Autokrator or Autocrator (Greek:
Ancient Greece
editThe title appeared in Classical Greece in the late 5th century BC, and was used for generals given independent authority, i.e. a supreme commander (στρατηγὸς
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
editIn later times, with the rise of the Roman Republic, [stratēgòs] autokrátōr was used by Greek historians to translate different Roman terms: Polybius uses the term to translate the title dictator,[6] while Plutarch uses it in its later sense as a translation of the victory title imperator. Autokrátōr became entrenched as the official translation of the latter during the Roman Empire, where imperator was part of the titulature 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 East Roman (Byzantine) Empire, and was revived (no later than the early 9th century) in the form of basileùs [kaì] autokrátōr (βασιλεὺς [
Other nations
editThe 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 Serbian king 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 Empire up to the fall 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; ‹See Tfd›Russian: самодержец, samoderzhets).
References
edit- ^ Pritchett, William Kendrick (1974). The Greek state at war. University of California Press. p. 42. 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
- ^ a b Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991). Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford University Press. p. 235. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6.
- ^ Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991). Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford University Press. p. 1964. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6.
- ^ Stephenson, Paul (2003). The Legend of Basil the Bulgar-Slayer. Cambridge University Press. p. 39. 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.
- ^ Božilov, Ivan (2011). "La Bulgarie". In Laiou, Angeliki E.; Morrisson, Cécile (eds.). Le monde byzantin, Tome III: Byzance et ses voisins : 1204–1453 (in French). Presses universitaires de France. pp. 343–354 (esp. 345, 346–348). ISBN 978-2-13-052008-5.
- ^ Maksimović, Ljubomir (2011). "La Serbie: pouvoir et organisation sociale". In Laiou, Angeliki E.; Morrisson, Cécile (eds.). Le monde byzantin, Tome III: Byzance et ses voisins : 1204–1453 (in French). Presses universitaires de France. pp. 323–342 (esp. 333–336). ISBN 978-2-13-052008-5.
Further reading
edit- Bury, J. B. (1910) [1909]. The Constitution of the Later Roman Empire (2014 digitalization ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 18–24. 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. doi:10.15688/jvolsu4.2017.5.16.
- 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. doi:10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah03022. ISBN 9781444338386.
- Wifstrand, A. (1939). Autokrator, Kaisar, Basileus.