Byzantine Empire Notes

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Byzantine Empire Notes
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I. Justinian Military Victories

1. becomes emperor of eastern empire in 527CE
2. decided to reunite fallen western empire

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• C. sent his best general, Belisarius, to recover
  North Africa from Vandals
• 1. Belisarius does so in matter of months
• Belisarius took Rome away from Ostrogoths 2 years
  later
• after numerous campaigns, Justinians armies had
  re-conquered nearly all of Italy most of Spain

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II. Building the New Rome

• A. Byzantine Empire had its own character
• 1. citizens thought of themselves as sharing
  Roman tradition
• 2. most citizens in east spoke Greek, not Latin
• 3. they also belonged to eastern branch of
  Christian Church

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B. Corpus Juris Civilis

• 1. Corpus Juris Civilis--Justinian Code a
  single, uniform law code contained 4 parts
• The Codex (Code) contained nearly 5,000 Roman
  laws
• The Digest quoted summarized opinions of
  Romes greatest legal thinkers (50 volumes)
• The Institutes was textbook that told law
  students how to use the law
• The Novellae (New Laws) presented legislation
  after 534 AD
• Code of Justinian still underlies legal system
  of most countries in modern western Europe today

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• C. Justinian rebuilt the crumbling
  fortifications of Constantinople

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D. Hagia Sophia

• 1. Hagia Sophia (HAY-ee-uh so-FEE-uh-- means
  Holy Wisdom in Greek)
• i. Justinian wanted to make it most splendid
  church in the world
• ii. had form of square topped by central giant
  dome
• iii. gold, marble, countless precious stones
  were used in its construction decoration

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• E. other building projects
• enlarged the palace complex
• baths, aqueducts, law courts, schools, hospitals
• F. Hippodrome (from 2 Greek words meaning horse
  track)

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III. Byzantium Preserves Learning

• A. Byzantine families valued education
• basic courses included Greek Latin grammar
• Philosophy
• classics of Greece Rome (Homer)
• geometry (Euclid)
• history (Herodotus)
• medicine (Galen)
• B. Byzantine scholars helped preserve many of
  great works of Greece Rome

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IV. The Empire Confronts Its Enemies

• A. bubonic plague struck Constantinople
  Byzantine Empire
• 1. at its peak in 542 CE it is estimated that
  10,000 people were dying every day
• 2. plague reoccurred every 8-12 years until 700
  CE
• plague devastated population of Byzantine Empire
• left it exposed
• to enemies

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1. attacked by barbarians in west
2. pillaged by Crusaders in 1204
3. also attacked by Persians Arabs from east
4. empire slowly shrank under impact of foreign
   attacks
5. Constantinople fell to Ottoman Turks in 1453 CE

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V. The Church Divides

• Bishop of Rome pope
• Bishop of Constantinople patriarch
• C. Emperor Leo III banned use of icons
  (religious images) in worship (CE 730)
• 1. army supported him
• 2. iconoclasts (icon-breakers) broke into
  churches to destroy images
• 3. people rebelled
• 4. in West, pope supported using icons in
  worship
• 5. more than 100 years later, empress restored
  use of icons to Eastern churches

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Icon
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D. Other differences between the two Christian
traditions
Roman Catholic Eastern Orthodox
services conducted in Latin services conducted in Greek or local languages
pope has authority over all other bishops patriarch and other bishops head the church as a group
pope claims authority over all kings and emperors emperor claims authority over the patriarch and other bishops in the empire
priests may not marry priests may marry
divorce is not permitted divorce is allowed under certain conditions
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E. The Great Schism

• 1054 pope patriarch excommunicated each other
  over religious dispute
• after this schism, or split, Christianity was
  permanently divided between Roman Catholics in
  West and Orthodox Church in East