Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
In the waning days of the Roman Empire, Emperor Diocletian enacted reforms that laid the foundation for the creation of a successor state to the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire. Diocletian believed that the empire had grown too big and complex for a single man to administer so he divided it into the Latin speaking west and Greek speaking east with a capital in the city of Byzantium. Constantine took power after Diocletian in 312 CE and reunified the empire but moved the capital of the unified Roman Empire to Byzantium, renaming the city Constantinople after himself. At this point Constantinople was considered the New Rome and contemporaries simply viewed this move as a political reform. However, many historians see this and subsequent events like the loss of Constantinople’s control of the western province in 395 and the final sack of Rome by Germanic tribes in 476 as the beginning of a new state in the Mediterranean world.
While the Roman Empire that lasted from about 27 BCE to 476 CE shared a great deal with its successor state, the Byzantine Empire (about 395 to 1453) most historians argue that the differences make the Byzantine Empire a distinct state in world history. Some important Roman traditions did survive however. Roman political institutions like the Senate continued in the Byzantine world as did the basic structure and content of Roman law. However, culturally the Byzantine Empire was distinct. The Byzantine Empire spoke Greek and was officially a Christian state for preponderance of its history.
Emperor Justinian
In 527 the Emperor Justinian came to power. An ambitious emperor, Justinian was determined to restore the glory of the old Roman Empire. His first task was to retake the lands lost to Germanic tribes in North Africa and Western Europe. After a series of successful military campaigns much of the former territory of the Roman Empire was in the hands of Justinian. His hold on the lands in Western Europe was tenuous at best, and changed hands six times in 16 years.
Back in his capital of Constantinople, Justinian instituted major legal reforms that included the organization, simplification, and standardization of Roman law. This project produced Corpus Juris Civilis or Justinian’s Code. A law code that regulated almost all aspects of Byzantine life for the next 900 years and served as the foundation of many of the law codes of Western Europe after the fall of the Byzantine Empire.
Justinian also completed massive infrastructure projects that transformed Constantinople into a vibrant and thriving metropolis. These included the construction of a 14 mile long city wall, public baths, aqueducts, law courts, schools, hospitals and churches. Justinian’s most significant architectural legacy was the construction of the Hagia Sophia, a massive church that symbolized the partnership between the church and state in the Byzantine world.
Empress Theodora
At his side during all of this was his powerful and influential wife Theodora. Born into a humble circus family, the law actually had to be changed to allow the emperor to marry someone so far below his status. Theodora was a true partner in power, she meet with foreign envoys, passed laws, built churches, and served as the emperor’s backbone during the violent Nika riots in 532. According to the historian Procopius, Justinian was ready to abandon the throne when rioters swept through the streets demanding his ouster. Procopius credits Theodora with convincing him to stay and suppress the rebellion.
Byzantine Influence
Political unity came to Russia in about 862 when Scandinavian Vikings, called Varangians unified the Slavic peoples and founded the city of Novgorod. In 880, the opportunity for lucrative trade with Byzantium by way of the Dnieper River led the Varangian princes to move their capital south to Kiev. This led to regular economic and cultural contact between the two states. According to principle source on early Russian history, The Primary Chronicle, Prince Vladimir (980 to 1015) decided to seek out a new faith for his people, he sent envoys to investigate the options. The envoys that visited the Orthodox Christians of the Byzantine Empire returned with grand tales of monumental architecture that made them feel that God must dwell among the Byzantines. These stories may have contributed to Vladimir’s decision to order the mass baptism of his people in 989. This conversion ushered in an era of close cultural ties between the Kievan state and Byzantinum. This connection led to regular economic and intellectual exchange as well as the adoption of the Cyrillic alphabet which had been developed earlier by Byzantine missionaries working to convert the Slavs of Eastern Europe.
Kiev’s power declined after the Mongol invasion leading to the rise of Moscow as the new center of political power. This corresponded to the decline and collapse of the Byzantine Empire in the late 1400s. The Russian ruler Ivan III used this to his political advantage by announcing publicly that Russia would be the “Third Rome” and claiming for himself the title Czar a Slavic form of the Caesar. This claim became an enduring form of political legitimacy in the Russian Empire.
Great Schism (East-West Schism) of 1054
By the late 300s Christendom developed two parallel hierarchies of leadership that reflected the growing political divide in the Roman Empire. In the west the church was headquartered in Rome and led by the pope. In the East, the Byzantine Emperors claimed leadership of the church and considered the Patriarch of Constantinople as the highest member of the church clergy. Each of these leaders, the pope in Rome and the emperor in Constantinople, considered themselves the head of a single unified church and thus believed that they held authority over the other.
Lack of communication and distance between the two capitals kept the peace for about 300 years but in 730 this dispute over leadership came to a head. The Byzantine Emperor Leo III banned the use of icons in worship because he believed that their use was a form of idolatry. Riots and clerical rebellion ensued, leading Pope Gregory II to side with the supporters of icons thus undermining the authority of the Byzantine Emperor and creating enduring animosity. Anger grew between Rome and Constantinople after 751 when the pope was facing an invasion by the Lombards. He requested help from the Byzantine Emperor but the emperor refused the request leading the pope to turn to the Franks for help. In gratitude for this and later support from the Franks in suppressing rebellions in Rome, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne the Roman Emperor. This title was a direct affront to the Byzantine Emperor who considered himself the Roman Emperor and the pope his subordinate. By the mid-1000s the situation became untenable, arguments over Church ritual ranging from the type of bread used for communion to clerical marriage ruined relations between the east and the west. In 1054 the controversy culminated in the excommunication of the Patriarch of Constantinople by Pope Leo IX. This formally severed the ties between the Christian Churches of the east and west leading to two independent churches, the Eastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church.
In the waning days of the Roman Empire, Emperor Diocletian enacted reforms that laid the foundation for the creation of a successor state to the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire. Diocletian believed that the empire had grown too big and complex for a single man to administer so he divided it into the Latin speaking west and Greek speaking east with a capital in the city of Byzantium. Constantine took power after Diocletian in 312 CE and reunified the empire but moved the capital of the unified Roman Empire to Byzantium, renaming the city Constantinople after himself. At this point Constantinople was considered the New Rome and contemporaries simply viewed this move as a political reform. However, many historians see this and subsequent events like the loss of Constantinople’s control of the western province in 395 and the final sack of Rome by Germanic tribes in 476 as the beginning of a new state in the Mediterranean world.
While the Roman Empire that lasted from about 27 BCE to 476 CE shared a great deal with its successor state, the Byzantine Empire (about 395 to 1453) most historians argue that the differences make the Byzantine Empire a distinct state in world history. Some important Roman traditions did survive however. Roman political institutions like the Senate continued in the Byzantine world as did the basic structure and content of Roman law. However, culturally the Byzantine Empire was distinct. The Byzantine Empire spoke Greek and was officially a Christian state for preponderance of its history.
Emperor Justinian
In 527 the Emperor Justinian came to power. An ambitious emperor, Justinian was determined to restore the glory of the old Roman Empire. His first task was to retake the lands lost to Germanic tribes in North Africa and Western Europe. After a series of successful military campaigns much of the former territory of the Roman Empire was in the hands of Justinian. His hold on the lands in Western Europe was tenuous at best, and changed hands six times in 16 years.
Back in his capital of Constantinople, Justinian instituted major legal reforms that included the organization, simplification, and standardization of Roman law. This project produced Corpus Juris Civilis or Justinian’s Code. A law code that regulated almost all aspects of Byzantine life for the next 900 years and served as the foundation of many of the law codes of Western Europe after the fall of the Byzantine Empire.
Justinian also completed massive infrastructure projects that transformed Constantinople into a vibrant and thriving metropolis. These included the construction of a 14 mile long city wall, public baths, aqueducts, law courts, schools, hospitals and churches. Justinian’s most significant architectural legacy was the construction of the Hagia Sophia, a massive church that symbolized the partnership between the church and state in the Byzantine world.
Empress Theodora
At his side during all of this was his powerful and influential wife Theodora. Born into a humble circus family, the law actually had to be changed to allow the emperor to marry someone so far below his status. Theodora was a true partner in power, she meet with foreign envoys, passed laws, built churches, and served as the emperor’s backbone during the violent Nika riots in 532. According to the historian Procopius, Justinian was ready to abandon the throne when rioters swept through the streets demanding his ouster. Procopius credits Theodora with convincing him to stay and suppress the rebellion.
Byzantine Influence
Political unity came to Russia in about 862 when Scandinavian Vikings, called Varangians unified the Slavic peoples and founded the city of Novgorod. In 880, the opportunity for lucrative trade with Byzantium by way of the Dnieper River led the Varangian princes to move their capital south to Kiev. This led to regular economic and cultural contact between the two states. According to principle source on early Russian history, The Primary Chronicle, Prince Vladimir (980 to 1015) decided to seek out a new faith for his people, he sent envoys to investigate the options. The envoys that visited the Orthodox Christians of the Byzantine Empire returned with grand tales of monumental architecture that made them feel that God must dwell among the Byzantines. These stories may have contributed to Vladimir’s decision to order the mass baptism of his people in 989. This conversion ushered in an era of close cultural ties between the Kievan state and Byzantinum. This connection led to regular economic and intellectual exchange as well as the adoption of the Cyrillic alphabet which had been developed earlier by Byzantine missionaries working to convert the Slavs of Eastern Europe.
Kiev’s power declined after the Mongol invasion leading to the rise of Moscow as the new center of political power. This corresponded to the decline and collapse of the Byzantine Empire in the late 1400s. The Russian ruler Ivan III used this to his political advantage by announcing publicly that Russia would be the “Third Rome” and claiming for himself the title Czar a Slavic form of the Caesar. This claim became an enduring form of political legitimacy in the Russian Empire.
Great Schism (East-West Schism) of 1054
By the late 300s Christendom developed two parallel hierarchies of leadership that reflected the growing political divide in the Roman Empire. In the west the church was headquartered in Rome and led by the pope. In the East, the Byzantine Emperors claimed leadership of the church and considered the Patriarch of Constantinople as the highest member of the church clergy. Each of these leaders, the pope in Rome and the emperor in Constantinople, considered themselves the head of a single unified church and thus believed that they held authority over the other.
Lack of communication and distance between the two capitals kept the peace for about 300 years but in 730 this dispute over leadership came to a head. The Byzantine Emperor Leo III banned the use of icons in worship because he believed that their use was a form of idolatry. Riots and clerical rebellion ensued, leading Pope Gregory II to side with the supporters of icons thus undermining the authority of the Byzantine Emperor and creating enduring animosity. Anger grew between Rome and Constantinople after 751 when the pope was facing an invasion by the Lombards. He requested help from the Byzantine Emperor but the emperor refused the request leading the pope to turn to the Franks for help. In gratitude for this and later support from the Franks in suppressing rebellions in Rome, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne the Roman Emperor. This title was a direct affront to the Byzantine Emperor who considered himself the Roman Emperor and the pope his subordinate. By the mid-1000s the situation became untenable, arguments over Church ritual ranging from the type of bread used for communion to clerical marriage ruined relations between the east and the west. In 1054 the controversy culminated in the excommunication of the Patriarch of Constantinople by Pope Leo IX. This formally severed the ties between the Christian Churches of the east and west leading to two independent churches, the Eastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church.