Catalan Company, the
(almugavares, compagnia) A group of fully-armed and highly-trained Catalans mercenary warriors, who numbered a few thousand. In 1303 they came to the assistance of Byzantium against the Turks, but soon they turned against the Empire and took to large-scale looting. They conquered the Burgundian duchy of Athens, after the battle of Orchomenos in Copais, in 1311.

cloisonné masonry
Masonry in which bricks are arranged vertically and horizontally, in single or double courses, around small stones or stone blocks, creating a colourful decorative effect.

emirate of Sarouchan
The Emirate of Sarouchan ( 1300-1410) was founded in the western Asia Minor by the Oguz Turks short after the dissolution of the sultanate of Seljouks; its capital was Magnesia by Sipylos.

kephale, kephalatikevon
A term denoting the highest official of the Late Byzantine provincial administration. From the mid-13th century on, the office of the kephale gradually substituted that of the doukas. From the 14th century on, the kephale was political and military head of the kapetanikion, an administrative division smaller than a theme, or of the castle. In the Empire of Trebizond the officer was also called kephalatikevon.

megas hetaireiarches
Ηead of the Hetaireia, a military officer (10th-11thC), in charge of the security of the imperial palace.

paraphylax, castrophylax
In the Middle Byzantine period paraphylax was a sine actu official. In the Late Byzantine period the term designates a lesser official responsible for the guard of the fortified cities (castra); this official appears also under the title of «castrophylax».

prokathemenos
During the 13th c. the prokathemeons was a civilian officer of high rank who exercised his jurisdtinction within the poleis-castra (urban forts). During the 14th c., he could had been a military officer, underling of the kephale, however the term might well referred to a pure tilte with no office.

Synekdemos of Hierokles
A geographical text book composed a little before 535 by Hierokles the Grammarian. It constitutes a list of 64 provinces and 923 (originally 935) cities of the Empire, being the most important source for the administrative and political geography of the Byzantine Empire prior to the Arab raids. It is assumed to have been based on state documents, and presents the political, administrative, and, to an extent, the ecclesiastical geography from mid-5th c. However, it contains additions from the age of Justinian I, while some of its evidence is still under discussion. Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos used it as a major source, along with Stephen of Byzantium, for the composition of the work “De thematibus”. This most important work of Hierokles was published by G. Parthey (Hieroclis Synecdemus, Berlin, 1866), and A. Burckhardt (Hieroclis Synecdemus, Leipzig, 1893). The last and most authoritative edition is E. Honigmann (ed.), Le Synekdèmos d'Hiéroklès et l'opuscule géographique de Georges de Chypre (Brussels 1939).

tagmata (pl.)
Military units stationed in Constantinople and its outskirts during the Middle Byzantine period. The most important tagmata were that of the Scholae, the Excubitors (these originated from respective units of the Early Byzantine period and were organized into an imperial guard and a central strike force by Constantine V), the Vigilia (established by Irene the Athenian) and the Hikanatoi (established by Nicephorus I).

vestiarion
The vestiarion was originally an imperial treasury and arsenal to supply the army and the fleet. By the 12th c., it had become the only state treasury, which the term tameion referred to.