S

SABAS. Saint from Caesarea in Cappadocia who founded a lavra near Jerusalem in 483. Today it is called Mar Saba, and it is one of the oldest functioning monasteries. He continued the work of his mentor, Euthymios the Great, who also exerted a great influence on the development of monasticism in Palestine. Sabas twice went to Constantinople on missions from the patriarch of Jerusalem, where he defended the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon. His vita was written by Cyril of Skythopolis.

SABELLIANISM. See EUSTATHIOS OF ANTIOCH.

SAGION. Short cloak (a type of chlamys) that was commonly worn in the imperial court. Emperors wore a purple, jeweled sagion over the skaramangion. See also LOROS.

saint. A holy man or woman, including martyrs as well as living saints whose Christian lives were perfected, often by asceticism. Saints worked miracles, and after their death their relics continued to produce miracles. Typically a saint was commemorated in hagiography by a biography called a vita. The date of a saint’s death was also commemorated in the church calendar of feastdays, by being portrayed on icons, and in the name of church buildings. Some saints (e.g., Symeon the Stylite the Elder) achieved great fame during their lifetimes. See also ANTONY THE GREAT; APOPHTHEGMATA PATRUM; ATHANASIOS OF ATHOS; ATHANASIOS OF METEORA; ATHOS, MOUNT; AUGUSTINE; BASIL THE GREAT; CONSTANTINE I THE GREAT; CYRIL AND METHODIOS; CYRIL OF SKYTHOPOLIS; DOROTHEOS OF GAZA; EGERIA; EREMITE; EUTHYMIOS OF SARDIS; EUTHYMIOS THE GREAT; EUTHYMIOS THE YOUNGER; FIVE MARTYRS OF SEBASTEIA; FORTY MARTYRS OF SEBASTEIA; FORTY-TWO MARTYRS OF AMORION; GEORGE OF AMASTRIS; GREGORY OF DEKAPOLIS; GREGORY OF NAZIANZOS; GREGORY OF NYSSA; GREGORY OF SINAI; HELENA; ICON; JEROME; JOHN KLIMACHOS; JOHN OF RILA; JOHN “THE ALMSGIVER”; MAKARIOS THE GREAT; MARY OF EGYPT; MELANIA THE YOUNGER; MONASTICISM; MOSCHOS, JOHN; NEILOS OF ROSSANO; PELAGIA THE HARLOT; PHILARETOS THE ALMSGIVER; PHILOKALIA; PORPHYRY OF GAZA; RELIQUARY; SAVA OF SERBIA; STEPHEN THE YOUNGER; STYLITE; SYMEON METAPHRASTES; SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN; SYNAXARION; THEKLA, SAINT; THEODORA (WIFE OF THEOPHILOS); THEODORE GRAPTOS; THEODORE OF STOUDIOS; THEODORE OF SYKEON; THEOPHANES GRAPTOS; VLADIMIR I; WONDROUS MOUNTAIN.

SAINT HILARION CASTLE. See CYPRUS.

SAKELLARIOS. (Greek for “treasurer.”) Title of a high-ranking civil or ecclesiastical official whose duties were mostly financial. The emperor’s sakellarios supervised the sakellion (the imperial treasury). See also BUREAUCRACY.

SAKELLION. The imperial treasury where coined money was stored, supervised by the sakellarios. Other duties were gradually added to the staff of the sakellion, including the control of weights and other measures, the keeping of an inventory of imperial monastic properties, and the financial responsibility for public amusements. It is not to be confused with the vestiarion.

SALADIN. Sultan of Egypt from 1169 to 1193, and scourge of the Crusaders. He founded the Muslim dynasty of the Ayyubids. With Egypt firmly in his possession in 1169, he reunited the conquests of Nur al-Din in Syria, taking Damascus in 1174 and Aleppo in 1183. For the first time, the Crusaders faced a united Muslim world. This helps to explain Saladin’s stunning defeat of a Crusader army at the Battle of Hattin in 1187.

After Hattin, Byzantine policy became pro-Saladin, which inflamed Crusader sentiments. It was Saladin who urged Isaac II Angelos to resist the army of Frederick I Barbarossa as it traversed Byzantine territory in 1189–1190 during the Third Crusade. See also CONRAD OF MONTFERRAT; IMAD AL-DIN; TYRE.

SALAMIS (CONSTANTIA). See CYPRUS; EPIPHANIOS.

SALERNO. City on the Gulf of Salerno in southwest Italy conquered by the Lombards from Byzantium. It was part of the Duchy of Benevento, despite Byzantine technical sovereignty. As a result of the Arab victory at Garigliano in 915, Salerno switched allegiance to Otto I of Germany. Despite the waning of Byzantine political influence, Byzantium’s cultural influence on Salerno continued, as seen in the huge bronze doors (dated 1100) of its cathedral. See also LONGOBARDIA.

SALONA. Birthplace of Diocletian, located on the coast of Dalmatia near Split and the site of Diocletian’s retirement palace. Ruled by the Ostrogoths in the fifth century, Justinian I’s general Mundus reconquered it in 535. In the 630s, to escape the attacks of Slavs and Avars, the inhabitants moved to Split.

SAMARITANS. Jewish separatists who were never tolerated by Byzantium, and who were persecuted repeatedly for their insurrections in Palestine during the fifth and sixth centuries. After the revolt of 529, in which they crowned one of their leaders, Justinian I’s killed tens of thousands of them, destroyed their synagogues, and deprived them of their sacred Mount Gerizim.

SAMO. See MORAVIA; SLAVS.

samonas. See DOUKAS, ANDRONIKOS; DOUKAS, CONSTANTINE; EUNUCHS; LEO VI.

SAMOS. Island in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Asia Minor. The Arabs attacked Samos repeatedly in the seventh and eighth centuries. In the ninth century it became part of the theme of Samos with its capital at Smyrna. Around 1088 Tzachas captured it, making it part of his maritime principality, but it was in Byzantine hands again several years later. In 1204 Baldwin of Flanders was given Samos, along with Lesbos and Chios. A fleet of John III Vatatzes seized it around 1225, but in 1304 it fell to the Genoese, who held it (despite a Byzantine reconquest of 1329–1346) until 1475, when it was captured by the Ottomans. See also EPHESUS.

SAMOSATA. City located at a strategic crossing of the upper Euphrates River. It is mentioned in the wars with Persia. Julian “The Apostate,” for example, used it as a naval station in his Persian campaign of 363. Once occupied by the Arabs in 639, it was often attacked by Byzantine expeditions. In 873 Basil I seized it temporarily. John I Tzimiskes reconquered Samosata in 958. By the late 11th century it was in the hands of the Turks. See also DIGENES AKRITES; SAYF AL-DAWLA.

SAMOTHRACE. See GATTILUSIO.

SAMUEL OF BULGARIA. Ruled Bulgaria from 976 to 1014; first Bulgarian ruler to adopt the title tsar. Samuel’s invasions of Greece from 981 to 986, which reached as far as the Peloponnesos, culminated in a great victory over Basil II at the pass called Trajan’s Gate.

However, from 991 to 1014 Basil II struck back in a series of expeditions that reclaimed Greece and took the war into Bulgaria. In 997 Basil’s general Nikephoros Ouranos won a decisive victory over Samuel in central Greece at the Spercheios River. In 1004 he captured Skopje, and Dyrrachion fell in 1005. In 1014 Basil surrounded Samuel’s army in the mountain passes of Kleidion and captured 14,000 prisoners, whom he blinded, sending them back to Samuel in groups of a hundred, each group led by a single soldier with one eye. Samuel is said to have died, presumably from a stroke, when he saw his blinded troops. See also DALMATIA; DIOKLEIA; PRESLAV.

SANUDO TORSELLO, MARINO. Venetian nobleman related to the Venetian dukes of Naxos; historian; anti-Ottoman propagandist. His failed efforts to arouse the West to a Crusade against the Ottomans left a rich legacy of letters (from 1323 to 1337), including some to Andronikos II Palaiologos. His historical essays include a valuable account of Frankish Greece and of the Venetian colonies, which continues (to 1310) the work of Geoffrey de Villehardouin. See also FOURTH CRUSADE; VENICE.

SARDINIA. Island in the western Mediterranean Sea, separated from Corsica to its north by the Strait of Bonifacio. The Vandals seized it around 455 and held it until Justinian I reconquered it in 534. Despite its brief occupation in 551–552 by Totila, and subsequent attacks by the Lombards it remained in Byzantine hands until Arabs from Spain conquered it in 1003.

SARDIS. Capital (metropolis) of Lydia in Asia Minor. The historian Eunapios, who wrote from Sardis, describes a philosophical school there. Recent excavations have revealed the extent of its civic monuments and churches, many of which were destroyed ca. 616, perhaps by a Persian raid. The seventh-century Byzantine fortress survived for centuries, despite a brief occupation by the Arabs in 716 and by Tzachas from 1092 to 1098. Sardis prospered again under the Lascarid Dynasty, as did the entire region. However, after 1261 the Turkish advance in Lydia was relentless. The Emirate of Saruhan conquered Sardis ca. 1315. See also FORTIFICATIONS; HISTORY; METROPOLITAN.

SARKEL. The name, which means “White House,” refers to a fortress on the mouth of the Don River constructed by Theophilos ca. 833 at the request of the Khazars. Its purpose was to protect against the Rus, who threatened the Khazars on the lower Don and the Byzantine theme of Cherson. Nevertheless, Rus forces under Svjatoslav destroyed Sarkel in 965.

SARMATIANS. Nomadic people, related to the Scythians, who settled in a broad swath along the northern periphery of the Black Sea, and north of the lower Danube. During the reign of Constantine I the Great they crossed the Danube in 323, and pillaged Thrace before the emperor forced them to retreat back across the Danube. Constantine I conquered them in 334, after which they were settled within the empire as farmers and soldiers. See also BARBARIANS; STEPPE.

SARUHAN. One of the early 14th-century emirates founded in western Asia Minor on the ruins of the Sultanate of Rum. Its capital was Magnesia, which Saruhan conquered in 1313; Sardis fell soon thereafter. Andronikos III Palaiologos concluded treaties with Saruhan in 1329 and 1335, and for a time the Saruhan emirate seemed of more importance than the emirate of Osman. However, in 1410 the Ottomans occupied it. See also TURKS.

SASSANIANS. Dynasty that ruled Persia from 226 to 651, with its capital at Ctesiphon; Byzantium’s long-time eastern foe until Herakleios conquered the Sassanian state in 628. Ardashir I made its official religion Zoroastrianism. His successor Shapur I was one of Rome’s most dangerous enemies, and subsequent kings Chosroes I and Chosroes II posed grave threats to Byzantium. Under Yazdgird III, the last Sassanian king, the Arabs advanced into Persia, destroying Persian resistance in 642. Yazdgird III remained a fugitive at large for another 10 years before he was killed, bringing to an end a dynasty that ruled Persia for more than four centuries. See also JUSTIN I; JUSTINIAN I; KATAPHRAKTOI; MANICHAEANISM; MAURICE.

SAVA OF SERBIA. Serbian saint and monk who organized the Serbian church. At the request of his father, Stefan Nemanja, he founded the Serbian monastery of Hilandar on Mount Athos, where he lived as a monk before being consecrated in 1219 as the first archbishop of the church of Serbia. He traveled widely, endowing other churches and monasteries in the Holy Land, Thessalonike, and Constantinople.

SAYF AL-DAWLA. Hamdanid emir of Mosul and Aleppo, who was Byzantium’s chief Arab opponent in Syria and Mesopotamia from 936 to 962. He defeated John Kourkouas in 938 on the upper Euphrates River, and he won a victory near Aleppo in 944 and another major victory in 953. However, the tide began to turn in Byzantium’s favor. In 958 John I Tzimiskes defeated him, capturing Samosata in northern Mesopotamia. In 962 Nikephoros II Phokas captured Aleppo and plundered it. Still, only after Sayf al-Dawla’s death in 967 was Byzantium able to make significant territorial gains in Syria and Mesopotamia.

SAYINGS OF THE DESERT FATHERS. See APOPHTHEGMATA PATRUM.

SCHISM. From the Greek word for “division,” referring to a division within the church. Such schisms have been one of the chief characteristics of the history of Christianity. Indeed, most such schisms, like that begun by Martin Luther in 1517, resulted in separate Christian churches (e.g., Lutheran, Calvinist, Swiss Reformed).

The most serious divisions in the early Christian church were due to theological controversies concerning Christ. Was his relationship to God the Father one of subordination and inferiority (Arianism)? Were his human and divine natures separate (Nestorianism)? Was Christ wholly divine (Monophysitism)? Each of these divisions produced separate Arian, Nestorian, and Monophysite churches.

The church schism of 1054 between the eastern and western churches (not fully healed to this day) had a long history, so to speak. The first schism between the eastern and western churches was the Akakian Schism of 484–519, a result of Zeno’s attempt to pacify Monophysites by an edict (Henotikon) that interpreted Christ’s human and divine natures loosely. That Byzantine emperors should have anything to say about theology was anathema to the pope. The modern term for this is “caesaropapism.” From the Byzantine point of view the papacy’s claim of papal primacy over the entire church was also anathema. Papal inauguration of the Crusades, and papal support of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, which resulted in a forcible reunion of the churches in territories controlled by the Latin conquerors, put the seal of longevity onto the church schism of 1054. See also CHALCEDON, COUNCIL OF; CHRIST, THEOLOGY OF; CONSTANTINOPLE, FIFTH ECUMENICAL COUNCIL; CONSTANTINOPLE, SIXTH ECUMENICAL COUNCIL; ECUMENICAL COUNCILS; FERRARA-FLORENCE, COUNCIL OF; FILIOQUE; HERESY; ICONOCLASM; ORTHODOXY; THREE CHAPTERS; UNION OF THE CHURCHES.

SCHISM OF 1054. See CHURCH SCHISM OF 1054.

SCHOLAE PALATINAE. Senior imperial guard unit, originally five regiments of 500 cavalrymen each, perhaps created by Constantine I the Great. Justin I added four additional regiments. They had a long and distinguished history, especially from the time of Constantine V, when it became the most important tagma, under the command of the domestikos ton scholon, who, on occasion, commanded the entire field army. Together, the scholae palatinae, the exkoubitores, and (from the early ninth century) the hikanatoi formed an elite strike force.

SCHOLARES. See SCHOLAE PALATINAE.

SCHOLASTICISM. See AQUINAS, THOMAS; GENNADIOS II SCHOLARIOS; THEOLOGY.

SCIENCE. Modern science, as we understand it, began in the 17th century with Galileo and Newton, and with the early contributors to the scientific method (including Galileo, Francis Bacon, and Descartes). The widespread influence of modern science was a phenomenon of the 18th century in Europe.

Byzantine science was, for the most part, unoriginal. It depended heavily on ancient science, which was revered, copied, and commented on. Generally speaking, ancient Greek scientists, including Aristotle, did not operate like modern scientists. For example, they did not formulate hypotheses and then conduct experiments to test their hypotheses. This is important to keep in mind when considering Byzantine science, which was so heavily dependent on ancient science. Nevertheless, Byzantine commentators could, on occasion, be critical in their appraisals. For example, John Philoponos attacked Aristotle’s law of falling bodies and demonstrated, contrary to Aristotle, that a vacuum could exist.

Such original achievements as there were tended to be in areas of applied science, for example, in medicine and in engineering (e.g., the dome of Justinian I’s Hagia Sophia). Kallinikos invented Greek Fire, and Leo the Mathematician a beacon system to warn of Arab attacks in Asia Minor.

Both theoretical and applied science overlapped with superstition and magic. For example, the study of astronomy could easily degenerate into astrology. Chemistry was synonymous with alchemy. The boundary between mathematics and numerology was hardly clear, and number symbolism overlapped with Neoplatonic philosophy and theology. Byzantium’s chief scientific contribution was to transmit ancient Greek science to the Islamic world.

Finally, the number of referrals for this entry, as compared to those for saint and theology, points to the fact that Byzantium considered holiness to be a much greater source of power than science. See also ABBASID CALIPHATE; ANTHEMIOS OF TRALLES; ISIDORE OF MILETUS; MAGNAURA; TECHNOLOGY; THEODORE OF GAZA.

SCRIPTOR INCERTUS. Anonymous Greek historical source (the Latin title means Unknown Writer) for the years 811–816. It contains two fragments, one describing Nikephoros I’s disastrous expedition against the Bulgars in 811, the other the reigns of Michael I and Leo V. The second fragment seems definitely part of a longer (lost) work, perhaps of a contemporary historian like Sergios the Confessor. He died ca. 829 and is known to have authored a historical work covering the years 741–828. See also HISTORY.

SCYTHIA MINOR. See DINOGETIA; DOBRUDJA; SCYTHIANS.

SCYTHIANS. Nomadic steppe tribe settled north of the Black Sea until displaced by the Sarmatians in the second or first century b.c. However, the name survived in Scythia Minor, a province south of the Danube, that flourished from the fourth through sixth centuries and included such prosperous cities as Histria.

SEALS. Beginning in the sixth century lay and church officeholders secured their documents and correspondence with lead seals. About 50,000 of these lead seals have survived; their study is referred to as silliography. Some have family names and offices that are well known; some do not. Members of the Palaiologan family are known only because their seals have been preserved. Other influential families in the ruling elite, at different historical periods, can also be studied through seals. Without the evidence of seals, some lay and ecclesiastical offices would otherwise be poorly understood.

A kommerkiarios, for example, was a customs and excise officer, mentioned first in an inscription of a law promulgated by Anastasius I (491–518). Kommerkiarioi also supervised the sale of certain commodities, like silk. Their special seals had an image of the reigning emperor, the Indictions for which the seal was valid, and the location of the warehouses in the region under this official’s control.

To chronologically study the seals of the kommerkiarioi is to see how the office changed from region to region, over time. Ninth and 10th-century seals from these officials demonstrate that by this time the kommerkiarios supervised military equipment for the themes.

Without seals the study of Byzantine administration in the provinces would be weak, as would the study of existence of places where arms were manufactured and stored. About 30 gold seals (chrysobulls), which were used to seal imperial documents, are known. See also BUREAUCRACY; PROSOPOGRAPHY.

SEBASTEIA. City in Cappadocia whose location on a major highway across Asia Minor explains why the Persians burned it in 575, and why the Arabs repeatedly attacked it. In 1021 it was ceded to King Senacherim Arcruni in return for Vaspurakan. In 1059 it became the first important city in Asia Minor to be plundered by Turks, who occupied it permanently toward the end of the 11th century. Legendary martyrs include the Five Martyrs of Sebasteia and the Forty Martyrs of Sebasteia. See also DANISHMENDIDS; DAZIMON; VASPURAKAN.

SEBASTOKRATOR. Alexios I Komnenos created the title of sebastos and its variations, this title being one of them. It was awarded to imperial relatives. Only the title of basileus and, beginning with Manuel I Komnenos, “despot” were of higher rank.

SEBASTOS. “Revered,” in Greek, and the basis of Alexios I Komnenos’s new array of titles, for example, sebastokrator, protosebastos (the highest-ranked sebastos), and panhypersebastos (an even higher-ranking title than protosebastos). Alexios I conferred it on his own relatives and on members of the nobility. By the end of the 12th century it was dispensed so frequently as to become debased. In the 13th century it was awarded to important foreigners as a tool of diplomacy.

SECOND BULGARIAN EMPIRE. Founded by the brothers Asen I and Peter of Bulgaria in the wake of a massive revolt in Byzantine-occupied Bulgaria in 1185. The immediate cause was excessive Byzantine taxation. The brothers may have been Vlachs, or even Cumans. By 1188 they reestablished an independent Bulgaria with a capital at Turnovo. The new state fought off periodic attacks from Byzantine forces. Kalojan and John Asen II secured the stability of the new empire, which was threatened by Mongol and Ottoman attacks in the 14th century. By 1373 the Second Bulgarian Empire was a dependency of the Ottomans. Ottoman Sultan Murad I conquered it in 1393. See also CHILIA; DOROSTOLON; IVAJLO; IVANKO.

SECOND CRUSADE. The Second Crusade (1147–1149) was launched in response to the fall of Edessa to Zangi in 1146. The threat to Constantinople posed by the First Crusade was renewed during this Crusade, as the armies of Conrad III and Louis VII passed through the city in 1147. Manuel I Komnenos viewed the approaching armies with justifiable apprehension. Conrad’s army committed acts of violence at Adrianople, and outside the walls of Constantinople. Odo of Deuil reports that some in Louis VII’s army called for an attack on Constantinople.

Manuel I Komnenos was forced to remain in Constantinople to protect the city. He tried to persuade Louis VII to join him in an alliance against Roger II of Sicily. This attempt not only failed but Roger II used Manuel I’s preoccupation with the Crusade to occupy Kerkyra and to attack Corinth and Thebes in 1147. As soon as the Second Crusade was on its way, Manuel I opened hostilities against Roger II, regaining Kerkyra in 1149. Thus, the Second Crusade was as fraught with danger for Byzantium as the First Crusade had been. See also MICHAEL ITALIKOS; OTTO OF FREISING; WILLIAM OF TYRE.

SECRET HISTORY. See ANEKDOTA.

SEE. The administrative jurisdiction of a bishop, which invariably included the bishop’s city, along with its surrounding territory. Metropolitan bishops exercised ecclesiastical jurisdiction over provinces. Sees that were dioceses were administered by patriarchs.

SEKRETON. Generally speaking, a governmental bureau. For example, the fiscal administration was comprised of a number of sekreta, including the genikon and sakellion, which handled both expenditure and revenue. From the seventh century onward it could also refer to a patriarchal court, council, or bureau of the chartophylax. From the 14th century the term also included imperial supreme courts. See also BUREAUCRACY; CHARTOULARIOS; LOGOTHETES.

SELEUKEIA. Coastal city in Isauria in southeastern Asia Minor. Its importance resided chiefly in its role as defender of the Isaurian coast from Arab raids. To this end, it became capital of the theme of Kibyrrhaiotai, then of a kleisoura, and finally, in the 10th century, of the theme of Seleukia. A local synod of 359 achieved prominence in 370 when Valens demanded that all eastern bishops follow its support of Arianism. The city was also noted for Saint Thekla, whose shrine was at nearby Meriamlik.

SELJUKS. Turkish dynasty of steppe nomads founded by Seljuk. His grandson Tughrul Beg conquered Baghdad in 1055, bringing the Islamic Caliphate under his possession. Superior mobility allowed Seljuk horsemen to penetrate the border defenses of Asia Minor and sack Melitene in 1058. In 1067 they pillaged Caesarea. But it was the victory of Tughrul Beg’s son and successor, Sultan Alp Arslan, at the Battle of Mantzikert in 1071 that opened up Asia Minor to expansion by the Seljuks.

The Sultanate of Rum was quickly established with its capital at Nicaea, until 1097, when they were forced to surrender the city to Alexios I Komnenos and the army of the First Crusade. Their new capital was established at Ikonion, from where (after the defeat of Manuel I Komnenos in 1176 at the Battle of Myriokephalon) they extended their control over most of Asia Minor.

Their decline began with their defeat by the Mongols in 1243 and continued until the early 14th century when the Emirate of Osman began its phenomenal expansion in Asia Minor. See also ARMENIA; DANISHMENDIDS; DORYLAION; IMAD AL-DIN; LAODIKEIA; SINOPE; THEODOSIOUPOLIS.

SELYMBRIA. Port city located west of Constantinople along the northern shore of the Sea of Marmara at the end of the Via Egnatia. The southern end of the Long Wall of Anastasios I extended to the west of Selymbria. The city was strongly fortified, as attested by the fact that in 1385 when future John VII Palaiologos received Selymbria to administer, it was one of the few places independent of Ottoman rule in the vicinity of Constantinople. It surrendered to the Ottomans after Constantinople was captured in 1453. See also DEMETRIOS PALAIOLOGOS.

SEMISSIS. See COINAGE.

SENATE. Advisory and ceremonial body in Rome that Constantine I the Great duplicated in Constantinople and which continued to exist until the end of Byzantium. Occasionally its actions were significant, as in the accession of Anastasios I, in the support of many senators of the Nika Revolt, and when the senate deposed Martina and Heraklonas. It might also act as a tribunal, as in 653 when Pope Martin I was accused of supporting the rebellion of Olympios and tried for high treason. Revocation of its authority by Leo VI accelerated its decline. However, despite its loss of any real power, it remained an advisory body to the emperor until the end of the empire. See also ALTAR OF VICTORY; SPECTABILIS.

SERBIA. The first organized Serbian state was called Raška. It was established in the ninth century by Serbs, namely, Slavs who settled in the Balkan Peninsula during the reign of Herakleios, who converted to Orthodoxy and recognized Byzantine authority. Until ca. 930 it was dominated by neighboring Bulgaria. In ca. 1170 Stefan Nemanja proclaimed an independent Serbia, but he was forced to acknowledge Byzantine overlordship when Manuel I Komnenos led an army into Serbia. Nevertheless, the successors of Stefan Nemanja expanded Serbia over the next two centuries (from ca. 1168 to 1371) into a powerful state under such famous rulers as Stefan Urosh I, Stefan Urosh II Milutin, Stefan Urosh III Dechanski, and Stefan Urosh IV Dushan.

The location of Serbia was such that it threatened the two main highways through the Balkan Peninsula: the Via Egnatia and the military road from Belgrade through Naissus and Serdica to Adrianople and Constantinople. Serbia resisted the Ottomans, even after the defeat in 1389 at Kosovo Polje. Despite the leadership of Stefan Lazarevich and George Brankovich, Serbia was entirely occupied by the Ottomans by 1459. See also NEMANJIDS.

SERBS. See DYRRACHION; SERBIA.

SERDICA. Modern Sophia, Bulgaria. Serdica’s importance lay in its strategic location along major highway systems, the most important of which was the Belgrade-Naissus-Serdica-Philippopolis road to Constantinople. The Council of Serdica (ca. 343) attempted to settle the question of the Orthodoxy of Athanasios, but it failed. The western bishops confirmed it, but the eastern bishops did not.

The city suffered from the attacks of Visigoths in the late fourth century and Huns during the time of Attila, but it remained in Byzantine hands until Krum conquered it and massacred its garrison in 809. With the victory of Basil II over Bulgaria, it became a Byzantine city again, until Asen I captured it in 1194. The Ottomans conquered it in 1382. See also DACIA.

SERFDOM. See COLONUS.

SERGIOPOLIS. (Arabic Rasafah.) Major sixth-century garrison city on the Euphrates River frontier, north of Palmyra. Anastasios I named the town after a saint named Sergios, who was martyred during the reign of Diocletian with a saint named Bakchos (the Church of Sergios and Bakchos in Constantinople is named after them). Justinian I rebuilt the city, refortifying its walls, but it fell to Chosroes I in 540, and to the Arabs in the seventh century. Today its ruins, including the monumental Basilica A, form (along with Qalat Seman, the pilgrimage shrine in honor of Symeon Stylites the Elder) an impressive example of the architectural richness of late antique Syria.

SERGIOS I. Patriarch of Constantinople from 610 to 638. He allowed Herakleios to expropriate church valuables in 621 to finance the war against the Persians. He led the defense of Constantinople in 626 during its siege by Avars and Persians. His Monoenergism and support of the Ekthesis were subsequently condemned (in 680). See also SOPHRONIOS.

SERGIOS AND BAKCHOS, CHURCH OF. Monastic church built ca. 530 by Justinian I and Theodora in the imperial Palace of Hormisdas, near the area of Constantinople called Boukoleon. Its intended use may have been for Syrian Monophysite monks who lived in the capital and were favored by Theodora.

Unlike traditional Christian basilicas this church had a centralized type of plan used previously for tombs of martyrs (martyria), audience halls, and baptisteries. A central dome rests on the arches of eight piers. Around this is an outer shell, and between the piers supporting the dome is a passageway, so that one can circulate around the interior of the church. This was a radical new church design, one that Justinian I used as a basis for a much more ambitious centralized-plan church, Hagia Sophia. See also ARCHITECTURE; SERGIOPOLIS.

SERGIOS THE CONFESSOR. See SCRIPTOR INCERTUS.

SERGIUS I. See JUSTINIAN II; TRULLO, COUNCIL IN.

SERRES. City in Macedonia northeast of Thessalonike, strategically situated on the broad, fertile plain through which the Strymon (modern Struma) River passes before exiting into the Aegean Sea. It changed hands between Normans and Bulgars in the late 12th century. It was recaptured by John III Vatatzes in 1246 and fell to Stefan IV Dushan in 1345. The Ottomans captured it in 1383.

SERVIA. City in Greece south of Berroia that guarded the highway to Larissa, where the middle course of the Haliakmon River runs through a broad plain. Its name may derive from its settlement by Serbs under the protection of Heraklios. The city’s strategic location explains its capture and recapture, beginning with Basil II’s war with Bulgaria. It fell to the Ottomans in the late 14th century.

SEVERIANOS. Bishop of Gabala in Syria who became embroiled in a power struggle with John Chrysostom in 401. He was a trusted deputy of Chrysostom until the latter tried to send him back to Gabala. Severianos resisted this, turned to Chrysostom’s opponents for support, and they rallied behind him. Chrysostom was forced to reconcile with him, and he had to abandon his attempt to force Severianos’s removal to Gabala.

SEVEROS. Bishop of Antioch from 512 to 518 and untiring promoter of Monophysitism. He gained great prominence during the reign of Anastasios I, who favored him. However, in 518 Justin I sent Severos into exile and launched a persecution of Monophysites. Justinian I invited him to Constantinople for negotiations, where Theodora arranged for him to stay at the Great Palace. Nevertheless, he was condemned at a synod in Constantinople in 536 and spent the last years of his life in the Egyptian desert. The theologian Leontios of Byzantium (died ca. 543) wrote a work attacking him. Zacharias of Mytilene wrote his vita. See also DIONYSIOS THE AREOPAGITE, PSEUDO-.

SEVERUS. Emperor and augustus in the West from 306 to 307. Made caesar to Constantius Chlorus in 305, he became augustus upon the death of Constantius Chlorus in 306. Galerius sent him against the usurper Maxentius, son of Maximian. However, Maximian’s troops revolted and Severus soon found himself a prisoner of Maxentius, who executed him in 307.

SGOUROS, LEO. Byzantine administrator of Nauplia who carved out an independent state for himself in the northeast Peloponnesos from 1201 until his death in 1207. His was one of several revolutions (like that of Ivanko) that occurred as Alexios III Angelos’s regime disintegrated. Sgouros first seized Nauplia, then Argos and Corinth. The Fourth Crusade’s conquest of Constantinople produced a brief power vacuum in the Peloponnesos that allowed Sgouros to attack Athens, where Michael Choniates defended the Acropolis. Thebes was captured and Thessaly fell under his sway. However, with the arrival of Boniface of Montferrat Sgouros was forced to flee to the Acrocorinth, where he died under siege in 1207.

SGRAFFITO WARE. See POTTERY.

SHAPUR I. See SASSANIANS.

SHIITES. See FATAMIDS.

SHIRKUH. See NUR AL-DIN.

SICILIAN VESPERS. The uprising in Sicily in March 1282 that thwarted Charles I of Anjou’s planned attack on Constantinople. Charles’s fleet at Messina was destroyed, and with the arrival of Peter III of Aragon (son-in-law of Manfred) in August of that year the French were driven from the island. Michael VIII Palaiologos seems to have promoted and subsidized the Aragonese invasion. In any case, it was a stunning humiliation of Charles I of Anjou, and of the papacy that had supported him.

SICILY. Largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, separated from the Italian mainland by the Strait of Messina. While Sicily linked Italy to Africa, it also divided the Mediterranean into eastern and western parts.

Conquered by Gaiseric in 475, it remained in Vandal hands until the Ostrogoths captured it in 491. Belisarios took the island for Justinian I in 535–536, after defeating the Vandals in North Africa. Arab raids on the island began in 652, and when Constans II took up residence in Syracuse from 663 to 668, it was ostensibly to defend Sicily against the Arabs. Despite Sicily’s elevation to the status of a theme by ca. 700, Arab raids continued throughout the eighth century. In 826 the Aghlabids invaded the island, capturing Palermo in 831. Syracuse fell in 878 and by 902, when Taormina fell, the Aghlabids had effective control of the island. Byzantine expeditions to recover Sicily, most notably under George Maniakes from 1038 to 1042, failed.

What Byzantium was unable to do the Normans succeeded at. Their conquest began in 1060 and was completed by 1091. Norman rule, which produced such architectural gems as the Capella Palatina and Cefalù (built by Roger II), and Monreale (built by William II), were decorated in the Byzantine style, perhaps using Byzantine artisans. Henry VI of Germany, who was married to Constance, daughter of Roger II, inherited Sicily after the death of William II in 1189. The death of Frederick II Hohenstaufen’s son Manfred in 1266 allowed Charles I of Anjou with papal support, to claim Sicily as his own. However, the Sicilian Vespers, conspired for by Michael VIII Palaiologos, ejected Charles from Sicily in 1282.

SIDE. See PAMPHYLIA.

SIDON. See BERYTUS; TYRE.

SIDONIUS. See AVITUS; EPARCHIUS; MAJORIAN.

SIGISMUND OF HUNGARY. See NIKOPOLIS, CRUSADE OF.

SILENTARIOS. See ANASTASIOS I.

SILENTIUM. By the sixth century this was an imperial council consisting of the consistorium and senate. However, the silentium subsequently evolved toward a less permanent body that met at the command of the emperor to discuss important affairs of state, or even of the church. The term might even refer to ceremonial occasions over which the emperor presided. See also GERMANOS I; LEO III.

SILK. Silk production was a privatized state industry, centered in Constantinople and also, from the 11th century, in Athens, Corinth, Thebes, and Thessalonike. Justinian I established the industry by first smuggling silkworm eggs from China. He then created the mulberry-tree plantations necessary to support silkworms, and he set up the factories necessary for weaving. The industry’s importance was twofold: as a supplier of rich court and church vestments and furnishings (e.g., for curtains and tapestries) and as a controlled luxury item for foreign trade. The Book of the Eparch describes the guild that controlled all aspects of its production.

Exported silk, which was as highly coveted as gold by foreign rulers, was rigorously monitored. Much of it was exported as imperial subsidies and gifts. Byzantine officials, themselves dressed in the finest silks, reminded ambassador Liutprand of Cremona that in his native Saxony people wore the skins of animals, a remark that infuriated Liutprand. Liutprand’s attempt in 968 to smuggle five pieces of purple silk out of Constantinople for Otto I met with failure; they were confiscated.

Byzantium’s monopoly of silk began to erode in the 12th century. In 1147 Roger II of Sicily attacked Corinth and Thebes, carrying off their silk weavers. Despite this the silk industry survived. According to Benjamin of Tudela, in the 1160s the silk industry in Thebes was flourishing. See also ARTISANS; DANELIS; PALERMO.

SILLIOGRAPHY. See SEALS.

SILVER. Silver mines were located throughout the empire in such diverse locations as Cyprus, Armenia, and the Caucasus. Even the mines in Attica, so famous in classical antiquity, continued to produce silver in Byzantine times.

Silver coinage was second only to gold in value. The silver miliaresion was evaluated at 12 to the gold nomisma. Silver was the metal most used for liturgical vessels; for example, chalices, patens, spoons, crosses, and censers. It also framed icons and was used for the covers of liturgical books, often decorated with gems and inlaid work. Silver was used for domestic table services (including plates, bowls, spoons), for furniture revetments, and for kitchenwares (e.g., ladles, strainers) and bathwares (e.g., mirrors and small boxes).

Silver ingots and silver objects manufactured by the state were stamped with control marks (e.g., with the names of officials, imperial busts, the reigning emperor’s name), presumably attesting to the silver’s purity.

SILVESTER I. See DONATION OF CONSTANTINE.

SIMOKATTES, THEOPHYLAKTOS. The last of the Roman imperial historians. He wrote a history of the reign of Maurice, who ruled 582–602, continuing the work of Menander Protector. He was a contemporary of the emperor Maurice, probably a judge, who was born in Egypt. Incidental to his main theme, but of unusual interest, is information about Asia, including the Turks of central Asia and the Chinese empire.

SIMONIS. The daughter of Andronikos II Palaiologos and Irene-Yolanda of Montferrat who was married in 1299 at age five to Serbian king Stefan Urosh II Milutin. He was then about 40, and Simonis was his fourth wife, all of which meant that the marriage was considered scandalous. Milutin agreed to raise her as a child in the royal family until she was of suitable age to become a real wife to him. Theodore Metochites negotiated the arrangements that secured peace with Serbia, which was the whole point of the marriage to begin with. After Milutin’s death in 1321, she returned to Constantinople, where she lived out her life as a nun. See also DIPLOMACY; WOMEN.

SINAI. See CATHERINE, MONASTERY OF SAINT.

SINGIDUNUM. See BELGRADE.

SINOPE. Port city in Pontos on the south shore of the Black Sea. After the revolt of the Armeniakon in 793, Constantine VI executed the bishop of Sinope for supporting the rebellion. In 834 Sinope was at the center of the rebellion of Theophobos and his followers. Captured by the Seljuks in 1081, it was recaptured by Alexios I Komnenos. Annexed by the Empire of Trebizond in 1204, it was lost to the Turks soon after 1214.

SIRMIUM. City and border fortress on the middle of the Danube, in the diocese of Pannonia. It surrendered to the Avars in 582 after a siege of two years. Belgrade fell two years after Sirmium was conquered. From these two cities both the Avars and Slavs were positioned to menace northern and central Greece.

SIXTH ECUMENICAL COUNCIL. See CONSTANTINOPLE, SIXTH ECUMENICAL COUNCIL AT.

SKANDERBEG. George Kastriota of Albania, the last Christian leader to successfully oppose the Ottomans in the Balkan Peninsula. Son of a prince in northern Albania, he was taken hostage to the court of Murad II where he converted to Islam, and he became an officer in the Ottoman army. He deserted in 1443, renounced Islam, and successfully organized Albanian resistance to the Ottomans until his death in 1468. The Ottomans called him Iskender Beg (meaning Alexander beg, or Lord Alexander), which translated into Albanian as Skanderbeg.

SKARAMANGION. A kind of chaftan in the form of a long silk under-tunic (chiton) with a belt, worn under a sagion. Only the emperor could wear a purple skaramangion. See also CHLAMYS; KAMISION; LOROS.

SKLAVENIA. See CONSTANS II; DROUGOUBITAI; JUSTINIAN II; SLAVS.

SKLAVENOI. See DROGOUBITAI; SLAVS.

SKLEROS, BARDAS. General, rebel, and member of one of the great families of military aristocracy (dynatoi) of Asia Minor. His greatest victory as general was the defeat of Svjatoslav in 971. In 976 the army of Mesopotamia proclaimed him emperor (basileus). Bardas Phokas also revolted and Basil II faced two lengthy rebellions.

Bardas Skleros fled to Arab territory in 979 after Bardas Phokas defeated him, but Skleros rebelled again in 987, and was taken captive by Bardas Phokas. After the death of Bardas Phokas he fought Basil II until 989, when he reconciled with the emperor and was given a generous exile on lands granted him in Bithynia.

His career, like that of his great rival Bardas Phokas, demonstrates how threatened the Byzantine state was by the military aristocracy, who dominated army high commands in the late 10th and early 11th centuries. See also BOURTZES, MICHAEL; WAR.

SKLEROS, ROMANOS. See MANIAKES, GEORGE.

SKOPJE. City in northern Macedonia. It was destroyed by earthquake in the early sixth century. Thereafter the city’s history is obscure until Basil II seized it in the early 11th century. In 1282 the Serbs occupied it; Stefan Urosh IV Dushan was crowned there in 1346. The Ottomans captured it in 1391. The lovely Church of St. Panteleemon at Nerezi (dated ca. 1164) is located near Skopje. See also PETER DELJAN; SAMUEL OF BULGARIA.

SKRIPOU, CHURCH OF THE PANAGHIA. See BOEOTIA.

SKYLITZES, JOHN. Historian who wrote a chronicle from 811 to 1057, continuing the chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor. Its value as an independent source increases dramatically with the reign of Basil II. The later historian George Kedrenos copied Skylitzes almost word for word in his own work. See also HISTORY; ZONARAS, JOHN.

SKYTHOPOLIS. See PALESTINE.

SLAVERY. Slavery existed throughout the history of Byzantium as an inheritance from Roman times that the church tolerated. Prisoners of war were a common source of slaves. From the 10th century onward campaigns in the Balkan Peninsula were a major source of slaves, as were lands north of the Black Sea.

Slaves were used in imperial workshops and for a variety of other urban tasks. However, their use in the countryside never eclipsed free villages and free peasants, which remained the norm. Slavery was accepted in the West as well. The eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea became Europe’s “slave coast,” where Slavs were obtained. In west European languages “slave” became synonymous with Slavs; the term in Greek was doulos, which could also be used in reference to holy men, in the sense of being a servant of God. See also DALMATIA; DANELIS.

SLAVS. Indo-European peoples from central and eastern Europe, called sklavenoi in Byzantine historical sources. Their raids across the Danube in the sixth century posed a serious threat from ca. 579 onward, when the Avars led them into Byzantine territory in great numbers.

The Slavs settled as far south as the Peloponnesos, and in 626 they combined with the Avars and Persians to attack Constantinople. With the Avars, they attacked Thessalonike in the late sixth and early seventh centuries; their first attack came in 586. In Greece the Slavs usually settled in more remote areas, which Byzantine historians referred to as sklaviniai.

Each sklavinia had its own leader (archon). From the ninth century onward they were gradually brought under Byzantine administrative control and Hellenized, becoming, in effect, Byzantines. However, pockets of independent sklavenoi, notably the Melingoi and Ezeritai, survived into the 15th century in the Peloponnesos.

North of Greece, Christianization of the Slavs was aided by Old Church Slavonic (Glagolitic and Cyrillic) and missionary efforts that began with the work of Cyril and Methodios in Moravia. The creation of a Bulgar state by Asparuch ca. 680, as well as the appearance of the Serbs and Rus, provided new threats on Byzantium’s northern borders. These events had the effect of changing the ethnic composition of much of the Balkan Peninsula.

One of the great triumphs of Byzantium was that it evangelized these peoples, in the process giving them an alphabet and, thus, a literature. In effect, it civilized them. See also FARMER’S LAW; GREGORY OF DEKAPOLIS; MOLDAVIA; NORICUM; SIRMIUM.

SMEDEREVO. See GEORGE BRANKOVICH.

SMYRNA. Port city (modern Izmir) on the Aegean Sea coast of Asia Minor. Tzachas operated his fleet from Phokaia, at the northern entrance of the bay of Smyrna, until Alexios I Komnenos captured Smyrna. During the period of the Laskarid Dynasty (1208–1258) of the Empire of Nicaea it was a thriving center of trade. However, in 1317 Turks from the adjacent emirate of Aydin took the city from the Byzantines when they stormed the city’s great upper fortress. See also GOUDELES TYRANNOS; LYDIA.

SOKRATES. Church historian who wrote a History of the Church, covering the years 305–439, providing a reliable continuation of Eusebios of Caesarea’s ecclesiastical history. Sokrates includes some information on secular affairs, unlike Theodoret of Cyrrhus, and the work was mined by Sozomenos for the latter’s own ecclesiastical history. See also EVAGRIOS SCHOLASTIKOS; GELASIOS OF CAESAREA; PHILOSTORGIOS.

SOLIDUS. See COINAGE; FOLLIS; nomisma.

SOL INVICTUS. See CONSTANTIUS CHLORUS.

SOLOMON. General of Justinian I who fought under Belisarios against the Vandals of North Africa in 533–534. He was a eunuch like Narses, another great general of Justinian I. Remaining in North Africa to battle the Moors, in 536 Solomon faced a serious revolt of two-thirds of the army that forced him to flee to Sicily. He was replaced by Germanos, who defeated the rebel leader Stotzas in 537. Reinstated to his command in 539, Solomon was killed fighting the Moors in 544, a year before Stotzas himself was killed in battle. See also THAMAGUDI.

SOPHIA. Empress and wife of Justin II. Like her aunt Theodora, she was ambitious and quite capable. As Justin II’s mental health declined, she turned to Tiberios I for support, promoting him as heir-apparent and making him caesar in 574. She may have hoped to become Tiberios’s queen after Justin II’s death in 578, but Tiberios I kept her at arm’s length. She died toward the end of Maurice’s reign. See also WOMEN.

SOPHIA PALAIOLOGINA. See IVAN III.

SOPHOCLES. See EURIPIDES; THOMAS MAGISTROS.

SOPHRONIOS. Patriarch of Jerusalem from 634 to 638, and pupil of John Moschos. His staunch resistance to Herakleios’s Monoenergism brought him into opposition with the patriarchs Kyros of Alexandria and Sergios I of Constantinople. He was forced to surrender Jerusalem to the Caliph Umar in 638, but he did so only after Umar agreed to guarantee certain religious and social rights of the Christian citizenry.

SOUDA. Popular lexicon of classical and biblical words, phrases, and personages, probably composed during the reign of Basil II. The enigmatic title means “palisade,” or, more loosely, “stronghold.” Its value lies partly in its occasional mention of Byzantine writers (e.g., Menander Protector) and partly in the insight it provides into matters about which educated Byzantines of the late 10th century wanted to know. It is also a good example of how ninth- and 10th-century scholars attempted to organize the legacy of literature that Byzantium inherited from the ancient world. See also IGNATIOS THE DEACON; MACEDONIAN RENAISSANCE.

SOZOMENOS. Church historian who authored History of the Church, a continuation of the ecclesiastical history of Eusebios of Caesarea, covering the years 324–425. Much of his information he derived from the church historian Sokrates, and also other sources, including Olympiodoros of Thebes. See also EVAGRIOS PONTIKOS; GELASIOS OF CAESAREA; OLYMPIODOROS OF THEBES; PHILOSTORGIOS; THEODORET OF CYRRHUS.

SOZOPOLIS. Two cities shared this name. One of them was ancient Apollonia on the Black Sea, which in the early 14th century was a prosperous port occupied by the Bulgars. It was liberated from the Bulgars in 1366 by Amadeo VI of Savoy, who turned it and Mesembria over to John V Palaiologos. For a time the west coast of the Black Sea was again in Byzantine hands.

The second Sozopolis was in Pisidia in Asia Minor. It was particularly important in the defense of Asia Minor against the Seljuks in the 12th century, since it protected the land route from the Meander valley to Attaleia. It fell to the Seljuks sometime after 1070, was retaken by John II Komnenos in 1120, and held out until 1180, when captured by the forces of Kilij Arslan II.

SPAIN. The Iberian Peninsula, which became a diocese within the administrative reforms of Diocletian. In 409 it was overrun by various barbarians, most notably by the Vandals, who crossed over into North Africa in 429. In 456, the Visigoths established a state in Spain that effectively ended Byzantine control, except for the brief reconquest ca. 550 of the southeastern corner of the peninsula by Justinian I.

The Visgothic state fell to the Arabs in 711, but Christian states and their soldiers formed in the northern part of the peninsula. Aragon, for example, played an important role in the Sicilian Vespers, and the Catalan Grand Company played a significant role in Byzantine affairs in the 14th century. See also HYDATIUS; PRUDENTIUS.

SPATHARIOS. The term means “sword-bearer” and refers to a bodyguard. Imperial spatharioi were eunuchs. However, by the eighth century the term was simply a dignity, one that declined in importance until it disappeared in the late 11th century.

SPECTABILIS. The middle-rank title for members of the senate from the fourth century. It was below the rank of illustris and above the rank of clarissimus. In the sixth century those who held the rank of spectabilis were raised to the rank of illustris. Those with the rank of illustris were raised to a new rank, that of gloriosus.

SPHRANTZES, GEORGE. Historian, diplomat, close friend of Constantine XI Palaiologos. He undertook the most sensitive diplomatic missions for Constantine XI, held important administrative posts, including governor of Patras and governor of the Morea. He was an eyewitness to the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

His historical work, the Chronicon Minus, which covers the years 1413–1477, is one of the chief sources for the final decades of Byzantium. An expanded version of his work, the Chronicon Maius, is primarily a 16th-century compilation. See also CHALKOKONDYLES, LAONIKOS; CHRONICLE; DIPLOMACY; DOUKAS; HISTORY; KRITOBOLOS, MICHAEL.

SPICES. Spices such as pepper, ginger, and cinnamon were used extensively in the Byzantine diet, as well as for other purposes (e.g., in medicines and perfumes). There were regions of Egypt that produced spices, but most were imported from southeastern Asia. Even after the conquest of Egypt by the Arabs in the seventh century, spices were transshipped to Alexandria, which continued to be a major source of spices for Byzantium. By the 14th century, Italian traders were also obtaining spices from Cyprus. See also TRADE AND COMMERCE.

SPLIT. Modern city on the coast of Dalmatia, and site of the palace (more a fortified country residence) to which Diocletian retired in 305. The overall plan of the palace resembles that of a traditional Roman military camp; but, unlike an army camp, the interior contains public and private structures, including a large audience hall and Diocletian’s intended mausoleum. The residents of nearby Salona, Diocletian’s birthplace, fled to Split in the early seventh century to escape the attacks of Slavs and Avars.

SPOLIA. Recycled debris from ruined or abandoned buildings. Such debris became a common feature of Byzantine domestic and church construction from the fourth century onward. Marble spolia (columns, capitals, veneering) were particularly sought after during the Dark Ages when the marble trade diminished. It was easier to obtain building materials from one ruined building to repair a less damaged (or more important) building. Stone rubble was the simplest and most plentiful kind of spolia. It was often mixed with concrete, then overlaid with courses of brick at intervals, after which the exterior surfaces could be disguised and consolidated further with plaster, bricks, or cut stones.

Ruined pagan temples were prime sources of building materials. Pagan statuary was also used for decorative purposes. Constantine I the Great, for example, decorated Constantinople with renowned pagan statuary from various places, including from Delphi. An added advantage, no doubt, was that the use of pagan spolia had the effect of stripping paganism of its former sacred power in the eyes of Christian beholders. See also ARCHITECTURE; ARTISANS; INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION.

SQUINCH. An architectural device used, like the pendentive, to place a dome on a square bay. It consists of a small arch, or a corbeled, half-conical niche, placed across the corners of a square bay. The result is an octagonal base, suitable for resting a dome upon.

STAGOI. See THESSALY.

STAURAKIOS. See IRENE.

STAURAKIOS. Emperor briefly in 811. Crowned in 803, he was the son and heir of Nikeophoros I; he died in 811 at the hands of Krum. He was married in a bride show in 807 to a relative of the former empress Irene named Theophano. In the same battle that killed his father he suffered grave wounds from which he never recovered. He reigned, if one can call it that, for little more than two months before he died.

STEFAN LAZAREVICH. See GEORGE BRANKOVICH.

STEFAN NEMANJA. Ruler of Serbia from ca. 1168 to 1196; founder of the Nemanja dynasty of Serbia. The Nemanjids ruled Serbia to 1371. His declaration of independence faltered before an invasion of Raška by Manuel I Komnenos in 1172. Nevertheless, after Manuel I’s death he was able to extend his territory, uniting Zeta with Raška. In 1168 Stefan founded Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos with the aid of Sava of Serbia. In 1196 he retired to Studenica Monastery in Serbia, taking the monastic name of Symeon.

STEFAN UROSH I. King of Serbia from 1243 to 1276. In 1258 he joined with Manfred, king of Sicily, and Michael II Komnenos Doukas of the Despotate of Epiros, to oppose the expansion of the Empire of Nicaea. He was defeated in 1259 by Michael VIII Palaiologos at the Battle of Pelagonia. Subsequent negotiations to marry his son Stefan Urosh II Milutin to Anna, daughter of Michael VIII Palaiologos, failed in 1272. See also NEMANJIDS.

STEFAN UROSH II MILUTIN. King of Serbia from 1282 to 1321, during whose reign Serbia became a major power in the Balkan Peninsula. Expansion into Byzantine Macedonia characterized the first part of his reign. In 1282 he launched a great offensive in this region, having allied Serbia with Byzantine foes Charles I of Anjou and John I Doukas of Thessaly. Skopje was conquered (1282), as was Dyrrachion. By 1298 his conquests reached just to the north of a line running from Ohrid east to Prilep and Stip. At this point, Andronikos II Palaiologos, on the advice of his general Michael Tarchaneiotes Glabas, made peace (1299).

Milutin accepted Andronikos’s five-year-old daughter Simonis as his bride, along with acceptance of his conquests. Thereafter, Byzantine ceremonial and dress conquered the Serbian court, and Milutin constructed churches (using Byzantine artisans) in Serbia and throughout eastern Christendom, even in remote Jerusalem and on Mount Sinai. Included among his churches are also those at Studenica, at Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos, and at Gračanica. See also NEMANJIDS.

STEFAN UROSH III DECHANSKI. Serbian king (1321–1331); son of Stefan Urosh II Milutin. He supported Andronikos II Palaiologos against Andronikos III Palaiologos during the civil war of the 1320s. After Andronikos II died in 1328, the expansion of Serbia into Byzantine Macedonia prompted Andronikos III to form an alliance with Bulgaria. Stefan promptly defeated the Bulgarians in 1330 at the historic Battle of Velbuzd. The next year the nobles of Serbia ousted Stefan and gave the throne to his son. See also NEMANJIDS.

STEFAN UROSH IV DUSHAN. Serbian king (1331–1355); son of Stefan Urosh III Dechanski. The Battle of Velbuzd in 1330 laid the foundation for Serbian expansion into Byzantine Macedonia, but it was the Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347 that allowed Dushan to conquer half of the remaining Byzantine territory.

He first supported John VI Kantakouzenos, then John V Palaiologos, all the while extending his conquests into Epiros and Thessaly. In 1345 he conquered Serres and began to style himself “Emperor of the Serbs and Romans.” In truth his kingdom stretched from the Danube south to the Gulf of Corinth and from the Adriatic Sea to the Aegean Sea. See also CHALKIDIKE; IOANNINA; IVAN ALEXANDER; NEMANJIDS; PEC; ZEALOTS.

STEPHEN II, POPE. See CONSTANTINE V.

STEPHEN OF BYZANTIUM. Sixth-century author of the Ethnika, a list of geographical names with etymologies and other bits of information attached to the names. The identity of Stephen is unknown, and his information is unoriginal, being drawn primarily from ancient sources such as Ptolemy, Strabo, and Pausanius. See also GEOGRAPHY; DE THEMATIBUS.

STEPHEN THE YOUNGER. Iconodule saint martyred in 764 during the reign of Constantine V. Stephen was a leader of monastic opposition to the emperor’s Iconoclasm, and his refusal to accept the decrees of the Council of Hieria (754) resulted in his imprisonment and torture, finally in his execution.

Stephen’s vita, written some years later (ca. 806) by Stephen the Deacon, is replete with interesting details, including the comment that the famous Church of the Virgin at Blachernai was covered with new paintings, making it resemble a fruit store and aviary.

STEPPE. The great expanse of grassland that extends across Eurasia from Ukraine to the Altai Mountains of western Mongolia. Its historical impact on Byzantium was as a kind of conveyor belt that allowed groups of pastoralists (e.g., Huns, Avars, Pechenegs, Seljuks, and Uzes) westward movement to the borders of Byzantium, where either by a desire for booty, subsidies and gifts (and employment as mercenaries), or impelled by pressure from other steppe peoples, they invaded Byzantium. See also SARMATIANS; SCYTHIANS.

STILICHO. Magister militum, regent for Honorius; and son-in-law of Theodosios I. Son of a Vandal father and Roman mother, Stilicho was the most powerful general in the West from 395 until Honorios assassinated him on suspicion of treason in 408. Despite his faithful service in suppressing Gildo, and the praise of Claudian, he failed to stop Alaric’s invasion of Italy in 401. Radagaisus and his Ostrogoths ravaged Italy in 405, and hordes of other Germans crossed the Rhine in 406. In 408, after Alaric had extorted 4,000 pounds of gold from the senate in Rome, Honorios had Stilicho assassinated. See also ETHNIC DIVERSITY; RUFINUS.

STOBI. City in northern Macedonia that flourished in the fifth century, before being abandoned in the late sixth century. Its importance lay in its location, at the juncture of the Vardar and Crna rivers, along the great highway that traversed the Balkan Peninsula from Thessalonike to Belgrade, and from Belgrade to the middle Danube.

STOTZAS. See GERMANOS; SOLOMON.

STOUDIOS MONASTERY (MONASTERY OF ST. JOHN OF STOUDIOS). See CONSTANTINOPLE; METHODIOS I.

STRABO. See GEOGRAPHY; stephen of byzantium.

STRATEGIKA. Military manuals; also called Taktika. (Note that official lists of dignities and offices are also referred to as Taktika.) The Strategikon of Maurice is among the earlier of these handbooks of military tactics and maxims, as is the Peri Strategikes (written during the reign of Justinian I). The 10th century saw a renewal of interest in military science, exemplified by other strategika, including the Strategikon of Kekaumenos, the Taktika of Leo VI, the Sylloge Tacticorum, the Naumachika, the Taktika of Nikphoros Ouranos, the Praecepta Militaria, the De velitatione, and the De Re Militari. See also KEKAUMENOS; MACEDONIAN RENAISSANCE.

STRATEGIKON OF MAURICE. The first of several Byzantine military manuals (strategika, also referred to as Taktika,), attributed to the emperor Maurice. The emphasis is on cavalry, not infantry, warfare. As with later military manuals it summarizes the tactics of foreign enemies, including northern ones like the Avars and Huns. See also ARMY; KATAPHRAKTOI; WAR.

STRATEGOS. Governor of a theme, whose duties, like those of the exarchs of Carthage and Ravenna, were primarily military. The strategoi of major themes, for example, Opsikion and Anatolikon, were frequent contenders for imperial power in the eighth century, resulting in the division of themes into smaller units in the ninth century. Bardanes Tourkos was sole strategos (monostrategos) of five themes in Asia Minor when he rebelled against Nikephoros I.

In the 11th century, as themes declined, the power of the strategos declined in favor of the praitor, doux, and katepano. See also ARMY; BANDON; WAR.

STRATIOTIKA KTEMATA. See ARMY; NIKEPHOROS II PHOKAS; PRAITOR; THEMES; WAR.

STRYMON, THEME OF. The theme of Strymon took its name from the Strymon (modern Struma) River, which rises in western Bulgaria and flows south, exiting into the Aegean Sea near Amphipolis. The theme was situated to the east of the theme of Thessalonike between the Strymon and Mesta rivers. It protected the passes across the Rhodope Mountains and provided more administrative control over the Slavs of the region.

STUDENICA. See NEMANJIDS; STEFAN NEMANJA; STEFAN UROSH II MILUTIN.

STYLITE. Saint who lived atop a pillar (stylos). Symeon the Stylite the Elder was the first saint to practice this type of asceticism (at Qalat Seman). From a platform secured to the top of a high (ca. 16 meters) pillar he preached and responded to the queries of visitors for some 30 years. He had subsequent imitators in the fifth and sixth centuries, including Symeon the Stylite the Younger, and Daniel the Stylite. Pillar saints existed after the sixth century, for Michael Psellos mentions in his Chronographia that in 1057 stylites in Constantinople dismounted from their pillars to see the new emperor Isaac I Komnenos enter the city.

SUBSIDIES AND GIFTS. Subsidies and gifts to foreign nations and barbarian peoples were an important aspect of diplomacy. Gifts of gold and other precious objects (e.g., relics, golden cups, icons, silks) were ranked according to the status of the recipient. All gifts were calculated for maximum effect, with a concession or treaty frequently requested in return.

Gregory of Tours, for example, mentions (in his Historia Francorum) that in 581 the embassy that King Chilperic sent to Tiberios I returned after an absence of three years. Among the gifts brought back to Chilperic was one the king remained proud to possess: a medallion, fully one pound in weight, with Tiberios I’s portrait on it, inscribed suitably on the reverse with “Gloria Romanorum.” In such manner did imperial gifts confirm imperial ideology, which claimed God’s special favor for Byzantium.

Although gold was considered a strategic asset and strictly controlled, huge numbers of gold coins were paid as subsidies to peoples as diverse as the Huns, Visigoths, Franks, Ostrogoths, Avars, Sassanians, Normans, Angevins, Venetians, and Ottomans. The Huns seem to have the record for receiving the most in annual subsidies of gold: 350 pounds in 422, increased to 700 pounds in c. 437, then increased further to 2,100 pounds in 447.

SULEYMAN CELEBI. See MUSA.

SULEYMAN IBN KUTULMUSH. See RUM, SULTANATE OF.

SULEYMAN PASHA. See JOHN VI KANTAKOUZENOS; ORHAN.

SULTAN. Arabic title used by independent Seljuk rulers, though technically still under the authority of the Caliph. The title was used subsequently by both Mamluk and Ottoman rulers.

SUTTON HOO TREASURE. The most famous, but by no means unique, treasure of Byzantine objects found in Anglo-Saxon burials. It was discovered in 1939 in Suffolk, England, in the burial mound of a king of East Anglia, most likely Raedwalkd (c. 600–c.624), since the grave goods are dated to between 625 and 630. The king was buried with the ship, along with a variety of grave goods, some local, some regional, some imported. The imported goods include silver bowls, a large inlaid silver plate (dated by its silver stamps to 491–518), and two silver (possibly baptismal) spoons. See also BRITAIN; SUBSIDIES AND GIFTS.

SVATOPLUK. See MORAVIA.

SVJATOSLAV. Prince of Kiev (ca. 945–972), son of Igor and Olga. Svjatoslav was a restless expansionist who defeated the Khazars in 965, destroying their fortress at Sarkel. Encouraged by Byzantium to invade Bulgaria, he did so successfully in 968. However, Svjatoslav’s plans to make Little Preslav his new capital alarmed the Byzantines, who themselves invaded Bulgaria in 971, forcing Svjatoslav to surrender his Bulgarian conquests and return to Kiev. On his way back to Kiev, Svjatoslav was ambushed and killed by Pechenegs.

SYLLAION. See PAMPHYLIA.

SYLLOGE TACTICORUM. See STRATEGIKA.

SYMEON LOGOTHETE. Author of a chronicle that covers the years 842 to 948. The chronicle exists only in several versions made by copyists (and revisers), including copies attributed to Theodosios of Melitene, George Hamartolos, and Leo Grammatikos (Leo the Grammarian). The version contained in the so-called Chronicle of Pseudo-Symeon (also 10th century in date) relies on Symeon Logothete’s chronicle, as well as some additional sources.

For the period 848–948, Symeon Logothete’s chronicle (in its various versions) is the most important of narrative sources; even Theophanes Continuatus relies on it for the period after 886. Just who Symeon Logothete was is a mystery; it is doubtful that he was Symeon Metaphrastes. See also HISTORY; THEOPHANES THE CONFESSOR.

SYMEON METAPHRASTES. Author of a late 10th-century menologion of 150 texts of saints’ lives (vitae) arranged in 10 volumes, which became the menologion most used in Byzantine monasteries. Symeon was a high official who died ca. 1000, and is not to be identified with the chronicler Symeon Logothete. See also ART; FIVE MARTYRS OF SEBASTEIA.

SYMEON OF BULGARIA. Tsar of Bulgaria from 893 to 927; son of Boris. He was, like Krum and Samuel, among the great Bulgarian adversaries of Byzantium. Educated in Constantinople, he strove repeatedly for supremacy in the Balkan Peninsula, winning victories on several occasions, including the Battle of Achelous, near Anchialos in Thrace, where he annihilated a Byzantine army on 20 August 917.

His goal was to capture Constantinople and unite the two states. Romanos I Lekapenos was as unsuccessful in dealing with Symeon as was the previous regency headed by Patriarch Nicholas I Mystikos. However, only the sudden death of Symeon in 927 produced peace, negotiated by Symeon’s son Peter of Bulgaria. See also BULGARIAN TREATY; CODEX SUPRASLIENSIS.

SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN. Saint; the greatest medieval Byzantine mystic (949–1022). Born into wealth, he rejected it all for the life of a monk, initially at the Stoudios Monastery in Constantinople. He challenged his contemporaries with provocative ideas, for example, that formal church ordination is from men (not necessarily connected with divine ordination), and that personal experience of God is sufficient for the Christian, and without it there is no genuine Christianity. Above all, he rejected the idea that the Christian life was something formalized and ritualistic. For him, the Christian life was the personal experience of God, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the vision of divine light.

Ultimately, his ideas provoked the resistance of the church, which for a while forced him into exile. His career revived a tension between individual holy men and the church seen centuries earlier (e.g., in the vita of Daniel the Stylite), while his writings laid the foundation for the future teaching and practices of Hesychasm. See also MONASTICISM; PHILOKALIA; THEOLOGY.

SYMEON THE STYLITE THE ELDER. The first pillar saint (stylite). He was born (ca. 389) the son of a shepherd on the borders of Syria and Cilicia. He tried and rejected other forms of asceticism before stepping onto a low pillar (stylos) about three meters high. On this pillar in the Syrian Desert near Antioch he stood for some 30 years without shelter from the elements.

As the height of the pillar increased to about 16 meters, so did his fame. He was hardly inactive. One visitor counted 1,244 prostrations for prayer in a single day, and he was besieged by petitioners who needed advice, cures, and legal judgments. By the time he died in 459 he was internationally famous, and his pillar a pilgrimage site.

A pilgrimage shrine (now called Qal’at Seman) of exquisite architecture sprang up to deal with the many pilgrims who came to see his pillar. His successors included Symeon the Stylite the Younger, whose pillar was located southwest of Antioch at a place called Wondrous Mountain, also Daniel the Stylite. See also SERGIOPOLIS; STYLITE.

SYMEON THE STYLITE THE YOUNGER. See STYLITE; SYMEON THE STYLITE THE ELDER; WONDROUS MOUNTAIN.

SYMEON UROSH. See EPIROS, DESPOTATE OF; kastoria; METEORA.

SYMMACHUS. Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, Roman orator and statesman (ca. 340–402). He is remembered for his appeal to Valentinian II to restore the Altar of Victory, a statue of Victory (Nike), and a small altar that Gratian had removed from near the Senate House in Rome. Bishop Ambrose’s threat of excommunication insured that the statue and its altar were not restored.

SYNADA. See LEO OF SYNADA; Phrygia.

SYNAXARION. The Byzantine church calendar of fixed feasts, each with a short account, often no more than a paragraph, of each saint’s life. Such accounts (synaxaria) emphasize the details of each saint’s martyrdom, to be read during the early morning service on the appropriate feastdays. A menologion is similar in format, but the notices are longer, constituting a collection of saintly biographies (vitae). See also CHRONOLOGY; MARTYR.

SYNESIOS OF CYRENE. Neoplatonist philosopher and former student of Hypatia, Synesios adopted Christianity and became bishop of Ptolemais, in North Africa. He was a native of Cyrene, on whose behalf he went to Constantinople from 399 to 402 to seek tax relief. While there he wrote a work called On Kingship, in which he urged the emperor Arkadios to expel the Goths from the army and drive them back across the Danube.

SYNKELLOS. Chief advisor and assistant to a patriarch. Typically, he was a priest or deacon who actually shared the patriarch’s residence. The synkellos of the patriarch of Constantinople was nominated by the emperor and frequently succeeded to the patriarchal throne of Constantinople. See also GEORGE THE SYNKELLOS; GERMANOS I; MICHAEL SYNKELLOS.

SYNOD. Council of a patriarch. Patriarchal synods were, in effect, regional church councils whose doctrinal decrees were authoritative, especially after the church schism of 1054.

The patriarch of Constantinople presided over a permanent resident synod of patriarchal clergy and metropolitan bishops, which was the means through which patriarchal power was exercised. Patriarch Nicholas III Grammatikos opposed any interference to his own power over the synod, since it was chiefly through the permanent synod that the power of the patriarch of Constantinople emanated.

SYNODICON VETUS. See SYNODIKON.

SYNODIKON. Most commonly, a liturgical document. The most famous was the Synodikon of Orthodoxy, read every year at the Feast of Orthodoxy to commemorate the restoration of icon veneration.

The term can also refer to a letter from a patriarch written to another patriarch, for example, in order to circulate the decrees of a patriarchal synod. The Synodikon Vetus (written between 887 and 920), to give another example, is a brief history of church councils that ends at the deposition of Photios in 886. See also LITURGY.

SYNODIKON OF ORTHODOXY. Liturgical document (synodikon) read every year at the Feast of Orthodoxy to commemorate the restoration of icon veneration in 843. Condemnation of Iconoclasts and praise for those who defended icons is at the core of the document. Subsequent additions (the last made in 1439) created an even longer list of church heroes (e.g., martyrs, patriarchs, emperors) as well as condemnations (anathemas) of a variety of heresies. See also ECUMENICAL COUNCILS; HERESY; LITURGY; SCHISM; SYNOD.

SYNTHRONON. See APSE.

SYRACUSE. Center of Byzantine administration in Sicily, captured in 491 by the Ostrogoths. In 535 Belisarios recaptured the city from the harbor side by hoisting boats full of soldiers to the tops of the masts of his ships, from which they cleared the city walls of defenders. Totila’s attempt to regain the city in 550 was turned back.

Constans II made it his imperial residence for five years (663–668), consolidating Byzantine control over the island in the face of increasing Arab attacks. Leo III’s transfer of its bishopric from Rome to the patriarch of Constantinople consolidated ecclesiastical control over the city. Nevertheless, Arab attacks were relentless, and in 878 after a ninth-month siege, described in an eyewitness account by Theodosios the Monk, the Arabs took the city. The Arabs held it, despite a brief occupation by George Maniakes in 1040, until 1085, when the Normans seized it. See also TAORMINA.

SYRGIANNES. See ANDRONIKOS III PALAIOLOGOS.

SYRIA. Region between the Mediterranean Sea and Mesopotamia. To the north is the Taurus mountain range, to the south Palestine. Moving east beyond the Hellenized, densely settled coastal plain of Syria the geography changes to fertile farmland, then to a desert that continues to the Euphrates River, Syria’s eastern border.

Among its cities Antioch overshadowed the rest in size and sophistication. Other cities, for example, Apamea, Berroia, Damascus, and Edessa, were considerably smaller by comparison. The region apparently continued to prosper, despite religious instability (notably Nestorianism and Monophysitism), plague, and damaging Persian raids, both beginning in the 540s, and then by the Arab conquest of the region that followed the Battle of the Yarmuk River in 636. Even after the Arab conquest, Syria’s large Christian population looked to Byzantium, whose armies reconquered the region beginning in 969.

Nevertheless, Syria fell to the Seljuks in 1084. Thereafter, Byzantium attempted to retain a presence in Syria by its claim to overlordship of Crusader-dominated Antioch. This claim was realized in 1108, but it was shattered after Manuel I Komnenos’s defeat at the Battle of Myriokephalon in 1176. See also ABD AL-MALIK; GHASSANIDS; SAYF AL-DAWLA; SERGIOPOLIS; SEVERIANOS.