Autokrator
Christ
. The legend reads: "Constantine, in God [faithful], autokratōr and basileus of the Romans.Autokrator or Autocrator (
Byzantine emperors as the translation of the Latin title imperator. Its connection with Byzantine-style absolutism gave rise to the modern terms autocrat and autocracy. In Modern Greek, it means "emperor
", and its feminine form is autokráteira (αὐτοκράτειρα).
Ancient Greece
The title appeared in
hēgemṓn (ἡγεμών, 'leader') and stratēgòs autokrátōr of the southern Greek states by the League of Corinth,[2] a position later given to his son Alexander the Great as well.[3] The term was also employed for envoys entrusted with plenipotentiary powers (πρέσβεις αὐτοκράτορες, présbeis autokrátores, "elder autocrats").[4]
In the Iranian languages, the term *hwatā́wā 'lord, sovereign; (literally) self-ruler' might be an intentional calque from Greek autokrátōr[5] (presumably arisen in the Hellenistic period).
Rome and Byzantium
In later times, with the rise of the
Roman emperors. As such it continued to be used in Greek translations from Latin until the adoption of the Greek title basileús by Emperor Heraclius in 629.[7]
It was retained in archaic forms of address during ceremonies in the
chrysobulls from the 11th century, and in numerous illuminated manuscripts.[7] The term stratēgòs autokrátōr continued to be used in the Byzantine period as well. The title is particularly prevalent in the 6th century (e.g. for Belisarius), and re-appears in the 10th–11th centuries for senior military commanders.[8] Thus, for instance, Basil II installed David Arianites as stratēgòs autokrátōr of Bulgaria, implying powers of command over the other regional stratēgoí in the northern Balkans.[9]
Other nations
The Byzantine imperial formula was imitated among the Byzantine influenced nations such as Georgia and Balkan states, and later, most notably, the emerging Tsardom of Russia.
- Ottoman sultan Bayezid II titled himself "by the grace of God, basileus and autokrator of the two continents of Asia and Europe and other possessions".[10]
- One of the titles of Georgian kings of Bagrationi dynasty was "Autocrat of all the east and the west",[11] title introduced during David IV and lasted until dissolution of the unified Georgian monarchy during the reign of George VIII, and later dissolution officially confirmed at 1490.
- The rulers of the Second Bulgarian Empire used the title "Emperor (Tsar) of the Bulgarians", in the early reigns with the addition of "and the Vlachs", but Ivan Asen II (r. 1218–41), who after the Battle of Klokotnitsa in 1230 expanded his control over most of the Byzantine Empire's former European possessions, also adopted the title of "Tsar and autokrator of all the Bulgarians and the Greeks", a title which had first been claimed by Prince Simeon I (r. 893–927).[12]
- Similarly, when the Stefan Dušan claimed the imperial title in 1345/46, he used the title "basileus and autokrator of Serbia and of Romania" in Greek, and "Tsar of the Serbs and Greeks" in Serbian. The use of "Romania" (i.e. the land of the Romans, the Byzantine Empire) and not the usual Byzantine formula "of the Romans" signified that although he claimed the direct succession to all Byzantine emperors from the time of Constantine the Great, he lacked possession of Constantinople and of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which alone conferred full legitimacy.[13]
- Deriving from this usage, the Russian tsars, from the establishment of the Russian monarchy in 1917, used the formula "Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias". In the Slavic languages, the title was used in a translated form (Bulgarian: самодържец, samodarzhets, Serbian: самодржац, samodržac; Russian: самодержец, samoderzhets).
References
- ISBN 978-0-520-02565-3.
- ^ Diodorus Siculus, XVI.89.1–3
- ^ Diodorus Siculus, XVII.4.9; Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, I.1.1–3
- ^ Andocides, On the Peace with Sparta
- ^ Meillet, Antoine (1911). "Sur les mots iraniens empruntés par l'arménien". Mémoires de la Société de Linguistique de Paris (in French). 17: 242–250. (repr. in: Études de linguistique et de philologie arméniennes II, Louvain, 1977, pp. 142–150)
- ^ Polybius, Histories, III.86.7
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6.
- ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6.
- ISBN 978-0-521-81530-7.
- ^ Gábor Ágoston (2023). The Last Muslim Conquest: The Ottoman Empire and Its Wars in Europe. p. 335.
- ^ Lordkipanidze, Mariam Davydovna; Hewitt, George B. (1987), Georgia in the XI-XII Centuries, Ganatleba Publishers: Tbilisi.
- ISBN 978-2-13-052008-5.
- ISBN 978-2-13-052008-5.
Further reading
- ISBN 978-1-107-68053-1.
- Ferjančić, Božidar. "Samodržac". LSSV: 642–643.
- Kršljanin, Nina (2017). "The Title of Samoderzhets (Autokrator) in Serbia and Russia: Two Ways of Byzantine Heritage Development". Vestnik Volgogradskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta. Serija 4. Istorija. Regionovedenie. Mezhdunarodnye Otnoshenija (in Russian). 22 (5). Volgograd: Volgograd State University: 162–183. .
- Ostrogorsky, George (1970). "Avtokrator i samodržac". Sabrana Dela. IV. Beograd: 321–338.
- Ostrogorsky, George (1935). "Avtokrator i Samodržac: Prilog za istorju vladalačke titulature u Vizantiji i u južnih Slovena". Glas. 84. Srpska kraljevska Akademija: 95–187.
- Pazdernik, C. F. (2012). "Basileus/autokrator, Byzantine". The Encyclopedia of Ancient History. Vol. 1. ISBN 9781444338386.
- Wifstrand, A. (1939). Autokrator, Kaisar, Basileus.