A Short History of the Byzantine Empire

A Short History of the Byzantine Empire
…or we better do what they want
or we’ll lose our eyeballs
Origins of the Empire
• The Byzantine Empire began in the 4th century
C.E. when the Romans set up their eastern
capital in Constantinople
• The Emperor Constantine constructed a host of
elegant buildings in his new city, built on the
foundations of a town called Byzantium
• Soon Eastern Roman emperors ruled from
Constantinople, even before the Western
Empire started to fall
• Constantinople was responsible for the Balkan
peninsula, the Northern Middle East, the
Mediterranean coast, and Northern Africa
The Split of The Roman Empire
The Byzantine Empire after the fall of Rome
The Roman Empire(Byzantine) c. 500
Origins of the Empire, p.2
• Its strategic location, separating Asia from
Europe, made Constantinople a center of
trade
• Its location also allowed the Byzantines to
learn from long-established Middle Eastern
civilizations
• Although Latin was the court language for
several centuries, eventually Greek became
the official language
Justinian
• A major figure in Byzantine history - made
one last attempt to unity the Roman Empire
(533 C.E.)
• Heavily influenced by his wife, Theodora, a
power-hungry courtesan who convinced
Justinian to stand-up to popular unrest and
move forward with his plan for expansion
• Justinian had built the Hagia Sophia, a
wonder of the Christian world - considered a
great achievement in enginerring.
• Set up a law code (Justinian Code) based on
Roman law - a code that spread Roman law
throughout Europe
• Unsuccessfully tried to regain Rome
Hagia Sophia
Justinian’s military exploits
• As mentioned, Justinian wanted to recapture the old
Roman Empire
• His brilliant general, Belisarius made gains in Italy and
North Africa; they wanted to restore North Africa’s role
as the grain producing region
• Unable to take back Rome from the Germans, they
established a western capital in Ravenna, Italy known for Christian mosaics
• However, gains were short lived as Persians and
Slavs(Bulgars) were taking Byzantine land
• All these wars put more tax pressure on the
Byzantine population
Ravenna, Italy - Byzantine’s
foothold in regaining the Western
Empire - an ultimate failure
Those Pesky Muslims
• Justinian could not reunite the Roman Empire
because the Byzantine Empire was
surrounded by enemies - particularly Muslims.
• Territories won by the Byzantines were soon
lost to Muslims ex: North Africa
• Muslims continued to attack Constantinople
until 1453 when Ottoman forces under
Mehmed II finally succeeded, effectively
ending the Byzantine Empire.
• Empire had a long slow decline; a tribute to its
strength was that it lasted 1,000 years
Those Pesky Bulgars
• Slavic kingdoms in the Balkans gave the
Byzantines trouble too.
• Sometimes they controlled them through
marriage alliances; but most the time the
Byzantines needed to eliminate them.
• When a Bulgar king made a wine cup from the
skull of a Byzantine Emperor, playing nice was
over
• In the 11th century, Basil II, known as
Bularoktonos, or Slayer of the Bulgarians
committed what became known as The Great
Eyeball Atrocity . He captured and blinded the
entire Bulgarian army. One out of every hundred
Bulgarians had only one eye put-out so that he
may lead 99 back home.
Byzantine Bureaucrats
• The Byzantine political system was similar to
the earlier patterns in China
• The emperor was held to be ordained by god head of the church as well as the state; he
appointed bishops and passed religious and
secular laws
• Developed a highly trained bureaucracy that
trained students in the Greek classics,
philosophy, and science
• Byzantine bureaucrats could come from all
social classes
• Officials close to the emperor were eunuchs
• However, Women could become empress and
rule Byzantium (Theodora and Zoë)
Byzantine Bureaucrats - p.2
• As in China, aristocrats predominated;
but talent was important too.
• Provincial governors were appointed
from the emperor; their job was to keep
an eye on military leaders
• Used an elaborate system of spies; thus
the word Byzantine came to refer to
complex institutional arrangements.
Byzantine Military Organization
• They used the Roman system of recruiting
troops locally and rewarding them with grants
of land
• The land could not be sold; but sons inherited
the administration of the land in return for
military service
• Increasingly, hereditary military leaders
assumed regional power; displacing more
traditional and better-educated aristocrats
• This system worked in protecting the state from
frequent attacks from Muslims(Persians, Arabs,
Turks) and nomads from Central Asia
Byzantine Economics
• Constantinople dictated trading rules and food prices
• They depended a lot on the peasant class to make
goods and pay taxes
• Food prices were kept artificially low to content the
urban lower classes
• Their trading network ranges from Scandinavia to Asia
• Developed a silk industry from silkworms and
techniques imported from China
• The large merchant class never gained political power
because of the level of bureaucratic control over the
economy - this makes them more like the Chinese;
and less like West Europe, whose merchants were
gaining greater voice.
Icons and Iconoclasts
• Byzantine cultural life centered around the secular
Hellenism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity - a
mixture that provided a basis for education of
bureaucrats - not very innovative, though
• What was innovative was their architecture and art domed churches, mosaics, and icons paintings ornate paintings of religious figures with gold and blue
backgrounds
• During the 8th century, a new emperor attacked the
use of icons; probably as a response to the Muslim
claims that Christians were icon worshipers - this
attack was called iconoclasm
• Iconoclasm threatened a split between church and
state; eventually, icons were restored
Byzantine Icons and Mosaics
The Split between East and West
• Byzantine’s culture and politics along with its economic orientation
to northeastern Europe and Asia helps us understand the split
between the Eastern version of Christianity and the Western version
headed by the pope in Rome.
• The West translated the Greek bible into Latin in the 4th century
causing different rituals to develop.
• Byzantine emperors resented the papal interference in the
iconoclast controversy
• Charlemagne claiming himself the Roman emperor in 800 angered
the Byzantines.
• The Byzantines believed that they were the true heirs of Roman
culture; and that the Western rulers were cruded and
unsophisticated
• Byzantines recognized the pope as a leader of Christianity, not the
leader of Christianity; the pope’s dictates had no hold in the
Byzantine church because the power in Byzantium rested with the
government, not the church.
• But it wasn’t enough for the final divorce until …
The Big Split - part 2
• In 1054 a trouble making Patriarch Michael was
opening old wounds by questioning some Roman
Catholic practices such as the requirement of celibacy
for their priests and how they baked their bread for
communion.
• Bitterness ensued and the pope finally
excommunicated the patriarch and all of his
followers - that being all of Byzantine.
• Byzantine responded by excommunicating all Roman
Catholics.
• The two cultures still had shared traditions that would
allow continue contact in trade and culture; but the
split did cause the East Europe and West Europe
have different patterns of development up to present
day.
Popes and Patriarachs
The Empire’s Decline
• Muslim Seljuk Turks pressed the eastern
borders of the empire
• Late 11 century Seljuks seized almost all of
the Asiatic provinces of the empire; cutting off
most of the food and tax revenues
• In 1071 the Byzantine army was destroyed at
the battle of Manzikert - the Byzantines were
never a major power after.
• The empire did continue for another 400
years; but losing more and more territory.
Balkan states emerged in place of former
Byzantine land.
Seljuk Turks - The Death Blow to the
Byzantine Empire
Map of the Byzantine Empire near its end - 1355
POP QUIZ
1. What new weapon did the Byzantines use to
beat an Arab navy?
2. Name two enemies of the Byzantines.
3. The title of tsar is the Slavic version of what
word?
4. Emperor Basil II was known as
Bulgaroktonos, which means . . .?
5. The word Byzantine used as an adjective to
describe the American government today. In
this context, what does Byzantine mean?