The Triumph of Alexios III and the imperial court (1350-1355)[1] Αρξει δὲ Τραπεζοῦντος  ̓Αλέξιος ὁ τοῦ  ̓Αλεξίου ἔγγονος τοῦ μεγάλου Κομνηνού. Alexios, descendant of the Grand Komnenos Alexios, will reign over Trebizond. -A vision of Eugenios, patron saint of Trebizond, in Lazaropoulos’ Synopsis[2] Meanwhile in Constantinople, Emperor Ioannes VI Kantakouzenos had a change of heart…

The Archontes of Trebizond οἱ ἐν τέλει πρὸς ταραχὰς ὥρμησαν. Οἳ καὶ ἀλλήλων διαιρεθέντες, οἱ μὲν  ̓Αμιντζανταράνται ἐλέγοντο, οἱ δὲ Σχολαράνται· …the leading officials started an upheaval. Of those who were splitting between themselves one party was called Amyntzantarantai, the other Scholarantai. – Joseph Lazaropoulos, Metropolitan of Trebizond, Synopsis[1] Immediately after the Emperor’s death, Empress…

Oceans of ink had been spilled on the history of the Roman Republic. Idolized by the Western world as the epitome of a successful democracy founded on the rule of law, its rise and success fascinated political philosophers from Antiquity already; the universalist historian, Polybius, provided one of the most enduring explanations for the Republic’s…