Download The Byzantine Empire - Fort Thomas Independent Schools

The Byzantine Empire
Oh No!! Rome Has Fallen!
• Umm…. Not quite.
• Eastern and Western halves were officially
split into two distinct empires in 395 CE
• 5th century (476 CE): Rome is sacked by the
invading Germanic tribes, but only the
Western Empire falls.
• The Eastern Empire exists for 1,000 more
years.
• Capital is Constantinople (modern name:
Istanbul)
• Called the Byzantine Empire
Characteristics of Byzantine
Empire
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Elegant buildings
Christian churches
Language: Greek
Commerce
Armies based on barbarian recruits
Emperor separate from society
Emperor Justinian
(r. 527- 565 CE)
• Successes:
– Law Code
– Rebuild Constantinople
– Reclaims some Roman
provinces:
• North Africa, city of Rome
(temporarily), parts of Spain
• Failures:
– Unable to retake Italiy for
good
– Weakened empire through
expansion
Justinian Code
• Created between 528-533 CE by a panel of ten
legal experts
– Preserved and reformed/updated Roman law that had
existed for 400 years.
– Ultimate Goal: Create a single, uniform law code for the
Byz. Empire.
– Forms the basis of modern legal systems.
• Covered all aspects of life: marriage, slavery,
property, inheritance, women’s rights and crimes
• Code is used for over 900 years
Four Parts of the Justinian Code
1. Code: 5,000 Roman laws
2. Digest: quoted and summarized
Rome’s greatest legal opinions and
thinkers about laws (50 volumes)
3. Institutes: textbook for law students;
handbook on how to use laws
4. Novellae (New Laws): any legislation
(laws) created after 534
Empress Theodora
• Justinian’s wife
• Very powerful in her own
right:
– Met with foreign leaders,
passed laws, built churches
• Theodora pushes for
women’s rights:
– Man couldn’t beat wife
– Women could sue for
divorce.
– Women could own property
Byzantine Politics
• Emperor head of
church and state
• Make religious and
secular laws
• Bureaucracy
– Trained in Greek
classics
– From all classes
– Spies
– Emperor appointed
local leaders to be
sent throughout the
empire
Constantinople (Istanbul)
• Founded by Constantine and
established as the capital of the
Byzantine Empire in 330 CE
Constantinople
• Naturally protected by waterways on either
side
– Coasts were lined with a 14-mile stone wall
– Controlled the water between the Aegean and
Black Sea.
• Only land border is protected by a moat and
three other walls
– 70 feet tall; 25 feet thick
• Constantinople is in middle of trade routes.
• City became rich from taxes on trade.
• With the money
made from trade,
Justinian was able to
fund and complete
great architectural
projects
– Hagia Sophia
• (“Holy
Wisdom”)
– Palace
– Aqueducts
– Schools
Life in Constantinople
• Great trade, shopping and cultural attractions in the
city
– Offered goods from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle
East
• Entertainment:
– Hippodrome: chariot races; circus; held 60,000 people
• Intellectual Life:
– education highly prized, influenced by ancient Greek
literature and historical writings
– passed on Greco-Roman mathematics and geometry to
the Arabs who adopted and improved it
Problems in the Byzantine
Empire
• The Plague
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Originated in rats on an Indian trading ship
542: 10,000 die per day
Occurred every 8-10 years
Smaller population caused empire to be an easy target
for outside groups
• Outside Attacks:
– Several groups attempted to attack the empire: Slavs,
Persians, Arab armies, Russians, Turks, knights from
Western Europe
– The Crusaders
– Finally falls in 1453 to the Ottoman Turks