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Master of Soldiers
Chief of Staff of all Roman forces; there was one in East and West, or a supreme one when the empire was united. -
foederati
Agreement between Roman government and tribes on other side of border to work as auxiliaries in army, in return for payments. From 390s, began applying to tribes, Goths, etc., migrating to the Roman side of border, and living in internal territories. -
hospitalitas
Originally Roman legal measure allowing Roman troops to be quartered on civilian countryside farms during the winter. From the 420s, was applied to Barbarian federates allowing them to access a certain proportion--1/3 to 2/3--of the agricultural produce of Romans. Allows creeping annexation and basis for Barbarian kingdoms. -
Arianism
Christian heresy from 320s, holding that instead of a human-divine nature in Christ, the divine, being more powerful, pushed out and superceded the human in Christ. Blasted as heresy in the West and later in the East, it was the form of Christianity first adopted by Goths, Vandals, Alans. -
Monophysitism
Heresy in Church, dating from 430s. Held that the human and divine in Christ were inseparable and totally intermingled. The idea was One Nature in One Person. Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, first articulated the belief in opposition to Nestorianism; more extreme followers were branded heretical. -
Corpus Juris Civilis
A codification of Roman law going back to second century, accomplished under Justinian in mid 500s. Consisted of a digest, a handbook, and a case law section, was relevant and of guidance to lawyers for the next millennium. -
Exarchates
Military outposts set up by Maurice in 580s in Italy and Carthage to protect remains of Justinian's conquests. -
Themes
Regions demarcated first in Anatolia, then in Thrace, to provide for military defense. Governors were generals with wide civil-military powers, and their armies were made up of land-granted small-holding peasants, often Balkan Slav transplants. -
strategos
Military commander of a Theme and the themes army. -
Monotheletism
Compromise theology in response to Monophysitism, proposed by Heraclius through Patriarch Sergius: Christ was of two natures, and did not have a single energy, but possessed a single will. All Eastern Patriarchs agreed, but Western Pope John IV condemned it in 641. -
Youngerfill
Rains eroded the terrace system of agricultural cultivation in Italy, Balkans and Thrace in the 550-650 period, as peasants had fled and did not maintain them. Alluvial deposits were washed into these areas: youngerfill. -
Busta Gallorum (552)
Byzantine final defeat of Goths. Narses led Romans, and Totila led Goths. -
Council of Chalcedon
Church council in 451, at which Monophysitism was condemned again and the idea of Two Natures Coexisting in One Person was promulgated as official doctrine: the Chalcedonian Definition -
Nika Revolt
Revolt of Blues and Greens in Constantinople against Justinian in 532. Put down by Belisarius, Narses, and Munda. -
Bubonic Plague
Plague afflicting Mediterranean Basin from 542-550, and then at intervals in next 50 years. Up to 33% mortality rate. -
Ctesiphon
Imperial Sassanian capital in Persia. Sacked by Heraclius. -
Battle of the Yarmuk (636)
Islamic armies defeat Byzantine troops in Syria-Jordan. -
Battle of Qadisiyya
Islamic armies' defeat Sassanian forces, opening up Persia, and causing Sassanian downfall. -
Battle of Tours
Battle in Poitiers in 732, where Charles Martel stopped Muslim penetration into France. -
Occultation
Disappearance of last Shi'ite Imam in 980s. Temporary, his return is messianic. -
The Lesser Jihad
Armed Holy War. Greater Jihad is contemplation and spiritual improvement. -
Tournai
Location of Childeric I's palace by 481. -
Battle of Soissons
Clovis' defeat of Syagrius in 486 -
Battle of Vouille
Clovis' defeat of Arian Visigoths, 507 -
Regium Francium
Term for Frankish lands, encapsulating modern France, Belgium, and Germany. -
Edict of Clothar (614)
Edict in which Clothar committed to only appoint royal officials from a particular regions local counts. -
Major Domo
Mayor of the palace, chief officer of the king's royal household, will supplant Merovingians in 670s onwards. -
Battle of Fontenoy
Louis the Pious' oldest son Lothair was slated to get most of the realm. In 840 his two younger brothers Charles the Bald and Louis the German combined to fight him at the Battle of Fontenoy. Losses were tremendous, yet the results required compromise. Charles the Bald received western regions from forty miles east of Paris to the southwestern Marches and stretching from the English Channel to the Mediterranean. Louis the German received eastern districts from the Marches beyond the Elbe to just outside Strasbourg, and from Denmark in the north to the Adriatic in the south. Wedged in between this was Lothair's kingdom, stretching from the North Sea all the way past the papal States in Italy, with the Imperial capitals. -
Margraves
March lords on Carolingian borders. -
missi dominici
Royal agents sent from Charlemagne's palace. A lay noble and a prelate, they would check on status of royal estates, and see that counts were in line. They would also convey the king's desire. -
Capitularies
Decrees sent out by Charlemagne to regions, meant to apply to all subjects equally. -
Unstrut
In 933, Henry the Fowler refused further payments of tribute to the Hungarians. When the Hungarians launched a massive punitive expedition, Henry routed it at Unstrut. -
Battle at Lechfeld
Otto I's defeat of the Magyars in 955. They ceased as a threat after that. -
Edington
866, a "great army" of Danish Vikings invaded southeastern England, overrunning East Anglia, Northumbria, and Mercia by 877. They were stopped only by King Alfred the Great (r. 871-899) of Wessex, who defeated them at Edington in 878. -
The Danelaw
Areas in Britain allotted to Vikings. -
Dyle
Viking power began to wane, as German king Arnulf defeated them at Dyle in the Netherlands in 891. -
shire-revee
Royal official in counties in Saxon England. Sherriff. -
ealdorman
Elder serving on court in Wessex. -
cenobitic
Solitary monastics, mostly in Egypt, Palestine, and Syria from the 250s. -
Council of Whitby
In the 650s-660s, both Irish and Roman missionaries were converting in England. Given differences in ritual observance, King Oswy held the Council of Whitby in 664, where the decision was made to follow the Roman rite. -
Simony
The sale of church offices to the highest bidder. Poor quality churchmen resulted -
Cluny
In Burgundy, earnest monastics convinced William the Pious of Aquitane to found the Cluny monastery around 910. It was endowed generously from the start, so that it would not be dependent on secular rulers. Additional gifts of land or provisions would not be in return for feudal services, but would be recompensed by the monks' prayers. The monks received the right to elect their own abbot, putting the position beyond lay interference. Cluny's founders tried to eliminate any potentially idle time by instituting heavy schedules of communal liturgical prayer services, in addition to fieldwork and manuscript reproduction. Cluniac monks attained a high level of sustainable piety and discipline throughout the tenth century and into the eleventh.
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