Nobilissimus
Nobilissimus ( Latin "very noble", Middle Greek νωβελίσσιμος nōbelíssimos or ἐπιφανέστατος epiphanéstatos ) was one of the highest imperial titulatures in the late ancient Roman and Byzantine empires .
Nobilissimus was originally an epithet of the title Caesar , whose bearer was designated as heir to the throne of the emperor and as such, since Geta (198), was referred to as nobilissimus Caesar . According to the historian Zosimos , it was Constantine I who first created nobilissimus (vir) as a separate dignity in order to honor some of his relatives without deriving a direct claim to the succession for them. The title was thus reserved for members of the imperial family, with children being referred to as nobilissimus puer or nobilissima puella .
Nobilissimus was immediately subordinate to Caesar (or its direct preliminary stage) and remained so in the early and middle Byzantine period until the middle of the 11th century. In the Kletorologion of 899, Philotheos gives the purple tunic , cloak and belt as insignia of rank of the nobilissimus , which illustrates the prominent position of the dignitary. The survey was linked to the ceremonial awarding of the insignia by the emperor.
Since the 11th century the title has been awarded to deserving troop commanders, first to the future emperor Alexios Komnenos . The inflation of the dignitaries among the Comnenes led to the devaluation of the nobilissimus , so that in the 12th century new titles such as prōtonōbelissimos and prōtonōbelissimohypertatos were created.
Nobilissimi
- Valerius Romulus
- Julius Constantius
- Hannibalianus
- Varronian
- Gratian
- Valentinianus Galates
- Honorius
- Theodosius II
- Julian
- Aelia Pulcheria
- Galla Placidia
- Valentinian III.
- Justinian I.
- Martinos
- Bagrat IV of Georgia
- Giorgi II of Georgia
- Johannes Komnenos
- Alexios I. Comnenus
- Robert Guiscard
literature
- John B. Bury : The Imperial Administrative System of the Ninth Century. Oxford University Publishing, Oxford 1911.
- Hans Ulrich Instinsky : On the origin of the title nobilissimus Caesar. In: Contributions to older European cultural history. Festschrift for Rudolf Egger , vol. 1. Klagenfurt 1952, pp. 98-103.
- Alexander Kazhdan (ed.): Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1991, pp. 1489-1490. ISBN 0-19-504652-8 .
- Fritz Mitthof : From ἰερώτατος Καίσαρ to ἐπιφανέστατος Καίσαρ . The honorary titles in the title of the heir to the throne of the 3rd century AD according to the papyri. In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 99, 1993, pp. 97–111. ( PDF )