Simonida

Simonida Nemanjić (Serbian Cyrillic: Симонида Немањић; c. 1294 – after 1336), born Simonis Palaiologina (Greek: Σιμωνίς Παλαιολογίνα, sr. Симонида Палеолог, Simonida Paleolog), was a Byzantine princess and queen consort of the Kingdom of Serbia as the fourth wife of Serbian king Stefan Milutin (r. 1282–1321). She was a daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos (r. 1282–1328) and Irene of Montferrat.

Life

Simonida was born in Constantinople ca. 1294. In 1298, as a result of a Byzantine defeat, Emperor Andronikos II promised a marriage alliance to the Serbian ruler Milutin. Initially, Andronikos II intended to wed his sister Eudokia, the empress-dowager of Trebizond, but after she refused, Simonida was proposed instead. Church circles in Constantinople opposed the marriage, but the emperor was determined to push the deal through, and in late 1298 he sent his trusted minister Theodore Metochites to Serbia to conduct the negotiations. On his part, Milutin too was eager to accept, and even divorced his third wife, Ana Terter, the daughter of the Bulgarian tsar George Terter. Simonida was five years old, and Milutin was almost 50, was married three times, with adult children. The marriage was celebrated in Thessalonica in spring 1299, and the couple departed for Serbia in April. As a wedding present, Byzantines recognized Serbian rule north of the line Ohrid—Prilep—Štip.

1675 Simonida

1675 Simonida, provisional designation 1938 FB, is a stony asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, about 11 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by Serbian astronomer Milorad Protić at Belgrade Astronomical Observatory on 20 March 1938. On the same night, the body was independently discovered by Belgian astronomer Fernand Rigaux at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Uccle.

The asteroid is a member of the Flora family, a large group of stony asteroids in the main-belt. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.0–2.5 AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,219 days). Its orbit shows an eccentricity of 0.12 and is tilted by 7 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic. Its albedo of 0.248 was measured by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite, IRAS, and by the Japanese astronomy satellite, Akari. The S-type asteroid rotates around its axis every 5.3 hours.

It was named after Byzantine princess and queen consort Simonida, the wife of medieval Serbian king Stefan Milutin and symbol of beauty in former Yugoslavia.