Online Encyclopedia

DESPOT (Gr. Sc-va6rgs, lord or master...

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 103 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DESPOT (Gr. Sc-va6rgs, lord or master; the origin of the first
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part of the Gr. word is unknown, the second part is cognate with rbvcs,
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husband,
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Lat. potens, powerful)
  , in Greek usage the master of a household, hence the ruler of slaves . It was also used by the Greeks of their gods, as was the feminine form & rou'a . It was, however, principally applied by the Greeks to the absolute monarchs of the eastern empires with which they came in contact; and it is in this sense that the word, like its
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equivalent " tyrant," is in current usage for an absolute
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sovereign whose
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rule is not restricted by any constitution . In the
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Roman
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empire of the East " despot " was early used as a title of honour or address of the emperor, and was given by Alexius I . (ro81–1118) to the sons, brothers and sons-in-law of the emperor (Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ed . Bury, vol. vi . 8o) . It does not seem that the title was confined to the heir-apparent by Alexius II . (see Selden, Titles of Honour,
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part ii.
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chap. i. s. vi.) . Later still it was adopted by the vassal princes of the empire . This gave rise to the name "despotats " as applied to these tributary states, which survived the break-up of the empire in the
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independent " despotats " of Epirus, Cyprus, Trebizond, &c . Under
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Ottoman rule the title was preserved by the despots of
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Servia and of the Morea, &c .

The early use of the

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term as a title of address for ecclesiastical dignitaries survives in its use in the Greek Church as the formal mode of addressing a bishop .

End of Article: DESPOT (Gr. Sc-va6rgs, lord or master; the origin of the first part of the Gr. word is unknown, the second part is cognate with rbvcs, husband, Lat. potens, powerful)
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