Basileus - Alexander the Great

Basileus (Greek Βασιλεύς) means "king". It is perhaps best known in English as a title used by Byzantine monarchs, but also has a longer history of use in Ancient Greece. Basileus - Etymology. The etymology of "basileus" is unclear. The Mycenaean form was gwasileus (qa-si-re-u), denoting some sort of court official or local "boss", but not an actual king. Most linguists assume that it is a non-Greek word that was adopted by Bronze Age Greeks from a preexisting linguistic substra ...

Including:

• Basileus - Etymology
• Basileus - Ancient Greece
• Basileus - Alexander the Great
• Basileus - Byzantines
• Basileus - External link

Read more here: » Basileus: Encyclopedia - Basileus

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 15th century BC to the 11th century BC. They were inscribed with the 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 bronzesmiths is referred to as " ...

See also:

Basileus, Basileus - Etymology, Basileus - Ancient Greece, Basileus - Alexander the Great, Basileus - Byzantines, Basileus - External link

Read more here: » Basileus: Encyclopedia II - Basileus - Ancient Greece

At the time of the Byzantine Empire, "basileus" assumed the meaning of "emperor" and was used by the Byzantine Emperors from the reign of Justinian II onwards, when official usage of Latin in coinage and state documents was gradually replaced by Greek. This use of the word was new — when the Romans had originally conquered the Mediterranean, the imperial title "Caesar Augustus" was initially translated as "Kaisar Sebastos", and later Hellenized to "Kaisar Augoustos". "Imperator", another imperial title, was translated as "Autokrator ...

See also:

Basileus, Basileus - Etymology, Basileus - Ancient Greece, Basileus - Alexander the Great, Basileus - Byzantines, Basileus - External link

Read more here: » Basileus: Encyclopedia II - Basileus - Byzantines