Byzantine Empire

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Byzantine Empire
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Fall of the Roman Empire

• 164Plague spreads through Rome
• 180End of Pax Romana
• 300Diocletian divides the Empire
• 313Christianity tolerated
• 410Visigoths sack Rome
• 455Vandals sack Rome
• 476Fall of the Western Roman Empire

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Eastern Rome A Survivor Society

• Constantine established the Eastern capital at
  Byzantium
• Constantinople
• Reasons for Survival
• Higher level of civilization
• Fewer nomadic invasions
• Geography
• Prosperous commerce

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Justinian (527-565)

• Byzantine empire reached greatest size
• Wanted to rebuild Roman Empire
• Temporarily Re-conquered N. Africa, Italy and
  southern Spain
• Wife, Theodora, had considerable power
• Rebuilt Constantinople
• Hagia Sophia
• Justinians Code

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Byzantine Empire under Justinian
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Hagia Sophia
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Threat of Islam

• Arab peoples conquered parts of Byzantium
• Prolonged sieges of Constantinople
• Byzantine survived partly because of "Greek fire"
  
• Imperial organization
• Government run by trained bureaucracy army
• Theme System
• Provinces organized on a military basis
• Ruled by a general who ran army civil
  bureaucracy
• Responsible for protecting peasants
• Aristocrats limited by army, emperor,
  bureaucracy

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Byzantine Empire
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Constantinople

• Second Rome
• Key trading route linking Europe, Africa and Asia
• Buffer between Western Europe and Asia
• Europes busiest marketplace

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Byzantine Economy

• Government prevented wealthy from seizing
  peasants land
• Free peasantry declined in the 11th century
• Craftsmen and merchants were respected
• Glassware mosaics
• Thriving silk industry
• Monopolized by the government

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Great Schism (1054)

• Byzantine emperors tended to combine political
  and religious authority
• Dispute over use of icons
• IconoclasmAttempt to suppress icon veneration in
  8th c.
• Schism occurs in 1054
• Final break over the type of bread used in the
  mass and the celibacy of priests
• Or was it?

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Catholicism vs. Orthodox

• Western Europe
• Pope in Rome
• Priests practice celibacy
• Latin Language
• Most important holy day Christmas

• Eastern Europe
• Patriarch in Constantinople
• Clergy could marry
• Greek Language
• Most important holy day Easter

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Effects of the Great Schism
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Byzantine Culture

• Cultural Foundations
• Christian beliefs
• Greek learning
• Roman engineering
• Byzantine Education
• State-organized schools
• Widespread literacy
• Chariot Races
• Blues vs. Greens
• Riot of 532

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Byzantine Decline

• The long decline began in 11th century.
• Seljuk Turks seized most of the Asian provinces
• Remove an important source of taxes and food
• Crusaders, led by Venetian merchants, sacked
  Constantinople in 1204
• A smaller empire struggled to survive for another
  two centuries
• In 1453, the Ottoman Turks conquered
  Constantinople

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Byzantine Challenges
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Byzantine Empire
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Rise of Russia

• Area inhabited by Slavs
• Vikings arrive using river system
• Set up state based on trade conquest around 9th
  Century
• State founded by Rurik
• Capital at Kiev
• People called Rus

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Russia Christianity

• Prince Vladimir converted in 989
• Converted for trade, commercial reasons
• Elites baptized by order of prince, often against
  will
• Served as conduit for spread of Byzantine
  culture, religion
• Cyrillic Alphabet

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Kievan Rus

• Third Rome
• Decentralized government
• Divided into provinces
• Constant strife between boyars and princes
• Constant threat of nomadic invasion