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PACHOMIOS. Founder of cenobitic (communal) monasticism; Egyptian saint (ca. 290–346). He was the first to organize monks into a communal life with a written rule. Around 320 this former soldier founded a koinobion at Tabennisi in the upper part of the Nile River valley; there he organized his small group of disciples, devising for them the first monastic rule. Jerome subsequently translated his Rules, as well as his letters. Eight more such monasteries were organized at Tabennisi. In 330 Pachomios founded a koinobion at Pbow that subsequently administered the entire group of monasteries. See also ASCETICISM.

PACHYMERES, GEORGE. Historian (died ca. 1310) whose history, covering the years 1260–1308, is the chief source for the reign of Michael VIII Palaiologos and for part of the reign of Andronikos II Palaiologos. Pachymeres describes, for example, the extensive frontier defenses erected in Thrace, Macedonia, and Asia Minor by the Empire of Nicaea. A student of George Akropolites, he became perhaps the greatest Byzantine scholar of the 13th century, with a legacy of writings on topics as diverse as mathematics, law, and rhetoric. See also HISTORY.

PACUIUL LUI SOARE. See DOBRUDJA.

PAGANISM. Central to Roman paganism was the belief that the gods influenced events, since the gods had responsibility for the success of all vital processes on which the state and individuals depended. Vesta was the goddess concerned with all things related to the hearth, Janus the god of openings and closings (entrances and departures), Aphrodite the goddess of love, and so forth. Some gods, like Apollo, had multiple powers. The state was particularly concerned with its own success, and since the state took responsibility for interpreting the will of the gods, and appeasing them if necessary, Roman paganism was primarily a state religion.

Interpreting omens and performing the correct traditional rites was a major responsibility of civic and military leaders. Thus, unlike Christianity, which was focused on personal sin and the afterlife, Roman paganism was concerned chiefly with success and prosperity of the state, not with individual sin, personal salvation, and the afterlife. In fact, until the extraordinary conversion of Constantine I the Great to Christianity, it seemed as if the two conceptions of religion were generally far apart.

Constantine’s father Constantius, like many thoughtful Romans, seems to have believed that the many gods were manifestations of a single god, often identified with the sun (Sol Invictus, the Unconquerable Sun). Constantine’s solar vision with the cross was interpreted by Christian priests in his entourage as a message to Constantine that the single god of his father was Christ.

Nevertheless, Constantine conceived of Christianity in the traditional manner of a Roman emperor, as having correctly identified his patron god, Christ, who, if venerated properly, would bring him victory on the battlefield. His famous labarum did just that, and the continued success of Constantine, coupled with his long reign and promotion of the Christian church, put paganism on the defensive.

Concerted attacks on paganism began only in the late fourth century. The pagan orator Libanios wrote a letter to Theodosios I complaining about bishops who used monks to tear down rural temples. Increasingly temples were made into Christian churches, or dismantled and their materials used as spolia for other buildings. Pagan sculpture lost its power to induce fear, Christians saw the hand of God in the failure of Julian “The Apostate,” and the intellectual component behind paganism was attacked when Justinian I closed the Academy of Athens in 529. Paganism was gradually cut to bits, bit by bit, so to speak. By the seventh century, the numbers of pagans had declined significantly, except in parts of Greece among unconverted Slavs. See also ALTAR OF VICTORY; ASTROLOGY; DIOCLETIAN; EDICT OF MILAN; GALERIUS; GAZA; GREAT PERSECUTION; HYPATIA; JUSTINIAN I; LIBANIOS; LICINIUS; MAGIC; MAXENTIUS; MAXIMOS OF EPHESOS; MAXIMINUS DAIA; NEOPLATONISM; PORPHYRIOS OF GAZA; THEURGY; VITA CONSTANTINI.

PALAIOLOGAN DYNASTY. Longest-lived of Byzantine imperial dynasties, founded by Michael VIII Palaiologos, who recovered Constantinople from the Latin Empire in 1261. The dynasty included Michael VIII (1261–1282), Andronikos II (1282–1328), Andronikos III (1328–1341), John V (1341–1391; and during his turbulent reign these rulers: John VI Kantakouzenos [1347–1354], Andronikos VI [1376–1379], and John VII [1390]), Manuel II (1391–1425), John VIII (1425–1448), and Constantine XI (1449–1453). The dynasty ended with the death of Constantine XI during the final Ottoman assault on Constantinople in 1453.

Ultimately, the destruction wrought by the Fourth Crusade and the Latin Empire was something Palaiologan dynasts were not able to surmount. Palaiologan emperors sought vainly to stem the decline of restored Byzantium, but this proved virtually impossible in the face of unrelenting Ottoman expansion and threats from the West (e.g., from Charles I of Anjou and the Catalan Grand Company). Help sought from the West proved to be a chimera.

Despite this decline, Byzantine art and architecture, as well as Byzantine literature and cultural interactions with the West, flourished. Moreover, the Palaiologan period produced some of Byzantium’s finest scholars, including Bessarion, George Gemistos Plethon, and Demetrios Kydones. See also PROTOSTRATOR.

PALAMAS, GREGORY. Theologian and chief defender of Hesychasm who became archbishop of Thessalonike from 1347 to 1359. He was subsequently elevated to sainthood in 1368. His writings form a core of apologetic literature called Palamism, which defended the meditative prayer developed by the monks of Mount Athos as a way for direct, mystical experience of God in the form of the divine light seen by Christ’s disciples on Mount Tabor. In this way the inaccessibility of God was bridged by divine energy, as opposed to the bridge of cosmic hierarchy espoused by Pseudo-Dionysios.

Barlaam of Calabria ridiculed Hesychasm as superstition, denying the possibility of seeing the Light of Tabor. Palamas, who was a former Athonian monk, defended Hesychasm against Barlaam with vigor, arguing that the Light of Tabor was one of God’s uncreated energies that manifest God’s power in the world. He gained a wide circle of supporters for his views, among whom were the patriarchs Isidore I Boucheiras, Kallistos I, and Philotheos Kokkinos, and Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos. Among his opponents were the Zealots, who until 1350 prohibited him from assuming his duties as archbishop of Thessalonike. See also GREGORAS, NIKEPHOROS; KYDONES, PROCHOROS; LAVRA, GREAT; MESSALIANISM; PHILOKALIA; SAINT.

PALAMISM. See GREGORAS, NIKEPHORAS; KABASILAS, NICHOLAS CHAMETOS; KALLISTOS I; PALAMAS, GREGORY.

PALERMO. City in northwest Sicily. Taken by the Vandals in 440, it was recaptured in 536 by Belisarios when he invaded Sicily. The Arabs captured Palermo in 831, making it their capital. After 1072 it was the capital of Norman Sicily, and the site of a flourishing silk industry. Roger II was crowned in Palermo in 1130, as was Henry VI in 1194. It was in Palermo that the Sicilian Vespers erupted in 1282.

PALESTINE. Region called the Holy Land situated between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River valley, including the Dead Sea and Sea of Galilee, and the Golan Heights in the north. Its southern extent was the Negev desert. Its major cities included Caesarea Maritima, Jerusalem, Skythopolis, Neapolis, and Gaza.

The impact of state-supported Christianity on the region was great. Palestine became a focus for pilgrimage after Constantine I the Great’s mother Helena made her own journey there, where she allegedly discovered the True Cross. Monasticism spread quickly; among its many famous monks were Euthymios the Great and Sabas.

Palestine also produced the famous historians Eusebios of Caesarea, Sozomenos, and Prokopios of Caesarea. Chorikos of Gaza and Prokopios of Gaza were among the notable rhetoricians from the school of rhetoric at Gaza. Up to the Muslim conquest, Palestine continued to be home to Jews, Orthodox Christians, Monophysites, and Samaritans. In 614 the Persians captured Jerusalem and carried off the True Cross. Herakleios restored the True Cross to Jerusalem ca. 629, but Byzantine rule over the region proved to be ephemeral. Muslim domination of the region was completed by 638, the year bishop Sophronios was forced to surrender Jerusalem to the Arabs.

PALMYRA. (Tadmor in Syriac.) Oasis capital of the kingdom of Palmyra, in the desert of Syria. After it fell to the Roman emperor Aurelian in 273, Diocletian made it into a military bastion that helped to protect the eastern frontier. Justinian I restored its fortifications. However, those fortifications could not resist the Arabs, who conquered it in 633. See also PETRA; SERGIOPOLIS.

PAMMAKARISTOS, CHURCH OF HAGIA MARIA. See GLABAS, MICHAEL TARCHANEIOTES.

PAMPHYLIA. The coastal plain of south Asia Minor between Lycia and Cilicia. The region was difficult to defend against Arab naval attack from Syria. The only havens of safety were its fortified cities, including Side, Syllaion, and above all the major port of Attaleia, seat of the theme of Kibyrrhaiotai. A section of the army of the Second Crusade commanded by Otto of Freising reached Attaleia in 1148, and they found it almost isolated amid a countryside much ravaged by the Seljuks. See also NAVY.

PANAGHIA TON CHALKEON. See THESSALONIKE.

PANARETOS, MICHAEL. His chronicle, covering the years 1204–1390, is the principal source for the history of the Empire of Trebizond. His long service to Alexios III Komnenos included participation in the emperor’s military expeditions and acquisition of direct knowledge of the major political and ecclesiastical events at court for the years after 1340, the period for which the chronicle is most useful.

PANDECTS. See DIGEST.

PANHYPERSEBASTOS. See SEBASTOS.

PANNONIA. Roman province in central Europe that bordered the Danube to the north and east, and the province of Noricum to the west. Diocletian divided it into four provinces (Pannonia I, Pannonia II, Savia, and Valeria) ca. 295. It was overrun by barbarians in the late fourth century and settled by Avars in the sixth century. See also ALBANIANS; COTRIGURS.

PANTELEEMON MONASTERY. See ATHOS, MOUNT.

PANTEUGENOS, SOTERICHOS. Theologian who was condemned in 1157 for his views on the Eucharist; patriarch-designate of Antioch and a deacon of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. He was attacked in 1156 by Nicholas of Methone, theologian and supporter of Manuel I Komnenos, for maintaining the view that it was to the Father alone (not to the entire Trinity) to which the Eucharist was offered. This view had been condemned at a synod in Constantinople earlier that same year. Manuel I called a new council in 1157 that condemned Panteugenos and cast Manuel I in the role of defender of Orthodoxy. See also CHRIST, THEOLOGY OF; FILIOQUE; LITURGY; THEOLOGY.

PANTOKRATOR. Greek for “all-sovereign” (or “Ruler of All”), a term applied to God in Revelation 19:6. In art, the Pantokrator refers to a way of representing Christ in a bust-length, frontal portrait, holding a Gospel book in his left hand and blessing with his right hand. This image was frequently painted in the central dome of churches, as in the church at Daphni, near Athens. The Pantokrator Monastery in Constantinople was renowned.

PANTOKRATOR MONASTERY. See GUNTHER OF PAIRIS; PANTOKRATOR; PHILANTHROPY.

PAPACY. Office and administrative jurisdiction of the pope of Rome. The term comes from the Greek “papas,” which means father, from which “pope” is also derived. Eastern influence on the papacy is also seen in the many Greek and Syrian popes during the seventh and eighth centuries.

The claim of the pope to be father over the entire church is at the heart of papal primacy, the most intractable issue between the eastern and western churches. See also CAESAROPAPISM; CHURCH SCHISM OF 1054; CRUSADES; UNION OF THE CHURCHES.

PAPAL PRIMACY. The eastern and western churches defined this differently, which became a central issue in the separation of the eastern and western churches.

The Byzantine church gave the bishop of Rome honorary primacy, but it never accepted the papacy’s view that the bishop of Rome was a primate over the entire church. This the papacy demanded, claiming inherited superior apostolic power from the first apostle St. Peter, using Matthew 10:2 and 16:18 as supporting texts, along with the forged Donation of Constantine. In any case, the Byzantine church took a more collegial view toward the power of bishops, seeing ultimate primacy as residing in the consensus of bishops at an Ecumenical Council. See also LEO I THE GREAT; PATRIARCH; PENTARCHY; UNION OF THE CHURCHES.

PAPHLAGONIA. Region of north Asia Minor situated between Bithynia and Pontos, consisting of the south shore of the Black Sea and inland territory. The chief cities included Amastris and its metropolis Gangra. It belonged to the theme of Opsikion before becoming its own theme in the early ninth century.

Theophilos’s wife Theodora came from Paphlagonia, as did Michael IV Paphlagon. After the Battle of Mantzikert in 1071 the Seljuks overran the interior. However, the coast remained in Byzantine possession until the Ottomans subjugated it in the late 14th century. See also TIMBER.

PARAKOIMOMENOS. The imperial chamberlain who guarded the emperor’s bedchamber. Usually parakoimomenoi were eunuchs, but sometimes not, as in the case of the future emperor Basil I, appointed to the post by Michael III. In the 10th century it became an extremely powerful office. For example, Joseph Bringas administered the empire as parakoimomenos of Romanos II.

PAREKKLESION. A chapel, freestanding or attached, along the side of a church, or located within a church’s upper story. Perhaps the most famous parekklesion is the one built alongside the Church of the Chora Monastery in Constantinople that contains frescoes important for the study of 14th-century monumental painting. See also GLABAS, MICHAEL TARCHANEIOTES.

PARIS PSALTER. See PSALTER.

PAROIKOS. A peasant dependent on a large landowner (including monasteries, churches, even charitable institutions). The colonus of earlier centuries may provide a link to the paroikos, but this has been impossible to demonstrate. The numbers of paroikoi seem to have increased during the 10th century. In the 11th century their status became hereditary, with the recipient assuming all obligations to the landowner.

From Romanos I through Basil II legislation against the dynatoi attempted to deal with the replacement of independent farmers by the growing number of paroikoi. However, by the 13th century paroikoi on large estates increased so much that they replaced independent village communities almost entirely. Pronoia grants could involve the tax revenues and services of paroikoi. See also AGRICULTURE; ECONOMY; MONASTICISM; TAXATION.

PARTITIO ROMANIAE. Literally, “the sharing of Romania,” the title of the treaty of 1204 that ruthlessly divided up Byzantium among the major participants of the Fourth Crusade.

Latin emperor Baldwin of Flanders received five-eighths of Constantinople, in addition to a quarter of imperial territory that included Thrace, a portion of northwest Asia Minor, and several islands in the Aegean Sea, notably Lesbos, Chios, and Samos. Boniface of Montferrat seized Thessalonike and its surrounding territory to form the Kingdom of Thessalonike. Subsequent to the treaty, in 1205 a Latin principality was founded in the Peloponnesos by William I Champlitte and Geoffrey I Villehardouin. In that same year, Othon de la Roche was granted Athens and Thebes.

Venice got the lion’s share, including three-eighths of Constantinople, the Ionian islands, the islands of Crete, Euboea, Andros, and Naxos, as well as the most important ports of the Hellespont and the Sea of Marmara. This allowed them, in effect, to dominate the sea route from Venice to Constantinople. Long after the Latin Empire had collapsed the Venetians could look back on this treaty as providing them with the foundation for their colonial empire in the eastern Mediterranean.

PASTOPHORIA. See DIAKONIKON; PROTHESIS.

PATMOS. Island off the southwest coast of Asia Minor in the Aegean Sea, where tradition has it St. John the Divine wrote the New Testament’s Book of Revelation. Its great Byzantine monument is the Monastery of St. John the Theologian, founded by Christodoulos of Patmos, who was given the island by Alexios I Komnenos in 1088. Thereafter, Patmos was attacked by pirates and Arabs, including by Tzachas in around 1090. It fell into Venetian hands in 1207. In 1461, as a consequence of the fall of Constantinople, Pope Pius II placed the island under papal protection. The Ottomans occupied it in 1537.

PATRAS. See DANELIS; SPHRANTZES, GEORGE.

PATRIARCH. Title of the bishop of one of the five patriarchal sees: Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. From the perspective of the Byzantine church, authority over Christendom was shared collectively by the five bishops as a pentarchy (“the power of five,” in Greek), with the bishop of Rome given honorary primacy only, not papal primacy.

Likewise, the title “Ecumenical Patriarch,” used by the bishops of Constantinople from the time of Patriarch John IV “Faster” onward, did not signify universal overlordship over the entire church, but rather the preeminence of the bishop of Constantinople over those bishops under the political dominion of Byzantium. See also PAPACY.

PATRIARCHAL SCHOOL. Established by Alexios I Komnenos, if not earlier, the school provided higher education for clergy and monks. Core subjects included theology and related subjects, but other topics could be introduced, depending on the teacher. Michael Italikos, for example, taught a broad range of topics that included the Holy Scriptures, rhetoric, philosophy, and mathematics. Other famous 12th-century scholars who taught in the school included Eustathios of Thessalonike and the rhetorician Nikephoros Chrysoberges.

PATRIARCHATE. See PATRIARCH.

PATRIKIOS. A long-lived honorary title, created by Constantine I the Great, granted to important military and civil officials. Its importance gradually diminished after the 10th century; it disappeared entirely after the beginning of the 12th century. See also TELERIG; THEOKTISTOS; VITALIAN.

PATZINAKS. See PECHENEGS.

PAULICIANS. Armenian sect whose state was centered at Tephrike in northeastern Cappadocia. It flourished briefly from ca. 843, until Byzantine forces stormed it in 878, establishing on its ruins first a kleisoura, then a theme. What is known about Paulician doctrine is that it embraced Iconoclasm. Paulician beliefs may have had roots in ancient Manichaeanism. It seems likely that the Paulicians influenced the Bogomils of Bulgaria, who subsequently influenced the Cathars of Western Europe, who were known by various names, such as the Albigensians. See also BASIL I.

PAUL OF AEGINA. Physician whose seventh-century Epitome of Medicine, based on Hippocrates, Galen, and Oribasios, remained the chief medical text in Byzantium. It exerted considerable influence on Islamic and European medicine through translations into Arabic and Latin. The sections on pharmacology and on surgery were particularly influential.

PAUL OF LATROS. See LATROS.

PAUL SILENTIARIOS. See GREEK ANTHOLOGY; HAGIA SOPHIA.

PAUSANIUS. See GEOGRAPHY.

PBOW. See PACHOMIOS.

PEASANTS. Peasants comprised the overwhelming majority of Byzantium’s inhabitants. Their world was that of the village, which in all periods would have been largely self-sufficient, with a small number of artisans that included smiths, potters, masons, and those who made leather goods. There was always at least one church, and perhaps nearby a monastery.

Like the rest of Byzantine society, the nuclear family formed the fundamental unit of peasant villages in all periods. Around each nuclear family was an extended family that provided mutual support. Family members all worked, including children, although the tasks of women were more concentrated in and around the house, where clothes needed washing and vegetable gardens needed tending. More strenuous agricultural duties, such as harvesting, were done chiefly by males. Gender defined certain artisan skills; for example, women did spinning and weaving. A village smith, or peasant who made leather goods, would be male.

Working together a peasant family could hope to pay their taxes and survive from year to year. If the husband died, the wife inherited the family property and continued to maintain the family. However, droughts were always a threat, and droughts could produce famines. Outbreaks of the plague often spread into the rural countryside. Enemy invasions could have a devastating impact on peasants and their villages.

Much could depend on where a peasant’s village was located. If it was near a large town or city, or near a major highway, transporting farm produce to larger markets could be relatively easy. The Arab traveler Harun Ibn-Yahya records in his memoir (ca. 900) that it took him 12 days to journey from Consantinople to Thessalonika, and that all along the way he saw villages and cultivated land. A village along the Via Egnatia was well located. Otherwise transportation, like so many things in a peasant’s life, could be difficult.

Peasants were at the bottom of the social scale, but there were distinctions of wealth among them, and limited vertical ascent up the social scale was possible. One might be able send one’s son off to be an artisan’s apprentice in a nearby city or monastery; a soldier’s life could offer some upward mobility.

Great upward mobility for peasants was rare, but it did happen in the late fifth century when the son of a peasant left the village of Berderiana in the Balkan Peninsula (near modern Skopje, Macedonia, in the former Byzantine province of Dardania) to seek his fortune in Constantinople. He became a soldier and rose rapidly through the ranks to commander of a palace regiment. When the emperor Anastasios I died childless in 518, he intrigued behind the scenes to gain the throne as Justin I, reigning from 518 to 527.

Justin I was illiterate, according to Prokopios of Caesarea, and had to sign documents with the help of a stencil. However, his nephew, also a village boy, he brought to Constantinople to be educated. He would succeed his uncle as Justinian I (527–565), and became one of the most renowned Byzantine emperors.

If one excludes such rare examples, the more general picture of peasants and peasant villages is described, or can be inferred, from the biographies (vitae) of saints, as in the vita of Theodore of Sykeon, which mentions details about Theodore’s birthplace, the village of Sykeon, in Asia Minor. The Farmer’s Law offers much detail as well about rural villages in seventh or eighth century, in some part of the Balkan Peninsula, probably Macedonia or Thrace.

Peasants and their villages also appear in tax inventories (praktika), for taxation on peasants was of paramount interest to the state. After all, the overwhelming majority of tax revenues to the Byzantine state in all periods came from peasants, and this is what chiefly concerned the Byzantine state in regard to peasants. In all periods taxes were assessed on what a peasant actually owned, which would have comprised productive land, draft animals, and livestock. Tax assessment and collection (the latter typically twice yearly) was a huge endeavor by the state, requiring an extensive bureaucracy that allowed Byzantium to not only assess and collect taxes, but transport tax collections to state treasuries. Sometimes peasants paid their taxes in services to the state, at other times with agricultural produce, but the state generally preferred gold coins, nomismata.

Peasants were either free, or dependent on a large landowner. The proportion of free to dependent varied during the course of the Byzantine Empire, depending on the prevalence of large estates. During the fourth to sixth centuries, when large estates dominated much of the countryside of Byzantium, dependent coloni were numerous. The decline of large estates during the Dark Ages from the seventh to the 10th century, allowed free peasant villages to thrive. From the 10th through the 12th century, with the rise of large landowners (dynatoi), a dependent peasantry emerged again. From the 13th century until the end of Byzantium peasants were overwhelmingly paroikoi. In sum, peasants and the villages they lived in were not static, timeless entities, but changed over time.

Much of Byzantine military policy was directed toward defending peasants and their land. This was particularly true in Asia Minor after the advent of Islam, where many peasants were enlisted as farmer-soldiers, granted stratiotika ktemata, and expected to serve in local militias to defend their theme against Arab raiders. For although there was much about peasants and their villages that changed over time, what never changed was the fundamental fact that Byzantium’s economy was chiefly based on agriculture, and it was the agricultural surplus of peasant labor on which the state depended.

Peasant revolts did not occur in Byzantium. The “masses,” when they played a significant role in Byzantine history at all, did so in urban contexts. The urban population of Constantinople, for example, on occasion rebelled against an emperor. Justinian I, after all, put down a popular revolt in Constantinople called the Nika Revolt. There was no such equivalent among the peasantry in the Byzantine countryside.

It is important to keep in mind that the prosperity of the Byzantine state, its army and fortifications, its vast bureaucracy, its diplomacy, as well as the magnificent art and architecture, was paid for largely by peasants. See also ALLELENGYON; EXKOUSSEIA; FEUDALISM; KANON.

PEC. Serbian cultural and religious center. In 1346 Stefan Urosh IV Dushan proclaimed an independent Serbian patriarchate at Pec, something never acknowledged by the Byzantine church. The estrangement caused by this proclamation was resolved in 1375 when the head of the Serbian church was accorded the title of patriarch.

PECHENEGS. Warlike, nomadic people (or Patzinaks) from the Eurasian steppe who appeared on Byzantium’s northern frontier in the late ninth century. They moved westward from the Volga, perhaps under pressure from the Uzes, driving the Magyars beyond the Dnieper, and settling between the Don and lower Danube.

They were organized into eight tribes, and they had no king. They were often enemies of Bulgaria and the Rus, which usually suited Byzantine interests; for example, they killed Svjatoslav, Byzantium’s Rus adversary, in 972. They also served as mercenaries in Byzantine armies. Thus, the Pechenegs helped to stabilize Byzantium’s northern frontier. However, in 1047 they became a direct threat when a new horde of Pechenegs crossed the Danube to plunder Thrace. In 1053, a 30-year truce was arranged that accepted Pecheneg settlement south of the Danube.

Nevertheless, raids into Thrace followed in 1078 and 1087; the 1087 raid included Uzes and Cumans. The Pecheneg problem was solved temporarily by Alexios I Komnenos, who nearly wiped them out at the Battle of Mount Lebounion in 1091. The remnants were resettled and found work as mercenaries in Alexios I’s armies.

A final wave of Pechenegs met the same end in 1122. Crossing the Danube, they pillaged Macedonia and Thrace before being defeated by John II Komnenos, who instituted an annual day of celebration to commemorate his victory. See also DOROSTOLON; MANTZIKERT, BATTLE OF; PRESLAV.

PELAGIA THE HARLOT. Famous and beautiful fourth-century (possibly fifth-century) dancer of Antioch who became a saint. According to her vita she experienced a sudden conversion to Christianity due to the influence of Bishop Nonnos. Disguised as a eunuch, she retired to an obscure grotto on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. There she lived out her days, and only upon her death was the truth discovered. The Menologion of Basil II refers to her as a harlot, hence the epithet. See also WOMEN.

PELAGONIA, BATTLE OF. Decisive battle fought in 1259 on the plain of Pelagonia, near Kastoria. The army of the Empire of Nicaea, led by John, the brother of Michael VIII Palaiologos won a decisive victory over coalition forces from Michael II Komnenos Doukas of the Despotate of Epiros, Manfred of Sicily, and William II Villehardouin of the Principality of Achaia.

As soon as the battle began the coalition forces began to desert. John’s Cuman archers carried the day. William II was captured and all of Manfred’s 400 knights surrendered. Michael VIII Palaiologos was now able to concentrate on the recovery of Constantinople without fear of attack from the West. In addition, William II’s ransom included handing over to Michael VIII three key fortresses of Frankish Achaia: Mistra, Monemvasia, and Maina. See also FORTIFICATIONS.

PELEKETE MONASTERY. See LACHANODRAKON, MICHAEL; OLYMPOS, MOUNT.

PELLA. See VIA EGNATIA.

PELOPONNESOS. The peninsula of southern Greece, whose name means “Island of Pelops,” joined to the Greek mainland by the narrow Isthmus of Corinth. It was part of the Roman province of Achaia, whose capital was Corinth in Roman and early Byzantine times. The devastation wrought by Alaric’s invasion of 396–397 resulted in a barrier wall called the Hexamilion across the Isthmus of Corinth.

Nevertheless, in the late sixth century the Peloponnesos was invaded by Slavs who settled chiefly in mountainous regions, like the Melingoi and Ezeritai who lived in the Tayegetos Mountains. Byzantine power was reestablished during the reign of Nikephoros I. In 1205, in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade, William I Champlitte and Geoffrey I Villehardouin began their conquest of the Peloponnesos, creating the Frankish principality of Achaia, with strongholds at Mistra, Monemvasia, and Maina. The Franks referred to the Peloponnesos more generally by the enigmatic name Morea.

In 1262 much of Frankish Achaia, including Mistra, was returned to Byzantine hands following the Battle of Pelagonia (1259). The Despotate of Morea (1348–1460) was intermittently threatened by the Ottomans. Manuel II Palaiologos rebuilt the Hexamilion in 1415, but the Ottomans overran it in 1423 and 1446. The last vestige of Byzantium in the Peloponnesos fell in 1460, when Mistra surrendered to Mehmed II. See also ACCIAJUOLI; ALBANIANS; DANELIS; NAVARRESE COMPANY.

PENDENTIVE. Vaulting in the shape of a curved triangle that supports the base of a dome between the supporting arches. When four pendentives are placed between the tops of four arches that form a square, a continuous circular base is created for a dome to rest on.

Another solution of how to place the circular base of a dome on a square consisting of four arches is to connect the tops of the arches with four half-conical niches called squinches; this provides an octagon for the dome to rest on. Both the pendentive and the squinch allowed domes to be erected over traditional church basilicas. The first use of a pendentive to create a domed church was in Hagia Sophia, built by Justinian I. See also ARCHITECTURE.

PENTAPOLIS. See CYRENAICA.

PENTAPYRGION. See CHRYSOTRIKLINOS.

PENTARCHY. Greek term for “the rule of five,” referring to the Byzantine theory, which evolved in the fifth and sixth centuries (formally sanctioned by Justinian I), that church authority is collective, residing in the five patriarchates of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. It followed that no church council could be called unless all five were present.

This theory was contested by the papacy, which subsequently claimed exclusive papal primacy over the church, not just honorary primacy among equal partners. The theory was also weakened by the conquest of the Near East by the Arabs, since the sees of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem were no longer a part of Byzantium. See also ARCHBISHOP; CLERGY.

PERA. See GALATA.

PERGAMON. See GALEN; MAXIMOS OF EPHESUS; NEOPLATONISM.

PERIBLEPTOS MONASTERY. See CONSTANTINOPLE; ROMANOS III ARGYROS.

PERI STRATEGIKES. See STRATEGIKA.

PERSIA. The Persia known to Byzantium was created in 226 when the Sassanians overthrew the Parthians. This new and highly nationalistic state made Zoroastrianism the state religion and revived the imperialistic aspirations of ancient Persia. This resulted in centuries of intermittent struggle with Byzantium.

Interaction with Persia went beyond warfare. Active diplomatic relations acquainted Byzantium with Persian court ceremonial, which was adopted in the Byzantine court. Herakleios, after defeating Persia, expropriated the title of the Persian king, basileus, making it the chief title of the Byzantine emperor. Until Justinian I developed domestic silk production, the Persians acted as intermediaries in the silk trade. Manichaeanism, which the Persians persecuted, had an impact on Byzantium, notably on Augustine. Nestorians, persecuted in Byzantium, found refuge in Persia.

Nevertheless, it is the centuries of intermittent warfare, chiefly in Mesopotamia, that characterized Byzantine-Persian relations (e.g., in the sixth century Byzantium was at war with Persia from 505 to 507, from 527 to 532, from 540 to 545, and from 572 to 591). The Persians even sacked Antioch in 540, but it was in the early seventh century that Persian armies made extraordinary advances. From 609 to 619 they conquered Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. The long counteroffensive from 622 to 628 by Herakleios, among the greatest military exploits in Byzantine history, culminated in the utter defeat of Persia. In 631 the True Cross was restored to Jerusalem with great celebration.

This final victory in Persia marked the utter triumph of Byzantium after centuries of intermittent warfare with Persia. It also came a year before the death of Muhammad the Prophet. Soon after Muhammad the Prophet’s death in 632 Persia was attacked by the Arabs; by the middle of the seventh century the Arab conquest of Persia was complete. In effect, the Byzantine defeat of Persia only paved the way for Arab expansion. See also DIPLOMACY; TABARI.

PETER III OF ARAGON. See SICILIAN VESPERS.

PETER MONGOS. See TIMOTHEOS AILOUROS.

PETER OF ATROA. See OLYMPOS, MOUNT.

PETER OF BULGARIA. Tsar of Bulgaria from 927 to 969; son of Symeon of Bulgaria. Unlike his bellicose father, Peter sought peace with Byzantium, concluding a treaty (927) that lasted almost 40 years.

This policy produced important concessions from Byzantium. Peter’s title basileus of Bulgaria was recognized, as was the independence of the Bulgarian church. His marriage to Maria, daughter of the brother of Romanos I Lekapenos, made Peter a subservient member of the imperial family. The remainder of his reign saw Bulgaria weakened by internal dissension with the Bogomils and by the plotting of his nobility. The weakness of Bulgaria toward the end of Peter’s reign prompted Nikephoros II Phokas to rescind tribute in 966, and to encourage Svjatoslav to invade Bulgaria. This Svjatoslav did in 968, shortly before Peter died. See also THEOPHYLAKTOS.

PETER OF BULGARIA. Founder with his brother Asen I of the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1185; its capital was at Turnovo. The brothers may have been Vlachs, as suggested by Nicetas Choniates. By 1190 Peter and Asen I had defeated every attempt of Isaac II Angelos to gain control of Bulgaria. Peter’s alliance with Isaac II in 1193 produced a split between the brothers. Peter died in Turnovo in 1197, a year after Asen was murdered by Ivanko.

PETER OF COURTENAY. See LATIN EMPIRE.

PETER THE FULLER. Patriarch of Antioch three times; he was ejected twice for his Monophysitism. The second of his two terms (476–477; the first was 469–471) occurred during the brief reign of the usurper Basiliskos. Zeno allowed him back for a third term in 482 after he accepted the Henotikon. He remained at his post until his death in 488. His career is an example of how, after the Council of Chalcedon, Monophysitism continued to provoke serious discord within the Byzantine church. An uncertain tradition claims he was a fuller, hence the epithet. See also DIONYSIOS THE AREOPAGITE, PSEUDO-; TRISAGION.

PETER THE HERMIT. Popular preacher of the First Crusade, who led a multitude of poor people and petty knights to Constantinople in 1096. Alexios I Komnenos helped transport them to Asia Minor, where they were ambushed and defeated by Kilij Arslan I near Nicaea on 21 October 1096.

Peter’s failure left an unfavorable impression of the Crusader movement on Byzantium, and the Seljuks of Asia Minor expected further easy victories over subsequent Crusader forces. In the Alexiad of Anna Komnene there is an unflattering portrait of Peter and his followers, who are rightly condemned for their lack of discipline. See also GUIBERT OF NOGENT.

PETER THE PATRICIAN. Magister officiorum under Justinian I from 539 to 565; lawyer, diplomat, and historian. His diplomatic embassies included negotiations with Persia in 562, and with the king of the Ostrogoths, Theodahad. In his Anekdota (Secret History), Prokopios of Caesarea claims that Peter, acting on orders from Empress Theodora, persuaded Theodahad to kill Amalasuntha.

Peter’s own historical work, judging from the fragments that survive, went from Augustus to the time of Julian “The Apostate.” He also wrote a work on state ceremonial that Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos included in his De ceremoniis. See also DIPLOMACY; HISTORY; ZOSIMOS.

PETRA. Capital of the ancient desert kingdom of the Nabataeans (an Arab tribe), located in modern Jordan. Conquered by the Romans in 106, it continued to be the center of a vast caravan trade until the rise of Palmyra.

PETRONAS. Highly decorated general under Theophilos and Michael III who was a brother of Theophilos’s wife Theodora and Bardas. Theophilos made him patrikios, and droungarios tis viglas. During the reign of Michael III he was made strategos of the theme of Thrakesion. In 856 he led an army deep into Mesopotamia as far as Amida, then attacked Tephrike. In 863 at the Battle of Poson he won a brilliant victory over Umar, emir of Melitene, who was killed in this battle and whose army was destroyed.

PETRONIUS MAXIMUS. Roman emperor in the West (455). Consul in 433 and 443, he plotted the murder of Aetius in 454, and he may have plotted the murder of Valentinian III, who he succeeded in 455. He forced Valentinian’s widow Eudoxia to marry him and gave her daughter Eudokia to his son Palladius. Eudokia had been promised to Gaiseric, leader of the Vandals. Aggrieved, Gaiseric besieged Rome, and Petronius tried to flee, only to be recognized and killed by angry citizens. See also LEO I THE GREAT.

PHILADELPHIA. Despite its rescue in 1304 by the Catalan Grand Company, this heavily fortified city, the key to the defense of western Asia Minor against the Turks, remained in a precarious position throughout the 14th century. When Bayezid I finally conquered it in 1390, it was the last Byzantine city in Asia Minor. Tragically, Manuel II Palaiologos, as a vassal of Bayezid I, was forced to participate in the reduction of this proud city. See also OTTOMANS.

PHILANTHROPY. Philanthropy was important in Byzantium both in theory and in practice. In theory, the emperor, as God’s viceroy on earth, was expected to set an example of Christian philanthropy. To this end, in major cities the state funded public hospitals, poor houses, inns for travelers, homes for the aged, and orphanages (the imperial supervisor of state orphanages was called the orphanotrophos).

Monasteries had parallel philanthropic institutions. The monastic xenon provided lodging for travelers. Some xenones were homes for the aged, even medical facilities. The most famous xenon in Byzantium was located in the Pantokrator Monastery in Constantinople. Endowed by Emperor John II Komnenos, it included a hospital with 50 beds, a home for older men, and psychiatric services as well. See also MONASTICISM.

PHILARETOS THE ALMSGIVER. The vita of this saint, who died in 792, is important for what it reveals about conditions in northeastern Asia Minor in the eighth century, particularly about the destructive effects of Arab raids and the encroachments of powerful magnates (dynatoi). Philaretos came from a wealthy Armenian family, whose landholdings were impoverished by Arab raids. The saint gave away much of his property, and his neighbors, some of whom were powerful magnates, took the rest. The family fortunes were restored only when his granddaughter Maria was chosen as wife for Constantine VI in a bride show in 788. See also GANGRA.

PHILES, MANUEL. See GLABAS, MICHAEL TARCHANEIOTES.

PHILIP OF SWABIA. Son of Frederick I Barbarossa and king of Germany (1198–1208). Philip apparently conspired with Boniface of Montferrat to restore Alexios IV Angelos and Isaac II Angelos to the throne of Byzantium. Philip’s motives had to do with the fact that his wife Irene was Alexios IV’s sister, making deposed emperor Isaac II his father-in-law. Philip saw himself as helping to reclaim Byzantium for his in-laws, and by extension, for himself as well. See also FOURTH CRUSADE.

PHILIP OF TARANTO. See NAUPAKTOS.

PHILIPPI. City in western Macedonia on the Via Egnatia midway between Thessalonike and Constantinople. The city’s former wealth derived from its location on the major east-west highway across the Balkan Peninsula, the Via Egnatia, and the maritime trade of its port, Christoupolis. After the sixth century the city continued as a Byzantine kastron, interrupted by occasional periods of foreign occupation; the Ottomans captured it ca. 1387.

PHILIPPIKOS. Emperor from 711 to 713; general under Justinian II. When he usurped power, he executed not only Justinian II but also the emperor’s son and advisors. In support of Monotheletism he deposed Patriarch Kyros and convened a council in 712 that condemned the Sixth Ecumenical Council. It was his failure to stem the victories of Maslamah in the East and Tervel in Thrace that led to his downfall. Soldiers from the theme of Opsikion deposed and blinded him in 713.

PHILIPPIKOS. Magister militum of the East under Maurice; he was also Maurice’s son-in-law. His successes against the Persians from 584 to 587 failed to deliver a knockout punch so Maurice replaced him with Priskos in 587. Philippikos’s soldiers mutinied in protest and he was reappointed in 589, only to lose his command to Komentiolos that same year. Phokas forcibly retired him to a monastery in 603. In 613, shortly before Philippikos’s death, Herakleios recalled him to active service. The vagaries of Philippikos’s career reflect the vagaries of warfare with Persia in this period. See also WAR.

PHILIPPOPOLIS. City in northern Thrace situated on the highway from Belgrade to Constantinople. Its strategic location meant that it was occasionally subject to hostile attack by Pechenegs, Crusaders, and especially Bulgarians, whose border with Byzantium was near Philippopolis. Basil II stopped at the city on his way back to Constantinople after campaigning against Samuel of Bulgaria in 1004. During the Third Crusade it was occupied briefly by Frederick I Barbarossa. The Ottomans captured it in 1363, making it their capital of Rumeli, before moving the capital to Adrianople. See also MICHAEL ITALIKOS.

PHILOKALIA. An 18th-century collection of Byzantine texts written by the great mystics and ascetics of Byzantium. The collection includes Antony the Great, Gregory of Sinai, John of Damascus, Symeon the New Theologian and many others. It was translated into Old Church Slavonic in 1793. See also ASCETICISM; CYRILLIC; EREMITE; JOHN KLIMACHOS; SAINT.

PHILOPONOS, JOHN. See NEOPLATONISM; PHILOSOPHY; PROKLOS; SCIENCE.

PHILOSOPHY. In early Byzantine times the Academy of Athens was the center of philosophical inquiry, especially of Neoplatonism as taught by Proklos and his student Ammonios of Alexandria. Ammonios’s students included Damaskios and John Philoponos, whose attacks on Aristotle’s cosmology prefigured later attacks by Galileo.

When Justinian I closed the Academy of Athens in 529, Damaskios and six other philosophers sought refuge in Persia. Justinian I allowed them to return to the empire in 532 with the promise that they would not be harassed. Despite the church’s suspicion of Neoplatonism, its impact on theology can be seen in the writings of the so-called Pseudo-Dionysios the Areopagite, also in those of John of Damascus.

After Justinian I, to the revival of education in the 11th century, Leo the Mathematician, Photios, and Arethas of Caesarea kept philosophical studies alive. Higher education was revived by Constantine IX Monomachos in the form of schools of philosophy and law. The school of philosophy was led by Michael Psellos, whose interests lay chiefly in Neoplatonism. Psellos’s pupil John Italos focused on Aristotle, as did Italos’s students Eustratios of Nicaea and Michael of Ephesus.

During the Palaiologan Dynasty, philosophical studies flourished under George Akropolites (a student of Nikephoros Blemmydes), George Pachymeres, Theodore Metochites, Nikephoros Choumnos, and Nikephoros Gregoras. Even on the eve of Byzantium’s extinction, Neoplatonic studies continued under Bessarion and George Gemistos Plethon. Plethon so impressed Cosimo de’Medici at the Council of Ferrara-Florence that Cosimo founded the Platonic Academy. Gennadios II Scholarios defended Aristotle against Plethon’s criticism, in addition to defending Thomas Aquinas. See also ARGYROPOULOS, JOHN; BARDAS; CHRIST, THEOLOGY OF; EUSTATHIOS OF THESSALONIKE; HYPATIA; KYDONES, DEMETRIOS; KYDONES, PROCHOROS; MACEDONIAN RENAISSANCE; MAGNAURA; MAXIMOS OF EPHESUS; MAXIMOS THE CONFESSOR; MICHAEL ITALIKOS; PAGANISM; PLOTINOS; PORPHRY; THEODORE OF GAZA.

PHILOSTORGIOS. Ecclesiastical historian who wrote a continuation of the Church History of Eusebios of Caesarea that spans the years 300–435. That his work survives only in fragments (in the Epitome of Photios) is perhaps explained by his espousal of Arianism, and of its proponent Eunomios. Much better preserved are the works of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret of Cyrrhus, who also continued Eusebios’s work, but who embraced Orthodoxy. See also HISTORY.

PHILOTHEOS, KLETOROLOGION OF. The most important and exhaustive of official lists (called Taktika) of offices and dignities of the Byzantine state. The work was composed in 899 by a certain Philotheos, who was both a protospatharios as well as an atriklines (an official in charge of official banquets).

The term kletorologion means roughly an invitation list to a banquet, the immediate use of which would have been to offer instruction on the order of seating at state banquets. The significance to modern scholars is that it provides the most complete list of its kind, with definitions of each title and its importance. Essentially, the kletorologion provides a detailed glimpse of the Byzantine bureaucracy in the late ninth century. See DE CEREMONIIS; KOUROPPALATES; LEO VI; PROTOSTRATOR.

PHILOTHEOS KOKKINOS. Patriarch of Constantinople from 1353 to 1354, and again from 1364 to 1376; writer; monk. He was a disciple and admirer of Gregory of Sinai, also a friend of John VI Kantakouzenos. He was made patriarch when the previous patriarch Kallistos I refused to crown Matthew I Kantakouzenos.

In a larger sense, his elevation as patriarch demonstrated the victory of Hesychasm; indeed, he was one of a series of Hesychast patriarchs of the 14th century who included Isidore I Boucheiros and Kallistos I. Deposed when John V Palaiologos regained the throne in 1354, he engineered in his second term the canonization of Gregory of Sinai (1368) and led opposition to John V’s conversion to Roman Catholicism. He also made claims for his authority over the entire church that proved quite unrealistic in the face of growing ecclesiastical regionalism. His numerous writings include hagiography, hymns, polemics, and dogmatic works. See also LAVRA, GREAT; MONASTICISM; MUSIC; THOMAS MAGISTROS.

PHOBEROU MONASTERY. The Monastery of St. John the Baptist in Phoberon, at the north end of the Bosporos. The famous icon painter Lazaros was allowed to take refuge there after the emperor Theophilos flogged him and burned his palms with red-hot nails. See also ICONOCLASM; MONASTICISM; THEODORE GRAPTOS.

PHOKAIA. City situated at the entrance to the Gulf of Smyrna in Asia Minor. From 1088 to 1092 Tzachas made it notorious as the home base for his marauding fleet. From 1275 when it was ceded by Michael VII Palaiologos, the Zaccaria family of Genoa made it their key to good fortune, exploiting its harbor to export alum (derived from the mineral kalunite, used in leather tanning and dyeing).

Prosperity attracted envy in the form of the Catalan Grand Company, which sacked Phokaia and the Zaccaria stronghold of “New Phokaia” (north of the city) in 1307 or 1308. In 1402 the Gattilusio family of Genoa seized old Phokaia. Genoese rule came to an end in 1455 during the reign of Sultan Mehmet II when the Ottomans conquered the region.

PHOKAS. Emperor from 602 to 610. His tyranny and military failures mark him as perhaps the worst of Byzantine emperors. A junior military officer raised to the throne by rebellious soldiers who overthrew Maurice, he proved utterly incapable of resisting Chosroes II, who captured the frontier fortress of Dara in 604 and invaded Asia Minor (allegedly to avenge Maurice). Avars and Slavs flooded the Balkan Peninsula into Thrace, all of which produced army rebellions and internal dissension that Phokas responded to with a reign of terror.

The revolt that succeeded in toppling him was engendered by the exarch of Carthage, who sent a fleet commanded by his son Herakleios against Phokas, and that was supported by his cousin Niketas, whose troops wrested Egypt from Phokas in 610. When Herakleios’s fleet appeared before Constantinople on 3 October 610, Phokas was overthrown. See also GREGORY I THE GREAT; PERSIA.

PHOKAS, BARDAS. General, rebel, member of one of the most powerful families of the military aristocracy (dynatoi) of Asia Minor. In 971 he attempted to overthrow John I Tzimiskes, who had assassinated his uncle Nikephoros II Phokas. Before Bardas Phokas reached the capital, another general, Bardas Skleros, was sent against him. Outnumbered, Phokas surrendered and was exiled to Chios, where he was forced to become a monk.

In 977 Bardas Skleros rebelled against Basil II, and Bardas Phokas slipped out of his monastic habit to raise another army in rebellion. Both rebels were suppressed, but in 987 Bardas Phokas rebelled again and was only defeated in 989 when Basil II received reinforcement of 6,000 Varangians from Vladimir I, Prince of Kiev. The rebellions of both Bardas Phokas and Bardas Skleros illustrate the threat of the military aristocracy in the late 10th century. See also CAESAREA.

PHOKAS, PETER. See BOURTZES, MICHAEL; NIKEPHOROS II PHOKAS.

PHOTIOS. Controversial patriarch of Constantinople from 858 to 867, and again from 877 to 886. The controversy began when he was made patriarch in 858 while still a layman. The deposed Ignatios garnered much sympathy, including the support of Pope Nicholas I, especially after Photios condemned the filioque in the Latin creed. Basil I’s need of papal support in Italy lay behind the formal deposition of Photios at a council held in Constantinople in 869–870, which restored Ignatios as patriarch.

Only after Ignatios’s death was Photios returned to the patriarchal throne, through the action of yet another council in Constantinople, held in 879–880, which revoked the decision of the previous council.

Photios was a noted teacher like Leo the Mathematician, also a writer of homilies and letters. In one of his homilies he describes a Rus attack on Constantinople in 860. He compiled a Lexicon of words and expressions, and he wrote a commentary on Aristotle’s Physics. His Bibliotheca is a priceless legacy. It summaries 386 books by pagan and Christian authors that he read. Many of these works, such as those of Philostorgios, are known chiefly, or only, through the Bibliotheca. See also HADRIAN II; KANDIDOS.

PHRANTZES, GEORGE. See SPHRANTZES, GEORGE.

PHRYGIA. Landlocked region of rugged topography in west-central Asia Minor, traversed by major military highways, along which the strategic military station of Dorylaion was situated. Other important cities included Kotyaion, Synada, Akroinon, and Amorion. The region was the original home of an assortment of Christian heretics, including Montanists, Novatians, and the sect of Athinganoi who observed the Jewish Sabbath and kept the Mosaic law (though not circumcision).

Phrygia was defended from Arab raids by the themes of Opsikion and Thrakesion, but in the late 11th century it succumbed to the Seljuks. Indeed, victories over the Seljuks by the armies of the First Crusade had the effect of pushing the Seljuks back from the Aegean Sea coast and concentrating them in Phrygia, making the region a barrier to Byzantine and Crusader armies. By 1098 Alexios I Komnenos was resettling some of the Greek population farther to the west. By the early 13th century the region was lost to the Seljuks.

PHYSIOLOGOS. See GLYKAS, MICHAEL.

PIAZZA ARMERIA. Site in Sicily of a vast imperial villa, construction of which began in the early fourth century. It is among the most elaborate villas of its kind, incorporating approximately 3,500 square meters of floor mosaics, many of them hunting scenes. It may have been a country villa for a member of the tetrarchy, perhaps Maximian.

PILGRIMAGE. Christian pilgrimage focused on the Holy Land where Christ lived and died, particularly on Jerusalem. Constantine I the Great made the chief holy places of Christ’s life available to pilgrims by constructing memorial churches in Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives and at the Holy Sepulchre, as well as in Bethlehem. His mother Helena was an ardent pilgrim, discovering, according to legend, the True Cross.

Outside the Holy Land the faithful made pilgrimages to numerous tombs of martyrs (martyria) and other saints, including those of Saint Demetrios in Thessalonike, of Saint Menas at Abu Mina in Egypt, and of Saint Thekla near Seleukeia. In the fifth century, a pilgrimage complex was developed around the column of St. Symeon Stylities the Elder at Qalat Seman in Syria. Persian invasion, and, subsequently, the Arab occupation of the Near East, disrupted pilgrimage, but did not curtail it. The solution to this problem was foreseen as early as the fourth century, when Constantius II transferred the relics of saints Luke, Timothy, and Andrew to Constantinople, where they were lodged safely in the Church of the Holy Apostles.

More relics were moved to the capital, which was seen as a kind of safe deposit vault for relics, including the True Cross, which Herakleios considered prudent to transfer to Constantinople. So many relics ended up in Constantinople that it was called the New Jerusalem.

For knights of the Fourth Crusade, allegedly on armed pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the conquest of Constantinople in 1204 was a bonanza of relic acquisition. The West, so deficient in holy places as compared to the East, now competed equally. After the Fourth Crusade the Sainte Chapelle was built in Paris to house the crown of thorns and other thieved relics.

PILGRIM FLASK. Pilgrim flasks (ampullae) of various materials contained oil, water, or earth from a holy site for use as amulets, or for supposed medicinal purposes. Well-known types include Menas flasks from Abu Mina, and small pottery flasks called ungentaria. Pilgrim tokens and medallions, made of sanctified earth and stamped with a blessing or with an image of a saint, were valued for the same reasons.

PILGRIM TOKEN. See AMULET; MAGIC; MARTYRION; PILGRIM FLASK; RELIC; RELIQUARY.

By the end of the fourth century there were more than 30 pilgrimage sites in the Holy Land, and by the seventh century more churches at those sites had appeared, such as Holy Sion (site of the Last Supper) and Holy Wisdom (site of Christ’s scourging). Hospices and monasteries fed and housed poor pilgrims. More sumptuous lodgings were available for those who could afford them. New private houses appeared, built by those who could afford to live and die in the Holy Land.

PINDAR. Perhaps the greatest lyric poet of ancient Greece (died ca. 438 B.C.), whose work was much read in Byzantium. Those who wrote commentaries on Pindar included Eustathios of Thessalonike. See also LITERATURE; THOMAS MAGISTROS.

PINDOS. The great mountain range of northwest Greece that extends south from Albania, east of Epiros, and west of Macedonia. Kekaumenos mentions the Vlachs inhabiting Pindos in the 11th century.

PIPPIN III. See CONSTANTINE V; DONATION OF CONSTANTINE; MUSIC.

PISA. Italian maritime republic in Tuscany on the Arno River. Byzantium used Pisa, like Genoa, as a counterweight to the rising commercial power of Venice. In 1111 Alexios I Komnenos extended Pisa trading privileges that included trading quarters along the Golden Horn. Privileges were renewed in 1136 by John II Komnenos, lost in 1163, and restored in 1170 by Manuel I Komnenos. The Pisans suffered in the general slaughter of Latins in Constantinople in 1182. Nevertheless, Pisan privileges were again renewed in 1192 by Isaac II Angelos, partly because some Genoese had taken to piracy in Byzantine waters.

The conquest of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 was a triumph for Venice and a setback for Pisa and Genoa. Pisa never fully recovered its commercial position in Byzantium, and in 1439 its privileges were given to Florence.

PISIDIA. Region in southwestern Asia Minor north of Pamphylia, northeast of Lycia, and south of Phrygia. A mountainous region, parts of it were almost inaccessible. Antioch, its metropolis, never fully recovered from its destruction by the Arabs in 717. The Seljuks, who penetrated the region after the Battle of Mantzikert (1071), were forced to retreat in 1097 when the First Crusade entered Pisidia, but they returned after the army’s passage. John II Komnenos retook Sozopolis in 1120, but it fell again to the Seljuks in 1180, after which the region was effectively lost to Byzantium. See also IKONION.

PLAGUE. Two major plagues are described in Byzantine historical sources. The first occurred from 541 to 544, a graphic account of which is given by Prokopios of Caesarea in his Wars. The second was the plague of 1348–1349, described by John VI Kantakouzenos in his personal memoir, the Histories.

PLANOUDES, MAXIMOS. Late 13th-century scholar, teacher, and philologist, noted for his translations of Latin authors, for example, Cato the Elder, Cicero, Julius Caesar, Boethius, and Augustine, for his collection of epigrams included in the Greek Anthology, as well as for his letters and other writings.

PLATO. See ABBASID CALIPHATE; ARGYROPOULOS, JOHN; GEORGE OF TREBIZOND; NEOPLATONISM.

PLATO OF SAKKOUDION. See MOECHIAN CONTROVERSY; OLYMPOS, MOUNT.

PLETHON, GEORGE GEMISTOS. Philosopher from Mistra whose deep understanding of Plato inspired the Medici foundation of the Platonic Academy in Florence. His trip to Italy to attend the Council of Ferrara-Florence in 1438–1439 brought him in contact with scholars in Florence, providing an important opportunity for the transmission of Greek classical learning to the Renaissance.

At Mistra he continued to teach (Laonikos Chalkonkondyles was one of his students) and to write. Among his works is the controversial A Treatise on the Laws, which espouses Neoplatonism, including a belief in the Olympian gods. See also LITERATURE.

PLISKA. First capital of Bulgaria. According to tradition, Pliska was founded by the Bulgar khan Asparuch. Nikephoros I sacked it in 811. Despite Omurtag’s reconstruction, it declined after Symeon of Bulgaria founded Preslav in 893. Basil II’s forces captured it around 1000, along with Preslav, as part of the Byzantine conquest of northern Bulgaria.

PLOTINOS. The great philosopher of Neoplatonism, born in Egypt in 205. His essays, which were arranged by his pupil Porphyry into groups of nines (the Enneads), and Porphyry’s Life of Plotinos, exerted an enormous impact on subsequent philosophy, especially the study of Plato, theology, even art.

For Plotinos, the reality of the universe consists of a hierarchical ascendancy, toward the One (the Good, Divine Intellect, God), upward through the stages of Body (the lowest stage), Soul, and Mind. Thus, the ascendant reality of the cosmos is mirrored in the microcosm of each individual, in whom is embedded the desire to be united with the One. An individual’s ascent begins with recognition of this innate desire, and is accomplished through contemplation.

Maximos of Ephesus and Proklos identified contemplation with theurgy, a magic that relied on rites and prayers to invoke the aid of the gods. Plotinos was still read with great interest by later Byzantine intellectuals, including Michael Psellos, Theodore Metochites, and Plethon. Except for works of Aristotle, Plotinos’s works form the most intact body of philosophy preserved from antiquity.

PNEUMATOMACHOI. See ECUMENICAL COUNCILS; THEODOSIOS I.

POETRY. Poetry in Byzantium included oral poetry, which has survived, although some oral poetry may be reflected in romances, as in the epic romance called Digenses Akrites. As highbrow literature, poetry has many examples, virtually all of them imitations of antique classical style (e.g., the style of Homer). More original is church poetry, used in the liturgy; for example, the poetic songs created within the format of the kontakion, the chief type of Byzantine hymn. Church poetry is sung and, as such, is an important part of Byzantine music. See also AKATHISTOS HYMN; ANDREW OF CRETE; EPHREM THE SYRIAN; EUGENIKOS, JOHN; ROMANOS THE MELODE.

POLYCHROME WARE. See POTTERY.

POLYEUKTOS. Patriarch of Constantinople from 956 to 970. Polyeuktos’s intervention in political affairs contradicts the popular image of the Byzantine church as utterly subservient to the state. He came into conflict with Nikephoros II Phokas over the emperor’s edicts curtailing monastic properties. He continued to oppose the emperor on one policy after another. When John I Tzimiskes and Nikephoros II’s wife Theophano conspired together to murder Nikephoros II, Polyeuktos demanded that John expel his mistress Theophano from the palace and abolish Nikephoros II’s hated edicts. Only when he did these things did Polyeuktos permit John’s coronation to take place.

POLYEUKTOS, CHURCH OF SAINT. See HAGIA SOPHIA.

PONTOS. Region in northern Asia Minor that borders the south coast of the Black Sea, situated east of Bithynia and Paphlagonia and north of Cappadocia. Its fertile coastline is sheltered by the natural protection of a dense, mountainous interior, rich in mineral deposits. Its chief city was the strongly fortified Trebizond, capital of the Empire of Trebizond. See also DAZIMON; EUCHAITA; MINES.

POPE. The term comes from the Greek “papas” (“father”), an affectionate term for priests used throughout the church in the fourth century. Bishops were also called “papas,” but over the centuries the term became exclusively applied to one bishop, the bishop of Rome, head of the chief bishopric in the West, referred to as the papacy.

When the German barbarians occupied the West in the fifth century, popes assumed the leadership of threatened Orthodox populations. As Byzantine control over Italy faltered, it was Pope Leo I who dealt directly with Attila’s army when it besieged Rome in 452. However, when Justinian I reconquered Italy from the Ostrogoths, it was Pope Vigilius who was made pope by Byzantine troops, and who, when he fell into disfavor with Justinian I, was ordered to Constantinople and placed, for a time, under house arrest. The inability of Justinian I’s successors to maintain control over Italy opened up new avenues of papal leadership, as witnessed by the papal reign of Pope Gregory I the Great.

The first pope to demand that “papas” be used as a title only by the bishop of Rome was Pope Gregory VII (1073–1085). Along with this demand was the demand that the pope in Rome was father over the entire church. This assertion of papal primacy is the reason the church schism of 1054 continued beyond the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453. It has not been fully healed to this present day. See also ARGYROS; CHALCEDON, COUNCIL OF; CHARLEMAGNE; CHARLES I OF ANJOU; CRUSADES; DOMINICAN ORDER; EUGENIUS IV; FELIX III; FIRST CRUSADE; FRANCISCANS; GELASIUS I; GREGORY II; GREGORY III; GREGORY VII; GREGORY X; HADRIAN I; HADRIAN II; HUMBERT; ICONOCLASM; INNOCENT III; JOHN I; LEO III; LEO IX; MARTIN I; NICHOLAS I; NICHOLAS III; NICHOLAS V; ROBERT GUISCARD; SCHISM; THREE CHAPTERS; TYPOS; UNION OF THE CHURCHES; ZACHARIAS.

POPULATION. Estimates of the population of Byzantium, which fluctuated over the long course of its history, are informed guesswork. For much of the period of Byzantium’s history that can be called Late Roman (330–642) it can be estimated at from 15 to 20 million. For some cities the population can be estimated. In the fourth century, Antioch may have had as many as 200,000 inhabitants. In the fifth and sixth centuries Constantinople may have had a population of 400,000, which suggests the size and importance of the imperial capital. Jerusalem is said to have had a population of 53,000 in the sixth century. (For provincial cities, 50,000 may have been the norm at the time.)

Population decline began during Justinian I’s reign when (in the 540s) a plague (probably bubonic plague) struck Byzantium. Plague returned intermittently in the seventh and eighth centuries to wreak its devastation. In the Balkan Peninsula, already depopulated by the Huns (as the mid-fifth century account of Priskos makes clear), raids and settlements of Bulgars, Slavs, and Avars continued into the Dark Ages.

During the Dark Ages (642–843) Byzantine territory was reduced in size by Arab conquests. Most of Byzantium’s large cities were lost to the Arabs during this period. Cities and towns that did remain were reduced in size. Constantinople may have been reduced to as little as 100,000 inhabitants. Overall, during the Dark Ages, due to continued intermittent plague and territorial losses, Byzantium’s population may have contracted by a half or two-thirds.

Byzantium’s population increased beginning in the early ninth century and picked up substantially during the military and economic revival from 843–1025. By 1025 the population of Byzantium may have reached 12 million. However, after the Battle of Mantzikert in 1071, the Seljuks began their conquest of Anatolia, which reduced the population of Byzantium substantially. In the mid-12th century Byzantium may have had around seven or eight million inhabitants.

By the 12th century Constantinople’s population may have expanded to around 300,000 (perhaps to around 400,000 by 1204). By comparison, in the 12th century Venice had fewer than 80,000 inhabitants, and Paris fewer than 20,000.

The Latin occupation of Constantinople (1204–1261) precipitated a decline in the capital’s population, as well as in Byzantium as a whole. After 1261 Byzantium was largely confined to western Asia Minor, areas in Greece, and some islands in the Aegean Sea. Constantinople in 1261 may have not exceeded 100,000 inhabitants. Civil wars in the 14th century, and plague (or Black Death) that struck in 1347, further reduced the population of Byzantium, including its capital, by at least a fourth.

By the time the Ottomans besieged Constantinople in 1453 the city had about 50,000 inhabitants, and it ruled very little outside its walls. See also BARBARIANS; DEVSHIRME; DROUGOUBITAI; GREECE; JANISSARIES; PARTITIO ROMANIAE; PEASANTS; SKLAVENIA; TURKS; VILLAGES.

PORPHYRIOS OF GAZA. Saint and bishop of Gaza who in 401 journeyed to Constantinople to appeal to the emperor Arkadios to help him stamp out paganism in Gaza. Arkadios, his wife Eudoxia, and the patriarch John Chrysostom all agreed that the famous temple in Gaza called the Marneion, dedicated to the local god Marnas, must be destroyed. Arkadios ordered its destruction, and Eudoxia provided the money to build a Christian basilica in its place. The vita of Porphyrios is traditionally attributed to his disciple Mark the Deacon.

PORPHYROGENNETOS. The epithet (Greek for “born in the purple”) refers to a son of a reigning emperor who was born in the Porphyra, that part of the Great Palace where there was a bedchamber of porphyry, a stone of reddish purple (the color associated with emperors), where imperial children were born. One of the most famous emperors of the Macedonian Dynasty was Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos.

PORPHYRY. Neoplatonist philosopher (ca. 233–ca. 306), and student of Plotinos who was born in Tyre. He was Plotinos’s biographer and editor of his Enneads, and a severe critic of Christianity. He wrote an enormous number of works, some of them having little or nothing to do with Neoplatonism, including his Against the Christians, which survives only in fragments. Against the Christians was a work that Christian intellectuals such as Eusebios of Caesarea, Jerome, and even Augustine wrestled with. Theodosios II read it and found it so dangerous that he ordered it burned in 448. See also PAGANISM; PHILOSOPHY.

POTTERY. Pottery was a major industry, notable for not being centralized, since pottery was produced in towns and villages, monasteries, as well as major cities.

Coarseware included amphoras for the storage and transportation of wine. Apparently, there was a market for empty amphoras in the sixth century, judging from the Yassi Ada shipwreck. Other coarseware storage vessels, like pithoi, were also produced. However, what Byzantium is noted for is its kitchen and tableware. Until the sixth century red slipwares, often stamped, predominated. For example, African red slipware was made in Carthage and shipped throughout the Mediterranean, as were other slipwares.

In the seventh century red-slipped pottery was gradually replaced by pottery decorated with monochrome lead glazed wares, applied directly over the fabric. Stamped designs were used in the ninth century to produce impressed ware. Also in the ninth century more than one glaze was used to produce polychrome ware.

The truly distinctive medieval Byzantine pottery was produced from the 11th century onward. Most famous was Byzantine sgraffito ware, in which designs were scratched through a clay slip into the darker pot fabric before covering glazes were applied. Incised ware cut away larger portions of applied slip.

Beginning in the 11th century, western pottery (e.g., Italian proto-maiolica ware) was imported into Byzantium, and by the end of the 12th century “Byzantine” pottery is sometimes difficult to pin down to specific Byzantine manufacturing. For example, the elegant Byzantine Zeuxippus ware, a type of fine sgraffito pottery, was probably produced at various places within and without Byzantium in the 13th century. See also ARTISANS.

PRAECEPTA MILITARIA. Traditional Latin title (in English, Military Maxims) for a work written by Nikephoros II Phokas; the title in Greek is Strategike ekthesis kai syndaxis Nikephorou despotou (Exposition and Treatise on Warfare by the Emperor Nikephoros). The work was intended as a practical manual for field commanders and presents a view of the Byzantine army in the 10th century. Such practical handbooks on military affairs (called strategika) were not uncommon in Byzantium. The first two of six chapters concern the use of infantry in battle. Chapters 3 and 4 deal with the kataphraktoi, and the concluding chapters have advice on diverse topics, including how to create camps and fortify them. The Taktika of Nikephoros Ouranos, the general who defeated Samuel of Bulgaria, revises some of this material.

PRAEPOSITUS SACRI CUBICULI. The grand chamberlain, invariably a eunuch, and one of the most powerful civil officials. He administered the emperor’s private chambers, imperial receptions, even the imperial estates in Cappadocia, using a large staff of eunuchs called koubikoularioi. In the case of weak emperors, his influence could be enormous, as seen in the career of Eutropios. See also BUREAUCRACY; CHRYSAPHIUS.

PRAETORIAN PREFECT. Civil official who governed one of the four great praetorian prefectures (Gaul, Italy, Illyricum, and the East) from the fourth to seventh centuries. A praetorian prefect supervised all aspects of civil administration, from the grain supply to judicial and financial matters. Under praetorian prefect were the vicarii of dioceses and the governors of provinces. Constantinople and Rome each fell under the separate administration of an urban prefect, the Eparch of the City. See also BUREAUCRACY; CODEX HERMOGENIANUS; PRAITOR.

PRAITOR. Provincial civil administrator in the 11th–12th centuries who was responsible for fiscal and judicial matters. After the Fourth Crusade conquered Constantinople in 1204 the office fell into disuse. Provincial military administration during the 11th–12th centuries shifted (with the decline of stratiotika ktemata and themes) from the strategos to a military governor called the doux (or katepano). See also BUREAUCRACY; PRAETORIAN PREFECT; PROVINCES.

PRAKTIKA. See TAXATION.

PREFECT. See BOOK OF THE EPARCH; EPARCH OF THE CITY; PRAETORIAN PREFECT; PREFECTURE.

PREFECTURE. Any administrative unit governed by a prefect. The largest were the four great prefectures organized by Constantine I the Great that comprised the empire from the fourth to the seventh centuries: Gaul, Italy, Illyricum, and the East.

Each of these great administrative units (governed by a praetorian prefect) was further divided into dioceses; each diocese was divided into provinces. In the seventh century this system collapsed and was replaced by administrative units called themes. See also BUREAUCRACY; DOUX; KATEPANO; PRAITOR; STRATEGOS.

PRESLAV. Great Preslav (not to be confused with Little Preslav, the Bulgarian port at the mouth of the Danube River). Symeon of Bulgaria transferred the capital of Bulgaria from Pliska to Great Preslav in 893. Svjatoslav conquered it in 969, but John I Tzimiskes took it from him in 971, forcing Svjatoslav to withdraw from Bulgaria entirely. Byzantium then annexed Bulgaria and abolished its patriarchate.

Another dramatic reversal occurred in 986 when Samuel of Bulgaria reoccupied it. However, Basil II recaptured Preslav in his campaign of 1000–1004 in northern Bulgaria. By the middle of the 11th century it was in possession of the Pechenegs.

PRESLAV, LITTLE. See PRESLAV.

PRESPA. See MACEDONIA.

PRICE EDICT. See EDICT ON PRICES.

PRIEST. See CHURCH.

PRIMARY CHRONICLE. See RUSSIAN PRIMARY CHRONICLE.

PRIMIKERIOS. Honorary title used for the senior person holding any of a number of civil, military, or church offices. For example, each of the palatine guards had a primikerios, as did each of the civil services. The primikerios sacri cubiculi was chief of staff of the imperial bedchamber, and the megas primikerios was the master of ceremonies in the Great Palace. Both of these palace offices were held by eunuchs. See also BUREAUCRACY.

PRINCES’S ISLANDS. Group of nine islands in the Sea of Marmara. They contained numerous monasteries, and they were used as places of exile, especially the island of Prote. See also MONASTICISM.

PRISCIAN. Distinguished Latin grammarian and poet who left Vandalic North Africa to settle in Constantinople, where he wrote a panegyric to the emperor Anastasios I ca. 503. His Latin grammar became a standard textbook in the medieval West. See also GRAMMATIKOS; LITERATURE.

PRISKOS. Author of an eyewitness account of an embassy to Attila in 448. Priskos accompanied his friend Maximin, who was ambassador to the Huns, across the Danube to the court of Attila. He describes Naissus as deserted. The court of Attila is described in detail, including the food and entertainment at a banquet hosted by Attila for his guests. Priskos wrote a longer work known as Byzantine History. It survives only in fragments and may be the source of the account of the embassy. See also HISTORY.

PRISKOS. General who was briefly magister militum under Maurice in 588 until a mutiny against him forced the emperor to reappoint Philippikos. In 592 Maurice made him commander of the army along the Danube, where he won some victories against the Avars. He weathered a series of revolts among his troops in 593, was briefly replaced by Maurice’s brother Peter in 594, and reappointed to his command the following year. He survived the reign of Phokas, but Herakleios forced him into retirement (as a monk) in 612 when he failed to entrap a Persian army. See also KOMENTIOLOS; PERSIA.

PRIZREN. See CONSTANTINE BODIN.

PROCHIRON. A handbook of law published in 907 by Leo VI that revised the Epanagoge. Its purpose was to provide a brief overview of the laws that governed Byzantium. It proved popular until the end of the empire, and its translation into Old Church Slavonic was treated with great authority by the Bulgarians, Serbs, and Rus.

PROCOPIUS. See PROKOPIOS.

PRODROMOS, THEODORE. Twelfth-century panegyrist, poet, and writer of romance. He worked at the court of John II Komnenos and Irene Doukaina, becoming immensely popular. His romance Rodanthe and Dosikles is derivative, harkening back to a novel of the third century by Heliodoros of Emesa entitled the Aithiopica. See also LITERATURE.

PROKLOS. Neoplatonist philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer, who taught at the Academy of Athens. For Proklos (unlike Porphyry), Plotinos’s philosophy became a way of self-knowledge that used theurgy and mathematics to unite the soul with the divine. He died in 485, but his subsequent influence was enormous. Despite the hostility of John Philoponos, Pseudo-Dionysios the Areopagite incorporated his ideas into Christian theology. In the 11th century, interest in Proklos was revived by Michael Psellos, John Italos, Eustratios of Nicaea, and Michael of Ephesus. Thereafter, interest in his work, if only for the purpose of refutation, never flagged in Byzantium. See also ASTRONOMY; MATHEMATICS; MAXIMOS OF EPHESOS; PAGANISM; PROKOPIOS OF GAZA.

PROKONNESOS. See MARMARA, SEA OF.

PROKOPIOS. Usurper (365–366) and relative of the emperor Julian “The Apostate.” His revolt expressed army discontent with Valens over changes in some of Julian’s policies and the removal of officials appointed by Julian. Prokopios presented himself as Julian’s legitimate successor, but the revolt found little support in the army as a whole. He was arrested and executed.

PROKOPIOS OF CAESAREA. The historian of Justinian I’s reign. His works include the Wars, which, though concentrating primarily on Justinian’s wars against the Vandals, Persians, and Ostrogoths, also provide something of an internal history of the emperor’s reign. The Buildings (De aedificiis) has even more praise of Justinian than does the Wars, as one might expect of works written on commission.

Prokopios’s true feelings about Justinian and the empress Theodora are expressed in his Anekdota (Secret History), which is a mix of scurrilous gossip and fact. Belisarios, whose secretary Prokopios had been, is portrayed in the Anekdota as a weakling, completely under the control of his wife Antonina. Antonina is herself accused of political intrigues with Theodora and of a scandalous relationship with her adopted son Theodosios. Justinian and Theodora are viewed as demons intent on destroying Byzantium. See also CROTONE; DARA; HISTORY.

PROKOPIOS OF GAZA. Rhetorician from Gaza whose varied works include polemics against the Neoplatonism of Proklos, commentaries on the Old Testament, a description of a mechanical clock (horologion), and numerous letters. His panegyric on Anastasios I mentions the so-called Long Wall that Anastasios I built. See also RHETORIC; THEURGY.

PRONOIA. Fiscal institution consisting of a grant of revenues (in the form of taxation, rents, labor services) from dependent peasants (paroikoi) on an estate. The grantee is referred to by the conventional term “pronoiar.”

Military pronoia seems to have begun with Manuel I Komnenos in response to the decline of stratiotika ktemata. No feudalism resulted, since soldier-pronoiars derived money from their granted lands, but they did not live on the land, nor could their sons inherit pronoia grants (until Michael VIII Palaiologos allowed this for the sons of soldiers). Soldier-pronoiars, along with mercenaries, undergirded the military revival of the Komnenian period, and they continued to be the basic components of late Byzantine armies. See also AGRICULTURE; ARMY; CHARISTIKION; ECONOMY; PAROIKOS; PEASANTS; VILLAGE.

PROPONTIS. See MARMARA, SEA OF.

PROSKYNESIS. (Greek for “prostration” or “obeisance.”) The act of full prostration before a Byzantine emperor, required as a sign of servility, typically performed by foreign diplomats during interviews with the emperor. For example, when Liutprand of Cremona had an audience with Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos in 949 he did the required proskynesis three times. When he finally looked up he found that the emperor had been mechanically elevated on his throne to ceiling height. In art after the eighth century the proskynesis replaced the orant as an indication of prayer. See also DIPLOMACY.

PROSOPOGRAPHY. The study of names of elite individuals (e.g., those who held administrative offices, honorific titles, military commands) and, where family connections can be established, of their families. This is done by the study of written chronicles and histories, as well as by the study of other documentary sources, including tax records and letters.

The names on seals are of particular importance for the study of provincial administration, which is poorly represented, overall, in historical documents. Thus, prosopography provides information about how civil and military administration changed over time (e.g., how the theme system developed). It also provides information about the role of aristocratic families, and administrative posts held by members of the Palaiologan family during the Palaiologan Dynasty. See also ARISTOCRACY; BUREAUCRACY.

PROTHESIS. The term means “offering” in Greek, referring to the preparation of the bread and wine during the Eucharist. It has other related meanings, including the Eucharist itself, and in Byzantine churches it refers to the northern of two storage chambers (collectively referred to as pastophoria) flanking the central apse. The prothesis is the chamber where the sacred bread and other elements of the Eucharist were stored and prepared. The other storage chamber, the diakonikon, is located on the south side of the church’s central apse. See also BASILICA; CHURCH; CLERGY; LITURGY.

PROTO-BULGARIAN INSCRIPTION. See OMURTAG.

PROTO-MAIOLICA WARE. See POTTERY.

PROTONOTARIOS. See PROTOS (PROTO-).

PROTOS (PROTO-). Literally “the first.” A protos was the chief administrator of a group of monasteries, for example, Mount Athos and Meteora. However, “proto-” as the first part of a title could mean simply the highest-ranked member of a category of officials or dignitaries. For example, the protosebastos was the highest-ranked sebastos. The protonotarios was the chief of a group of notaries, for example, of the emperor’s personal notaries. It can also indicate a high-ranking palace official or dignitary with various specialized duties, such as the protovestiarios. See also BUREAUCRACY; PROTOSPATHARIOS; PROTOSTRATOR.

PROTOSEBASTOS. See PROTOS (PROTO-).

PROTOSPATHARIOS. Honorific title that ordinarily made its recipient a member of the senate. Prior to the 10th century it was usually awarded to commanders of the themes. In the 10th century two categories were created, the eunuchs and the “bearded,” each with a different distinguishing garb. The title was further expanded to include civil officials, some with special court functions, including judicial duties. See also BUREAUCRACY; IRENE; VOISLAV, STEFAN.

PROTOSTRATOR. Keeper of the imperial stables, according to the Kletorologion of Philotheos. He supervised a large staff of grooms and stable managers, as well as officials in charge of chariots and weapons. During the Palaiologan Dynasty, the protostrator was a high military commander responsible for certain ceremonial functions. See also BUREAUCRACY.

PROTOVESTIARIOS. Technically speaking, keeper of the vestiarion (the imperial wardrobe) of the emperor. However, from the ninth to 11th centuries the protovestiarios commanded armies, conducted peace negotiations, and performed other significant public tasks. From the 12th century onward the office became a highly honorary title, without specific responsibilities, conferred upon a trusted relative of the emperor’s family. See also ARMY; BUREAUCRACY; DIPLOMACY.

PROUSA. City (modern Bursa) situated in Bithynia near Mount Olympos. In the early 14th century relatively few cities in Asia Minor remained in Byzantine hands as the Ottomans rapidly expanded. Prousa resisted Sultan Osman’s sieges of 1302, 1304, and 1315. The city finally fell in 1326 to Orhan, who made it his capital. Osman was buried there. Prousa was one of the casualties of Timur’s invasion of Asia Minor in 1402. Timur’s Mongols captured and pillaged the city.

PROVINCES. The Roman Empire was administered through its provinces. Provincial administration was dramatically reorganized by Diocletian, who divided larger provinces into smaller ones (thereby increasing their number to nearly 100) and organized them into 12 dioceses. Constantine I the Great subsequently created still larger administrative units called prefectures, a system that collapsed in the seventh century and was replaced by administrative units called themes. See also BUREAUCRACY; NOTITIA DIGNITATUM; PRAETORIAN PREFECT; PRAITOR.

PRUDENTIUS. Christian Latin poet (348–ca. 410) born in Spain; high official under Honorius. He was a writer of Christian hymns, and of instructive poems on the Trinity and on the derivation of sins and vices.

His poems, for example, Pschomachia (The Battle for the Soul of Man) were the first to combine Christian themes within the stylistic format of classical Roman poetry. In his poetry old pagan modes were renewed. Prudentius became noted for using allegory for Christian purposes. In effect, he placed Christian themes for the first time squarely within the great cultural tradition of classical Latin poetry. He died ca. 410. See also LITERATURE; MUSIC.

PSALTER. Christian prayer book containing the Old Testament Book of Psalms and other devotional works. It was used in the liturgy, as well as for private reading. Like Gospel Books, psalters were often richly illustrated, especially aristocratic psalters, a chief example of which is the 10th-century Paris Psalter. See also ART; CODEX.

PSELLOS, MICHAEL. Historian, premier intellectual and writer of his time, courtier and advisor to several 11th-century emperors. Michael VII Doukas was his pupil. Whatever one thinks of his character (which was necessarily chameleon-like to have survived so long as a courtier) his active participation from 1042 to 1078 in the affairs of state gave him an extraordinary understanding of court life. His Chronographia, covering the years from 976 to 1078, is a work that, like the Alexiad of Anna Komnene, has profoundly shaped modern understanding of 11th-century Byzantium. The understanding of human behavior displayed in the Chronographia is profound. Indeed, some of the portraits he draws, for example, of imperial personalities like Zoe and Constantine IX Monomachos, are unforgettable. Together these portraits form an explanation of the 11th-century decline that focuses on the failure of imperial leadership after Basil II’s death in 1025. Psellos’s letters contain vivid description and exploration of psychological motivation (e.g., regarding the nature of friendship).

The impact of his learning on contemporaries was great, combining as it did theology and philosophy, including Neoplatonism, the study of which he revived. He was enormously curious about everything, including things occult. He and his circle of friends, who included patriarchs John VIII Xiphilinos and Constantine III Leichoudes, created a vibrant intellectual atmosphere in mid-11th century Constantinople. Psellos may have died around 1082, the year John Italos was tried for heresy. See also DOUKAS, JOHN; EUSTATHIOS OF THESSALONIKE; HISTORY; JOHN THE ORPHANOTROPHOS; MAUROPOUS, JOHN; OLYMPOS, MOUNT; ZONARAS, JOHN.

PSEUDO-SYMEON, CHRONICLE OF. See SYMEON LOGOTHETE.

PTOLEMY. See ASTRONOMY; GEOGRAPHY; GEORGE OF TREBIZOND; KOSMAS INDIKOPLEUSTES; SCIENCE; STEPHEN OF BYZANTIUM.

PULCHERIA. Empress; sister of Theodosios II. She exemplifies how a woman could exercise power due to her proximity to the throne; other prominent fifth and sixth century examples included Eudoxia, Athenais-Eudokia, Verina, Ariadne, Theodora, and Sophia.

When Pulcheria’s father Arkadios died in 408, she became head of the regency for her brother Theodosios II, then only seven. Her influence over the young, kindly, and weak-willed brother was great, despite disputes with Theodosios II’s wife Athenais-Eudokia and with Patriarch Nestorios. When Theodosios II died in 450, Pulcheria, who had taken a vow of virginity, agreed to a nominal marriage to the aged general Marcian in order to support his accession to power. See also CHRYSAPHIUS; EPHESUS, ECUMENICAL COUNCIL OF.