Unit 7: The Emergence of New Empires

Chapter 21: The Byzantine Empire

Ø     Byzantine Empire (BE) was what evolved out of the E Roman Empire after Constantine split the Roman Empire.

Ø     BE combined Greek, Roman, and Christian ideas.

Ø     Survived longer than Rome because:

Ø     1. Christianity united people.

Ø     2. The capital Constantinople was an easily defendable fortress so it did not need a lot of troops.

Ø     3. BE used wealth to pay for large army.

Section 1: Constantinople (CO)

Ø     CO was built on what was the Greek city of Byzantium at the meeting of the Black and Aegean Seas.

Ø     CO had a good harbor and was a center for trade on land and sea.

Ø     Was easily defendable since sea was on 3 sides and a huge wall on the 4^th.

Ø     Constantine modeled buildings of CO after Rome.

Ø     He also kept many of the same laws and customs of Rome.

Ø     Family was center of social life.

Ø     Most people were farmers and workers.

Ø     Church officials gave a lot of advice to Constantine on how to set up the city.

Ø     Worked to look after other people in society due to Christian values.

Ø     ~600,000 people lived in CO and they were of all types and beliefs.

Ø     People from CO still considered themselves to be Roman.

Section 2: Justinian I (JI)

Ø     Several emperors after Constantine died, JI became emperor.

Ø     JI was a good general who was well educated, studied theology (the study of religion), and was the greatest Byzantine emperor.

Ø     People obeyed JI because he had the last say in most things and had the support of the Church.

Theodora (TH)

Ø     JI wife TH helped him rule by giving him advice on appointment of officials and convincing him to give women more rights.

Ø     Women due to TH were then allowed to own property equal to their dowry (the wealth she brought to a marriage) and raise children w/o interference from government if she became a widow.

Ø     TH also helped JI to put down a bloody rebellion against him.

Law and Public Works

Ø     JI decided to revise the laws to make them easier to understand.

Ø     The law code his scholars developed was called the Justinian Code.

Ø     This code helped to summarize Roman legal thinking for future people to follow.

Ø     JI also built a lot of buildings and sponsored art such as mosaics (pictures made up of bits of colored glass).

Ø     Most famous building JI helped to build was the cathedral Hagia Sophia.

Conquest

Ø     JI wanted to reconquer lands taken by the Germanic tribes.

Ø     JI appointed the general Belisarius, who changed the way the army was set up and made it more efficient and effective.

Ø     Greek fire (a chemical that ignited when it came into contact with water) was a secret weapon the army used.

Ø     BE was able to take back much of the land but it was lost after JI died.

Section 3: The Church

Ø     Christianity was the official religion of BE.

Ø     Emperor was believed to be Christ on Earth and was head of Church.

Ø     Leader of Church in CO was called the Patriarch and he was chosen by the emperor.

Ø     Under the Patriarch were metropolitans (church officials in charge of important areas) and under them were bishops then priests.

Ø     Priests could get married but most high officials were from monasteries and were not married.

Ø     Monasteries helped communities around them as schools and hospitals.

Ø     Missionaries helped to convert E Europe people by translating the Bible into E European languages.

Ø     Cyril was one missionary who used an alphabet based on the Greek one to teach the Slavs the Bible.

Ø     The alphabet Cyril used is still used and is called Cyrillic.

Ø     Some in BE wanted to use icons (religious images) in worship but others thought that practice was like worshipping a false god.

Ø     Emperor Leo III tried to get people to stop using icons but they were too popular and he failed.

Ø     Since most people in W Europe could not read they needed pictures to understand their beliefs and icons were important.

Ø     When Leo III tried to get rid of icons the Pope in Rome kicked him and his supporters out of the Church.

Ø     The Patriarch also did not recognize the Pope as the head of the Church and the Pope cut off relations with the BE.

Ø     And when the Pope crowned Charlemagne the Emperor of the Romans this made many angry since they thought their leader deserved that title.

Ø     All this helped to lead to a split in Christianity in 1054 AD.

Section 4: Decline of the Empire

Ø     Several reasons for the decline of the Empire included:

Ø     1. Farmers who had been promised land to serve in army had that land taken away when the army no longer needed to be so big and this made them less loyal.

Ø     2. Vikings threatened to attack CO when they no longer had enough troops so they had to rely upon Venetians for military help.

Ø     Venetians beat Vikings but in return they did not have to pay taxes in any city in BE and BE lost lots of money.

Ø     3. Christians from W and Muslims from E attacked and took away pieces of the weakened BE

Ø     In 1453 the Turks with the use of gunpowder and guns were able to take over CO.