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Gratian, Roman emperor of the West

(Encyclopedia)Gratian grāˈshən [key], 359–83, Roman emperor of the West (375–83). At the death of his father, Valentinian I, he accepted the army's election of his brother, Valentinian II, as his colleague. ...

Totila

(Encyclopedia)Totila bădyo͞oĭlˈə [key], d. 552, last king of the Ostrogoths (541–52). By defeating the Byzantines at Faenza and Mugello (542) and by taking Naples (543) and Rome (546), he became master of ce...

Amalasuntha

(Encyclopedia)Amalasuntha ăˌmələsŭnˈthə [key], d. 535, Ostrogothic queen in Italy (534–35), daughter of Theodoric the Great. After her father's death (526) she was regent for her son Athalaric. He died in ...

John of Ephesus

(Encyclopedia)John of Ephesus ĕfˈəsəs [key], c.505–c.585, Syrian Monophysite historian, bishop of Ephesus. He became a leader of the Monophysites (see Monophysitism), and Byzantine Emperor Justinian, whose fa...

Romanus I

(Encyclopedia)Romanus I (Romanus Lecapenus), d. 948, Byzantine emperor (920–44). An admiral, he usurped the throne during the minority of his son-in-law, Constantine VII. He defended Constantinople against the Bu...

Byzantium

(Encyclopedia)Byzantium bīzănˈshēəm, –shəm, –tēəm [key], ancient city of Thrace, on the site of the present-day İstanbul, Turkey. Founded by Greeks from Megara in 667 b.c., it early rose to importance ...

Henry V, Holy Roman emperor and German king

(Encyclopedia)Henry V, 1081–1125, Holy Roman emperor (1111–25) and German king (1105–25), son of Henry IV. Crowned joint king with his father in 1099, he put himself at the head of the party desiring reconcil...

Monotheletism

(Encyclopedia)Monotheletism or Monothelitism both: mənŏthˈə lĭtĭzˌəm [key] [Gr.,=one will], 7th-century opinion condemned as heretical by the Third Council of Constantinople in 680 (see Constantinople, Thir...

Manzikert

(Encyclopedia)Manzikert mănˈzĭkərt [key], Turk. Malazgirt, village, E Turkey, SE of Erzurum. It was an important town of ancient Armenia. A council held there in a.d. 726 reasserted the independence of the Arme...

Athanagild

(Encyclopedia)Athanagild əthănˈəgĭld [key], d. 567, Visigothic king of Spain (554–67). Having deposed his predecessor, Agila, with the aid of an army sent by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, he ceded a large p...