Ioannes Vatatzes was born in 1192 in Didimoteichon, and died in another place contained as well in the current borders of Greece, Nymfaion*, in 1254.
He was Emperor of Nicaea, one of the successor states of the Byzantine Empire after 1204, from 1221 to his deathday.
While he did not manage to liberate Constantinople from the latins (something which happened in 1261) he created the foundation for this result. He also managed to defeat the despot of Epirus and Thessaloniki (after the latter's major loss to Bulgaria at the battle of Klokonitsa) and annex parts of Bulgaria along with other southern lands in Europe.
He is also known, after his sainthood, as "Ioannes o Elehmon" (which means John the Benefactor). This was mostly due to his wise and just policies, which encouraged helping the poor.
He was an able Nicaean Emperor, and his immediate successor continued his work, ending the latin empire of Constantinople.
However i thought of posting this because i recently read that he was also termed a Hexadactylos. This means "six-fingered". I am interested in that, was he indeed literaly a person with six fingers? Or at least was he known, even metaphorically, as that?
With no shortage of byzantinologoi in this forum i am sure even this information can be provided
I am interested because some sources name him as the mythical "King in Marble" (the mainstream view is that it was the last emperor of the Roman Empire, Constantine Palaiologos). I am thinking of writing a short story with this as a theme, so you would really be helping me a lot by providing any kind of information about Vatatzes, and not only about his six fingers, if they existed or not.
He was also known to be an epileptic, like Dostoevsky and some other notables.
Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_III_Doukas_Vatatzes
*Reading some articles again, it is not for certain just which Nymfaion is named, but it is more likely probably that it is the one in Bithynia and not the one in the province of Macedonia.
He was Emperor of Nicaea, one of the successor states of the Byzantine Empire after 1204, from 1221 to his deathday.
While he did not manage to liberate Constantinople from the latins (something which happened in 1261) he created the foundation for this result. He also managed to defeat the despot of Epirus and Thessaloniki (after the latter's major loss to Bulgaria at the battle of Klokonitsa) and annex parts of Bulgaria along with other southern lands in Europe.
He is also known, after his sainthood, as "Ioannes o Elehmon" (which means John the Benefactor). This was mostly due to his wise and just policies, which encouraged helping the poor.
He was an able Nicaean Emperor, and his immediate successor continued his work, ending the latin empire of Constantinople.
However i thought of posting this because i recently read that he was also termed a Hexadactylos. This means "six-fingered". I am interested in that, was he indeed literaly a person with six fingers? Or at least was he known, even metaphorically, as that?
With no shortage of byzantinologoi in this forum i am sure even this information can be provided
I am interested because some sources name him as the mythical "King in Marble" (the mainstream view is that it was the last emperor of the Roman Empire, Constantine Palaiologos). I am thinking of writing a short story with this as a theme, so you would really be helping me a lot by providing any kind of information about Vatatzes, and not only about his six fingers, if they existed or not.
He was also known to be an epileptic, like Dostoevsky and some other notables.
Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_III_Doukas_Vatatzes
*Reading some articles again, it is not for certain just which Nymfaion is named, but it is more likely probably that it is the one in Bithynia and not the one in the province of Macedonia.
