Inbox - pluiepoco

The little chapel in his hands?
It could mean that he was considered a head of the Church.
Byzantine emperor was the head of the State and the Church as well, and represented both. They believed that the emperors were God's representatives on earth. This is why they were often presented with religious attributes in iconography.
Hope I could help a bit.

Sorry, pluiepoco, I almos forgot...

Translation
"After the financial amendment of (emperor) Anastasius, the abolition of the tax called "chrysargyron" became faster and that officially relieved the civil population. At the same time, however, (the emperor) introduced new taxes, such as the "gold tax of the oxbows" (a tax on the animals used to plough the fields) and the "requisition tax", which certainly was the obligatory handover of field products to supply the needs of the army".

So you have three names of taxes.

The "chrysargyron" was a tax introduced by emperor Constantine and abolished by Anastasius I in 498 a.C. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysargyron).

About the "χρυσοτέλεια των ιούγων" ( "gold tax of oxbows" ), it is defined by John Malalas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Malalas) as a "gold tribute paid for each oxbow", meaning - I guess - that the tax had to be paid for each couple of oxes you had (IoMal, Chron. 16).

The "συνωνή" ( "requisition tax" ) - Latin "coemptio" - meant that the population had to give for free a part of the products of agriculture in order to mantain the army. It's quite common for the Ancient World.

Sorry for the delay in answering. I'm glad to help, but, you know, you'd better always remember me the time is passing.

Dear pluiepoco!

Well, I guess nowadays Greek people can read and understand a bit their ancestors' language just like an Italian can read and understand a bit Latin. It's true that the big difference between Ancient Greek and Modern Greek is not the grammar, but actually it has simplified a lot. For example, the word order it's different: Ancient Greek used to have a SOV order, while Modern Greek, along with most of European modern languages, has a SVO order. Also verb conjugation is different: Modern Greek has lost the rich inflection that Ancient Greek used to have; Modern Greek has simple and compound tenses, while Ancient Greek had almost only simple tenses. And for example, concerning nouns and adjectives, Modern Greek has lost the dual number and the dative case (the latter being a very important case in Ancient Greek) and declension has been really simplified. The lexicon as well changed a lot by receiving terms from the Romance, Slavic and Turkish languages.

This is what I humbly think, however here you have Wikipedia's article about Modern Greek grammar, showing what has changed compared to Ancient Greek.

Dont' worry, pluiepoco, no points!
Ok, I'll try to answer all your questions.

1. "Oxbow tax" doesn't have a real Latin equivalent, but it can be translate as "tributum aureum pro singulis iugis" (http://books.google.it/books?id=X2lEAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA262&dq=tributum+aureum+pro+singulis+iugis&hl=it&ei=p2-UTZmJEtXm4Ab24NCADA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=tributum%20aureum%20pro%20singulis%20iugis&f=false)

2. Latin "jugum" and Greek "iygon / zygon" came from the same Indo-European root *yu(n)g/zug/jug meaning "to join together".
You find the same root in the sanskrit "yugà", in the gothic "juka" and other words (http://www.etimo.it/?term=giogo).
So, since they come from the same root, you can't say that "jugum" is a hellenized Latin, because the word isn't a Greek borrowing: both the words have the same origin, but they don't depend upon each other.

3. feminine noun "coemptio" < coemo, is, coemi, coemptum, ere ("to buy up, to hoad something" = cum ("together" + emo ("to buy".
"Emo, emere" comes from the Indo-European root *em-
There's also the noun "emptio" meaning "buying, purchase", so you can say "coemptio" = cum + emptio.

feminine noun συνωνή < verb συνωνέομαι ("to buy up, to hoad something" = συν ("together" + ωνέομαι ("to buy"
ωνέομαι comes from the Indo-European *wes-no. There's also a noun ωνή "buying, purchase", so
you can say συνωνή = συν+ ωνή.

About that "buy together" (co-emo, συν-ωνέομαι): here the cum/συν preverb doesn't refer to a mutual action, but it means that lot of things/products/goods are bought up together. So "together" refers to the huge quantity of goods collected at the same time.
Together --> at the same time

About Greek phonetic.
First of all, we dont' really know how Ancient Greek sounded; in Italy, for example, we pronounce it according to a hypothetical reconstruction and as the Renaissance scholars used to pronounce it. In Greece, I guess, the Ancient Greek pronunciation is influenced by the Modern one.

1. υ = pronounced [y], as the German "ü"
ι = pronounced [i], as the Latin "i"
η = pronounced [e:], long vowel (different from ε, short vowel pronounced [e])
Today, in Modern Greek, υ-ι-η are all pronounced [i], while in Ancient Greek they are different sounds.
In romanization I think it's better to keep the letter "e" for η if you are transliterating from Ancient Greek. Instead, if the transliteration concerns a Modern Greek word, probably you will find the letter "i" even for η.

In Ancient Greek β sounds [b], so the right transliteration is "b"; but, in Modern Greek, β is pronounced as "v", so you may find a similar transliteration.

Ancient Greek κ sounds [k], as in English "call" or "cat". You should pronounce it in this way and transliterate it with the letter "k". I think the wrong English pronunciation depends upon the habit of English people to pronounce some letters in some ways. If they usually pronounce some "c" as "s", they'll probably do the same thing with Ancient Greek words.

υ is righly transliterated "y", because the letter "u" (pronounce [u]) is used to transliterate the Ancient Greek diphtong ου. So, you definitely should transliterate "y" and pronounce [y] as the German "ü".

I think you should keep the conventional Ancient Greek transliteration: so "e" for η, "y" for υ, "b" for β.

Here you have a beautiful table about Greek alphabet and the pronunciation (both Ancient Classical and Modern): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_alphabet.

I will answer to your points 2-3 later otherwise this message will become an epic poem!

Hi!

We're never old to learn something that we like, that's what I think, and I see you are a very passionate and hard-working student, having such good teachers on Cucumis also!

To be honest, I am also involved, for some time now, in an "Asian journey". Not only Chinese, but also Korean and Japanese cultures interest me, and in my spare time that's what I do, mostly, and I like it very much.

If you need any help with Romanian, leave me message.

See you around!

Hi pluiepoco! I've never heard that word before, I will search further for it.
I have some doubts about that text being in Ancient Greek, I suggest you to ask also to User10 or some other Modern Greek expert (because words such as στη, στον are found in Modern, not in Ancient Greek). Meanwhile I'll keep searching about that "razzies"...

Hi pluie! Give me a few days to do research... In the meantime be strong and fight against your crazy source!!

First question.
About those words concerning hierarchy.
I think they could be borrowings, loan words given to Modern Greek (because this must be Modern Greek!) by some other modern European languages (English, Turkish, Italian, French and so on). So they are Greek words, but they are modeled upon other languages' words.

«κοντοστάβλης» = Eng. constable (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constable)

«μαριτζάς» = Eng. marshal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshal)

«καντζιλιέρης» = Eng. chancellor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chancellor)

«αμιράλης» = Eng. admiral (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiral)

«Βισκοντάτο» = Eng. viscount (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viscount)

Now you should try to link these offices with the world of Byzantium.

Ah, sorry, just another thing about your first question: yes, words in brackets are French.

Second question: about Late Latin.

Late Latin is that kind of Latin which was spoken/written from 3rd century a.C. to 6th century a.C. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Latin)
Since 6th century a.C. in Europe modern Neolatin languages (such as Italian, Spanish, French) have begun to spread.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_languages)

You can divide the development of Latin languages in different stages:
- Archaic (or Old) Latin --> since the very first beginning till 1st century b.C.
- Classical Latin --> 1st century b.C. - 3rd century a.C.
- Late Latin --> 3rd century a.C. - 6th century a.C.
What are the differences? Why is Late Latin different from Classical Latin? Because of some phonetic, morphologic and syntactic reasons. Of course there were also some lexical innovations (using words and roots taken from Classical Latin) to denominate new things, such as new offices.

So Late Latin IS NOT Old French. French is a Romance language that comes from Latin (the whole Latin experience, not only from Late Latin), but that also keeps some (phonetic, lexical) characteristics of other languages that were spoken in the French area before the Roman conquest.

In Constantinople things are more intricate, because the official language was Greek: Byzantine literature and storiography was Greek, Byzantine people called themselves both "Romans" and "Greeks" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_Greeks).
If Latin was spoken in Byzantium, you should call it "Late Latin" till 6th-7th century a.C., than "Medieval Latin" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin).
However in the 7th century a.C. emperor Heraclius changed the official language of Byzantine empire into Greek (the so-called "Medieval Greek". You can find it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_Empire#Language.


WESTERN EMPIRE (since 3rd century a.C.)
Late Latin --> Medieval Latin / Romance Languages

EASTERN EMPIRE (since 3rd century a.C.)
Late Latin and Late Greek --> Medieval Greek (official language) and Medieval Latin

Hope it helps!!

Hi pluie!
I've searched out for your φλαμουριάροι and I've found it here (http://www.archive.org/stream/chronicleofmorea00schmuoft#page/620/mode/2up).

Since φλάμουρον means "flag, banner" (from the latin "flammula", diminutive of "flam", meaning a flag that resembles a flame), φλαμουριάροι are "those who bring the flag/banner", better "knights who bring the flag/banner".

You wrote me a lot this time, but I managed to read some passages. Of course, history is a vast domain and it takes a lot of passion to want to discover its every corner.

I've got a site for you, my recent discovery, so I haven't checked it out much yet.

History of the world. It looked "appetizing" from the first moment I saw it. . Its "brother site" about art it's even more!

That's a great way to spend your time online! LOL

I'm a fan of photos sites as well, as most of us, actually.

Hi pluie! Lot of news for you.

(1) about Stefan Uroš III Dečanski and Stefan Uroš IV Dušan

Stefan = name
Uroš = surname (family name)
III, IV = dynastic number
Dečanski, Dušan = nicknames (like the Latin cognomen - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognomen)

Dečanski was taken from the great monastery Stefan Uroš III built at Dečani, while I didn't manage to find out where Dušan comes from.

About Παϋράη I'm searching for it...

Hi pluiepoco!

Sorry for answering you a bit late. It took some time for me to find it out. I guess you are talking about "Pontus" which is located on the northeast of Turkey.

You can find more information here .

Have a nice evening

Hi again,

Yeah, there's a place called "Bafra" which is located in the north part of Turkey but I am not sure if it is "Payrai" that you are talking about. I have searched on Google but I couldn't get any exact result. "Bafra" is one of boroughs of Samsun but there's no information about where Payrai is actually located.

May I ask why you are so curious about Payrai ?

Hi pluiepoco!

I am really sorry. I didn't notice your message :/ It is "Kösedağ" . It's written adjacent. "Köse" normally means "a person which can't have any beard" but this is a name of a battle. So it is different