ERA 4.3: THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE AND EARLY RUSSIA

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ERA 4.3 THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE AND EARLYRUSSIA

• Day Two, Session 4B
• Craig Benjamin

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The Byzantine Empire

• After 180 CE the Roman Empire began a period of
  decline that culminated in the sacking of Rome by
  Germanic invaders
• But in the East, Constantine had established in
  325CE a new Christian capital at Constantinople
• For the next 1200 years this city (renamed
  Byzantium) preserved the heritage of classical
  western culture
• Eventually a new player on the stage of Eurasian
  history - the Slavs - migrated out of Central
  Europe into new homelands they came under
  Byzantine influence and generally adopted the
  Orthodox version of Christianity

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To Include

• Part One The Byzantine Empire
• Part Two The Slavic Peoples - Eastern European
  and Early Russian History

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Part 1 Byzantine Empire (Constantinople)

• Emperor Constantine had carefully selected the
  site for his new capital in 325, at the frontier
  of Asia and Europe
• City protected on three sides by cliffs, and on
  the fourth by the Bosphorus
• Constantinople defended itself against Germans
  and Huns, then later against Persians, Arabs and
  Bulgarians, all of whom failed to take it only
  successfully besieged once by the Crusaders in
  1204
• With Constantinople as its capital, the Eastern
  Roman Empire survived for more than a thousand
  years

www.space.gor
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Constantinople The Shining Light of the World

• A wealthy trade center with strong military and
  good government
• Sewage and waste systems meant high standards of
  health
• Food abundant eventually supported a million
  people (most European cities had fewer than
  50,000)

The Theodosian landward walls www.29.homepage.vill
anova.com
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Luxury Goods, Economic Strength

• Luxury goods, military supplies and textiles
  manufactured in the city
• By 565 silk worms smuggled out of China - silk
  production flourished in Constantinople
• State controlled the economy through guilds,
  wages, profits, work hours, prices and banks
  Security resulted in high levels of cultural and
  intellectual achievement

The empress Theodora and her attendantswww.29.hom
epage.villanova.com
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The Latin Phase Justinian

• Emperor Justinian (527-565) carried out massive
  urban renewal following a series of earthquakes
  strengthened the walls and constructed the
  monumental basilica of Hagia Sophia
• 40 windows surround the base of the dome the
  light gives the illusion that the ceiling is
  floating
• Justinian also reviewed Roman Law published the
  Code of Justinian a massive digest that became
  the foundation for all western law

Hagia Sophia studyrussian.com
Justinian faq.macedonia.org/travel
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Justinian and Theodora
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Inside the Hagia Sophia
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Gangs!
itsa.ucsf.edu

• City life dominated by gangs (Greens and Blues)
  who supported violent chariot races in the
  80,000-seat Hippodrome
• Had their own neighborhoods moved in groups
  congregated at public events
• They disliked Justinians wife Theodora
  (pictured) because of her outrageous behavior
  (daughter of a circus animal trainer)!

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Nika Rebellion

• In 532 Blues and the Greens joined forces to try
  and force Justinian from the throne
• Nika Rebellion nearly succeeded
• But Justinian resisted after being encouraged by
  his wife, and the rebellion failed

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Foreign Policy

• Eastern flank secured by diplomacy and bribery
  North Africa recaptured from Vandals, southern
  Spain from Visigoths
• 535-555 Justinian tried to retake Italy from the
  Ostrogoths, but 20 years of fighting destroyed
  Rome and Ravenna and much of classical
  civilization
• After Justinians death German Lombards poured
  into Italy Eastern Emperor held on to southern
  Italy, Ravenna and Venice Pope now the most
  powerful person in Rome

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(No Transcript)
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Slavic Invasions

• Ten years later Justinians conquests had been
  lost Moors, Persians and Germans threatened the
  borders of Byzantium
• Empire also threatened by invasions of Slavic
  peoples who poured into the Balkans and the
  empire was split by Christian schism
• These stresses drove two of Justinians
  successors insane - conditions very precarious!

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Heraclius and the Threats to Byzantium

• In 610 Heraclius overthrew insane emperor Phocas,
  and attempted to arrest the decline of Byzantium
• Persians marching through Syria (captured
  Jerusalem) and advanced into Egypt (cutting off
  grain supplies to Constantinople)
• Avars and Bulgars pushed against Byzantium from
  the north
• Pirates controlled the seas Slavs cut
  communications across the Balkans
• In this time of crisis, Heraclius abandoned the
  state structure of Constantinople and adopted a
  new system of government

Gold Solidus of Heraclius, 610 CE www.92.villanova
.homepage
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The New Greek Empire

• Heraclius new system strengthened the army and
  established a more efficient administration
• Nucleus of the state was Anatolia (Turkey) the
  new army made up of free peasants rather than
  mercenaries
• New system called the theme (district) spread
  through the empire
• Provided sound administration and effective
  defense at half the cost - kept Byzantium strong
  until the eleventh century

Byzantine icon of the emperor Heraclius greeting
Khusrau II.  (Louvre, Paris)
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• Heraclius also fought a holy war to reclaim
  Jerusalem defeated Persians at Nineva,
  reclaimed the true cross from Ctesiphon, and
  returned it to Jerusalem in 630!

Piero della Francesca. Legend of the True Cross
Battle Between Heraclius and Chosroes. Detail.
Fresco. San Francesco, Arezzo, Italy.
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The Muslims Advance

• Muslims posed a more serious threat Muslim holy
  warriors, advancing from Arabia, took Syria and
  Palestine in 636
• Muslims conquered Persia in 637, Egypt in 640,
  destroying a thousand years of Greco-Roman rule
  in 5 years!
• Streamlined Byzantine state held fast -
  Constantinople withstood two Muslim sieges in
  674-8 and 717
• Byzantines also withstood threats from Bulgars
  and Slavs

philae.sas.upenn.edu
7th Century illustration Muslim warriors
advance on Persia
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• Byzantines defeated the Muslims by using
  technology (Greek Fire) and germ warfare
  (sending people with small pox into the enemy
  camp)
• The nature of Greek Fire remains as mysterious
  today as it was in the 7th C
• Like modern napalm, it adhered to whatever it
  struck, and could not be extinguished with water

Greek Fire!
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Religious Schism Leo the Isaurian (717-741)

• Byzantine emperor a political and spiritual
  leader (caesaropapist) who played major role in
  church affairs
• In times of war the combined power of church and
  state provided strength at other times matters
  of faith almost undermined Byzantium
• When Constantinople was threatened by Arabs,
  Avars and Bulgarians in 717, Emperor Leo the
  Isaurian (717-741) defeated them all
• He strengthened the theme system and reformed the
  law also involved himself in religious matters
  by persecuting the Jews

Leo the Isaurian holding staff and
orb, signifying sacred and secular power
www.pirate.shu.edu
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Iconclasm

• Leo launched a crusade against the use of icons
  (paintings and statues of religious figures)
  their use and adoration was against the Biblical
  prohibition of graven images
• Ordered army to destroy icons - provoked a
  violent reaction in monasteries. He persecuted
  the iconophiles
• Eastern empire (Anatolia) supported the
  destruction of icons (iconoclasm) western didnt
• Leo split his empire and drove a deep wedge
  between the church in Rome and the church in
  Constantinople

9th Century Byzantine Icon of Christ www.ocf.org
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The Church (and Europe) Splits!

• Attack on icons widened fractures between Eastern
  and Western churches, based on linguistic
  differences between Latin and Greek
• Pope Gregory II condemned iconoclasm in 731, but
  Leo continued his crusade
• Pope Stephen II formed an alliance with the
  Frankish king Pepin in 754
• First step in a process that led to the Holy
  Roman Empire and the political and religious
  split of Europe into West and East

www.sanford-artadventures.com
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The End of Iconoclasm

• First female empress of Byzantium (Irene 797-802)
  attempted to restore icons and form a marriage
  alliance with the western emperor Charlemagne but
  was exiled to the island of Lesbos
• Her successor Nicepherus (802-811)
• captured and beheaded by the Bulgars
• Eventually policy of destroying icons
• abandoned in 842
• Clash over icons a product of the
• influence of Islamic culture on the
• Byzantine emperors Islam prohibited
• images
• Emperor Theophilus (829-842) a
• student of Islamic culture and art
• Constantinople culture strongly
• influenced by Islam

Empress Irene
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The Golden Age of Byzantium (842-1071)

• For next two centuries Byzantium enjoyed a period
  of superiority over its rivals in the east and
  west
• Western Europe undermined by attacks from
  Saracens, Vikings and Magyars the Arabs lost
  momentum in the east
• Constantinople enjoyed peace and wealth - arts,
  religion and learning all advanced to high levels
• Stability generated in a system where political,
  religious, military, economic and social
  authority all resided in the emperor
• Different parts of the Byzantine Empire
  experienced this golden age in their own way

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Society in Constantinople

• Food supplies maintained to the capital until the
  11th C pop. constant at about 800,000, divided
  into three categories
• Civil servants the educated elite they disliked
  the military and westerners, focused on upward
  social mobility
• Merchants and manufacturers subject to tight
  government regulations but enjoyed high standard
  of living
• Lower classes subject to plague
• and homelessness but life was
• much better than it was for the
• poor of western Europe

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Women in Byzantium

• Social role of women limited, but members of the
  elite did become prominent e.g. Anna Comnena
  (1083-1153) a wealthy intellectual and first
  women historian
• At 55 she began to write history books (The
  Alexiad)
• Her descriptions of the Crusaders very different
  to the reverence they received in the west
• Most elite women remained secluded and wore a
  veil, but were highly educated
• Lower class women prevented from pursuing a craft
  - thousands were forced into prostitution
• Death in childbirth was high, and many infants
  died in their first year

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Conflict between the Byzantine and Roman Churches

• Byzantines sent missionaries into the Slavic
  countries helping to organize the language, laws,
  politics and religions of Eastern Europe and
  Russia
• Conflict between the western and eastern churches
  continued (e.g. competition between Patriarch
  Photius and Pope Nicholas I (9th C)
• Both excellent scholars and religious leaders who
  collided over attempts to convert pagans like the
  Bulgarians
• Bulgarian king Boris played the churches off
  against each other, finally adopting the
  Byzantine religion ensuring that Bulgaria entered
  the eastern cultural orbit

Educated Byzantine missionaries (like Cyril and
Methodius) carried the Orthodox faith northwards
into Moravia. They adapted Greek letters to work
out the Slavic Cyrillic alphabet
odur.let.rug.nl/.../russia
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Military Affairs

• Arab armies made repeated thrusts into Byzantine
  territory but eventually they became less
  militarized, while Byzantine defenses remained
  strong
• Basil II (963-1025 pictured) put an end to
  Bulgarian attacks at the Battle of Balathista in
  1014
• Byzantine emperors forcefully dealt with western
  European powers - treated western diplomats with
  contempt
• But several emperors violently overthrown by
  coups in the 11th century succession degenerated
  into a power struggle between civil and military
  aristocracies

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Byzantine Culture

• Emperors generous patrons of the arts
  Constantinople maintained high levels of literacy
  and a rich cultural life
• Basil I and Leo VI reformed Justinian law codes,
  effecting jurisprudence in Europe for centuries
  to come
• Constantine VII a military leader, but also lover
  of books and promoter of an encyclopedia
• Greatest contribution of Byzantium was the
  preservation of ancient law, science, literature
  and Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy

Tetrarchs (porphyry), 12th C Venice
Byzantine Sculpture, marble 10th
C www.phillipos.org
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The Decline of the Byzantine Empire Internal
Problems

• Eventually Byzantine economy weakened by
  inflation during the Golden Age
• Wealthy invested in land, but rising prices led
  to higher taxes, which overwhelmed the peasants
• Peasants then put themselves under the control of
  large landowners to avoid paying taxes, which
  lowered the tax pool and reduced the number of
  soldiers
• Pressures on the peasantry undermined the theme
  system, as did the rise in the power of the
  church
• State was weakened - when the next external
  threat arose, there were no leaders up to the
  challenge

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External Pressures

• Turkish people (who had migrated to SW Asia from
  north of China in the 6th Century) converted to
  Islam, then attacked the Persians, Byzantines and
  Arabs
• First to invade the Middle East and eventually
  Anatolia were the Seljuks (from Central Asia)
• Seljuk leader Alp Arslan defeated Byzantine army
  at Lake Van in 1071 with Anatolia lost,
  Byzantium had lost the heart of its empire
• Byzantium was also undermined by the rise of the
  powerful trading state of Venice and by the
  Normans who took the last Byzantine stronghold in
  Italy

Advance of the Seljuks
www.art-arena.com/ seljuk
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The Crusades

• First Crusaders arrived in 1096, seeking
  religious glory and gold. Byzantines quickly
  moved them on to the Middle East, where they
  reclaimed some land for Byzantium
• During the Fourth Crusade Venice used its money
  to persuade the crusaders to attack its rivals
  (including a Christian city)
• In 1204 Constantinople was invaded and laid waste
  by the Crusaders, who then ruled the city until
  1261
• Venetians got their share of treasure and spoils,
  including the bronze horses found today at St
  Marks Basilica in Venice

Crusaders besiege Constantinople 1204 CE
www.genealogysource
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Byzantine bronze horses, St, Marks Basilica,
Venice
www.photo.net/.../ venice-st-marks-horses
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The horses originally stood above the entrance to
St. Marks Basilica in Venice, since replaced by
copies. Photo by Craig Benjamin, July 2008, in a
thunderstorm!
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The End of Byzantium

• Byzantiums last two centuries under
• the Paleologus dynasty (1261-1453) pictured
  above - reduced the empire to a pawn in a new
  power game
• Greeks regained control of church and state, but
  the church became embroiled in doctrinal dispute,
  and the economy collapsed
• Slavic peoples became external threats and after
  the Mongols defeated the Seljuks, a new and more
  formidable Turkish foe emerged, the Ottomans

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The Ottomans

• Ottomans come from an
• elite group of Turkish warriors
• who expanded their power through the Balkans
  after 1296
• Conquered Bulgaria, Macedonia and the Balkans by
  1389 - excellent administrators and soldiers
• Religiously tolerant - allowed variant monotheism
  amongst all conquered people if they believed in
  the book (Bible, Torah or Quran)
• West mounted a poor defense at the Battle of
  Nicopolis in 1396 10,000 knights killed by the
  Ottomans
• Ottoman advance held up by the Mongols
  Tameralane defeated the Ottomans in 1402
• The ultimate end for Constantinople came in May
  1453 when the city was taken by the Ottomans
  after a long siege

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Ottoman Forces Advance on Constantinople
www.houseofwaterdancer
Britishbattleshomestead.com
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PART TWO Eastern Europe and Russia

• Following in the wake of the Germanic
  migrations, the dominant people of Eastern Europe
  (Slavs) spread from the Pripet Marshes west to
  the Elbe, east to the Urals, north to Finland and
  south to Greece

Between 6th and 9th centuries they settled
throughout eastern Europe and absorbed the
original inhabitants, producing the ethnic mix
that characterizes East Europe and Russia today
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Russia Geography

• Russian history a product of its geography vast
  expanse of land but small population made the
  domination of the peasants by the aristocracy a
  continuing theme in Russian history
• Russias poor access to the sea also stunted the
  development of a merchant class and made the
  country more inward looking internal waterways
  the key to development
• Huge rivers avenues for trade and exchange and
  routes for invasion, leading Russian traders to
  Constantinople rather than west Europe
• North-south Vilkhov and Dnieper systems
  ultimately tied the Varangians (Vikings) together
  with the Greeks east-west Volkhov and Volga
  systems led Russians eastwards towards Central
  Asia

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Russia
www.aeronautics.ru/nws002
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Forest and Steppe

• Also important is interaction between the great
  forests and steppes
• Forest provides protection, a means to a living
  (fur-trapping, honey) and a way of escaping the
  central authorities
• Rich soil of the steppes provides the potential
  for agricultural wealth, political control, and a
  highway for nomadic invasions
• Where the two meet is where most Russian
  history has taken place
• Within this geographical framework Russia began
  to develop, after the arrival in the 6th Century
  of Asiatic tribes from across the steppes

www.asiagrace.com
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Slavic History (6th-9th Centuries)

• 6th to the 9th centuries Slavs hunted and traded
  forest products like furs, honey and wax also
  farmed using slash and burn technologies
• Formed male-dominated tribal unites based on
  family relationships, electing clan leaders
• Compared to wealth and sophistication of
• Byzantium, Slavs were primitive and weak
• Often ruled by outsiders Byzantines,
• Germans, Magyars, Mongols and Turks
• each of whom imposed their own
• distinctive culture on the Slavic groups
• they dominate
• Ruling groups imposed their religions
• on the Slavic groups, leading to tragic
• divisions within the Slavs along religious
• lines (e.g. between Bosnia, Herzegovina
• and Kosovo in the 1990s)

"Samovila with the Spirits of the Forest" (An
Ancient Slavic Goddess)
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Roman Catholic Eastern Europe

• Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches also played
  a key role in Slavic history
• Those Slavs who ended up in the Roman sphere
  (Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, Slovenes and
  Croats) joined a community that stretched to
  western Europe
• United by Latin language and a belief in the
  authority of the Pope
• Poland, Bohemia and Hungary enjoyed golden ages
  in the 14th Century. Universities were
  established and a tradition of cultural humanism
  prevailed

www.kodiak.org.russia
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Poland, Bohemia, Hungary
Ancient Hungarian Tomb

• Poland largest state in Europe in 1386, but never
  achieved its potential nobles kept the monarchy
  weak, and the middle class was small and
  powerless
• Despite defeating the Teutonic knights in 1410,
  Poland later conquered by Prussia, Russia and
  Sweden in the 17th and 18th centuries
• Bohemia became wealthy and challenged Germany
  politically
• Hungary defeated by the Ottomans in 1526 and
  divided into three zones, the largest part
  controlled by the Ottomans
• These three states shared in the formative
  movements of western Europe feudalism,
  Renaissance, Reformation, Industrial and
  eventually modern revolutions

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Orthodox Eastern Europe

• Eastern Europeans who fell under
  Byzantine/Orthodox influence (Bulgarians, Serbs,
  Romanians and Russians) remained culturally
  separated from the rest of Europe
• Dominated at different times by Mongols ands
  Turks, leading to the growth of authoritarianism
  and a stifling of cultural creativity
• Both Bulgarians and Serbs enjoyed brief golden
  ages before they were dominated by the Ottomans
• In Russia a formidable state emerged that by the
  15th Century claimed to be the Third Rome

faq.macedonia.org/ history
Bulgarians and Serbs clash 13th Century
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Kievan Rus
www.saveurs.sympatico.ca/.../ russie/novgorod.htm

• During the Slavic migrations in the 6th century,
  some clans moved to the region south of Kiev
  (Ukraine)
• Others moved north and established trading towns
  at Novgorod by the 9th century their wealth
  attracted the Vikings who raid in the 860s
  (beginning of Russian history?)
• Did the Vikings/Varangians impose themselves on
  the Slavs, or were they invited by the already
  sophisticated Slavic tribes? A great controversy
  in Russian history
• Varangian kings created a powerful and wealthy
  state at Kiev, on the edge of forest and steppe

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Vladimir

• Most important Kievan Rus leader was Vladimir
  (980-1015) a pagan who made peace with the
  Bulgars and worked with Byzantium
• He was aware of the competition between Roman
  Catholicism and Orthodoxy, and eventually chose
  the Byzantine Orthodox faith
• He married the Byzantine emperors sister, and
  brought his country into the Byzantine cultural
  orbit
• He destroyed the pagan statues and forced his
  people to become Orthodox Christians
• Russians gained their own Orthodox Church
  eventually, and applied Byzantine government to
  their own people
• Vladimirs successors undertook major building
  projects and formed alliances with the French
  kings but problems with succession led to the
  political breakup of the Kievan state Kiev was
  destroyed by the Mongols in 1240

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Novgorod

• Mongols dominated Russia from 1240-1480, cutting
  it off from the outside world
• Internal markets developed and new cities emerged
  as power centers, including Moscow and Novgorod
• Novgorod elected its own leaders from 997 to
  1500 dominated by the merchant class it became a
  wealthy and powerful trading state
• In the 13th Century under Prince Alexander
  Nevsky, the Novgorodians defeated the Teutonic
  knights and the Swedes he also negotiated with
  the Mongols who left the city untouched
• But the citys system of government (veche) led
  to class divisions and weakness changes in
  trading patterns allowed the stronger Moscow to
  absorb Novgorod in 1478

Alexander Nevsky, 15th C Engraving www.ipfu.edu
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• First mentioned as an obscure fortress in 1147
  Slavs migrated there because of its location
  along the north-south river routes
• Alexander Nevskys son Daniel founded the Grand
  Duchy of Moscow subsequent rulers worked with
  the Mongols to improve the city by tax collecting
• By early 14th Century the seat of the Russian
  Orthodox Church was also in Moscow
• During 15th Century the state of Moscow was
  threatened by civil war and invasion, but Ivan
  III worked to build a modern Russia and advanced
  Russias interests towards the south and east

Moscow
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The Third Rome

• Russians believed Moscow was the Third Rome
  (successor to Constantinople as a center of
  Christianity) Ivan II declared the new
  Constantine in 1470
• Ivan used the Roman title Caesar (Czar or tsar in
  Russian) and adopted the Roman two-headed eagle
  as the symbol of Russia
• Ivan employed Italian architects to build the
  palaces and churches of the Kremlin (expanded
  site of the original fortress) which made
  Russians more aware of western culture
• In the 15th century Ivan was the equal in wealth
  and military power of Henry VII of England and
  Louis XI of France

Kremlin by night www.cnn.com
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Conclusion

• After 180 CE the Roman Empire began a period of
  decline that culminated in the sacking of Rome by
  Germanic invaders
• In the East, Constantine established a new
  Christian capital at Constantinople, and for the
  next 1200 years Byzantium preserved the heritage
  of classical western culture
• As Slavs migrated into new homelands between the
  4th and 9th centuries, they came under Byzantine
  influence and largely adopted the Orthodox
  version of Christianity
• After the Kievan phase, Russians were dominated
  by the Mongols until they gained independence in
  the 15th century and claimed the legacy of the
  fallen city of Constantinople