chreokoinonia
A form of partnership regarding sea trade, attested in Byzantium during the Dark Ages. It is an early state of what became known as the colleganza/commenda in the West.

dioiketes
Middle - Late byzantine era: an official of the fiscal service, whose jurisdiction applied to a certain territory.

emir
(from Arabic amir) Emir meaning "commander" or "general", later also "prince". Also a high title of nobility or office in some Turkic historical states.

emporion, the
Places where trade was conducted, usually small settlements of urban character on the borders or along the coasts and the commercial routes. With the same term are characterized the trade districts, the markets outside the walls of a city and/or settlements being themselves trade centers.

khan (Ilkhan), khagan
This title was used in Turkic and Mongolian languages to designate the supreme ruler. The Byzantines used it to refer to the rulers of the Avars, Khazars, Turks and Bulgarians.

kommerkiarios (commerciarius)
An official of the fiscal service in charge of the levying of the tax called commercion (δεκάτη<, 10%), that was imposed over the portage and the selling of articles. The jurisdinction of each commerciarius was exersised either over specific urban centers with vivid commercial activity or over particular widespread territories of the empire. Since the official had been appointed by the emperor himself he used to be called "royal commerciarius". In the Late Byzantine era the commerciarius acted also as an individual entrepreneur who used to merchandise silk for his own interest.

kommerkion
This name had two meanings in Byzantium 1. Commercium (lat.), which in late Roman times designated the frontier cities where exchanges with foreign merchants were authorised. 2. Kommerkion, which was a circulation and sales tax, paid at the customs, and collected on mercandise imported into the empire and on merchandise reaching Constantinople by the sea. It appears in the sources c. 800 and was also called dekate, its rate being 10 percent of the merchandise value.

Laz
Ethnic group of the south-eastern shores of the Black Sea. Their language belongs to the South Caucasian Language group. Most of the Laz live in Turkey, while some live in Georgia.

litra (lat. libra)
A unit of weigth varying according to size. The most common was the "logarike litra", established at the time of cosntantine I in 309-310 as the basis of the monetary system. It was estimated as weighing ca. 324 or 319 g and was divides into 72 golden coins (solidi). One hundred litrai made a kentenarion.

mitaton
A mitaton (pl.: mitata) was an organised facility to accomodate foreign merchants, including storehouses for their merchandise. Mitata could be found in Constantinople and other cities.

novel (novella)
Τerm meaning ad verbum "new decree" and used since around the 4th century in order to denote the provisions of the emperors as separate from the organized codes. They were written mainly in Greek and used extensively in the Middle Byzantine Era. Since the days of Komnenoi and after, they were replaced by other more specialized terms and they are very rare in the Late Byzantine era

patrikios
(from lat. patricius) Higher title of honour, placed, according to the "Tactika" of the 9th and the 10th centuries, between anthypatos and protospatharios. It was given to the most important governors and generals. Gradually, however, it fell into disuse and from the 12th century did not exist any more.