ABSTRACT
The citizens of Monemvasia supported that they had inherited from ancient Sparta, when its inhabitants were transferred, its ancient institutions and privileges and that these remained in force in the new city which was established on the rock of Monemvasia. It is mentioned in some sources that the Emperors Maurice and Konstantine Pogonatos issued for the city documents with privileges, but it is not known what sort of privileges they contained, if they were old or new, and what exactly they concerned. Other emperors might have also issued some documents for the city before the arrival of the Franks in the middle of the thirteenth century. After the conquest of Monemvasia, William II Villehardouin acknowledged some of the pre-existing privileges of the city and its citizens; one reference is that he had issued a ‘chrysobull’ and granted exemption from the ‘dazio’, the port taxes; another that the citizens were egkoussatoi, that they held the privilege of exkousseia; a third specifies that the documents issued by Villehardouin were γρα´μματα.1
