Download Byzantium - Sire`s Ancient History

Byzantium and Islam:
Eastern Empire and
Middle East
Mr. Marston
Dominion Christian High
School
Marietta, GA
Barbarian Invasions of the Roman Empire
Western Empire
• Last Roman Emperor in 476 AD
• Germanic kingdoms controlled
western Europe
Byzas: Founder of Byzantium
1. Greek Colonist
2. Founded city in 667 B.C.
3. On recommendation of the Oracle
at Delphi
Constantine’s City-Constantinople
Established as
capital of
Roman Empire in
330 A.D. as
“New Rome”
Constantinople: A Greek City
(Istanbul Today)
Bosporus Strait: Europe on
left and Asia on right
Location of Two Continents
Sunset on the “Golden Horn”
The Golden Horn: an estuary
where Bosporus meets the
Sea of Marmara
Characteristics of
Byzantium (Constantinople)
• a. continuation of the Roman Empire
(customs and traditions)
• b. Kept political and legal
structures of ancient Rome
• c. Byzantine culture influenced by
Hellenistic culture (more Greek than
Roman), (more Asiatic than
European).
Characteristics continued
• d. strategically located peninsula
surrounded on 3 sides by water.
• e. link in both land and sea routes
between east and west
• f. Strongly fortified
Characteristics
• g. Important political and religious
center
• h. One of the five major
patriarchates of the Christian
church.
• i. The city was socially and civic minded.
Emperor Justinian [r. 527-564]
Justinian I: pursued 3 goals
• 1. restoration of the western
provinces to the empire
• 2. the reformation of laws and
institutions
• 3. public works
Reconquest of the West
• Justinian attacked the Vandals,
Ostrogoths, and Visigoths in the west
• 554 AD was in North Africa
• Southern tip of Spain
• Italy: Sicily and southern Italy
Justinian’s Empire at its Peak
Reformation of laws and
institutions
Justinian’s Code: codified Roman
Law
Corpus Iuris Civilis: (Body of Civil Law)
1. Digest: a summary of legal opinions
2. Code:ex Justinanus: imperial edicts
according to topics.
3. Institutes : a textbook to introduce
students to the reformed legal system
4. Novellae: collection of new imperial edicts
issued after 534.
Last major works
of the Empire
written in Latin
Justinian’s Code
• Largest and richest source of
information concerning the legal
institutions and thought of the
ancient Roman period.
Western modern legal tradition
descends from Justinian’s code
Public Works Projects
• Churches (Hagia Sophia) “Holy
Wisdom”
• Aqueducts
• Roads
• Commissioned art
Church of Hagia Sophia [Holy Wisdom]
Hagia Sophia (532-537)
• Became the model for churches all
over the Empire
• Architectural masterpieces of the
world
Interior of the Church of Hagia Sophia
• Hagia Sophia Petition
Justinian and Theodora
• Shared power
• Theodora: actress who earned her
way by the court historian, Precopius,
by prostitution. (An outsider, with no
roots in the social establishment of
Constantinople and no inclinations to
respect its conventions).
Empress Theodora
Nika Revolt
532: two groups (Blue and Green)
together rose against Justinian and
Theodora
Theodora wanted her husband to stay
and fight, he did.
The revolt was crushed
Assessment of Justinian’s
reign
• Fought a 2 front war which financially
drained the Empire
• memories of ancient Rome made him
delusional to the inadequacies of his
resources
• Two enduring legacies: Hagia Sophia
and Justinian Code
Emperor Leo III and
Iconoclasm
• Emperor III grew up in Asia Minor and was
exposed to Islam and heretical Christianity and
absorbed suspicions that use of holy images (icons)
was similar to idolatry.
• Iconoclasm (image breaking) in 726 AD
• a. forbid veneration of images within churches
• b. pursued policy of destroying icons
• c. negative effect on relations with western
church
Western and Eastern Church
Differences
• 1. filoque clause: “and from the son”
which concerns the relationship
between members of the Trinity
(Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
• Eastern Church: Holy Spirit proceeds
only from the Father
• Western Church: Holy Spirit derives
from the Father and the Son.
Differences continued
• 2. Eastern Church: priests could
marry and divorce for reasons of
adultery
• Western Church: celibate
• 3. Eastern Church: allowed use of
vernacular in the liturgy (weakened
the unity of the Eastern Church)
• Western: Latin (used as unifier)
1054 AD (Great Schism)
Byzantine & Sassanid Empires, 6c
th
6
century
Arabia:
?
A Threat
to the
Great ?
Empires