

n : a ruler of the eastern Roman Empire [also: basileis (See basileus n : a ruler of the eastern Roman Empire [also: basileis (pl)]

Etymology The etymology of basileus is unclear. The 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 Age Greeks from a preexisting linguistic substrate of the Eastern Mediterranean . Schindler (1976) argues for an inner-Greek innovation of the -eus inflection type from Indo-European material rather than a "Mediterranean" loan.

Ancient Greece Original senses encountered on clay tablets The first written instance of this word is found on the baked clay tablets discovered in excavations of The first written instance of this word is found on the baked clay tablets discovered in excavations of Mycenae 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 B script, which was deciphered by Michael Ventris 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 " chieftain " (in one particular tablet the chieftain of the guild of bronze smith s is referred to as qa-si-re-u). The word can be contrasted with wanax , another word used more specifically for " king " and usually meaning "High King" or "overlord". With the collapse of Mycenaean society, the position of wanax disappeared, and the basileis were left as the topmost officials in Greek society. In the works of Homer wanax appears, in the form anax, mostly in descriptions of Zeus (as king of the gods ) and of very few human monarchs, most notably Agamemnon . 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. anactora 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 Achilles 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 Arcadia 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- According to pseudo- Archytas 's treaty "On justice and law", quoted by Giorgio Agamben in State of Exception (2005), Basileus is more adequately translated into " Sovereign " 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 auctoritas , whereas magistrates detain imperium . Pseudo-Archytas aimed at creating a theory of sovereignty completely enfranchised from law s, being itself the only source of legitimacy . He goes so far as qualifying the Basileus as nomos empsykhos, or "living law", which is the origin, according to Agamben, of the modern Führerprinzip and of Carl Schmitt 's theories on dictatorship

Use of Basileus in Classical Times

At Athens , the Archon Basileus was one of the ten archons, magistrates selected by lot. Of these ten, the archon eponymos, the polemarch and the basileus divided the powers of Athens' ancient kings, with the basileus overseeing religious rites and homicide cases. His wife had to marry Dionysus at the Anthesteria . 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 Pheidon of Argos is described by Aristotle as a basileus who made himself a tyrant.

Romans and Byzantines Under Under Roman rule, the term basileus, as a generic designation for a sovereign monarch, came to be used (at first informally) to designate the Roman Emperor . The usage had become standard by the reign of Constantine the Great . Starting in the reign of Herakleios , basileus, preceded in its full form by the words pistos en Christō tō Theō ("in Christ the God faithful"), generally replaced other imperial titles in the official documents, as official usage of Latin in coin age and state documents was almost completely replaced by Greek. The full style of the Emperor was finalized in the phrase "X, in Christ the God faithful Basileus Emperor of the Romans" ( Greek : "Χ, πιστός εν Χριστώ τω Θεώ Βασιλεύς Αυτοκράτωρ Ρωμαίων", "Χ, pistos en Christō tō Theō Basileus Autokratōr Rōmaiōn", Latin : "X, fideus in Deo Christo Basileus Imperator Romanorum").

This use of the word is the result of a gradual development — when the Romans had originally conquered the Mediterranean, the imperial title Caesar Augustus was initially translated as Kaisar Sebastos or Kaisar Augoustos. Imperator , another standard imperial title (and the origin of our " emperor "), was translated as Autokratōr . Interestingly, "BASILEUS" was initially stamped on Byzantine coins (in lieu of the standard Latin abbreviations "C.IMP." for "Caesar Imperator") in Latin script. Then, Latin characters began to be gradually replaced by Greek ones and only somewhat later was the Byzantine Greek script (i.e. "BACIΛEVS" or "BACIΛEYS") used throughout.

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 Franks ", but not "of the Romans". A similar diplomatic scuffle (this time accompanied by war) ensued from the imperial aspirations of Simeon I of Bulgaria a century later. Similarly to Charlemagne, Simeon was similarly recognized as "basileus of the Bulgarians " but not "of the Romans". As a result of these concessions the Byzantines increasingly replaced the simple usage of basileus with the fuller forms Basileus tōn Rōmaiōn and Basileus kai Autokratōr tōn Rōmaiōn to further emphasize their exclusive claim on the "true" Roman imperial legacy.

Modern Greece

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 Greece , and not of all Greeks , whose majority still remained under the rule of the Ottoman Empire . Second, that the kingship did not depend on the will of the Greek people. Indeed, Otto ruled for 10 years 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-Glücksburg took over with King George I . 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 monarchy 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 Idea , were often, although never officially, numbered in direct succession to the last Byzantine Emperor, Constantine XI , as Constantine XII and Constantine XIII respectively.

References Jochem Schindler, "On the Greek type hippeús" in Studies Palmer ed. Meid (1976), 349–352.

Robert Drews, Basileus. The Evidence for Kingship in Geometric Greece, Yale (1983).

The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press (1991).

See also Anthesteria, Dionysus festival in which a basilinna, wife of the archon basileus for the time, went through a ceremony of marriage to the wine god. May be compared to carnivals and others charivaris.

Auctoritas

Imperium

Sovereignty

External links http://projectsx.dartmouth.edu/history/bronze_age/lessons/les/25.html

References