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Images on pottery show that chariot racing existed in thirteenth century BC Mycenaean Greece. [a] The first literary reference to a chariot race is in Homer's poetic account of the funeral games for Patroclus, in the Iliad, combining practices from the author's own time (c. 8th century) with accounts based on a legendary past.
Byzantine blue is a color ranging from light celestial blue or lazuli to dark Egyptian blue. Variations. Dark Byzantine blue The dark ...
It rests on a dual symbolism: On one hand it was seen as a symbol of the Roman Empire (the Roman Eagle had been introduced as the standardised emblem of the Roman legions under consul Gaius Marius in 102 BC); on the other hand, the eagle in early medieval iconography represented Saint John the Evangelist, ultimately based on the tradition of ...
Former money changer Michael IV the Paphlagonian (1034–41) assumed the throne of Byzantium in 1034 and began the slow process of debasing both the tetarteron nomisma and the histamenon nomisma. The debasement was gradual at first, but then accelerated rapidly. about 21 carats (87.5% pure) during the reign of Constantine IX (1042–1055), 18 ...
In heraldry, purpure (/ ˈ p ɜːr p j ʊər /) is a tincture, equivalent to the colour purple, and is one of the five main or most usually used colours (as opposed to metals).It may be portrayed in engravings by a series of parallel lines at a 45-degree angle running from upper right to lower left from the point of view of an observer, or else indicated by the abbreviation purp.
As in Graeco-Roman times, purple was reserved for the royal family; other colours in various contexts conveyed information as to class and clerical or government rank. Lower-class people wore simple tunics but still had the preference for bright colours found in all Byzantine fashions.
Beyond its derivation from Latin labarum, the etymology of the word is unclear. [5] The Oxford English Dictionary offers no further derivation from within Latin. [6] Some derive it from Latin /labāre/ 'to totter, to waver' (in the sense of the "waving" of a flag in the breeze) or laureum [vexillum] ("laurel standard"). [7]
Colors known as kinjiki (禁色, "forbidden colors") were strictly reserved for the robes of the Imperial family and highest ranking court officials; for example, the color ōtan (orange) was used as the color for the robes of the Crown Prince and use by anyone else was prohibited.