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82-526: Galerius Valerius Maximianus ( / ɡ ə ˈ l ɛər i ə s / ; Greek : Γαλέριος; c. 258 – May 311) was Roman emperor from 305 to 311. While acting as Caesar under Emperor Diocletian , Galerius obtained victory warring against the Sassanian Empire , defeating Narseh at the battle of Satala in 298 and possibly sacking the Sassanian capital of Ctesiphon in 299. He also campaigned across

164-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,

246-656: A demonstrable impact on the intellectual development and lives of their students." In 2018 Potter spent a year as the UCLA Ronald J. Mellor Professor of Roman History. He has written and edited several books and articles about empire, politics, sports and entertainment in the ancient world. He has also written many opinion columns and letters to the editor about ancient Rome to a range of outlets including CNN , Financial Times and Huffington Post . In some of these letters, Potter connects his expertise on ancient Rome to contemporary politics and crises. He has also reached

328-558: A fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes , a limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in

410-560: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on

492-540: A foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near

574-522: A lens through which to examine the period at hand." Greenwood also notes that the range of time of which Potter is writing history is useful because it "straddles and engages periods of great transformation, rather than allowing the work to be demarcated by it, thereby treating the Roman Empire as a continuous and evolving organization." One of the reviews of his book, The Victor's Crown: A History of Ancient Sport from Homer to Byzantium, recognizes

656-461: A nephew of Galerius with little experience or formal education, was assigned the command of Egypt and Syria. Valerius Severus , Galerius' comrade in arms, was sent to govern Italy and Africa from a base in Mediolanum . Officially Severus reported to the western emperor, but he was absolutely devoted to the commands of his benefactor Galerius, whose power was thus established over three-quarters of

738-485: A sign of the essential efficacy of the Diocletianic system and the goodwill of the army towards the tetrarchic enterprise. After the abdication of Diocletian in 305 and the elevation of Constantius I and Galerius to the rank of Augustus , two new Caesar s were required to take their place. Seeking to enhance his authority, Galerius gave the positions to men who were very much his creatures. Maximinus Daza ,

820-804: Is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout

902-773: Is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system

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984-479: Is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before the arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During

1066-519: Is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of the language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to

1148-841: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern David Stone Potter Potter

1230-526: Is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around

1312-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,

1394-522: Is that Eusebius' biography of Constantine mentions that the later emperor had seen the ruins of Babylon according to this work. Patricia Southern also argues that he took Ctesiphon based on the uncertainty of the location where the seizure of Narseh's wife and harem took place. However, no source ever specifically claims that Ctesiphon was sacked and many other historians argue Diocletian prevented him from moving further into Sasanian territory. Narseh had previously sent an ambassador to Galerius to plead for

1476-650: Is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with

1558-846: Is the seventh book in publisher Routledge's eight-part series on the history of the Ancient World. Routledge writes that this volume "is the only one-volume history of the critical years 180-395 AD, which saw the transformation of the Roman Empire from a unitary state centered on Rome, into a new polity with two capitals and a new religion—Christianity." David Potter's work has been reviewed and commented upon by other historians in numerous academic journals. The second edition of his book, The Roman Empire at Bay, AD 180-395 , has been reviewed by many. Historian David Neal Greenwood describes Potter's method of historical analysis as choosing "select key individuals that dominated an era, including emperors, intellectuals, and religious leaders, and use them as

1640-705: Is the son of H. David Potter and Elizabeth S. Potter. His mother Elizabeth was a science teacher and his father David spent most of his career at the Newmont Mining Corporation the law firm Tofel, Berelson, and Saxl. For high school, David Potter attended Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire. Potter then attended Harvard University where he was voted into Phi Beta Kappa . He received his DPhil in ancient history from Oxford University . Potter began his professorial career as Salvesen Junior Research Fellow at New College, Oxford, before joining

1722-474: The Carpians ' attacks. He originally followed his father's occupation, that of a herdsman, where he was nicknamed "Armentarius", herdsman ( Latin : armentum , lit.   'herd'). His original cognomen was "Maximinus", but he changed it to "Maximianus" after becoming Caesar . He served with distinction as a soldier under Emperors Aurelian and Probus , and in 293, at the establishment of

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1804-944: The Danube against the Carpi , defeating them in 297 and 300. Although he was a staunch opponent of Christianity , Galerius ended the Diocletianic Persecution when he issued the Edict of Toleration in Serdica (Sofia) in 311. Galerius was born near Serdica , in Dacia Ripensis , later named Dacia Mediterranea, though some modern scholars consider the strategic site where he later built his palace named after his mother – Felix Romuliana ( Gamzigrad ) – his birth and funeral place. His Thracian father and his mother, Romula, had left Roman Dacia (today Romania ) because of

1886-495: The Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to a lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It

1968-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as

2050-541: The Tetrarchy , was designated Caesar along with Constantius Chlorus , receiving in marriage Diocletian 's daughter Valeria (later known as Galeria Valeria ), and at the same time being entrusted with the care of the Illyrian provinces. After a few years campaigning against Sarmatians and Goths on the Danube , he received command of the legions on the eastern imperial limits. Soon after his appointment, Galerius

2132-525: The Tur Abdin plateau. With these territories, Rome would have an advance station north of Ctesiphon, and would be able to slow any future advance of Persian forces through the region. Under the terms of the peace, Tiridates would regain both his throne and the entirety of his ancestral claim, and Rome would secure a wide zone of cultural influence in the region. Because the empire was able to sustain such constant warfare on so many fronts, it has been taken as

2214-683: The World Heritage List in June 2007. According to Lactantius , a Christian and adviser to Constantine, Galerius affirmed his Dacian identity and avowed himself the enemy of the Roman name once made emperor, even proposing that the empire should be called, not the Roman, but the Dacian Empire, much to the horror of the patricians and senators. Lactantius further states that Galerius exhibited anti-Roman attitude as soon as he had attained

2296-492: The nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by the genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in

2378-470: The 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into

2460-542: The Department of Latin at Bryn Mawr College as a visiting assistant professor between 1984-1986. In 1986 he began working for the University of Michigan's Classics Department as an assistant professor. He was awarded an Arthur F. Thurnau professorship in 1996, which "are awarded annually to tenured faculty who have made outstanding contributions to undergraduate education at the University of Michigan and who have had

2542-486: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit

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2624-425: The Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to the extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than

2706-495: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in

2788-629: The Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of the syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow

2870-685: The Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in the country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community

2952-583: The Imperial Palace and blaming it on Christian saboteurs. Regardless of who was at fault for the fire, Diocletian's rage was aroused and he began one of the last and greatest Christian persecutions in the history of the Roman Empire . It was at the insistence of Galerius that the last edicts of persecution against the Christians were published, beginning in 303, and this policy of repression

3034-492: The Syrian desert collaborated with Narseh's invasion. Narseh then moved south into Roman Mesopotamia, where he inflicted a severe defeat on Galerius, then commander of the eastern forces, in the region between Carrhae ( Harran , Turkey) and Callinicum ( Raqqa , Syria). Diocletian may or may not have been present at the battle, but presented himself soon afterwards at Antioch, issuing an official version of events which placed all

3116-533: The Tetrarchs. Severus received the title of Augustus . Soon afterward, Maxentius , son of Maximian and husband of Galerius' daughter Valeria Maximilla , rebelled in Italy. A need for additional revenue had caused Galerius to disregard Italy's traditional exemption from any form of taxation, and Maxentius exploited local indignation to declare himself emperor. An army led by Severus hastened to Rome, hoping to catch

3198-556: The West, with Constantine as his Caesar . In the East, Galerius remained Augustus and Maximinus remained his Caesar . Maximian was to retire, and Maxentius was declared a usurper. Galerius' plan soon failed. Envious of Licinius' promotion, Maximinus also claimed the title of Augustus . Maximian, still not willing to retire, declared himself emperor in Arles in opposition to Constantine, who

3280-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),

3362-402: The ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in the earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of

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3444-465: The blame for the affair upon Galerius. In Antioch, Diocletian forced Galerius to walk a mile in advance of his imperial cart while still clad in the purple robes of an emperor. David Stone Potter reads a symbolic message in the display: the loss at Carrhae was due not to the failings of the empire's soldiers, but to the failings of their commander, and Galerius' failures would not be accepted. Another scholar, Roger Rees, suggests that Galerius' position at

3526-422: The broad scope with which he does historical analysis. This enables Potter to write about sports and spectatorship in the ancient world over a great variation of time and space. The reviewer, historian James Lunt, points out that "the discussion of athletics within the vast extent of Bronze Age, Greek, and Roman history makes for occasionally clumsy generalizations and distracting diversions." The scope of this book

3608-587: The campaign. Narseh retreated to Armenia to fight Galerius' force, putting himself at a disadvantage; the rugged Armenian terrain was favorable to Roman infantry, but not to Sassanid cavalry. Local aid gave Galerius the advantage of surprise over the Persian forces, and he defeated Narseh in two successive battles. During the second encounter, the Battle of Satala in 298, Roman forces seized Narseh's camp, his treasury, his harem, and his wife. Narseh's wife would live out

3690-484: The countryside as they passed northwards. Maxentius declined to make a general engagement. With so many emperors now in existence, in 308 Galerius, together with the retired emperor Diocletian and the now active Maximian, called an imperial conference at Carnuntum on the River Danube to rectify the situation and bring some order back into the government. Here it was agreed that Licinius would become Augustus in

3772-404: The early 19th century that was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of

3854-441: The empire. Constantius died at Eboracum in 306 and the legions elevated his son Constantine to the position of Augustus . Galerius only discovered this when he received a letter from Constantine, who apologized for the informal nature of his promotion but nonetheless treated it as valid. The first emotions of Galerius were surprise, disappointment, and rage, and as he could seldom restrain his passions, he threatened to burn both

3936-618: The epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute

4018-452: The following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki , the vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in

4100-484: The head of the caravan was merely the conventional organization of an imperial progression, designed to show a Caesar 's deference to his Augustus . Galerius's army was reinforced probably in the spring of 298 by new contingents collected from the empire's Danubian holdings. Narseh did not advance from Armenia and Mesopotamia leaving Galerius to lead the offensive in 298 with an attack on northern Mesopotamia via Armenia. Diocletian may or may not have been present to assist

4182-747: The highest power, treating the Roman citizens with ruthless cruelty, like the conquerors treated the conquered, all in the name of the same treatment that the victorious Trajan had applied to the conquered Dacians , forefathers of Galerius, two centuries before. Galerius Peak in Antarctica is named after Emperor Galerius. ( See also: Chronological scheme of the Tetrarchy, 286–324 ) Notes: Bibliography: Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized :  Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized :  Hellēnikḗ )

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4264-439: The infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of the dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn

4346-467: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write

4428-454: The letter and the messenger. Calmer consideration made him reluctant to open a civil war: Constantine had the devotion of Constantius' legions, and the young man's character had impressed Galerius during an encounter at Nicomedia . Galerius decided on a compromise position, allowing Constantine to rule the provinces beyond the Alps but giving him only the title of Caesar and the fourth rank among

4510-588: The membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in the regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek

4592-441: The modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and

4674-399: The noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However, the morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks

4756-536: The objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It

4838-706: The older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from the 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as

4920-465: The peace of 287. He occupied the lands there until the following year. The historian Ammianus Marcellinus, circa 320–395, is the only source detailing the initial invasion of Armenia. Southern (1999, 149) dates the invasion to 295; Barnes (1982, 17, 293) mentions an earlier, unsuccessful invasion by Narseh based on the fact that the title Persici Maximi was given to all four emperors; Odahl (2004, 59) concurs with Barnes and suggests that Saracen princes in

5002-416: The persecutors came, De Mortibus Persecutorum . This marked the end of official persecution of Christians, which was officially legalized two years later by Constantine and Licinius in the Edict of Milan . Galerius died in late April or early May 311 from a horribly gruesome disease described by Eusebius and Lactantius , possibly some form of bowel cancer , gangrene or Fournier gangrene . Galerius

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5084-411: The policy of trying to eradicate Christianity had failed, saying: "wherefore, for this our indulgence, they ought to pray to their God for our safety, for that of the republic, and for their own, that the republic may continue uninjured on every side, and that they may be able to live securely in their homes." Lactantius gives the text of the edict in his moralized chronicle of the bad ends to which all

5166-423: The present moment for the public is one of his goals with his publicly available contributions. In one of his first published books, Prophets and Emperors: Human and Divine Authority from Augustus to Theodosius , Potter explored "how prophecy worked, how it could empower, and how the diverse inhabitants of the Roman Empire used it to make sense of their world." Potter's book, The Roman Empire at Bay, AD 180-395 ,

5248-498: The public with his historical knowledge through appearances on various media platforms including NBC 's The Today Show, CNN, The History Channel and a range of local radio stations. In an interview about why Potter works to reach the public with historical information, he said that "it's sort of an extension of teaching. You're reaching out to a different audience and I think it's important to reach as many people as you can." Using media appearances to make ancient history applicable to

5330-591: The remainder of the war in Daphne, a suburb of Antioch, serving as a constant reminder to the Persians of the Roman victory. Galerius advanced into Media and Adiabene , winning continuous victories, most prominently near Theodosiopolis (Erzurum), and securing Nisibis (Nusaybin) before 1 October 298. The historian Timothy Barnes argues that he moved down the Tigris , taking Ctesiphon . Barnes main argument for this

5412-507: The return of his wife and children, but Galerius had dismissed this ambassador, reminding him of how Shapur had treated Valerian. In any case, the Romans treated Narseh's captured family well, perhaps seeking to evoke comparisons to Alexander and his beneficent conduct towards the family of Darius III . Peace negotiations began in the spring of 299, with both Diocletian and Galerius presiding. Their magister memoriae (secretary) Sicorius Probus

5494-454: The rule of Diocletian. The persecutions that began with an edict of 24 February 303, were credited by Christians to Galerius' work, as he was a fierce advocate of the old ways and old gods. Christian houses of assembly were destroyed, for fear of sedition in secret gatherings. Diocletian was not anti-Christian during the first part of his reign, and historians have claimed that Galerius decided to prod him into persecuting them by secretly burning

5576-588: The sole conduit for trade between Persia and Rome; and Rome would exercise control over the five satrapies between the Tigris and Armenia: Ingilene , Sophanene ( Sophene ), Arzanene ( Aghdznik ), Corduene , and Zabdicene (near modern Hakkâri , Turkey). These regions included the passage of the Tigris through the Anti-Taurus range; the Bitlis pass, the quickest southerly route into Persian Armenia; and access to

5658-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of

5740-597: The usurper by surprise, but Maximian, who had previously commanded many of the invading troops, came out of retirement in support of his son. The army switched sides, and Severus was arrested and later executed. Leaving his long-time friend and military companion Licinius to guard the Danube, Galerius personally invaded Italy with a powerful army collected from Illyricum and the East. He forced his way as far as Narni , within sixty miles of Rome, but skillful prepations by Maximian prevented him from capturing any territory along

5822-584: The way. The strength of the enemy's position made Galerius send peace overtures to Rome, professing his fatherly affection for Maxentius and promising to be generous if the rebels cooperated. Maxentius refused the offer, and meanwhile compromised the loyalty of the invasion force by sending bribes to the Illyrian legions. Galerius was compelled to began a withdrawal from Italy, and it was only with great difficulty that he managed to stop his veterans deserting him. In frustration, Galerius allowed his legions to ravage

5904-574: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or

5986-568: Was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of

6068-557: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe

6150-474: Was buried in his mausoleum at Gamzigrad-Romuliana , which was part of the palace he built at his birthplace, today's Zaječar in Serbia . Several lumps composed of corroded iron ring mail ( lorica hamata ) have been found at the site. This mail armour may have been worn by the wax figure of the emperor that was burned during the imperial funeral and apotheosis ceremony. The entire site has been inscribed into

6232-562: Was campaigning against the Franks . An additional usurper, Domitius Alexander , arose in Africa, bringing the number of claimants of imperial power up to seven. Galerius maintained his seniority and ceased trying to encroach on the other emperors' domains; he spent his later years in recreation and in public works, such as an extensive logging and drainage project at Lake Pelso (modern Lake Balaton ). Christians had lived pleasantly during most of

6314-411: Was destroying every trace of his immediate predecessors, erasing their names from public monuments. He sought to identify himself with the warlike reigns of Ardashir (r. 226–241) and Shapur (r. 241–272), who had sacked Roman Antioch and captured Emperor Valerian . In 295 or 296, Narseh declared war on Rome. He appears to have first invaded western Armenia, retaking the lands delivered to Tiridates in

6396-538: Was dispatched to Egypt to fight the rebellious cities Busiris and Coptos . In 294, Narseh , a son of Shapur I , who had been passed over for the Sassanid succession, came into power in Persia. Narseh probably moved to eliminate Bahram III , a young man installed by a noble named Vahunam in the wake of Bahram II's death in 293. In early 294, Narseh sent Diocletian the customary package of gifts, but within Persia, he

6478-452: Was maintained by him until the appearance of the general edict of toleration, issued in Serdica in April 311, apparently during his last bout of illness (see Edict of Toleration by Galerius ). Galerius's last request was that Christians should pray for him as he suffered with a painful and fatal illness. Initially one of the leading figures in the persecutions, Galerius later admitted that

6560-465: Was sent to Narseh to present terms. The conditions of the Peace of Nisibis were heavy: Persia would give up territory to Rome, making the Tigris the boundary between the two empires. Further terms specified that Armenia was returned to Roman domination with the fort of Ziatha as its border; Caucasian Iberia would pay allegiance to Rome under a Roman appointee; Nisibis, now under Roman rule, would become

6642-580: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect

6724-673: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage

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