Basileus

{{Short description|Greek title roughly meaning 'monarch'}} {{Redirect|Basilissa}} {{redirect|Basilius|people with this name|Basil (name)}} {{Italic title}} {{Infobox Given name|name=Βασιλεύς|image=File:Antiochos I Tetradrachm 620447.jpg|caption=Coin of Antiochus I Soter. The reverse shows Apollo seated on an ''omphalos''. Inscription reads {{lang|grc|ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΥ}} ({{lit|of king Antiochus}}).|language=Greek|romanization=''basileus''|origin=|region=Ancient Greece|image_size=250|meaning=King, Emperor, Monarch|pronunciation={{IPA|grc|basile͜ús|lang}}, {{IPA|el|vasiˈlefs|label=Modern Greek:}}}}

'''''Basileus''''' ({{langx|grc|βασιλεύς}}){{efn|{{IPA|grc|basile͜ús|lang}}, {{IPA|el|vasiˈlefs|label=Modern Greek:}} {{Audio|Ell-Basileus.ogg|Byzantine and Modern Greek pronunciation}}; plural {{lang|grc|βασιλεῖς}}, ''basileis'' {{IPA|grc|basilêːs|lang}}, {{IPA|el|vasiˈlis|label=Modern Greek:}}.}} is a Greek term and title that has signified various types of monarchs throughout history. In the English-speaking world, it is perhaps most widely understood to mean {{gloss|monarch}}, referring to either a {{gloss|king}} or an {{gloss|emperor}}. The title was used by sovereigns and other persons of authority in ancient Greece (especially during the Hellenistic period), the Byzantine emperors, and the kings of modern Greece. The name Basileios (Basil), deriving from the term ''basileus'', is a common given name in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Syriac Orthodox Church for the Maphrian.<ref>{{Cite web |title=www.synaxaristis - ΜΕΓΑΣ ΣΥΝΑΞΑΡΙΣΤΗΣ |url=https://www.synaxarion.gr/gr/sid/1584/sxsaintinfo.aspx |access-date=2024-06-27 |website=www.synaxarion.gr}}</ref>

The feminine forms are ''basileia'' ({{lang|grc|βασίλεια}}),<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge |url=https://www.cambridge.org/highereducation/product/9781139050043/book |title=The Cambridge Greek Lexicon |last2=Diggle |first2=James |date=2021-04-22 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-05004-3 |edition=1 |doi=10.1017/9781139050043 |page=275 |quote=Od. A. Hdt. E. Pl. AR. Plu (sc. Odyssey; Aeschylus; Herodotus; Euripides; Plato; Apollonius Rhodius; Plutarch)}}</ref> ''basilissa'' ({{lang|el|βασίλισσα}}), ''basillis'' ({{lang|el|βασιλίς}}), or the archaic ''basilinna'' ({{lang|el|βασιλίννα}}), meaning {{gloss|queen}} or {{gloss|empress}}.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Roland W. | author-link=Roland W. Brown | title=Composition of Scientific Words : A manual of methods and a lexicon of materials for the practice of logotechnics |year=1977 |orig-year=1st Pub. 1954 |publisher=Smithsonian Institutional Press | location=Washington, D.C. | isbn=978-0-87474-286-2 | oclc=4495758 |via=Internet Archive |url=https://archive.org/details/compositionofsci00brow |access-date=27 August 2025 |page=374}}</ref> The related term ''basileia'' ({{lang|grc|βασιλεία}}) has meanings such as 'sovereignty', 'royalty', 'kingdom', 'reign', 'dominion' and 'authority'.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge |url=https://www.cambridge.org/highereducation/product/9781139050043/book |title=The Cambridge Greek Lexicon |last2=Diggle |first2=James |date=2021-04-22 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-05004-3 |edition=1 |doi=10.1017/9781139050043 |page=274}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=βασιλεία |url=https://www.billmounce.com/greek-dictionary/basileia |access-date=2024-07-20 |website=billmounce.com |language=en}}</ref> {{Special characters}}

==Etymology== The etymology of ''basileus'' is uncertain. The Mycenaean form was *''gʷasileus'' (Linear B: {{lang|gmy|{{script|Linb|𐀣𐀯𐀩𐀄}}}}, ''qa-si-re-u''), denoting some sort of court official or local chieftain, but not an actual king. Its hypothetical earlier Proto-Greek form would be *''gʷatileus''.<ref>{{Cite book |author= |author-link=Andrew Sihler |year=2008 |title=New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin |page=330}}</ref> Some linguists assume that it is a non-Greek word that was adopted by Bronze Age Greeks from a pre-existing linguistic Pre-Greek substrate of the Eastern Mediterranean.<ref>{{Cite book |author-link=Robert S. P. Beekes |first=R.S.P. |last=Beekes |title=Etymological Dictionary of Greek |publisher=Brill |year=2009 |page=203}}</ref> Schindler<ref name=Schindler-1976/> argues for an inner-Greek innovation of the ''-eus'' inflection type from Indo-European material rather than a Mediterranean loan.<ref name=Schindler-1976>{{Cite book |author=Schindler, J. |author-link=Jochem Schindler |year=1976 |section=On the Greek type ''hippeús'' |title=Studies Palmer |editor=Meid |pages=349−352}}</ref>

==Ancient Greece==

=== Original senses encountered on clay tablets === The first written instance of this word is found on the baked clay tablets discovered in excavations of Mycenaean palaces originally destroyed by fire. The tablets are dated from the {{Nobr|15th century BCE}} to the {{Nobr|11th century BCE}} and are inscribed with the {{Nobr|Linear B}} script, which was deciphered by Michael Ventris in 1952 and corresponds to a very early form of Greek. The word ''basileus'' is written as ''qa-si-re-u'' and its original meaning was "chieftain" (in one particular tablet the chieftain of the guild of bronze smiths is referred to as ''qa-si-re-u''). Here the initial letter ''q-'' represents the PIE labiovelar consonant ''*/gʷ/'', transformed in later Greek into ''/b/''. Linear B uses the same glyph for ''/l/'' and ''/r/'', now transcribed with a Latin "r" by uniform convention. (Similarly, the Old Persian word ''vazir'' also has almost the same meaning as "chieftain".) Linear B only represents syllables of single vowel, or of a consonant-vowel form, therefore any final ''-s'' is omitted.

====''Basileus'' vs. ''wanax'' in Mycenaean times==== [[File:Ceramic fragment with WANAKTI inscription.jpg|thumb|203x203px|Inscription on ceramic fragment; [ΠΟΤΕΙΔΑ]ΝΙ ϜΑΝΑΚΤΙ,<ref>{{Cite web |title=IG IV 220 – PHI Greek Inscriptions |url=https://epigraphy.packhum.org/text/27716 |access-date=2023-12-13 |website=epigraphy.packhum.org}}</ref> ({{lit|to King [<nowiki/>Poseidon]}}). Written in the archaic Corinthian dialect using Ϝ and a Σ-shaped iota.]] The word can be contrasted with ''wanax'', another word used more specifically for "king" and usually meaning "High King" or "overlord". With the collapse of Mycenaean society, the position of ''wanax'' ceases to be mentioned, and the ''basileis'' (the plural form) appear the topmost potentates in Greek society. In the works of Homer ''wanax'' appears, in the form ''ánax'', mostly in descriptions of Zeus and of very few human monarchs, most notably Agamemnon. Otherwise the term survived almost exclusively as a component in compound personal names (e.g., ''Anax''agóras, Pleisto''ánax'') and is still in use in Modern Greek in the description of the ''anáktoron / anáktora'' ("[place ''or'' home] of the ''ánax''"), i.e. of the royal palace. The latter is essentially the same word as {{lang|gmy|𐀷𐀩𐀏𐀳𐀫}} ''wa-na-ka-te-ro'', ''wanákteros'', "of the ''wanax'' / king" or "belonging to the ''wanax'' / king", used in Linear B tablets to refer to various craftsmen serving the king (e.g. the "palace", or royal, spinner, or the ivory worker), and to items belonging or offered to the king (javelin shafts, wheat, spices, precincts etc.).

Most of the Greek leaders in Homer's works are described as ''basileís'', which is rendered conventionally in English as "kings". However, a more accurate translation may be "princes" or "chieftains", which would better represent conditions in Greek society in Homer's time, and also the roles ascribed to Homer's characters. Agamemnon tries to give orders to Achilles among many others, while another ''basileus'' serves as his charioteer. His will, however, is not to be obeyed automatically. In Homer the ''wanax'' is expected to rule over the other ''basileis'' by consensus rather than by coercion, which is why Achilles rebels (the main theme of the Iliad) when he decides that Agamemnon is treating him disrespectfully.

====Archaic basileus==== A study by R. Drews<ref name=Drews-1983/> demonstrates that even at the apex of Geometric and Archaic Greek society, ''basileus'' did not automatically translate to "king": In a number of places authority was exercised by a college of ''basileis'' drawn from a particular clan or group, and the office had term limits. However, ''basileus'' could also be applied to the hereditary leaders of "tribal" states, like those of the Arcadians and the Messenians, in which cases the term approximated the meaning of "king".<ref name=Drews-1983>{{Cite book |author=Drews, R. |author-link=Robert Drews |year=1983 |title=Basileus: The evidence for kingship in geometric Greece |publisher=Yale |place=New Haven, CT}}</ref>

=== Pseudo-Archytas' definition === According to pseudo-Archytas's treatise "On justice and law"<ref>as quoted by {{Cite book |author=Agamben, G. |author-link=Giorgio Agamben |year=2005 |title=State of Exception |page=70 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |place=Chicago |isbn=978-0-226-00925-4}}</ref> ''Basileus'' is more adequately translated into "Sovereign" than into "king". The reason for this is that it designates more the ''person'' of king than the ''office'' of king: the power of magistrates (''arkhontes'', "archons") derives from their social functions or offices, whereas the sovereign derives his power from himself. Sovereigns have ''auctoritas'', whereas magistrates retain ''imperium''. Pseudo-Archytas aimed at creating a theory of sovereignty completely enfranchised from laws, being itself the only source of legitimacy. He goes so far as qualifying the ''Basileus'' as ''nomos empsykhos'', or "living law", which is the origin, according to Agamben, of the {{Lang|de|Führerprinzip}} and of Carl Schmitt's theories on dictatorship.

=== Classical times === [[File:Tetradrachme Ptolémée V.jpg|thumb|260x260px|Coin of Ptolemy V Epiphanes with reverse showing Zeus' eagle. Greek legend reads: {{lang|grc|BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΠTOΛEMAIOY}}, ''Basileо̄s Ptolemaiou,'' {{lit|of king Ptolemy}}]] In classical times, most Greek states had abolished the royal office in favor of democratic or oligarchic rule. Some exceptions existed, namely the two hereditary Kings of Sparta (who served as joint commanders of the army, and were also called ''arkhagetai''), the Kings of Cyrene, the Kings of Macedon and of the Molossians in Epirus and Kings of Arcadian Orchomenus. The Greeks also used the term to refer to various kings of "barbaric" (i.e. non-Greek) tribes in Thrace and Illyria, as well as to the Achaemenid kings of Persia. The Persian king was also referred to as ''Megas Basileus''/''Basileus Megas'' (Great King) or ''Basileus Basileōn'', a translation of the Persian title ''xšāyaθiya xšāyaθiyānām'' ("King of Kings"), or simply "''the'' king". There was also a cult of Zeus ''Basileus'' at Lebadeia. Aristotle distinguished the ''basileus'', who acts according to the law, from the tyrant (''tyrannos''), who had generally seized control.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Internet Classics Archive {{!}} Politics by Aristotle |url=https://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/politics.5.five.html |access-date=2026-02-06 |website=classics.mit.edu}}</ref>

At Athens, the ''archon basileus'' was one of the nine archons, magistrates selected by lot. Of these, the ''archon eponymos'' (for whom the year was named), the polemarch (polemos archon = war lord) and the ''basileus'' divided the powers of Athens' ancient kings, with the ''basileus'' overseeing religious rites and homicide cases. His wife had to ritually marry Dionysus at the Anthesteria festival. Philippides of Paiania was one of the richest Athenians during the age of Lycurgus of Athens, he was honoured archon basileus in 293–292 BCE. Similar vestigial offices termed ''basileus'' existed in other Greek city-states. {{citation needed|date=August 2024}} Thus in the Ionian League each member city had a {{Transliteration|grc|basileus}} that represented it to the League sanctuary of the Panionion, whereas in the Roman period it was a League office of unclear duties, and was even held by women.<ref>{{cite book| last = Hallmannsecker| first = Martin| title = Roman Ionia: Constructions of Cultural Identity in Western Asia Minor| publisher = Cambridge University Press| location = Cambridge| year = 2022 | isbn = 978-1-009-15018-7 |pages=73–74, 77–78}}</ref>

[[File:Agathokleia drachm.jpg|thumb|260x260px|Coin of queen Agathocleia. Greek legend reads: {{lang|grc|BAΣIΛIΣΣHΣ ΘEOTPOΠOY AΓAΘOKΛEIAΣ}}, ''Basilissēs Theotropou Agathokleias,'' {{Lit|of the Goddess-like queen Agathocleia}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=The COININDIA Coin Galleries: Indo-Greeks: Agathocleia (Agathokleia) |url=https://coinindia.com/galleries-agathocleia.html |access-date=2024-06-27 |website=coinindia.com}}</ref>]]

By contrast, the authoritarian rulers were never termed ''basileus'' in classical Greece, but ''archon'' (ruler) or ''tyrannos'' (tyrant); although Pheidon of Argos is described by Aristotle as a ''basileus'' who made himself into a ''tyrannos''.

Many Greek authors, reconciling Carthaginian supremacy in the western Mediterranean with eastern stereotypes of absolutist non-Hellenic government, termed the Punic chief magistrate, the ''sufet'', as ''basileus'' in their native language. In fact, this office conformed to largely republican frameworks, being approximately equivalent in mandate to the Roman consul.<ref name="Roppa=2018">{{Cite book |last=Roppa |first=Andrea |date=7 May 2018 |section=Connectivity, trade, and Punic persistence: Insularity and identity in late Punic to Roman Republican Sardinia (3rd–1st century BC) |editor-last=Kouremenos |editor-first=Anna |title=Insularity and Identity in the Roman Mediterranean |edition=1st |publisher=Oxbow Books |isbn=978-178570580-9 |pages=144–164}}</ref> This conflation appears notably in Aristotle's otherwise positive description of the Carthaginian Constitution in the ''Politics'', as well as in the writings of Polybius, Diodorus Siculus, and Diogenes Laertius. Roman and early Christian writings sourced from Greek fostered further mischaracterizations, with the ''sufet'' mislabeled as the Latin ''rex''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bell |first=Brenda |year=1989 |title=Roman literary attitudes to foreign terms and the Carthaginian 'sufetes' |journal=Classical Association of South Africa |volume=32 |pages=29–36 |jstor=24591869 }}</ref>

====Alexander the Great==== [[File:Tetradrachm, 290-289, Demetrius Poliorketes - Macedonia.jpg|thumb|260x260px|Tetradrachm of Demetrius I Poliorcetes with the Greek inscription: {{lang|grc|ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΥ}}, ''Basileо̄s Dēmētriou,'' {{lit|of King Demetrius}}]] ''Basileus'' and ''Megas Basileus''/''Basileus Megas'' were exclusively used by Alexander the Great and his Hellenistic successors in Ptolemaic Egypt,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Anagnostou-Laoutides |first1=Eva |title=Culture and Ideology under the Seleukids: Unframing a Dynasty |last2=Pfeiffer |first2=Stefan |date=2022-01-19 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG |isbn=978-3-11-075562-6 |page=316 |language=en}}</ref> Asia (e.g. the Seleucid Empire, the Attalid kingdom and Pontus) and Macedon. The feminine counterpart is ''basilissa'' (queen), meaning both a queen regnant (such as Cleopatra) and a queen consort. It is at this time that the term ''basileus'' acquired a fully royal connotation, in stark contrast with the much less sophisticated earlier perceptions of kingship within Greece.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}}

==Romans and Byzantines== {{Main|Byzantine bureaucracy}} [[File:Follis-Leo VI-sb1729.jpg|thumb|300px|Bronze ''follis'' of Leo VI the Wise (r. 886–912). The reverse shows the Latin-transcribed Greek titles used in imperial coinage: +LEON EN ΘEO bASILEVS ROMEON, {{lit|Leo, by the grace of God Emperor of the Romans}}]] {{anchor|Rome|Roman Empire|Byzantine|Byzantium|Byzantine Empire}} Under Roman rule, the term ''basileus'' came to be used, in the Hellenistic tradition, to designate the Roman Emperor in the ordinary and literary speech of the Greek-speaking Eastern Mediterranean.<ref name=Kazhdan-etal-1991-ODB/>{{rp|style=ama|pages= 263–264}} Although the early Roman Emperors were careful to retain the façade of the republican institutions and to not formally adopt monarchical titles, the use of ''basileus'' amply illustrates that contemporaries clearly perceived that the Roman Empire was a monarchy in all but name.<ref name=Chrysos-1978/>{{rp|style=ama|pages= 66–67}} Nevertheless, despite its widespread use, due to its "royal" associations the title ''basileus'' remained unofficial for the Emperor, and was restricted in official documents to client kings in the East. Instead, in official context the imperial titles ''Caesar Augustus'', translated or transliterated into Greek as ''Kaisar Sebastos'' or ''Kaisar Augoustos'', and ''Imperator'', translated as ''Autokratōr'', were used.

By the 4th century however, ''basileus'' was applied in official usage exclusively to the two rulers considered equals to the Roman Emperor: the Sassanid Persian ''shahanshah'' ("king of kings"), and to a lesser degree the King of Axum, whose importance was rather peripheral in the Byzantine worldview.<ref name=Chrysos-1978/>{{rp|style=ama|pages= 35, 42}} Consequently, the title acquired the connotation of "emperor", and when barbarian kingdoms emerged on the ruins of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, their rulers were referred to in Greek not as ''basileus'' but as ''rēx'' or ''rēgas'', the hellenized forms of the Latin title ''rex'', king.<ref name=Kazhdan-etal-1991-ODB/>{{rp|style=ama|pages= 263–264}}

The first documented use of ''basileus Rhomaíōn'' in official context comes from the Persians: in a letter sent to Emperor Maurice (r. 582–602) by Chosroes II, Maurice is addressed in Greek as ''basileus Rhomaíōn'' instead of the habitual Middle Persian appellation ''kēsar-i Hrōm'' ("Caesar of the Romans"), while the Persian ruler refers to himself correspondingly as ''Persōn basileus'', thereby dropping his own claim to the Greek equivalent of his formal title, ''basileus basileōn'' ("king of kings").<ref name=Chrysos-1978/>{{rp|style=ama|page= 70}} The title appears to have slowly crept into imperial titulature after that, and Emperor Heraclius is attested as using it alongside the long-established ''Autokratōr Kaisar'' in a letter to Kavadh II in 628. Finally, in a law promulgated on 21 March 629, the Latin titles were omitted altogether, and the simple formula {{lang|grc|πιστὸς ἐν Χριστῷ βασιλεύς}}, "faithful in Christ Emperor" was used instead.<ref name=Chrysos-1978/>{{rp|style=ama|page= 31}} The adoption of the new imperial formula has been traditionally interpreted by scholars such as Ernst Stein and George Ostrogorsky as indicative of the almost complete Hellenization of the Empire by that time.<ref name=Chrysos-1978/>{{rp|style=ama|page= 32}} In imperial coinage, however, Latin forms continued to be used. Only in the reign of Leo III the Isaurian (r. 717–741) did the title ''basileus'' appear in silver coins, and on gold coinage only under Constantine VI (r. 780–797).<ref name=Kazhdan-etal-1991-ODB/>{{rp|style=ama|pages= 263–264}} "BASILEUS" was initially stamped on Byzantine coins in Latin script, and only gradually were some Latin characters replaced with Greek ones, resulting in mixed forms such as "BASIΛEVS".

[[File:Basil II mosaic.jpg|left|thumb|338x338px|11th-century depiction of Basil II with the Greek title {{Lang|el|Βασιλεύς Ῥωμαίων ὁ νέος}}, {{Lit|Emperor of the Romans, the younger}} in the ''Menologion of Basil II'']] Until the 9th century, the Byzantines reserved the term ''basileus'' among Christian rulers exclusively for their own emperor in Constantinople. This usage was initially accepted by the "barbarian" kings of Western Europe themselves: Despite having neglected the fiction of Roman suzerainty from the 6th century onward, they refrained from adopting imperial titles.<ref name=Chrysos-1978/>{{rp|style=ama|pages= 52–57}}

The situation began to change when the Western European states began to challenge the Empire's political supremacy and its right to the universal imperial title. The catalytic event was the coronation of Charlemagne as ''imperator Romanorum'' ("Emperor of the Romans") by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800, at St. Peter's in Rome. The matter was complicated by the fact that the Eastern Empire was then managed by Irene (r. 797–802), who had gained control after the death of her husband, the Emperor Leo IV (r. 775–780), as regent for their nine-year-old son, Constantine VI (r. 780–797). After Constantine's coming of age, Irene eventually decided to rule in her own name. In the conflict that ensued, Irene was victorious, and Constantine was blinded and imprisoned, to die soon afterward. The revulsion generated by this incident of filicide ''cum'' regicide was compounded by the traditional (and especially Frankish) aversion to the idea of a female sovereign. Although it is often claimed that, as monarch, Irene called herself in the male form ''basileus'', in fact she normally used the title ''basilissa''.<ref name=James-2009>{{Cite book |author=James, Liz |year=2009 |section=Men, women, eunuchs: Gender, sex, and power |title=A Social History of Byzantium |editor=Haldon, J. |pages=45–46 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-4051-3241-1}}</ref>{{efn|There are only three instances where it is known that Irene of Athens used the title "basileus": Two legal documents in which she signed herself as "Emperor of the Romans" and a gold coin of hers found in Sicily bearing the title of "basileus". In the case of the coin's inscription, its lettering is of poor quality and the attribution to Irene may, therefore, be problematic. In reality, she used the title "basilissa" in all other documents, coins and seals.<ref name=James-2009/> }}

The Pope would seize this opportunity to cite the imperial throne being held by a woman as vacant and establish his position as able to divinely appoint rulers. Leading up to this, Charlemagne and his Frankish predecessors had increasingly become the Papacy's source of protection while the Byzantine's position in Italy had weakened significantly. In 800 CE, Charlemagne, now a king of multiple territories, was proclaimed "Emperor of the Romans" by the Pope.<ref name=Kazhdan-etal-1991-ODB/>{{rp|style=ama|page= 413}} Charlemagne's claim to the imperial title of the Romans began a prolonged diplomatic controversy which was resolved only in 812 when the Byzantines agreed to recognize him as "''basileus''", while continuing to refuse any connection with the Roman Empire. In an effort to emphasize their own Roman legitimacy, the Byzantine rulers thereafter began to use the fuller form ''basileus Rhomaíōn'' ({{lang|grc|βασιλεύς Ῥωμαίων}}, "emperor of the Romans") instead of the simple "''basileus''", a practice that continued in official usage until the end of the Empire.<ref name=Kazhdan-etal-1991-ODB/>{{rp|style=ama|pages= 263–264, 413}} [[File:Manuel II Helena sons.JPG|thumb|right|300px|Early 15th-century miniature depicting Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos with his family: empress Helena Dragaš, and three of their sons, John, Andronikos and Theodore. The full imperial title uses both typically Byzantine and revived archaic Roman elements: {{lang|el|ΜΑΝΟΥΗΛ ΕΝ ΧΩ ΤΩ ΘΩ ΠΙϹΤΟϹ ΒΑϹΙΛΕΥϹ ΚΑΙ ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΩΡ ΡΩΜΑΙΩΝ Ο ΠΑΛΑΙΟΛΟΓΟϹ ΚΑΙ ΑΕΙ ΑΥΓΟΥϹΤΟϹ}}, {{lit|Manuel, by the grace of Christ the God, faithful Basileus and Autocrat of the Romans, Palaiologos, ever Augustus. Of his sons, John, the eldest and co-emperor, is also termed ''basileus'', while his brothers are titled ''despotes''}}]]

During the 12th century, Byzantine emperors of the Angelos dynasty, in their correspondence with the Pope and foreign rulers, styled themselves as "in Christ the God faithful, Emperor, crowned by God, Anax, powerful, exalted, Augustus and Autocrat of the Romans" ({{langx|grc-x-medieval|ἐν Χριστῷ τῷ Θεῷ πιστὸς βασιλεύς, θεοστεφής, ἄναξ, κραταιός, ὑψηλός, αὔγουστος καὶ αὐτοκράτωρ Ῥωμαίων|en Khristō to Theō pistos basileus, theostephēs, anax, krataios, hupsēlos, augoustos, kaì autokratōr Rhōmaiōn}})''.'' Variations of this title are found in letters of the Angelid emperors to Pope Innocentius III; these are nearly direct translations of the Greek title into Latin, such as: {{Lang|la|in Christo Deo fidelis imperator divinitus coronatus sublimis potens excelsus semper augustus moderator Romanorum}}.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Van Tricht |first1=Filip |title=The Latin Renovatio of Byzantium: The Empire of Constantinople (1204-1228) |date=2011 |publisher=Koninklijke Brill NV |location=Leiden, The Netherlands |page=64 |isbn=978-90-04-20323-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JlnPm2riK1UC |access-date=5 September 2024}}</ref> In his correspondence with the Holy Roman Emperor, Isaakios II added to his title the Latin phrase {{Lang|la|haeres coronae Constantini magni}} ('heir to the crown of Constantine the great'), in order to distinguish and prioritize the 'New' Rome of the east over the 'Old' Rome of the west.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Kolia-Dermitzaki |author1-link=Athina |editor1-last=Pitsakis |editor1-first=Konstantinos G. |title=Aureus. Volume dedicated to Professor Evangelos K. Chrysos |date=2014 |publisher=National Hellenic Research Foundation |location=Athens, Greece |pages=374–5 |chapter=Byzantium and the West – the West and Byzantium (ninth-twelfth centuries): focusing on Zweikaiserproblem. An outline of ideas and practices}}</ref>

By the Palaiologan period, the full style of the Emperor was finalized in the phrase, "in Christ the God faithful, Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans" ({{langx|grc-x-medieval|ἐν Χριστῷ τῷ Θεῷ πιστὸς βασιλεὺς καὶ αὐτοκράτωρ Ῥωμαίων|en Christō tō Theō pistós basileus kai autokratōr Rhōmaíōn}}), as exemplified in documents such as Constantine XI's chrysobull to the city of Ragusa issued in 1451, two years before the Ottoman conquest of the Byzantine Empire in the Siege of Constantinople.<ref>{{cite thesis |last= Virgilio|first= Carlo|date= 2013|title= Florence, Byzantium and the Ottomans (1439-1481). Politics and Economics|url=https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/5738/1/Virgilio15PhD.pdf |degree=Doctor of Philosophy |publisher=University of Birmingham|pages= 85, 359|access-date=2024-08-23}}</ref>

The later German emperors were also conceded the title "''basileus'' of the Franks". The Byzantine title in turn produced further diplomatic incidents in the 10th century, when Western potentates addressed the emperors as "emperors of the Greeks".<ref name=Kazhdan-etal-1991-ODB/>{{rp|style=ama|pages= 263–264}} A similar diplomatic controversy (this time accompanied by war) ensued from the imperial aspirations of Simeon I of Bulgaria in the early 10th century. Aspiring to conquer Constantinople, Simeon claimed the title "''basileus'' of the Bulgarians and of the Romans", but was only recognized as "''basileus'' of the Bulgarians" by the Byzantines. From the 12th century however, the title was increasingly, although again not officially, used for powerful foreign sovereigns, such as the kings of France or Sicily, the tsars of the restored Bulgarian Empire, the Latin emperors and the emperors of Trebizond. In time, the title was also applied to major non-Christian rulers, such as Tamerlane or Mehmed II.<ref name=Kazhdan-etal-1991-ODB/>{{rp|style=ama|pages= 263–264}} Finally, in 1354, Stefan Dušan, king of Serbia, assumed the imperial title, based on his Bulgarian mother's Theodora Smilets of Bulgaria royal line, self-styling himself in Greek as ''basileus'' and ''autokratōr'' of the Romans and Serbs which was, however, not recognized by the Byzantines.<ref name=Kazhdan-etal-1991-ODB/>{{rp|style=ama|pages= 1,950–1,951}}

==New Testament== While the terms used for the Roman emperor are ''Kaisar Augustos'' (Decree from Caesar Augustus, Dogma para Kaisaros Augoustou, Luke 2:1) or just ''Kaisar'' (see Render unto Caesar...), and Pontius Pilate is termed Hegemon (Matthew 27:2), Herod is referred to as ''basileus'' (in his coins also ''Basileōs Herodou'', "of King Herod", and by Josephus).

Regarding Jesus, the term basileus acquired a new Christian theological meaning out of the further concept of basileus as a chief religious officer during the Hellenistic period. Jesus is titled both ''Basileus Basileōn'' ({{lang|el|Βασιλεὺς βασιλέων}} = King of Kings, Revelation 17:14, 19:16, a previous Near Eastern phrase for rulers of empires, and ''Basileus tōn basileuontōn'' ({{lang|el|Βασιλεὺς τῶν βασιλευόντων}} = literally King of those being kings, 1 Timothy 6:15) in the New Testament. Other titles involving ''basileus'' include ''Basileus tōn Ouranōn'', translated as King of Heaven, and ''Basileus tōn Ioudaiōn'', i.e. King of the Jews (see INRI). In Byzantine art, standard depictions of Jesus included ''Basileus tēs Doxēs'' (King of Glory),<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Icon in the Life of the Church: Doctrine, liturgy, devotion |author=Galavaris, George |page=38 |isbn=90-04-06402-8 |year=1981|publisher=BRILL }}</ref> a phrase derived from Psalms 24:10, and ''Kyrios tēs Doxēs'' (Lord of Glory), from 1 Corinthians 2:8.

==Modern Greece==

During the post-Byzantine period, the term ''basileus'', owing to the renewed influence of classical writers on the language, reverted to its earlier meaning of "king". This transformation had already begun in informal usage in the works of some classicizing Byzantine authors. In the Convention of London in 1832, the Great Powers{{efn|name=Great_Powers_note|The "Great Powers" were the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, July Monarchy of France, and Imperial Russia.}} agreed that the new Greek state should become a monarchy, and chose the Wittelsbach Prince Otto of Bavaria as its first king.

[[File:5dracme1874front.jpg|thumb|right|180px|1876 five-drachma coin, bearing a bust of George I and the legend ΓΕΩΡΓΙΟΣ Α! ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΤΩΝ ΕΛΛΗΝΩΝ ({{lit|George I, King of the Hellenes}})]] The Great Powers furthermore ordained that his title was to be "{{lang|el|Βασιλεὺς τῆς Ἑλλάδος}}" ''Vasilefs tes Elládos'', meaning "King of Greece", instead of "{{lang|el|Βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἑλλήνων}}" ''Vasilefs ton Ellénon'', i.e. "King of the Greeks". This title had two implications: first, that Otto was the king only of the small Kingdom of Greece, and not of all Greeks, whose majority still remained ruled by the Ottoman Empire. Second, that the kingship did not depend on the will of the Greek people, a fact further underlined by Otto's addition of the formula "{{lang|el|ἐλέῳ Θεοῦ}}" ''eléo Theou'', i.e. "By the Grace (Mercy) of God". For 10 years, until the 3 September 1843 Revolution, Otto ruled as an absolute monarch, and his autocratic rule, which continued even after he was forced to grant a constitution, made him very unpopular. After being ousted in 1862, the new Danish dynasty of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg began with King George I. Both to assert national independence from the will of the Great Powers,{{efn|name=Great_Powers_note}} and to emphasize the constitutional responsibilities of the monarch towards the people, his title was modified to "King of the Hellenes", which remained the official royal title, until the abolition of the Greek monarchy in 1924 and 1973.

The two Greek kings who had the name of Constantine, a name of great sentimental and symbolic significance, especially in the irredentist context of the ''Megali Idea'', were often, although never officially, numbered in direct succession to the last Byzantine Emperor, Constantine XI, as Constantine XII<ref>{{Cite news |first=Nadine |last=Brozan |date=13 April 1994 |title=Chronicle |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0713F63B5A0C708DDDAD0894DC494D81 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120721164851/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0713F63B5A0C708DDDAD0894DC494D81 |archive-date=July 21, 2012 |url-status=dead|access-date=2022-08-13}}</ref> and Constantine XIII.<ref>{{Cite web |editor=Barret, Matt |title=King Constantine II and Queen Anne-Marie |website=A History of Greece |url=http://www.ahistoryofgreece.com/biography/constantineII.htm}}</ref>

== See also == {{Portal|Ancient Greece|Byzantine Empire|Greece}} * Anthesteria – a festival of Dionysus, in which a ''basilinna'' (wife of the archon basileus during the event) went through a ceremony of marriage to the wine god. Comparable to carnivals and other charivaris. * ''Auctoritas'' * ''Imperium'' * Sovereignty * Basilica

== Footnotes == {{Notelist}}

== References == {{Reflist|25em|refs=

<ref name=Chrysos-1978> {{Cite journal |first=Evangelos K. |last=Chrysos |year=1978 |title=The title ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ in early Byzantine international relations |journal=Dumbarton Oaks Papers |volume=32 |pages=29–75 |publisher=Dumbarton Oaks |place=Washington, DC |doi=10.2307/1291418 |jstor=1291418 }} </ref>

<ref name=Kazhdan-etal-1991-ODB> {{Cite book |editor = Kazhdan, Alexander |year = 1991 |title = Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium |publisher = Oxford University Press |isbn = 978-0-19-504652-6 }} </ref>

}}

{{refbegin}} * {{Cite book |author=Janda, Michael |year=2004 |section=Annäherung an ''basileús'' |title=Analecta Homini Universali Dicata – Festschrift für Oswald Panagl zum 65 Geburtstag |trans-title=Analects Describing the Universal Man – commemorative publication for Oswald Panagl on his 65th birthday |volume=1 |editor1=Krisch, Thomas |editor2=Lindner, Thomas |editor3=Müller, Ulrich |place=Stuttgart, DE |publisher=Hans Dieter Heinz |pages=84−94}} {{refend}}

==External links== {{wiktionary|βασιλεύς}} * {{Cite web |title=The Linear B tablets and Mycenaean social, political, and economic organization |series=Bronze Age: Lesson 25 |publisher=Dartmouth College |url=http://projectsx.dartmouth.edu/history/bronze_age/lessons/les/25.html |url-status=dead  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040910084730/http://projectsx.dartmouth.edu/history/bronze_age/lessons/les/25.html |archive-date=2004-09-10}}

Category:Ancient Greek government Category:Ancient Greek titles Category:Ancient Roman titles Category:Byzantine imperial titles Category:Byzantine law Category:Clay tablets Category:Government of Macedonia (ancient kingdom) Category:Government of the Byzantine Empire Category:Royal titles Category:Titles of national or ethnic leadership