“ 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 equivalent “tyrant,” is in current usage for an absolute sovereign whose rule is not restricted by any constitution. In the Roman empire of the East “despot” was early used as a title of honour or address of the emperor, and was given by Alexius I. (1081–1118) to the sons, brothers and sons-in-law of the emperor (Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ed. Bury, vol. vi. 80) . ”