69-458: Zoe Porphyrogenita (also spelled Zoë ; Greek : Ζωή Πορφυρογέννητη , Medieval Greek : [zoˈi] "life"; c. 978 – 1050) was a member of the Macedonian dynasty who briefly reigned as Byzantine empress in 1042, alongside her sister Theodora . Before that she was enthroned as empress consort or empress mother to a series of co-rulers, two of whom were married to her. Zoe
138-577: 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,
207-558: 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
276-560: 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
345-540: 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
414-494: A life of virtual obscurity in the imperial gynaeceum (women's quarters) for many years. As an eligible imperial princess Zoe was considered a possible bride for the Holy Roman Emperor , Otto III , in 996. A second embassy sent in 1001, headed by Arnulf II, Archbishop of Milan , was tasked with selecting Otto's bride from among Constantine's three daughters. The eldest, Eudocia, was disfigured by smallpox , while
483-485: A popular uprising by the citizens of Constantinople in 1044, which came dangerously close to actually harming Constantine who was participating in a religious procession along the streets of Constantinople. The mob was only quieted by the appearance on a balcony of Zoe and Theodora, who reassured the people that they were not in any danger of assassination. It is said that Zoe was stunningly beautiful, and Michael Psellos in his Chronographia commented that "every part of her
552-804: 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
621-479: 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
690-466: Is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into 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 ,
759-519: 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
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#1732782604633828-899: 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 Constantine Dalassenos (duke of Antioch) Too Many Requests If you report this error to
897-763: 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,
966-674: 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 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
1035-624: 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 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
1104-627: 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 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
1173-495: 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
1242-534: The Holy Roman Empire arrived in Constantinople with a proposal for an imperial marriage. Constantine and Zoe rejected the idea out of hand when it was revealed that the intended groom, Henry , the son of Conrad II , was only ten years old. Constantine determined that the ruling house would be continued by one of his daughters being married to an appropriate aristocrat. The first potential match
1311-516: 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
1380-657: 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 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
1449-492: 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
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#17327826046331518-486: 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
1587-495: 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
1656-629: 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
1725-685: 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
1794-493: The Senate and gave public audiences, but it was soon apparent that their joint reign was under strain. Zoe was still jealous of Theodora and had no desire to administer the empire; but she would not allow Theodora to conduct public business alone. The court began to split, with factions forming behind each empress. After two months of increasing acrimony, Zoe decided to search for a new husband – thereby denying Theodora
1863-404: 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),
1932-478: The age of two, in 962. His brother Basil II , the senior co-ruler, prevented his nieces from marrying any of the Byzantine nobility, as this would have given their husbands a claim on the imperial throne. As women they were unable to exercise any state authority; their only say in this was in choosing, or more likely accepting or not, a husband who would acquire their authority upon marriage. Consequently, Zoe lived
2001-402: 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
2070-477: The balance of power by conspiring against John, without success. Michael's health was bad throughout his reign, and by 1041 it was obvious that he was dying. Eager to ensure that power remained in his hands, John the Eunuch forced Zoe to adopt his nephew Michael Kalaphates . On 10 December 1041, Michael IV died, refusing to the last to see his wife who begged that she be allowed to visit him one more time. Kalaphates
2139-479: The business of governing to his brother, the eunuch John the Orphanotrophos . Although Zoe believed Michael would prove to be a more devoted husband than Romanos, she was mistaken. Fearing that Zoe would turn on him as she had turned on his predecessor, Michael excluded her from politics and sent her back to the gynaeceum , where she was kept under strict surveillance. The disgruntled empress tried to alter
Zoe Porphyrogenita - Misplaced Pages Continue
2208-469: The couple, and soon Romanos refused to share the marriage bed with her. Romanos limited his wife's spending and paid her little attention. Zoe, furious and frustrated, engaged in a number of affairs. Romanos tolerated these and took a mistress himself. In 1033 Zoe became enamoured of a low-born servant called Michael . She flaunted her lover openly and spoke about making him emperor. Rumours of her conduct led Romanos to confront Michael, who denied aspiring to
2277-543: The empire as its heir and as the Byzantine empress. Eight years later, Zoe died aged 72. Her reign saw the decline of the Roman army, and the first incursions by the Turks into eastern Anatolia. Zoe was Porphyrogenita , "born into the purple"; this was the appellation for a child born in the capital to a reigning emperor. She was the second daughter of Constantine VIII and his wife Helena . Her father had become co-emperor, at
2346-544: The governor of Sirmium , in 1031. Zoe accused her of being part of the conspiracy, and Theodora was forcibly confined in the monastery of Petrion. Zoe later visited her sister and forced her to take religious vows. Zoe was obsessed with continuing the Macedonian dynasty. Almost immediately upon marrying Romanos the fifty-year-old Zoe tried desperately to become pregnant. She used magic charms, amulets, and potions, all without effect. This failure to conceive helped alienate
2415-439: 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
2484-467: 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
2553-576: 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
2622-441: 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
2691-460: The newlyweds were seated on the imperial throne. Spending years in the same restrictive quarters with her sister, Zoe had come to loathe Theodora. Zoe convinced Romanos to appoint one of his own men as the chief of Theodora's household, with orders to spy on her. Shortly afterwards, Theodora was accused of plotting to usurp the throne, first with Presian in 1030, followed by Constantine Diogenes,
2760-399: 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
2829-706: 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
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2898-518: The opportunity to increase her influence. By the rules of the Orthodox Church her next marriage, her third, was the last she was permitted. Her preference was for Constantine Dalassenos, who had been her father's first choice as her husband back in 1028. He was brought for an audience before the Empress, but during their conversation his independent and forceful manner displeased Zoe, and he
2967-557: The participation of Patriarch Alexios, who refused to officiate over a third marriage (for both spouses). Constantine was crowned by the patriarch the next day. Zoe got more than she bargained for when Constantine decided to bring with him to his new station his long-standing mistress Maria Skleraina . Not content with bringing her to court, he insisted that he be allowed to publicly share his life with her, and that she obtain some official recognition. The 64-year-old Zoe did not object to sharing her bed and her throne with Skleraina. Skleraina
3036-425: The people, but his insistence that he continue to rule alongside her was in vain. On 19 April 1042, the mob revolted against Michael V in support of not only Zoe but also Theodora. A delegation headed by Patrician Constantine Cabasilas went to the monastery at Petrion to convince Theodora to become co-empress alongside her sister. Theodora had become accustomed to a life of religious contemplation and tried to refuse
3105-604: The predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around 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
3174-520: The proposal, but the delegates brought her forcibly back to the capital. At an assembly in Hagia Sophia the people escorted a furious Theodora and proclaimed her empress along with Zoe. They were both crowned on 21 April and Michael V was forced to take refuge in a monastery. Zoe immediately assumed power and tried to force Theodora back to her monastery, but the Senate and the people demanded that
3243-444: The sisters should jointly reign. As her first act Theodora was called upon to deal with Michael V. Zoe wanted to pardon and free Michael, but Theodora was clear and adamant. She initially guaranteed Michael's safety, but then ordered him to be blinded and to spend the rest of his life as a monk. Officially Zoe was the senior empress, and her throne was situated slightly in front of Theodora's on all public occasions. In practice Theodora
3312-437: 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
3381-422: The throne. In early 1034 Romanos became ill and it was widely believed that Zoe and Michael were conspiring to have him poisoned. On 11 April Romanos was found dying in his bath. According to court official and later chronicler Michael Psellus some of his retinue had "held his head for a long time beneath the water, attempting at the same time to strangle him". John Scylitzes writes as a simple fact that Romanos
3450-447: The various stages of 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
3519-529: The vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in 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
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#17327826046333588-509: The youngest, Theodora , was a very plain girl. Arnulf, therefore, selected the attractive 23-year-old Zoe, to which Basil II agreed. In January 1002 she accompanied Arnulf back to Italy, only to discover when the ship reached Bari that Otto had died, forcing her to return home. When Basil II died, Constantine VIII took the throne. His reign as sole emperor lasted less than three years, from 15 December 1025 to 11 November 1028. Another opportunity for Zoe to marry arose in 1028 when an embassy from
3657-515: 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
3726-416: Was already married – his wife having been forced to become a nun to allow Romanos to marry into the imperial family – and that as third cousins they had too close a blood relationship for marriage to occur. Consequently, Constantine VIII chose Zoe to be Romanos's wife. Zoe and Romanos married on 10 November 1028 in the imperial chapel of the palace. The next day Constantine died and
3795-568: 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
3864-557: 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
3933-452: Was born when her father Constantine was nominal co-emperor to his brother, Basil II . After a planned marriage to Holy Roman Emperor Otto III in 996 failed to materialise, Zoe spent subsequent years in the imperial palace. Her uncle Basil died in 1025 when Zoe was 47, and her father acceded the Byzantine throne as Constantine VIII. As he had no sons, Constantine hoped to continue the dynasty by marrying off one of his daughters. Zoe, aged 50,
4002-576: Was buried in Constantinople. Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized : Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized : Hellēnikḗ ) 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
4071-591: Was crowned emperor as Michael V. Although he had pledged to respect Zoe, Michael V promptly banished her to a monastery on Principus , an island in the Sea of Marmara, on charges of attempted regicide. She was forcibly tonsured and sworn into a religious order. This treatment of the legitimate heir to the Macedonian Dynasty caused a popular uprising in Constantinople. Michael V, desperate to keep his throne, brought Zoe back from Principus and displayed her to
4140-469: Was dismissed from her presence. Her next choice was the married Constantine Atroklines, a court official with whom it was rumoured that she had had an affair during the reign of Romanos III. He died under mysterious circumstances a few days before the wedding was to take place, possibly poisoned by his own soon to be ex-wife. Zoe then remembered the handsome and urbane Constantine Monomachos , another former lover. The pair were married on 11 June 1042, without
4209-578: Was drowned on Michael's orders. Matthew of Edessa 's account has Zoe poisoning Romanos. Zoe and Michael were married on the same day that Romanos III died. The next day they summoned the Patriarch Alexios ;I to officiate at the coronation of the new emperor. Although he initially refused to co-operate, the payment of 50 pounds of gold helped change his mind. Zoe's new husband took power as Michael IV. His abrupt rise to power had left him unprepared to rule, and he delegated much of
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#17327826046334278-440: Was firm and in good condition". Recognising her own beauty and its use as a tool of statecraft, Zoe attempted to maximise and prolong its effect with a variety of treatments. She operated a cosmetics laboratory in the gynaeceum , and was said to have carried out experiments to improve the efficacy of the perfumes and unguents prepared there. Psellus reports that her face looked youthful into her sixties. Zoe died in 1050, aged 72. She
4347-418: Was given the title of sebaste , ranking behind Zoe and Theodora, and was addressed as mistress or empress, like them. At official events Skleraina took position immediately behind the sisters. In the eyes of the public however, Constantine IX's preferential treatment of Skleraina was a scandal, and eventually rumours began to spread that Skleraina was planning to murder Zoe, and possibly Theodora. This led to
4416-415: Was married to Romanos Argyros . She and Romanos took the throne the next day on her father's death. Zoe's marriage to Romanos III was troubled, and Romanos was found dead in his bath in 1034. His death has been variously attributed to Zoe, her lover Michael , or both. Zoe and Michael were married on the same day as the supposed murder, and he was crowned Emperor Michael IV on the following day. In 1041, Zoe
4485-403: Was persuaded to adopt her dying husband's nephew, Michael Kalaphates . Once Michael V became emperor, he promptly exiled Zoe. This action sparked a popular revolt which dethroned him and installed Zoe and her sister Theodora as joint empresses. After a two-month joint reign, Zoe married a former lover who was installed as Constantine IX , transferring power to him. However, she continued to rule
4554-424: Was the distinguished noble Constantine Dalassenos , the former dux of Antioch . The emperor's advisors preferred a weak ruler whom they could control and they persuaded him to reject Dalassenos after he had already been summoned to the capital. Romanos Argyros , the urban prefect of Constantinople, was the next to be considered as a match. Theodora defied her father by refusing to marry Romanos, arguing that he
4623-440: Was the driving force behind the joint administration. The sisters proceeded to administer the empire, focusing on curbing the sale of public offices and on the administration of justice. Although contemporary historian Michael Psellus claimed the joint reign was a complete failure, John Scylitzes stated that they were very conscientious in rectifying the abuses of the previous reigns. Theodora and Zoe appeared together at meetings of
4692-580: 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
4761-673: 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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