The Byzantine Empire

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Introduction
Byzantine Conquest - Justinian
Byzantine Government
Summarize Justinians achievements.
Under what circumstances was Byzantium
established?
Evaluate the strengths and weakness of the
Byzantine government.
Successes Failures
Explain the significance of Corpus iuris civilis.
What were the key influences on Byzantium?
Define Basileus Why is it significant that the
term Caesar was not used by the Byzantines?
The Byzantine Empire
The Schism of Christianity
Icons Iconoclastic Controversy
Great Crossroads
Summarize differences in beliefs and practices
Summarize the key products obtained through trade
Roman Catholic Eastern Orthodox
Define iconoclasm.
North
East
West
What was the purpose of art for the Byzantines?
Why might even the Mohammedans call them idol
worshippers?
What is the iconoclastic controversy?
South
How did the Church try to resolve the issue?
Explain the geographic advantages and
disadvantages of the Byzantine Empire.
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Introduction In 324 the Roman Emperor
Constantine was very concerned about the
barbarian invasions, which were literally at the
gates of Rome. So Constantine moved the Empires
capital to a little known Greek colony called
Byzance.
As the Western Empire fell apart and disappeared
in 476, the Eastern Empire based in Byzance
Constantinople survived until 1453. Byzance
became the great city of Constantinople. The
Eastern Empire or Byzantium founded a rich
culture based on the Greek traditions and
Christianity. Byzantium has also left us its own
story thanks to one of its greatest writers, The
greatest of Byzantine writers was the historian
Anna Comnena, the daughter of the emperor Alexius.
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Byzantine Conquest Justinian Under one of
Byzantiums earliest Emperors, Justinian 527-565,
attempts were made to drive the barbarians out
from the remains of the Western Roman Empire.
Justinian had some successes, as he re-conquered
the Italian peninsula, the south coast of Spain
and parts of North Africa. In Italy, Justinian
established his new capital city as a declaration
of his ambitions, to rebuild the old Roman
Empire. It was here that Justinian founded a new
system of law codes, or Corpus iuris civilis,
which are still a basis of many systems of
justice in the world today. Justinian
legitimized his works of Empire building by
patronizing the Christian Church.
In Ravenna he built chapels like Saint Vitale,
and ordered craftsmen to make great mosaics to
depict the qualities of Justinians Empire,
religion, law and conquest. In Byzance itself he
had the great Hagia Sophia Cathedral built.
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Byzantine Conquest Justinian The Italian
peninsula was devastated by Justinians own
invasion, so severely that it was Justinian who
prevented a reconstruction of the Roman Empire,
not the barbarian invaders. Justinians successes
were short-lived, by 700 Arabs, Lombards and
Slavs had reduced Byzantium to its original size.
Following Justinians death, the Eastern
Byzantine Empire was unable to defend its western
conquests from fresh barbarian invasions. The
price of conquest in Italy, Spain and North
Africa was crippling for Byzantine finances, and
some historians say that this cost was never
recovered. Justinians actions gained the
Byzantine Empire respect from its foes, and a
firm basis for the future, one thousand years
until 1453.
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Byzantine Government Justinians successor
Heraclius I (610-641) was responsible for saving
the remains of Byzantium from the ruinous
invasions of Persians and Barbarians, as well as
sorting out the terrible state of government
finances after Justinians excesses. However,
this was also the time of Mohammed and early
Islam. Mohammeds followers were already invading
deep into Byzantine Syria. Despite these trials,
Heraclius I was able to establish a measure of
peace and security through good government, but
it was Leo the Isaurian (717-741) who was most
effective in halting foreign invasions of
Byzantium.
While the Byzantine Empire was greatly reduced in
size by 1000, it had developed a well organized
system of government, a stable administration or
civil service, and a fair army. These were three
important elements which assured the survival of
the Byzantines. The Emperor of Byzantium was no
longer called Caeser, but Basileus instead. The
power and authority of the Basileus was thought
to be absolute, and the Christian Basileus was
only responsible to God. The Byzantine Empire was
greatly reduced in size by 1000 AD.
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The Schism of Christianity into two Churches -
The Orthodox Church In 1054 the Christian Church
was divided into two movements, Catholic and
Orthodox. This Schism (Greek for break or
divide,) confirmed the independence of Byzantine
from Rome and was a result of several rather
complicated factors which alienated the East in
Byzantine, (Constantinople) from the West in
Rome. In 988, Russian and Ukrainian Slavs had
converted to Christianity under Prince Vladimir
in Kiev. The new Russian Christians had a very
different experience of life and spirituality
than the older Christians. Their conversion
changed the balance of interests among
theologians in Constantinople.
Between 1000 and 1053, Constantinople and Rome
argued over religious matters such as if Popes in
Roman and Patriarchs in Constantinople should be
allowed to marry and have families, or if Jesus
Christ should be emphasized rather than
Christianitys Holy Spirit. The Byzantines
emphasized mystical and philosophical
spirituality, but the Roman church emphasized the
material existence of Jesus Christ and was more
practical and obedience-focused.
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The Schism of Christianity Into two churches -
The Orthodox Church The most important reason
for a rupture was the Iconoclastic controversy
in 1053-54. This was a dispute about images,
begun by Leo the Isaurian in the period 717-741,
when he adopted certain elements of Islamic
belief. For the Byzantines and for Muslims,
worshipping images in the place of their God and
prophets was thought to be wrong. So in 1054, the
Byzantine Patriarch accused the Pope in Rome of
supporting the worship of images, a grave fault
in the eyes of the Patriarch in Constantinople.
These were strong elements for a schism in the
Church, but the separation was further confirmed
in 1204. The Western Catholic Christians did not
always show a lot of respect for their Eastern
neighbors. In 1204 Frankish Crusaders were
conducting a holy war against non-Christians,
following a Byzantine Patriarchs
request. However, during the Franks Crusade,
they attacked Christian Constantinople for their
personal advantage! A consequence of this was
that the Orthodox Byzantines became very
distrustful of Catholic Western Europe.
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The Great Crossroads Strange as it may seem, the
collapse of the Western Empire had immediate
beneficial effects on the Eastern Empire. For
centuries the wealthy east had been supporting
the poor west. However, after 476 the situation
changed dramatically and the Eastern Roman Empire
could keep all its riches to itself. But why was
the Eastern Roman Empire so rich ? If you look at
the map you can see that Constantinople was at
the centre of four major trade routes
To the north lay the Black Sea and what we would
now call Russia and the Ukraine. From here came
products such as iron, timber and animal furs
(especially the very valuable sable). To the
west lay the rest of Europe from which Byzantium
obtained cereals, wine, flax (to make linen) and
animal hides to make leather. To the south lay
Africa and especially Egypt. The Nile valley
still produced enormous quantities of food as it
had done in pharaonic times. It also supplied
gold and copper and precious ivory from more
southern regions.
To the east lay the most important trade route of
all. From Arabia came valuable perfumes, from
Persia expensive carpets, from India spices and
precious stones (especially rubies and emeralds)
and from China came silk.
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Icons and the Iconoclastic Controversy Iconoclasm
is a Greek word meaning image breaking,
opposition to the religious use of images.
Veneration of pictures and statues symbolizing
sacred figures, Christian doctrine, and biblical
events was an early feature of Christian worship.
The humanity of Christ was increasingly
emphasized, and images and crucifixes became
common. Opponents of their use claimed they led
to idolatry. The iconoclastic controversy
stimulated Byzantine artists to strive for
spiritual revelation in religious art rather than
for naturalistic representation. The churches of
the Orthodox Eastern Church are generally
decorated only with flat pictures, bas-reliefs,
and mosaics.
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Icons and the Iconoclastic Controversy At the
beginning of the seventh century pope Gregory the
Great (590-604), one of the strongest of the
popes, officially approved the use of images in
the churches, but insisted that they must not be
worshipped. But during the eighth century prayers
were addressed to them and they were surrounded
by an atmosphere of ignorant superstition, so
that even the Mohammedans taunted the Christians
with being idol-worshippers. In 726 the Eastern
emperor, Leo III, first attempted to remedy the
abuse in his dominion by ordering that the images
and pictures be placed so high that the
worshippers could not kiss them. But when that
failed to achieve the desired ends he issued an
order forbidding the use of images in the
churches as heretical. To support his action a
council was called in Constantinople, in 754,
which gave ecclesiastical sanction to his
actions. This great controversy became known as
the 'iconoclastic' dispute, a word which means
the breaking of images. The Eastern church banned
all use of images or icons, and to this day that
remains one of the great contrasts between the
Eastern Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Church.
But in 787 a council met at Nicaea (Bithynia),
repudiated the work of the earlier council, and
fully sanctioned the worship of images and
pictures in the churches. Thomas Aquinas, who is
generally acknowledged as the outstanding
medieval theologian of the Roman Church, fully
defended the use of images, holding that they
were to be used for the instruction of the masses
who could not read, and that pious feelings were
excited more easily by what people see than by
what they hear. The popes of the Roman Church
have strongly supported the use of images.