Here's a few ideas on how to improve the byzantine nomenclature.
I always found it odd that Persians have their Marzobans, Turks have their Beys and the poor Byzantines have to settle for counts.
If you need, i can provide primary and secondary sources.
Disclaimer: this is essentially an updated repost of a thread i posted a few months ago. Be merciful, the temptation of posting it again in the suggestion board was too strong.
TITLE HOLDERS AND TITLES
Before the latest updates, which introduced Strategoi\Themata and Exarchs\Exarchates, i would have suggested Strategos as the equivalent of count, since, starting in the tenth century, the large districts of Isaurian times began to be fragmented in smaller provinces. However, the new system works perfectly fine.
Just a few adjustments may be needed:
Count\County = tourma\tourmarchos (i know no female form for this word, probably tourmarchissa?)
The tourmai were the primary subdivisions of the themata, so that each thema had 3-4 tourmai. Circa 2000 soldiers resided in each tourma, ready to be mobilized. They are the closest thing i could imagine to a county-tier in the CKII sense, at least for the middle-byzantine system (since themata are now duchy-tier).
Baron\Barony = droungos\droungarios (again, no female version)
Just below the tourmai in the hierarchy of a theme, the droungoi represented territories able to field 1000 soldiers (at least on paper). Since it is a military detachment, it would fit the barony-tier, and in a way it is not dissimilar from the turkic timar, in scale and size.
city\mayor = city\archon (f. archontissa?)
Ok, this is a little more controversial, but here it goes: Byzantine sources refer to local leaders as Archontes, a word with the wide meaning of "ruler, person of authority". You have Kourupas, archon of the cretans, Hamdan, archon of Aleppo, and so on.
Since the Byzantine world, unlike western europe, never witnessed the emersion of a municipal culture, to my knowledge there is no specific word for "mayor", i.e. the sorta-elective ruler of a city.
An alternative would be "proteuon", i.e. "first citizen". It was sometimes used to describe the "mayor" of Cherson, but i can think of no other instance of its use, at least in middle byzantine chronicles.
Please let me know if you have better suggestions for this.
MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL
magistros = logothete
Magistros was not an office, it was a rank in the courtly hierarchy, the highest by the tenth century. For example Nikephoros Phokas was made Magistros, when Emperor Romanos II decided to confer him the command of the western armies. And he was most certainly not a skilled diplomat!
I propose the game uses the word logothetes instead. It generally means "minister", but since the Byzantine empire did not have a permanent diplomatic service, minister of what is left to the user's imagination.
ecclesiarch = synkellos
The synkellos was the secretary of the patriarch, and in many cases his designated successor. In CKII mechanics, he may be the church official that serves as the transmission chain between the ruler and the patriarchy, i.e. the court chaplain.
strategos = domestikos
While there were dozens of strategoi within the empire, the emperor had only one (or sometimes two) domestikoi. I know the word may remind you of "domestic servant", but the role of Domestikos continuously represented, from the eight to the fifteenth century, the highest military grade within the empire (of course, not counting the obvious inflation of courtly titles, which in time produced things like the Megas Domestikos, although it does sound kinda like a high-tech vacuum cleaner)
I always found it odd that Persians have their Marzobans, Turks have their Beys and the poor Byzantines have to settle for counts.
If you need, i can provide primary and secondary sources.
Disclaimer: this is essentially an updated repost of a thread i posted a few months ago. Be merciful, the temptation of posting it again in the suggestion board was too strong.
TITLE HOLDERS AND TITLES
Before the latest updates, which introduced Strategoi\Themata and Exarchs\Exarchates, i would have suggested Strategos as the equivalent of count, since, starting in the tenth century, the large districts of Isaurian times began to be fragmented in smaller provinces. However, the new system works perfectly fine.
Just a few adjustments may be needed:
Count\County = tourma\tourmarchos (i know no female form for this word, probably tourmarchissa?)
The tourmai were the primary subdivisions of the themata, so that each thema had 3-4 tourmai. Circa 2000 soldiers resided in each tourma, ready to be mobilized. They are the closest thing i could imagine to a county-tier in the CKII sense, at least for the middle-byzantine system (since themata are now duchy-tier).
Baron\Barony = droungos\droungarios (again, no female version)
Just below the tourmai in the hierarchy of a theme, the droungoi represented territories able to field 1000 soldiers (at least on paper). Since it is a military detachment, it would fit the barony-tier, and in a way it is not dissimilar from the turkic timar, in scale and size.
city\mayor = city\archon (f. archontissa?)
Ok, this is a little more controversial, but here it goes: Byzantine sources refer to local leaders as Archontes, a word with the wide meaning of "ruler, person of authority". You have Kourupas, archon of the cretans, Hamdan, archon of Aleppo, and so on.
Since the Byzantine world, unlike western europe, never witnessed the emersion of a municipal culture, to my knowledge there is no specific word for "mayor", i.e. the sorta-elective ruler of a city.
An alternative would be "proteuon", i.e. "first citizen". It was sometimes used to describe the "mayor" of Cherson, but i can think of no other instance of its use, at least in middle byzantine chronicles.
Please let me know if you have better suggestions for this.
MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL
magistros = logothete
Magistros was not an office, it was a rank in the courtly hierarchy, the highest by the tenth century. For example Nikephoros Phokas was made Magistros, when Emperor Romanos II decided to confer him the command of the western armies. And he was most certainly not a skilled diplomat!
I propose the game uses the word logothetes instead. It generally means "minister", but since the Byzantine empire did not have a permanent diplomatic service, minister of what is left to the user's imagination.
ecclesiarch = synkellos
The synkellos was the secretary of the patriarch, and in many cases his designated successor. In CKII mechanics, he may be the church official that serves as the transmission chain between the ruler and the patriarchy, i.e. the court chaplain.
strategos = domestikos
While there were dozens of strategoi within the empire, the emperor had only one (or sometimes two) domestikoi. I know the word may remind you of "domestic servant", but the role of Domestikos continuously represented, from the eight to the fifteenth century, the highest military grade within the empire (of course, not counting the obvious inflation of courtly titles, which in time produced things like the Megas Domestikos, although it does sound kinda like a high-tech vacuum cleaner)
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