#Byzantine empire

• Amalasuntha — A prominent historical figure of Late Antiquity, serving as the regent queen of the Ostrogoths (526–534) and later queen regnant (534–535); daughter of Theodoric the Great. Famous for her high education and pro-Byzantine policy, her assassination triggered Justinian's invasion of Italy.
• Archon — A title borne by the high magistrates or rulers in various city-states of Ancient Greece, especially in Athens, where the council of nine archons held executive and judicial power. In the Byzantine Empire and later in the Romanian Principalities, the term designated a high boyar, a high-ranking official, or an honorary title granted by the Patriarchate of Constantinople to laymen with outstanding merits towards the Orthodox Church.
• Asparuh — A legendary ruler (khan) of the proto-Bulgars from the Dulo clan, recognized as the structural and political founder of the First Bulgarian Empire in 681; following the dissolution of Old Great Bulgaria, he led the migration of a branch of his people toward the Danube, allying with local Slavic tribes and forcing the Byzantine Empire, after the Battle of Ongal, to recognize the new state.
• Asprokastron — The Greek-origin name (meaning 'White Castle') under which the historic fortress and city at the mouth of the Dniester River, later named Cetatea Albă, was known in medieval Byzantine and Genoese documents. It represents a commercial and strategic node of crucial importance on the Black Sea coast, historically contested between the Byzantine Empire, the Republic of Genoa, the Principality of Moldavia (under the reign of Stephen the Great), and the Ottoman Empire.
• Autokratoric — Belonging to the autocrator, relating to the quality or prerogatives of an autocrator; characterized by the specific traits of Byzantine or tsarist imperial rule, displaying an absolute, solemn, and centralized authority at the highest structural level.