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**Remember: Before the Roman Empire crumbled, Emperor
Constantine moved its capital from Rome to Byzantium in
A.D. 330.
– The city of Constantinople
In 527, a Byzantine nobleman named Justinian succeeded to
the throne of the Empire.
Justinian and Theodora
• Theodora exercised
considerable influence,
and though she was never
coregent, her superior
intelligence and deft
handling of political
affairs caused many to
think that it was she,
rather than Justinian, who
ruled Byzantium.
Justinian had a quest  he was going to regain all the
Roman Empire that was taken over by the invading
barbarian tribes.
– In 533, Justinian sent his best military commander,
Belisarius to recover the once Roman territory in North
Africa
• Belisarius’ attacks in North Africa were a success and
Justinian regained control of the territory
• Two years later, Justinian had another idea and he sent
Belisarius and his army to Rome in an attempt to regain that
territory as well
Belisarius and his men entered the city and retook Rome
form a Barbarian group known as the Ostrogoths
– But it wasn’t as easy as his previous re-conquering.
– Justinian and the Ostrogoths fought over Rome for
sixteen years.
• Rome changed hands over six times, until Justinian’s
forces finally stopped the Ostrogoth invasions and took
control of Rome.
• Justinian now ruled almost all the territory that Rome
had ever ruled.
The Byzantine Empire
Two Empires Combined:
old Rome and new Byzantium
•
•
•
•
Lived in parts of the old Roman Empire
Took after a lot of the older Roman traditions
Spoke Greek instead of Latin
The new empire focused and relied more on Christianity
Byzantine Empire in A.D. 550
The Justinian Code
Justinian created a group of legal experts to create laws in this
new empire.
The Group of experts researched through the older Roman
laws and chose to use 5,000 laws that were previously used by
the Romans.
– Compiled these new laws into four books
1) The Code: Contained the 5,000 Roman laws that
were used again in the Byzantine Empire.
2) The Digest: Contained opinions of Rome’s greatest
philosophers about the law.
3) The Institutes: Were textbooks used by students to
understand how the laws worked
4) The Novellae: Contained 534 NEWER laws,
approved by the group appointed by Justinian
• The Justinian Code decided legal questions that regulated
whole areas of the Byzantine life.
– Marriage, slavery, property, inheritance, women’s rights,
and criminal justice
• Justinian died in A.D. 565, but his code served the Byzantine
Empire for 900 years
• Theodora is remembered as one of the first rulers to recognize
the rights of women, passing strict laws to prohibit the traffic
young girls and altering the divorce laws to give greater
benefits to women.
• Justinian rebuilt a lot of Constantinople that was
damaged by the barbarian invasions.
• He also built many new buildings in the empire:
– Baths, aqueducts, courthouses, schools, and hospitals
• Justinian placed great importance on preserving the
Greco-Roman culture. He required classical
teachings in the Byzantine schools:
– Geometry by Euclid
– Homer’s philosophy
– Livy’s and Tacitus’ historical writings
Justinian’s reign ran relatively smooth.
– He had several riots that were extinguished with little
effort
Justinian’s first crisis came in the form of disease
– Constantinople experienced a massive plague in the year
A.D. 542
– An estimated 10,000 people
died daily!
• Justinian died in the year 565, and the Byzantine
plague lasted until around 700.
• Like the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire
underwent attacks from many different invasions
– The Slavs, the Persians, and the Turks
• These attacks intensified after Justinian’s death
• The Byzantine nobles tried to stop invasions by
many different ways:
– Bribes, political marriages, military power, and by
giving away Byzantine territories
• These attempts did NOT work
– The Byzantine Empire slowly shrank after time
• The city of Constantinople finally fell to the Ottoman
Turks in 1453
Byzantine Empire in A.D. 1400
The Church Divides
• During the times of the Byzantine Empire, Christianity
underwent a transformation.
– It split because of the different cultures that emerged
from the Roman Empire’s separation
 Lack of communication between the east and the
west
The churches in the Byzantine Empire began to focus more
and more on writings from religious figures in the East
– NOT the Roman Empire
St. Basil
The Pope was still seen as the head of the Church, but lack
of communication made it difficult for him to oversee what
was happening in the East  he remained in Rome
• He did NOT approve the changes in the religion
– The Pope excommunicated the Byzantine Emperor
*Excommunicate: When someone is kicked out of the
church.
• The differences in the church escalated and in 1054,
the two churches split in what historian’s call the
GREAT SCHISM
The East (Constantinople) made the Orthodox Church
their official church
The West (Rome) made the Roman Catholic Church their
official church