The Optimatoi ( Greek : Ὀπτιμάτοι , from Latin : Optimates , "the Best Men") were initially formed as an elite Byzantine military unit. In the mid-8th century, however, they were downgraded to a supply and logistics corps and assigned a province ( thema ) in north-western Asia Minor , which was named after them. As an administrative unit, the Theme of the Optimatoi ( θέμα Ὀπτιμάτων , thema Optimatōn ) survived until the Ottoman conquest in the first decades of the 14th century.
64-520: The Optimates were first set up in the late 6th century (c. 575), by Emperor Tiberius II Constantine (r. 574–582). According to the Strategikon of Emperor Maurice , the Optimates were an elite regiment of Foederati , most likely of Gothic origin. They were a cavalry corps, somewhere between one and five thousand strong, and formed part of the central reserve army, their commander bearing
128-554: A number of key towns and forcing the Persians to abandon their advance and defend their own territory. It was during that period that the ailing emperor, Justin, finally died on 5 October 578. On 26 September 578, Tiberius was made Augustus by the rapidly-failing Justin. He used that opportunity to give away 7,200 pounds of gold, a practice that he continued annually throughout the four years of his reign. Sophia , Justin's widow, tried to maintain her power and influence by marrying
192-492: A ruler, with a reputation for generosity. Unlike his predecessor, he largely refrained from persecuting his Monophysite subjects, but his Arian subjects in the west did not fare as well. He also spent a good deal of money on building projects, most notably the continued expansion of the Great Palace of Constantinople . According to Gibbon, Tiberius II was a good emperor: With the odious name of Tiberius, he assumed
256-468: A trustee of the public wealth, was balanced by a principle of humanity and justice, which taught him to abhor, as of the basest alloy, the gold that was extracted from the tears of the people. For their relief, as often as they had suffered by natural or hostile calamities, he was impatient to remit the arrears of the past, or the demands of future taxes: he sternly rejected the servile offerings of his ministers, which were compensated by tenfold oppression; and
320-486: A variety of formats for rendering Greek and Greek shorthand using Latin letters. Examples include "8elo" and "thelw" for θέλω , "3ava" for ξανά , and "yuxi" for ψυχή . Owing to the difficulties encountered in transliterating and transcribing both ancient and modern Greek into the Latin alphabet, a number of regulatory bodies have been established. The Hellenic Organization for Standardization (ELOT), in cooperation with
384-615: A variety of romanizations for names and placenames in the 19th and 20th century. The Hellenic Organization for Standardization (ELOT) issued its system in cooperation with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1983. This system was adopted (with minor modifications) by the United Nations ' Fifth Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names at Montreal in 1987, by
448-410: Is common to mark the long vowels with macrons over the Latin letters and to leave the short vowels unmarked; such macrons should not be confused or conflated with those used by some systems to mark eta and omega as distinct from epsilon , iota , and omicron . Greece's early Attic numerals were based on a small sample of letters (including heta ) arranged in multiples of 5 and 10, likely forming
512-682: Is shaped like the Latinate semicolon . Greek punctuation which has been given formal romanizations include: There are many archaic forms and local variants of the Greek alphabet . Beta , for example, might appear as round Β or pointed [REDACTED] throughout Greece but is also found in the forms [REDACTED] (at Gortyn ), [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] ( Thera ), [REDACTED] ( Argos ), [REDACTED] ( Melos ), [REDACTED] ( Corinth ), [REDACTED] ( Megara and Byzantium ), and even [REDACTED] ( Cyclades ). Well into
576-569: The Avars , which had been implemented by his predecessor, Justinian . In 569, he appointed Tiberius to the post of Magister utriusque militiae , with instructions to deal with the Avars and their demands. After a series of negotiations, Tiberius agreed to allow the Avars to settle on Roman territory in the Balkans, in exchange for male hostages taken from various Avar chiefs. Justin, however, rejected
640-1077: The Greek alphabet into the Latin alphabet . The conventions for writing and romanizing Ancient Greek and Modern Greek differ markedly. The sound of the English letter B ( /b/ ) was written as β in ancient Greek but is now written as the digraph μπ , while the modern β sounds like the English letter V ( /v/ ) instead. The Greek name Ἰωάννης became Johannes in Latin and then John in English, but in modern Greek has become Γιάννης ; this might be written as Yannis , Jani, Ioannis, Yiannis, or Giannis, but not Giannes or Giannēs as it would be for ancient Greek. The word Άγιος might variously appear as Hagiοs, Agios, Aghios, or Ayios, or simply be translated as " Holy " or " Saint " in English forms of Greek placenames . Traditional English renderings of Greek names originated from Roman systems established in antiquity. The Roman alphabet itself
704-595: The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), released a system in 1983 which has since been formally adopted by the United Nations , the United Kingdom and United States. The following tables list several romanization schemes from the Greek alphabet to modern English. Note, however, that the ELOT, UN, and ISO formats for Modern Greek intend themselves as translingual and may be applied in any language using
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#1732771934161768-482: The Latin alphabet . The American Library Association and Library of Congress romanization scheme employs its "Ancient or Medieval Greek" system for all works and authors up to the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, although Byzantine Greek was pronounced distinctly and some have considered "Modern" Greek to have begun as early as the 12th century. For treatment of polytonic Greek letters —for example, ᾤ —see also
832-467: The Optimatoi were not divided into intermediate-level commands ( tourmai or droungoi ), a fact pointed out by Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (r. 913–959) as a sign of inferior status. Consequently, their commanding domestikos held the lowest rank of all provincial stratēgoi in the imperial hierarchy. As with the other themata , for the administration of his duties as governor of
896-625: The first letter of the pair indicates vowels which should be taken (and romanized) separately. Although the second vowel is not marked with a superfluous diaeresis in Greek, the first-edition ELOT 743 and the UN systems place a diaeresis on the Latin vowel for the sake of clarity. Apart from the diacritical marks native to Greek itself or used to romanize its characters, linguists also regularly mark vowel length with macrons ( ¯ ) marking long vowels and rounded breves ( ˘ ) marking short vowels . Where these are romanized, it
960-516: The section on romanizing Greek diacritical marks below. ELOT approved in 1982 the ELOT 743 standard, revised in 2001, whose Type 2 (Greek: Τύπος 2 , romanized: Typos 2 ) transcription scheme has been adopted by the Greek and Cypriot governments as standard for romanization of names on Greek and Cypriot passports . It also comprised a Type 1 (Greek: Τύπος 1 , romanized: Typos 1 ) transliteration table, which
1024-410: The transcriptions of Modern Greek into Latin letters used by ELOT, UN and ISO are essentially equivalent, while there remain minor differences in how they approach reversible transliteration . The American Library Association and Library of Congress romanization scheme employs its "Modern Greek" system for all works and authors following the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. In the table below,
1088-786: The Lombards and allied the Empire with Childebert II , the King of the Franks , to defeat them. Unfortunately, Baduarius was defeated and killed in 576, allowing even more imperial territory in Italy to slip away. Tiberius was unable to respond as the Sassanid Emperor Khosrau I struck at the empire's Armenian provinces in 576, sacking Melitene and Sebastea . Shifting his attention eastward, Tiberius sent his general Justinian with
1152-755: The Persian war in sight, Tiberius was forced to come to terms with the Avars, and he agreed to pay an indemnity and to hand over the vital city of Sirmium, which the Avars then looted. The migration of the Slavs continued, with their incursions reaching as far south as Athens. Although a new Persian invasion was halted with a significant defeat at Constantina in June 582, by now, Tiberius was dying, apparently having eaten some poorly-prepared or possibly-deliberately poisoned food. In this state, Tiberius initially named two heirs, each of whom married one of his daughters. Maurice
1216-416: The Persian war. The most glorious trophy of his victory consisted in a multitude of captives, whom Tiberius entertained, redeemed, and dismissed to their native homes with the charitable spirit of a Christian hero. The merit or misfortunes of his own subjects had a dearer claim to his beneficence, and he measured his bounty not so much by their expectations as by his own dignity. This maxim, however dangerous in
1280-630: The Persians in the East once again allowed Tiberius to turn his gaze westward. In 579, he again extended his military activities into the remnants of the Western Roman Empire . He sent money and troops to Italy to reinforce Ravenna and to retake the port of Classis . He formed an alliance with one of the Visigothic princes in Spain , who was fomenting rebellion, and his generals defeated
1344-676: The United Kingdom's Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use (PCGN) and by the United States' Board on Geographic Names (BGN) in 1996, and by the ISO itself in 1997. Romanization of names for official purposes (as with passports and identity cards) were required to use the ELOT system within Greece until 2011, when a legal decision permitted Greeks to use irregular forms (such as " Demetrios " for Δημήτριος ) provided that official identification and documents also list
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#17327719341611408-517: The agreement, insisting on taking hostages from the family of the Avar Khan himself. That condition was rejected by the Avars and so Tiberius mobilized for war. In 570, he defeated an Avar army in Thrace and returned to Constantinople . While attempting to follow up that victory in late 570 or early 571, Tiberius was defeated in a battle in which he narrowly escaped death, as his army was fleeing
1472-516: The army of the East was beginning to become restless, as it had not been paid, and it threatened to mutiny. In 580, General Maurice launched a new offensive, raiding well beyond the Tigris . The following year, he again invaded Persian Armenia and almost succeeded in reaching the Persian capital, Ctesiphon , before a Persian counterinvasion of Byzantine Mesopotamia forced him to withdraw in order to deal with that threat. By 582, with no apparent end to
1536-434: The army of the east not only with transfers from his western armies but also through barbarian recruits, which he formed into a new foederati unit, amounting to some 15,000 troops by the end of his reign. Throughout 577 and into 578, Tiberius avoided all other entanglements that would have distracted him from the approaching Persian conflict. He appeased, quite successfully, both Chalcedonian and Monophysite Christians by
1600-473: The battlefield. Agreeing to a truce, Tiberius provided an escort to the Avar envoys to discuss the terms of a treaty with Justin. On their return, the Avar envoys were attacked and robbed by local tribesmen, prompting them to appeal to Tiberius for help. He tracked down the group responsible and returned the stolen goods. In 574, Justin had a mental breakdown, forcing Empress Sophia to turn to Tiberius to manage
1664-436: The classical Greek alphabet such as heta ( Ͱ & ͱ ), meanwhile, usually take their nearest English equivalent (in this case, h ) but are too uncommon to be listed in formal transliteration schemes. Uncommon Greek letters which have been given formal romanizations include: The sounds of Modern Greek have diverged from both those of Ancient Greek and their descendant letters in English and other languages. This led to
1728-509: The death of Justin, his worthy successor sunk into a mortal disease, which left him only sufficient time to restore the diadem, according to the tenure by which he held it, to the most deserving of his fellow-citizens. That opinion was not shared by John Bagnall Bury , who commented: But though he might have made a very good minister of war, Tiberius did not make a good Emperor. It was natural that his first acts should be reactionary, as Justin's government had been extremely unpopular. He removed
1792-454: The duty on the "political bread," and remitted a fourth part of the taxes throughout the Empire. Had he been contented with this he might deserve praise, but he began a system of most injudicious extravagance. He gratified the soldiers with large and frequent Augustatica , and he granted donations to members of all the professions--scholastics or jurists ("a very numerous profession"), physicians, silversmiths, bankers. This liberality soon emptied
1856-553: The eastern armies to push the Persians back across the Euphrates . The Byzantines followed, and pushed deep into Persian territory, culminating in a raid on Atropatene . In 577, however, Justinian was defeated in Persian Armenia, forcing a Byzantine withdrawal. In response to that defeat, Tiberius replaced Justinian with the future emperor Maurice . During the truce that Tiberius concluded with Khosrau, he busily enhanced
1920-465: The eastern provinces. Buying time to make the necessary preparations, he agreed to a three-year truce with the Persians, paying 30,000 nomismata, though the truce excluded action in the region around Armenia . Not content with making preparations, Tiberius also used this period to send reinforcements to Italy under the command of Baduarius with orders to stem the Lombard invasion. He saved Rome from
1984-508: The empire, which was fighting the Persians to the east and dealing with the internal crisis of the plague. To achieve a measure of breathing space, Tiberius and Sophia agreed to a one-year truce with the Persians, at the cost of 45,000 nomismata . On 7 December 574, Justin, in one of his more lucid moments, had Tiberius proclaimed Caesar and adopted him as his own son. Tiberius added the name Constantine to his own. Although his position
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2048-404: The first rather than the second vowel letter, or by having a diaeresis ( ¨ ) over the second letter. For treatment of accents and diaereses —for example, ϊ —also see the section on romanizing Greek diacritical marks below. The traditional polytonic orthography of Greek uses several distinct diacritical marks to render what was originally the pitch accent of Ancient Greek and
2112-565: The imperial frontiers and win over the populace who had turned against him. According to Gregory of Tours and Paul the Deacon , Tiberius found two treasures: the treasure of Narses and 1,000 centenaria : 100,000 pounds of gold or 7,200,000 solidi ( nomismata ), under a slab. The treasures were given away to the poor, to the consternation of Sophia. Alongside generous donations, he also proceeded to reduce state revenue by removing taxes on wine and bread instituted by Justinian I . He continued
2176-594: The inspiration for the later Etruscan and Roman numerals . This early system was replaced by Greek numerals which employed the entire alphabet, including the nonstandard letters digamma , stigma , or sigma-tau (placed between epsilon and zeta), koppa (placed between pi and rho), and sampi (placed after omega). As revised in 2001, ELOT 743 provides for the uncommon characters to be given (in Greek) as $ for stigma, + for koppa, and / for sampi. These symbols are not given lower-case equivalents. When used as numbers,
2240-763: The letters are used in combination with the upper keraia numeral sign ⟨ ʹ ⟩ to denote numbers from 1 to 900 and in combination with the lower keraia ⟨ ͵ ⟩ to denote multiples of 1000. ( For a full table of the signs and their values, see Greek numerals .) These values are traditionally romanized as Roman numerals , so that Αλέξανδρος Γ' ο Μακεδών would be translated as Alexander III of Macedon and transliterated as Aléxandros III o Makedṓn rather than Aléxandros G' or Aléxandros 3 . Greek laws and other official documents of Greece which employ these numerals, however, are to be formally romanized using "decimal" Arabic numerals . Ancient Greek text did not mark word division with spaces or interpuncts , instead running
2304-650: The mid-6th century, Tiberius was appointed to the post of notarius . There, sometime after 552, he was introduced by the Patriarch Eutychius to the future emperor, Justin II , with whom he became firm friends. Under Justin's patronage, Tiberius was promoted to the position of Comes excubitorum , which he held from approximately 565 through to 574. He was present during Justin's imperial accession on 14 November 565 and also attended his inauguration as consul on 1 January 566. Justin ceased making payments to
2368-535: The modern period, classical and medieval Greek was also set using a wide array of ligatures , symbols combining or abbreviating various sets of letters, such as those included in Claude Garamond 's 16th-century grecs du roi . For the most part, such variants—as ϖ and [REDACTED] for π , ϛ for σ τ , and ϗ for και —are just silently emended to their standard forms and transliterated accordingly. Letters with no equivalent in
2432-494: The more popular appellation of Constantine, and imitated the purer virtues of the Antonines. After recording the vice or folly of so many Roman princes, it is pleasing to repose, for a moment, on a character conspicuous by the qualities of humanity, justice, temperance, and fortitude; to contemplate a sovereign affable in his palace, pious in the church, impartial on the seat of judgment, and victorious, at least by his generals, in
2496-496: The new emperor, but he refused her proposal because he was already married to Ino . When Tiberius had first been raised to the rank of Caesar, Sophia had refused the request for Ino and her children to move into the Imperial palace with her husband, forcing them to reside in a small residence nearby and prohibiting them from entering the palace. Once Tiberius was elevated to the rank of Augustus, however, he had his family moved into
2560-459: The official ban on the sale of governorships, which was highly popular. He also negotiated a truce with the Avars, paying them 80,000 nomismata per year for which the Avars agreed to defend the Danube frontier, thereby allowing Tiberius to transfer troops across to the east for a planned renewal of the conflict against the Persians. In 575, Tiberius began moving the armies of Thrace and Illyricum to
2624-566: The once powerful Opsician Theme with the creation of the Bucellarian Theme . Henceforth, unlike the other themata , the Optimatoi no longer provided armed troops, but formed a corps of 4,000 mule-drivers with their animals, which provided the baggage train ( touldon ) of the imperial tagmata in Constantinople. The unique role of the Optimatoi set it apart from all other themata : given their non-combatant functions,
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2688-443: The palace and renamed Ino as Anastasia, much to Sophia's resentment. Therefore, Sophia sought revenge, and a secret pact was made between the dowager empress and General Justinian, whom Tiberius had replaced the year before. They conspired to overthrow the emperor and seat Justinian in his place. The conspiracy failed, however, and Sophia was reduced to a modest allowance; Justinian was forgiven by Tiberius. The ongoing success against
2752-474: The palace. The consequence of this recklessness was that when Maurice came to the throne he found the exchequer empty and the State bankrupt. . . . There is considerable reason, I think, to remove Tiberius from his pedestal. Originally betrothed as a young man to the daughter of Ino , Tiberius eventually married Ino after her daughter and husband died. She took on the name Anastasia in 578 after his accession to
2816-418: The presence or absence of word-initial /h/ . In 1982, monotonic orthography was officially introduced for modern Greek. The only diacritics that remain are the acute accent (indicating stress) and the diaeresis (indicating that two consecutive vowels should not be combined). When a Greek diphthong is accented, the accent mark is placed over the second letter of the pair. This means that an accent over
2880-538: The province, the domestikos was assisted by a deputy ( topotērētēs ), a chief financial official ( chartoularios ) and a secretariat headed by a prōtokankellarios . The rural districts of the thema were raided by Seljuk Turks after the Battle of Manzikert , but Nicomedia was retained, and the area secured again under Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118) with the help of the First Crusade . The area
2944-560: The rebellious Berbers under their king Garmul in North Africa . He also intervened in Frankish affairs in the former province of Gaul , which had been largely free of imperial contacts for close to a century. Consequently, he might have been the basis for the fictional emperor Lucius Tiberius of Arthurian legend, who sent envoys to former Roman provinces after a long period without an imperial presence. The reality, however,
3008-638: The rule of Emperor Constantine V (r. 741–775), and as part of his measures to reduce the power of the thematic generals following the revolt of Artabasdos , the Count of the Opsician Theme , the corps was downgraded. Split off from the Opsician Theme, the region where the Optimates had settled, including the peninsula opposite Constantinople , both shores of the Gulf of Nicomedia and stretching to
3072-425: The shores of the river Sangarius , was then constituted as the separate thema of the Optimatoi ( θέμα Ὀπτιμάτων ) with Nicomedia as its capital. The first mention of the Optimatoi as a separate thema in the sources occurs only in 774/5, but it is clear that its creation must have come in the years after the suppression of Artabasdos's revolt. The same period also saw the further dismemberment and weakening of
3136-547: The sound: ⟨th⟩, ⟨ph⟩, ⟨rh⟩, and ⟨ch⟩. Because English orthography has changed so much from the original Greek , modern scholarly transliteration now usually renders ⟨κ⟩ as ⟨k⟩ and the diphthongs ⟨αι, οι, ει, ου⟩ as ⟨ai, oi, ei, ou⟩. " Greeklish " has also spread within Greece itself, owing to the rapid spread of digital telephony from cultures using the Latin alphabet . Since Greek typefaces and fonts are not always supported or robust, Greek email and chatting has adopted
3200-427: The special rules for vowel combinations ( αι, αυ, ει, ευ, ηυ, οι, ου, ωυ ) only apply when these letters function as digraphs . There are also words where the same letters stand side by side incidentally but represent separate vowels. In these cases each of the two letters is transcribed separately according to the normal rules for single letters. Such cases are marked in Greek orthography by either having an accent on
3264-468: The then unique title of taxiarch ēs . The presence of descendants of these men, called Gothograeci ( Γοτθογραίκοι ) by the chronicler Theophanes the Confessor , is attested in northern Bithynia as late as the early 8th century. At that time, Warren Treadgold estimates that the corps numbered 2,000 men, a figure that possibly corresponds to its original size as well. In the mid-8th century, under
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#17327719341613328-443: The throne. They had three children together, one of whom died before Tiberius was created Caesar in 574. Of his other two, both daughters, Constantina was married to Tiberius's successor, Maurice , and Charito was married to Germanus . His wife and two daughters all outlived him. Romanization of Greek Romanization of Greek is the transliteration ( letter -mapping) or transcription ( sound -mapping) of text from
3392-426: The treasury of its wealth. . . . The result was that by the end of the first year of his reign he had spent 7200 lbs. of gold, beside silver and silk in abundance; and before he died he was obliged to have recourse to the reserve fund which the prudent economy of Anastasius had laid by, to be used in the case of an extreme emergency. And, notwithstanding these financial difficulties, he laid out money on new buildings in
3456-466: The use of it, mindful always to love equity and justice. A native of the Latin-speaking part of Thrace, Tiberius was nonetheless distinguished as the first of the "Greek[-speaking] Caesars" by Edward Gibbon , who cited the 13th-century Syriac Orthodox bishop and writer Bar Hebraeus . Tiberius reportedly was tall and handsome, with a regal bearing. He was gentle and humane, both as a man and
3520-558: The use of strategic appointments and the easing of persecutions. He paid the Lombard tribal chieftains some 200,000 nomismata in an attempt to keep them divided and to prevent the election of a king. When the Slavs invaded Illyricum, he transported Avar armies to attack them and force their retreat. Consequently, when Khosrau invaded Roman Mesopotamia in 578, his general, Maurice, was able to invade Persian Arzanene and Mesopotamia, sacking
3584-462: The wise and equitable laws of Tiberius excited the praise and regret of succeeding times. Constantinople believed that the emperor had discovered a treasure: but his genuine treasure consisted in the practice of liberal economy, and the contempt of all vain and superfluous expense. The Romans of the East would have been happy, if the best gift of Heaven, a patriot king, had been confirmed as a proper and permanent blessing. But in less than four years after
3648-469: The words together ( scripta continua ). In the Hellenistic period, a variety of symbols arose for punctuation or editorial marking ; such punctuation (or the lack thereof) are variously romanized, inserted, or ignored in different modern editions. Modern Greek punctuation generally follows French with the notable exception of Greek's use of a separate question mark , the erotimatiko , which
3712-443: Was Eastern Roman emperor from 574 to 582. Tiberius rose to power in 574 when Justin II , prior to a mental breakdown, proclaimed him caesar and adopted him as his own son. In 578, the dying Justin II gave him the title of augustus , thus becoming co-emperor alongside him. Tiberius became sole ruler less than two weeks later, assuming the regnal name of "Constantine" under which he reigned until his death. Born in Thrace in
3776-611: Was a form of the Cumaean alphabet derived from the Euboean script that valued Χ as / k s / and Η as / h / and used variant forms of Λ and Σ that became L and S . When this script was used to write the classical Greek alphabet, ⟨κ⟩ was replaced with ⟨c⟩, ⟨αι⟩ and ⟨οι⟩ became ⟨æ⟩ and ⟨œ⟩, and ⟨ει⟩ and ⟨ου⟩ were simplified to ⟨i⟩ (more rarely—corresponding to an earlier pronunciation—⟨e⟩) and ⟨u⟩. Aspirated consonants like ⟨θ⟩, ⟨φ⟩, initial-⟨ρ⟩, and ⟨χ⟩ simply wrote out
3840-541: Was betrothed to Constantina , and Germanus , related through blood to the great emperor Justinian, was married to Charito. It appears that his plan was to divide the empire in two, with Maurice receiving the eastern provinces and Germanus the western provinces. This plan was never implemented, and on 13 August 582, he elevated Maurice to the rank of Augustus. Tiberius died on the following day, 14 August 582, and his last words were spoken to his successor: Let my sovereignty be delivered to thee with this girl. Be happy in
3904-475: Was extensively modified in the second edition of the standard. International versions of ELOT 743, with an English language standard document, were approved by the UN (V/19, 1987) and the British and American governments. The ISO approved in 1997 its version, ISO 843 , with a different Type 1 transliteration system, which was adopted four years later by ELOT itself, while the U.N. did not update its version. So
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#17327719341613968-451: Was now official, he was still subordinate to Justin. Sophia was determined to remain in power and kept Tiberius tightly controlled until Justin died, in 578. The day after his appointment as Caesar, the plague abated, giving Tiberius more freedom of movement than Justin had been able to achieve. Tiberius also charted a very different course from his predecessor and proceeded to spend the money that Justin had doggedly saved in order to defend
4032-651: Was occupied by the Latins after the dissolution of the Empire by the Fourth Crusade in 1204, but the thema was re-established by John III Vatatzes when he retook the region in 1240, and survived until the area was gradually conquered by the rising Ottoman beylik in the first half of the 14th century. Tiberius II Constantine Tiberius II Constantine ( Latin : Tiberius Cōnstantīnus ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Τιβέριος Κωνσταντῖνος , translit. Tibérios Kōnstantĩnos ; died 14 August 582)
4096-489: Was that the empire was seriously overextended. In 579, with Tiberius occupied elsewhere, the Avars decided to take advantage of the lack of troops in the Balkans by besieging Sirmium . At the same time, the Slavs began to migrate into Thrace, Macedonia and southern Greece , which Tiberius was unable to halt as the Persians refused to agree to a peace in the east, which remained the emperor's main priority. Furthermore,
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