Download WHAP Student Copy Eastern Christendom after the fall of Rome

Eastern Christendom after the fall of Rome
WHAP/Napp
Objective: To identify and describe
accomplishments, characteristics, and challenges
of the Byzantine Empire
Do Now: List several facts about the Byzantines
Cues: Notes:
I. Eastern Christendom
A. With collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, its eastern half, now
known as the ________ Empire or Byzantium, continued traditions of
Roman Empire on smaller scale until conquest by Ottoman Turks in 1453
B. Centered on the magnificent city of Constantinople
1. Great location for tradeBetween Asia and Eastern Europe
C. Has no clear starting point as an empire
1. Historians date330 C.E. Roman emperor __________ established
new capital, Constantinople, on ancient Greek city called Byzantium
D. Although western empire collapsed, eastern half persisted – thousand years
E. Eastern Roman Empire was wealthier, urbanized, and more cosmopolitan
1. Possessed a much more defensible capital-a shorter frontier to guard
2. Access to the Black Sea and command of the eastern ____________ Sea
3. Stronger army and navy – able to deflect Germanic and Hun invaders
F. Like Tang dynasty seeking to restore the glory of Han era, Byzantium
sought to preserve legacy of classical civilization and the Roman Empire
1. Constantinople was to be a “New Rome” and Byzantines referred to
themselves as “___________”
2. Fearing contamination by “barbarian” customs, emperors forbade the
residents of Constantinople from wearing boots, trousers, clothing made
from animal skins, and ____ hairstyles-Only Roman-style robes/sandals
3. But western Roman Empire was lost to Byzantium, despite the Emperor
Justinian’s (reigned 527-565) short-lived attempt to reconquer West
4. Rapid Arab/Islamic expansion in the seventh century resulted in the loss
of Syria/Palestine, Egypt, and North ___________
5. Yet until the 1200s, a more compact Byzantine Empire remained in
eastern Mediterranean, controlling Greece, much of Balkans, Anatolia
G. The Emperor
1. Political authority remained tightly centralized in Constantinople, where
emperor claimed to govern all creation as God’s worldly ____________
2. Focused on collecting taxes, maintaining order, and suppressing revolts
3. The end came in 1453 when the Turkic Ottoman Empire, then known as
the “sword of ________,” finally took Constantinople
H. The Church
1. Caesaropapismthe emperor assumed something of the role of both
“Caesar,” as head of state, and the pope, as ______ of the Church
2. Emperor appointed the patriarch, or leader, of the Orthodox Church
and generally treated the Church as a “government department”
3. Byzantine churches were filled with icons – religious ________ of Jesus,
Summaries:
Cues:
Mary, and other saintsbelieved to convey divine presence to believers
I. Religious Differences: East and West
1. Disagreements about the nature of Trinity or importance of faith/reason
2. Between 726 and 843, Eastern Orthodox Church, on orders from
Byzantine emperors, took offensive against use of icons, arguing that
they became “idols,” distracting believers from adoration of _____
a) This effort, known as iconoclasm, involved the destruction of icons
and generated opposition within Byzantium until it was ended
b) But while it lasted, iconoclasm was offensive within Roman Catholic
circles for most Roman Popes were supporters of icon __________
3. Priests in West shavedafter 1050, to remain celibate, while in
Byzantiumallowed beards to grow long-permitted to _____ Eastern
leaders rejected claims of Roman popes to be sole authority for all
4. By 1054, representatives of both churches mutually excommunicated
each other (Great Schism)
5. The Crusades, launched in 1095 by the Catholic pope against the forces
of Islam, made things worse as Crusaders passing through the Byzantine
Empire engaged in frequent _______ with local people
6. But remarkable growth of the Arab Empire threatened the Byzantines
a) Able to hold off for a time with their military innovation known as
“Greek _____”- a combination of oil, sulfur, and lime
J. Byzantine Legacy
1. Preserved Greek and _______ learning
2. Transmitted classical learning to the Islamic world and Christian West
3. Byzantine religious culture spread among Slavic-speaking peoples
a) Byzantine missionaries, Cyril and Methodius, developed an alphabet,
based on Greek _____, with which Slavic languages could be written
b) The most significant expansion of Orthodox Christianity occurred
among the Slavic peoples of what is now Ukraine and western Russia
c) A modest state known as Kievan Rus - named after the most
prominent city, ____ - emerged in the ninth century CE
K. In Contrast: Western Christendom
1. After fall of RomeDisease and warfare reduced Western Europe’s
population by more than 25 percentUrban life ________ as Europeans
reverted to a largely rural existence
2. Germanic peoples, whom the Romans viewed as barbarians emerged as
the dominant _______ of Western Europe
3. Charlemagne (reigned 768-814), ruler of the Carolingian Empire,
erected an imperial bureaucracy and began to act like an imperial ruler
a) On Christmas Day of the year 800, he was _______ as a new Roman
emperor by the pope, although his realm splintered shortly after his
death
4. Otto I of Saxony (reigned 936-973) gathered much of Germany under
control and was likewise invested with the title of emperor by the _____
a) His realm became known as the Holy Roman Empire
Summaries:
Strayer Questions:
 In what respects did Byzantium continue the patterns of the classical Roman
Empire? In what ways did it diverge from those patterns?

How did Eastern Orthodox Christianity differ from Roman Catholicism?

In what ways was the Byzantine Empire linked to a wider world?

How did links to Byzantium transform the new civilization of Kievan Rus?

How did the historical development of the European West differ from that of
Byzantium in the postclassical era?
1. Which of the following European
4. Which early Byzantine emperor had
regions felt the influence of
the longest lasting impact on
Byzantine civilization in the
civilization in the eastern
postclassical era?
Mediterranean and beyond?
(A) Russia
(A) Diocletian
(B) The Balkans
(B) Constantine
(C) Ukraine
(C) Justinian
(D) Belarus
(D) Osman
(E) All of the above
(E) Muhammad
2. After the fall of the western portion
of the Roman Empire, the official
tongue of Constantinople shifted
from Latin to which of the following?
(A) Turkish
(B) Persian
(C) Chinese
(D) Arabic
(E) Greek
3. The Byzantine Empire flourished as
a crossroads of trade from which
regions?
(A) Mediterranean, the Middle East,
and Asia
(B) India, Mediterranean, and Asia
(C) Sub-Saharan Africa, India, and
the Middle East
(D) The Middle East, Asia, and
Scandinavia
(E) Scandinavia, Mediterranean, and
India
5. Russian civilization emerged nearest
to what modern-day city?
(A) St. Petersburg
(B) Kiev
(C) Moscow
(D) Warsaw
(E) Paris
6. Throughout most of its history the
capital of the Byzantine Empire was
(A) Baghdad
(B) Constantinople
(C) Rome
(D) Mecca
(E) Damascus
Excerpt from fordham.edu/halsall
Corupus Iurus Civilis or the Justinian Code was the result of Emperor Justinian.
Justinian desired that existing Roman law be collected into a simple and clear system of
laws, or "code." Tribonian, a legal minister under Justinian, led a group of scholars in a
14-month effort to codify existing Roman law. The result was the first Justinian Code,
completed in 529. This code was later expanded to include Justinian's own laws, as well as
two additional books on areas of the law. In 534, the Justinian Code, made up of the Code,
the Digest, and the Institutes, was completed.
From the Justinian Code:
Book I. Of Persons
I. Justice and Law.
JUSTICE is the constant and perpetual wish to render every one his due.
1. Jurisprudence is the knowledge of things divine and human; the science of the just
and the unjust.
2. Having explained these general terms, we think we shall commence our exposition
of the law of the Roman people most advantageously, if we pursue at first a plain
and easy path, and then proceed to explain particular details with the utmost care
and exactness. For, if at the outset we overload the mind of the student, while yet
new to the subject and unable to bear much, with a multitude and variety of topics,
one of two things will happen---we shall either cause him wholly to abandon his
studies, or, after great toil, and often after great distrust to himself (the most
frequent stumbling block in the way of youth), we shall at last conduct him to the
point, to which, if he had been led by an easier road, he might, without great labor,
and without any distrust of his own powers, have been sooner conducted.
3. The maxims of law are these: to live honesty, to hurt no one, to give every one his
due.
4. The study of law is divided into two branches; that of public and that of private law.
Public law regards the government of the Roman Empire; private law, the interest
of the individuals. We are now to treat of the latter, which is composed of three
elements, and consists of precepts belonging to the natural law, to the law of nations,
and to the civil law.
Thesis Statement: Comparative: Eastern and Western Christendom after the Fall
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