygetos Mountains of the Peloponnesos. The Ezeritai are mentioned in the De administrando imperio as living with the Melingoi, another Slavic tribe. The Ezeritai revolted during the reign of Romanos I Lekapenos and were defeated. However, unlike other Slavic tribes that were assimilated, they continued to maintain their independence up to the conquest of the Peloponnesos by the Ottomans. See also BARBARIANS.