Talk:Basileus

Are you sure that Justinian II was the first Roman emperor to use the title of Basileus? I've read in several places that Heraclius was the first to use it. Kuralyov 20:55, 22 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Wasn't this the other way around?

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". Interestingly, "BASILEUS" was initially stamped on Byzantine coins (in lieu of the standard Latin abbreviations "C.IMP." for "Caesar Imperator") in Latin script. Only somewhat later was the Greek script universally used.

Didn't it go from Καίσαρ Ἀυγούστους to Καίσαρ Σεβαστός? Augustus is the Latin word, Sebastos the native Greek. --Jpbrenna 03:02, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)

No, it was initially fully translated and only later, when Αύγουστος became a familiar word due, among other things, to the universal adoption of the Roman calendar, was Αύγουστος adopted uniformly. Chronographos 01:22, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

Basileus in another countries

As I know Byzantine emperors recognized title of basileus not only for rulers of Franks and Bulgarians, but also Persian rulers and Trapezuntine emperors (as "basileuses of East"). What's about rulers of Holy Roman Empire of German nation, of Georgia, of Armenia, Seljuk and Ottoman sultans, who knows? And Trapazuntine emperors could recognize this title for another monarchs/ For example, Serbian rulers (Byzantine emperors didn't recognize imperial title of Serbia).