Basileus (
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
, plural
,
basileis), signifies "
sovereignA monarch is the person who heads a monarchy, a form of government in which the country or entity usually ruled or controlled by an individual who usually rules for life or until abdication...
" or "
kingKing may be a title for a head of state.King may also refer to:-Places:* King, Ontario, Canada* King, Indiana, United States* King, North Carolina, United States* King, Lincoln County, Wisconsin, United States...
". It is perhaps best known in
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
as a title used by
ByzantineThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
emperors, but also has a longer history of use for persons of authority in
ancient GreeceAncient Greece is the civilisation belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. It is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the...
, as well as for the kings of modern
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
.
Etymology
The etymology of
basileus is unclear. The Mycenaean form was
gwasileus (𐀣𐀯𐀩𐀄,
qa-si-re-u), denoting some sort of court official or local chieftain, but not an actual king. Most linguists assume that it is a non-Greek word that was adopted by
Bronze AgeThe Bronze Age of a culture is the period when the most advanced metalworking in that culture utilised bronze. This could either have been based on the local smelting of copper and tin from ores, or trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere...
Greeks from a preexisting linguistic
substrateIn linguistics, a stratum or strate is a language that influences, or is influenced by another through contact. A substratum is a language which is influenced by another, while a superstratum is the language that exerts the influence...
of the Eastern
MediterraneanThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it...
. Schindler (1976) argues for an inner-Greek innovation of the
-eus inflection type from
Indo-EuropeanThe Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, Iran, and northern India, and historically also predominant in Anatolia and Central Asia...
material rather than a "Mediterranean" loan.
Original senses encountered on clay tablets
The first written instance of this word is found on the baked clay tablets discovered in excavations of
MycenaeMycenae , is an archaeological site in Greece, located about 90 km south-west of Athens, in the north-eastern Peloponnese. Argos is 6 km to the south; Corinth, 48 km to the north...
an palaces originally destroyed by fire. The tablets are dated from the 15th century BC to the 11th century BC. They were inscribed with the
Linear BLinear B is a script that was used for writing Mycenaean Greek, an early form of Greek. It predated the Greek alphabet by several centuries and seems to have died out with the fall of Mycenaean civilization. Most of the tablets inscribed in Linear B were found in Knossos, Cydonia, Pylos, Thebes...
script, which was deciphered by
Michael VentrisMichael George Francis Ventris was an English architect and classical scholar who, along with John Chadwick, was responsible for the decipherment of Linear B.Ventris was educated in Switzerland and at Stowe School...
in 1952 and corresponds to a very early form of Greek.
The word
basileus is written as
qa-si-re-u and its original meaning was "
chieftainA traditional tribal chief is the leader of a tribe, or the head of a tribal form of self-government.The notion of a "tribal chief" is rather vague and arbitrary; neither chief nor tribe is clearly defined, so in many cases other designations are used for the same institution, such as petty ruler...
" (in one particular tablet the chieftain of the guild of
bronzeBronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive, but sometimes with other elements such as phosphorus, manganese, aluminium, or silicon. It was particularly significant in antiquity, giving its name to the Bronze Age...
smithA metalsmith, often shortened to smith, is a person involved in the shaping of metal objects.In pre-industrialized times, smiths held high or special social standing since they supplied the metal tools needed for farming and warfare.- Etymology of smith :The word smith is cognate with the somewhat...
s is referred to as
qa-si-re-u). The word can be contrasted with
wanax, another word used more specifically for "
kingA monarch is the person who heads a monarchy, a form of government in which the country or entity usually ruled or controlled by an individual who usually rules for life or until abdication...
" and usually meaning "High King" or "overlord". With the collapse of Mycenaean society, the position of
wanax disappeared, and the
basileus were left as the topmost officials in Greek society. In the works of
HomerHomer is a legendary ancient Greek epic poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey...
wanax appears, in the form
anax, mostly in descriptions of
ZeusIn Greek mythology, Zeus is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky and thunder. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" also derives certain iconographic traits from the...
(as king of the
godsThe Twelve Olympians, also known as the Dodekatheon , in Greek mythology, were the principal gods of the Greek pantheon, residing atop Mount Olympus. The first ancient reference of religious ceremonies for them is found in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes...
) and of very few human monarchs, most notably
AgamemnonIn Greek mythology, Agamemnon / is the son of King Atreus of Mycenae and Queen Aerope; the brother of Menelaus and the husband of Clytemnestra; different mythological versions make him the king either of Mycenae or of Argos...
. Otherwise the term survived almost exclusively in personal names (e.g., Anaxagoras, Pleistoanax) and in modern Greek is still in use in the description of the royal palace i.e.
anaktora meaning, "the mansion of anax". Most of the Greek leaders in Homer's works are described as
basileis, which is conventionally rendered in English as "kings". However, a more accurate translation may be "princes" or "chieftains", which would better reflect conditions in Greek society in Homer's time, and also the roles ascribed to Homer's characters. Agamemnon tries to order around
AchillesIn Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Achilles also has the attributes of being the most handsome of the heroes assembled against Troy....
among many others, while another
basileus serves as his charioteer.
A study by Drews (1983) has demonstrated that even at the apex of Geometric and Archaic Greek society,
basileus does not automatically translate to "king". In a number of places authority was exercised by a college of
basileis drawn from a particular clan or group, and the office had term limits. However,
basileus could also be applied to the hereditary leaders of "tribal" states, like those of the
ArcadiaArcadia, Arkadía , or Arcady is a region of Greece in the Peloponnesus. It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas.-Modern times:...
ns and the Messenians, in which cases the term approximated the meaning of "king".
Pseudo-Archytas' definition of the Basileus as "sovereign" and "living law"
According to pseudo-
ArchytasArchytas was an Ancient Greek philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and strategist. He was a scientist of the Pythagorean school and famous for being the reputed founder of mathematical mechanics, as well as a good friend of Plato....
's treaty "On justice and law", quoted by
Giorgio AgambenGiorgio Agamben is an Italian philosopher who teaches at the Università IUAV di Venezia. He also teaches at the Collège International de Philosophie in Paris, at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, and previously taught at the University of Macerata and at the University of...
in
State of Exception (2005),
Basileus is more adequately translated into "
SovereignSovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
" than into "king". The reason for this is that it designates more the
person of king than the
office of king: the power of magistrates (
arkhontes, "archons") derives from their social functions or offices, whereas the sovereign derives his power from himself. Sovereigns have
auctoritasAuctoritas is a Latin word and is the origin of English "authority." While historically its use in English was restricted to discussions of the political history of Rome, the beginning of phenomenological philosophy in the twentieth century changed the use of the word substantially.In ancient Rome,...
, whereas magistrates detain
imperiumImperium in a broad sense translates as 'power'. In ancient Rome the concept applied to people and meant something like 'power status' or 'authority' or could be used with a geographical connotation and meant something like 'territory'...
. Pseudo-Archytas aimed at creating a theory of sovereignty completely enfranchised from
lawLaw is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets...
s, being itself the only source of
legitimacyLegitimacy, from the Latin word legitimare , may refer to:* Legitimacy * Legitimacy of standards* Legitimacy * Legitimate expectation* Legitimate peripheral participation* Legitimate theater* Legitimation...
. He goes so far as qualifying the
Basileus as
nomosNomos can refer to:* the subdivisions of Ancient Egypt, see Nome * the prefectures of Greece, the administrative division immediately below the peripheries of Greece...
empsykhos, or "living law", which is the origin, according to Agamben, of the modern
FührerprinzipThe , German for "leader principle" prescribes a system with a hierarchy of leaders that resembles a military structure. This principle was applied to civil society at large in National Socialist Germany.-Ideology:...
and of
Carl SchmittCarl Schmitt was a German jurist, political theorist, and professor of law.Schmitt published several essays, influential in the 20th century and beyond, on the mentalities that surround the effective wielding of political power...
's theories on
dictatorshipA dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator, without hereditary ascension. It has three possible meanings:...
.
Use of Basileus in Classical Times
In classical times, almost all Greek states had abolished the hereditary royal office in favor of
democraticDemocracy is a system of government in which either the actual governing is carried out by the people governed , or the power to do so is granted by them...
or
oligarchicAn Oligarchy is a form of government in which power effectively rests with a small elite segment of society distinguished by royal, wealth, intellectual, family, military, or religious hegemony. The word oligarchy is from the Greek words for "few" and "rule"...
rule. Some exceptions existed, namely the two hereditary
Kings of SpartaSparta was an important Greek city-state in the Peloponnesus. It was unusual among Greek city-states in that it maintained its kingship past the Archaic age. It was even more unusual in that it had two kings simultaneously, coming from two separate lines...
(who served as joint commanders of the army, and were also called
arkhagetai), the
Kings of Syracuse, the Kings of Cyrene, the Kings of Macedon and of the Molossians in
EpirusEpirus is a geographical and historical region of Greece in southeastern Europe, currently divided between the periphery of Epirus in Greece and the prefectures of Gjirokastër, Vlorë, Berat, and Korçë in southern Albania.-Name & Etymology:...
and Kings of Arcadian
OrchomenusOrchomenus or Orchomenos or Orkhomenos was an ancient city of Arcadia, Greece, called by Thucydides the Arcadian Orchomenus , to distinguish it from the Boeotian town. Its ruins are near the modern town of Kalpaki....
. The Greeks also used the term to refer to various kings of "barbaric" (i.e. non-Greek) tribes in
ThraceThrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded on the north by the Balkan Mountains, on the south by the Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea and on the east by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara...
and
IllyriaIllyria was in Classical antiquity a region in the western part of today's Balkan Peninsula, inhabited by the Illyrians, a heterogeneous coalition of tribes, about whom very little is known, though a number of them are assumed to have been united by a common Illyrian language.Illyria and the...
, as well as to the Achaemenid kings of Persia. The Persian king was also referred to as
Megas Basileus (Great King) or
Basileus Basileōn, a translation of the Persian title
Šāhanšāh ("
King of KingsKing of Kings is a title that has been used by several monarchies throughout history, and in many cases the literal title meaning "King of Kings", i.e...
"), or simply "
the king". There was also a cult of
ZeusIn Greek mythology, Zeus is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky and thunder. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" also derives certain iconographic traits from the...
Basileus at
LebadeiaLivadeia is a city in central Greece. It is the capital of the prefecture Boeotia. Levadia is located 130 km NW of Athens, E of Nafpaktos, ESE of Amfissa and Desfina, SE of Lamia and west of Chalkida. Livadeia is linked with GR-48 and several kilometres west of GR-3...
.
AristotleAristotle was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology.Together with Plato and Socrates , Aristotle is one of...
distinguished the
basileus, constrained by law, from the unlimited
tyrantIn classical politics, a tyrant is one who has taken power by their own means as opposed to hereditary or constitutional power. This mode of rule is referred to as tyranny....
.
At
AthensThe History of Athens is one of the oldest of any city in Europe and in the world. Athens has been continuously inhabited for over 7000 years, becoming the leading city of Ancient Greece in the first millennium BC; its cultural achievements during the 5th century BC laid the foundations of western...
, the
Archon basileusArchon Basileus was a Greek title, meaning 'king magistrate': the term is derived the words archon "magistrate" and basileus "king" or "sovereign".In classical Athens, the Archon Basileus was the last remnant of monarchy...
was one of the ten archons, magistrates selected by lot. Of these ten, the
archon eponymos, the
polemarchA polemarch was a senior military title in various ancient Greek city states . The title is composed out of the polemos and archon and translates as "warleader" or "warlord".-Athens:...
and the
basileus divided the powers of Athens' ancient kings, with the
basileus overseeing religious rites and homicide cases. His wife had to marry
DionysusIn classical mythology, Dionysus or Dionysos is the god of wine, the inspirer of ritual madness and ecstasy, and a major figure of Greek mythology, and one of the twelve Olympians, amongst whom Greek mythology treated him as a late arrival...
at the
AnthesteriaAnthesteria, one of the four Athenian festivals in honour of Dionysus , was held annually for three days, the eleventh to thirteenth of the month of Anthesterion ; it was preceded by the Lenaia...
. Similar vestigial offices called
basileus existed in other Greek city-states.
By contrast, the authoritarian rulers were never called
Basileus in classical Greece, but
archon or
tyrant; although
PheidonPheidon was king of Argos. At that time, the monarch was purely a traditional figurehead with almost no genuine power. Pheidon seized the throne from the reigning aristocracy...
of Argos is described by Aristotle as a
basileus who made himself a tyrant.
Alexander the Great
Basileus and
Megas Basileus were exclusively used by
Alexander the GreatAlexander III of Macedon, popularly known as Alexander the Great , was an Ancient Greek king of Macedon who created one of the largest empires in ancient history...
and his
HellenisticHellenistic civilization represents the zenith of Greek influence in the ancient world from 323 BC to about 146 BC ; note, however that Koine Greek language and Hellenistic philosophy and religion are also indisputably elements of the Roman era till Late Antiquity...
successors in
Ptolemaic EgyptPtolemaic Egypt began when Ptolemy I Soter declared himself Pharaoh of Egypt in 305 BC and ended with the death of queen Cleopatra of Egypt and the Roman conquest in 30 BC. The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a powerful Hellenistic state, extending from southern Syria in the east, to Cyrene to the west, and...
,
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.Asia is traditionally defined as part of the...
and
MacedonMacedonia or Macedon was an ancient kingdom, centered in the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, bordered by Epirus to the west, Paionia to the north, the region of Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south...
. The female counterpart is
basilissa (Queen), meaning both a
Queen regnantA queen regnant is a qualifying reference to a female monarch possessing and exercising all of the monarchical powers of a ruler, in contrast to a "queen consort", who is the wife of a male reigning as monarch and who is without any official powers of state.In Ancient Egypt, Pacific cultures, and...
(such as
Cleopatra VII of EgyptCleopatra VII Philopator was the last effective pharaoh of Egypt's Ptolemaic dynasty. She originally shared power with her father Ptolemy XII and later with her brothers Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV, whom she also married, but eventually gained sole rule...
) and a
Queen consortA queen consort is the wife of a reigning king. A queen consort usually shares her husband's rank and holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles...
. It is precisely at this time that the term
basileus acquired a fully royal connotation, in stark contrast with the much less sophisticated and authoritarian earlier perceptions of kingship within Greece.
Romans and Byzantines
Under
RomanThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
rule, the term
basileus came to be used, in the Hellenistic tradition, to designate the
Roman EmperorThe Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin titles such as imperator , augustus, caesar and princeps were all associated with it...
in the Greek-speaking East. Although the early Roman emperors were careful to retain the facade of the
republicanThe Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c...
institutions and not to formally adopt monarchical titles, the use of
basileus amply illustrated the fact, clearly perceived and stated by contemporaries like the historian Cassius Dio, that the Roman Empire was a monarchic state. Due to its "royal" associations however the title
basileus remained unofficial for the emperor, and was restricted in official usage to client kings in the East. Instead, the imperial titles
Caesar Augustus, translated into Greek as
Kaisar Sebastos or
Kaisar Augoustos, and
ImperatorThe Latin word Imperator was a title originally roughly equivalent to commander during the period of the Roman Republic. It later went on to become a part of the titulature of the Roman Emperors as part of their cognomen...
, translated as
AutokratōrAutokratōr is a Greek epithet applied to an individual who exercises absolute power, unrestrained by superiors. In a historical context, it has been applied to military commanders-in-chief, and to Roman and Byzantine emperors as the translation of the Latin title imperator...
, were used.
By the 4th century however,
basileus was applied exclusively to the two rulers considered equals to the Roman emperor: the Sassanid Persian
Shahanshah ("King of Kings"), and to a far lesser degree the King of Axum. The first documented official use of
basileus Rhomaíōn comes, surprisingly, from the Persians: in a letter sent to Emperor
MauriceFlavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus , known in English as Maurice and in Greek as Maurikios, was a soldier and Byzantine Emperor who ruled from 582-602...
by Chosroes II, Maurice is addressed in Greek as
basileus Rhomaíōn instead of the habitual Persian appellation
quaisar i Rum ("Caesar of the Romans"), while the Persian ruler refers to himself correspondingly as
Persōn basileus, dropping his own claim to the Greek equivalent of his formal title,
basileus basileōn ("king of kings"). The title appears to have slowly crept into imperial titelature after that: Emperor
HeracliusFlavius Heraclius was a Byzantine Emperor of Armenian origin, who ruled the Eastern Roman Empire for over thirty years, from October 5, 610 to February 11, 641...
is attested as using it alongside the long-established
Autokratōr Kaisar in a letter to
Kavadh IIKavadh II , twenty-third Sassanid King of Persia, son of Khosrau II , was raised to the throne in opposition to his father in February 628, after the great victories of the Emperor Heraclius . He put his father and eighteen brothers to death, began negotiations with Heraclius, but died after a...
in 628. Finally, in a law promulgated on 21 March 629, the Latin titles were dropped altogether, and the simple formula , "faithful in Christ emperor" used instead. The adoption of the new imperial formula has been traditionally interpreted by scholars such as E. Stein and
G. OstrogorskyGeorge Alexandrovič Ostrogorsky , Russian-born Yugoslavian historian and Byzantinist who acquired world-wide reputations in Byzantine studies.Son of a secondary school principal and a writer on pedagogical subjects, Ostrogorsky completed his secondary...
as a move indicative of the almost-complete
hellenizationHellenization is a term used to describe the spread of ancient Greek culture, and to a lesser extent, language. It is mainly used to describe the spread of Hellenistic civilization during the Hellenistic period following the campaigns of Alexander the Great of Macedon...
of the Empire by that point. Interestingly, "BASILEUS" was initially stamped on Byzantine coins in Latin script, and only gradually were some Latin characters replaced with Greek ones, resulting in forms like "BASIΛEVS".
The
ByzantinesThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
reserved the term
basileus among
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
rulers exclusively for the emperor in
ConstantinopleConstantinople was the imperial capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire...
, and referred to
Western EuropeWestern Europe is the collection of countries in the westernmost region of Europe, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a cultural entity—the region lying west of Central Europe...
an kings as
rēx or
rēgas, the Hellenized forms of the Latin word
rexRex is the Latin word for "king" . In the English language, Rex is a male given name.-Politics:* Rex Connor , Australian politician* Rex Hunt , former British Governor of the Falkland Islands...
, king. This usage was accepted by the "barbarian" kings themselves, who, despite having shed the fiction of Roman suzerainty from the 6th century on, refrained from adopting imperial titelature. Thus the title of
basileus became an issue of great diplomatic controversy when
CharlemagneCharlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 to his death. He expanded the Frankish kingdoms into a Frankish Empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe...
was crowned as "Emperor of the Romans" by
Pope Leo IIIPope Saint Leo III was Pope from 795 to his death in 816. Protected by Charlemagne from his enemies in Rome, he subsequently strengthened Charlemagne's position by crowning him as Roman Emperor....
on December 25,
800Year 800 was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar.-Europe:* September 15 – Oldest known mention of Castile....
AD, at
St. Peter'sThe Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as the ' and commonly known as St. Peter's Basilica, is located within the Vatican City. St. Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world, holding 60,000 people. It is the symbolic "Mother church" of...
in
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
. The matter was complicated by the fact that the Eastern Empire was then ruled by the Empress Irene, who had ascended the throne of
ConstantinopleConstantinople was the imperial capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire...
after the death of her husband, the emperor
Leo IVLeo IV the Khazar , , was Byzantine Emperor from 775 to 780.Leo was the son of Emperor Constantine V by his first wife, Irene of Khazaria . His maternal grandfather was Bihar, a Khazar ruler.Leo was crowned co-emperor by his father in 751, and was married to the Athenian Irene in 769...
, as
RegentA regent, from the Latin regens "reigning", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Thus, the common use is for an acting deputy governor....
to their 9-year-old son,
Constantine VIConstantine VI was Byzantine Emperor from 780 to 797.Constantine VI was the only child of Emperor Leo IV and Irene. Constantine was crowned co-emperor by his father in 776, and succeeded as sole emperor at the age of nine under the regency of Irene in 780.In 782 he was betrothed to Rotrude, a...
. Following Constantine's coming of age, the
Empress DowagerEmpress Dowager was the title given to the mother of a Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese emperor....
eventually decided to topple him and rule in her own name. In the conflict that ensued, Irene was victorious and Constantine was blinded and imprisoned, to die soon after. The revulsion generated by this incident of virtual
filicideFilicide is the deliberate act of a parent killing their own son or daughter. The word filicide derives from the Latin word filius meaning "son"....
cum regicideThe broad definition of regicide is the deliberate killing of a monarch, or the person responsible for the killing of a monarch. In a narrower sense, in the British tradition, it refers to the judicial execution of a king after alleged due process of law....
was compounded by the innate
Frankish aversionSalic law was an important body of traditional law codified for governing the Salian Franks in the early Middle Ages during the reign of King Clovis I in the 6th century...
to the concept of a ruling female
sovereignA monarch is the person who heads a monarchy, a form of government in which the country or entity usually ruled or controlled by an individual who usually rules for life or until abdication...
.
Charlemagne, in an effort to advance his own dynastic affairs, proposed marriage to the aging Empress, but Irene, who now styled herself "Basileus" (in the
masculine, rather than "Basilissa", in the feminine, or simply "Augusta", the proper style of an Empress Consort) rejected Charlemagne's marriage proposal, and refused to recognize Charlemagne's imperial title. Eventually a compromise of sorts was reached, whereby Charlemagne was recognized by the Byzantine court as "
basileus of the
FranksThe Franks or Frankish people were a West Germanic tribal confederation first attested in the 3rd century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul...
", but not "of the Romans". A similar diplomatic scuffle (this time accompanied by war) ensued from the imperial aspirations of
Simeon I of BulgariaSimeon I the Great ruled over Bulgaria from 893 to 927, during the First Bulgarian Empire. Simeon's successful campaigns against the Byzantines, Magyars and Serbs led Bulgaria to its greatest territorial expansion ever, making it the most powerful state in contemporary Eastern Europe...
a century later. Similarly to Charlemagne, Simeon was recognized as "
basileus of the
BulgariansThe Bulgarians are a South Slavic people, generally associated with the Republic of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian language. Emigration has resulted in Bulgarian minorities or immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-Ethnogenesis:...
and of the Romans". As a result of these concessions the Byzantines increasingly replaced the simple usage of
basileus with the fuller forms
Basileus tōn Rhōmaiōn and
Basileus kai Autokratōr tōn Rhōmaiōn to further emphasize their exclusive claim on the "true" Roman imperial legacy. Over time, the full style of the Emperor was finalized in the phrase "X, in Christ the God faithful Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans" . The title
Autokratōr in particular was reserved for the senior ruling emperor among several co-emperors (
symbasileis), i.e. the one who exercised actual power. The term
Megas Basileus ("Great Emperor") was also sometimes used for the same purpose.
New Testament and Jesus
While the terms used for the
Roman emperorTiberius Julius Caesar Augustus, born Tiberius Claudius Nero , was the second Roman Emperor, from the death of Augustus in AD 14 until his own death in 37. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla...
are
Kaisar Augustos (Decree from Caesar Augustus , Dogma para Kaisaros Augoustou ,
LukeLuke is a common male given name, and less commonly, a surname, and sometimes used as a shortened version of the Latin name Lucas.The name Luke could derive from the name of a region in Italy, Lucania, through the ancient Greek "Loukas", meaning "a native of Lucania"....
2:1) or just
Kaisar (see
Render unto Caesar..."Render unto Caesar…" is the beginning of a phrase attributed to Jesus in the synoptic gospels which reads in full, “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s” .This phrase has become a widely quoted summary of the relationship between Christianity...
) and
Pontius PilatePontius Pilate was the Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea from AD 26–36. Typically referenced as the fifth Procurator of Judea, he is best known as the judge at Jesus' trial and the man who authorized his crucifixion.Pilate appears in all four canonical Christian Gospels...
is called Hegemon (
MatthewMatthew may refer to:* Matthew * Matthew , for people with the surname Matthew* Matthew , the ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497 from Bristol to North America...
27:2),
HerodHerod , also known as Herod I or Herod the Great Herod , also known as Herod I or Herod the Great Herod , also known as Herod I or Herod the Great (born 74 BC, died 4 BC in Jericho, was a Roman client king of Israel. He is often confused...
is Basileus (in his coins also
Basileôs Herodou and by
JosephusJosephus , also known as Yosef Ben Matityahu and, after he became a Roman citizen, as Titus Flavius Josephus, was a first-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70...
)
Regarding
JesusJesus of Nazareth —also known as Jesus Christ or occasionally Jesus the Christ—is the central figure of Christianity. Within most Christian denominations...
the term basileus acquires a new Christian theological meaning out of the further concept of Basileus as a chief religious officer during the Hellenistic period. Jesus is
Basileus tôn Basileôn,
King of KingsKing of Kings is a title that has been used by several monarchies throughout history, and in many cases the literal title meaning "King of Kings", i.e...
(
MatthewMatthew may refer to:* Matthew * Matthew , for people with the surname Matthew* Matthew , the ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497 from Bristol to North America...
28:18) (a previous Near Eastern phrase for rulers),
Basileus tôn Ouranôn King of the Skies (which is translated as King of Heaven) with his
Basileia tôn Ouranôn Kingship or
Kingdom of HeavenKingdom of Heaven may refer to:* Kingdom of God, a foundational theological concept in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam* Kingdom of Heaven , a 2005 film, directed by Ridley Scott...
and
Basileus tôn Ioudaiôn King of the Jews (see
INRIINRI is an acronym of the Latin inscription IESVS·NAZARENVS·REX·IVDÆORVM , which translates to English as "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." The Greek equivalent of this phrase, , appears in the New Testament of the Christian Bible in the Gospel of John...
). In
Byzantine artByzantine art is the term commonly used to describe the artistic products of the Byzantine Empire from about the 4th century until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453....
, a standard depiction of Jesus is
Basileus tēs Doxēs King of Glory (in the West 'the Christ or Image of Pity') ; a phrase derived from the
PsalmsPsalms is a book of the Hebrew Bible , included in the collected works known as the "Writings" or Ketuvim.-Etymology:...
24:10 and the
Lord of Glory (Kyrios tēs Doxēs , 1 Corinthians 2:8).
Modern Greece
During the post-Byzantine period, the term
basileus, under the renewed influence of Classical writers on the language, reverted to its earlier meaning of "king". This transformation had already begun in informal usage in the works of some classicizing Byzantine authors. In the
Convention of LondonThe London Conference of 1832 was an international conference convened to establish a stable government in Greece. Negotiations between the three Great Powers resulted in the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece under a Bavarian Prince...
in 1832, the
Great PowersA great power is a nation or state that has the ability to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess economic, military, diplomatic, and cultural strength, which may cause other smaller nations to consider the opinions of great powers before taking actions of...
(
United Kingdom of Great Britain and IrelandThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name and the state form of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927...
,
July MonarchyThe July Monarchy , officially the Kingdom of the French , was a period of liberal constitutional monarchy in France under King Louis-Philippe starting with the July Revolution of 1830 and ending with the Revolution of 1848...
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
and Russia) agreed that the new Greek state should become a
monarchyThe person who heads a monarchy is called a monarch. It was a common form of government in the world during the ancient and medieval times. A Monarchy is a form of government in which supreme power is absolutely or nominally lodged with an individual, who is the head of state, often for life or...
, and chose Prince
Otto of WittelsbachOtto, King of Greece was made the first modern king of Greece in 1832 under the Convention of London, whereby Greece became a new independent kingdom under the protection of the Great Powers .The second son of the philhellene King Ludwig I of Bavaria, Otto ascended the...
as its first king.
The Great Powers furthermore ordained that his title was to be "Βασιλεύς της Ελλάδος", meaning "King of Greece", instead of "Βασιλεύς των Ελλήνων", i.e. "King of the Greeks". This title had two implications: first, that Otto was the king only of the small
Kingdom of GreeceThe Kingdom of Greece was a state established in 1832 in the Convention of London by the Great Powers...
, and not of all
GreeksThe Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in diaspora communities around the world....
, whose majority still remained under the rule of the
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
. Second, that the kingship did not depend on the will of the Greek people, a fact further underlined by Otto's addition of the formula "ελέω Θεού" ("
By the Grace of GodBy the Grace of God is a an introductory part of the full styles of a monarch taken to be ruling by divine right....
"). For 10 years, until the 3 September 1843 Revolution, Otto ruled as an absolute monarch, and his autocratic rule, which continued even after being forced to grant a constitution, made him very unpopular. After being ousted in 1862, the new Danish dynasty of the House of
Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-GlücksburgSchleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg , from Glücksburg in northernmost Germany, is a branch of the House of Oldenburg that is descended from King Christian III of Denmark...
took over with
King George IGeorge I, King of the Hellenes was King of Greece from 1863 to 1913. Originally a Danish prince, George was only 17 years old when he was elected King by the Greek National Assembly, which had deposed the former King Otto...
. In a demonstrative move, as to assert both national independence from the will of the Powers, and as to emphasize the constitutional responsibilities of the monarch towards the people, his title was modified to "King of the Hellenes", which remained the official royal title until the
abolition of the Greek monarchyThe Metapolitefsi was a period in Greek history after the fall of the Greek military junta of 1967–1974 that includes the transitional period from the fall of the dictatorship to the Greek legislative elections of 1974 and the democratic period immediately after these elections.The long...
in 1974.
It is interesting to note that the two Greek kings who bore the name of Constantine, a name of great sentimental and symbolic significance, especially in the irredentist context of the
Megali IdeaMegali Idea was an irredentist concept of Greek nationalism that expressed the goal of establishing a Greek state that would encompass all ethnic Greeks, since large Greek populations after the Greek independence in 1832 still lived under the Ottoman rule.The term appeared for the first time...
, were often, although never officially, numbered in direct succession to the last Byzantine Emperor,
Constantine XIConstantine XI Palaiologos or Palaeologus was the last reigning Roman Emperor...
, as
Constantine XIIConstantine I, King of the Hellenes was King of Greece from 1913 to 1917 and from 1920 to 1922. He was Commander-in-Chief of the Hellenic Army during the unsuccessful Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and led the Greek forces during the successful Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, in which Greece captured...
and
Constantine XIIIConstantine II, King of the Hellenes was King of Greece from 1964 until deposed in 1973...
respectively.
See also
- Anthesteria
Anthesteria, one of the four Athenian festivals in honour of Dionysus , was held annually for three days, the eleventh to thirteenth of the month of Anthesterion ; it was preceded by the Lenaia...
, DionysusIn classical mythology, Dionysus or Dionysos is the god of wine, the inspirer of ritual madness and ecstasy, and a major figure of Greek mythology, and one of the twelve Olympians, amongst whom Greek mythology treated him as a late arrival...
festival in which a basilinnaBasilinna , another title for the queen of Athens, who was married to the Archon Basileus or, king of Athens. During the festival of Anthesteria, the basilinna was given as the ceremonial bride to Dionysus. She was attended to by the fourteen gerarai at this time...
, wife of the archonArchon is a Greek word that means "ruler", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem ἀρχ-, meaning "to rule", derived from the same root as monarch, hierarchy and anarchy.- Ancient Greece :In the early literary period of...
basileus for the time, went through a ceremony of marriage to the wine god. May be compared to carnivals and others charivariCharivari or shivaree or chivaree was originally a French folk custom, a noisy mock serenade for newlyweds. It was also sometimes used as a form of social coercion, to force an as-yet-unmarried couple to wed...
s.
- Auctoritas
Auctoritas is a Latin word and is the origin of English "authority." While historically its use in English was restricted to discussions of the political history of Rome, the beginning of phenomenological philosophy in the twentieth century changed the use of the word substantially.In ancient Rome,...
- Imperium
Imperium in a broad sense translates as 'power'. In ancient Rome the concept applied to people and meant something like 'power status' or 'authority' or could be used with a geographical connotation and meant something like 'territory'...
- Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...